Author:
Graham Chamness
Defended:
2018
School:
Harvard University
Abstract:
“The Literary Formation of Cultural Communities in Mid-Third- through Early Fifth-Century China,” explores elite social gatherings and the literature produced at those gatherings at the beginning of the period of division between north and south. This largely coincides with the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420), the first southern dynasty, whose court was founded south of the Yangzi River with the help of a small group of aristocratic families after the territorial loss of the north to invading tribes. Previous scholarship tends to characterize this period as a moment in history when the cultural elite turned inwardly toward an esoteric metaphysical discourse concerned with self-discovery. While not entirely false, this view is misleading at least in the sense that it overlooks the degree to which emigre elites of the Eastern Jin turned toward each other, through their shared interest in the discourse of the "arcane" (xuan), here referring to the mystical Way that was at once spoken of by the Taoist philosophical texts preserved from antiquity and by the Buddhist sutras being translated in China from India and Central Asia, and sought to rebuild a sense of community together in the absence of their ancestral heartland. I argue that the elite social gatherings we read about in works like the Shishuo xinyu (New Account of Tales of the World) and literary writings produced at those gatherings, such as the poems composed by various participants at the famous gathering at Lanting in 353, and other social writings preserved in Buddhist anthologies and personal literary collections reveal a common trope during this period of being joined together as a community through individual absorption in a shared mystical understanding of the ineffable Way, of the great men of the past, and of the teachings of the Buddha. Being defined in some sense by not belonging to the court, the elites from this brief slice of time configure themselves into cultural communities that are markedly different from the cultural worlds of the periods that come immediately before and after, when literary output was primarily centered around the court.
Showing posts with label 學位論文 Thesis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 學位論文 Thesis. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
[Dissertation] To Rule by Ritual: The Theorization of Ritual Psychology in the Bamboo Texts of Guodian
Author:
Clayton Howard Ashton
Defended:
2017
School:
University of British Columbia
Abstract:
This study examines the development of a theory of ritual psychology in Chinese political thought during the Warring States period (c. 450 - 221 BCE), as found in four Confucian bamboo manuscripts from the Guodian corpus which were discovered in 1993 in a tomb that had been sealed in c. 300 BCE. These four texts, called here the Ritual Authority manuscripts, provide new evidence of a political theory that applied ritual practices to the management of the state, with implications for our understanding of both the development of the Confucian tradition and of the formation of the early Chinese empire. The introduction surveys how the concept of ritual has been framed in studies of Chinese history, and argues that this new evidence of a conscious theorization about ritual psychology should compel us reexamine this topic. Chapter One makes use of the insights offered by the cross-disciplinary field of Ritual Studies to create a working definition of “ritual” as an academic term of analysis, and then examines a range of primary sources from the Warring States period in order to reconstruct the discursive field of meaning encompassed by the Chinese term li, or “ritual propriety,” which was the focus of this theorization. Chapter Two considers the implications of the previous chapter’s insights by examining how ritual practices rely on a sense of historical authority, which embroils these practices in a larger tension between tradition and innovation. Chapter Three examines the development of theories of political authority in the Warring States period, and shows how these presented a fundamental challenge to the Confucian emphasis on ritual practices. Chapter Four turns to the Ritual Authority manuscripts from Guodian and closely examines how they reveal an attempt to incorporate a theory of ritual psychology into a defence of traditional ritual practices. This study finally concludes by considering the larger implications of this intellectual innovation, and suggests several possible directions of future research based on this research.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Theories of Ritual and Propriety
Chapter 2: Reforming the Rites and Changing Conventions
Chapter 3: Authority and the Law
Chapter 4: The Ritual Authority Manuscripts
Conclusion
Clayton Howard Ashton
Defended:
2017
School:
University of British Columbia
Abstract:
This study examines the development of a theory of ritual psychology in Chinese political thought during the Warring States period (c. 450 - 221 BCE), as found in four Confucian bamboo manuscripts from the Guodian corpus which were discovered in 1993 in a tomb that had been sealed in c. 300 BCE. These four texts, called here the Ritual Authority manuscripts, provide new evidence of a political theory that applied ritual practices to the management of the state, with implications for our understanding of both the development of the Confucian tradition and of the formation of the early Chinese empire. The introduction surveys how the concept of ritual has been framed in studies of Chinese history, and argues that this new evidence of a conscious theorization about ritual psychology should compel us reexamine this topic. Chapter One makes use of the insights offered by the cross-disciplinary field of Ritual Studies to create a working definition of “ritual” as an academic term of analysis, and then examines a range of primary sources from the Warring States period in order to reconstruct the discursive field of meaning encompassed by the Chinese term li, or “ritual propriety,” which was the focus of this theorization. Chapter Two considers the implications of the previous chapter’s insights by examining how ritual practices rely on a sense of historical authority, which embroils these practices in a larger tension between tradition and innovation. Chapter Three examines the development of theories of political authority in the Warring States period, and shows how these presented a fundamental challenge to the Confucian emphasis on ritual practices. Chapter Four turns to the Ritual Authority manuscripts from Guodian and closely examines how they reveal an attempt to incorporate a theory of ritual psychology into a defence of traditional ritual practices. This study finally concludes by considering the larger implications of this intellectual innovation, and suggests several possible directions of future research based on this research.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Theories of Ritual and Propriety
Chapter 2: Reforming the Rites and Changing Conventions
Chapter 3: Authority and the Law
Chapter 4: The Ritual Authority Manuscripts
Conclusion
Monday, April 15, 2019
[Dissertation] Crafting Community: Exploring Identity and Interaction through Ceramics in Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Northwestern China
Author:
Andrew Womack
Publication Year:
2017
School:
Yale
Abstract:
This dissertation addresses questions related to craft production, social identity, and interaction through a multifaceted analysis of ceramic production and use during the Majiayao (3200-2000BC) and Qijia (2300-1500BC) periods in the Tao River Valley of northwestern China’s Gansu Province. Situated between the Gobi Desert to the north and the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau to the south, for millennia this area acted as a key conduit for interaction between groups in central China and the Eurasian steppe. Majiayao and Qijia communities played a vital role in adopting, adapting, and retransmitting new domesticates, technologies, and ideas in both directions, helping shape the course of both Chinese and steppe civilization.
