Daily Life for the Common People of China, 1850 To 1950 : Understanding Chaoben Culture / Ronald Suleski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suleski, Ronald Stanley, author.

Series:

China studies (Arlington, Va.) ; Volume 39.

China Studies ; Volume 39

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

China--Social life and customs--1644-1912.

China.

China--Social life and customs--1912-1949.

China--Social life and customs--1949-1976.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Brill 2018

Leiden, The Netherlands : Koninklijke Brill nv, [2018]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this exciting book, Ronald Suleski introduces daily life for the common people of China in the century from 1850 to 1950. They were semi-literate, yet they have left us written accounts of their hopes, fears, and values. They have left us the hand-written manuscripts ( chaoben 抄本) now flooding the antiques markets in China. These documents represent a new and heretofore overlooked category of historical sources. Suleski gives a detailed explanation of the interaction of chaoben with the lives of the people. He offers examples of why they were so important to the poor laboring masses: people wanted horoscopes predicting their future, information about the ghosts causing them headaches, a few written words to help them trade in the rural markets, and many more examples are given. The book contains a special appendix giving the first complete translation into English of a chaoben describing the ghosts and goblins that bedeviled the poor working classes.

"In this exciting book, Ronald Suleski introduces daily life for the common people of China in the century from 1850 to 1950. They were semi-literate, yet they have left us written accounts of their hopes, fears, and values. They have left us the hand-written manuscripts (chaoben 抄本) now flooding the antiques markets in China. These documents represent a new and heretofore overlooked category of historical sources. Suleski gives a detailed explanation of the interaction of chaoben with the lives of the people. He offers examples of why they were so important to the poor laboring masses: people wanted horoscopes predicting their future, information about the ghosts causing them headaches, a few written words to help them trade in the rural markets, and many more examples are given. The book contains a special appendix giving the first complete translation into English of a chaoben describing the ghosts and goblins that bedeviled the poor working classes"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front Matter

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contextualizing Chaoben: On the Popular Manuscript Culture of the Late Qing and Republican Period in China

Apologia in Chaoben

Written in the Margins: Reading into Texts

Teacher Xu: Entering a Classroom in Late Qing China

A Qing Dynasty Astrologer’s Predictions for the Future

Constructing the Family in Republican China: Shandong 1944

Mr. Bai and Mr. Qian Earn Their Living: Considering Two Handwritten Notebooks of Matching Couplets from China in the Late Qing and Early Republic

The Troublesome Ghosts: Part 1

The Troublesome Ghosts: Part 2

Concluding Remarks

A List of Chaoben in the Author’s Personal Collection Used in This Study

Various Categories of Chaoben Not Discussed in the Text

Korean and Japanese Chaoben

Full Translation of Fifty Days to Encounter the Five Spirits

Back Matter

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

CC BY-NC

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9789004361034

9004361030

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004361034 DOI

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access