Wang Ji 妄稽: a Tale in Verse from the Peking University Collection of Western Han Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts

This article discusses the Western Han manuscript Wang Ji obtained by Peking University, which consists of a narrative poem relating the life of Wang Ji, a woman of utterly repulsive appearance, and her bitter conflicts with her husband Zhou Chun and his concubine Yu Shi. By delving into the complex socio-political landscape embodied in the text’s narrative structure, this article explores themes of marital conventions, gender roles and silence within the domestic sphere. The author argues that the Wang Ji poem is particularly notable for its portrayal of silence as a multifaceted tool of communication and resistance. The in-laws’ ignoring of Wang Ji’s protests against the acquisition of Yu Shi, as well as their inability to address Wang Ji’s violent abuse of the concubine, underscore the nuanced power dynamics at play within early Han society. This analysis not only sheds light on the contradictions between gender conventions and the lived realities of the time but also on the influence women wielded in navigating these complexities. Attempting to contribute to our understanding of early Han society, this article offers insights into the intersection of legal, social and personal spheres through a singular narrative. It highlights the enduring human struggle for autonomy and respect within the constraints of societal and familial expectations, providing a rich narrative for exploring the intricate balance between conformity and resistance.

Aiming at the problem that the existing physical appearance models of college elite male aerobics athletes can hardly provide the real-time and accurate personalized learning method service to those practicing aerobics, a physical appearance model of college elite male aerobics athletes is put forward in this paper, which has shortened the training response time on the basis of guaranteeing the precision. Firstly, the behavior log of aerobics practicers is analyzed to determine whether the behavior of the aerobics practicers has been affected by the extraction of physical appearance features and judge whether the behaviors of the aerobics practicers have changed on this basis. Subsequently, according to the judgment results, the extraction of physical appearance features is corrected. Finally, the experimental results show that when two factors of precision and response time are taken into general consideration, the method put forward in this paper is superior to the other physical appearance models of college elite male aerobics athletes. In addition, the proposed method can be applied to the personalized learning method service system.

Perhaps the greatest peculiarity of biblical poetry among the literatures of the ancient Mediterranean world is its seeming avoidance of narrative. The Hebrew writers used verse for celebratory song, dirge, oracle, oratory, prophecy, reflective and didactic argument, liturgy, and often as a heightening or summarizing inset in the prose narratives - but only marginally and minimally to tell a tale. This absence of narrative is all the more striking against the background of the surrounding and antecedent literatures of the ancient Near East that have been uncovered by archeological research. To cite the most apposite example, the literature of the city of Ugarit, on the Mediterranean coast of present-day Syria, written around 1300 B.C.E. in a language closely cognate to biblical Hebrew and according to the same general conventions of poetic parallelism, includes long verse narratives that have recognizably features: In an interplay of narration and dialogue, the formal burden of the poetry is the telling of a traditional tale; and the narrative tempo is leisurely enough to allow for detailed descriptions of feasts, hand-to-hand combat, even to some degree of the physical appearance of the actors, human and (for the most part) divine. There is nothing like this in the Hebrew Bible, and supposedly epic elements like the historical psalms (Ps. 78, 105, 106) are actually exceptions that confirm the rule, for they turn out to be versified summaries or catechistic rehearsals of Israelite history, with no narrative realization of the events invoked, their intelligibility dependent on the audience's detailed knowledge of the events. And even the rare biblical poems that have explicit narrative segments, like the Song of the Reed Sea and the Song of Deborah, are not, strictly speaking, narrative poems, because they lack the defining feature of independent narrative - exposition - and instead respond to an event or set of events presumably already known to

