Fun etymology

Author: Wang Zijin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: Textual research is the fundamental method of traditional Chinese scholarship. Textual research, which seeks truth, is also known as textual scholarship. Textual scholarship flourished during the Qing Dynasty, as some scholars have pointed out, "such experts have existed throughout the generations, with the most concentrated in the past three centuries." The principle of textual research is "seeking truth from facts." Wang Zhong once stated his academic purpose: "In the study of archaeology, only seeking truth from facts is valued, not adhering rigidly to conventions." The scholarly approach of textual researchers "seeking truth from facts" is actually very close to modern scientific methods. The selected essays in this book include lengthy pieces of significant academic weight as well as concise, short essays of less than a thousand words. The main purpose of the selection is to cover different aspects of daily material and spiritual life, with "excellence" as the primary criterion for selection, followed by the pursuit of the "wisdom" and "interest" reflected in the content. The book includes topics such as the tofu issue, the origin and introduction of peanuts to China, kitchen facilities and culinary activities during the Qin and Han periods, ancient Chinese self-service dining, the origin of chopsticks, the introduction of tobacco, the origin of Chinese alcohol, wine and vinegar during the Shang and Zhou periods, male cosmetics during the Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties periods, and the examination of women's clothing during the Song Dynasty.