Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780674955981)

Remembered today primarily as a poet, calligrapher, and critic, the protean Su Shi was an outspoken player in the contentious politics and intellectual debates of the Northern Song dynasty. In this comprehensive study, Egan analyzes Su's literary and artistic work against the background of eleventhcentury developments within Buddhist and Confucian thought and Su's dogged disagreement with the New Policies of Wang Anshi. Egan explicates Su's views on governance, the classics, and Buddhism; and he describes Su's social-welfare initiatives, arrest for disloyalty, and exiles. Finding a key to the richness of Su's artistic activities in his vacillation on the significance of aesthetic pursuits, Egan explores Su's shi and ci poetry and Su's promotion of painting and calligraphy, looking specially at the problem of subjectivity. In a concluding chapter, he reconsiders Su's role as a founder of the wenren ("literati") and challenges the conventional understanding of both Su and the Northern Song wenren generally.

Author: Ronald C. Egan, Shi Su
ISBN-10: 0674955986
ISBN-13: 9780674955981
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/01/1994
Pages: 380
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 9.34h x 5.94w x 1.39d