"Every Rock A Universe: The Yellow Mountains and Travel Writing in China," with Jonathan Chaves

Poetry and prose inspired by visits to beautiful places, especially the mountains, constitute an important branch of Chinese literature. Jonathan Chaves recently published the first translation into a Western language of Huangshan lingyaolu 黄山領要錄, "Comprehending the Essentials of the Yellow Mountains," written by Wang Hongdu 汪洪度.--a painter, calligrapher, poet and prose writer--in 1696, during the "Golden Age" of the Yellow Mountains and the art and literature they inspired. In this talk, Prof. Chaves will discuss his research, including his visit to the Yellow Mountains in the company of great landscape photographer, Wang Wusheng, and will show images of the Mountains. He will also read from the original text, and from his translations, of Wang Hongdu's work. 

 

Jonathan Chaves is Professor of Chinese at GW. He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from Columbia University. Before coming to The George Washington University, Professor Chaves taught Classical Chinese language and literature at Cornell University. He is the recipient of the Lucian Stryk Award for best translation of the year (2013) for his book, Every Rock a Universe. 

 

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