History Of Chinese Literature Research Articles

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.

Research on Theories of Travel Writing in the Late Ming Dynasty

With the unprecedented prosperity of travel-note creation, comprehensive theoretical discussion of travel notes emerged for the first time in the history of Chinese literature in the late Ming Dynasty, which was mainly about the relationship between literati and landscapes, reasons for diversified styles, the mentality of creation and methods of creation, involving all stages of travel notes from scratch to completion. Besides creating travel notes, literati in the Late Ming Dynasty had a significant contribution in the study of travel noes, taking travel literature from mere creation to the level of theoretical research, which is of great significance in the history of travel writing.

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.

The Xueheng School (), Babbitt’s New Humanism, and the May Fourth Movement ()

Abstract: In "The Xueheng School (), Babbitt’s New Humanism, and the May Fourth Movement ()" Li Yi discusses modern Chinese literary history. On the one hand, it is known that scholars have been discussing key figures of the May Fourth Movement by positioning the Xueheng School to the opposite side of the former. Hence in scholarship and criticism the location of the Xueheng School as a restoration group of feudalism resulted in understanding the School as hindering the development of modern culture. However, since the 1990s the Xueheng School inspired interest in the concept of restoring ancient Chinese thought. Some scholars even repeat the ideas of the Xueheng School and regard the efforts of Xueheng scholars as overall and profound cultural pursuits which would diminish some of the extreme ideas of the May Fourth Movement. Li argues that neither of the two views on the Xueheng School are accurate and discusses the Xueheng School’s achievements in view of Irving Babbitt’s idea of "New Humanism."

Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China by Maggie Greene

Reviewed by: Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China by Maggie Greene Huihui Huang RESISTING SPIRITS: DRAMA REFORM AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. By Maggie Greene. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019. 244 pp. Hardcover, $70.00. Ghosts and spirits appear in many literary forms, such as folk stories, plays, novels, and films, and have been important elements of Chinese literary history. The study on Chinese ghost plays, however, is very limited. Although there are a couple of books on this subject, they only focus on Chinese ghost plays in the imperial period. Maggie Greene's new book Resisting Spirits: Drama Reform and Cultural Transformation in the People's Republic of China fills in the gap on ghost literature in the high socialist period. By utilizing the approach "just reading" or "surface reading" (p. 18), Greene examines archives, published scripts, journal articles, newspapers, and memoirs. Looking at the history of reform of ghost opera between 1953 and 1966 in the People's Republic of China, Resisting Spirits argues that the adaptation, discussion, and reception of ghost plays emphasize the cultural workers' experiments in theatre in the Maoist era. The book is divided into six chapters that chronologically follow the theatrical activities on drama reform and the changes in the role of ghost plays in shifting political contexts. Chapter 1 introduces the prerevolutionary history of drama reform in China; focusing on the period between 1949 and 1952, when the categorization of plays was introduced, and which determined, which plays were banned or performed. The book also chronicles debates among the dramatists, artists, and critics of the time. For example, critic Ma Shaobo advocated for the didactic merits of traditional drama while others insisted that it was harmful to the audience. These types of debates set the tone for discussions in the next decade. [End Page 341] Chapter 2 considers the early debates on drama reform from a different angle. In the relaxed political atmosphere of event such as the Hundred Flowers Movement, ghost plays, and some other banned works between 1950 and 1952 were approved for performance. In this period, debates on the distinction between mythology plays and ghost plays were raised again. For example, the critic Qu Liuyi argued subjects in mythology "were always out of reach," while ghosts "represented people who had once alive," so "ghosts are more useful than mythological characters" (p. 73). Qu's viewpoint was a defence of ghost plays when some critics criticized ghost characters not suitable for socialist stages. The book also examines a case study of an adapted ghost play by Ma Jianling, Wandering West Lake; in this play a ghost was removed from stage in the early 1950s and returned to the stage in 1958. The process of a drama changing from "a ghostless ghost play" (p. 55) back to a ghost play reflects the dramatist's experimental attempt at reform. Chapter 3 is closely related to the first two chapters in the perspectives of themes and plots and centers on the theatrical events in 1961. Greene examines the production of the new experiment Li Huiniang by Meng Chao and the ghost tales in the state-sponsored collection, Stories about Not Being Afraid of Ghosts (Bu pa gui de gushi). These products reveal the opposite discourses on ghosts: Meng Chao's ghost was "a heroine to rescue common people from the cruel and incompetent officials," while ghosts in Stories "were mere stand-ins for real world villains" (p. 80). According to Greene, the successful reception of the two narratives indicates that cultural workers and critics achieved great success in including ghost plays in the repertoires. Greene devotes Chapter 4 to the 1963 ban on ghost opera and the 1963 debate in Guangming Daily. Critics who were against the ghost opera argued that social problems led to the popularity of the ghost plays, while the supporters argued for the artistic value of the ghost plays and claimed that theatrical ghosts were not connected to the superstitious belief of the masses. On one hand, the 1963 debate indicates a marked shift in the discourse on supernatural subjects. On the other hand...

