The Shining Inheritance


Book Description

During Qing dynasty China, Italian artists were hired through Jesuit missionaries by the imperial workshops in Beijing. In The Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699–1812, Marco Musillo considers the professional adaptations and pictorial modifications to Chinese traditions that allowed three of these Italian painters — Giovanni Gherardini (1655– ca. 1729), Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), and Giuseppe Panzi (1734–1812) — to work within the Chinese cultural sphere from 1699, when Gherardini arrived in China, to 1812, the year of Panzi’s death. Musillo focuses especially on the long career and influence of Castiglione (whose Chinese name was Lang Shining), who worked in Beijing for more than fifty years. Serving three Qing emperors, he was actively engaged in the pictorial discussions at court. The Shining Inheritance perceptively explores how each painter’s level of professional artistic training affected his understanding, selection, and translation of the Chinese pictorial traditions. Musillo further demonstrates how this East-West artistic exchange challenged the dogma of European universality through a professional dialogue that became part of established workshop routines. The cultural elements, procedures, and artistic languages of both China and Italy were strategically played against each other in negotiating the successes and failures of the Italian painters in Beijing. Musillo’s subtle analysis offers a compelling methodological model for an increasingly global field of art history.




The Substance of Fiction


Book Description

Do the portrayals of objects in literary texts represent historical evidence about the material culture of the past? Or are things in books more than things in the world? Sophie Volpp considers fictional objects of the late Ming and Qing that defy being read as illustrative of historical things. Instead, she argues, fictional objects are often signs of fictionality themselves, calling attention to the nature of the relationship between literature and materiality. Volpp examines a series of objects—a robe, a box and a shell, a telescope, a plate-glass mirror, and a painting—drawn from the canonical works frequently mined for information about late imperial material culture, including the novels The Plum in the Golden Vase and The Story of the Stone as well as the short fiction of Feng Menglong, Ling Mengchu, and Li Yu. She argues that although fictional objects invite readers to think of them as illustrative, in fact, inconsistent and discontinuous representation disconnects the literary object from potential historical analogues. The historical resonances of literary objects illuminate the rhetorical strategies of individual works of fiction and, more broadly, conceptions of fictionality in the Ming and Qing. Rather than offering a transparent lens on the past, fictional objects train the reader to be aware of the fallibility of perception. A deeply insightful analysis of late Ming and Qing texts and reading practices, The Substance of Fiction has important implications for Chinese literary studies, history, and art history, as well as the material turn in the humanities.




The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits


Book Description

Through its missionary, pedagogical, and scientific accomplishments, the Society of Jesus-known as the Jesuits-became one of the first institutions with a truly "global" reach, in practice and intention. The Oxford Handbook of the Jesuits offers a critical assessment of the Order, helping to chart new directions for research at a time when there is renewed interest in Jesuit studies. In particular, the Handbook examines their resilient dynamism and innovative spirit, grounded in Catholic theology and Christian spirituality, but also profoundly rooted in society and cultural institutions. It also explores Jesuit contributions to education, the arts, politics, and theology, among others. The volume is organized in seven major sections, totaling forty articles, on the Order's foundation and administration, the theological underpinnings of its activities, the Jesuit involvement with secular culture, missiology, the Order's contributions to the arts and sciences, the suppression the Order endured in the 18th century, and finally, the restoration. The volume also looks at the way the Jesuit Order is changing, including becoming more non-European and ethnically diverse, with its members increasingly interested in engaging society in addition to traditional pastoral duties.




Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment


Book Description

Interiors in the Age of Enlightenment provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of interior design and interior spaces from 1700 to 1850. Considering the interior as material, social and cultural artefact, this volume moves beyond conventional descriptive accounts of changing styles and interior design fashions, to explore in depth the effect on the interior of the materials, processes, aesthetic philosophies and cultural attitudes of the age. From the Palace of Versailles to Virginia coffeehouses, and from Chinoiserie bathhouses to the trading exchanges of the West Indies, the chapters in this book examine a wide range of themes including technological advancements, public spaces, gender and sexuality, and global movements in interior designs and decorations. Drawing together contributions from leading scholars, this volume provides the most authoritative and comprehensive survey of the history of interiors and interior architecture in the long eighteenth century.




The Shining Skull


Book Description

'A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The Times Little Marcus Fallbrook was kidnapped in 1976 and, when he never returned home, by his grieving family assumed the worst. Now, thirty years later, teenager Leah Wakefield has disappeared and DI Wesley Peterson has reason to suspect that the same kidnapper is responsible. As Wesley delves into the case, his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, discovers a mystery of his own when he exhumes the dead from a local churchyard. A coffin is found containing one corpse too many and Neil believes it may be linked to a strange religious sect. Wesley is still searching for the key to the abductions when, in a shocking twist, Marcus Fallbrook returns. DNA evidence confirms Marcus's identity but his recollection of his past kidnapping is hazy. Wesley hopes that, as Marcus begins to recover memories, it will lead them to a sinister criminal. But he is about to discover that the past can be a very dangerous place indeed. Whether you've read the whole series, or are discovering Kate Ellis's DI Wesley Peterson novels for the first time, this is the perfect page-turner if you love reading Elly Griffiths and Ann Cleeves. PRAISE FOR KATE ELLIS: 'I loved this novel . . . a powerful story of loss, malice and deception' Ann Cleeves 'Haunting' Independent 'Unputdownable' Bookseller 'The chilling plot will keep you spooked and thrilled to the end' Closer 'A gripping read' Best 'A fine storyteller, weaving the past and present in a way that makes you want to read on' Peterborough Evening Telegraph




The Shining Path


Book Description

This volume covers the years between the guerillas' first attack in Peru in 1980 and President Fernando Belaunde's decision to send in the military to contain the growing rebellion in late 1982. It covers the strategy, actions, successes, and setbacks of both government and rebels.




