Published by De Gruyter

Welten Ostasiens / Worlds of East Asia / Mondes de l’Extrême Orient

Im Auftrag der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft - On behalf of the Swiss Asia Society - Au nom de la Société Suisse-Asie

Edited by: Wolfgang Behr, Claire-Akiko Brisset, David Chiavacci, Andrea Riemenschnitter, Raji C. Steineck, Laure Zhang and Nicolas Zufferey

ISSN: 1660-9131

eISSN: 2235-5766

Overview
Volumes

PEER-REVIEWED

The series Worlds of East Asia of the Swiss Asia Society publishes high-quality research on present-day and historical East Asian cultures and societies covering fields such as history, literature, philosophy, politics and arts, as well as interpretations and translations of primary sources. Furthermore the series presents studies focusing on current topics and affairs appealing not only to the academic public, but also to a public generally interested in East Asia.

The series provides a forum for scholarly work in the fields of humanities and social sciences in Switzerland. However, the series is also committed to the rich variety of studies and writing on East Asia in the international research community. The principal languages of publication of monographs and anthologies are German, French and English.

The series is supervised by an editorial board which is advised by representatives in East Asian Studies.

Book Open Access 2024

Caomu Shanchuan

Plants and National Identity in Modern China

Yuheng Zhang

Volume 36 in this series

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This book offers a path-breaking survey of the various efforts to rethink, methodologically delimit, enact, and represent the changing relationship between the modernizing nation-state of China, its premodern history and culture, and its endemic and/or iconic plants. It is a literature and philosophy as well as cultural history contribution to the sinological academia.
By exploring the entanglement of plants in the construction of national identity in modern China, it demonstrates that, by joining the world scientific stage through categorization and compilation of its objects, the nation has braided its own time and space into the world system, and renjian caomu (the grass and trees of the human world) thus
became minzu zhiwu (ethno-plants). Moreover, all those different embodiments of caomu, national flower candidates, shuishan, ethno-plants, plane trees and ginkgos, each summon certain temporal and spatial angles and features, hovering between cultural symbolism and modern horticulture. They all join the transformation in which the location of China is anchored on the world map and on the natural land, while its past and future are imagined and rewritten in the form of Chinese history and modernity.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110764710
ISBN:: 9783110764710
ISBN:: 9783110764789
ISBN:: 9783110764635
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2023

Die Kategorie des Räumlichen in Erkenntnistheorie und Ästhetik im China des 17. Jahrhunderts

Polina Lukicheva, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 35 in this series

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This volume presents an investigation of the category of the spatial based on Chinese philosophical and art theoretical texts of the 17th century. The epistemological reconstructions and analyses of source examples present the conceptions of space at the intersections of Chinese scholars' reflections on reality, the universe, human cognition, and linguistic and visual expressive capacities.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110791976
ISBN:: 9783110791976
ISBN:: 9783110791860
ISBN:: 9783110791822
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: North and Central Asia
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2023

Wert und Subjektivität

Lao Sze-kwangs kulturtheoretische Schriften im transkulturellen Kontext

Brigit Knüsel Adamec, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 34 in this series

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The study focuses on the writings of Hong Kong philosopher Lao Sze-kwang (1927–2012) from the 1950s onward. His work in reception and cultural theory shows how liberal viewpoints were debated in the colonial-influenced environment of the Cold War. In both university and public discourse, Confucian values and ideas were discussed and reinterpreted.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783111063898
ISBN:: 9783111063898
ISBN:: 9783111063256
ISBN:: 9783111064093
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: North and Central Asia
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2023

Rêves de la littérature de divertissement en Chine impériale tardive

Aude Lucas, Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft, Université de Paris

Volume 33 in this series

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The book offers a cultural, historical and literary study of dream narration in Chinese literature (particularly in the literary genres of xiaoshuo 小說, "petty talk" and biji 筆記, "notebook"). It considers texts from Late Imperial China (13^th–19^th centuries), with an emphasis on the early/mid-Qing dynasty.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110749427
ISBN:: 9783110749427
ISBN:: 9783110749533
ISBN:: 9783110749366
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2022

Narratologie und vormoderne japanische Literatur

Theoretische Grundlagen, Forschungskritik und sprachlich bedingte Charakteristika japanischer Erzähltexte des 10. bis 14. Jahrhunderts

