Chinese Studies Commons^™

On The Suzhou-Poetics Centrism In Qian Qianyi's Selected Poems Across Dynasties, Yijin Bai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Qian Qianyi's Selected Poems across Dynasties was compiled with a highlighted local style and taste centred on the poetics developed around Suzhou (traditionally called Wu). The compiler of Selected Poems across Dynasties had consciously evaluate and position the various poetic schools in Ming Dynasty from the perspectives of Suzhou poetics, and the perentage of Suzhou-originated authors in those poetic schools and the affinity with the Suzhou poetics were highlighted to delineate the development of Suzhou-poetics as the mainstream and authodox source of literature in the Ming Dynasty.

On The Theoretical Innovations Of The Chinese Cultural Poetics, Zuzhao Gu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Chinese cultural poetics as constructed by Chinese scholars is a response to the international academic trend in the 20th century, and it has not only developed a new arena for literary studies and literary theory in China but also brought about an all-around and profound theoretical innovation. This paper focuses on the cultural and aesthetic features of literature, cultural identity and subjecthood of nationality, and the theoretical innovation attributed to the "other" theory. The paper summarizes four main features of Chinese cultural poetics, and argues for the theoretical potentials of Chinese cultural poetics.

China's 80后 And 90后: The Next Generation Of Leaders In The World's Next Superpower, A Students-Teaching-Students Course, Patrick Slavin

Senior Honors Projects

In light of China’s recent reemergence as a global superpower, it is becoming increasingly important for westerners to understand its history and culture. For current college students, the culture of China’s youth is particularly pertinent.

In this project, a course, HPR 107: Chinese Youth Culture, was designed and taught through the Students-Teaching-Students program, which provides senior Honor’s Program students the opportunity to design and teach their own Honor’s Program course. The HPR 107 course focuses on China’s 80后 and 90后 generations, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.

This multi-faceted project includes: subject matter research, course development, pedagogy development, …

Political Interpretations Of The Lotus Sutra, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Sk., Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra; Ch., Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng; Jp., Myōhō renge kyō), commonly known as the Lotus Sutra, is arguably the most influential sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and certainly one of the most revered sacred texts in East Asia. Via parables and short stories, the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra indirectly present a number of core doctrines of the early Mahāyāna, the form of Buddhism that first emerged in India and West Asia roughly five centuries after the death of the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563–486 …

Across The Red Steppe: Exploring Mongolian Music In China And Exporting It From Within, Thalea C. Davis

Masters Theses

Mongolian music culture as it exists in China is a unique entity unto itself as it features a base of traditional Mongolian practice and also includes aspects of Chinese music and culture. As the world becomes more interconnected and as China continues to display a markedly Han society to the world at large, Mongolian musicians and Mongolian-music enthusiasts in China maintain and evolve their musical culture in a nebulous middle-ground between Mongolian and Han-Chinese culture. How Mongolian music culture in China came to be and its ultimate function in global society are the key questions being investigated in this thesis. …

The Intellectual Trajectory Of Marxist Literary Theory From Abstraction To Concreteness, Diyong Long

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Marx did not take literature and art as isolated phenomena but approached literary phenomena with roughly the same way of thinking as he investigates other social phenomena. The general intellectual trajectory in his investigation followed the path from abstraction to concreteness, which exhibited in literary studies as the following three aspects. First, writers should observe the society and its age from historical point of view, and create typical character reflecting tendency of the age and social nature. Secondly, characterization in writings should demonstrate Shakespeare's realism instead of Schiller’s method so as to avoid turning the character into a mere mouthpiece …

The Political Position Of Poets In ThePolis: An Interpretation Of Pindar'sEighth Pythian, Lin Lou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

As the greatest lyric poet in ancient Greece, Pindar achieved the peak of the Greek traditional choral poems through his beauteous odes and his teaching about aristocratic moral teaching. This paper takes the use of the first person, a conventional technique in his odes, as the starting point to approach the odes. T he paper tries to analyze the poet's political position in the polis (city) through a detailed reading of Lines 60-80 of Pindar's "Eighth Pythian Ode." In this section, the first person and the second person are employed in the pray to Apollo, the claim for the harmonious …

