Record of Sorrow
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
The book's value lies in moving beyond mere textual appreciation to construct a three-dimensional picture of the spiritual world of Heian noblewomen. With deep expertise, Professor Zhang Longmei peels back the gentle, elegant shell of classical literature to reveal its complex and profound emotional tensions and structural social problems. Reading it not only renews one's understanding of classics such as The Tale of Genji but also offers methodological insight for interpreting hidden voices in classical literature. The prose combines scholarly rigor with narrative power, making the intellectual inquiry lively and full of exploratory interest and intellectual collision. For readers who wish to understand the core of classical Japanese literature, especially its gender and power issues, this is a rare key.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers with a strong interest in classical Japanese literature, especially The Tale of Genji, who wish to interpret it in depth
- Students and researchers concerned with women's writing, emotional expression, and social structures in literature
- Enthusiasts with some exposure to comparative literature, the history of emotions, or cultural studies
- Readers seeking humanistic insight and intellectual inspiration from a scholarly work
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting a purely fictional historical novel or romance with a twisty plot
- Readers completely unfamiliar with Japanese history and culture or classical literature and unwilling to gain basic familiarity
Reading tips
- It is advisable to know the basic plot of The Tale of Genji first; the book will then yield more
- While reading, revisit relevant chapters of The Tale of Genji alongside the book's analysis for comparison
- Do not rush; slow down and savor the author's dissection of textual details and theoretical elaboration
About the publisher
Chongqing Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for its titles in the humanities, social sciences, literature and arts, with about 940 books in its catalogue. Its publishing areas cover world history, science fiction, foreign literature, architecture and philosophy. Representative titles include Xiang Da's A History of Communications Between China and the West, Liang Sicheng's Rules of Qing-Style Construction, Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest and III: Death's End, Ann Rand's The Fountainhead (25th Anniversary Edition), and Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. Its authors include Xiang Da, Liu Cixin, Liang Sicheng and Ann Rand. The press has developed distinctive strengths in historical source editing, the introduction and creation of science fiction, the translation of foreign literature, and architecture and philosophy titles, balancing scholarly value with general readership. As public information is limited, this profile outlines its publishing directions based only on the books in the catalogue.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 丛书总序 张龙妹
- 导读 张彩虹
- 癸丑日记 张彩虹译
- 仁显王后传 王艳丽译
- 恨中录 张彩虹译
- 译后记一 张彩虹
- 译后记二 王艳丽
FAQ
Is this book a novel?
Do I need extensive knowledge of Japanese literature to understand it?
What is the book's main argument?
Comments
Find this book
This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Zhang Longmei: publicly available information is limited, and details such as her nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly recorded. What can be confirmed is that four of her works are included in the collection. Judging from her subject matter, her focus is on Japanese and Korean court women's diary literature, represented by The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu, The Diary of Sixteen Nights, Hanjungnok, and the three-volume series Japanese and Korean Court Women's Diary Literature. These works generally fall under the categories of prose and foreign literature, involving the editing and translation of classical diary texts. Her work helps Chinese readers encounter the self-writing left by East Asian court women in diary form, presenting emotion, daily life, and court life from a female perspective, and holds significance for the translation and introduction of Japanese and Korean classical literature.
Public information about Wang Yanli is limited, so her writing profile can currently be understood mainly through her signed works. The five works she has contributed to span several fields: they include a work of foreign literature, "Hen Zhong Lu," as well as titles in medicine, management, examinations, and software learning, such as the specialized medical volume PET.CT Diagnostics of Digestive System Tumors, the textbook series Modern Logistics Basics, and the practical tutorial Photoshop CS6 Image Processing: A Comprehensive Course. These works suggest that her writing and editorial efforts focus on organizing knowledge and supporting teaching, combining theoretical explanation with case-based practice, and are suitable for learners at different levels. Because details such as her dates of birth and death, nationality, and personal experience remain unclear, no further biographical account can be given at present; readers may refer to the works above to understand the subjects and editorial features she has been involved with.
Zhang Caihong has two works listed in this Chinese-language book database, commonly classified under foreign literature. Her representative works are the three-volume "Series of Japanese and Korean Court Women's Diary Literature" and The Record of Resentment (Hanjungnok), both of which point toward the genre of Japanese and Korean court women's diaries. Her editorial or translation work therefore appears to center on first-person writings by women of the early modern East Asian courts. Such diary literature records palace life, family relations, and personal feelings in a woman's own voice, and carries value both as historical source material and as literature, offering insight into the circumstances and modes of expression of women in premodern Japan and Korea. Public information about Zhang Caihong's nationality, dates of birth and death, education, and professional career is limited, so a full picture of her life cannot be established, and no reliable academic record or awards are known. Based on the available information, she may be described as an editor or translator engaged in compiling and introducing Japanese and Korean court women's diary literature, work that helps Chinese-language readers encounter this relatively little-known tradition of women's writing.
