Shan'ge, the 'Mountain Songs'

This is the second volume in a series titled "Emotions and States of Mind in East Asia"--an intriguing and wide-open theme. The preface describes the material: "This volume is dedicated to seven chapters of the collection of songs by Feng Menglong, a text which can be considered of marginal importance compared with other writing of the times. This marginality itself however is significant in that it helps us understand the nature of the society back then...." These works express the whole range of human feelings and passions at a time when "...the official stance was a refusal to recognize desires, as they did not fit into the cardinal five relationships and hierarchical interrelations." The two authors are scholars of Late Imperial China. Paolo Santangelo (East Asian History, Rome Sapienza U.) and Yasushi Oki (Chinese literature, U. of Tokyo) offer a thorough study. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Paolo Santangelo Professor of East Asian History at Rome “Sapienza” University. He has published extensively on the social, intellectual and anthropological history of Late Imperial China. His Materials for an Anatomy of Personality in Late Imperial China has appeared in 2010 in this series, and in the same year Ming Qing Studies 2010 (Scriptaweb).Yasushi Oki (Ph.D. 1998, The University of Tokyo) is Professor of Chinese Literature at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo. He has published articles on late Imperial Chinese society and culture, as well as a monograph entitled A Study of Mao Xiang and his Reminiscences of the Convent of Shadowy Plum-blossoms (Kyuko-shoin, 2010).