Серия "Translations from the Asian Classics"

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is a fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the eleventh century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthralls with its lively gossip, witty observations, and subtle impressions. Lady Shonagon was an erstwhile rival of Lady Murasaki, whose novel, The Tale of Genji , fictionalized the elite world Lady Shonagon so eloquently relates. Featuring reflections on royal and religious ceremonies, nature,...

Take a firsthand journey into a time, society and world full of intrigue. In the tenth century, Japan stood physically and culturally isolated from the rest of the world. Sei Shonagon—a young courtesan of the Heian period—kept a diary, which provides a highly personal account of the intrigues, dalliances, quirks, and habits of Japan's late tenth-century elite. She was a contemporary and acquaintance of the well-known courtesan Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Japanese...

Early in the seventeenth century, Northeast Asian politics hung in a delicate balance among the Chosŏn dynasty in Korea, the Ming in China, and the Manchu. When a Chosŏn faction realigned Korea with the Ming, the Manchu attacked in 1627 and again a decade later, shattering the Chosŏn-Ming alliance and forcing Korea to support the newly founded Qing dynasty.The Korean scholar-official Na Man’gap (1592–1642) recorded the second Manchu invasion in his Diary of 1636 , the only first-person account...