Boqiao Family Letters

Author: Zheng Xie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-03-01
Features: He first unearthed the ancient folk wisdom passed down through generations and openly presented it as the highest philosophy of dealing with the world. He practiced it diligently, extending himself to others, and brought it to full play, displaying a unrestrained and unconventional demeanor in spirit. It was precisely this painful split between his cultural personality that created a muddled master who was neither bound by the past nor the present.
Banqiao wrote a total of forty-six letters to his brother, wife, and son, with an additional seventy-five appended letters to friends. The comprehensiveness of the materials and the scale of the collection are rare in China and can be considered . Through the compilation, translation, annotation, and commentary on these letters, we not only systematically elaborate on Banqiao’s unique insights into his way of life, reading, writing, and painting, but also, through the letters that span his entire life—a secret inner monologue of a cultural master—attempt to describe a historically significant curve, thereby deciphering the most representative cultural code of the Qing Dynasty and even Chinese civilization over thousands of years: "muddled."