Pacing the Void
T’ang Approaches to the Stars
In the author’s own words, this work attempts “to recreate, for the 20th-century reader, the sky and the apparitions that ornament it as they were conceived, imagined, and reacted to by the men of T’ang-dynasty China—that is, to suggest what the medieval Chinese . . . thought they saw in the night sky, and how they treated those magic lights in their active lives, their private commitments, and their literary fabrications. Inevitably, this enterprise meant the exploration of the borderlands where science, faith, tradition, invention, and fantasy overlap.” Armed with the new awareness that this fascinating work provides, we can better understand the great legacy of art and literature of this important era in Chinese history.
Edward H. Schafer, until his untimely death in 1991, was Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarship was devoted to the T’ang dynasty, from the 8th to the 10th centuries, which saw the greatest cultural flowering in Chinese history. With the reprinting of the title, Floating World Editions inaugurates the reissue of all the out-of-print works of this great sinologist. When possible, the reprinted works will incorporate the corrigenda compiled by Professor Schafer, and the series will include a complete bibliography of his published work.
368 pp, 7 x 10, Soft
Chinese culture / Literature
ISBN: 978-1-891640-14-8
$50.00