On Translation and Literary Variation in the Compilation of Classical Chinese Literary History

Abstract The compilation of classical Chinese literary history in English includes another important yet much neglected aspect, that is, the translation of literary works and the consequent literary variation. Based on the analysis of translation and literary variation in the eight English versions of classical Chinese literary history, this paper argues that what to translate and how to translate largely determine the basic configuration of a “history,” revealing the interaction between the identity as a translator and that as a history compiler. And also the prevalent literary variation in classical Chinese literary history validates the necessity of rewriting the literary history in a foreign language.

중국문학사 다시쓰기 작업의 문화사적 의미 - 魯迅의 『中國小說史略』을 중심으로

Lu Xun’s “A Brief History of Chinese Novel” is the first theoretical introduction to the history of Chinese “fiction”. This paper will expand various existing discussions to pay attention to the meaning of rewriting of Chinese literary history centered on Lu Xun’s A Brief History of Chinese Novel.BR The New Cultural Movement advocated journalism under the banner of ‘anti-tradition’ and ‘science’, thus seeking changes in the system, form and content of literary works. This paper examines the cultural and historical trends as a process of discourse in the cultural public forum of the New Cultural Movement, instead of fixing them in a single and sequential flow.BR In this context, this study attempts to describe Chinese literary history in the early 20th century as a process of building a modern knowledge system, and analyze the internal momentum of the cultural public debate among Chinese intellectuals under the connection between Chinese Literature and the Western knowledge system.

『李公案奇聞』 初探

『Li Gong’an qiwen』 is a Gong’an fiction published in The 28th year of Guangxu(1902), the end of Qing Dynasty. This novel has been mentioned several times in Chinese literature history, but full scaled study has not been conducted yet. Therefore, this study conducts the basic exploration work on 『Li Gong’an qiwen』, a Gong’an fiction in the end of Qing Dynasty. The overview of event, characteristics and narrative characteristics along with overall bibliography information, such as authors and editions are reviewed. The most important achievement of this work depends on the narrative technique. Since western detective fictions were translated and published in the end of Ching Dynasty, traditional Gong’an fiction authors gradually had felt a sense of crisis. 『Li Gong’an qiwen』 is evaluated to be a work that already accepted the techniques of the then-popular “detective fiction”. Of course, the author may not have attempted to depart from tradition based in terms of enlightenment. It is believed that the struggle of the writer who could not simply resist the tide of the times has brought this result.

