New Perspectives on Culture and Language

Author: Wu Qixing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: This book is primarily a treatise on language and writing. The author, Wu Qixing, is a language scholar who has lived in the United States for a long time and has been engaged in the study of ancient Chinese and the compilation of large-scale Chinese dictionaries. The first part of the book consists of seven chapters, combining humanistic spirit, calligraphic art, traditional writing, etymology, and historical records to explain the origin and characteristics of Chinese characters, and it also touches upon semantic shifts and dictionary compilation. The middle part has five chapters, exploring poetic meter and literary categories from the perspective of language and writing, with a focus on discussing the concept of "poetry expresses the mind" and the "phonetic explanation" issue in the The Heart of the Mencius and the Carving of Dragons. The last part has four chapters, outlining the new materials of literary studies—inscriptions on stone and bronze, promoting the life, works, and contributions of the late Qing Dynasty master of inscriptions, Ye Changchi. Grounded in cultural anthropology, the book is rich in sources and offers a fresh perspective in the field of traditional linguistics.