Incense at the Altar

出版者:Eisenbrauns

作者:David B. Honey

页数:359

出版时间:2001-2-28

价格:USD 39.50

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780940490161

具体描述

The discipline of Sinology, as it has been developed in the West, is rooted in philology. Despite the variety of new scholarly fashions and approaches to the study of premodern China that have arisen during the past half-century, the careful examination of texts remains fundamental for all serious Sinological work. In this we are beholden to those European, and latterly, American, scholars who, over several generations, painstakingly established the standards for such work. But no comprehensive history of the field has heretofore been published in a Western language. Now Professor Honey offers just such a history of Sinology, spanning its beginnings in the first efforts of seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries to the growing disciplinary fragmentation of the field in the second half of the twentieth century. Honey gives his most thorough attention to the major figures of French, German, Dutch, British, and American Sinology from approximately 1800 to 1980, with extensive discussion of their most significant works and individual techniques. This is a book of special importance for every student of China who cares about the history of the field.

作者简介

Dr. Honey is a Professor of Chinese. A 1980 graduate of UCLA in Oriental Languages, he received his M.A. (1984) and Ph.D degrees (1988) in Classical Chinese from the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught summers at Middlebury College in Vermont and was a Visiting Professor of Chinese at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan.He has also taught at Nanjing University. His research interests include classical scholarship, the history of sinology, poetry, and Cantonese literati. His book on the history of sinology, entitled Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology, was published by the American Oriental Society in 2001. In 2009 he presented an invited lecture at the Palace Museum (Forbidden CIty) in Beijing entitled “A foreign scholar looks at Chinese culture: Harmony as a key concept.” It was published by a research institute based at the Palace Museum. In 2011 he was invited to present a paper at Fu Jen University, Taipei, on the intellectual background to the European reception of knowledge concerning China over the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries; it was published in a bilingual edition by Fu Jen University in 2011. He was commissioned by the East Normal University Press of Shanghai to write a history of classical scholarship in the West, centering on homeric scholarship over the ages; this work, composed in Chinese, was published in 2012. A lengthy book manuscript in English is being published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press; it is entitled <em>The Southern Garden Poetry Society: Social Memory and Literati Culture in Guangdong; it will be out in early 2013. Dr. Honey is currently engaged in a longterm project on the history of classical scholarship in China. Volume One is now completed, and treats Confucius, the formation of the classics, and Confucius’ disciples. Volume Two will focus on the formation of scholarly lineages during the Western Han dynasty and the development of philology in the Eastern Han. In 2013 Dr. Honey will conduct the Fall Study Abroad program in Nanjing, PRC. Dr. Honey is a poet in classical Chinese. His 80 line poem in the ancient ballad style treats the history of the Palace Museum during the late Qing period. It has been published by the Palace Museum.

用户评价

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这本《圣坛上的香》的封面设计就非常引人注目，那种深沉的暗红色调，配上隐约可见的金色纹饰，立刻就给我一种庄严而神秘的感觉。我是在一个朋友的强烈推荐下开始阅读的，他只用了一句话概括：“这本书会让你重新审视你对‘信仰’二字的理解。”起初我还有些疑虑，毕竟市面上探讨宗教、哲学主题的书籍汗牛充栋，很难再有令人眼前一亮的佳作。然而，从翻开第一页起，我就被作者那近乎冷峻的笔触所吸引。他似乎并不急于给出任何答案，而是将读者置于一个幽暗、充满烟雾缭绕的巨大空间中央，让你自己去感受那些无形的压力和无声的祈祷。书中对细节的描摹达到了令人发指的地步，比如对祭坛上香灰凝固的纹理，或是烛火摇曳时投射在信徒脸上光影的细微变化，都描绘得入木三分。这些看似微不足道的片段，却构筑起了一种强大的叙事张力，让你感觉自己不仅仅是在阅读一个故事，更像是在参与一场漫长而肃穆的仪式。我尤其欣赏作者在叙事节奏上的掌控，他懂得何时该放慢速度，让读者沉浸在氛围中，何时又需要一个突如其来的事件打破沉寂，带来心灵上的震撼。这本书无疑是写给那些愿意慢下来、深入思考的人，它不迎合大众的阅读习惯，反而以一种近乎挑战的姿态，邀请你进入一个深邃的内心迷宫。

