The World of a Tiny Insect - 9780295993171

The World of a Tiny InsectA Memoir of the Taiping Rebellion and Its Aftermath\nAuthor(s): Zhang Daye, Xiaofei Tian\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Washington Press, United States\nImprint: University of Washington Press\nISBN-13: 9780295993171, 978-0295993171\nSynopsis\n\""From the cry of a tiny insect, one can hear the sound of a vast world. . . .\""\n\nSo begins Zhang Dayes preface to The World of a Tiny Insect, his haunting memoir of war and its aftermath. In 1861, when Chinas devastating Taiping rebellion began, Zhang was seven years old. The Taiping rebel army occupied Shaoxing, his hometown, and for the next two years, he hid from Taiping soldiers, local bandits, and imperial troops and witnessed gruesome scenes of violence and death. He lost friends and family and nearly died himself from starvation, illness, and encounters with soldiers on a rampage.\n\nWritten thirty years later, The World of a Tiny Insect gives voice to this history. A rare premodern Chinese liter.