Despite these contributions to the development and spread of Chinese civilization, however, this region of northwest China is often pigeonholed into the trope of cultural devolution, with climatic shifts forcing a change from sophisticated Majiayao farmers to the small-scale, possibly pastoral societies of the Qijia. This conclusion is based almost entirely on shifts in pottery form and decoration, with the large, elaborately painted urns of the Majiayao period being replaced by the smaller, mostly undecorated pottery that defines the Qijia period. This dissertation challenges these conclusions by investigating the relationship between craft production, consumer and producer identity, and social interaction in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the continuities and changes occurring between the two periods.
Taking a communities of practice based approach to ceramic production, this research focuses first on identifying potential groups of producers through assessment of paste recipes and forming techniques. In order to identify these groups, sherds from four Majiayao and Qijia habitation and mortuary contexts were sampled and analyzed using petrographic analysis. This technique provides information not only on the mineralogical makeup of a vessel, but also can provide insight into specific paste recipes and production techniques. This study revealed striking differences between vessels from mortuary and habitation contexts during the Majiayao period, pointing to the potential use of mortuary rituals for the negotiation and construction of relationships with other communities. It also demonstrated surprising continuity in production knowledge and techniques between the two periods, showing that changes in pottery form and decoration are not necessarily accurate reflections of underlying shifts in social identity.
In addition to petrographic analysis, whole vessels from mortuary contexts were also examined in order to assess how they were produced and used. Use-wear analysis was employed in order to understand the use histories of individual vessels, revealing that the majority of pots placed in graves during both periods were well used before interment. Standardization analysis was also carried out in order to explore potential production differences between various vessel types. It was demonstrated that while production does appear to vary between vessel types, there is impressive continuity in degree of vessel uniformity between the Majiayao and Qijia periods.
Combining the results of these three techniques, this research is able to address not only the communities of practice who were making these vessels, but also the potential roles they played in building and mediating relationships between groups. Specifically, for the northern Tao River Valley, it appears that despite significant shifts in pottery form, mortuary rituals, and the relationships that were mediated by these items and events, underlying communities of practice persisted over the course of more than 600 years.
Andrew Womack
Publication Year:
2017
School:
Yale
Abstract:
This dissertation addresses questions related to craft production, social identity, and interaction through a multifaceted analysis of ceramic production and use during the Majiayao (3200-2000BC) and Qijia (2300-1500BC) periods in the Tao River Valley of northwestern China’s Gansu Province. Situated between the Gobi Desert to the north and the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau to the south, for millennia this area acted as a key conduit for interaction between groups in central China and the Eurasian steppe. Majiayao and Qijia communities played a vital role in adopting, adapting, and retransmitting new domesticates, technologies, and ideas in both directions, helping shape the course of both Chinese and steppe civilization.
Despite these contributions to the development and spread of Chinese civilization, however, this region of northwest China is often pigeonholed into the trope of cultural devolution, with climatic shifts forcing a change from sophisticated Majiayao farmers to the small-scale, possibly pastoral societies of the Qijia. This conclusion is based almost entirely on shifts in pottery form and decoration, with the large, elaborately painted urns of the Majiayao period being replaced by the smaller, mostly undecorated pottery that defines the Qijia period. This dissertation challenges these conclusions by investigating the relationship between craft production, consumer and producer identity, and social interaction in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the continuities and changes occurring between the two periods.
Taking a communities of practice based approach to ceramic production, this research focuses first on identifying potential groups of producers through assessment of paste recipes and forming techniques. In order to identify these groups, sherds from four Majiayao and Qijia habitation and mortuary contexts were sampled and analyzed using petrographic analysis. This technique provides information not only on the mineralogical makeup of a vessel, but also can provide insight into specific paste recipes and production techniques. This study revealed striking differences between vessels from mortuary and habitation contexts during the Majiayao period, pointing to the potential use of mortuary rituals for the negotiation and construction of relationships with other communities. It also demonstrated surprising continuity in production knowledge and techniques between the two periods, showing that changes in pottery form and decoration are not necessarily accurate reflections of underlying shifts in social identity.
In addition to petrographic analysis, whole vessels from mortuary contexts were also examined in order to assess how they were produced and used. Use-wear analysis was employed in order to understand the use histories of individual vessels, revealing that the majority of pots placed in graves during both periods were well used before interment. Standardization analysis was also carried out in order to explore potential production differences between various vessel types. It was demonstrated that while production does appear to vary between vessel types, there is impressive continuity in degree of vessel uniformity between the Majiayao and Qijia periods.
