Shishuo Xinyu Research Articles

Milk and Scent: Works About Women in the Shishuo Xlvyu Genre

Abstract"Milk and Scent" presents an interdisciplinary study of two Chinese works about women, both written after the genre of the famed Six Dynasties work, the Shishuo xinyu (A new account of tales of the world), and therefore entitled Nü Shishuo (Women's Shishuo). The two authors, one a man and the other a woman, both lived during the late imperial period and each endeavored to establish a female value system upon their disappointment with men and conventional patriarchal values. Caused by their different gender, social, and cultural positions, their viewpoints about the values of women's life conflicted, coincided, and interacted with each other. Occupying the center of this joint venture were two pivotal elements associated unmistakenably with the female body-milk and scent-the fluid and penetrating essence of which connected the female body to the rest of the world, and hence defined the value relationships in between.

NP COORDINATION IN MEDIEVAL CHINESE: A DISCOURSE APPROACH

This paper deals with the historical development, from a discourse perspective, of nominal (NP) coordination from Early Medieval Chinese, as reflected in Shishuo Xinyu 世说新语 to Late Medieval Chinese, as reflected in Dunhuang Bianwen 敦煌变文 It is shown that simple juxtaposition (or zero form) is the basic device used throughout Medieval Chinese. Conjunctions are found to appear with conjuncts that are either non-specific, or specific but sub-dividable in terms of discourse context and conception. The distinction between coordination and comitatives is maintained through a comparison of a cluster of discourse properties such as anaphora, topicality and empathy, as exhibited in the NPs of the two constructions. We show that the most prominent development from Early Medieval Chinese to Late Medieval Chinese is the grammaticization of sub-dividability. Based on the observation that unitary NPs tend to be expressed with simple juxtaposition and distant NPs overt conjunction, we propose the iconicity principle to account for the grammar of NP coordination in Medieval Chinese.