The Two Narratives Of The History Of Avant-Garde Poetry After The "Misty Poetry", Yuqin Jiang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the 1990s, the avant-garde poets had a very strong consciousness of literary history, and some had even kept a detailed record of creative activities. While some proclaimed that they were writing for literary history, there were more poets who, unsatisfied with the aesthetic norms and rules advocated by the scholastic critics, would engage themselves into the critical practice by writing essays, editing poetry anthologies and compiling collections of critical essays on poetry. In the 1990s' avant-garde poetic circle, the poets managed to be the masters of their own poetry, and their active engagement into the theoretical exploration and the …

The Word Order In The Collective Titles For Authors In The Tang Dynasty And Its Implications For Literary Criticism, Shijin Luo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

It is a common phenomenon to group writers under a collective title in the history of literature and literary research, especially in the Tang Dynasty. This phenomenon, as well as how to group the authors and in what order to call them, is meaningful to literary criticism. As the collective titles are highly acronymized or very abstract, the process of de-acronymizing and origin-seeking becomes an approach of interpretation, during which the re-examination of the original authors’ achievements may help to promote the process of canonization. Collective titles have different significance and value in the history of Chinese literature, and some …

Neo-Confucianism's Premises Facing Aesthetic Questions: Art, Ethics And The Way In Zhou Dunyi's Thought, M'Bondjo Maud

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) is commonly considered as the founder of the Confucian revival during the Song Dynasty (976-1279). In his moral treatise, Penetrating the Book of Changes, Zhou Dunyi clearly distinguishes "art (艺)" from "reality/truth (实)," and claims that the role of "expression (文)" is to express the Sage Kings' Way (圣王之道). The claim leads us to ask to what extent "art" helps along ethics in the restoration of the Way and whether there is a philosophy of art in Zhou Dunyi's moral discourse. The paper observes that cheng (诚 sincerity) is a central concept in Zhou Dunyi's thought and …

On The New Media Culture And Production Of Space: In The Perspective Of Binary Relation Between Space And Place, Jun Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

One eternal issue in the study of space is the binary relation of space and place, which is reshaped in the age of new media by the mimic culture. The production of space observes the logic of consumerism while it also refreshes the belief in localism. This profound confliction between space and place is manifested in fans culture, cyber subculture, fundamentalism, and even cyber-terrorism, thus it attributes to an increasingly serious global culture of risk. At the present age of new media, the space crisis can be approached mainly through the simple strategies of localism, everyday discourse and utopianism, which …

On The Paradigm Shift In Literary Theory Research, Dengyun Dai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper claims that researches on literary theory in contemporary China have been restricted in intellectual horizon and displays a tendency of homogeneity and one-dimensionality, which in turn results in a path that depends on the novelty and change. The author argues that one fundamental way to offset this dependence is to return to the origin and explore the source. This paper tries to redefine the problem consciousness and intellectual horizon and re-clarify the methodological path of literary theory research in order to promote the interventional nature of literary theory research and the mergence between theory and thoughts in the …

Prof. Xu Zhongyu's Researches Into Literary Theory, Qinghua Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper tries to delineate Prof. Xu Zhongyu's contribution to the establishment of Chinese literary theory. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, Prof. Xu Zhongyu has been making efforts to approach literary theory with an aim to establish the discipline of Chinese theory of literature and art which may be grounded on traditional Chinese literary criticism. His theorization has covered such significant issues as the value of literature, the artistic principles of literary creativity and criticism, and the national characteristics of literary theory. His insightful observations and investigations have constructed a unique research framework that bases on literariness, centers …

The Boat As Polis: Some Issues Of The Political Philosophy In Early Greek Poetry, Xiaofeng Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The early Greek lyric poetry is not only about love or love story, but also responds to the revolution of the 6th century B.C. It reflects the fundamental experiences of the transition from aristocracy to democracy, which is the focus of this paper when examining the poems of Solon, Alcaeus and Theogenis.

The Education Of Teachers Of Chinese And The Spirit Of University: On Xu Zhongyu's Literary Theory, Xiaoguang Lu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The uniqueness of Xu Zhongyu's literary theory lies in his people-oriented thought of "teacher education". The first remarkable characteristic is its concern with issues specific to the cultivation of the grass-root talents. Xu Zhongyu's literary theory enters into the field of College Chinese because of the implicit reason that he reinterprets the classical meaning of "normal" to relate with the spirit of university. Xu Zhongyu's literary theory and his long career in Chinese normal education may provide new inspiration to establish the spirit of university different from Western concept of "normal" education.

