Library Research Guides: CHIN 242: Supernatural China: Overviews, Context, Histories

Reference Works Databases

These databases contain a variety of specialized encyclopedias, handbooks, biographical sources, bibliographies, and other reference works. They can be good starting places for getting overviews of a topic, a synthesis of scholarly discussions, biographical information, definitions of key concepts, vocabulary for searching, and suggestions for further reading.

Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Combining features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this resource directs researchers to top scholarship across a wide variety of topics. Excellent coverage of Chinese Studies.

Encyclopedia Articles & More
This is a subset of SuperSearch that searches several reference databases at once.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of full-text academic encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other sources for introductions to topics, definitions, or factual information. Includes subject-specific titles from art, literature, education, science, religion, history and more.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Over 400 full-text academic encyclopedias, language dictionaries, books of quotations, and other sources. Includes subject-specific titles from art, classics, history, law, linguistics, literature, media studies, medicine, performing arts, philosophy, religion, science and technology, politics, and more.

Literature

Oxford Dictionary of Chinese Literature by Taiping Chang (ebook)
Concise A-Z entries cover key terms, figures, schools, movements, and literary works from antiquity to the present day. (2017)
Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 2) by David R. Knechtges (Volume Editor); Taiping Chang (Volume Editor) (ebook)
Publication Date: 2013
A wealth of information on writers, genres, literary schools and terms of the Chinese literary tradition from earliest times to the seventh century C.E. Includes detailed bibliographies and source information. Vol. 2 covers S to Xi.
Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (vol. 3 & 4) by David R. Knechtges (Volume Editor); Taiping Chang (Volume Editor) (ebook)
Publication Date: 2014
Vol. 3 covers Xia to Y. Vol. 4 contains Z and an extensive index to the four volumes. Since we don't have Vol. 1, you can use the index to identify any relevant pages in Vol. 1 to request through Interlibrary Loan.
The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature - To 1375 by Kang-i Sun Chang & Stephen Owen (Eds)
Call Number: Clapp PL2265 .C36 2010
Publication Date: 2010
A Guide to Chinese Literature by Wilt Idema; Lloyd Haft
Comprehensive overview of 3000 years of Chinese literary history. (1997)
Historical dictionary of modern Chinese literature by Li-hua Ying
Focus is on literature written in Chinese in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora from the May Fourth Movement (1919) to the present. (2010)

History of China

Women in Early Imperial China by Bret Hinsch (ebook)
Publication Date: 2010
This introductory survey offers the first sustained history of women in the early imperial era, incorporating new scholarship and theoretical approaches and drawing on extensive primary and secondary sources in Chinese and Japanese. The introductory chapters orient the nonspecialist to early imperial Chinese society; subsequent chapters explore women's roles from the multiple perspectives of kinship, wealth and work, law, government, learning, ritual, and cosmology.
Women in Early Medieval China by Brett Hinsch (ebook)
Comprehensive survey of Chinese women during the early medieval period of disunion known as the Six Dynasties, which lasted from the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty in AD 220 to the reunification of China by the Sui dynasty in AD 581.
A Companion to Chinese History by Michael Szonyi (Editor) (ebook)
Publication Date: 2016
The Cambridge History of Ancient China by Michael Loewe; Edward L. Shaughnessy
Call Number: Clapp DS741.5 .C35 1999
Publication Date: 1999
Cambridge History of China by John K. Fairbank and Denis C. Twitchett (Eds)
Call Number: Clapp DS735 .C3145
Multiple volumes
Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham (Ed.)
Call Number: Clapp DS721 .N39

Religion & Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Buddhism by Robert E. Buswell (ebook)
Publication Date: 2004
A historically focused work that provides an introduction to the doctrinal, ethical, social and spiritual ideas that inform the various traditions of Buddhism and the changes they have undergone over more that 2500 years.
A Dictionary of Buddhism by Damien Keown (ebook)
Publication Date: 2004
Concise entries on the history and doctrines of the major Buddhist schools, the spread of Buddhism in Asia and the West, the role of women in Buddhist teachings, and more.
Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy by Antonio S. Cua (Editor) (ebook)
Publication Date: 2002
Includes a thorough survey of the history of Chinese philosophy; entries on all major thinkers from Confucius to Mou Zongsan; essential topics such as aesthetics, moral philosophy, philosophy of government, and philosophy of literature; surveys of Confucianism in all historical periods and in key regions outside China; and more

Biography

Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women
Call Number: HQ1767.5.A3 B56 1998
Publication Date: 1998
Written by a team of over 60 China scholars from around the world and compiled from a wide array of original sources, these biographies present the lives, work, and significance of more than 200 Chinese women from many different backgrounds and areas of interest. 3 print volumes cover 1600 BCE through the 20th century. Vol. 3 (Antiquity through 618CE) is also available in electronic form.