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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: 2022-03-03 02:28 am (UTC)Since I'm watching Empresses in the Palace, my first real media set in the Qing dynasty, I'm going to be looking out for things I can take from this that will illuminate my watch. There was a scene where the villainous consort punishes a subordinate consort by making her grind ink, which the drama depicts as grueling! I will be excited to learn more about this.
re: academic history, I don't know that I have ever read one cover-to-cover, I think in college I probably read some very strategically by using the bibliography and reading the relevant chapter.
Never in my life have I used an inkstone. I had a calligraphy set, once, and I spilled the ink (which came in glass jar) on my parents' rug.
I'm wondering at Ko's "crafts*man*" except as applied to Gu Erniang. Surely where there is one, there might be more? I'm actually a little unclear on Ko's approach, because I feel a bit out of my depth when she talks about things like "subject positions." Like, I know what this means, more or less, but I do not feel on certain ground in this discourse.
I noticed that the "valorizing the dao, disparaging the vessels" is the same "dao" as in MDZS!
no subject
Date: 2022-03-03 05:16 pm (UTC)I know that in some contexts it was considered romantic to grind ink for someone else, but I think its exactly because it was a grueling task.
I love it when I recognize characters in different contexts!