Special Issue on Regional Language and Performance Texts in the Qing

INTRODUCTION: SPECIAL ISSUE ON REGIONAL LANGUAGE AND PERFORMANCE TEXTS IN THE QING CATHERINE SWATEK AND MARGARET WAN University of British Columbia and University of Utah This special issue grew out of the panel “Exploring the Linguistic Landscape in Early Modern Chinese Literature,” sponsored by CHINOPERL and presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies in . The panel, organized by Han Zhang of the University of Chicago, responded to Shang Wei’s examination of the relationship between “vernacular Chinese” (baihua 白話) and written as well as spoken forms of Chinese in his seminal article “Writing and Speech: Rethinking the Issue of Vernaculars in Early Modern China.” The panel consisted of papers by Han Zhang, Patricia Sieber, Margaret Wan, and Bingyu Zheng. Intrigued by this important and understudied topic, the editors began planning this special issue in March . We quickly secured relevant articles-in-progress from Wu Cuncun and Catherine Swatek. Shang Wei’s discussion of the written representation of Chinese regional dialects touches on many of the landmark works for these issues: Yuan drama, Ming collections of popular songs like Mountain Songs (Shan’ge 山歌) edited by Feng Menglong 馮夢龍 (–), and the late nineteenth-century novel The Flowers of Shanghai (Haishang hua liezhuan 海上花列傳). The earliest clear examples are the sixteenth-century publications in Minnanese, the language of southern Fujian. By the turn of the nineteenth century, many genres of regional performancerelated literature were produced in quantity, including drum ballads (guci 鼓詞) in the North, lute ballads (tanci 彈詞) from the area around Suzhou, and in the far South, Minnanese ballads (gezaice 歌仔冊) in Fujian as well as Chaozhou ballads (Chaozhou gece 潮州歌冊) and wooden-fish books (muyushu 木魚書) in Guangdong. One reason that early dialect literature remains understudied may be that it tends to be strongly connected with performance genres, and with particular local performance genres not seen as central to our understanding of Chinese “literature.”  Shang Wei, “Writing and Speech: Rethinking the Issue of Vernaculars in Early Modern China,” in Benjamin Elman, ed. Rethinking East Asian Languages, Vernaculars, and Literacies, – (Leiden: Brill, ), pp. –.  For a translation and study of Feng Menglong’s collection of shan’ge, though not of their use in drama, see Ôki Yasushi and Paolo Santangelo, Shan’ge, the ‘Mountain Songs’: Love Songs in Ming China (Leiden: Brill, ).  For a convenient survey of Minnanese literature, see Piet van der Loon, The Classical Theatre and Art Song of South Fukien (Taipei: SMC Publications, ).  Wilt Idema notes that most histories of Chinese literature in China and the West omit prosimetric and ballad literature or only mention it in passing. See Yi Weide 伊维德 (Wilt L. Idema), CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature .  (July ): –© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc.  The same processes that Shang Wei discusses in regard to defining “vernacular” as a standardized, national language in early twentieth-century China also worked to marginalize regional and dialect literature in that period and thereafter. This also created difficulties of access for later scholars. Performance-related texts were often treated as ephemera and were rarely collected by libraries in China (with some important exceptions); several important examples survive only in Japan (Yuan printings of zaju) or Europe (Fukienese art songs). Often these texts also have been the last to be cataloged or reprinted. Despite this, the sheer number of texts in any particular tradition can be daunting. For example, one catalog lists over , known titles of drum ballads. Study of southern dialects—Cantonese, Taiwanese, Minnanese, Hakka, and Wu dialects—has been largely the preserve of linguists and ethnomusicologists, though mention has already been made of Piet van der Loon’s study of Minnan dramas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and of Ōki Yasushi and Paolo Santangelo’s translation and study of shan’ge. A few recent studies, many by linguists, have focused on the textualization of these dialects, noting their close link to performance “Yingyu xueshuquan Zhongguo chuantong xushishi yu shuochang wenxue de yanjiu yu fanyi shulüe” 英語學術圈中國傳統敘事詩與說唱文學的研究與翻譯述略 (A brief survey of the study of China’s traditional narrative ballads and prosimetric literature in English scholarship), trans. Zhang Yu 張煜, Jinan xuebao 暨南學報 , no.  (): –. Notable exceptions include several essays in The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor Mair (New York...

