Description:
1696 Japanese Woodblock Chinese History Tsuzoku kanso gundan Qing Han War CHINAA 17th century Sino-Japanese woodblock print history of the Chu-Han Contention between the Qing and Han Dynasty bound in the fukurotoji style. The Tsuzoku kanso gundan is the tale of the conflict between the chu and han after the Qing Dynasty before Liu Bang united China in 202 BC as the emperor of the Han Dynasty. It was translated into Japanese and in turn helped shape Japanese literature away from the stylized Chinese verse of scholarly attention and began considering the more mundane, as literature as well. This was done by entertaining and educating the natives of Japan about the world, specifically China, who were banned from leaving the mainland during that time period. Pastreich writes,
"Such Chinese historical novels may have appealed to Japanese readers because they covered the details of Chinese history in a lively and accessible manner, going beyond the digested and sanitized description of history to the… Read More