History Of Chinese Literature Research Articles

秦簡文字에 나타난 異體字 考察

In Shuihudi QinJian(睡虎地秦簡), large amounts of documents on loan characters have been preserved, which is an important proof of the study of ancient pronunciation. And it was written as transitional writing style between seal scripts(篆书) and official scripts(隷书), therefore, it has filled up a blank in the development of Chinese characters, allowing all to know about how it looks like and it also has been known that Official Scripts got its initial form, as a matter of fact, from Qin Dynasty and in the meantime, some mistaken concepts concerning Qin official scripts have been corrected, which is of great significance in the history of Chinese literature.
 However, the relationship between sound and meaning is reflected in characters of same source; whereas the relationship between shape and meaning is reflected in the variant characters(異體字) reflect the relationship among shape, sound and meaning.
 Large number of Qin simplified characters, the shape of which is different from Xiao Zhuan(小篆) but the same shape with 籒文, 古文(ancient characters), still retain lots of shape and meaning of ancient characters, therefore, there is proof that Li Shu(隸書) has not been derived from Xiao Zhuan(小篆), however, they got derivatives from ancient characters originated no later than Xiao Zhuan, and both the ancient shape and meaning for Chinese characters was passed down by means of Shuihudi Qinjian(睡虎地秦簡) that help with the explanation and reading(校读) of ancient characters and also ancient books, which sufficiently demonstrates that without the study of the characters of QinJian characters in Shuihudi, there is no way to understand the relationship among the form, sound and meaning. Strictly speaking, directly comparing Shuo Wen(说文) with Yin Zhou characters could be a jumping study, thus, the conclusion would be imperpect.
 As has been mentioned above, Shuihudi QinJian(睡虎地秦簡) has maintained plenty of documents of 異體字 which is an important evidence for the study of ancient sounds. lt is becauce 異體字 has been written by means of transitional style of writing between 篆隶, it has filled up an important blank during the process of Chinese characters, making it known that what it looked like and 隸書, as a matter of fact, had its initial formation in time of Warring Period. In addition, some previous wrong concepts have been corrected which is of significance in the history of Chinese literature.

Wang Anshi and Song Poetic Culture

Wang Anshi and Song Poetic Culture

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreShadi Bartsch is the Helen A. Regenstein Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago and Director of the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. She has written or edited some twelve books on classical antiquity and, recently, several essays on the Chinese reception of the Western classical tradition. Her new translation of Vergil’s Aeneid came out in 2022 and her new study, Plato Goes to China, was published by Princeton University Press in January 2022.Jue Hou is a PhD Candidate in Social Thought and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago. His research interests include translation studies, East Asian and European literary modernisms, and Chinese and Japanese intellectual history.Huang Yang is Professor and Chair of the History Department, Fudan University, and President of the Chinese Society for the Study of Ancient World History. His research interest is Greek history. Among the books he published are Studies in Politics and Society in Ancient Greece (2014); A Study on Land Tenure in Ancient Greece (1995); and An Introductory Guide to Research in Greek History (co-authored with Yan Shaoxiang, 2nd ed., 2021), all in Chinese. His latest publications also include “The Prehistory of Western Political Science: Political Thought in Greece in the Fifth Century BC” (2020, in Chinese) and “The Invention of the ‘Barbarian’ and Ethnic Identity in Early Greece and China” (2021, in English). His current project is a comparative study of Greek and Chinese ideas of the “barbarian.”Nie Minli is Professor of Philosophy, Renmin University of China. Professor Nie’s research interests focus on ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Crete, Greece, during 2005–6. His important works include Being and Substance: A Study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Zeta (Z 1–9) (2011); Substance and Form: A Study of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Zeta (Z 10–17) (2016); and The Origins of Western Thought (2017), all published in Chinese and by Chinese publishing companies.Leihua Weng is Chinese Endowed Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Kalamazoo College. She is interested in traditions, including the formations, transformation, and transmission of traditions, as well as their modern receptions in China and in the West. She is finishing a book project on reading Plato and Leo Strauss in China.Zhang Longxi is Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation at City University of Hong Kong and an Honorary President of the International Comparative Literature Association. A leading scholar in East-West cross-cultural studies, he has published more than twenty books and many articles in English and Chinese, and his major book publications in English include The Tao and the Logos: Literary Hermeneutics, East and West (1992); Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China (1998); Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West (2005); Unexpected Affinities: Reading across Cultures (2007); From Comparison to World Literature (2016); and, most recently, A History of Chinese Literature (2023).Yiqun Zhou is Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and, by courtesy, of Classics, at Stanford University. Her research interests include the comparative study of ancient societies and the reception of classical antiquity in modern China. She is the author of Festivals, Feasts, and Gender Relations in Ancient China and Greece, published by Cambridge University Press. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge Volume 6, Number 2Fall 2022The Complexities of Inheritance: Contemporary Chinese Readings of Antiquity East and West Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/723567 © 2022 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