Sebastian Balmes, Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft

Volume 32 in this series

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The fundamental characteristics of Japanese narrative texts written between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries can be defined using the categories voice, perspective, and distance. This volume critically reviews existing theories to build the methodological foundation for narratological research into this literature. This theory of Japanese narrative thus makes a contribution to both narratology and Japanese studies.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110764420
ISBN:: 9783110764420
ISBN:: 9783110764161
ISBN:: 9783110764505
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: Japan
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2022

The Exercise of the Spatial Imagination in Pre-Modern China

Shaping the Expanse

Garret Pagenstecher Olberding, Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft

Volume 31 in this series

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This volume is distinctive for its extraordinarily interdisciplinary investigations into a little discussed topic, the spatial imagination. It probes the exercise of the spatial imagination in pre-modern China across five general areas: pictorial representation, literary description, cartographic mappings, and the intertwining of heavenly and earthly space. It recommends that the spatial imagination in the pre-modern world cannot adequately be captured using a linear, militarily framed conceptualization. The scope and varying perspectives on the spatial imagination analyzed in the volume’s essays reveal a complex range of aspects that informs how space was designed and utilized. Due to the complexity and advanced scholarly level of the papers, the primary readership will be other scholars and advanced graduate students in history, history of science, geography, art history, religious studies, literature, and, broadly, sinology.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110749823
ISBN:: 9783110749823
ISBN:: 9783111358468
ISBN:: 9783110749922
ISBN:: 9783110749656
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: History of Science
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2022

„Fiktion“ und „Wirklichkeit“ in japanischen Literaturtheorien der Jahre 1850 bis 1890

Guido Woldering

Volume 30 in this series

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Which relationship should, must, or can creation in language (fiction) have to creation outside of language (reality)? How do theoretical notions of literary art change when reality drastically changes? This volume investigates these questions in relation to the literature and social history of Japan from 1850 to 1890.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110763942
ISBN:: 9783110763942
ISBN:: 9783110763843
ISBN:: 9783110763973
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2024

Chinese Euphonics

Phonetic Patterns, Phonorhetoric and Literary Artistry in Early Chinese Narrative Texts

Jeffrey R. Tharsen

Volume 29 in this series

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What did Old Chinese prose sound like? Supported by digital texts, modern technologies and historical linguistics, Chinese Euphonics is a deep dive into the types of sound patterns that occur throughout the earliest corpora of narrative texts in the Chinese canon: the Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, the Classic of Documents《尚書》, the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals《春秋左傳》and the Discourses of the States《國語》.

Tharsen demonstrates how sound patterns in the speeches preserved in these foundational texts functioned in concert with form and meaning to create a "phonorhetoric," a tactic employed by some of the most eminent figures from Chinese antiquity to beautify and strengthen their arguments and ideas by making use of extensive phonological patterning and the power of sound.

Containing both a broad history of the study of prose rhyming and a wealth of new evidence, Chinese Euphonics lays the groundwork for a new and more comprehensive approach to the study of early Chinese texts.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110663204
ISBN:: 9783110663204
ISBN:: 9783110663105
ISBN:: 9783110663525
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Asia
Subject:: Sino-Tibetan Languages
Subject:: Chinese
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Subject:: Topics in Literary Studies
Subject:: Literary Studies and Linguistics
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2020

The Gongsun Longzi and Other Neglected Texts

Aligning Philosophical and Philological Perspectives

Rafael Suter, Lisa Indraccolo, Wolfgang Behr

Volume 28 in this series

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The Gongsun Longzi is often considered the only extant work of the Classical Chinese “School of Names”, an early intellectual tradition (trad. dated to the 4^th cent. B.C.) mainly concerned with logic and the philosophy of language.

The Gongsun Longzi is a heterogeneous collection of five chapters that include short treatises and largely fictive dialogues between an anonymous persuader and his opponent, which typically revolve around a paradoxical claim. Its value as a testimony to Early Chinese philosophy, however, is somewhat controversial due to the intricate textual history of the text and our limited knowledge about its intellectual backgrounds.

