Believing in Ghosts and Spirits: The Concept of Gui in Ancient China

Author:

Hu Baozhu 胡寳柱

Publication date:

September 22

Publisher: 

Routledge

Abstract:

The present book by Hu Baozhu explores the subject of ghosts and spirits, thus mapping the religious landscape of ancient China. The main focus is on the character gui 鬼, an essential key to the understanding of spiritual beings there. The author analyses the character gui in various materials – lexicons and dictionaries, excavated manuscripts and inscriptions, and received classical texts. Gui is examined from the perspective of its linguistic root, literary interpretation, ritual practices, sociopolitical implication, and cosmological thinking.

The Shuowen jiezi’s interpretation of gui as a sort of negative force tending to harm people’s properties or even their lives greatly influenced later understandings of the concept. In addition to early lexicons, the present study also traces the understanding of gui in oracle bone script (jiaguwen) and bronze script (jinwen) where gui chiefly referred to concrete persons, groups or places, seen as remote, foreign, vigorous or malevolent, and then to ghosts/spirits of the dead. Linguistically the compound phrase guishen came later to denote all spiritual beings. The book further investigates essential layers of meaning of gui and its literary functions as a part of speech in some Chinese classics, the Zuozhuan, Liji, Lunyu, Zhuangzi and Mozi as well as in popular traditions, namely the Rishu (Day Book) unearthed in 1975.
In the gradual process of coming to know the otherworld in terms of ghosts and spirits, Chinese people in ancient times attempted to identify and classify these spiritual entities. In their philosophical thinking, they uniquely connected the subject of gui with the movement of the universe. Thus the belief in ghosts and spirits in ancient China appeared to be a moral standard for all, not only providing a room for individual religiosity but also implementing the purpose of family-oriented social order, the legitimization of political operations, and the under-standing of the way of Heaven and Earth.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Preliminary Understanding of Gui
Chapter 2: The Original Meaning of the Character Gui: An Examination of Jiaguwen and Jinwen
Chapter 3: What’s in a Character? Definition and Variegated Characteristics of Gui in the Zuozhuan and Liji
Chapter 4: Confucian, Daoist, and Mohist Perspectives on the Concept of Gui
Chapter 5: Folk-oriented Usages of Gui in the Rishu Manuscript
Conclusion
   Appendix I: Table of the Radical Gui and Its Related Characters
   Appendix II: Gui-related Oracle Bone Inscriptions
   Appendix III: Investigations: Annotated Translation of the “Jie” 詰 Section

Archery Metaphor and Ritual in Early Confucian Texts

Author:
Rina Marie Camus

Publication date:
October 2020

Publisher: 

Lexington Books

Abstract:
Archery Metaphor and Ritual in Early Confucian Texts explores the significance of archery as ritual practice and image source in classical Confucian texts. Archery was one of the six traditional arts of China, the foremost military skill, a tool for education, and above all, an important custom of the rulers and aristocrats of the early dynasties. Rina Marie Camus analyzes passages inspired by archery in the texts of the Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi in relation to the shifting social and historical conditions of the late Zhou dynasty, the troubled times of early followers of the ruist master Confucius. Camus posits that archery imagery is recurrent and touches on fundamental themes of literature; ritual archers in the Analects, sharp shooters in Mencius, and the fashioning of exquisite bows and arrows in Xunzi represent the gentleman, pursuit of ren, and self-cultivation. Furthermore, Camus argues that not only is archery an important Confucian metaphor, it also proves the cognitive value of literary metaphors—more than linguistic ornamentation, metaphoric utterances have features and resonances that disclose their speakers’ saliencies of thought.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Literary Metaphor, A Package Deal

Chapter 1: Bow-wielding Aristocrats of Zhou
The Bow in Warfare and Sports
The Bow in Zhou Ritual Tradition
Bow Narratives & Poetry

Chapter 2: Ritual Archers in the Analects
Confucius and the Bow
The Competition of Gentlemen (An 3.7)
Hitting the Target is not the Main Thing (An 3.16)
Straight as an Arrow (An 15.16)

Chapter 3: Sharp Shooters in Mencius
Mencius and Archery in Early Warring States
The Gentleman as Sharp Shooter (M 2A.7 & 5B.1)
Teaching the Way as Archery Training (M 6A.20 & 7A.41)
Moral Failure as Faulty Aiming (M 6A.9)

Chapter 4: Fine Bows and Distant Targets in Xunzi
Xunzi and Archery in Late Warring States
Transforming Nature: Fashioning Bows from Twisted Wood
Paragons of Learning: Undividedness and Not Missing a Shot
Visions of Government: The State Needs Scholars as Much as Archers