Combining the results of these three techniques, this research is able to address not only the communities of practice who were making these vessels, but also the potential roles they played in building and mediating relationships between groups. Specifically, for the northern Tao River Valley, it appears that despite significant shifts in pottery form, mortuary rituals, and the relationships that were mediated by these items and events, underlying communities of practice persisted over the course of more than 600 years.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
[Dissertation] Towards a Human Ecology of the North China Plain: Geoarchaeological Perspectives on Holocene Landscape Evolution
Author:
Michael Storozum
School:
Washington University in St. Louis
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Archaeologists have traditionally called the North China Plain the heartland of Chinese civilization and focused much of their investigations on the progression of archaeological culture groups. However, this focus on culture history has often come at the expense of simplifying the complex interactions societies have had with their environments. In this dissertation, I discuss the ways in which archaeologists can use geological concepts and methods to better understand human-environmental interactions. I support this argument with two case studies of archaeological significance along the course of the Yellow River. One study focuses on a sediment source, the Luoyang Basin in western Henan Province, the other, a sediment sink in Neihuang County, Henan Province. These studies demonstrate that humans played a large role in shaping the hydrology of the Yellow River and smaller tributary streams since the late Bronze Age around three thousand years ago. Human influence on sedimentary and fluvial systems becomes increasingly apparent during China’s Imperial Age (ca. AD 200–1200). By using geological methods and concepts, scientists can understand how humans have shaped the much of the North China Plain.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Geoarchaeology in China
Chapter 3 The Luoyang Basin: A Sediment Source
Chapter 4 Anshang: A Sediment Sink
Chapter 5 Conclusions
Michael Storozum
School:
Washington University in St. Louis
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Archaeologists have traditionally called the North China Plain the heartland of Chinese civilization and focused much of their investigations on the progression of archaeological culture groups. However, this focus on culture history has often come at the expense of simplifying the complex interactions societies have had with their environments. In this dissertation, I discuss the ways in which archaeologists can use geological concepts and methods to better understand human-environmental interactions. I support this argument with two case studies of archaeological significance along the course of the Yellow River. One study focuses on a sediment source, the Luoyang Basin in western Henan Province, the other, a sediment sink in Neihuang County, Henan Province. These studies demonstrate that humans played a large role in shaping the hydrology of the Yellow River and smaller tributary streams since the late Bronze Age around three thousand years ago. Human influence on sedimentary and fluvial systems becomes increasingly apparent during China’s Imperial Age (ca. AD 200–1200). By using geological methods and concepts, scientists can understand how humans have shaped the much of the North China Plain.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Geoarchaeology in China
Chapter 3 The Luoyang Basin: A Sediment Source
Chapter 4 Anshang: A Sediment Sink
Chapter 5 Conclusions
Sunday, March 3, 2019
[Dissertation] Shaping the Formless: Debates over Buddhist Images in Medieval China, Ca. 300-700
Author:
Lee, Kwi Jeong
School:
Princeton University
Degree date:
2018
Advisor:
Teiser, Stephen F.
Abstract:
This dissertation explores how and why Buddhist cultic images fueled controversy among literati circles from the fourth through seventh centuries in China. This study draws on a wide range of sources in classical Chinese, including essays, letters, memorials, edicts, and court debates, as well as Buddhist texts translated from Indian languages and authored in Chinese, to uncover the points of debate and the debaters’ shifting presuppositions. These sources are used to show that both proponents and critics believed that Buddhist cultic objects were vital, complicated components of what they thought was notable about Buddhism. The dissertation also argues that while the ostensible subject of the debates may have been the role of cultic objects in Buddhist practice, nevertheless the discussion covered other important points of contention, including Buddhahood, the material and institutional foundations of Buddhism, the tenet of emptiness, and the dynamics of Buddhist practice. This dissertation analyzes this multivocality of cultic objects and discusses pre-Buddhist and Buddhist conceptions of images (xiang 象). Within this framework, the dissertation suggests that proponents of Buddhist positions were keenly aware of the distinction between cultic images and the formless referents of those images. This study notes the historical continuities between indigenous, pre-Buddhist discourses and the later Buddhist conceptualization of images, while also underlining understandings based on the newly imported religion. It argues that interreligious debates over Buddhist images prompted Buddhist apologists to formulate a fuller soteriological account about the meaning and function of cultic images, resulting in a more extensive, sophisticated theory than that supplied by earlier Chinese Buddhist canonical traditions.
Lee, Kwi Jeong
School:
Princeton University
Degree date:
2018
Advisor:
Teiser, Stephen F.
Abstract:
This dissertation explores how and why Buddhist cultic images fueled controversy among literati circles from the fourth through seventh centuries in China. This study draws on a wide range of sources in classical Chinese, including essays, letters, memorials, edicts, and court debates, as well as Buddhist texts translated from Indian languages and authored in Chinese, to uncover the points of debate and the debaters’ shifting presuppositions. These sources are used to show that both proponents and critics believed that Buddhist cultic objects were vital, complicated components of what they thought was notable about Buddhism. The dissertation also argues that while the ostensible subject of the debates may have been the role of cultic objects in Buddhist practice, nevertheless the discussion covered other important points of contention, including Buddhahood, the material and institutional foundations of Buddhism, the tenet of emptiness, and the dynamics of Buddhist practice. This dissertation analyzes this multivocality of cultic objects and discusses pre-Buddhist and Buddhist conceptions of images (xiang 象). Within this framework, the dissertation suggests that proponents of Buddhist positions were keenly aware of the distinction between cultic images and the formless referents of those images. This study notes the historical continuities between indigenous, pre-Buddhist discourses and the later Buddhist conceptualization of images, while also underlining understandings based on the newly imported religion. It argues that interreligious debates over Buddhist images prompted Buddhist apologists to formulate a fuller soteriological account about the meaning and function of cultic images, resulting in a more extensive, sophisticated theory than that supplied by earlier Chinese Buddhist canonical traditions.
Saturday, February 23, 2019
[Dissertation] Women During the Han Dynasty Through the Lens of Excavated Materials
Author:
Pattira Thaithosaeng
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Degree date:
2018
Advisor:
Goldin, Paul R.
