The people of the East have a special liking for symbolic language. Instead of revealing their ideas in a direct manner, they rather prefer an indirect way which sometimes baffles the uninitiated Westerner. The present paper gives an answer to the many riddles posed by the Chinese way of expressing thoughts by means of flowers. It is an interpretation of paper cuttings by Liu Chên, a young Chinese farmer artist, revealing at the same time something of an art little known in Western countries.
Founded in 1938 and published semiannually by Sophia University, Monumenta Nipponica (MN) is one of the oldest English-language academic journals in the field of Asian studies. As a peer-reviewed international forum for researchers across the globe, it carries original scholarly contributions on premodern and modern history, literature, art history, religion, and thought; translations of important Japanese literary and historical sources; and authoritative reviews of recent books on Japan.
Sophia University was established in Tokyo in 1913 by the Society of Jesus. Beginning its educational efforts with a small staff and only a handful of students, the university confronted many difficulties in its early years. The decision in 1938 to undertake publication of Monumenta Nipponica despite these problems symbolized the founders' commitment to academic excellence, an international orientation, and a liberal spirit. Today, building on this tradition, Sophia has developed into one of Japan's leading private universities, with a student body of nearly 14,000 and a multinational faculty of some 1,500 as of 2019.
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Monumenta Nipponica
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