Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974740
S. West
The famous short sanqu lyric known as “Autumn Thoughts” to the tune “Tianjing sha” has been attributed to Ma Zhiyuan since the late sixteenth century. Despite the skepticism of a long list of important qu scholars from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, this attribution is still repeated in textbooks from grade school to doctoral programs. A careful examination of extant versions from 1309 onward shows some degree of difference, from narrow to wide, dependent on contextual use. Phrases from the lyric may also be found as early as the late twelfth century. By carefully investigating these sources and the way in which the tonal pattern of “Tianjing sha” is expanded, contracted, and exploited in other sources, we can see that the use of the famous phrases making up the poem occurs when context and rhyme come together. This leads one to doubt whether attributable authorship of the lyric is possible, or if it is simply the use of nearly cliché phrases that just happened to combine in exactly the perfect order. This would fit with what we know about the performance tradition and about its tendency for collective and anonymous creation through accretion.
{"title":"“Autumn Thoughts”: Shared Images, Shifting Phrases, and Promiscuous Poetics","authors":"S. West","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974740","url":null,"abstract":"The famous short sanqu lyric known as “Autumn Thoughts” to the tune “Tianjing sha” has been attributed to Ma Zhiyuan since the late sixteenth century. Despite the skepticism of a long list of important qu scholars from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, this attribution is still repeated in textbooks from grade school to doctoral programs. A careful examination of extant versions from 1309 onward shows some degree of difference, from narrow to wide, dependent on contextual use. Phrases from the lyric may also be found as early as the late twelfth century. By carefully investigating these sources and the way in which the tonal pattern of “Tianjing sha” is expanded, contracted, and exploited in other sources, we can see that the use of the famous phrases making up the poem occurs when context and rhyme come together. This leads one to doubt whether attributable authorship of the lyric is possible, or if it is simply the use of nearly cliché phrases that just happened to combine in exactly the perfect order. This would fit with what we know about the performance tradition and about its tendency for collective and anonymous creation through accretion.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"101 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45053386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974734
David R. Knechtges
This article provides a brief cultural history of the crane in ancient and early medieval China. Although the crane is an agonistic species, there is literary evidence of the domestication of the crane in China as early as the seventh century BCE. The main sites of crane domestication in China were courts. Cranes have a natural ability to dance, and ancient Chinese texts contain a number of accounts of cranes dancing to music to entertain the ruler and members of his court. By the early medieval period, poets began to write poems about cranes. The most detailed piece is Bao Zhao’s “Fu on the Dancing Cranes,” an annotated translation of which is included in this article.
{"title":"Cranes at Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Courts","authors":"David R. Knechtges","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974734","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a brief cultural history of the crane in ancient and early medieval China. Although the crane is an agonistic species, there is literary evidence of the domestication of the crane in China as early as the seventh century BCE. The main sites of crane domestication in China were courts. Cranes have a natural ability to dance, and ancient Chinese texts contain a number of accounts of cranes dancing to music to entertain the ruler and members of his court. By the early medieval period, poets began to write poems about cranes. The most detailed piece is Bao Zhao’s “Fu on the Dancing Cranes,” an annotated translation of which is included in this article.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"45 - 58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46167327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974736
Stephen Owen
The short, often anonymous yuefu of the South, from the fourth to sixth century CE, mediated by the interests of the male members of the Northern émigré elite, are taken to represent the voice of Southern commoners, particularly of young women. If the Northern elite defined itself in terms of names, history, and high culture, the voices of these yuefu were seen as timeless expressions of the “natural” and never identified by surnames. A second look at the poems shows that they are not simply “natural,” but about “being natural” and making a claim that they are natural. It is a voice telling members of the elite what they want to hear about the commoners. Finally, the essay also considers the preservation of the songs in written form, which transmits the desired image of those ruled to their rulers.
