Chinese Studies Commons^™

The Conception Of Canonization InThree Hundred Tang Poems, Honglin Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper argues that Three Hundred Tang Poems was compiled on the basis of the first edition of A Collection of Differentiated Tang Poems (Tang Shi Bie Cai Ji) in terms of the number of overlapped poems in both books and of the similarity of their compilation style and principles. The selection of Three Hundred Tang Poems shows that it lays equal emphasis on the educational function and the artistic appeal of poetry. It continues to accolade the High Tang poetry as An Collection of Differentiated Tang Poems did, while reducing the weight of the Early Tang poetry to highlight …

Delivered By Aesthetics: The Buddhist Taste In Wang Guowei's Comments On A Dream Of Red Mansions And The Symptoms Of His Aesthetic Thought, Hongxiang Xu, Wei Du

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Wang Guowei's Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions is far from a simple reproduction of Schopenhauer's philosophy and aesthetics. Wang incorporated his knowledge of Buddhism into the general structure of world academics, in which the individual's humanistic impulses to question the essence of life functioned as the local structures to push its smooth motion and modulate the dominant direction. Different aspects in life such as the attitude toward desire, the cognition of sufferings and the state of deliverance mirrored the mind-nature tradition of Chinese Buddhist thought, and "Buddhist taste" became both the background and intermediary of the fusion of …

Ecstasy And Writing: A Reflection On The Cultural Motif Of The Celestial Script, Yongping Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In Plato's Dialogues, Socrates repeatedly claimed that poets were the inspired spokesmen of the god. In the Westernized context of modern disciplines, the function of story and lyrics becomes opaque and hard to understand. The so-called celestial script is an important cultural phenomenon, and from the perspective of literary anthropology, the motif of celestial script implies a long-standing tradition of oracle. The motif originates from the shaman ritual system of deity-communication, divination, disaster-prevention, evocation, and healing. The celestial script bestowed by deities and the secondary oral cultural tradition fulfill the need of the primitive people for extraordinary knowledge, ability and …

Franco Moretti's Reconstructionist "New Theory Of Literary Evolution" And World Literary History, Yuping Wu, Hanwen Fang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper claims that Franco Moretti's "New Theory of Literary Evolution" as one of the subjectivity theories behind the reconstruction of world literature history could be viewed as the reproduction in the postindustrial era of the evolution theory of literature in the 19th-century West. Although Darwin's evolution theory had profound impacts in the Western theory of social sciences, its limitations in epistemology and methodology have long been exposed and challenged. Moretti's plot-style interaction proposition takes into consideration formalist theory and the Western theory of world system, trying to reconstruct an innovative theory of world literature. The paper concludes that Moretti's …

Penglai, Cinnabar, And The Great Roc: The Presence Of Daoism In Du Fu's Poetry, Haoming Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper challenges the traditional stereotype of Du Fu as poet-sage by investigating his relationship to Daoism as is reflected in his poetry and in his life. It first discusses Du Fu's subscription to Daoism as a state ideology promoted by the Tang rulers and his representation of the court in Daoist paradisiacal imagery. It then moves to a discussion of the significance of Daoism to Du Fu as a personal faith and practice, with particular attention paid to his relationship with the doctrine of gold cinnabar. Finally, it investigates the nature and the meaning of the metamorphosis of the …

What Are The Consequences Of Literary Theory? Regarding To Stanley Fish's Non-Consequentialist Concept, Houliang Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Literary theories have been long believed to have consequences. On the one hand, changes may be brought about in our reading experience and critical practices, and reforms may occur on the other. An entirely different argument, however, is raised by Stanley Fish, who claims that theory has no consequence because of its vain attempts to guide practice while taking a transcendental gesture so as to acquire a general hermeneutics of text from an absolutely impartial viewpoint. Literary theory is, therefore, a descriptive act of interpretation at best instead of an act of interpretation; hence, it cannot bring about any practical …

Cultural Turn And The Legitimacy Of The Theory Of Contemporary Chinese Aesthetic Ideology, Yanfeng Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper starts its investigation from the perspective of discourse legitimacy with respect to the structural transformation of contemporary social culture and the transfiguration of the mechanism of discourse production. It tries to trace the working logic underlying the historical development of the theory of aesthetic ideology and map out how its legitimacy is produced, ossified and trapped into crisis. The theory of aesthetic ideology was formed in the 1980s, and this paper takes its discursive structure, attribute and function as obvious symptoms of "modernity." Due to the fracture of "modernity," the transformation of socio-cultural structure and the transfiguration of …