Zhu Guangqian And Expressionism: An Alternative Way To Bridge The Chinese And Western Aesthetics, Xun Dai

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper claims that the duality mode of Sino-Western comparative aesthetics research and the en vogue mentality in prevailing in China hinders our understanding of the Westernization process of Chinese aesthetics from multiple perspectives. One important thread of development that has been neglected is Zhu Guangqian's expressionist aesthetics. Influenced by the dominating lyrical tradition in Chinese poetics and the Western expressionism prevalent in the early 20th century, Zhu found it hard to buy the mimetic theory in the Western tradition and the Marxist epistemological aesthetics born out of it. Instead, Zhu developed his own expressionist aesthetics by integrating the Western …

On The Compilation Objectives Of Xiao Tong's Selections Of Refined Literature: From The Perspective Of Wei Zhao's "On Gaming", Xun Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wei Zhao's (204-273) "On Gaming" had not drawn much attention before the Kingdom of Liang (502-557), probably because its tenets were at odds with the social mores promoted by Emperor Wu of Liang. Wei's text was included into the Selections of Refined Literature because on the one hand it appealed to Xiao Tong's personal taste as he wanted to express his distain toward gaming and on the other hand Xiao Tong hoped to convey a warning to some officials and to caution and dissuade his own father. This paper tries to demonstrate through the above mentioned example that specific reasons …

"Heaven's Scheme" And Randomness From The Perspective Of Comparative Literary Theories, Mingfen Huang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In classical Chinese literary theories, "Tianji" (Heaven's scheme) as a categorical concept has its root in Taoist concept of inspiration, focusing on the conditions of timing, opportunities and changes in natural existence, and it emphasizes on the artists' reaction in response to the changing circumstances. The concept of "randomness" as applied in the Western theories of digital art, comes from the mathematical theory on probability, which focuses on the contingency of artifact and takes it as the very opportunity of exploring ideas. Neither the heaven's scheme nor randomness falls within the conceptual category of pure probability, but they reflect the …

"Return What Is China’S To China": A Contrapuntal Reading Of "The Veiled And The Unveiled" And "Fu, Bi, Xing", Gang Luo

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wang Guowei's theory about the poetic states of being "veiled (ge) and unveiled (buge)" derives from Schopenhauer's distinction between concept and intuition as well as the traditional dualistic antithesis of rationality and emotion of modern Western aesthetics. This paper argues that Wang's theory is displaced from and contradicted with the critical paradigm of "Fu-Bi-Xing (straightforward narrative, explicit comparison, implicit comparison)" in Chinese ancient poetics. Due to this displacement and contradiction, Wang Guowei regards Bi and Xing as "the veiled". The rupture inherent in Wang Guowei's poetics has long been overlooked and his theory of "artistic conception" has been treated as …

A Critical Investigation Into The Evolution Of Zhu Gongdiao's Musical Narrative Scheme, Zhimei Sheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhu Gongdiao ("All-Mode Tune") is a composite musical narrative art, which shows as singing various modal tunes to various keys, and it was the popular folk opera form in the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties. Musical narrative scheme of All-Mode Tune develops from decreasing use of keys to increasing use of modal tunes, and alongside this development is the change from lyrics-centred form to operatic form. As a folk art form, All-Mode Tune succeeded the ancient "Tanci" (chanting lyrics) after the "bianwen" (transformative text) and preceded the drama in the present form. Therefore, All-Mode Tune was associated with the two …

A Critical Survey Of Xu Zhongyu's Theory Of Literature Around The Anti-Japanese War, Xuezhen Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Around the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945), Xu Zhongyu wrote much in the area of literary theory which covered literary criticism, national literature, literary language, etc. His essays were positive in the value pursuit and methodologically scientific in the methodology, and they still have academic vitality and enlightenment.

An Anthropological Reflection On Lu Xun'sOld Tales Retold, Lili Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper takes an interdisciplinary perspective and tries to present an anthropological reflection on the stories in Lu Xun's Old Tales Retold. For Lu Xun, the stories were important, especially the old stories in the ancient classics, and he creatively rewrote the classical stories to get across what he wanted to convey. In his rewriting, Lu Xun combined materials from many classics so as to make the retold stories take on artistic features of creative stories. Lu Xun's Old Tales Retold merged well into the development of fiction writing in Chinese literary history, which evolved from the antique myth and …

