interesting links

Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling

being the Chronicle of the Later Han dynasty
for the years for the years 157 to 189 AD
as recorded in Chapters 54 to 59 of the Zizhi tongjian of Sima Guang.

https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/html/1885/42048/HuanLing_index.html

Thanks. It is great that they put a lot/some? of Rafe de Crespigny's work online. There should really be something like the Perseus digital library for the classic Chinese texts and their English translations. The just concluding edX course on Chinese history from the Zizhi Tongjian would really have benefited if a complete English translation were available.

The British MOOC provider FutureLearn will offer a course in September/October by the University of Barcelona on The European Discovery of China - Explore Chinese history through the eyes of Western travelers. During the counter-reformation, there were quite a few enterprising Austrian Jesuits who went to China and brought back fascinating tales.

Erya Dictionary explains meaning of name of object.

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/erya.html

Prof John Minford covered by China's official media discusses just a wee little bit The story of the stone, or The dream of the red chamber and work on the Iching

http://tinyurl.com/pt8xhus

Thanks, very interesting! If only I could understand the Chinese bits...

Very disappointed to find in Minford's Yi Ching (essence of change) the following.



What better alternatives are there?

The first of five lectures on Ancient China. Dates before 841 BCE is not exact. Lectures are from 2006 CE.

https://youtu.be/MMDHRJuZXGQ?t=4m25s

David Nivison
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/obit-david-nivison-111214.html

Du Fu composed over 1400 poems, amounting to 6 volumes, 2962 pages, and 9.3 pounds ❲4.21841 kg❳ in English translation.

http://tommazanec.com/blog/2016/01/14/stephen-owens-translation-of-the-complete-...

Ooh, that publication series is something to keep an eye on.

Skritter App helps you learn the characters.

This is a much too fast Chinese Writer app for training the writing of the characters. And, the Pleco app is better in my opinion than Alphabet-Google's Translate app as you can write the character as slow as you like.

Before the 龍門 I use the Pleco app to lookup the first character's components in Du Fu book 1 fascicule 1.1

遊 has

Zhuge Liang's Wuhou temple

https://youtu.be/XyQEjJsryIg

Was a white horse the animal of sacrifice?

#9 After showing the first few lines of #8's translation to a librarian the feeling was only 54% of the beauty of the language is carried over.

https://fairbank.fas.harvard.edu/pages/john-king-fairbank

What is qi?
What books are recommended?
Is Ken Rose & Zhang Yu Huan's
A brief history of qi,
as good as any a point to start?

An update on the excavations of the undisturbed Han royal tomb found a few years ago.
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/40957
The immensely rich and well-preserved main tomb in the Western Han Dynasty cemetery near Nanchang, China, has been confirmed as that of Liu He, emperor for less than a month (from July 18th to August 14th 74 B.C.) and finally Marquis of Haihun.

Release of 1400s encyclopedia.

http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2016-05/05/content_38387302_2.htm

It is more like an anthology of books , not in the sense of encyclopedia.

There are lots of interesting stories relate to how this sets was lost and recovered. original whole sets comprise of 10,095 volumes, but now only 378 volumes remain.

I have seen the real thing at museum, quite a big book . same as the 四庫全書， it is all hand written, for library of the emperor.

That idea and the cloud in taiji at 7:22 of https://youtu.be/ZxcNBejxlzs in the American voice works

Michael Loewe, is a University of Cambridge academic and renowned sinologist who has authored dozens of books, articles, and other publications in the fields of Classical Chinese and ancient Chinese history.

In this remarkable talk, he describes the twenty-five Chinese dynastic histories that range from 221 BCE to 1911, a continuous account without parallel anywhere and anytime, and he ponders over what these unique records do tell us about the Chinese sense of history.

China’s historical writings are voluminous, including the basic series of twenty-five dynastic histories that range from 221 BCE to 1911. Officially sponsored, these works set out to prove the legitimacy of rule that each house enjoyed, coupled with emphasis on the evil ways that brought its predecessor to ruin.

The compilers sought to set human activities within the inescapable cycles that govern the universe, writing with an air of superiority and and an isolationism that called for a single and harmonious rule of all mankind. Such was what may be seen as the Chinese version of a Whig interpretation of history, flawed by pride and bias and giving rise to misconception.

Officials called on incidents of the past to explain the activities of the present. Exceptionally some Chinese scholar-historians adopted a highly critical stance, breaking away from traditional standpoints and periodisation. China’s leading universities to-day accept the need for a critical approach and, despite sensitivity over some matters, they invite westerners to deliver lectures on China’s history to their students. Splendid newly built museums, crowded by parties of school children, and carefully maintained archaeological sites testify to the serious presentation of China’s past to its inheritors of to-day.

https://soundcloud.com/university-of-cambridge/michael-loewe-chinas-sense-of