''The Shining Ones''


Book Description

The Introduction of the book indicates the necessity to start with the archaeology of the early settlements of the West Bank of the Nile , a territory to be considered as the mother or matrix of all Egyptian civilization. It establishes the pioneer nature of this Etymological Essay in the English language, as most of the studies in keeping with its findings are to be found in the scholarly literature of Europe and North Africa. 1. Archaic Terminology: The chapter traces the origins of early settlements of the northwestern region of Egypt, the desert oases, the Fayum, the region of the Lakes, and the western portion of the delta of the Nile, by Saharan and Libyan archaic people, with specific emphasis on archaic topography which can be directly related to Modern Amazigh spoken today in North Africa (Tamazirt.) 2,The Pillar People: The review of a number of terms from the mythology and ceremonial procedures of dynastic Egypt shows the influence of those early settlers named The People of the Pillars (Intui) on the beliefs and practices perpetuated through centuries in Egypt, and the presence of an all pervasive worship of these early origins: (cult of ancestors.) 3.The Holy rulers of First Princes of Egypt: An intensive comparative review of ancient Egyptian and Modern Amazigh terms reveals that the first noble rulers of the area were of Amazigh origin. A series of families of terms link quite clearly a number of beliefs and practices to the North African cultural complex. 4.Tehuti, time and the Wisdom of the stars is a chapter delving a little more deeply into the cosmogony and cosmology of the early Egyptians, and the roots of that knowledge in archaic practices, which have parallel indicators in North Africa. 5. The Innermost Shrine from The Book of the Dead: The geography of the Land of the Beyond, Tu-at (Du-Ament), and a variety of important indices throughout the Book of the Dead indicate quite clearly that the final return of the defunct to the Blessed Land of the Ancestors was also a step by step description of their claim of descent from these original beings. The rule of “Ma-aa-at,” the organizing principle of an entire civilization for centuries, or ‘NTR,” originated in the area of the Sacred lakes and the ancient settlements of the Fayum and oasis complex. Linguistic comparison with Modern Amazigh continues to indicate the kinship of those people with North African Imazighen (also known as Berbers.) 6. A Conclusion, Notes, and an Appendix, which is the reproduction of an article published in The Amazigh Voice, a publication of the Amazigh Cultural Association in America, indicate the pioneer aspect of such a work and the direction in which further linguistic studies could bring increasing light into areas of Egyptian scholarship heretofore deemed as obscure and/or of barbarous origin. .




The Shining Ones


Book Description

For many years now there has been an upsurge in revelation stories and alternative viewpoints on man's history. People such as Graham Hancock and Lawrence Gardner have brought to light many new ideas and many new problems. Now there is a new theory which is all-encompassing and clearly brings into focus a more sinister reason behind the emergence of civilisation. In his theory on Atlantis Graham Hancock is receiving much admiration and academic acclaim. Standard academic thought is more towards the spontaneous eruption of civilisation across the globe, with little or no explanation of why there are so many similarities between the cultures. Now, Philip Gardiner, in his new book THE SHINING ONES is set to turn even this upon its head. The theory is so simple that it begs the question, why has it not been thought of before? The reason for universal similarity of architecture, language, art, travel and religious belief is quite simply an ancient and secret religious brotherhood who have hidden themselves deep within the symbols, ciphers and codes of our ancient texts for hundreds of years. They held a secret knowledge and power base which spread with them across the globe. The very title that they have given themselves is hidden within the standard text and religious books we use every day -- The Shining Ones. Put like this, the whole thing can sound like an X-Files conspiracy theory. However the author has invested huge amounts of time and energy checking, researching and seeking the advice of academics. Now the theory is attracting the attention of historians who can see that the patterns are as subtle as this author proposes. The fact is, this theory does explain away all the problems with dating and variations that people such as Hancock have come up against. Many academics and especially Egyptologists are now turning to this way of thinking and with Gardiners spirit and broad knowledge in history and language the history of the ancients and the secrets that they hold are becoming more clear. There are of course dissenters. The author has been accosted for his standpoint and there are still those hardened academics and even non-academics who refuse to even listen. However, there is a major TV documentary in pre-production stages and with interviews planned across the nation on radio and TV the message may soon be accepted as a credible theory.




The Shining Sea


Book Description

IS HOPE ITSELF THE ONLY ANSWER? The renowned author of the Ring novels unravels a story of lovers wrestling with the darkness within themselves—be it selfishness, lust, or despair—in a deeply introspective romantic mystery that will tug at your mind as well as your heart. A seemingly amnesiac woman sits mutely before her psychiatrist. Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to speak, the only time she shows any hint of emotion is when she hums a song—and the song becomes the first clue. Pregnant but abandoned by her lover, who boarded a tuna boat to brave turbulent waters far from home, she’d waded into the pitch-black waves one evening to drown herself...because when you feel like you’re stranded at sea all by yourself in the dead of the night, those waves call for you, lulling you to sink into the silence beneath. What we go on to discover is a cursed fate, a ruthless reality, and the dark humor of a world ruled by the indifferent forces of chance. They say you never know what the future holds, but what if you’re told that you only have precisely a fifty-fifty chance of attaining happiness?




Lily and the Shining Dragons


Book Description

Lily and her sister, Georgie, are on the run. But in a world where magic is forbidden, two young magicians can't hide forever. Betrayed by someone they thought they could trust, Lily and Georgie find themselves trapped in a school where magical children are hidden away. But magic will always find a way - and in the darkness, the shining dragons are stirring...