How Can A Literary Theory Be In The Era Of Post Theories?, Wei Song

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Theoretical paradigm of modernity is met with unprecedented challenge and crisis, amid contemporary innovation and transformation of thoughts, thinking and discourse. Issues emerging from the post theory and "after theory" become important points for academic reflection. Post theories belong to the theoretical paradigm of postmodernity with a deconstructionist critical spirit. The reconstruction of literary theory in the era of post theories is not only a response and a critical questioning to contemporary cultural transformation, and the reality concern and critical dimension are the most demanding cultural-political issues in the process of the reconstruction.

The Gestation, Evolution And Cultural Implication Of The Concept Of "Author" In Ancient China, Chunqing Li

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper examines the development of the concept of "author" in ancient China from the pre-Qin to the Han-Wei Period. The trajectory can be found from Confucius's "explicating without writing down" to the claim that "the authors are too holy to be named" in The Book of Rites, and down to Cao Pi's "Jiayi could be named as a real author [on the basis that] his 'On the Qin's Governance' evaluated Zhou and Qin's merits and demerits, explicated the uninterpreted phenomena, exemplified with the mores from the past three dynasties and illuminated with the sages' teaching." This process, from the …

戰國文字構形特徵研究, Yan Ho Siu

Lingnan Theses

綜觀歷來的戰國文字研究，不少學者均主張依地域分系，學者何琳儀(1943-2007)將戰國文字分為齊、燕、晉、楚、秦五系，近代研究亦多取何氏的分域方法。學者李運富(1957-)認為，地域特點僅屬文字的書寫風格，不能作為分系的依據，質疑戰國文字的分域方法。何琳儀於其著作《戰國古文字典》與《戰國文字通論》中，嘗試列舉不同字例，以五系的分域方法，收集大量戰國文字的資料，概括構形的地域特點，唯何氏的論說未有對五系文字的特徵作更整體和深入的考察。基於前代學者的研究，本文以戰國文字為研究核心，透過構形的比較與歸納，補充近年出土的材料，嘗試從不同的角度，探討戰國文字的構形特徵與演變情況，論證戰國文字「東、西土分用」的說法以及劃分成五系的必要。

本文的主體部分共分五章。第二章從微觀的角度，依個別域系分類，逐一援引字列，分析當中的字符、部件，集中呈現各系的地域特徵。第三章同樣以域系作區分，嘗試通過整合與歸類，指出不同字符、部件的類化現象，嘗試凸現各系文字的相異之處。第四章集中比對「東土四系」(齊、燕、晉、楚)與「西土秦國」的文字，通過字例的展示，歸納彼此相異的構形，論證王國維(1877-1927)等學者主張戰國文字「東、西土分用」的說法。第五章以宏觀的角度，逐一展示、分析五系文字構形各異的個體字符，嘗試以相同的字例，說明五系文字各自存有的地域特徵。第六章以五系文字當中，構形同時相同與相異的字符為例，分析當中的異、同原因，了解五系文字的構形演變。

通過本文橫向與縱向的文字比對，可知五系文字的構形或受書寫材料影響，但當中演變並不受載體所限。戰國五系文字同源於殷周文字，經過程度不一的構形演變，加上各域系對文字所作具規範的整合，五系文字的構形越趨不同，地域特徵更為明顯，可證戰國文字有分作五系的必要。從本文的不同分類與探討，可見戰國文字存在「東、西土分用」的情況，但僅為當時文字構形異、同的現象之一。五系文字的構形異、同存在不同情況，表示戰國文字處於演變的階段，說明戰國五系文字「同中趨異」的現象。

A Further Reflection On The References Of Verbal Signs And Images, Jingpeng Zhao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Language and writing are two different systems. Language as a system of sound symbols has the unique feature of containing "image" (verbal icon) in the sounds, and while writing, compared with the other images, are images that can be pronounced. A further reflection leads to the observation that the resemblance between the verbal icon and the referent can only decide the relation between the meaning and the referent but cannot undermine the arbitrary relationship between the pronunciation and the verbal icon or between the signifier and the signified. In other words, it cannot change the nature of the linguistic sign …