{"title":"Southbound: Fantasies of the Plebeian in the Southern Dynasties","authors":"Stephen Owen","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974736","url":null,"abstract":"The short, often anonymous yuefu of the South, from the fourth to sixth century CE, mediated by the interests of the male members of the Northern émigré elite, are taken to represent the voice of Southern commoners, particularly of young women. If the Northern elite defined itself in terms of names, history, and high culture, the voices of these yuefu were seen as timeless expressions of the “natural” and never identified by surnames. A second look at the poems shows that they are not simply “natural,” but about “being natural” and making a claim that they are natural. It is a voice telling members of the elite what they want to hear about the commoners. Finally, the essay also considers the preservation of the songs in written form, which transmits the desired image of those ruled to their rulers.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"75 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41688743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974743
M. Goh
{"title":"The City of Ye in the Chinese Literary Landscape","authors":"M. Goh","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974743","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"121 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42495355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974731
R. Cutter
This article is a translation and study of the preface Xiao Yi (508–555) wrote to accompany his scroll painting of foreign envoys to the Liang court. The painting itself exists only in the form of a damaged copy dating from perhaps 1077. The preface itself has been transmitted in Yiwen leiju, Wenyuan yinghua, and collections of Xiao Yi’s works. Despite statements made in the preface and in Xiao’s “Xuan lan fu” regarding his firsthand knowledge of foreigners and their ways, the preface relies heavily on quotation and paraphrase of much earlier works. It is here argued that this method reflects an embedded preference for an ossified narrative largely derived from canonical and semi-canonical texts in preference to empirical geographic and ethnographic information—a display of cultural competence to congratulate and impress Emperor Wu (r. 502–549), whose fortieth year on the throne occasioned the gift of the painting and preface.
{"title":"Inscribing the Foreign in Early Medieval China: Xiao Yi’s (508–555) “Preface to Illustrations of Tribute Bearers”","authors":"R. Cutter","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974731","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a translation and study of the preface Xiao Yi (508–555) wrote to accompany his scroll painting of foreign envoys to the Liang court. The painting itself exists only in the form of a damaged copy dating from perhaps 1077. The preface itself has been transmitted in Yiwen leiju, Wenyuan yinghua, and collections of Xiao Yi’s works. Despite statements made in the preface and in Xiao’s “Xuan lan fu” regarding his firsthand knowledge of foreigners and their ways, the preface relies heavily on quotation and paraphrase of much earlier works. It is here argued that this method reflects an embedded preference for an ossified narrative largely derived from canonical and semi-canonical texts in preference to empirical geographic and ethnographic information—a display of cultural competence to congratulate and impress Emperor Wu (r. 502–549), whose fortieth year on the throne occasioned the gift of the painting and preface.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"2 - 18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44773018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2021.1974735
P. Kroll
After a brief look at some famous comments about friendship in Western thought and literature, we turn to early medieval China and the writings of Jiang Yan (444–505), in which are memorialized a friendship that Jiang spoke of in the most touching terms. This was the brief friendship he enjoyed with Yuan Bing when both men were in their twenties. Examination of Jiang’s writings about or to Yuan Bing, in both prose and verse, shows how deep emotion can sometimes escape the customary restraints of literary conventions. This can be seen especially in the intensely moving fu poem he composed in mourning over Yuan Bing’s unexpected and premature death.
{"title":"Jiang Yan and Friend","authors":"P. Kroll","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2021.1974735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2021.1974735","url":null,"abstract":"After a brief look at some famous comments about friendship in Western thought and literature, we turn to early medieval China and the writings of Jiang Yan (444–505), in which are memorialized a friendship that Jiang spoke of in the most touching terms. This was the brief friendship he enjoyed with Yuan Bing when both men were in their twenties. Examination of Jiang’s writings about or to Yuan Bing, in both prose and verse, shows how deep emotion can sometimes escape the customary restraints of literary conventions. This can be seen especially in the intensely moving fu poem he composed in mourning over Yuan Bing’s unexpected and premature death.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2021 1","pages":"59 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46729924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2020.1782614
S. Pearce
{"title":"The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History","authors":"S. Pearce","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2020.1782614","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2020.1782614","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2020 1","pages":"114 - 119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2020.1782614","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47806916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2020.1780739
Rebecca Doran
Sun Shou (d. 159), the vilified and powerful wife of notorious regent to the throne Liang Ji (d. 159), is famous for her invention of novel fashions, including new styles of eyebrow, makeup, and hair, and even new ways of walking and smiling. In Hou Hanshu and elsewhere, Sun Shou’s invention of these styles plays an important role in constructing a condemnatory historical judgment of her character, which is informed by systems of correlative cosmology and sumptuary regulation. Significantly, however, attitudes to these fashion statements are not uniform. The negotiation in textual and archaeological sources of the styles associated with Sun Shou, especially the popular duoma ji (“falling off a horse buns”), reveals a process of reimagining and re-appropriation that challenges simplistic or purely linear notions regarding the connotations that attach to and evolve along with individual fashion trends and styles. Read within the frameworks provided by cosmological and historical understandings of dress as a social and political marker, discussions of Sun Shou, duoma ji, and the other styles provide a compelling, lasting example of concerns regarding the ominous force of sumptuary behavior while also indicating processes of redefinition surrounding particular styles and historical actors.
