Overview

Through close examination of a set of educational works discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts, this book presents new insights into the literary training undertaken by the elite of medieval China. In their contents and structures, these works tell us what parts of the literary and cultural inheritance the elite were expected to learn and how they learned them. The material aspects of these manuscripts—including handwriting, copying errors, and paratextual additions—show how students in Dunhuang used and reproduced them. What emerges is a picture of a literary education that is more diverse in its sources, and also more haphazard, than previously imagined.

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Reviews

“An insightful and highly original study, which makes a major contribution to our knowledge of Dunhuang and medieval Chinese literary culture in general. Based on a close analysis of a group of Dunhuang manuscripts, it addresses the difficult question of how literary training happened in daily practice. A refreshing read, both enjoyable and informative.” Imre Galambos Qiushi Professor of Chinese at the School of Literature, Zhejiang University, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese at the University of Cambridge “Textual Practices of Literary Training in Medieval China is a ground-breaking study of the history of manuscript culture, elite education, and the production of knowledge in medieval China. Through close analysis of the literary and codicological features of Dunhuang primers that have been little examined to date, Nugent illuminates the many ways that medieval people learned to read, write, and think with the cultural tradition. It sets a new high-water mark for scholarship on Dunhuang manuscripts and literary knowledge in premodern China.” Anna M. Shields Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University

Author Information

Christopher M. B. Nugent, Ph.D. (2004), Harvard University, is the John W. Chandler Professor of Chinese at Williams College. He has written on the production and circulation of poetry, textual memory, education, and manuscript culture in medieval China.

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