Aesthetic Anthropology Should Focus On The Aesthetic Connotation Of Ethnic Culture, Zheng Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

This paper argues that aesthetic anthropological research should be directed at aesthetic ideas and their external forms of ethnic culture, as well as the general principles of the gestation, change and development of these ideas and forms. When the aesthetic contents of ethnic cultures are contaminated by industrial civilization and popular culture, with their unique core value increasingly undermined, aesthetic anthropology will lose ground of its academic focus. Aesthetic anthropology should aim to reveal the aesthetic connotation of ethnic cultures and maintain the positivist unique quality of anthropology.

Cleanth Brooks's Theory Of Fiction And His Critical Practice, Feiliang Fu, Shunqing Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Cleanth Brooks' critical study on fiction, especially on William Faulkner's, is a remarkable achievement. Brooks claimed that there is no essential difference between fiction criticism, poetry criticism and drama criticism. In fiction criticism, Brooks' emphases remain on textual skills such as irony, paradox and symbol, taking fiction as an organism that should be independent of the social life and political propaganda, and opposing Romantic sentimentalism. Nevertheless, Brooks also lay great weight to the historical context and geographical environment of an author, emphasizing the influence of an author's life experience and entire body of works on a particular fiction, and attaching …

Discourse Power And The International Status Of Chinese Contemporary Literary And Art Theory, Shengxun Shi

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Discourse power is a problem emerged when Chinese art encounters the Western discourse hegemony. Theoretical expression is crucial to the acquisition and presence of the discourse power over art, while the discourse power over literature and art theory is essential to Chinese art discourse power. International status is an entailing problem of the internationality of discourse power and it encompasses discourse power into the global framework of totality. However, in the global framework of literary and art theory China remains silent, and thus the issue of the international status of Chinese literary and art theory emerges. Chinese theoretical scholars have …

From The Peach Blossom Fan ToThe Classic Of Mountains And Seas: A Way On Chinese Literature Of Professor Shi Ting-Quan (Richare E. Strassberg), Guozhong Peng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Professor Shi Tingquan (Richare E. Strassberg) in UCLA had been exposed to Chinese culture in his childhood. Later, he studied in Princeton University for his Doctor's degree, his research was on K'ung Shang-ren's play The Peach Blossom Fan and later he wrote a book named The World of K'ung Shang-ren: A Man of Letters in Early Ch'ing China. In the book, he argued that K'ung put many things he had experienced into his play and made it into a semi-biographical play. K'ung's Peach Blossom Fan and the beautiful sceneries of the South Yangtze River depicted in this book further intrigued …

On The Tragic Consciousness Of Chinese Aesthetics, Zhirong Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In Chinese aesthetics, tragic consciousness shows as the poetic experience of a subject's empathy with objects, and this experience covers the bereavement or life-long separation, which may also reflect in the melancholic sense for the passing of spring and the coming of autumn in Chinese ancient literary works. The tragic consciousnesses of the literati, the hero and the female have their particular characteristics and inherent spirit. In ancient Chinese tragedies is seen a general transition of spirit from the heroic to the common and secular. On the one hand, this tragic consciousness is deeply influenced and constrained by Chinese cultural …

On The Ways For Literature To Pervade Reality, Xuan Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The paper raises the issue on how valid the traditional categorization of creative methods such as realism, romanticism and modernism can explain the uniqueness and originality of classical writers such as Dostoevsky and Lu Xun etc. It observes that classical writers have shared experience in the originality of literary creation which shows in their unique questions in philosophy or humanity targeting at the social reality of their own time while establishing their own understanding upon the questions and the understanding leads to the unique structuring of literary works. Therefore, a methodological schema can be found between individual concerns, personal understanding …

The Antiquity-Revival Movement And The Study Of Ci-Poetry In The Ming Dynasty, Yi Yu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Antiquity-Revival Movement had a profound influence on literature in the Ming Dynasty, which also showed in poetics as the devaluing of poetry written in the Song Dynasty and establishing a direct lineage between the then prevailing Ci-poetry to the ancient poetic tradition of the Han-Wei and Six-Dynasties. Thus, the study of Ci-poetry in Ming Dynasty expanded its scope of exploration into aspects such as the tonal, lyrical and aesthetic qualities in poetry. Due to the inherent affinity between the Ci-poetry in the Southern Song Dynasty and Shi-poetry in the Song Dynasty, the poetics of Ci-poetry in the Ming Dynasty …

