Introduction
For hundreds of years until the 1900’s, in today’s China, Japan, North and South Korea, and Vietnam, literati of Classical Chinese or Literary Sinitic (wényán 文言) could communicate in writing interactively, despite not speaking each other’s languages.
This book outlines the historical background of, and the material conditions that led to, widespread literacy development in premodern and early modern East Asia, where reading and writing for formal purposes was conducted in Literary Sinitic. To exemplify how ‘silent conversation’ or ‘brush-assisted conversation’ is possible through writing-mediated brushed interaction, synchronously face-to-face, this book presents contextualized examples from recurrent contexts involving (i) boat drifters; (ii) traveling literati; and (iii) diplomatic envoys. Where profound knowledge of classical canons and literary works in Sinitic was a shared attribute of the brush-talkers concerned, their brush-talk would characteristically be intertwined with poetic improvisation.
Content
Chapter 1
Writing-mediated Cross-border Communication Face-to-face: From Sinitic Brush-talk (漢文筆談) to Pen-assisted Conversation
(David C. S. Li, Reijiro AOYAMA, and WONG Tak-sum)
Chapter 2
East Asian Brush-talk Literature: Introduction and Proposed Classification
(WANG Yong)
Part 1: Brush-talk involving traveling literati and boat drifters in East Asia
Chapter 3
Brush Conversation between Maritime Officials and Foreign Seafarers in Drifting Records in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century East Asia
(MATSUURA Akira and Reijiro AOYAMA)
Chapter 4
Senzaimaru’s Maiden Voyage to Shanghai in 1862: Brush Conversation between Japanese Travelers and People They Encountered in Qing China
(David C. S. Li and Reijiro AOYAMA)
Chapter 5
Identity Verification and Negotiation through Sinitic Brush-talk in Ming China and Japan: Drifting Accounts by Ch'oe Pu (1488) and Yi Chi-hang (1696–1697)
(HUR Kyoung-jin)
Chapter 6
A Study of Salient Linguistic Features of Two Ryukyuan Brush Conversations in Sinitic, 1611 and 1803
(WONG Tak-sum)
Part 2: Brush-talk involving diplomatic envoys in East Asia
Chapter 7
Sinitic Brush-talk between Vietnam and China in the Eighteenth Century: A Study of Lê Quý Đôn’s Mission to Qing China (1758–1762)
(NGUYỄN Tuấn Cường and NGUYỄN Thị Tuyết)
Chapter 8
Lingua-cultural Characteristics of Brush-talk: Insights from Ōkōchi Documents 大河內文書
(WANG Baoping)
Chapter 9
The Charm and Pitfalls of Sinitic Brush-talk: A Study of Brush Conversation Records between Miyajima Seiichirō (宮島誠一郎) and the First Legation Staff of Late Qing China in Japan (1870s–1880s)
(LIU Yuzhen)
Chapter 10
Japanese-Korean Brush-talk during the Early Edo Period, 1603–1867
(KOO Jea-hyoun and Ian JOO)
Chapter 11
Brush-talk between Chosŏn Envoys and Tokugawa Literati: Contesting Cultural Superiority and ‘Central Efflorescence’ 中華, 1711–1811
(JANG Jin-youp)
Part 3: Script-specific communication in Sinitic: Significance for historical pragmatics, cultural anthropology, and East Asian studies
Chapter 12
Sociocultural Functions of Chinese Characters and Writing: Transnational Brush-talk Encounters in Mid-Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century East Asia
(Reijiro AOYAMA)
Chapter 13 Discussion Paper
(Rebekah CLEMENTS)
* Owners of respective book covers are credited. Book covers are for reference only. FH is unable to accept responsibility of any inaccurate information.
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