Chinese and the East Asian World

Editor's Choice★ A classic work in comparative cultural studies, this book charts the journey of Chinese characters beyond national boundaries, a guide to Chinese that fills gaps in your knowledge. Why is Japanese interspersed with Chinese characters? Why do Chinese scripts appear in Korean dramas? Chinese writing transcends time and space, and precisely because of this, it has become the common language of East Asia. This book uses the philological reading of Chinese characters as a clue to a different perspective on the world of East Asia.
A small book by a great man, rewritten in Chinese by Kyoto University professor and renowned Japanese scholar Kim Mun-kyung. Specializing in classical Chinese literature and fluent in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, Kim attempts to reconstruct the coordinate system of the Chinese character cultural sphere from a unique global perspective of East Asia. The Chinese edition is translated by the author and adapted for a Chinese readership, incorporating the latest academic findings.
A Kadokawa Gakuei Award winner, recommended by Peking University's Chen Pingyuan, Tsinghua University's Liu Xiaofeng, and Song Nianshen. Transcending national boundaries and fields, bounded by language and knowledge, is not something everyone can achieve. Kim Moon-kyung's "Sino-Japanese and the East Asian World" effortlessly achieves this feat, proposing a striking hypothesis that stands as a model for comparative cultural studies. ... It was kunyomi (literally, "reading" or "unreading") that shaped East Asian culture, and this study exemplifies the success of comparative cultural studies on a grand scale.
—Shigeru Kashima, judge of the Kadokawa Foundation's Academic Awards and professor at Meiji University. This book details the complex pronunciation of Chinese characters in East Asia from ancient times to the present day. Learning this knowledge about Chinese characters will help you understand the author's advocacy of an "East Asian Sino-Cultural Circle." This is an excellent book that examines the linguistic and worldviews of East Asian nations through the lens of Chinese character pronunciation, and further examines the complexities within East Asia.
Tsinghua University Professor Liu Xiaofeng's concise subject matter and lucid language reveal a deep concern for history, culture, nation, and region. The contemporary predicament of the East Asian world revealed through this work transcends the topic itself.
——Song Nianshen, professor at Tsinghua University and author of "Discovering East Asia"★The 12th book in the "Iwanami New Book Selection" series, the finale. New Classics·Iwanami New Book Selection: Light, Beautiful, and Deep Light - small and compact, most of them are about 100,000 words, easy to understand, and have a brisk pace. Beautiful - a wide range of topics, strong readability, beautiful writing, and detailed content. Depth - in-depth interpretation of history and current affairs, stimulating thinking. Published books: "The Age of Overwork", "Gender Inequality Society", "Kyoto", "Edo Period", "The Birth of Japan", "Japanese Kanji", "Japanese Mythology", "Keywords in Japanese Culture", "Reversing American Democracy", "Modern Korea and Japan", and "Ancient China's View of Civilization"
In the past, despite differing languages, merchants and envoys from East Asian nations could communicate silently, using only a piece of paper and pen, conveying their feelings and witty remarks through Chinese characters. This remarkable phenomenon stems from the fact that East Asian nations historically shared a similar culture, of which Chinese characters are the essence. While East Asia may appear to share a common language, each nation has developed its own unique and fascinating history. Therefore, the East Asian world behind the Chinese character cultural sphere is in reality a complex and diverse world with its own unique strengths.
Kim Moon-kyung, a Korean-Japanese scholar fluent in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, uses kun-yan (literal pronunciation) to interpret Chinese characters and Chinese writing to illustrate East Asia. From ancient times to the present, he traces the evolution of Chinese writing and analyzes the similarities and differences between Chinese writing systems across different countries. Using kun-yan (literal pronunciation) as a starting point, he offers a profound analysis of the world of East Asia, a world that is both inextricably linked and distinct.

2022-10-01

上海三联书店

New Classic Amber, New Classic Culture

224

9787542677327