ترجمات ودراسات أعمال الكاتب الصيني لو شون في مصر / Translations and Studies of the Works of Chinese Writer Lu Xun in Egypt

Abstract The Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) is considered one of the most important writers in the history of Chinese literature. His works have been translated over the years into many foreign languages, including Arabic. In addition to translating his works, foreign researchers have presented many studies on his thought and literature, and Lu Xun’s studies and translations into Arabic played an important role in introducing Lu Xun’s creativity and thought and even modern Chinese literature in general, and these translations had a clear impact on the influence of a number of Egyptian and Arab writers on literature, like Egyptian writer Abdel Ghaffar Makawy and Syrian writer Olfat Al-Idlibi. With the development witnessed by the specialization of Chinese language and literature in Egypt, Lu Xun studies in Egypt saw a remarkable progress. A number of Egyptian researchers presented Chinese-language studies on Lu Xun literature in addition to studies that are presented from a comparative point of view between Lu Xun and a number of Egyptian writers.

載道與抒情：明清之際散文發展的兩種論述兼論古文與小品之關係

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 新文學運動時期周作人不滿一般論文學史者對明清散文發展的論述，認爲他們一來抹殺了晚明小品，二來以桐城派概括清代文章太過籠統。因此他標榜晚明小品，推崇公安派的文學觀，甚至引爲新文學運動的同調。他的這一觀點影響巨大，後凡論述明清散文者無不論及小品文，衆多文學史著作也開始重視明清散文，且尤其推崇小品文。然而實際上這一現象的形成有一個發展的過程，背後涉及到了載道與抒情兩種文學觀之間的角力。兩種論述之間何者更爲準確？如何較爲客觀準確的描述明清之際散文的發展，以及古文與小品之間的關係，成爲了問題。本文擬從周作人對明清散文的論述切入，梳理前人對明清散文發展的兩種論述，並揭示這兩種論述背後的文學觀，從而指出周作人二分“言志”與“載道”的論述儘管未必準確，但對論述明清散文發展仍有重要意義：分析明清之際小品文作者的古文觀與古文家的小品文創作，可以知道小品與古文的關係並不如周作人所描述的那般對立，然而周作人所强調的“言志”與“載道”的緊張關係，正正是明清散文演變的内在動力。
 During the New Culture Movement, Chou Tso-jen 周作人 was dissatisfied with general discussions on the development of Ming-Qing prose. He considered that these discussions left late-Ming essays unheeded and that they overgeneralized Qing-dynasty prose and placed it under the Tongcheng 桐城 School. Chou instead promoted late-Ming vignette essays and advocated the literary thoughts of the Gong’an 公安 School, even regarding them as a parallel of those from the New Culture Movement. These thoughts were highly influential. Ever since then, scholars who discussed prose of the Ming and Qing dynasties could not avoid mentioning vignette essays. Consequently, in most studies of Chinese literary history there has been an emphasis on Ming-Qing prose, especially vignette essays. In fact, this phenomenon was formed as a result of the competition of two literary thoughts, namely “representing the Way” 載道 and lyricism. There are some issues worth our consideration: Which of the two literary thoughts is more accurate? How can we evaluate prose development during the Ming-Qing transition in a fair and accurate manner? What is the relationship between classical prose and vignette essays? Starting from Chou’s disagreement with discussions of Ming-Qing prose, the present study aims to clarify the two discussions on the development of the prose of Ming-Qing times and discuss their literary thoughts. Although the discussion of the dichotomy of “expressing one’s aspiration” 言志 and “representing the Way” by Chou is not accurate, his discussion of the development of Ming-Qing prose is of significance. Based on the analysis of the views of classical prose of Ming-Qing essayists, we observe a less tense relationship between vignette essays and classical prose than what Chou discussed. However, his emphasis on the tense relationship between “expressing one’s aspiration” and “representing the Way” became the major motivation for change and development of Ming-Qing prose.