Tang Studies 20-21 (2002-03) Rethinking the Authorship and Dating of "Gujing ji" * M f 3 DING XIANG WARNER CORNELL UNIVERSITY Everyone loves a great story, and "Gujing ji" (The Story of an Ancient Mirror) is truly one of China's great tales of the fantastic. Attributed to the early seventh-century figure Wang Du 3:8 in literary histories and anthologies, "Gujing ji" relates the miraculous powers of an ancient bronze mirror that was once bestowed upon Wang Du by "a man of extraordinary talents" and which he lent for a short time to his younger brother, Wang Ji 3£fti. The Yellow Lord of high antiquity fashioned this wondrous mirror: its configuration embodies the very essence of the cosmos, and its luminosity matches that of the sun and the moon. It wards off dangerous beasts and demons, stills the violent waves of the horrific tidal bore, slays a giant snake and a monstrous fish, exposes goblins and bogies disguised in human form, rescues maidens from the spells of evil spirits and even restores the health of dying plague-victims. But then, from its keeping-place inside a locked chest, the mirror disappears without a trace.1 As a work of narrative literature, furthermore, "Gujing ji" is admired as something of a miraculous item in its own right—an extraordinary landmark, at least, in the development of early Chinese fiction. Dated to the first two decades of the seventh century, 1 For the full text of "Gujing j i / ' see Taiping guangji ± ¥ ^ t 2 , comp. L i Fang ^$ (925-996) et al. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), 230.1761-67. A modern collated edition is in Tangren xiaoshuo USA'hafc, ed. Wang Bijiang $EBtM (rpt. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1978), 3-10. For an annotated English translation see Pauline Bentley Koffler, "The Story of the Magic Mirror (Gujing ji) by Wang Du/' in Hommage a Kwong Ring Foon: Etudes d'histoire culturelle de la Chine, ed. Jean-Pierre Dieny (Paris: Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, College de France, 1995), 165-214. All translations in this essay, however, are my own. 1 Warner: The Authorship and Dating of "Gujing ji" a time when most other narrative writing that is extant took the form of anecdotal zhiguai Sffi stories (tales of anomalies), which are short in length and simple in plot, "Gujing ji" stands out for its narrative sophistication and its unprecedented length of 3,650 characters, a total matched or exceeded by only three other much later Tang chuanqi W^ stories (tales of the marvelous).2 It appears to have come out of nowhere, anticipating by many decades the full flowering of Tang prose fiction.3 Consequently, in nearly all twentieth-century anthologies of Chinese narrative literature and treatises on the subject, "Gujing j i " is heralded for marking the transition from the crude anecdotes of the Six Dynasties period to 2 See Sarah McMillan Yim, "Structure, Theme and Narrative in T'ang 'ch'uanch 'i'" (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1979), 188. According to the summary of data Yim appends to her dissertation, the longest Tang chuanqi tale is "Youxian k u " Iffiflijgf (a total of 8,650 characters) by Zhang Zhuo ^M (ca. 660740 ), and the second longest is "Liu Y i " #Pit (4,050 characters) by L i Chaowei 3 ^ $ c (late eighth century). "Gujing j i " and "Li Wa zhuan" 3 ^ £ ^ b y Bo Xingjian Ei3fjf§f (776-826) are exactly the same length. 3 As William H . Nienhauser, Jr., writes, for example: "Although the structure of each tale [in 'Gujing ji'] differs little from that of earlier zhiguai, the attempt to construct a more lengthy text and the use of characters who were actual historical figures (Wang D u [ca. 584-ca. 625] and his brother, the philosopher Wang Ji [590-644]) foreshadow later developments in the Tang [chuanqi] tales." See "T'ang Tales," in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H . Mair (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001), 582. Nienhauser in this quote has apparently confused the poet Wang Ji for his brother Wang Tong 3E5l (ca. 584617 ), who operated a Confucian academy and whose sayings are reputed to be preserved in...

The Kaonde language is part of the Bantu language family found in South Central Africa. It is spoken by the baKaonde ethnic group in Zambia's North Western and Central provinces. Nicknames are an essential part of the baKaonde naming system and hold significant importance in their culture. These nicknames are given to describe people based on their physical characteristics, animal-like features or things, social habits, and so on. Among the Kaonde people, nicknames serve different social functions such as endearment, humor, mockery, social counsel, expression of bravery, and lifestyle. This study aims to investigate Kaonde nicknames associated with physical appearances and features of people. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates how Kaonde speakers play with language in their naming systems and how they use ‘frames’ of meaning to coin new words (nicknames) from existing linguistic resources. The data for this study was collected through qualitative ethnographic methods, including participant observations and personal interviews with ten purposively selected respondents, as part of a larger study on Kaonde nicknames. The study findings reveal that Kaonde nicknames describe an individual's physical appearance and features, either positively or negatively. These nicknames may arise from other people’s physical features and animal characteristics which are likened to individuals being nicknamed. Some nicknames may be known or unknown to the nicknamee, depending on their connotations, context of use and existing personal relationship between the namer, and the named. These findings reflect human interactions among themselves and with other living beings and the extended naming system of the Kaonde speakers to include nicknames.

Beginning in the early imperial era, Chinese texts recorded instances of domestic violence perpetrated by women living in polygynous households. These acts of abuse were commonly understood to be the result of sexual jealousy. Marital disharmony was a cause of great concern to the elite, as a result of which legal and historical texts, as well as the literature of the period, provide a rich vein of evidence concerning domestic violence perpetrated by women. Furthermore, there are some surprisingly sympathetic accounts of the psychological pressures that led to such abuse by wives. As the importance of this material in the history of marital relationships and domestic life in China has been neglected, this study provides an overview of some of the key sources, particularly the recently discovered Han dynasty narrative poem, Wang Ji 妄稽.

