Atole Research Articles

Anthologies and canon formation in China and the West

AbstractAnthologies and anthologizers have long played a major role in the establishment of literary canons. In the Chinese tradition, the anthology has an especially long and influential history, through such works as the Chu ci (Songs of Chu), containing poems from (perhaps) the fourth century BC through the first two centuries AD, and including later anthologizing acts such as the Wen xuan, (Selections of Refined Poetry), assembled by Xiao Tong c.530 AD, and the Yutai xinyong (New Songs from a Jade Terrace), assembled at nearly the same time. European traditions placed less emphasis on the anthology. Still, from the Hellenistic creation of a lyric canon of nine poets, through the Imperial and Late Antique anthologies of epigrams in Greek, the anthology has a significant place in our understanding of Greek literature. This paper will undertake a comparative exploration of these early processes of anthologization in both China and Europe, and will assess whether or not that comparative study reveals common patterns in anthology‐making. Do anthologies have similar causes, and consequences, in both China and Europe? And can the patterns by which anthologies are constructed yield any clues as to the works that were excluded, and why?

Translation and Dissemination of Chu Ci in the West

As a new style of verse mainly created by Qu Yuan, Chu Ci is the first anthology of romantic poetry in China. With deeper communication between China and other countries, Chu Ci, as an invaluable treasure in the history of Chinese literature, has been gradually translated, introduced and disseminated around the globe. This paper briefly examines the history and present situation of translation and dissemination of Chu Ci in English-speaking countries, aiming to strengthen the globalization of Chinese culture.

TO MAKE HER MINE: WOMEN AND THE RHETORIC OF PROPERTY IN EARLY AND EARLY MEDIEVAL FU

The description of women in early and early medieval fu and related genres often employs the rhetorical device know as effictio, usually referred to in poetry as the blazon. The use of the blazon is mainly seen in fu on goddesses, in the Summons Poems of Chu ci, and in certain poems in the Qi, or Sevens, genre. A connection is seen between the blazoning of women and the rhetoric of property that informs the Summons Poems and many fu, with their enumerative tendencies, including the spatial enumerations of the journey and the attendant notions of possession.

Shi JingSongs as Performance Texts: A Case Study of “Chu Ci” (Thorny Caltrop)

Focused on a detailed philological analysis of the sacrificial hymn “Chu ci” in theShijing, the present study aims to reconstruct the dramatic multi-vocal structure of an exemplary early Chinese performance text. Examining the interrelation between performance and commemoration from anthropological, art historical, and linguistic perspectives, the study in its first part outlines major characteristics of early Chinese ritual culture in terms of ritual self-reference, aesthetic expression, cultural memory, and the performative act of constituting ritual reality. After these historical and theoretical considerations, a fully annotated translation of “Chu ci” is offered, with the text presented in its multi-vocal structure. This structure of multiple voices and changing perspectives is then discussed through a close analysis of linguistic features such as rhyme shifts, the distribution of pronouns and formal designations for the ritual participants, and the use of formulaic prayer sequences. It is argued that these features are directly interrelated and, if seen together, allow us to reconstruct “Chu ci” as an actual performance text that can be related to specific practices and situations of early Chinese ritual culture. It is concluded that only such a reconstruction renders the text fully intelligible, integrating all its otherwise unruly linguistic elements into a coherent reading. In view of the evidence from “Chu ci,” it is suggested that its multi-vocal structure is not a singular phenomenon but reflects a principle of composition that might also apply to other early Chinese ritual texts.

Poetry of the South, (Chu Ci)

Poetry of the South, (Chu Ci)

Age at menarche and nutritional supplementation.

Retrospective data on age at menarche were collected for 832 Guatemalans 15-30 y in age to test whether exposure to a high energy and high protein supplement (Atole: 163 kcals/682 kJ and 11.5 g protein per cup or 180 mL) during childhood led to earlier menarche than did exposure to a low energy, no protein supplement (Fresco: 59 kcals/247 kJ in 180 mL). Mean age at menarche was similar in Atole (13.75 +/- 1.22 y; mean +/- SD) and Fresco (13.74 +/- 1.36 y) groups. The corresponding value for immigrants (n = 144), subjects not exposed to the supplements, was 13.55 +/- 1.20 y. Year of birth as well as socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with age at menarche. Age at menarche declined by 0.69 y over the 15-y period and menarche occurred earlier in higher SES households. Significant positive interactions between supplement type and SES and between supplement type and year of birth were found, but plausible explanations for them could not be advanced.

Macropoetic Structures: The Chinese Solution

C HINESE POETRY rises out of the clusters of relatively short poems found in the early anthologies, the Book of Songs (Shi jing) and the Songs of the South (Chu ci).' This distinguishes the literary tradition of China from the contemporaneous Greco-Roman one with its grounding in epic and drama, and aligns it more with the later Japanese tradition, which begins with the Man 'yoshii and subsequent imperial anthologies.2 In China that macropoetic environment, where a poem is read both as an independent unit and as part of a larger structure, is repeatedly reconfigured in the following cen-