Summary of Jing Tsu's Kingdom of Characters

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 Wang Zhao was a Chinese monk who, in the first spring of the twentieth century, delivered a document that would change the Chinese-speaking world forever. He had been hiding out in Japan for the past two years, carrying a hefty bounty on his head. His desire to go home eclipsed his fear of capture.

#2 The Chinese language seemed to be a major impediment to China’s adaptation. The country was unable to find easy equivalents for loaded concepts like rights and sovereignty at negotiation tables with foreigners, and they were seen as barbaric and inferior by their counterparts on the streets.

#3 The Chinese language was on the brink of a transformation that would change the way it was used forever. The old empire was about to be shaken to its foundations by decades of internal problems and tumultuous encounters with other nations.

#4 In 1900, Chinese anxiety pervaded the land. The country was in turmoil, and the Map of National Humiliation depicted the different foreign powers as their popular avatars, carving out their share of the country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669359838

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Jing Tsu's Kingdom of Characters

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Wang Zhao was a Chinese monk who, in the first spring of the twentieth century, delivered a document that would change the Chinese-speaking world forever. He had been hiding out in Japan for the past two years, carrying a hefty bounty on his head. His desire to go home eclipsed his fear of capture.

#2

The Chinese language seemed to be a major impediment to China’s adaptation. The country was unable to find easy equivalents for loaded concepts like rights and sovereignty at negotiation tables with foreigners, and they were seen as barbaric and inferior by their counterparts on the streets.

#3

The Chinese language was on the brink of a transformation that would change the way it was used forever. The old empire was about to be shaken to its foundations by decades of internal problems and tumultuous encounters with other nations.

#4

In 1900, Chinese anxiety pervaded the land. The country was in turmoil, and the Map of National Humiliation depicted the different foreign powers as their popular avatars, carving out their share of the country.

#5

During the pivotal decades leading up to the 1898 movement, many Chinese saw the world being increasingly divided into two groups: the winners and the losers. The Qing court’s inability to address large-scale poverty and famine further eroded the empire.

#6

The Chinese writing system, once revered, celebrated by its people, and practiced by neighboring cultures, seemed clumsy and backward to the West. The Chinese language stood in the way of modernization.

#7

The Chinese script was not just tangential to this historical change, but it seemed as though it stood for everything that was wrong with China. Some began to wonder whether the writing system should continue to exist.

#8

Wang was a military loyalist who achieved distinction not through noble birth but dedicated service. He was born in 1859, the last year of the Second Opium War. He climbed up the imperial bureaucracy and found a good, solid niche as an overseer at the Board of Rites, the office in charge of the court’s ceremonies and rituals.

#9

While he was on his way back from the court, Wang met the poor peasants of China.