This volume gathers contributions by leading specialists in the fields of Classical Chinese philosophy, philology, logic, and linguistics. Besides an overview of the scholarly literature on the topic and a detailed account of the reception of the text throughout time, it presents fresh insights into philological and philosophical problems raised by the Gongsun Longzi and other closely-related texts equally attributed to the “School of Names”.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110587814
ISBN:: 9783110587814
ISBN:: 9783110585438
ISBN:: 9783110585513
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Philosophy of Language
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2017

Logik und Apriori zwischen Wahrnehmung und Erkenntnis

Eine Studie zum Frühwerk Mou Zongsans (1909–1995)

Rafael Suter

Volume 27 in this series

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For the first time this study presents and analyzes the early work of the major Chinese philosopher Mou Zongsan (1909–1995). After introducing the contexts in which his thought arose, the book presents aspects of his work on logic, including his ideas on the relationship between logic, perception, and knowledge. The insightful character of Mou’s texts make the book worthwhile reading.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110534542
ISBN:: 9783110534542
ISBN:: 9783110532722
ISBN:: 9783110532593
Subject:: Asian and Pacific Studies
Subject:: East Asia
Subject:: China
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Logic
Subject:: Eastern Philosophy
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Ideography and Chinese Language Theory

A History

Timothy Michael O’Neill

Volume 26 in this series

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This book is a much-needed scholarly intervention and postcolonial corrective that examines why and when and how misunderstandings of Chinese writing came about and showcases the long history of Chinese theories of language. 'Ideography' as such assumes extra-linguistic, trans-historical, universal 'ideas' which are an outgrowth of Platonism and thus unique to European history. Classical Chinese discourse assumes that language (and writing) is an arbitrary artifact invented by sages for specific reasons at specific times in history. Language by this definition is an ever-changing technology amenable to historical manipulation; language is not the House of Being, but rather a historically embedded social construct that encodes quotidian human intentions and nothing more. These are incommensurate epistemes, each with its own cultural milieu and historical context. By comparing these two traditions, this study historicizes and decolonializes popular notions about Chinese characters, exposing the Eurocentrism inherent in all theories of ideography. Ideography and Chinese Language Theory will be of significant interest to historians, sinologists, theorists, and scholars in other branches of the humanities.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110459234
ISBN:: 9783110459234
ISBN:: 9783110457223
ISBN:: 9783110457148
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: Linguistics and Semiotics
Subject:: Languages of Asia
Subject:: Sino-Tibetan Languages
Subject:: Chinese
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Zerrissenes Bewusstsein

Der Intellektuellendiskurs im modernen Japan

Simone Müller

Volume 25 in this series

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Based on a discourse analysis of representative debates between 1920 and 1970 and applying Bourdieu’s theory of the literary field, this study describes the emergence, role, and self-understanding of the modern Japanese intellectual during the inter-war and post-war periods of the 20^th century and creates a portrait of the writer as an intellectual.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458527
ISBN:: 9783110458527
ISBN:: 9783110455687
ISBN:: 9783110456387
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Political Ideologies and Ideas
Subject:: Literary Studies
Subject:: Literature of other Nations and Languages
Subject:: Asian Literature
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Sorge um den Rechten Weg des Konfuzianismus

Fang Dongshus Kritik an Dai Zhen und der Hanxue

Marc Winter

Volume 24 in this series

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This thesis is a direct contribution in the field history of thoughts in Late Imperial China, and it adds insight about the reception of tradition in the first half of the 20th century, in particular Confucianism. It explores the criticism of one school (the orthodox daoxue-Confucianism) against another (hanxue-Confucianism) by studying one object of criticism in particular. The author of the criticism, Fang Dongshu (1772-1851), attacks Dai Zhen (1723-1777). Hitherto, research in the 20th century had celebrated Dai Zhen and the scholars of his school of thought/method as precursors to scientific thinking in pre-modern China. Similarly the orthodox schools were set aside as opponents to modernization of society and philosophy. Through the thorough study of arguments made on both sides, this thesis suggests a different understanding, because scholars that lived in a Confucian society had different requirements about Confucian teachings and their impact.
Considering the points Fang Dongshu points out about his adversaries contributes to a historically more accurate understanding of the history of Chinese philosophy before the Opium Wars and the end of the Imperial Age.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110453430
ISBN:: 9783110453430
ISBN:: 9783110451580
ISBN:: 9783110451498
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: History of Religions
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Eastern Philosophy
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2016

Menzius

Eine kritische Rekonstruktion mit kommentierter Neuübersetzung

Robert H. Gassmann

Volume 22 in this series

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Mencius was a major political thinker in ancient China, a successor of Confucius and high-ranking advisor to the powerful princes of Qi. His work remains highly significant to this day in Chinese intellectual history. This book offers a comprehensive presentation of Mencius’s life and times, a translation of his work with detailed commentary, and appendices on chronology, history, and key terms.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110444360
ISBN:: 9783110444360
ISBN:: 9783110441055
ISBN:: 9783110435634
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Political Ideologies and Ideas
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Eastern Philosophy
Publisher:: De Gruyter