Abstract:
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life of Han women on the basis of excavated materials through four themes, namely, convict-labor, motherhood, sexual partners, and the afterlife. The sources include the Shuihudi, Zhangjiashan, and Mawangdui manuscripts along with visual representations and tomb artefacts. I argue that women were always the subject of concern either by the state or their partners. Female criminals constituted a crucial part in the government’s labor force. They were expected to effectively produce offspring and raise the future population with some benefits in return under the principle of filial piety. Sexual relationships between men and women were systematically regulated by the state, while individual men focused on improving health during sexual intercourse and women received pleasure as a by-product. Only in the afterlife would the rules be more relaxed, with life as depicted inside the tomb as evidence. Excavated materials have produced a more nuanced image of Han women, as they offer new insights to our understanding of gender and sexuality during the early periods, for which we previously lacked the resources to study.
Pattira Thaithosaeng
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Degree date:
2018
Advisor:
Goldin, Paul R.
Abstract:
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life of Han women on the basis of excavated materials through four themes, namely, convict-labor, motherhood, sexual partners, and the afterlife. The sources include the Shuihudi, Zhangjiashan, and Mawangdui manuscripts along with visual representations and tomb artefacts. I argue that women were always the subject of concern either by the state or their partners. Female criminals constituted a crucial part in the government’s labor force. They were expected to effectively produce offspring and raise the future population with some benefits in return under the principle of filial piety. Sexual relationships between men and women were systematically regulated by the state, while individual men focused on improving health during sexual intercourse and women received pleasure as a by-product. Only in the afterlife would the rules be more relaxed, with life as depicted inside the tomb as evidence. Excavated materials have produced a more nuanced image of Han women, as they offer new insights to our understanding of gender and sexuality during the early periods, for which we previously lacked the resources to study.
Thursday, February 21, 2019
[Dissertation] Dreaming Betwixt And Between: Oneiric Narratives in Huijiao and Daoxuan's Biographies of Eminent Monks
Author:
Chris Jensen
Advisor:
James Benn
School:
McMaster University
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
This project explores the evolution of medieval Chinese Buddhist perspectives on dreams through a series of in-depth comparisons between the oneiric narratives preserved in Huijiao's (慧皎) "Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 [GSZ]) and Daoxuan's (道宣) "Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 [XGSZ]), drawing inspiration from contemporary Sinological and Buddhist Studies scholarship, as well as anthropological and psychological perspectives on dreaming. In addition to using these comparisons to address questions related to the diachronic transformation of Chinese Buddhist thought and practice from the early sixth to mid-seventh centuries, I also posit (and provide evidence for) the hypothesis that dreams (and the stories told about them) represent a potent conceptual metaphor for the “betwixt and between” experience of liminality: a hypothesis that I hope inspires discussion and debate in the broader oneirological community.
I approach these topics through four interrelated case studies. Chapter One uses dream narratives to investigate the various modes of oneiric practice ascribed to Chinese monks (and laypeople) in GSZ and XGSZ, focusing on three specific subtopics (dream telling, dream interpretation, and dream incubation) to evaluate the differences between the episodes preserved in both collections. Chapter Two examines the differing ways that Huijiao and Daoxuan engaged with both Chinese and (Indian) Buddhist oneiric conception tropes when describing the birth and early lives of exemplary monks. Chapter Three posits that Huijiao and Daoxuan made distinctive (and historically-situated) use of oneiric narratives to help situate China within the imagined geographies of contemporary Chinese Buddhists. Finally, Chapter Four explores the distinctive ways that oneiric narratives were used in GSZ and XGSZ to negotiate the interactions between exemplary Buddhists and indigenous Chinese religious practices, practitioners and deities.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter One – Engaging with the Liminal: Oneiric Practice in the Eminent Monks
Chapter Two – Dreaming Betwixt and Between Conception and Birth
Chapter Three: Dreaming Betwixt and Between Regions
Chapter Four – Dreaming Betwixt and Between: Oneiric Experiences at the
Conclusion / For Future Research
Chris Jensen
Advisor:
James Benn
School:
McMaster University
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
This project explores the evolution of medieval Chinese Buddhist perspectives on dreams through a series of in-depth comparisons between the oneiric narratives preserved in Huijiao's (慧皎) "Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳 [GSZ]) and Daoxuan's (道宣) "Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks" (Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 [XGSZ]), drawing inspiration from contemporary Sinological and Buddhist Studies scholarship, as well as anthropological and psychological perspectives on dreaming. In addition to using these comparisons to address questions related to the diachronic transformation of Chinese Buddhist thought and practice from the early sixth to mid-seventh centuries, I also posit (and provide evidence for) the hypothesis that dreams (and the stories told about them) represent a potent conceptual metaphor for the “betwixt and between” experience of liminality: a hypothesis that I hope inspires discussion and debate in the broader oneirological community.
I approach these topics through four interrelated case studies. Chapter One uses dream narratives to investigate the various modes of oneiric practice ascribed to Chinese monks (and laypeople) in GSZ and XGSZ, focusing on three specific subtopics (dream telling, dream interpretation, and dream incubation) to evaluate the differences between the episodes preserved in both collections. Chapter Two examines the differing ways that Huijiao and Daoxuan engaged with both Chinese and (Indian) Buddhist oneiric conception tropes when describing the birth and early lives of exemplary monks. Chapter Three posits that Huijiao and Daoxuan made distinctive (and historically-situated) use of oneiric narratives to help situate China within the imagined geographies of contemporary Chinese Buddhists. Finally, Chapter Four explores the distinctive ways that oneiric narratives were used in GSZ and XGSZ to negotiate the interactions between exemplary Buddhists and indigenous Chinese religious practices, practitioners and deities.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter One – Engaging with the Liminal: Oneiric Practice in the Eminent Monks
Chapter Two – Dreaming Betwixt and Between Conception and Birth
Chapter Three: Dreaming Betwixt and Between Regions
Chapter Four – Dreaming Betwixt and Between: Oneiric Experiences at the
Conclusion / For Future Research
Saturday, February 9, 2019
[Dissertation] The Southwest: A Study of Regional Identity in Material Culture and Textual Sources during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220 C.E.)