개혁 개방 이래 "너자 (나타)" 캐릭터로 분석한 이미지 생산 메카니즘 연구

나타(哪吒)는 중국문화 예술 역사상 전형적인 이미지중 하나로 "살을 깎아 어머니에게 돌려주고 뼈를 발라 아버지에게 돌려주다" (“割肉还母、剔骨还父”)등 문구가 탄생할 정도로 중요한 표징이 되었다. 그렇기 때문에 광범위한 팬층을 가지고 있었고 그후 중요한 IP자원으로 선정 되었다. 문학계뿐만 아니라 영화계에서도 나타를 중요한 IP 자원으로 광범위 하게 사용하고 있지만 나타 영화에 대한 예술적 평가와 시장반응이 불균일한 상황을 보여주고 있었다. 나타라는 IP 를 어떻게 합리적으로 잘 활용 하는가는 영화인들에게 주어진 중요한 문제이다. 본 연구자는 <나타노해>(哪吒闹海, 1979), <소녀나타> (少女哪吒, 2014）, <나타마동지강세>(哪吒之魔童降世, 2019) 세 작품의 텍스트를 기반으로 영화에서 나타의 이미지 변화 규칙을 분석하고자 한다. 1979년 개혁개방 이후 나타는 영화에서의 이미지가 세번 바뀌었다고 주장했다. 즉, 개혁개방을 시작으로 국민영웅이라는 모습에서 2014년 죽을지언정 굽히지 않는 불굴의 의지를 가진 청순한 소녀를 거쳐 현대 교화 대상인 아류문화 청년의 모습까지 거쳐 왔다, 나타 이미지에서 생산된 내재적 논리는 국가, 창작자, 관객 중심으로 발언권의 변화과정을 거쳐 왔다. 즉 캐릭터가 발언권을 만드는 것은 국가에서 창작자 그리고 시청자에까지 이르는 추체로 변화되고 있다는 것을 알 수 있다. 본 연구는 일정한 이론적 가치와 실제 응용 가치를 가지고 있다. 첫째, 나타가 영화에 나타나는 이미지 발전의 변화 규칙을 탐색하는 것은 나타 영화의 이론을 풍부하게 하는 연구이다. 둘째, 앞으로 제작될 나타 영화에서 나타의 이미지 구축에 유익한 참고가 될 것이다. 텍스트는 시대마다 다른 문화적 증상을 나타내지만 마찬가지로 시대의 첨단에서 시대의 발전을 이끌 수 있다. 우리가 어떻게 시대와 생산 체계의 한계를 벗어나 "인간의 건전한 구성" 을 원칙으로 시대의 발전을 이끌고 건전한 사람의 구성을 디자인하여 모범을 보이는 나타를 디자인할 수 있을까 하는 것은 우리 모든 영화인들이 사고해야할 문제라고 본다. Nezha is one of the classic images in the history of Chinese literature and art. "returning parents"s flesh and bones to parents" is an important representation of Nezha. Nezha has become an important IP（intellectual property）because of solid audience base. Nezha is widely used as an important IP not only in the literary circle but also in the film industry. However, the artistic evaluation and market response of films about Nezha are uneven. Therefore, it is very important to develop and utilize IP of Nezha reasonably. Taking Prince Nezha"s Triumph Against Dragon King (哪吒闹海) (1979), Ne Zha (少女哪吒) (2014) and Ne Zha(哪吒之魔童降世)(2019) as texts, this paper analyzes the image and production mechanism of Nezha in films, and explores the evolution law of Nezha"s image in films. It is believed that since the reform and opening up , Nezha"s image in films has changed three times, that is, from a little national hero at the beginning of the reform and opening up to the pure girl who would rather die than surrender in 2014, and then to the contemporary subculture youth to be cultivated. The internal logic of Nezha"s image production shifted from the discourse of state power to the discourse of creators and then to the discourse of market. This research has certain theoretical value and practical application value. for one thing, it explores the law of the development and evolution of Nezha in films, enriches the theoretical research of image of Nezha. for another thing, it provides beneficial reference for the construction of Nezha"s image in future films. The text symbolizes the different cultural symptoms of each era, but it can also be at the forefront of the era and lead the development of the era. In the future, how can we get rid of the limitations of the times and the production system and design the image of Nezha that will lead the development of the times and set an example for the construction of the sound people based on the principle of "the sound construction of the people". It is worth thinking for each of us filmmakers. 哪吒是中国文艺史上的经典形象之一，“割肉还母、剔骨还父”是其重要表征，因其具有广泛的受众基础，而成为重要的IP资源。不仅文学界，电影界也将哪吒作为重要的IP资源广泛使用，但哪吒电影取得的艺术评价和市场反映却参差不齐，如何合理开发运用哪吒这一IP资源，显得十分重要。 本文以《哪吒闹海》（1979）、《少女哪吒》（2014）、《哪吒之魔童降世》（2019）为文本，分析电影中的哪吒形象以及其生产机制，探索电影中哪吒形象演变规律。认为1979年改革开放以来，哪吒在电影中的的形象发生三次转变，即从改革开放伊始的国民小英雄到2014年宁死不屈的清纯少女再到当代有待教化的亚文化青年；哪吒形象生产的内在逻辑由以国家权力话语为中心转为以创作者话语为中心再到以市场话语为中心，角色生产话语权呈现由国家到创作者再到观众的下移趋势。 本研究具有一定理论价值与实际运用价值，一来探索电影哪吒形象发展演变规律，丰富哪吒电影的理论研究，二来为今后电影中哪吒形象的建构提供有益的参考。文本表征各个时代不同的文化症候，但同样也可以走在时代的前沿，引领时代的发展。今后我们如何跳出时代与生产体系的局限，以“人的健全建构”为原则，设计出引领时代发展与为健全人的建构做出榜样的哪吒形象，值得的我们每一位电影人思考。

