Observing the Unseen
Explores the relationship between fantastical literature and scientific inquiry What did early modern Chinese readers believe about dragons, thunder, or fate, and where did they learn it? Observing the Unseen explores how literate and marginally literate people in China between the sixteenth and nin...
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| Format: | Online |
| Jezik: | engleski |
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University of Washington Press
2026
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| Teme: | |
| Online pristup: | ONIX_20260415T184308_9780295754246_2 |
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| _version_ | 1869514902031302656 |
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| author | Schonebaum, Andrew |
| author_browse | Schonebaum, Andrew |
| author_facet | Schonebaum, Andrew |
| author_sort | Schonebaum, Andrew |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Explores the relationship between fantastical literature and scientific inquiry What did early modern Chinese readers believe about dragons, thunder, or fate, and where did they learn it? Observing the Unseen explores how literate and marginally literate people in China between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries investigated the invisible, the ubiquitous, and the inexplicable. Whether through medical encyclopedias, daily-use almanacs, or novels and anecdotes, readers pursued knowledge of the natural world with curiosity shaped as much by wonder as by empiricism. Andrew Schonebaum reveals that for many readers, stories were an important source of reliable information about the world. Knowledge of the natural world evolved in the margins of “fiction.” Entertainment literature and practical texts alike conveyed information that was collected, debated, and even used to treat illness or predict the future. Drawing from overlooked genres such as brush notes, court records, and sequels to popular stories, Schonebaum demonstrates that common knowledge was constructed through a patchwork of sources—elite and vernacular, empirical and fantastical. Rather than privileging science as courtly or Western, Observing the Unseen shows how ordinary readers made sense of the cosmos in an age of expanding literacy and print culture. It challenges assumptions about what Chinese literature was and how it was read, offering a nuanced picture of everyday life in early modern China. This is a work for scholars of Chinese history and literature, historians of science, and anyone interested in the complicated ways humans seek to understand the unseen. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-175912 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | University of Washington Press |
| publisherStr | University of Washington Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1759122026-04-20T09:21:31Z Observing the Unseen Schonebaum, Andrew Chinese literature Chinese mythology Origins of myth Dragon mythology Fantastical literature Natural history History of literature Magic Fortune telling Dragons thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism Explores the relationship between fantastical literature and scientific inquiry What did early modern Chinese readers believe about dragons, thunder, or fate, and where did they learn it? Observing the Unseen explores how literate and marginally literate people in China between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries investigated the invisible, the ubiquitous, and the inexplicable. Whether through medical encyclopedias, daily-use almanacs, or novels and anecdotes, readers pursued knowledge of the natural world with curiosity shaped as much by wonder as by empiricism. Andrew Schonebaum reveals that for many readers, stories were an important source of reliable information about the world. Knowledge of the natural world evolved in the margins of “fiction.” Entertainment literature and practical texts alike conveyed information that was collected, debated, and even used to treat illness or predict the future. Drawing from overlooked genres such as brush notes, court records, and sequels to popular stories, Schonebaum demonstrates that common knowledge was constructed through a patchwork of sources—elite and vernacular, empirical and fantastical. Rather than privileging science as courtly or Western, Observing the Unseen shows how ordinary readers made sense of the cosmos in an age of expanding literacy and print culture. It challenges assumptions about what Chinese literature was and how it was read, offering a nuanced picture of everyday life in early modern China. This is a work for scholars of Chinese history and literature, historians of science, and anyone interested in the complicated ways humans seek to understand the unseen. 2026-04-20T09:21:30Z 2026-04-20T09:21:30Z 2026-04-16T13:52:36Z 2026 book ONIX_20260415T184308_9780295754246_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112627 9780295754246 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/175912 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112627/1/9780295754246.pdf University of Washington Press University of Washington Press 05b43d6c-b025-4c47-9778-32ac09131cc4 9780295754246 University of Washington Press 258 Seattle open access |
| spellingShingle | Chinese literature Chinese mythology Origins of myth Dragon mythology Fantastical literature Natural history History of literature Magic Fortune telling Dragons thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism Schonebaum, Andrew Observing the Unseen |
| title | Observing the Unseen |
| title_full | Observing the Unseen |
| title_fullStr | Observing the Unseen |
| title_full_unstemmed | Observing the Unseen |
| title_short | Observing the Unseen |
| title_sort | observing the unseen |
| topic | Chinese literature Chinese mythology Origins of myth Dragon mythology Fantastical literature Natural history History of literature Magic Fortune telling Dragons thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism |
| topic_facet | Chinese literature Chinese mythology Origins of myth Dragon mythology Fantastical literature Natural history History of literature Magic Fortune telling Dragons thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism |
| url | ONIX_20260415T184308_9780295754246_2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT schonebaumandrew observingtheunseen |