Pub Date : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1250456
J. Pettit
both Clark and Brindley are hampered by the fact that the textual sources are all written in Chinese. Unfortunately, the Yue left us no descriptions of themselves in their own language(s). But Clark not only reviews “Northern perceptions of the PreSinitic South” and summarizes the long process of Sinitic encroachment, he also teases out evidence of “cultural accommodation” and the echoes of pre-Sinitic indigenous culture that remain. Many of these echoes are found in religion. Clark observes that “the core of indigenous belief throughout coastal Fujian was the totemic worship of animal and fertility spirits” (p. 93), notably including such creatures as frogs, snakes, and dragons. Evidence of this pre-Sinitic past survives today in the form of scattered phallic stone pillars and petroglyphs. Clark also examines legendary textual accounts of snakes and dragons (long 龍, jiao 蛟, and the associated but decidedly less mythical crocodiles, e 鱷, that really do inhabit the southern coast) in the lore of the southlands. Clark looks especially closely at several examples of how native southern beliefs were rendered respectably wen during the Song dynasty. A particularly captivating example is the Divine Woman of Meizhou 湄洲神女, who was first recorded in 1150. This Divine Woman reportedly was born on Meizhou Island as a certain human Miss Lin 林. Miss Lin became a female shaman (wu 巫), and her spirit was later venerated as a protector of seafarers and others. Today, she is probably best known aMazu媽祖, who is surely one of the most famous of all “Chinese” religious figures. Yet Clark says she is typical of the numerous pre-Sinitic female deities credited with protecting mariners along the southeastern coast (p. 143). The pre-Sinitic origins of Mazu seem to me to be more assumed than proven, but that is, of course, an inherent problem when all of our texts are written in Chinese. Clark also finds in Daoism a form of anti-hegemonic resistance to Sinitic conformity, which, “by critiquing the discourse through the language of the discourse” (p. 35), itself became part of the Sinitic tradition. Both Daoism and Mazu certainly did become what we would today consider Chinese. That may be one reason why it is useful, as Clark prefers, to speak of Sinitic civilization rather than “China.” “China” implies something unitary, singular, and monolithic, while the reality is more complex, and continually changing. Hugh Clark’s new book helps us better understand some of these nuances, and makes a significant contribution to scholarship on pre-modern China.
{"title":"Celestial Masters: History and Ritual in Early Daoist Communities","authors":"J. Pettit","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1250456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1250456","url":null,"abstract":"both Clark and Brindley are hampered by the fact that the textual sources are all written in Chinese. Unfortunately, the Yue left us no descriptions of themselves in their own language(s). But Clark not only reviews “Northern perceptions of the PreSinitic South” and summarizes the long process of Sinitic encroachment, he also teases out evidence of “cultural accommodation” and the echoes of pre-Sinitic indigenous culture that remain. Many of these echoes are found in religion. Clark observes that “the core of indigenous belief throughout coastal Fujian was the totemic worship of animal and fertility spirits” (p. 93), notably including such creatures as frogs, snakes, and dragons. Evidence of this pre-Sinitic past survives today in the form of scattered phallic stone pillars and petroglyphs. Clark also examines legendary textual accounts of snakes and dragons (long 龍, jiao 蛟, and the associated but decidedly less mythical crocodiles, e 鱷, that really do inhabit the southern coast) in the lore of the southlands. Clark looks especially closely at several examples of how native southern beliefs were rendered respectably wen during the Song dynasty. A particularly captivating example is the Divine Woman of Meizhou 湄洲神女, who was first recorded in 1150. This Divine Woman reportedly was born on Meizhou Island as a certain human Miss Lin 林. Miss Lin became a female shaman (wu 巫), and her spirit was later venerated as a protector of seafarers and others. Today, she is probably best known aMazu媽祖, who is surely one of the most famous of all “Chinese” religious figures. Yet Clark says she is typical of the numerous pre-Sinitic female deities credited with protecting mariners along the southeastern coast (p. 143). The pre-Sinitic origins of Mazu seem to me to be more assumed than proven, but that is, of course, an inherent problem when all of our texts are written in Chinese. Clark also finds in Daoism a form of anti-hegemonic resistance to Sinitic conformity, which, “by critiquing the discourse through the language of the discourse” (p. 35), itself became part of the Sinitic tradition. Both Daoism and Mazu certainly did become what we would today consider Chinese. That may be one reason why it is useful, as Clark prefers, to speak of Sinitic civilization rather than “China.” “China” implies something unitary, singular, and monolithic, while the reality is more complex, and continually changing. Hugh Clark’s new book helps us better understand some of these nuances, and makes a significant contribution to scholarship on pre-modern China.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"49 1","pages":"72 - 74"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1250456","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59939868","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 : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1226568
Ping Yao
{"title":"Entombed Epigraphy and Commemorative Culture in Early Medieval China: A History of Early Muzhiming","authors":"Ping Yao","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1226568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226568","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"45 1","pages":"69 - 71"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226568","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59939663","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 : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1226575
Sujane Wu
This list is divided into three categories: Published Works, Papers and Lectures, and Unpublished Works/Works in Progress. It is important to include Alan's works in progress to acknowledge his ong...