The scholars of Russian literature are very well aware of V Zhukovsky’s translation of Goethe’s “Erlkonig” (1782), published as “Lesnoy tsar’ ” (1818). However, none of the studies of Zhukovsky’s literary works mentions that Zhukovsky presumably used the English variant of the ballad by W. Scott for his translation of “Lesnoy tsar’ ”. W. Scott’s “The Erl-King” (1797) was written fifteen years after the original and almost twenty years before Zhukovsky’s translation. Thus, it can be assumed that V Zhukovsky, who was acquainted with W. Scott’s, couldn’t ignore the English translation of “Erlkonig”. If we compare V Zhukovsky’s and W. Scott’s tranlsations in terms of their closeness to the original, we can see that the former is significantly far from the original than the latter. Zhukovsky is faithful to the original in terms of the content, but he completely abandons the folklore stylistics of the original and traditionally organizes his text according to the ballad principles, which have already been developed in his original works. However, in his evolution, V. Zhukovsky follows W. Scott and draws on not only W. Scott’s early ballads but also his later narrative poems. By the moment when V. Zhukovsky starts translating Goethe’s ballad, he must have been acquainted with W. Scott’s narrative poems and other poetical pieces, which results in a difference between the original, English, and Russian translations. The closeness of Zhukovsky’s and Scott’s translation strategies can be seen not only on the level of content but also on the stylistic level. When creating “The Erl-King”, W. Scott focuses on the literary form of the ballad: even though his translation is quite close to the original, he transforms the poetical semantics and ballad form in the vein of sentimentalism, which can be also seen in his translation of Burger’s “Lenore”. The comparative analyses of the original and two translations by Zhukovsky and Scott allows making a conclusion that W. Scott’s translation of “Erlkonig” can be “interposed” between Goethe’s text, which is close to folklore ballad traditions, and Zhukovsky’s literary variant. If we take into account the undeniable fact that V. Zhukovsky looked to W. Scott’s ballads, we can say that early W. Scott’s literary pieces vector Zhukovsky’s translational creative works and play the role of a transition stage for Zhukovsky’s development as a poet and translator. It should be noted then, that later W. Scott returns to folklore variants of the ballad, while Zhukovsky remains faithful to the previously developed course to create his own philosophy of the genre.

Disentangling the effects of the surrounding environment on street-side greenery: Evidence from Hangzhou

In this study, we analysed the reaction times of 137 college students when making decisions on pairs of hypothetical children verbalizing different types of vignettes and/or exhibiting different physical appearance (photographs of faces). Vignettes depicted immature and mature versions of both supernatural (e.g., 'The sun's not out today because it's mad' vs. 'The sun's not out today because the clouds are blocking it') and natural ('I can remember all 20 cards!' vs. 'I can remember 6 or 7 cards') explanations to ordinary phenomena. Photographs of children's faces were morphed with a physical appearance of approximately 4-7years old or approximately 8-10years old. In earlier research, immature supernatural thinking produced positive-affect reactions from adults and older adolescents (14-18years old) towards young children, with cognitive cues being more important than physical-appearance cues in influencing adults' judgements. Reaction times to make decisions varied for the Supernatural and Natural vignettes and for the immature and mature vignettes/faces, reflecting the differential cognitive effort adults used for making decisions about aspects of children's physical appearance and verbal expressions. The findings were interpreted in terms of the critical role that young children's immature supernatural thinking has on adults' perception, analogous to the evolved role of immature physical features on adults' perception of infants.

This article unravels old-age and its related ageist stereotypes in Zimbabwean Shona proverbs as epistemological constructs. Premised on a qualitative research design, it purposively samples 16 proverbs from 4722 proverbs contained in Shona proverbs texts (with English translations). Through Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA), the selected proverbs are utilized and interpreted as primary sources through which depictions of the Shona indigenes’ societal values vis-à-vis old-age adults, aging, and ageism are embedded or fostered in the respective community and relational philosophy. Among the article’s key findings is the realization that Shona proverbs, apart from acknowledging aging and ageism as a rite of passage, are the key descriptors utilized in the collective ideation and composition revolve around frailness of human beings’ physical appearance, slowness in taking actions and needful of care when advanced in age. However, besides expressing stereotypical undertones, the proverbs also celebrate, revere, and reference old-age persons as canons of organic wisdom, experienced individuals never to be underestimated, knowledgeable experts and embodiments of collective memory significant to a more humane society. Thus, we recommend African gerontologists to tap from Shona proverbial philosophies’ critical insights and perspectives of ancient civilizations toward the old-aged members of the society. Furthermore, these cultural tales are construed to be a valid and reliable meta-data of a people’s lived and liveable realities. An Afro-centered perspective together with broad descriptive sociolinguistics have been utilized as intellectual pedestals on the basis that, these forge a reconceptualization of the social and historical reality of African people.