Contemplating “Return”: Xie Lingyun’s “Hillside Garden”

Abstract Xie Lingyun was the first of China’s great nature poets. As the most celebrated poet in fifth-century China and a histrionic scion of the illustrious Xie clan of the Eastern Jin, he had cultural influence that extended beyond the literary into religion and philosophy. This article examines Xie’s poetic exploration of the concept of “return” – an important rhetorical trope throughout the history of Chinese literature. By close reading, annotating, and analyzing a selection of Xie’s poems, the article sheds light on the poet’s obsession with instability in the meaning of “return” and argues that beneath the compliant poetic surface lies a saliently dissenting voice. Xie’s distinctive imagery and ideation emerge from an intricate deployment of earlier texts, among which the Classic of Changes is of paramount importance.

Recent Developments in Medieval Chinese Literary Research and Pedagogy: An Interview with Ronald Egan

Abstract In this interview, Professor Egan and I discuss issues related to reception studies, Chinese literary history, translation, and graduate education. The interview begins with the advantages and disadvantages of applying reception studies to premodern Chinese literature and to the works of major writers in particular. We then discuss two recent Chinese literary histories written in English and compare them to mainstream literary history written by Chinese scholars in China in terms of their different audiences, purposes, and uses. As scholars and students consult these histories, this discussion led to the topic of how to teach and how to train graduate students. Egan shares his experience with effective approaches for teaching classical Chinese literature in the American academic setting. In the last section of the interview, he focuses on graduate education, the academic and intellectual preparation that students need before they begin their PhD, what they should pay attention to as students, and their job prospects after they receive their degree.

“Sounds of Nature” and “Works of Authorship”: The Formation of Two Concepts of Text Production

The generative mechanism of the Book of Songs, the Classic of Music, the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Annals and other texts attracted the attention of learned men during the Warring States period and the Qin and Han dynasties. Two views gradually took shape. One emphasized that texts display natural human emotions, and the generation of the text participates in the generation process in a natural, irrational way; the text is thus something natural. This view can be called the “sounds of nature” theory. The other emphasized that the text is the carrier of humankind’s rational spirit and independent character, and that the generation of text is a highly individualized, rational and technical process, so the resulting text is something man-made. This view can be called the “works of authorship” theory. The two conceptions of text production present different textual values and aesthetics. As seminal ideas, they have had a significant influence on the development of Chinese literary history, and their competition and convergence have constituted one of the driving forces behind its development.

Jin Ping Mei: A Story of Guanxi

No fiction is without a narrative of human relationships. In Chinese literary history, the stories represented by Jin Ping Mei are especially seen as dealing with human relationships. Some researchers have interpreted Jin Ping Mei from the perspective of human relationships; however, the generic concept cannot describe social connections in Chinese culture. The concept of guanxi, the ubiquitous and quotidian social network in China, better describes the specific human relationships in this fiction. Guanxi as a Chinese cultural phenomenon originating from Confucianism is effective in procuring resources through instrumental and sentimental mechanisms. In Jin Ping Mei, which is centered on Ximen Qing, a guanxi network connects all the characters. Ximen Qing’s fortune is built on guanxi manipulation. Guanxi, however, which was expected to embody Confucian values, violated Confucian principles in the late Ming context. Jin Ping Mei marks a turning point for attitudes toward guanxi in literary representation, and this derogatory attitude persisted in the narrative of fiction throughout the Qing dynasty.

PU Sungling’s Creative Legacy as a Classic Example of Medieval Chinese Literature

This article discusses Pu Sungling’s creative legacy as a classic example of medieval Chinese literature. The novel, more precisely, is the substance of form and should be considered within the framework of general theory. Small genres are more like coincidences, and no matter how interesting it is to study them, they remain limited by their nature without any theoretical consequences. The artistic level of some of them was so high that they deserved a worthy place in the history of Chinese literature.