FOCUS: Through Chinese Eyes

In this FOCUS, eight contemporary Chinese literature scholars, in four articles, give their view of (some aspects of) the reception of Chinese literature and theory in Europe during the twentieth century. In the first article, Shunqing Cao and Zhoukun Han discuss how Chinese literature has been read and misread in Europe, but also how it has given rise to literary innovations in European literature and theory. Peina Zhuang and Yina Cao detail how the earliest English-language history of Chinese literature at the turn of the twentieth century presented a very one-sided perspective of its subject. Qilin Fu and Shubo Gao trace the reception of Maoist Marxism in European literature and philosophy in the 1960s and 1970s. Yirong Hu and Lin Mei, finally, hold a plea for a redefinition of imagology to better account for the image of China in Europe and the West in an age of new global media.

Multiethnicity and Multilingualism in the Minor Literature of Manchukuo

Although claimed as a nation-state, with a government, a territory, and citizenry, Manchukuo (1932–1945) is a colony of the Empire of Japan, appropriated from Northeast China. As such, Manchukuo’s literary identity complicates the relationship between nationalism and literature, inviting us to rethink the history of Chinese literature in specific and East Asian literary history in general. This article tackles the thorny problem of Manchukuo literary formation by going through Shuimei Shih’s concept of sinophone and Chen Pingyuan’s notion of the multiethnic, only to conclude via a reading of Deleuze and Guattari’s elaboration of Kafka that Manchukuo’s corpus is best approached as a minor literature of its own. The very colonial and local complexity of Manchukuo’s minor literature lies in its multiethnicity and multilingualism. A close reading of Mei’niang, Yokoda Fumiko, and Arsenii Nesmelov, through their deterritorialized Chinese, Japanese, and Russian stories, demonstrates the range of indigenous and exiled writers in their diverse imagination of Manchukuo’s ambiguous sovereignty.

