Monday, April 29, 2013

The Classic of Changes in Cultural Context: A Textual Archaeology of the Yi jing 易經

Author:
Scott Davis

Publisher:
Cambria Press

Publication Year:
2012

Abstract:

The Classic of Changes (Yi jing) is one of the most ancient texts known to human civilization, always given pride of place in the Chinese classical tradition. And yet the powerful fascination exerted by the Classic of Changes has preserved the archaic text, widely attracting readers with a continuing interest in trying to understand it as a source of reflection and guide to ordinary circumstances of human life. Its monumental influence over Chinese thought makes the text an indispensable element in any informed approach to Chinese culture.

Accordingly, the book focuses on the archaic core of the Classic of Changes and proposes a structural anthropological analysis for two main reasons. 


First, unlike many treatments of the Yi jing, there is a concern to place the text carefully in the context of the ancient culture which created it, allowing a fuller appreciation of its divinatory mission, a unique orientation towards writing and literature. 


Second, the approach differs from traditional exegesis which did not and ultimately could not address problems of textual understanding in a holistic sense. This book is not a translation of the Classic of Changes; it is a careful interpretation, or rather method of exploration, of the connectivities and topography of the text as a whole. 


By isolating the social forms of an individual life, against the background of the archaic cosmology, as the structural preconditions for each randomized divination, this analysis succeeds in illuminating dimensions of early Chinese life that would not otherwise be accessed through other historical or archaeological materials. 


This provides a penetrating anthropological view into the conditions of thought in an archaic society to a degree previously unavailable. This book is thus a bold and powerful attempt at modeling an ancient culture in a way never before conceived sociologically, a profound auto-ethnography teaching us about the philosophical anthropology of its makers and preparing the way for further understanding of later classical texts. It will be of interest to all those engaged in seeking philosophical anthropological understanding of culture and writing, and especially contributes to the study of cultures of antiquity and their modes of thought.




Saturday, April 27, 2013

古代東アジアの道路と交通

Editors: 
鈴木靖民& 荒井秀規

Publication Year:
2011

Publisher: 
勉誠出版




Abstract: 
ヒト・モノ・情報などの移動・交流・伝達を司り、国家経営の要諦をなす道路・交通制度。古代東アジアにおける大型計画道路の画期として知られ、近年その発掘調査により実相が明らかになりつつある秦の直道を中心に、古代東アジア諸国の道路構造や道路網、交通制度などを多角的に分析することで、「道路」そして「交通」の歴史的意義を解明する。


Table of Contents:

序言―古代東アジアの道路と交通 鈴木靖民

第Ⅰ部 古代の直線道路・東アジアの視角
  東アジアの古代道路―世界的視圏から 木下良
  中国古代道路史概観 武部健一
  中国陝西省富県における秦の直道遺跡の発掘 張 在明
  入唐求道巡礼行記―山越えの軍用道・始皇帝の直道を歩く 小鹿野亮
  秦の「直道」と道路構造 早川 泉

第Ⅱ部 中国唐代の道路・交通
  北宋天聖令からみる唐の駅伝制 中大輔
  唐日伝馬制小考 永田英明
  洛陽から四方に通じる大道とその遺跡 塩沢裕仁
  長安と洛陽を結ぶ二つの道―「臨泉駅」銘石刻を中心に 河野保博
  唐代の交通と商人の交易活動 荒川正晴
  唐代の通行証―標準型・簡易型による区別 桜田真理絵

第Ⅲ部 諸国の交流と道
  渤海の交通路 小嶋芳孝
  古代韓半島の道路と国家 山本孝文
  契丹(遼)の交通路と往来する人 澤本光弘
  海上のクロスロード―舟山群島と東アジア 田中史生
  古代国際交通における送使 河内春人

第Ⅳ部 古代日本の道と制度
  日本における直線道路の成立 近江俊秀
  畿内における計画道路網の形成過程 中村太一
  大野城・基肄城と車路について 木本雅康
  古代官道車路と鞠智城 鶴嶋俊彦
  敦賀周辺の古代交通路と地域認識 門井直哉
  古代東アジアの道制と道路 荒井秀規

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Critics and Commentators: The Book of Poems as Classic and Literature 詩經

Author:
Rusk, Bruce

Publication Year:
2012

Publisher:
Harvard University Press

Abstract:


At once a revered canon associated with Confucius and the earliest anthology of poetry, the Book of Poems holds a unique place in Chinese literary history. Since early imperial times it served as an ideal of literary perfection, as it provided a basis for defining shi poetry, the most esteemed genre of elite composition. In imperial China, however, literary criticism and classical learning represented distinct fields of inquiry that differed in status, with classical learning considered more serious and prestigious. Literary critics thus highlighted connections between the Book of Poems and later verse, while classical scholars obscured the origins of their ideas in literary theory.

This book explores the mutual influence of literary and classicizing approaches, which frequently and fruitfully borrowed from one another. Drawing on a wide range of sources including commentaries, anthologies, colophons, and inscriptions, Bruce Rusk chronicles how scholars borrowed from critics without attribution and even resorted to forgery to make appealing new ideas look old. By unraveling the relationships through which classical and literary scholarship on the Book of Poems co-evolved from the Han dynasty through the Qing, this study shows that the ancient classic was the catalyst for intellectual innovation and literary invention.

