Medieval Chinese Literature Research Articles

Essays in medieval Chinese literature and cultural history

Contents: Preface In and About the High T'ang: The dancing horses of T'ang The flight from the capital and the death of Precious Consort Yang Verses from on high: the ascent of T'ai Shan Lexical landscapes and textual mountains in the high T'ang Nostalgia and history in mid-9th-century verse: Cheng YA 's poem on 'The Chin-yang Gate'. Poetry from Different Angles: 7 rhapsodies of Ts'ao Chih The image of the halcyon kingfisher in medieval Chinese poetry The egret in medieval Chinese literature The memories of Lu Chao-lin Tamed kite and stranded fish: Interference and apology in Lu Chao-lin's fu The significance of the fu in the history of T'ang poetry Index.

Visions of Happiness: Daoist Utopias and Grotto Paradises in Early and Medieval Chinese Tales

Abstract This study traces the respective evolutions of two separate motifs—Daoist utopia and grotto heavens (dongtian)—in early and medieval Chinese literature, and discusses the significance of their convergence in the influential literary classic “Peach Blossom Spring” ("Taohua yuan ji") by Tao Qian (aka Tao Yuanming, 365—427). The purposes of this article are twofold: first, to enhance our understanding of the ideological and textual connections between “Peach Blossom Spring” and Confucianism and Daoism; second, to offer new insights into the unique characteristics of Chinese utopianism, where political vision and mythical imagination frequently were inter-twined.

Visions of Happiness: Daoist Utopias and Grotto Paradises in Early and Medieval Chinese Tales

Abstract This study traces the respective evolutions of two separate motifs—Daoist utopia and grotto heavens (dongtian)—in early and medieval Chinese literature, and discusses the significance of their convergence in the influential literary classic “Peach Blossom Spring” ("Taohua yuan ji") by Tao Qian (aka Tao Yuanming, 365—427). The purposes of this article are twofold: first, to enhance our understanding of the ideological and textual connections between “Peach Blossom Spring” and Confucianism and Daoism; second, to offer new insights into the unique characteristics of Chinese utopianism, where political vision and mythical imagination frequently were inter-twined.

Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History: In Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman. Edited by Paul W. Kroll and David R. Knechtges. Provo, Utah: T'ang Studies Society, 2003. xlvii, 469 pp.

Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History: In Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman. Edited by Paul W. Kroll and David R. Knechtges. Provo, Utah: T'ang Studies Society, 2003. xlvii, 469 pp.

Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History in Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman

Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History in Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman

Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (review)

Reviewed by: Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise Albert Welter (bio) Robert H. Sharf . Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 14. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. xiii, 400 pp. Hardcover $47.00, ISBN 0-8248-2443-1. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies in the field that readdress long-held assumptions about the "essential" nature of Buddhism, and its relation to Chinese culture. The book's contents are divided into an introduction and two parts. The introduction, "Prolegomenon to the Study of Medieval Chinese Buddhist Literature" (pp. 1-27), addresses problems associated with the modern study of Chinese Buddhism in an attempt to avoid faulty assumptions and place the discipline on a sounder theoretical footing. Part 1, "The Historical and Cosmological Background," is divided into two chapters, "The Date and Provenance of the Treasure Store Treatise" (pp. 31-76) and "Chinese Buddhism and the Cosmology of Sympathetic Resonance" (pp. 77-133). Part 2, "Annotated Translation of the Treasure Store Treatise," is divided into an "Introduction to the Translation" (pp. 137-142) and the three chapters of the Treasure Store Treatise text: "Chapter One: The Broad Illumination of Emptiness and Being" (pp. 143-192), "Chapter Two: The Essential Purity of Transcendence and Subtlety" (pp. 193-227), and "Chapter Three: The Empty Mystery of the Point of Genesis" (pp. 228-261). In addition, there are two appendixes: "On Esoteric Buddhism in China" (pp. 263-278) and "Scriptural Quotations in the Treasure Store Treatise" (pp. 279-286). Other sections are devoted to "Notes" (pp. 287-344), "Works Cited" (pp. 345-378), and an "Index" (pp. 379-400). "Acknowledgments" (pp. ix-x), "Abbreviations" (p. x), and "Conventions of Usage" (pp. xii-xiii) are also provided. One can only applaud Sharf's attempt to reframe the study of Chinese Buddhism in the book's introduction, "Prolegomenon to the Study of Medieval Chinese Buddhist Literature." While the argument put forth is not as provocative now as it would have been ten years ago when he first formulated it in the Ph.D. dissertation upon which the book is based, it is nonetheless cogent and timely. I begin this review with a brief overview of Sharf's position, as it is likely the part of the book that will have the widest appeal. As stated at the outset, "The modern study of medieval Chinese religion has been divided broadly between two camps: the sinologists and the buddhologists. While the former ignored Buddhism, the latter tended to ignore everything but" (p. 1). Moreover, the study of Buddhism in China was guided by essentialist assumptions that divided religious traditions (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) into a set of normative teachings, and subdivided them further into sects, [End Page 534] schools, and lineages. Like pieces on a religious chess board, these discrete elements were juxtaposed in relation to each other to represent a design of the religious terrain. Sharf finds two main problems with this approach. On the one hand, it is a representation superimposed after the fact: the construction of China's discrete traditions is almost exclusively the handiwork of later revisionists, who wove pieces of an earlier fabric to create a design largely of their own making. In short, it conveniently ignores the actual context, filled with the messy realities of political and social context and the real-life aspirations of a living congregation, to create "high religion" (a term used by Sharf on p. 4), that is, traditions comprised of a normative set of principles, doctrines, practices, et cetera, presumed to be universally valid. Sharf contends that the presumptions of normative traditions are inadequate for understanding what is actually happening on the ground (what Sharf calls "low" traditions), ultimately denigrating or dismissing whatever does not match the prescriptive standards of this approach. This leads to Sharf's second objection against essentialist approaches: they idealize a hypothetically "pure," universal teaching against which all else is judged. Never mind that there is no way to validate whose interpretation of the teaching is "correct," or that the very...