A Comparative Study of Dialect Translation in Two English Versions of The Divorce

In the literary translation, translation of dialect becomes a topic that deserves a lot of attention, because dialect is endowed with distinctive national and regional cultural characteristics and frequently cause many difficulties in the translation process. Exploring dialect translation is of great significance for the translation of literature. This paper aims to make a comparative study of dialect translation in two English versions of The Divorce, a short novel written by Lu Xun, a prominent figure in the history of Chinese literature, so as to analyze translators’ translation styles and strategies, reveal the loss and gain of different translation methods and thus trigger more researches on the translation of non-standard literature dialect in novel translation.

On Variations of the Classical Chinese Literary Genre terminchinesescript (Fu) in Literary History

Abstract: In 'On Variations of the Classical Chinese Literary Genre terminchinesescript (Fu) in Literary History,' the authors analyze the representation of the classical Chinese literary genre Fu, or namely, rhapsode, in Chinese literary histories compiled in English. A unique classical literary genre, Fu commonly appears in classical Chinese literature as well as in aesthetics and philosophy, thus constituting an important part in Chinese literature in all periods from ancient to contemporary. However, Fu falls outside the quartered-division of modern western stylistics, so is bound to cause problems in the compilation of a literary history in the Anglophone literary culture, as is the case in Sinology. This paper argues that variations caused in the translation of the name Fu and its configuration set-up in the English context have resulted in the under exploration of its full meanings in existing relevant studies, which necessitates future research for the sake of substantially changing the peripheral status of Chinese literature in the arena of world literature.

『說苑』에 나타난 소설적 요소 연구

『Shuo Yuan(說苑)』, the collection of Chinese historical stories, which was compiled in Han dynasty period involves many fictional elements, so it is called the classics worthy of note in history of Chinese literature. Because it selected mythology·legends·allegoric tales and put on record, we feel mystique and literary fancy during our reading. In short we can say that『Shuo Yuan』has many fictional elements. Due to the book was in focus on didactic direction, for the most part of the stories were described via realistic manner. So the stories involve many reality. Nevertheless no little sentences let us feel romantic atmosphere because of involving mythology·legends·allegoric tales. In short thro mixing truthful and untruthful historical stories, Compiler of the book , Liu Xiang(劉向) not only used a flowery style on the base of fabrication, but also plaited sentence (or used words) on the base of an untruthful method. As a result We can regard 『Shuo Yuan』 as a field of fiction based on imagination. Especially several sentences were remaded on the base of careful plot, and made them draw to a field of fiction. So it may be said that we can regard some sentences of 『Shuo Yuan』 as a fiction(short story).

Embracing the Xenophone

AbstractBy interrogating the borderlands of the discipline of Chinese literature, this article argues that Chinese literary studies should recognize non-Sinitic-language literatures that engage with issues of Chineseness as proper objects of study. Prevailing frameworks in Chinese and Sinophone literary studies range from an implicit aversion to non-Sinitic-language texts to their explicit exclusion. The consequence, however, is that texts that would otherwise be considered works of Chinese literature based on their content and/or combinations of other factors are condemned to a “literary no-man's land.” By removing the minimum threshold of language for consideration in the Chinese literary tradition and permitting texts that otherwise reflect or participate in the production of discourses of Chineseness—which the author theorizes as an embrace of the xenophone—the study of Chinese literature recuperates previously excluded expressions of Chineseness and begins writing a new branch of Chinese literary history. As case in point, the author analyzes the Spanish-language Chinese literature of Chinese Peruvian American writer Siu Kam Wen, specifically, his first collection of short stories, El tramo final (The Final Stretch). From offering new ideas of what it means to be Chinese to rewriting the history of China's red legacies, Siu's work represents a needed intervention in Chinese literary studies that would otherwise be excluded owing to its language of composition.