An Exposition Of Zhu Xi's "Preface To Annotations ToThe Book Of Songs", Hui Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhu Xi (1130-1200) had written three prefaces to The Book of Songs. His "Preface to Annotations to The Book of Songs" was not intended for the book it prefaced but for the aborted earlier book Collected Interpretations of The Book of Songs. This preface was not the later "Prefaces to The Book of Songs," which were generally referred to as The Bigger Preface and The Smaller Preface. The present paper takes "Preface to Annotations" as a transitional critical text in Zhu Xi's thought and tries to explore the dialogic relationship between this preface and the Bigger and Smaller Prefaces. The …

Between Mythos And Philosophia, Keping Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Chronologically, mythos (myth) came into being before philosophia (philosophy). Mythos tends to make people "wonder" and "think" whereas philosophia attempts to work out the meaning of this wondering. Thus it leads to a process of endless exploration. This being the case, philomythos is in a way like philosophos. In other words, he who loves myths is somewhat like a philosopher who loves wisdom and pursues truth. Plato himself is not merely a myth-lover but a myth-maker, and he therefore develops a dialogue-based philosophy saturated with poetic wisdom. It is through the interaction between mythos and philosophia that mythos becomes rationalized …

Arendt's Aesthetics Of The Political And Its Modern Politico-Philosophical Implications, Hecheng Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The love for the world leads to the hatred of the world's evil; the hatred of the claustrophobia from the evil in the private leads to the passionately exploration into the human’s common conditions in the public. Arendt found her solution to the modern political predicament in the performance of virtuosity, which transcends "making" and material production. The transcendence aims to implant into the increasingly perfected political communications the ontological significance of productivity and production relations, while the performance is an experience of modernity (i.e. the aesthetic) in an effort to undermine the will to good and remove the desire …

Chinese Images In English Poetry: A Comparative Reading Between Literary Fictionalization And Western Consciousness, Fanjian Zeng, Hanbo Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

English poetry has a longstanding tradition in creating images about China. The images, from the perspective of literary anthropology by Wolfgang Iser, cannot be freed from interrelated unity of opposites between fictionalization, imagination and facts. While fictionalization and imagination are essential to poetry, their foundation and destination have to be the facts about China and the subjectivity of the Western. If native Chinese poetics is applied into a comparative reading of the images of China in English poetry, especially by focusing on the subject-object relationship shown in literary fictionalization and the Western consciousness through an empirical study based on linguistic …

From "和" To There: Marxist Hermeneutics With Chinese Characteristics, Gregory Mahoney Josef

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

We begin by synthesizing Karl Marx's historical periods qua modes of production with Michel Foucault's epistemological periodizations — epistemes, which we then combine with Fredric Jameson's work on ideologemes. Jameson's acknowledged weakness is a failure to address those positive if not utopian elements that might be instrumentally valuable for deconstructing or disassembling ideologemes in the course of historical progress. We then argue that such alternatives would be, ideally, concrete universals (具体的普遍), and would be both trans-epistemic and trans-historical. We then provide several reasons why it seems reasonable to search for the concrete universal par excellence within Chinese linguistic and philosophical …

Media Ontology: The Philosophical Basis Of The Research Of New Media Literature And Art, Xiaoxi Shan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

To construct media ontology is to lay a philosophical foundation for the research into new media literature and art. Media ontology, compared with media epistemology and media ousiaology, is a post-metaphysical media philosophy grounded on the theories of modern ontology, and the theoretical context is constructed by the theoretical reflections from the perspective of media philosophy and the studies on the transition from classic ontology to modern ousiaology. The three illogically interconnected propositions of media ontology are "to be is to inform," "the medium is information" and "media is being." In this light, being can be interpreted through information activities …

Review Of "Strangers At Home: History And Subjectivity Among The Chinese Communities Of West Kalimantan, Indonesia" By Yew-Foong Hui, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of "Strangers at Home: History and Subjectivity among the Chinese Communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia" by Yew-Foong Hui, published by Brill, 2011.

The Narrative Function And Stylistic Significance Of The Official Papers In The Tang-Dynasty Fictions, Guofu Cheng, Liang He

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Tang-Dynasty fictions comprise of writings in different styles and of different genres, and official papers take up a considerable part. Official papers have prescribed function and specific purpose, and they can be divided into two categories. One category includes the official papers that go to the upper levels, which may be used in both the officialdom and the religious circle. The other category includes the official papers that are sent to the lower levels in the officialdom. Official papers in the Tang fictions function in two aspects. On the one hand, they perform the narrative functions in terms of theme …