Lost Books of Medieval China

For 2000 years the state-run libraries of imperial China systematically assembled standard collections of books from the past and present. Although the collections themselves were lost through warfare and fire, the classified catalogues prepared by the Privy Director of Books were often used in compiling national bibliographies for the state-sponsored dynastic histories. Through these and other catalogues we learn much about books now lost and even the contents of lost books can be sampled through quotations in medieval encyclopedias.These lectures discuss the dynamics of loss and survival; the role of the imperial state in manipulating book culture through classification and selective preservation; the significance of lost books as an index of superseded knowledge and values. An analysis of two specific cases demonstrates the insights to be gained through textual reconstruction and the inadequacies of standard classifications in times past and present. Medieval Chinese literature emerges as a richer, more problematic, less docile body of work than the orthodoxies of the last millennium would wish.

“Shooting Sand at People's Shadow” Yingshe as a Mode of Representation in Medieval Chinese Literature

“Shooting Sand at People's Shadow” Yingshe as a Mode of Representation in Medieval Chinese Literature

The origin of white lead-from the east or the west

Authors examine ancient and medieval Chinese literature dealing with processes of making white lead and compare them with those processes known in Europe. White lead is chemically either 2PbCO 3 . Pb(OH) 2 or Pb 3 (OH) 2 (CO 3 ) 2 . The oldest commercial process in Europe, known as the old Dutch process or Dutch stack process, is described. Hu powder is described in a Ming Dynasty technical book, Tien Kung Kai Wu , dating from 1637. The Pen Tshao Kang Mu (1596) describes production of Fen hsi , the toxicity of which is noted in regard to workers. Fan Tzu Chi Jan documents the production of a white powder from metallic lead. Processes described in Theophrastus, Pliny, and Galen are reviewed. The vinegar process is not likely to have originated in the East.

Playing Second Fiddle: the Luan-Bird in Early and Medieval Chinese Literature

Playing Second Fiddle: the Luan-Bird in Early and Medieval Chinese Literature

The Image of the Halcyon Kingfisher in Medieval Chinese Poetry

Students of medieval Chinese literature can never afford to take for granted the peculiar qualities and characteristics of the physical objects referred to by poets. All too often individual plants and animals have not the same cultural and literary connotations in medieval poetry that they hold for modern readers. The present essay offers a study of the appearance, attributes, and uses of one creature-the glossy-tinted, exotic, and highly prized kingfisher-as revealed in medieval verse, especially that of the Nan-pei-ch'ao period.

The Egret in Medieval Chinese Literature

The Egret in Medieval Chinese Literature