The Complete Works of Shen Congwen. 32 Volumes

Author: Shen Congwen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: The Complete Works of Shen Congwen includes all published literary works, academic writings, and correspondence of Mr. Shen Congwen collected to date. Unpublished works, letters, diaries, and other written historical materials have also been as comprehensively included as possible. The complete works contain over 10 million words, of which approximately 4.4 million are works and letters unpublished during the author's lifetime. Additionally, it includes over 1,710 illustrations, nearly 200 of which are precious historical materials such as life photos, autographs, and sketches of the author from different periods. The complete works are organized into volumes by genre, including novels, essays, biographies, miscellaneous writings, poetry, literary theory, letters, collected works outside the main body, and material culture history.
This book features the clothing of various periods in ancient China, along with related materials and patterns. The Shang Dynasty section includes a significant number of figurines made from different materials, reflecting various body types of Shang people, though textual descriptions are relatively scarce. Personally, I believe these figurines not only represent different social classes of the Shang Dynasty but may also include depictions of tribes often mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions as adversaries of the Shang, such as the Ren in the northwest, the Gui in the east, the Xu and Huaiyi in the southeast, and the Jing, Chu, Ba, and Pu tribes in the southwest. These figures are likely to be found among bronze, jade, pottery, and stone figurines. Notably, the images on bronze weapons and other artifacts are more likely to depict these foreign adversaries, making such representations even more probable.