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Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge - Two Memoirs About Courtesans (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,922
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Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge - Two Memoirs About Courtesans (Hardcover)
Series: Translations from the Asian Classics
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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Amid the turmoil of the Ming-Qing dynastic transition in
seventeenth-century China, some intellectuals sought refuge in
romantic memories from what they perceived as cataclysmic events.
This volume presents two memoirs by famous men of letters,
Reminiscences of the Plum Shadows Convent by Mao Xiang (1611-93)
and Miscellaneous Records of Plank Bridge by Yu Huai (1616-96),
that recall times spent with courtesans. They evoke the courtesan
world in the final decades of the Ming dynasty and the aftermath of
its collapse. Mao Xiang chronicles his relationship with the
courtesan Dong Bai, who became his concubine two years before the
Ming dynasty fell. His mournful remembrance of their life together,
written shortly after her early death, includes harrowing
descriptions of their wartime sufferings as well as idyllic
depictions of romantic bliss. Yu Huai offers a group portrait of
Nanjing courtesans, mixing personal memories with reported
anecdotes. Writing fifty years after the fall of the Ming, he
expresses a deep nostalgia for courtesan culture that bears the
toll of individual loss and national calamity. Together, they shed
light on the sensibilities of late Ming intellectuals: their
recollections of refined pleasures and ruminations on the vagaries
of memory coexist with political engagement and a belief in bearing
witness. With an introduction and extensive annotations, Plum
Shadows and Plank Bridge is a valuable source for the literature of
remembrance, the representation of women, and the social role of
intellectuals during a tumultuous period in Chinese history.
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