The Rise of Tiba 題跋 as a Literary Genre in Song China

Abstract

abstract: Why did tiba colophons, whose raison d'être depended on being attached to target subjects as addenda, effectively survive as independent texts compiled in literary collections? By tracing the rise of the tiba genre from the mid-eleventh century, I delineate how Northern Song literati explored tiba as a new discursive space to critically engage with material objects, capture group dynamics among connoisseurs, and offer evaluative assessments on the various topics of tiba . The stature of tiba transformed through the twelfth century, when they were compiled into literary collections as stand-alone texts, gradually acquiring sociocultural connotations and status comparable to those of established formal genres. I argue that this process of decontextualizing and recontextualizing proved essential to the rise of tiba during the Song and their popularity during the following centuries. 摘要: 題跋書寫原是高度依存於所跋對象的，那為何傳世題跋多以文集中所收獨立文本的形式流傳？本文通過追溯題跋這一文本空間從十一世紀中期到十二世紀末的演變，重構題跋在北宋流行的語境，並勾勒其文體生成的關鍵過程⸺題跋脫離所跋對象、與其他題跋共同入集。