La mort par noyade dans la littérature géographique du haut Moyen Âge chinois

Abstract

Alexis Lycas : Death by drowning in Early Medieval Chinese geographical writings Drawing from an array of geographical texts composed between the Han and Tang, this article studies how the description of death by drowning is inscribed upon the space of a river basin, namely that of the Yangtze. Following a logic of spatial progression (from source to mouth), the case study proposed here will inquire first into specific social and cultural practices as expressed through drowning : filial piety and feminine virtue, local cults and river gods, transgenerational sociabilities, etc. From there, we will examine how the memory of drownings recorded in these texts – principally the Shuijing zhu 水 經 注 (Commentary on the Water Classic) and the Huayang guo zhi 華 陽 國 志 (Records of the Lands South of the Hua Mountains) – testifies to the evolution of the geographical genre over the formative years of the medieval period.