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Chinese civilization first developed 5,000
years ago in North China along the middle and lower reaches of the
Yellow River. And the Yellow River remained the center of Chinese
civilization for the next 4,000 years. Then a thousand years ago, this
changed. A thousand years ago, the center of Chinese civilization moved
to the Yangtze. And the Yangtze, not the Yellow River, has remained
the center of its civilization. A thousand years ago, the Chinese came
up with a name for this new center of its civilization. They called it
Chiangnan, meaning “South of the River,” the river in question, of
course, being the Yangtze. The Chinese still call this region
Chiangnan. Nowadays it includes the northern parts of Chekiang and
Kiangsi provinces and the southern parts of Anhui and Kiangsu. And some
would even add the northern part of Hunan. But it’s not just a region
on the map. It’s a region in the Chinese spirit. It’s hard to put it
into words. Ask a dozen Chinese what “Chiangnan” means, and they’ll
give you a dozen different answers. For some the word conjures forests
of pine and bamboo. For others, they envision hillsides of tea, or
terraces of rice, or lakes of lotuses and fish. Or they might imagine
Zen monasteries, or Taoist temples, or artfully–constructed gardens, or
mist–shrouded peaks. Oddly enough, no one ever mentions the region’s
cities, which include some of the largest in the world. Somehow,
whatever else it might mean to people, Chiangnan means a landscape, a
landscape and a culture defined by mist, a landscape and a culture that
lacks the harder edges of the arid North.
In the Fall of 1991,
Bill Porter decided to travel through this vaporous land, following the
old post roads that still connected its administrative centers and
scenic wonders, its most famous hometowns and graves, its factories and
breweries, its dreamlike memories and its mist, and he was joined on
this journey by his poet and photographer friends, Finn Wilcox and Steve
Johnson. South of the Yangtze is a record in words and black and white
images of their trip.
278 pages. Paperback.
LIST PRICE: $16.95 Our Price: $14.40 (You save $2.55)
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Stock Status:In Stock
Product Code: S-7042
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