Author:
Hajnalka Elias
Advisor:
Roel Sterckx
This dissertation studies examples of social and cultural memory and identity manifested in the art of the southwest, present-day Sichuan province, during the Eastern Han dynasty. Through the study of the southwest’s material culture, considered special for its distinct artistic style and content by scholars in the field of Chinese art, combined with analysis of early textual sources, it highlights a number of important findings associated with the region’s social make-up, economic activities, burial practices, education and governance, all of which contributed to the formation of a distinct regional identity. The southwest’s geographical isolation and its great distance from the Central Plains; the difficulties and dangers of road and river transport from all directions; its multi-ethnic make-up and the engrained cultural prejudice from the north, especially from the capital’s governing elite and literati, were all factors that contributed to a sense of regional separation that manifested itself in a distinct material culture and is hinted at in early textual sources. The main sources of material culture examined in the dissertation are pictorial brick tiles and stone reliefs discovered in stone and brick chamber tombs; decorated stone sarcophagi placed in the region’s cliff tombs; and commemorative and ancestral stelae erected for the governors of Shu and Ba commanderies. In its methodology, the dissertation employs Western theories on social and cultural memory and identity. It also bridges two fields of study, cultural and art history, which are often pursued separately due to their distinct specialisations. The dissertation’s findings aim to contribute to our knowledge of the southwest and to the study of regional identity in early imperial China.
Hajnalka Elias
Advisor:
Roel Sterckx
Date:
2018
Awarding Institution:
University of Cambridge
Abstract:
Friday, January 11, 2019
[Dissertation] Erlitou and Its Neighbors: Contextualizing Interregional Interaction in the Central Yellow River Region in Ancient China
Author:
Lee, Hsiu-Ping
School:
UCLA
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
The primary goal of this dissertation is to explore various possible interaction patterns between Erlitou and its neighboring regions through the approach of contextualization. Under the presupposition that Erlitou was the political center of ancient China, the interregional interaction between Erlitou and its neighboring regions were always interpreted as a “center-periphery” relationship. Instead of Erlitou-centered perspective, this dissertation attempts to adopt the approach of contextualization, investigating how the three main core areas in ancient China, namely the Henan Region in which Erlitou was located, as well as the Hedong Region and the Henei Region which were two major neighboring regions of Erlitou, interacted with each other during the second quarter of the second millennium BC. In the past, scholars put more emphasis on how the center influenced its peripheries. However, this dissertation will also investigate how the peripheries influenced the center and how peripheries interacted with each other. The approach of contextualizing exotic artifacts within local settings provides crucial insights, helping us to reexamine the interaction patterns between the Henan, Hedong, and Henei Regions. The research results reveal a highly complicated interaction network between these three regions during the Erlitou Period. First of all, the relationship between the Henan Region and the Henei Region was getting tense over time due to military conflicts. Besides, the Henei Region revealed a greater influence on the Henan Region. Second, the relationship between the Henan Region and the Hedong Region may have been marked by competition over the metal resources for casting bronze objects. However, the Henan Region seems to have displayed a greater influence on the Hedong Region. Finally, the relationship between the Hedong Region and the Henei Region seems to have been steady. Probably these two regions maintained a situation of peaceful coexistence for a long time in the Erlitou Period.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Previous Research into Interregional Interaction between Erlitou and ItsNeighbors
Chapter 3 Unidirectional Models, Interactional Approaches, and ContextualizationTheory
Chapter 4 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the HenanRegion
Chapter 5 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the Hedong Region
Chapter 6 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the Henei Region
Chapter 7 Contextualizing the Remains of the Contact Zone between the Henan, Hedong and Henei Region
Chapter 8 Rethinking the Interregional Interaction in the Central Yellow River Region and beyond
Lee, Hsiu-Ping
School:
UCLA
Defended:
2018
Abstract:
The primary goal of this dissertation is to explore various possible interaction patterns between Erlitou and its neighboring regions through the approach of contextualization. Under the presupposition that Erlitou was the political center of ancient China, the interregional interaction between Erlitou and its neighboring regions were always interpreted as a “center-periphery” relationship. Instead of Erlitou-centered perspective, this dissertation attempts to adopt the approach of contextualization, investigating how the three main core areas in ancient China, namely the Henan Region in which Erlitou was located, as well as the Hedong Region and the Henei Region which were two major neighboring regions of Erlitou, interacted with each other during the second quarter of the second millennium BC. In the past, scholars put more emphasis on how the center influenced its peripheries. However, this dissertation will also investigate how the peripheries influenced the center and how peripheries interacted with each other. The approach of contextualizing exotic artifacts within local settings provides crucial insights, helping us to reexamine the interaction patterns between the Henan, Hedong, and Henei Regions. The research results reveal a highly complicated interaction network between these three regions during the Erlitou Period. First of all, the relationship between the Henan Region and the Henei Region was getting tense over time due to military conflicts. Besides, the Henei Region revealed a greater influence on the Henan Region. Second, the relationship between the Henan Region and the Hedong Region may have been marked by competition over the metal resources for casting bronze objects. However, the Henan Region seems to have displayed a greater influence on the Hedong Region. Finally, the relationship between the Hedong Region and the Henei Region seems to have been steady. Probably these two regions maintained a situation of peaceful coexistence for a long time in the Erlitou Period.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Previous Research into Interregional Interaction between Erlitou and ItsNeighbors
Chapter 3 Unidirectional Models, Interactional Approaches, and ContextualizationTheory
Chapter 4 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the HenanRegion
Chapter 5 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the Hedong Region
Chapter 6 Contextualizing Local Remains and Exotic Artifacts in the Henei Region
Chapter 7 Contextualizing the Remains of the Contact Zone between the Henan, Hedong and Henei Region
Chapter 8 Rethinking the Interregional Interaction in the Central Yellow River Region and beyond
Saturday, November 10, 2018
[Dissertation] Mining, Trade and State Formation in Early China
Author:
SHI, Tao 石濤
Defended:
2018
School:
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract:
