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

From its inception in northeastern India in the first millennium BCE, the Buddhist tradition has advocated a range of ideas and practices that were said to ensure health and well-being. As the religion developed and spread to other parts of Asia, healing deities were added to its pantheon, monastic institutions became centers of medical learning, and healer-monks gained renown for their mastery of ritual and medicinal therapeutics. In China, imported Buddhist knowledge contended with a sophisticated, state-supported system of medicine that was able to retain its influence among the elite. Further afield in Japan, where Chinese Buddhism and Chinese medicine were introduced simultaneously as part of the country's adoption of civilization from the "Middle Kingdom," the two were reconciled by individuals who deemed them compatible. In East Asia, Buddhist healing would remain a site of intercultural tension and negotiation. While participating in transregional networks of circulation and exchange, Buddhist clerics practiced locally specific blends of Indian and indigenous therapies and occupied locally defined social positions as religious and medical specialists. In this diverse and compelling collection, an international group of scholars analyzes the historical connections between Buddhism and healing in medieval China and Japan. Contributors focus on the transnationally conveyed aspects of Buddhist healing traditions as they moved across geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Simultaneously, the chapters also investigate the local instantiations of these ideas and practices as they were reinvented, altered, and re-embedded in specific social and institutional contexts. Investigating the interplay between the macro and micro, the global and the local, this book demonstrates the richness of Buddhist healing as a way to explore the history of cross-cultural exchange.

A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese is the long-desired Chinese - English reference work for all those reading texts dating from the Warring States period through the Tang dynasty, and beyond. Comprising 8,000+ characters, arranged alphabetically by Pinyin, with an index by "radical" and stroke- count , and various appendices, including one with reign-eras and exact accession dates of emperors according to both Chinese and Western calendars.

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

Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2010 im Fachbereich Sozialpadagogik / Sozialarbeit, Note: 1,3, Fachhochschule Lausitz, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Die Diplomarbeit richtet sich an das sozialpadagogische Arbeitsfeld des Lernens im ausserschulischen Bereich. Ziel der Arbeit war es zu untersuchen, wie interkulturelles Lernen in internationalen Jugendbegegnungen ermoglicht werden kann und welche Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen dafur erforderlich sind. In diesem Zusammenhang wird in der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit aufgezeigt, an welchen Problemlagen das interkulturelle Lernen ansetzt. Folgende These bildet den konkreten Ausgangspunkt der Uberlegungen: Zum Initiieren interkultureller Lernprozesse in internationalen Jugendbegegnungen bedarf es bestimmter Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen. Zwei Subfragestellungen werden in der Diplomarbeit weiterhin bearbeitet: 1. Ist der Erwerb interkultureller Kompetenz als Zielbestimmung interkultureller Lernprozesse sowie als Forderung der internationalen Jugendarbeit innerhalb einer Jugendbegegnung zu relativieren? 2. Welche padagogischen Aufgaben und Anforderungen ergeben sich aus den Bedingungen zum Einleiten interkultureller Lernprozesse? Zur Bearbeitung der These und der Fragestellungen wird zu Beginn der Arbeit eine Einfuhrung in die internationale Jugendarbeit und in diesem Kontext zu den Begegnungen vorgenommen. Ausgehend von der begrifflichen Annaherung sowie durch die Erarbeitung von Voraussetzungen zum interkulturellen Lernen werden zudem die Themen der Vorurteile und Stereotypen erortert. Daruber hinaus ist die interkulturelle Interaktion und Kommunikation als Bedingung fur interkulturelles Lernen Inhalt der Arbeit. Abschliessend werden die bestehenden Anforderungen an das Fachpersonal internationaler Jugendarbeit diskutiert. Ein weiteres Ziel der Arbeit war es, eine Moglichkeit zur methodischen Umsetzung interkulturellen Lernens in mehrkulturellen Gruppen zu bieten. Hierzu werden die ermittelten Problemlagen mit der Theme