Visibility and Invisibility of the Translator in H.A. Giles’s A History of Chinese Literature

The writing of literary history, generally speaking, is a matter of selecting and organizing literary works according to aesthetic judgement and historical values. If one writes the literary history of a foreign culture, however, at least if one wants to include samples of literary works, one must contend with the issue of translation, not only in the sense of having to choose which source texts to translate but also in that of choosing among existing translations or of translating oneself. The dual role of a historian and a translator is a challenging and complicated balancing act, as proven in the case of H.A. Giles (1845–1935), whose 1901A History of Chinese Literature is the first Chinese literary history ever written in English. As one of the then leading sinologists in Europe, Giles had contributed tremendously to the dissemination of Chinese literature by way of smooth translations that appealed to his English readers, but which also formed an obstacle for the reader’s proper understanding of the history of Chinese literature. The evidence for this comes from his misguided take on the dual aspects of visibility and invisibility of the translator’s identity in writing about a foreign literature.

A Comparative Study of the Compilation of Classical Chinese Literary History between China and the Anglophone World

ABSTRACT This paper discusses and compares the compilation features of Chinese literary history both at home and in the Anglophone world. Throughout the one hundred-year’s long history of compilation; first, from self-exploration to the later turning to others for reference, until today’s continuous innovating has not been without failure, but the efforts towards an unrealizable “perfect literature history” have never ceased. The compilation and research of literature history generally presents a spiraling upward trend, presenting the overall characteristics of “gradual change,” or the so-called “keeping the right and showing the new” by Yuan Xingpei. Comparatively, the compilation process of the English versions of literary history displays an obvious stage-by-stage feature, making it fractured and independent from each other. Thus, both sides can learn from each other. For instance, compilation in the Anglophone world can draw on the domestic versions in order to substantiate the historical materials and promote in-depth analysis.

Romancing Atrocity

Originally published in 1996, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story (Yijiusanqinian de aiqing) is a historical novel set against the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. The novel traces the unconventional romance between university professor Ding Wenyu and a young married woman, Ren Yuyuan. This paper examines the novel’s creative juxtaposition between the love story of the main protagonists and the impending war story as the Japanese army approach the capital, which Ye Zhaoyan conflates through his use of language and narrative strategies. The article also reveals the ways in which this historical novel simultaneously functions as rich compendium of references and homages to several canonical works in modern Chinese literary history. Adapted from A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film by Michael Berry. Copyright © 2008 Michael Berry. Used by arrangement with Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

A Foreshadowing in the Strange Tales of Liao-Zhai for Its Implied Political Meaning and Spiritual Sustenance

中&#22269;文&#23398;史&#30740;究，&#21382;&#26469;有&#33073;&#31163;史&#35777;形而上的&#20542;向，&#23545;蒲松&#40836;&#19982;≪聊&#25995;志&#24322;≫的&#30740;究尤&#20026;如此。 文章立足史&#35777;，&#23545;蒲松&#40836;家世背景&#19982;科考&#21382;程&#36827;行了&#32454;致考辨，&#35748;&#20026;蒲松&#40836;少年科&#22330;得志，&#38543;性&#32437;情，旁求古道，不&#21153;科考，是其&#23649;&#35797;不第，仕途中&#32477;的主要原因。 蒲松&#40836;有着强烈的自我意&#35782;，率性&#32431;&#30495;，全性任情，悠然于田&#22253;之&#38388;，他有着&#28165;醒的自我&#35748;知，未&#23581;&#27785;迷于科&#22330;。 蒲松&#40836;&#32487;承了先秦以&#26469;中&#22269;文人&#20851;注自我、 &#20851;注生活的&#20256;&#32479;，他&#21019;作的≪聊&#25995;志&#24322;≫，是明末“人”的文&#23398;&#19982;思想的集大成者，是自我意&#35782;&#21457;展在&#28165;初社&#20250;受到&#21387;制，而在“他界”的逆向伸展。 &#20070;中充&#28385;了&#23545;人&#19982;人世的&#36190;美&#19982;肯定、 &#23545;&#30495;情&#30495;&#29233;的歌&#39042;以及朴素的平等&#35266;念，意求“有功名&#25945;”、 以道&#27982;世，以“人”&#20026;中心&#23545;&#29616;&#23454;社&#20250;提出政治&#35266;照。 在&#28165;初&#27785;&#38391;的文&#22363;中，&#38378;出了耀眼的人性光&#36745;。The study of the history of Chinese literature has always had the tendency to disregard historical evidence or to be one-sided, especially the study of Pu Songling and his work, Strange Tales of Liao-Zhai. Based on historical evidence, this article makes a detailed textual research analysis of Pu Songling’s family background and the course of the imperial examination. The article holds that Pu Songling’s success in the imperial examination when he was young and his later self-indulgence by seeking the ancient route and deviating from the path and goal of the imperial examination are the main reasons for his ultimate failure in the examination and his complete disconnection from his official career. However, Pu Songling had a strong sense of self, preserved his mind, indulged his feelings, and was satisfied with life in the countryside. Moreover, he had a clear self-cognition and was not addicted to imperial examinations. He inherited the tradition of Chinese literati since the Pre-Qin dynasty, which involved paying attention to themselves and their lives. His Strange Tales of Liao-Zhai is a collection of literature and thoughts based on humanity in the late Ming dynasty, which is a reverse extension of self-consciousness development in other places from the suppression of the early Qing society. The book is full of praise for people in the world and for true love and the simple concept of equality, which is intended to benefit Confucianism and political rule, hoping to use Taoism to help the world, and to put forward political views on the basis of the people. In the dull literary world of the early Qing dynasty, this book was a dazzling brilliance of human nature.

