The books on reserve for your course will be helpful for your project. Be sure to take a look at Course Reserves in LUCIA.
Background Sources
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China.
A source for information on historical and cultural context; the index is
in the front.
Ref. DS705 .C35
The Columbia History of Chinese Literature.
In essays, provides essential information about Chinese authors and works in historical context.
Sections of this work focus on thematic and formal considerations. The section called "Foundations" considering such varied topics as religion, the supernatural, and women in Chinese literature. Sections on different forms (poetry, fiction, etc.) are arranged chronologically.
PL2265 .C65 2001
Critical Survey of Long Fiction: Foreign Language Series. 5 vols.
Includes a fairly long essay, with bibliography, on the author of Dream
of the Red Chamber in volume 4, and a longer essay on Chinese long fiction in volume 5. Be sure
to use the index for more.
Ref. PN3503 .C7 1984
Dictionary of Chinese History.
Brief, alphabetically arranged entries on various aspects of Chinese
civilization from pre-history to the end of 1977.
Ref. DS733 .D54 1979
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2007.
Provides a general introduction for many subjects.
Ref. AE5 .E363 and on the Web.
Encyclopedia of Religion. 15 vols.
A standard reference source for information on world religions, past and
present, and related fields. Be sure to use the index in addition to the
alphabetically arranged articles.
Ref. BL31 .E46 2005
The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism.
For background on major literary theories and theorists.
Ref. PN81 .J554 2005
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Bibliographies and Guides
The Chinese Classic Novels: An Annotated Bibliography of Chiefly English-
Language Studies.
Consists of a general introduction and chapters on six major works. Each
chapter consists of an essay and bibliographies. See the chapters on general
sources and on The Dream of the Red Chamber
Z3108.L5 B47 1988
Classical Chinese Fiction: A Guide to Its Study and Appreciation: Essays
and Bibliographies. 1978
Half of this volume consists of essays on major works; the second half is a
collection of bibliographies. Use the table of contents to locate relevant
pages.
Z3108.L5 Y29
Guide to Chinese Prose. 2nd ed.
Brief bibliographies and fairly extensive essays on all forms of prose.
Use the index in the back of the volume.
Ref. Z3108.L5 P34 1984
The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature.
Part I consists of essays on ten different topics like Buddhist literature,
fiction, popular literature, and women's literature. Part II consists of
encyclopedia-type entries with brief bibliographies. Be sure to use the name,
title, and subject indexes in the back.
Z3108.L5 I53 1986
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a Subject begins with search, for example, chinese literature. LUCIA will suggest related terms which can also be searched. Be as specific as you can. You may want to consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on top of the Ready Reference shelves behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try Keyword Anywhere. LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search for a phrase, like red chamber, by searching with quotation marks around the phrase, as in "red chamber". You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH. You can also search for multiple forms of words by using an asterisk; try a search like this one for (china or chinese) and novel*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with novel; novel, novels, novella, and so on. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options, as only a few are listed below. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. In addition to the titles listed here, see also the list of databases for Humanities available from the library.
Essential: this should be among your starting points for finding advanced materials.
MLA International Bibliography. 1963-
A leading source for the field of literary studies. Wide ranging index to just about anything of a scholarly nature related to literatures and languages.
General and Multidisciplinary Indexes: include citations and some full text of materials from a broad variety of fields including literature and history. Some include current reviews and news articles.
Academic OneFile
A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Includes full-text articles, many with images. 1980 - present; updated daily.
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try the 
button to see if that particular item is available. You may also want to verify that we don't own the item by searching in LUCIA for the title of the journal to see if the library owns it and in BESS to look for additional electronic access. If you don't find it, you can submit a request for interlibrary loan (ILL) of a copy of the article: ILL takes about 7-10 days, so plan ahead. See the library's Interlibrary Loan page for more information.
You may also want to browse some of the library's journals. The titles of some of these can be found by a keyword search for chinese literature and periodicals.
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Web Resources
China the Beautiful
One of the few pages that provides information on Chinese literature in
English.
http://www.chinapage.org/china-rm.html
Internet Resources for East Asian Languages and Cultures
From the librarians.
Voice of the Shuttle.
One of the most widely used sources for information on the humanities and literatures.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources or the library's Web Wise Guide to Searching. You can often find out a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to
other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
The guide for any academic papers written in the literatures and languages.
RRef. LB2369 .G53 2003
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Some Notes On Library Research on Chinese Literature
Be aware that titles and personal names may he transliterated from Chinese to English in several different ways; you may have to try multiple spellings. While you will find material on Dream of the Red Chamber in resources for literary studies, you may also want to consider searching for material from other fields, like history, gender studies, and religion. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Remember that in any written work you produce your sources must be fully documented. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the details required for documentation at hand when you need them. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and scores; at end of classes in other collections
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