Hong Kong University Press
The Many Faces of Ruan Dacheng
About this book
The Many Faces of Ruan Dacheng: Poet, Playwright, Politician in Seventeenth-Century China is the first monograph in English on a controversial Ming dynasty literary figure. It examines and reassesses the life and work of Ruan Dacheng (1587–1646), a poet, dramatist, and politician in the late Ming period. Ruan Dacheng was in his own time a highly regarded poet, but is best known as a dramatist, and his poetry is now largely unknown. He is most notorious as a ‘treacherous official’ of the Ming–Qing transition, and as a result his literary work—his plays as well as his poetry—has been neglected and undervalued. Hardie argues that Ruan’s literary work is of much greater significance in the history of Chinese literature than has generally been recognised since his own time. Ruan, rather than being a transgressive figure, is actually a very typical late Ming literatus, and as such his attitudes towards identity and authenticity can add to our understanding of these issues in late Ming intellectual history. These insights will impact on the cultural and intellectual history of late imperial China.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Illustrations
viii -
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Acknowledgements
x -
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Abbreviations
xii -
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Prologue
1 -
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1. Ruan Dacheng in Context
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2. ‘Inborn Abilities Burst Forth’: The Early Life of Ruan Dacheng
45 -
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3. ‘Walking on Thin Ice’: The Later Life of Ruan Dacheng
65 -
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4. ‘Out of the Profundity of His Heart’: Life into Literature
105 -
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5. ‘Expressing Himself in a Distinctive Way’: Identity and Authenticity
136 -
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6. ‘Allowing the Business of Seclusion to Be My Friend’: Engagement and Reclusion
193 -
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7. ‘Outside the Walls’: The Exotic and the Marginal
220 -
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Conclusion
248 -
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Appendix 1: Proclamation of Nanjing
255 -
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Appendix 2: Synopses of Surviving Plays
261 -
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Appendix 3: List of Important Individuals
271 -
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Bibliography
275 -
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Index
288