Social signals, such as changes in gaze direction, are essential cues to predict others’ mental states and behaviors (i.e., mentalizing). Studies show that humans can mentalize with nonhuman agents when they perceive a mind in them (i.e., mind perception). Robots that physically and/or behaviorally resemble humans likely trigger mind perception, which enhances the relevance of social cues and improves social-cognitive performance. The current experiments examine whether the effect of physical and behavioral influencers of mind perception on social-cognitive processing is modulated by the lifelikeness of a social interaction. Participants interacted with robots of varying degrees of physical (humanlike vs. robot-like) and behavioral (reliable vs. random) human-likeness while the lifelikeness of a social attention task was manipulated across five experiments. The first four experiments manipulated lifelikeness via the physical realism of the robot images (Study 1 and 2), the biological plausibility of the social signals (Study 3), and the plausibility of the social context (Study 4). They showed that humanlike behavior affected social attention whereas appearance affected mind perception ratings. However, when the lifelikeness of the interaction was increased by using videos of a human and a robot sending the social cues in a realistic environment (Study 5), social attention mechanisms were affected both by physical appearance and behavioral features, while mind perception ratings were mainly affected by physical appearance. This indicates that in order to understand the effect of physical and behavioral features on social cognition, paradigms should be used that adequately simulate the lifelikeness of social interactions.

Diagnosis in Ayurveda is based on the ancient conception of ailments in the body generated by three primary kinds of elemental humours: those that accrue from kapha (phlegm), those that are generated by pitta (bile) and, those that result from imbalance of the vata (air). The primary cause of an ailment in the body is regarded as an imbalance between these three fundamental elements. Diagnosis, again, involves three kinds of preliminary tests: by examining the pulse, by looking at the physical features of the patient, and by asking pertinent questions to the patient. While this may sound fairly simple, the exact method of examining the pulse, for example, comes from a long period of experience. Similarly, drawing conclusions from the physical appearance of the patient requires a lot of knowledge and experience. These video clips throw some light on how Ayurvedic doctors use this knowledge for patient treatment.

Diagnosis in Ayurveda is based on the ancient conception of ailments in the body generated by three primary kinds of elemental humours: those that accrue from kapha (phlegm), those that are generated by pitta (bile) and, those that result from imbalance of the vata (air). The primary cause of an ailment in the body is regarded as an imbalance between these three fundamental elements. Diagnosis, again, involves three kinds of preliminary tests: by examining the pulse, by looking at the physical features of the patient, and by asking pertinent questions to the patient. While this may sound fairly simple, the exact method of examining the pulse, for example, comes from a long period of experience. Similarly, drawing conclusions from the physical appearance of the patient requires a lot of knowledge and experience. These video clips throw some light on how Ayurvedic doctors use this knowledge for patient treatment.

Diagnosis in Ayurveda is based on the ancient conception of ailments in the body generated by three primary kinds of elemental humours: those that accrue from kapha (phlegm), those that are generated by pitta (bile) and, those that result from imbalance of the vata (air). The primary cause of an ailment in the body is regarded as an imbalance between these three fundamental elements. Diagnosis, again, involves three kinds of preliminary tests: by examining the pulse, by looking at the physical features of the patient, and by asking pertinent questions to the patient. While this may sound fairly simple, the exact method of examining the pulse, for example, comes from a long period of experience. Similarly, drawing conclusions from the physical appearance of the patient requires a lot of knowledge and experience. These video clips throw some light on how Ayurvedic doctors use this knowledge for patient treatment.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of how, for centuries, the physical appearance of political figures played an essential role in Chinese politics. Although the ideology of rulership and the meaning of masculinity changed over time, political appearance stood as an essential element over which ambitious political contenders tried to exert control. Examining five key moments in the course of Chinese history, from the early Ming dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China, the chapter explains how the book seeks to answer some fundamental questions. Why and how did the human body become a source for appropriating and establishing political legitimacy, at times referred to as the Mandate of Heaven (tianming), in Chinese politics? What are the instruments for calibrating what can be termed as “political appearance”? Building on the history of imagery and visuality, the book also examines why and how Chinese physiognomy (xiangshu), the technique of interpreting character and fate from a person's physical features, continued to influence the ways in which the Chinese people perceived power and beauty, even as the main medium for transmitting political appearance shifted from textual to visual.