The Other Greek

An Introduction to Chinese and Japanese Characters, Their History and Influence
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-36904-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, 382 Seiten, Format (B × H): 218 mm x 295 mm, Gewicht: 1179 g

In The Other Greek, Arthur Cooper offers a captivating and unorthodox introduction to the world of the Chinese script through the medium of poetry, explaining the structure, meaning and cultural significance of each character. Written nearly half a century ago, and now published posthumously, the book argues that the role of Chinese writing was analogous to the influence of Greek civilization on Western culture. Chinese is the Greek of the Far East, ‘the other Greek’! Originally a cryptanalyst, Cooper uses his professional—and distinctly non-academic—training to analyse Chinese characters and points out a series of unacknowledged associations between them. Ultimately, he aims to initiate the reader with no prior knowledge of the language into Chinese writing and poetry.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cooper, Arthur

Galambos, Imre

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Schrift, Paläographie, Orthographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword
Michael Loewe
List of Arthur Cooper’s Publications

Editor’s Introduction: Arthur Cooper and The Other Greek
Imre Galambos

Author’s Introduction

1 Etymology as the Principle of Chinese Writing

2 Introducing Chinese Characters

3 Deerpark Hermitage

4 River Snow: Part One—The Other Greek

5 River Snow: Part Two—Word-Building

6 River Snow: Part Three—Rhythm

7 Windows

8 Stars and Seething Pots

9 The Ballad of the Ancient Cypress

10 On Releasing a Wild Goose

11 Ware, Ware, Snares For Hares

12 “The Way”: Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu

13 When I was Green

14 Snow and Plum

15 Farewell to the God of Plagues

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Arthur Cooper (1916-1988) is primarily known to students of Chinese for his translations of Tang poetry. By profession, he was a cryptanalyst who worked at Bletchley Park during and after WWII, decoding Japanese military and diplomatic messages. He had a deep interest in language and poetry, as a result of which he devoted the later half of his life to studying the structure of the Chinese script.

Imre Galambos, Ph.D. (2002), UC Berkeley, is Reader in Chinese at the University of Cambridge. He specializes in Chinese manuscript culture, with a particular emphasis on Dunhuang. His work includes the book Manuscripts and Travellers (De Gruyter, 2012) and Translating Chinese Tradition and Teaching Tangut Culture (De Gruyter, 2015). He is also the translator of Rong Xinjiang's Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang (Brill, 2013).