Anthologizing Chinese Literature and Reinventing Literary Canons

Abstract In view of the importance of canon formation in the rewriting of Chinese literary history and the role of translation anthologies in constructing literary canons, this article examines the process of canonization represented in the anthologies of Renditions from 1973 to 2020. It observes the literary works that the Renditions’ anthologies attempt to build into canons and delves into the reasons behind the canon building. It concludes that the anthologies of Renditions challenge and subvert the literary canons established by the Chinese mainland, while trying to reconstruct and even popularize new canons from a Hong Kong perspective. Moreover, Renditions’ efforts to anthologize Chinese literature open up new possibilities for future canon formation and pave the way for a more comprehensive revision of Chinese literary history.

A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019): English Publication and Reception

A Century of Chinese Literature in Translation (1919–2019): English Publication and Reception

Contributors

Contributors

A Study on Translation Strategies of Image in The Book of SongsThe Book of Songs, Translation Strategy, Image, Comparative Study

The Book of Songs is one of the earliest collection of poetry in China. It is also one of the earliest collection of poetry in the world which has great influence in the history of Chinese literature and in the history of world literature. There are a lot of cultural images in The Book of Songs, which adds vividness and artistry to poetry. The quality of image translation is closely related to the overall quality and artistic effect of The Book of Songs. The abstractness and complexity of cultural images bring great challenges to translators. And it is a subject worthy of further discussion. In the image translation of The Book of Songs, there are intralingual differences between ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, and the interlingual differences between Chinese culture and English culture. How to correctly understand the images in the original poem and make the target readers understand the image the original poem is intended to express is still a difficult problem. The translations produced by translators have a direct impact on whether Chinese culture can be actively spread. This paper takes three English versions of The Book of Songs respectively by James Legge, Xu Yuanchong and Wang Rongpei as examples for a case study. By comparing the three translators’ translation strategies in dealing with images in The Book of Song, it points out that in translating the images, they applied various translation strategies, for the intralingual and interlingual differences which lead to the difficulty of understanding. It makes a comparative study that serves to understand the image translation strategies by different translators, and also provides new ideas for poetry image translation in the future.

Yuan Jie 元結 (719–772) as the Writer of Self-Distinction

In Chinese literary histories, Yuan Jie is considered one of the pioneers of xin yuefu (new music bureau poetry), who, together with Du Fu, represents the driving force of Chinese realism (xianshizhuyi; xieshizhuyi) in traditional Chinese literature. Hu Shi’s Baihua wenxue shi (A History of Vernacular Literature), a work of Chinese literary history published in the modern period, defined the basic framework for understanding Yuan Jie and his writings, and this perspective influenced many later works. Through a comprehensive study of Yuan Jie’s works, the present article shows that xin yuefu is just one of the many aspects of his poetry and that differences can be found between Yuan Jie’s and Du Fu’s xin yuefu compositions. The use of archaism (gu) is another key to interpreting Yuan Jie’s personality and literary thought. The archaist style of Yuan Jie’s poetry and prose writings, the seemingly negative comments regarding his own titles, and the projection of the self onto the landscape are all means to distinguish himself from the mainstream. This article proposes that the concept of “self-distinction” can be seen as the central idea of Yuan Jie’s writings: a temperament incompatible with the contemporary zeitgeist.

Любовная проза в Китае во втором десятилетии ХХ в.: от прозы, описывающей чувства, к прозе «уточек-неразлучниц и бабочек»

The article analyzes the evolution of Chinese love fiction in the first years that followed the 1911 Xinhai revolution. The article focuses on literature representing “couples in love,” namely fiction about “duck-lovebirds and butterflies,” an invariant of the “love prose” genre. The authors of these works both continued the traditions of the previous literature and at the same time attempted at modernizing the genre. Chinese literary scholars have controversial opinions about this genre and its invariants. Controversies concern the literary movement to which these works should be attributed, and the place of the genre in the history of Chinese literature. The founder of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xin, gave a negative assessment of this genre. Modern critics agree that fiction about “duck-lovebirds and butterflies” has poor aesthetic merits yet they also argue that the authors “created an objective picture of reality, expressed different views and opinions.” By the 1920s, the vogue for writing novels and short stories in the style of “duck-lovebirds and butterflies” had waned. This genre however gained a new surge in popularity in the mid-1940s thanks to Zhang Eileen who modernized Chinese love fiction.