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forestofgloryWelcome to the first post of our read a long of The Social Life of Inkstones: Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China by Dorothy Ko! For this post we are reading the introduction.
Since this the introduction to the book, I thought it might be nice for us to introduce ourselves, so here are some optional discussion questions:
1. What do you hope to get out of reading this book? What do you hope to get out of the read a long format?
2. What is your experience reading academic history books? (No experience necessary of course, but it's helpful for me to know for planning purposes)
3. What is your experience using an inkstone or writing languages that historically where written with inkstones?
4. In the introduction what did you find interesting and/or exciting?
Since this the introduction to the book, I thought it might be nice for us to introduce ourselves, so here are some optional discussion questions:
1. What do you hope to get out of reading this book? What do you hope to get out of the read a long format?
2. What is your experience reading academic history books? (No experience necessary of course, but it's helpful for me to know for planning purposes)
3. What is your experience using an inkstone or writing languages that historically where written with inkstones?
4. In the introduction what did you find interesting and/or exciting?
no subject
Date: 2022-02-20 12:29 pm (UTC)I'm going into this very much blind, and I'm sure having a better understanding of Chinese history would be useful here. I did take an introductory course on East Asian history at university, but that was a decade ago. That and a few courses specifically in Japanese history are my only experience with reading academic history books.
The only thing I knew about inkstones before this came from seeing a few historical dramas: namely, that they were used to grind ink. *g* I've never used one myself and never even written with a brush. I used to know some Japanese -- I knew about 300 kanji -- but that also was a decade ago.
Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed reading the introduction. Something like the inkstone, which exists at the crossroads of craftsmanship and literary pursuits, is interesting to me. In my own life, I like practical objects that are beautiful and much prefer them over purely decorative ones, so this book should be right up my alley. I'm looking forward to learning more from both the reading and the discussions!
no subject
Date: 2022-02-21 06:52 pm (UTC)I kinda dived into the deep end with Chinese history by starting reading specialized texts without having a good overview. It's worked out for me. I tend to read history like its secondary world, that is I fill in the gaps and make connections as I go along in similar way to how I follow worldingbuilding in SFF.
And yes to practical and beautiful objects!