This dissertation aims at exploring the trade strategy and center-periphery relations in the process of state formation in early China. The focus is the Longshan and Erlitou periods (ca. 2300–1520 BCE). Instead of a center-based perspective, this research focuses on peripheries and discusses the impact of peripheral societies on the formation of the political-economic landscape of early states. By taking resource extraction and distribution as a departure point, I discuss the production modes, economic forms and social contexts in three resource-rich regions, which were significant sources of key resources in early China. Based on my estimation on scales of mining and mining landscapes, I argue that turquoise and copper mining and mining-related productions were all local, small-scale and village-based activities during the two periods. The current evidence shows that early states did not place direct control over resource extraction and distribution in these peripheral regions. Moreover, based on the arguments and comparative cases in other regions of the world, I further argue that the strategy of resource procurement of early states was never monopolistic. Rather, the Longshan and Erlitou-period states adopted a decentralized strategy to procure key resources. By considering Erlitou as a phenomenon of regeneration after Longshan collapses, I argue that the center-periphery relations maintained a strong continuity in this transitional period.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
2 Geographical background
3 Setting the stage: the transition to Chinese Bronze Age
4 Towards a comparative perspective
5 Mining and archaeology in the western Shangluo Corridor
6 Mining and archaeology in the eastern Shangluo Corridor
7 Metallurgical industries in the Jinnan and Middle Yangzi regions: a comparison
8 Discussion
SHI, Tao 石濤
Defended:
2018
School:
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract:
This dissertation aims at exploring the trade strategy and center-periphery relations in the process of state formation in early China. The focus is the Longshan and Erlitou periods (ca. 2300–1520 BCE). Instead of a center-based perspective, this research focuses on peripheries and discusses the impact of peripheral societies on the formation of the political-economic landscape of early states. By taking resource extraction and distribution as a departure point, I discuss the production modes, economic forms and social contexts in three resource-rich regions, which were significant sources of key resources in early China. Based on my estimation on scales of mining and mining landscapes, I argue that turquoise and copper mining and mining-related productions were all local, small-scale and village-based activities during the two periods. The current evidence shows that early states did not place direct control over resource extraction and distribution in these peripheral regions. Moreover, based on the arguments and comparative cases in other regions of the world, I further argue that the strategy of resource procurement of early states was never monopolistic. Rather, the Longshan and Erlitou-period states adopted a decentralized strategy to procure key resources. By considering Erlitou as a phenomenon of regeneration after Longshan collapses, I argue that the center-periphery relations maintained a strong continuity in this transitional period.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
2 Geographical background
3 Setting the stage: the transition to Chinese Bronze Age
4 Towards a comparative perspective
5 Mining and archaeology in the western Shangluo Corridor
6 Mining and archaeology in the eastern Shangluo Corridor
7 Metallurgical industries in the Jinnan and Middle Yangzi regions: a comparison
8 Discussion
Sunday, October 28, 2018
[Dissertation] Divination And Deviation: The Problem Of Prediction And Personal Freedom In Early China
Author:
Yunwoo Song
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Date of Award:
2018
Abstract:
The question I address in my dissertation relates to the conundrum of the prediction of fate in early China. How did the early Chinese people predict the future, and to what degree did they believe that the predicted future is inevitable? I examine the history of divination from the Shang to the Han dynasties to show that the belief in the power of anthropomorphic spirits weakened, and the universe was gradually conceived of as working in regular cycles. The decreasing reliance on the power of spirits during the Shang period is reflected in changes in bone divination. And divination texts from the Warring States period come to describe the movements of spirits as being completely regulated by cosmic cycles. This changed conception of the universe contributed to the formation of the idea of a predetermined fate. My analysis of various philosophical literature of the Warring States period shows how the meaning of the term ming 命 changed from unpredictable events caused by superior powers to a predictable yet unalterable course of life. As a consequence of this changed meaning, Han dynasty scholars needed to address the problem of personal freedom. I show that while philosophers like Wang Chong argued for what is probably the most extreme case of fatalism in early China, many other thinkers of the time chose to believe that while there is a predetermined course of life for everyone, the course is always subject to change depending on circumstances.
The conclusion I draw from these analyses is that the idea of a completely predetermined fate did not gain wide acceptance in early China because strong fatalism conflicted with popular divination practices. Even though many acknowledged that people are born with a predetermined fate, they opted to believe that their fates could still change. Thus, various divination techniques available at the time could help them evade predicted misfortune.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Diminishing Power of Spirits in Divination – From Oracle Bone to Yarrow
Prognostications Based on Cycles
The Emergence of the Notion of Predetermined Fate
Fate and Freedom in Han Thought
Conclusion
Yunwoo Song
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Date of Award:
2018
Abstract:
The question I address in my dissertation relates to the conundrum of the prediction of fate in early China. How did the early Chinese people predict the future, and to what degree did they believe that the predicted future is inevitable? I examine the history of divination from the Shang to the Han dynasties to show that the belief in the power of anthropomorphic spirits weakened, and the universe was gradually conceived of as working in regular cycles. The decreasing reliance on the power of spirits during the Shang period is reflected in changes in bone divination. And divination texts from the Warring States period come to describe the movements of spirits as being completely regulated by cosmic cycles. This changed conception of the universe contributed to the formation of the idea of a predetermined fate. My analysis of various philosophical literature of the Warring States period shows how the meaning of the term ming 命 changed from unpredictable events caused by superior powers to a predictable yet unalterable course of life. As a consequence of this changed meaning, Han dynasty scholars needed to address the problem of personal freedom. I show that while philosophers like Wang Chong argued for what is probably the most extreme case of fatalism in early China, many other thinkers of the time chose to believe that while there is a predetermined course of life for everyone, the course is always subject to change depending on circumstances.