Hoax as Method

Abstract The hoax is universally condemned as an underhanded method—a transaction that, while sometimes clever in design or execution, is injurious. Hoaxers act in bad faith, exploiting, and thus diminishing, the social trust society needs to function. Hoaxes harm individuals and undermine institutions, all the more reason to reconsider such deceptions from a functional, rather than purely moral, perspective. The hoax can be a method to do what? What are the outcomes of hoaxes, whether intended or unintended? This essay offers eight answers to these questions, drawing evidence from an array of Chinese writings and films. It argues that the hoax is a useful concept to explain certain practices, styles, and trends in Chinese literary history. Further it proposes that the hoax offers a theoretical paradigm for rethinking more venerated categories, such as creativity, art, and value, as well as method itself.

중국문학사 기술의 역사와 방향성

본고는 근대 이후 한국에서 진행되었던 중국문학사 기술의 양상과 그 특징을 정리하고 향후 중국문학사 기술의 방향에 대해 고민해보는 것을 목표로 삼고 있다. 그간 한국에서 나온 본격적인 의미의 중국문학사는 약 27종인데, 그중 유의미한 9종은 車相轅(1958·1974), 文璇奎(1972), 金學主(1974·1984·1986·1989), 丁範鎭(1982·1988), 李秀雄(1994), 許世旭(1986·1996·1999) 등 중국문학 연구 1세대들에 의해 집필된 것들이다. 이들의 기술 특징은 전체적으로 교과서형 문학사를 벗어나지 못하고 있다, 시대구분은 朝代변천을 중심으로 상위 몇 개의 단위를 다시 묶는 식으로 진행되었다, 현대문학사를 포함하더라도 1949년 이전까지만 다룬다든지, 대부분 序論장을 만들어 저자의 文學史論을 전개하고 있다든지, 한글위주의 표기와 각주를 달지 않았다 등을 들 수 있다. 향후 중국문학사 기술의 지향점으로는 첫째, 중국문학과 한국문학의 관련성에 대해 언급할 것, 漢族 중심의 문학사 기술에서 소수민족 문학에 대한 객관적이고 공정하게 평가할 것, 기존의 시대구분론을 넘어 斷代別 문학사와 專史로서 ‘文體別·作家別·流派別 文學史’로의 본격적인 전환을 할 것, 학술적 대화체로서의 연구형 문학사와 교양형 중국문학사로 구분하고, 이에 대한 국가적 차원의 지원과 대중화를 위한 전략을 병행할 것 등으로 정리할 수 있다.