Monday, April 15, 2013

The Mozi as an Evolving Text 墨子

Editor:
Carine Defoort

Publisher:
Brill

Publication year:
2013

Abstract:
Mozi (ca. 479-381), known as the first outspoken critic of Confucius, is an important but neglected figure in early Chinese philosophy. The book Mozi, named after master Mo, was compiled in the course of the fifth - third centuries BCE. The seven studies included in the The Mozi as an Evolving Text take a fresh look at the Core Chapters, Dialogues, and Opening Chapters of the book Mozi. Rather than presenting a unified vision of Mohist thought, the contributions search for different voices in the text and for evolutions or tensions between its chapters. By analysing the Mozi as an evolving text, these studies not only contribute to the rejuvenation of Mozi studies, but also to the methodology of studying ancient Chinese texts.

Monday, April 8, 2013

[Dissertation] Warring States “Echoes” of the Past

Author:
Huang, Kuan-yun

School:
University of Chicago

Year:
2010

Adviser:
Donald Haper

Abstract:


Warring States 'Echoes' of the Past is about the use of quotation in Chinese literature of the Warring States period (481–221 B.C.). By considering a small number of quotations whose contents parallel what now appear in the received versions of two canonical texts, the Odes and Documents, it is possible to develop a methodology for the study of quotations, their various attestations, and the discourses in which they are embedded.
The Introduction provides a survey of quotations in ancient texts and is followed by an explanation of the approach, which considers five important aspects of a quotation: source, identification, other attestations, local context, and "practice" vs. "theory." The rest of the study is made up of four case studies.

In Chapter One, the discussion focuses on the quotation of the "Shijiu" (The cuckoo) and the imagery of a cuckoo feeding its seven chicks described in that poem. In particular, the discussion considers how the quotation is interpreted by two texts from the Warring States, the "Wuxing" (Five activities) and "Ziyi" (Black robe). Given that both the "Wuxing" and "Ziyi" are extant in multiple versions, produced at different moments in time, it is possible to see how their discussions of a single poem have changed over time.

The second chapter takes up the inherited tradition associated with the Documents. It does this by considering the "Cheng zhi wen zhi" and its interpretation of two quotations from the "Jun Shi" (Lord Shi). The investigation makes an attempt to reconstruct the discourse behind the two quotations. In the second part of the chapter, this involves placing the "Cheng zhi wen zhi" passage in the context of legends about Wu Ding, the famous ruler of the Shang. In the first part of the chapter, the situation is more complex, for the analysis there shows that the "Cheng zhi wen zhi," in its interpretation of the "Jun Shi," was drawing on another source associated with the Documents, the "Shaogao" (The announcement of Shao).

Not all references to inherited traditions in Warring States texts are marked explicitly as such. The connection can include such intertextual references as the incorporation of certain key terms; the attempt to flesh out a theme, an image, or an idea; the adaptation of the sequence in which different arguments are advanced; and the act of paraphrasing, imitating, or rewriting an inherited tradition. An investigation concerning these intertextual connections, or what I refer to as "allusions," is the subject of Chapter Three. Focusing on two closely related passages from the "Liude" (Six virtues) and "Wuxing" (Five activities), the analysis shows that the two texts consist of a type of wordplay which draws a semantic linkage between a monosyllabic word and a reduplicative binome based on their phonological identity or similarity. In both cases, it is possible to trace the reduplicative binome back to a poem now found in the received text of the Odes. Given that the two poems are themselves closely related—both concern King Wen and are placed immediately adjacent to each other in the received text of the Odes—they point to a common source, perhaps a body of teachings concerning King Wen or a shared set of vocabulary for discussing him, which served as the basis of the two poems, the "Liude," "Wuxing," and a "commentary" of the "Wuxing."

If the first three chapters illustrate the "practice" of the quotation of inherited words during the Warring States, then the final chapter turns to what one might refer to as the "theory" about inherited words, particularly, by focusing on the "Xing zi ming chu" (Nature arises from fate), one of the most important texts to have been discovered recently. The "Xing zi ming chu" is unlike all of the newly excavated texts considered in the previous three chapters in that it describes, rather than quotes from inherited tradition. This refers to an extensive discussion in that text on the Odes, the Documents, the rites, and music. Based on a comparison with all other comparable accounts in the literary record, the analysis shows that the "Xing zi ming chu" is part of a more extended discussion about instruction, human nature, ancient tradition, and the response of the mind to external things. In this way, the "Xing zi ming chu" was participating in a debate about inherited tradition, and it shared with several early accounts a similar vocabulary and certain rhetorical strategies, even if they ultimately employed these devices to stake completely different claims. It is only in theXunzi that one finds an attempt to synthesize the various positions and offer a program for the study of inherited tradition.


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

三国軍制と長沙呉簡

Author:
森本淳 (Jun Morimoto)

Publisher:
汲古書院

Publication Year:
2013

Table of Content:



  • 第一部 曹魏軍制論
    • 第一章 曹魏軍制前史−曹操軍団拡大過程からみた一考察−
    • 第二章 曹魏における刺史と将軍
    • 第三章 曹氏政権の崩壊過程に関する一試論−軍事権との関係を中心に−
    • 第四章 魏晋無血革命論−都督の人選を中心として−
    • 第五章 曹魏・西晋期における中級指揮官について−都督の支配構造に関する一考察−
  • 第二部 漢晋間の軍制と地域社会
    • 第一章 後漢末の涼州の動向
    • 第二章 曹魏政権下の「雍州」
    • 付章 曹真期についての考察
  • 第三部 長沙呉簡研究
    • 第一章 嘉禾吏民田家【ヘツ】にみえる同姓同名に関する一考察
    • 第二章 長沙呉簡からみる孫呉の下級軍事制度考初編
    • 第三章 長沙における簡牘研究の現状と長沙呉簡に関する調査覚書