{"title":"Alan Berkowitz: Scholarly Works","authors":"Sujane Wu","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1226575","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226575","url":null,"abstract":"This list is divided into three categories: Published Works, Papers and Lectures, and Unpublished Works/Works in Progress. It is important to include Alan's works in progress to acknowledge his ong...","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2016 1","pages":"86 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226575","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59939809","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 : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1226570
Charles Holcombe
{"title":"The Sinitic Encounter in Southeast China through the First Millennium CE","authors":"Charles Holcombe","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1226570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226570","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2016 1","pages":"71 - 72"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226570","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59939716","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 : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1226420
Yuan-ju Liu
In many ways, the core of traditional historical narrative is the story (gushi 故事), which originally referred to anecdotes about past matters, but could broadly include oral tales, legends, and anecdotal materials. One notable category of traditional historical narrative that relied heavily on gushi is the “heterogenous account” (zazhuan 雜傳), which mixed historical fact with oral hearsay and other miscellaneous tibdits. Religious hagiographies would be classified as zazhuan, and one important example of this is the story of the Buddhist monk Faxian 法顯, who traveled to India at the end of the fourth century ce to bring Buddhist scriptures back to China. This essay will discuss Faxian's own account, known as the Foguo ji 佛國記 (A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms), and compare it to the account related by Huijiao 慧皎 in his Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks). At the heart of this discussion is the question of how stories are told and retold, and how changes of detail and plot demonstrate the differing interests of the writers. The essay will also seek to shed light on the historical circumstances underlying Faxian's journey to India and his return to China.
{"title":"Stories Written and Rewritten: The Story of Faxian's Search For The Dharma in its Historical, Anecdotal, and Biographical Contexts","authors":"Yuan-ju Liu","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1226420","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226420","url":null,"abstract":"In many ways, the core of traditional historical narrative is the story (gushi 故事), which originally referred to anecdotes about past matters, but could broadly include oral tales, legends, and anecdotal materials. One notable category of traditional historical narrative that relied heavily on gushi is the “heterogenous account” (zazhuan 雜傳), which mixed historical fact with oral hearsay and other miscellaneous tibdits. Religious hagiographies would be classified as zazhuan, and one important example of this is the story of the Buddhist monk Faxian 法顯, who traveled to India at the end of the fourth century ce to bring Buddhist scriptures back to China. This essay will discuss Faxian's own account, known as the Foguo ji 佛國記 (A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms), and compare it to the account related by Huijiao 慧皎 in his Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks). At the heart of this discussion is the question of how stories are told and retold, and how changes of detail and plot demonstrate the differing interests of the writers. The essay will also seek to shed light on the historical circumstances underlying Faxian's journey to India and his return to China.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2016 1","pages":"1 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226420","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59940031","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 : 2016-01-01DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2016.1226424
Sebastian Eicher
In the centuries after Fan Ye's death many literati praised his Hou Han shu, but at the same time a surprising number of them also criticized the historian's character. This paper argues that Fan Ye's biography in the Song shu, which depicts the historian as a weak and despicable man, was the primary source for many of the accusations made by his critics. The biography's influence can be explained by its careful narrative modeling. The Song shu authors highlighted certain aspects of the life of Fan Ye, while simultaneously obscuring others, with the goal of depicting him as an unfilial and despicable rebel. This paper is an attempt to retrace their steps in order to offer an alternative way of reading the otherwise strangely neglected text.