The Construction Of Refined-Vulgar Ci-Poetry System In The Northern Song Dynasty With Liu Yong As A Benchmark, Licheng Xu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Before the Song Dynasty, Ci-poetry was a form of ballad singing, often having an impromptu nature, and therefore it was regarded as a genre of lowbrow literature. Later, scholar-officials in the Northern Song Dynasty were attracted by the new form and tried to make it a literary form to entertain their taste and talent. During the process of legitimization and canonization, Liu Yong, as a representative popular Ci-poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, played a uniquely important role. Scholar-officials identified vulgarity as the characteristic of Liu's ci-poems as they mostly belonged to the popular lowbrow lyrics. The scholar-officials then benchmarked …

The Gestation Of Foundational Meaning In Aesthetical Activities, Yuan Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In anthropological aesthetic studies, aesthetic activities in primitive society are usually part of others activities. Aesthetic studies show that art, due to its intuitive nature, is foundational in human practice, and that aesthetic activities are not attached to other activities but underlie all the activities. The conflict between the two theoretical approaches has raised questions which concern whether the original, fundamental and authentic value of aesthetic activities is applicable to primitive society, and whether the primitive people is a people without aesthetic activities. Therefore, there is a need to substantiate the original gestation of the foundational meaning of aesthetic activities …

The Tool And The Entity: The Language Philosophy In Zhuangzi's Aesthetics, Xianglin Yan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Zhuangzi's critique on language exhibits a deep contradiction in his thinking as he considered language to be both a tool and an entity, despite its dialectical nature. Language is a type of poetic spiritual existence and contributes to the production of culture, and the text of Zhuangzi illustrates Zhuangzi's poetic view of language.

漢族洪水神話傳說中的神異動物：論鯀禹治水神話及陷湖傳說, Kit Man Poon

Lingnan Theses

洪水，是世界性的神話、傳說母題，中國自古水患頻繁，其中漢族產生大量洪水神話和傳說。鯀禹治水神話和陷湖傳說仍然傳頌至今。

受萬物有靈觀念和動物崇拜影響，人類將動物神格化、形象化，創造大量神異動物。洪水神話傳說中的神異動物擁有怪誕外形和神秘力量，能夠掌治洪災，體現先民的豐富想像和對力量的崇拜。神異動物與人類的互動關係象徵性地展現人類對洪水態度的兩個面向：鯀禹治水神話中全獸形和半人獸形的神祇擔當人類英雄治水的強敵或助力，百靈護佑的禹征伐神異動物反映人類反抗自然的積極精神。陷湖傳說中洪水是神異動物對人類的懲罰，包括報應、報答、報恩三方面的果報概念，呈現神異動物較為人性化的面貌。陷湖傳說中人類不能亦不會逃過洪水，顯示人類無法違背命運的宿命意識，強調神異動物的權威性。除了強烈的宗教意識，陷湖傳說呈現惡者遭殃善者得救的對立，具懲惡揚善的教化作用。陷湖傳說的道德意識結民間信仰，加強傳說的阻嚇性。

歷代的神話和傳說中神異動物以不同形態反覆出現，呈現與人類的不同關係，神異動物在洪水母題中的意義卻未有專門討論。本論文從變形、主題、二元結構三個方面，分析神異動物在鯀禹治水神話和陷湖傳說中扮演的角色及顯示的意義，探討當中的漢族文化思維。

Fearless: Bruce Larson And Alice Carter, Bruce A. Larson, Alice Carter

SURGE

This Monday, Professor of political science and public policy, Bruce Larson, Assistant Director of Development, Alumni, and Parent Relations, and Technology, Alice Carter, and daughter Lily Larson will be leaving for a semester in Beijing, China. Professor Larson will be joining the ranks of Gettysburg College’s Fulbright recipients, teaching two courses at the China Foreign Affairs University while conducting his research.