Concluding Remarks

A Library of Clouds: The Scripture of the Immaculate Numen and the Rewriting of Daoist Texts

Authors:
J. E. E. Pettit & Chao-jan Chang 張超然

Publisher:
University of Hawaii Press

Publication date:
September 2020




Abstract:
From early times, Daoist writers claimed to receive scriptures via revelation from heavenly beings. In numerous cases, these writings were composed over the course of many nights and by different mediums. New revelations were often hastily appended, and the resulting unevenness gave rise to the impression that Daoist texts often appear slapdash and contain contradictions. A Library of Clouds focuses on the re-writing of Daoist scriptures in the Upper Clarity (Shangqing) lineage in fourth- and fifth-century China. Scholarship on Upper Clarity Daoism has been dominated by attempts to uncover “original” or “authentic” texts, which has resulted in the neglect of later scriptures―including the work fully translated and annotated here, the Scripture of the Immaculate Numen, one of the Three Wonders (sanqi) and among the most prized Daoist texts in medieval China. The scripture’s lack of a coherent structure and its different authorial voices have led many to see it not as a unified work but the creation of different editors who shaped and reshaped it over time.

A Library of Clouds constructs new ways of understanding the complex authorship of texts like the Scripture of the Immaculate Numen and their place in early medieval Daoism. It stresses their significance in understanding the ways in which manuscripts were written, received, and distributed in early medieval China. By situating the scripture within its immediate hagiographic and ritual contexts, it suggests that this kind of revelatory literature is best understood as a pastiche of ideas, a process of weaving together previously circulating notions and beliefs into a new scriptural fabric.

Table of Contents:

Part I. Translators’ Introduction

Background 

Chapter One Thirty-One Fascicles: Cataloguing Scriptures of the Heavens

Chapter Two Thrree Ones: A Stereoscopic View of a Daoist Hagiography

Chapter Three Five Stars: Remaking Daoist Ritual

Chapter Four Nine Palaces: Later Reconstructions of Upper Clarity

Chapter Five Three Hundred Fascicles: Rethinking the Authorship of Daoist Scriptures

Conclusion

Part II. Translation: The Most High Wondrous Scripture of the Immaculate Numen [Celestial Palace] and

Penetrating Mystery of the Great Existence [Heaven] (Taishang suling dongxuan dayou miaojing

太上素靈洞玄大有妙經, DZ 1314)

1 The Three Grottoes

2 The Nine Palaces

3 The Three Ones

4 Three [Palaces] and Nine [Openings] 

5 Illustrious Code of the Nine Perfected

An Outline History of East Asia to 1200

Author: 
Sarah Schneewind

Publication Year:
2020

Abstract:
This open access textbook arose out of a course at the University of California, San Diego, called HILD 10: East Asia: The Great Tradition.  The course covers what have become two Chinas, Japan, and two Koreas from roughly 1200 BC to about AD 1200.  As we say every Fall in HILD 10: “2400 years, three countries, ten weeks, no problem.”  The book does not stand alone: the teacher should assign primary and secondary sources, study questions, dates to be memorized, etc.  The maps mostly use the same template to enable students to compare them one to the next.

Download here:
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9d699767

シルクロード世界史

Author:
森安孝夫 (Moriyasu Takao)

Publication:
講談社

Publication date:
September 2020

Abstract:
かつて、「歴史」を必要としたのは権力者だった。権力者は自らの支配を正当化するために歴史を書かせた。歴史家は往々にして、権力者に奉仕する者だったのである。しかし、近代歴史学の使命は、権力を監視し、批判することにこそある。近代世界の覇権を握った西洋文明を相対化し、西洋中心史観と中華主義からの脱却を訴える、白熱の世界史講座。近代以前の世界では、中央ユーラシア諸民族の動向が、歴史を動かしていた。騎馬遊牧民はどのように登場し、その機動力と経済力は、いかに周辺諸国家に浸透していったのか。シルクロードのネットワークを媒介とした「前近代世界システム論」とは。ソグド人やウイグル人のキャラバン交易や、キリスト教の最大のライバルだったマニ教の動向などを、ユーラシア各地に残る古文書、石碑の読解から得たオリジナルな研究成果をもとに解明していく。そこから見えてくるのは、あらゆるモノは歴史的所産であり、文化・言語・思想から、政治・経済活動まで、すべては変化し混ざり合って生み出され、純粋な民族文化や普遍的な国家など存在しない、という真実である。さらに、近年日本で発見されて世界的な注目を浴びるマニ教絵画から、日本伝来の史料で明らかになるシルクロードの実像まで。「興亡の世界史」シリーズ最大の話題作『シルクロードと唐帝国』の著者による、待望の書下ろし。

