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BOOK LISTS
an especially favoured form of literary entertainment but were widely popular, especially at the new year holiday and other relaxing times. Writing in the later nineteenth century, Sir Robert Douglas gives a fascinating picture of the scene in a Chinese city on the evening of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Feast of Lanterns, as he calls it
As the night advances, crowds, among whom are numbers of ladies, who, on no other occasion, venture out after dark, throng the street to gaze at the illuminations and, in some instances, to guess the riddles which are inscribed on lanterns hung at the doorways of houses. Prizes, such as parcels of tea, pencils, fans, etc., are given to the successful solvers of the rebuses, but these have little to do with the interest which is shown in the amusement which, partaking of the nature of a literary exercise, is well suited to the natural taste." Robert K. Douglas, China, (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Second Edition, Revised, 1887), 264-265. Rhyming games were akin to this genre, and a good example can be found in David Hawkes' translation of the famous eighteen century novel The Story of the Stone (another name for the Red Chamber Dream), Vol. 2 "The Crab-Flower Club" (London, Penguin Books, 1977), 299-303.
(e) Educational texts, including classics, primers and other aids to literacy
I am not including the classics in this list, which have been seen in a wide range of texts and commentaries for all purposes from the elementary school room to the examination hall for the hsiu ts'ai and higher degrees, and in all sizes from large format to tiny "sleeve gems" and "fly-head writing" on slips of rice paper to be smuggled into the cells of the examination place. In lieu of these, I have listed a few of the primers and aids to literacy that I have come across."
*
(f) Guides to letter writing: simple and literary
Like the books on couplets, this is another popular
* See also Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China (Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1979), especially the book list at 265-268
170
BOOK LISTS
an especially favoured form of literary entertainment but were widely popular, especially at the new year holiday and other relaxing times. Writing in the later nineteenth century, Sir Robert Douglas gives a fascinating picture of the scene in a Chinese city on the evening of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Feast of Lanterns, as he calls it
As the night advances, crowds, among whom are numbers of ladies, who, on no other occasion, venture out after dark, throng the street to gaze at the illuminations and, in some instances, to guess the riddles which are in- scribed on lanterns hung at the doorways of houses Pizes, such as parcels of tea, pencils, fans, etc., are given to the successful solvers of the rebuses, but these have hitle to do with the interest which is shown in the amusement which, partaking of the nature of a literary exercise, is well suited to the natural taste." Robert K. Douglas, China, (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Second Edition, Revised, 1887), 264-265. Rhyming games were akin to this genre, and a good example can be found in David Hawkes' translation of the famous eighteen cen tury novel The Story of the Stone (another name for the Red Chamber Dream), Vol. 2 "The Crab-Flower Club” (London, Penguin Books, 1977), 299-303.
(e) Educational texts, including classies, primers and other
aids to literacy
I am not including the classics in this list, which have been seen in a wide range of texts and commentaries for all purposes from the elementary school room to the ex- amination hall for the hsiu ts'ai and higher degrees, and in all sizes from large format to tiny "sleeve gems” and “fly- head writing" on slips of rice paper to be smuggled into the cells of the examination place. In lieu of these, I have listed a few of the primers and aids to literacy that I have come across."
*
(f) Guides to letter writing: simple and literary
Like the books on couplets, this is another popular
* See also Evelyn Sakakıda Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China (Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1979), especially the book list at 265-268
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