China, empire of living symbols / Cecilia Lindqvist ; translated from the Swedish by Joan Tate ; foreword by Michael Loewe.

Translation of: Tecknens rike.
Title in Chinese: Hanzi yuanliu 漢字源流
"A Merloyd Lawrence book."
Published simultaneously by Harvill in London, with title: China, empire of the written symbol.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 411-416) and index.

Oracle bones and bronzes -- Man, mankind -- Water and mountains -- Wild animals -- Domestic animals -- Carts, roads, and boats -- Farming -- Wine and jars -- Hemp and silk -- Bamboo and trees -- Roofs and houses -- Books and musical instruments -- Numbers and other abstract characters -- Meaning and sound -- Empire of living symbols -- Character stroke count.

" ... originally appeared in Nanjing in 1387 or 1388 [textual history follows] ... a pioneer work on Chinese art and archaeology. It deals with calligraphy, paintings, zithers, stones, jades, bronzes, ink-slabs, ceramics, and lacquer; also with certain imported items, such as carpets, rare woods and stones. Wang Zuo, who lived during the years following rhe great expeditions of Zheng He, Chen Chen, et al., was able to expand this area somewhat, as he did in certain new subjects: imperial seals, iron tallies, official costumes of the Song and Yuan dynasties, and palaces of the Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan. One omission, noted long ago, is a general discussion of seals, possibly because both Cao and Wang saw no need to add to the existing literature on this subject. Perhaps the most significant contributions are the descriptions of porcelain and lacquer (Ru 汝 ware)" Cf.: Dictionary of Ming biography, pp. 1296-1298.