Kantian Influence On Early Zhu Guangqian, Qian Cao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Based in a close reading of Zhu Guangqian's pre-1949 works on aesthetics, the paper delineates the relationship between Zhu's early aesthetics and Kant and points out the fundamental influence of Kantian aesthetics on the formation of Zhu's aesthetic theory. The paper claims that Croce's apparent influence shown as the psychological aspects in Zhu'a pre-1949 aesthetics should be understood as selective acceptance after Zhu's acceptance of Kantian aesthetics. Kant's main influence upon Zhu's aesthetics is Zhu's acceptance of the uninterested non-utilitarian formalism and the sublime theory, although Zhu had held some reservation about Kant's aesthetics, especially after 1930s when he began …

A New Horizon Of The Study Of Classical Chinese Literature, Bowei Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In recent decade, the research on overseas Chinese classics has become a new trend in the international sinology. There are profound internal and external reasons to this trend, and the formation of the trend is realized by newly-found materials which call for a new theoretical proposition and a new method of thinking. The "novelty" about the trend shows in the close-reading of new materials and the reflection of academic position of sinology, and these practices may be expected to initiate a new departure for the Chinese scholarship in the 21th century. In brief, the research paradigm will shift from "the …

On Benjamin's Critical Model Of "Aestheticization Of Politics" Via An Analysis Of Italian Futurism, Yun Zhou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In the epilogue of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Walter Benjamin developed a critical model of "aestheticization of politics" in which Italian Futurism is criticized as fascism, which has resulted in heated debates on the relationship between the avant-garde and fascism. This paper attempts to revisit Benjamin's critical model of "aestheticization of politics" by describing and analyzing the context of modernity in which the model is formed in hope of disclosing Benjamin's insights into modernity. The paper tries to justify the model's critical effectiveness for the avant-garde and the contemporary culture. The paper then proceeds …

On The Relationship Between Self-Annotations And The Lyrical Implications In The Tang-Dynasty Poetry, Na Wei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Self-annotation is an important and a popular phenomenon in the history of the Tang-Dynasty poetry, and it creates a complex relationship with the inner lyrical implications of poetry. Different modes of self-annotations in different developmental phases result in different relationships between self-annotations and poetic sentiments. The relation evolves from estrangement during early Tang and Dali Reign, to integration in Middle Tang and to the final recession in the Late Tang. This evolution shows that self-annotations follow a trajectory around lyrical implication of the poetry with a centrifugal or centripetal movement. The paper concludes that the mapping of the relationship between …

The Significance And Influence Of Gu Jin Ci TongAs Exemplified By The Poet Wang Hong, Xuejun Chen

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The compilers of Gu Jin Ci Tong (A Definitive Anthology of Ci-Poetry from the Ancient to the Present) favored the Southern Song Dynasty Ci-Poetry and slow-tune Ci-poetry, and allowed for the coexistence of both graceful and the bold styles of Ci-poetry, with a special highlight on Xin Qiji's Ci-poems. The principle of selection and the idea about Ci-poetry influenced the compilation of Ci Zong (A Comprehensive Anthology of Ci-Poetry) by Zhu Yizun. Wang Hong, a key figure who set the fashion of Ci-poetry in Meili, played an important role behind Zhu's compilation. After moving to Meili, Zhu developed a close …

The Urban Imagination Of Shanghai Literature: With Focus Upon The 1990s', Yuan Feng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Urbanity and urbanization became the two key objectives of Shanghai Literature which claimed to aim at contemporaneity, literariness and experimental spirit, and the aims had also helped to construct a context for the magazine's popularity in the 1990s', and this made the magazine a leading literary periodical in China. One the one hand, it promoted varied ways to discuss, describe and present urban scenes. On the other hand, it excelled in the literary magazine market through its internal restructuring and external positioning to create a style of being open and multifaceted, and hence the magazine succeeded in establishing a literary …

An Investigation Into The Relationship Between The Categories "Qi" And "Vein" In Ancient Literary Theory, Xiang Xiong

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

"Qi" (vital force) and "Vein" are very important for traditional Chinese medicine and geomancy, and they are significant categories in ancient Chinese literary theory as well. The relationship between "Qi" and "Vein" relates to the meaning of the compound phrase "Qimai." When the two-character phrase is of subordinate structure, it refers to a channel by which "Qi" flows in a literary text. When it is of parallel structure, the phrase points to the filling-up of "Vein" by "Qi" and the controlling of "Qi" by "Vein." The evolution of the concept of "Wenqi" (literary vital force) makes possible the concept of …