SUBJECT INDEX:

ART:

Body and Face in Chinese Visual Culture: Edited by Hung Wu; Edited by Katherine R. Tsiang; Traditionally the "Chinese body" was approached as a totality and explained by sweeping comparisons of the differences that distinguished Chinese examples from their Western counterparts. Recently, scholars have argued that we must look at particular examples of Chinese images of the body and explore their intrinsic conceptual complexity and historical specificity. This book describes a more complex picture of how the visual culture of the body and face in China has served to depict the living, memorialize the dead, and present the unrepresentable in art.; Hardcover 2004

Chinese Art in Detail: Carol Michaelson; Jane Portal; Drawing on the British Museum's extensive collection, Chinese Art in Detail explores the traditional hierarchy of materials and techniques reaching back as far as the Han Dynasty in the third century B.C. in the history and character of the works under scrutiny, this sumptuously illustrated book conveys an understanding of Chinese art in all its great variety, its simplicities, its complexities, its splendors, and its mysteries of craft and inspiration reaching back to Neolithic times.; Hardcover 2006

Chinese Calligraphy: Yee Chiang; This is the classic introduction to Chinese calligraphy. In nine richly illustrated chapters Chang explores the aesthetics and the technique of this art in which rhythm, line, and structure are perfectly embodied. He measure the slow change from pictograph to stroke to the style and shape of written characters by the great calligraphers. It is a superb appreciation of beauty in the movement of strokes and in the patterns of structure--and an inspiration to amateurs as well as professionals interested in the decorative arts.; Paperback

Early Mughal Painting: Milo Cleveland Beach; Beach traces, with an abundance of captivating illustrations, the evolution of the Mughal style. While acknowledging the influence of Akbar the Great's interests and changing tastes, he shows that many of the new tendencies were evident during the short reign of Akbar's father, the Emperor Humayun, whose role as patron of the arts is thereby reassessed. Beach also stresses the traditionalism of the individual painters, who only gradually changed their concepts and compositions in response to foreign influences and to imperial taste.; Hardcover 1987

The First Emperor: Edited by Jane Portal; Standing guard around the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi, the ranks of a terra-cotta army bear silent witness to the power of the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who unified China in 221 BCE. Six thousand warriors and horses make up the army, while chariots, a military guard, and a command post complete the host. A new look at one of the most spectacular finds in the annals of archaeology, this book also considers its historical and archaeological context, and the extensive research carried out since its discovery in 1974.; Hardcover 2007

Japanese Art in Detail: John Reeve; Beginning by asking, "What is Japanese art?" this book supplies an answer so broad in its reach, so rich in detail, and so extensively illustrated that it gives a reader not just a true picture but also a fine understanding of Japanese art. Arranged thematically, the book includes chapters on nature and pleasure, landscape and beauty, all framed by the themes of serenity and turmoil, the two poles of Japanese culture ancient and modern.; Hardcover 2006

The Lyric Journey: James Cahill; Poetic paintings--works done in response to lyric poems or as pictorial equivalents to them--compose a major category of East Asian art. In this beautifully illustrated book James Cahill, looks at three exemplary traditions in this genre.; Hardcover 1996 / Paperback 2002

Pattern and Person: Martin J. Powers; In Classical China, crafted artifacts offered a material substrate for abstract thought as graphic paradigms for social relationships. Focusing on the fifth to second centuries B.C., Martin Powers explores how these paradigms continued to inform social thought long after the material substrate had been abandoned. Historically, Pattern and Person traces the evolution of personhood in China from a condition of hereditary status to one of achieved social role and greater personal choice.; Hardcover 2006

Poetry and Painting in Song China: Alfreda Murck; During the Song dynasty (960-1278), some members of China's elite found an elegant and subtle means of dissent: landscape painting. By examining literary archetypes, the titles of paintings, contemporary inscriptions, and the historical context, Alfreda Murck shows that certain paintings expressed strong political opinions--some transparent, others deliberately concealed. She argues that the capacity of painting's systems of reference to allow scholars to express dissent with impunity contributed to the art's vitality and longevity.; Hardcover 2000 / Paperback 2002