The conclusion I draw from these analyses is that the idea of a completely predetermined fate did not gain wide acceptance in early China because strong fatalism conflicted with popular divination practices. Even though many acknowledged that people are born with a predetermined fate, they opted to believe that their fates could still change. Thus, various divination techniques available at the time could help them evade predicted misfortune.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Diminishing Power of Spirits in Divination – From Oracle Bone to Yarrow
Prognostications Based on Cycles
The Emergence of the Notion of Predetermined Fate
Fate and Freedom in Han Thought
Conclusion
Thursday, September 6, 2018
[Dissertation] Affordable Luxury: The Entanglements of Metal Mirrors in the Han Empire (202 BCE–220 CE)
Author:
Yanlong, GUO
School:
University of British Columbia
Defended:
2016
Abstract:
This dissertation is a relational study of the multiple entanglements of metal mirrors with consumers in the context of a monetized economy during the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). By looking at the triad of physical, economic, and semiotic interdependences, I trace the complex ways in which Han users shaped their mirrors and vice versa. Balancing transmitted and excavated sources, qualitative and quantitative methods, and physical sciences and art historical inquiries, I foreground an interdisciplinary understanding of the early imperial history of luxury consumption. This study follows these objects, from the accoutrements of mirrors such as ribbons, stands, pouches, and boxes, to all sorts of metal mirrors made from bronze, iron, lead, and those with additional ornaments, as they were purchased, then displayed and appreciated in the quotidian as well as mortuary settings of both wealthy and middle classes in Han China. I argue that these specular discs served as a dominant form of affordable luxury, signaling personal intimacies, monetary wealth, and aesthetic enjoyments.
This study is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1, "Introduction," introduces the theoretical framework of entanglement and a perspective on the consumption of mirrors as luxuries. Chapter 2, “The Physical Entanglements,” explores the use value of Han mirrors, arguing for the portability and intimacy of the relations between these small yet intricate objects and their Han users as revealed through the holding, viewing, wearing, and burying practices. Chapter 3, “The Economic Entanglements,” investigates the market value of the mirrors, the socioeconomic status of consumers, and the gifting practices based upon such value. Chapter 4, “The Semiotic Entanglements,” highlights the physical, optical and symbolic interdependence between mirrors and the people of early imperial China. Moving beyond issues of representation, this chapter closely scrutinizes the aestheticization, symbolic correlations, and attainment of brightness in a variety of practices dependent upon the medium of Han mirrors. This study contributes to the field of early Chinese art with a nuanced examination of Han mirrors as treasured things that created systems of value, and with a reconstruction of lost linkages between the mirror as physical paraphernalia, source of value, and embodied aesthetic.
TOC:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Physical Entanglements of Mirrors: Portability, Intimacy, and Memory
Chapter 3: Economic Entanglements of Mirrors: Gifts, Commodities and Social
Distribution
Chapter 4: Semiotic Entanglements of Mirrors: the Sun, the Moon and the Great
Brightness
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Yanlong, GUO
School:
University of British Columbia
Defended:
2016
Abstract:
This dissertation is a relational study of the multiple entanglements of metal mirrors with consumers in the context of a monetized economy during the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). By looking at the triad of physical, economic, and semiotic interdependences, I trace the complex ways in which Han users shaped their mirrors and vice versa. Balancing transmitted and excavated sources, qualitative and quantitative methods, and physical sciences and art historical inquiries, I foreground an interdisciplinary understanding of the early imperial history of luxury consumption. This study follows these objects, from the accoutrements of mirrors such as ribbons, stands, pouches, and boxes, to all sorts of metal mirrors made from bronze, iron, lead, and those with additional ornaments, as they were purchased, then displayed and appreciated in the quotidian as well as mortuary settings of both wealthy and middle classes in Han China. I argue that these specular discs served as a dominant form of affordable luxury, signaling personal intimacies, monetary wealth, and aesthetic enjoyments.
This study is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1, "Introduction," introduces the theoretical framework of entanglement and a perspective on the consumption of mirrors as luxuries. Chapter 2, “The Physical Entanglements,” explores the use value of Han mirrors, arguing for the portability and intimacy of the relations between these small yet intricate objects and their Han users as revealed through the holding, viewing, wearing, and burying practices. Chapter 3, “The Economic Entanglements,” investigates the market value of the mirrors, the socioeconomic status of consumers, and the gifting practices based upon such value. Chapter 4, “The Semiotic Entanglements,” highlights the physical, optical and symbolic interdependence between mirrors and the people of early imperial China. Moving beyond issues of representation, this chapter closely scrutinizes the aestheticization, symbolic correlations, and attainment of brightness in a variety of practices dependent upon the medium of Han mirrors. This study contributes to the field of early Chinese art with a nuanced examination of Han mirrors as treasured things that created systems of value, and with a reconstruction of lost linkages between the mirror as physical paraphernalia, source of value, and embodied aesthetic.