这本书给我的震撼，更多来自于它对人性中那种根深蒂固的“不确定性”的深刻洞察。我常常思考，我们敬拜的究竟是神祇本身，还是我们内心深处对秩序和救赎的渴望？《圣坛上的香》似乎并不想提供一个明确的答案，它更热衷于展示人们如何在不确定性中，为了抓住一点虚无缥缈的确定性，而构建起复杂的精神世界。阅读过程中，我明显感觉到作者对传统叙事结构的解构与重塑，故事的线索是碎片化的，时间感是模糊的，角色的动机往往是晦暗不明的。这无疑对阅读习惯是一种考验，我不得不经常回溯前文，将零散的片段重新拼接起来，才能窥见全貌。这种阅读的“难度”却正是它魅力所在，它拒绝喂养读者，而是要求读者自己去挖掘。我尤其对其中关于“异教徒的忏悔”那一段印象深刻，作者用一种近乎临床解剖的冷静笔法，剖析了一个人在放弃既有信仰后，其精神真空如何被新的、甚至更具毁灭性的信念所填补。这远超出了简单的善恶二元论，展现了人类心灵无止境的适应性和脆弱性。

从纯粹的文学技法角度来看，这本书简直是一场语言的盛宴。我很少读到如此精妙地运用比喻和象征手法的作品。很多时候，你甚至分不清哪些是客观场景的描述，哪些是角色内心世界的投射。作者似乎在玩弄一种“模糊性美学”，他让现实与幻象的边界变得极其模糊，尤其是在描述那些长时间处于冥想或极度痛苦状态下的人物时，这种手法达到了极致。比如，书中有一处将“祈祷的重复”比作“苔藓覆盖石碑”的过程，那种缓慢、不可逆转的侵蚀感，让我瞬间明白了那种信仰是如何渗透进生命肌理的。这本书的排版也很有意思，不同章节的字体和行距略有变化，虽然不明显，但如果你足够细心，你会发现这细微的调整其实是作者在控制你的呼吸和心跳。这是一种非常高级的，几乎是潜意识层面的引导。我不得不承认，一开始我有些不适应这种非线性的叙事，感觉像在走一个没有地图的迷宫，但一旦接受了作者设定的“游戏规则”，那种探索未知领域的兴奋感就难以自拔。

坦白说，我并不是一个对严肃文学有极高要求的人，通常我更偏爱那种情节跌宕起伏、角色鲜明的人物传记或者历史小说。这次尝试《圣坛上的香》纯属偶然，我当时刚读完一本轻松的侦探小说，急需一些“重量级”的作品来平衡一下我的阅读体验。这本书给我的感觉，就像是夏日午后，突然一阵清凉的、带着泥土气息的雷雨倾盆而下，将你从浮躁中猛地拽回现实。作者的文字功底毋庸置疑，他对于古典文学典故的运用可谓信手拈来，但奇怪的是，他并没有让这些引用显得矫揉造作或故作高深，反而像乐曲中的变奏，每一次出现都恰到好处地深化了主题。我特别留意了书中对于“沉默”的描绘，这种沉默并非简单的没有声音，而是一种积蓄了千百年重量的、具有实体感的静默。有那么几章，我不得不放下书本，盯着空白处发呆，试图捕捉作者想通过这种“留白”传达的信息。这种阅读体验是极其私人的，每个人可能都会在不同的角落找到自己的共鸣点，或者迷失在作者精心编织的哲学网格中。这本书更像是一件需要反复把玩的艺术品，每一次重读都会有新的发现，它的深度不是一次性可以完全榨取的。

语言非常美。

语言非常美。

语言非常美。

语言非常美。

语言非常美。