Table of Contents:

序章　世界史を学ぶ理由
　1　歴史を必要とするのは誰か
　2　歴史と権力・権威・宗教
　3　現代歴史学の使命
第一章　ユーラシア世界史の基本構造
　1　人類史の潮流
　2　歴史時代の始まり──農業革命から鉄器革命へ
　3　戦争・交流・グローバル化の時代──騎馬遊牧民の登場から現代まで
第二章　騎馬遊牧民の機動力
　1　馬の家畜化
　2　ユーラシアの民族大移動
第三章　シルクロードの世界システム論
　1　前近代の世界システム
　2　遊牧国家とシルクロード
第四章　ソグドからウイグルへ
　1　宗教の道
　2　ソグドとウイグルの接点
　3　マニ教から仏教へ
第五章　ウイグル=ネットワークの活況
　1　古ウイグル語文書を解読する
　2　キャラヴァンの往来と社会生活
第六章　シルクロードと日本
　1　シルクロードの終着点
　2　マニ教絵画の日本伝来
あとがき

Early Medieval China 26 《中國中古研究》第 26 期 (2020)

Table of Contents:

Editors’ Note
J. Michael Farmer 1

Thinking Regionally in Early Medieval Studies: A Manifesto
Andrew Chittick 3

Fashion and Historical Imagination: The Case of Sun Shou’s “Bewitching and Strange Appearances”
Rebecca Doran 19

A Taste of Honey: Early Medieval Chinese Writings about Sweeteners
Olivia Milburn 43

Literary Responses to Religious Debates at the Northern Zhou Court
Yiyi Luo 67

A Selective Bibliography of Mainland Chinese Books (2011–2019) on Early Medieval Chinese Literature
Yue Zhang 88

Book Reviews

Joy Lidu Yi, Yungang: Art, History, Archaeology, Liturgy
Scott Pearce 110

Andrew Chittick, The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History
Scott Pearce 114

(via Mike Farmer)

Zhou History Unearthed: The Bamboo Manuscript Xinian and Early Chinese Historiography

Author:
Yuri Pines

Publication date:
October 2020

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Abstract:
There is a stark contrast between the overarching importance of history writing in imperial China and the meagerness of historical texts from the centuries preceding the imperial unification of 221 BCE. However, recently discovered bamboo manuscripts from the Warring States period (453–221 BCE) have changed this picture, leading to reappraisals of early Chinese historiography. These manuscripts shed new light on questions related to the production, circulation, and audience of historical texts in early China; their different political, ritual, and ideological usages; and their roles in the cultural and intellectual dynamics of China’s vibrant pre-imperial age.

Zhou History Unearthed offers both a novel understanding of early Chinese historiography and a fully annotated translation of Xinian 繫年 (String of Years), the most notable historical manuscript from the state of Chu. Yuri Pines elucidates the importance of Xinian and other recently discovered texts for our understanding of history writing in Zhou China (1046–255 BCE), as well as major historical events and topics such as Chu’s cultural identity. Pines explores how Xinian challenges existing interpretations of the nature and reliability of canonical historical texts on the Zhou era, such as Zuo zhuan 左傳 (Zuo Tradition/Commentary) and Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記). A major work of scholarship and translation, Zhou History Unearthed sheds new light on early Chinese history and historiography, demonstrating how new archaeological findings are changing our knowledge of China’s pre-imperial days.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Riddle of Zhou Historiography
Part I. Rethinking Early Chinese History Writing
1. Zhou Historiography as Seen from the Transmitted Texts
2. Xinian and Zhou Historiography
3. Zhou Historiography in Other Newly Discovered Sources
4. Beyond Sima Qian: Zhou History Revisited
5. Chu Historiography and Chu Cultural Identity
Part II. Xinian Translation and Commentary
Xinian 1
Xinian 2
Xinian 3
Xinian 4
Xinian 5
Xinian 6
Xinian 7
Xinian 8
Xinian 9
Xinian 10
Xinian 11
Xinian 12
Xinian 13
Xinian 14
Xinian 15
Xinian 16
Xinian 17
Xinian 18
Xinian 19
Xinian 20
Xinian 21
Xinian 22
Xinian 23
Notes
Bibliography
Index