This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of
personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on
the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of
surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis
of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material
culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes
and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and
letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns,
topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a
literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to
letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each
component of the standard personal letter. References to
letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout.
"Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China" makes
the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal
Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for
the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research
in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more
confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary
sources.
Antje Richter is assistant professor of Chinese language and
civilization at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She previously
taught at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and Albert Ludwigs
University in Freiburg.
"Richter's intellectual breadth and dialogue with contemporary
scholars of letter-writing traditions in Europe should ensure her
work has a broad reception. This is original scholarship that
handles an important literary genre with sensitivity and
sophistication." -Cynthia Chennault, University of Florida
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