{"title":"Fan Ye's Biography in the Song Shu: Form, Content, and Impact","authors":"Sebastian Eicher","doi":"10.1080/15299104.2016.1226424","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226424","url":null,"abstract":"In the centuries after Fan Ye's death many literati praised his Hou Han shu, but at the same time a surprising number of them also criticized the historian's character. This paper argues that Fan Ye's biography in the Song shu, which depicts the historian as a weak and despicable man, was the primary source for many of the accusations made by his critics. The biography's influence can be explained by its careful narrative modeling. The Song shu authors highlighted certain aspects of the life of Fan Ye, while simultaneously obscuring others, with the goal of depicting him as an unfilial and despicable rebel. This paper is an attempt to retrace their steps in order to offer an alternative way of reading the otherwise strangely neglected text.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"44 1","pages":"45 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/15299104.2016.1226424","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59940072","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 : 2015-11-11DOI: 10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000021
N. Williams
Abstract The literary thought of the Liang 梁 dynasty (502–557) has occasioned considerable debate in recent years. The fulcrum of discussion in Chinese and Western scholarly circles is a half-century-old article in which Zhou Xunchu 周勛初 presented a tripartite classification for Liang literary thought. In 2007, Tian Xiaofei argued that Zhou had overstated the degree of disagreement at the Liang court, and claimed instead that Liang writers agreed on most literary principles. On reexamination, Zhou's scheme certainly oversimplifies the Liang literary scene, and there is room for disagreement about individuals and the content of the three schools. But close reading of primary texts by three Liang princes confirms the existence of real controversy as well, particularly with regard to the direction of literary change and the proper balance of classical scholarship and belles lettres. This article addresses the question in a new way by translating key primary sources, either in entirety or in substantial extracts. The principal texts translated are two letters to Xiao Yi 蕭繹 (508–555) from his older brothers Xiao Gang 蕭綱 (503–551) and Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501–531), as well as some revealing quotations from Xiao Yi himself. These texts collectively substantiate Zhou's general thesis, while individually indicating some important corrections to it as well.
{"title":"Literary Controversy at the Liang Court Revisited","authors":"N. Williams","doi":"10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The literary thought of the Liang 梁 dynasty (502–557) has occasioned considerable debate in recent years. The fulcrum of discussion in Chinese and Western scholarly circles is a half-century-old article in which Zhou Xunchu 周勛初 presented a tripartite classification for Liang literary thought. In 2007, Tian Xiaofei argued that Zhou had overstated the degree of disagreement at the Liang court, and claimed instead that Liang writers agreed on most literary principles. On reexamination, Zhou's scheme certainly oversimplifies the Liang literary scene, and there is room for disagreement about individuals and the content of the three schools. But close reading of primary texts by three Liang princes confirms the existence of real controversy as well, particularly with regard to the direction of literary change and the proper balance of classical scholarship and belles lettres. This article addresses the question in a new way by translating key primary sources, either in entirety or in substantial extracts. The principal texts translated are two letters to Xiao Yi 蕭繹 (508–555) from his older brothers Xiao Gang 蕭綱 (503–551) and Xiao Tong 蕭統 (501–531), as well as some revealing quotations from Xiao Yi himself. These texts collectively substantiate Zhou's general thesis, while individually indicating some important corrections to it as well.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2015 1","pages":"63 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65834587","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 : 2015-11-11DOI: 10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000023
K. Knapp
{"title":"Memo from the President of the Early Medieval China Group","authors":"K. Knapp","doi":"10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000023","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2015 1","pages":"1 - 1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/1529910415Z.00000000023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65834748","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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