{"title":"Fashion and Historical Imagination: The Case of Sun Shou’s “Bewitching and Strange Appearances”","authors":"Rebecca Doran","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2020.1780739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2020.1780739","url":null,"abstract":"Sun Shou (d. 159), the vilified and powerful wife of notorious regent to the throne Liang Ji (d. 159), is famous for her invention of novel fashions, including new styles of eyebrow, makeup, and hair, and even new ways of walking and smiling. In Hou Hanshu and elsewhere, Sun Shou’s invention of these styles plays an important role in constructing a condemnatory historical judgment of her character, which is informed by systems of correlative cosmology and sumptuary regulation. Significantly, however, attitudes to these fashion statements are not uniform. The negotiation in textual and archaeological sources of the styles associated with Sun Shou, especially the popular duoma ji (“falling off a horse buns”), reveals a process of reimagining and re-appropriation that challenges simplistic or purely linear notions regarding the connotations that attach to and evolve along with individual fashion trends and styles. Read within the frameworks provided by cosmological and historical understandings of dress as a social and political marker, discussions of Sun Shou, duoma ji, and the other styles provide a compelling, lasting example of concerns regarding the ominous force of sumptuary behavior while also indicating processes of redefinition surrounding particular styles and historical actors.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2020 1","pages":"19 - 42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2020.1780739","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46862116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2020.1780742
Yiyi Luo
In the fifth and sixth centuries, the status of the Buddhist and Daoist teachings underwent constant change. The tension between the two religious groups over state sponsorship heightened during the Northern Zhou dynasty, especially under the reign of Emperor Wu 北周武帝 (r. 560–578). While records about these events abound in historical and religious texts, very few literary pieces have survived and thus have received little attention. This article investigates three literary texts against this background, a bell inscription by Emperor Wu, and two poems by Yu Xin 庾信 (513–581 CE). My reading of Yu Xin’s allusions to Buddhism and Daoism reveals a complex attitude of the poet, who voiced veiled criticism of the sovereign through layers of allusions, and provides a rare window onto ways in which early medieval religions expanded the vision of literature of the time and enriched its imaginative realm.
{"title":"Literary Responses to Religious Debates at the Northern Zhou Court","authors":"Yiyi Luo","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2020.1780742","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2020.1780742","url":null,"abstract":"In the fifth and sixth centuries, the status of the Buddhist and Daoist teachings underwent constant change. The tension between the two religious groups over state sponsorship heightened during the Northern Zhou dynasty, especially under the reign of Emperor Wu 北周武帝 (r. 560–578). While records about these events abound in historical and religious texts, very few literary pieces have survived and thus have received little attention. This article investigates three literary texts against this background, a bell inscription by Emperor Wu, and two poems by Yu Xin 庾信 (513–581 CE). My reading of Yu Xin’s allusions to Buddhism and Daoism reveals a complex attitude of the poet, who voiced veiled criticism of the sovereign through layers of allusions, and provides a rare window onto ways in which early medieval religions expanded the vision of literature of the time and enriched its imaginative realm.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2020 1","pages":"67 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2020.1780742","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49643199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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