TOC:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Physical Entanglements of Mirrors: Portability, Intimacy, and Memory
Chapter 3: Economic Entanglements of Mirrors: Gifts, Commodities and Social
Distribution
Chapter 4: Semiotic Entanglements of Mirrors: the Sun, the Moon and the Great
Brightness
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Monday, July 30, 2018
[Dissertation] Remaking Chineseness: The Transition of Inner Asian Groups in the Central Plain During the Sixteen Kingdoms Period and Northern Dynasties
Author:
Fangyi Cheng 程方毅
Advisor:
Victor H. Mair
Defended:
2018
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Abstract:
This dissertation aims to examine the institutional transitions of the Inner Asian groups in the Central Plain during the Sixteen Kingdoms period and Northern Dynasties. Starting with an examination on the origin and development of Sinicization theory in the West and China, the first major chapter of this dissertation argues the Sinicization theory evolves in the intellectual history of modern times. This chapter, in one hand, offers a different explanation on the origin of the Sinicization theory in both China and the West, and their relationships. In the other hand, it incorporates Sinicization theory into the construction of the historical narrative of Chinese Nationality, and argues the theorization of Sinicization attempted by several scholars in the second half of 20th Century. The second and third major chapters build two case studies regarding the transition of the central and local institutions of the Inner Asian polities in the Central Plain, which are the succession system and the local administrative system. In the first case study, through applying the crown prince system, the Inner Asian rulers reached the centralization of authority, which was different from and even more centralized than the Han tradition. In the second case study, the polities of the Sixteen Kingdoms Period and Northern Dynasties largely followed the Inner Asian political tradition and the Inner Asian groups also remained as units inside the polities. The two case studies show the transition of the institutions of the Inner Asian polity in the Central Plain. The transition is neither a one- way change from Inner Asian institutions to Han and Jin institutions nor a simple hybridity. For different institutions, here the succession system in the central government and the administrative system in the local level, the dynamics for the transition are also not the same. This dissertation approaches the Chinese history with articulating not only what these Inner Asian groups took from the Chinese tradition, but also what they contributed to the institutional changes in Chinese history, which reshapes our understanding of what we call “Chinese” institutions, in other words, Chineseness.
Fangyi Cheng 程方毅
Advisor:
Victor H. Mair
Defended:
2018
School:
University of Pennsylvania
Abstract:
This dissertation aims to examine the institutional transitions of the Inner Asian groups in the Central Plain during the Sixteen Kingdoms period and Northern Dynasties. Starting with an examination on the origin and development of Sinicization theory in the West and China, the first major chapter of this dissertation argues the Sinicization theory evolves in the intellectual history of modern times. This chapter, in one hand, offers a different explanation on the origin of the Sinicization theory in both China and the West, and their relationships. In the other hand, it incorporates Sinicization theory into the construction of the historical narrative of Chinese Nationality, and argues the theorization of Sinicization attempted by several scholars in the second half of 20th Century. The second and third major chapters build two case studies regarding the transition of the central and local institutions of the Inner Asian polities in the Central Plain, which are the succession system and the local administrative system. In the first case study, through applying the crown prince system, the Inner Asian rulers reached the centralization of authority, which was different from and even more centralized than the Han tradition. In the second case study, the polities of the Sixteen Kingdoms Period and Northern Dynasties largely followed the Inner Asian political tradition and the Inner Asian groups also remained as units inside the polities. The two case studies show the transition of the institutions of the Inner Asian polity in the Central Plain. The transition is neither a one- way change from Inner Asian institutions to Han and Jin institutions nor a simple hybridity. For different institutions, here the succession system in the central government and the administrative system in the local level, the dynamics for the transition are also not the same. This dissertation approaches the Chinese history with articulating not only what these Inner Asian groups took from the Chinese tradition, but also what they contributed to the institutional changes in Chinese history, which reshapes our understanding of what we call “Chinese” institutions, in other words, Chineseness.
Saturday, April 14, 2018
[Dissertation] Early Chinese Empires and the People without History: Resistance, Agency and Identity of Ancient Colonial Sichuan
Author:
Chuan-an Hu
School:
McGill University
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Early Chinese Empires were colonial regimes. The major aim of my dissertation is to elaborate on previous interpretations of cultural change and to highlight the negotiation of identity between imperial and local agents in a colonial context. Colonial encounters not only have occurred in modern times, but also in early Imperial China. The state of Qin (778 BC-221 BC) conquered the entire land of Sichuan (316 BC). This region may well have been Qin’s first colony before it finally unified China and created an empire (221 BC). Forceful military acquisitions of the land and the construction of a colonial landscape reshaped the indigenous cultures. The adoption of the metropolitan cultures (traditionally recognized as “sinicization”) continued for more than five hundred years.
In the past, historians have tended to view cultural change under Qin and Han colonial rule as a normative process, by which the superior metropolitan cultures were passively accepted by the “naturally” inferior, local peoples of ancient Sichuan. However, the society of ancient colonial Sichuan was dynamic, composed of complex interactions among mobile individuals and groups. Local and metropolitan identities emerged nearly simultaneously. Micro and macro identities developed in close relationship with each other and were mutually constitutive. The peoples in ancient Sichuan were not merely “sinicized,” but rather that they often played an active role in constructing their local cultural identities within greater imperial world.
Studies of ancient China often take cultural contact as monolithic and portray China as a state/empire with a monotonic voice. This dissertation seeks to deconstruct the Sino-centric identity through the investigation of the contact between China and her neighbor, ancient Sichuan. I see the cultural contacts as a set of diversified, uneven and heterogeneous interactions, rather than a one-way process. This dissertation deploys an interdisciplinary approach to address this question and to produce a critical synthesis based on the methods of history and archaeology; it analyzes textual sources in the form of standard histories, local histories and inscriptional evidence; and material cultures from burials and other sites. These approaches are well integrated with each other and will be used in both macro and micro contexts. Several expressions of identity are examined including local intellectual agency, ritual practice, and the compilation of local history.
Chuan-an Hu
School:
McGill University
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Early Chinese Empires were colonial regimes. The major aim of my dissertation is to elaborate on previous interpretations of cultural change and to highlight the negotiation of identity between imperial and local agents in a colonial context. Colonial encounters not only have occurred in modern times, but also in early Imperial China. The state of Qin (778 BC-221 BC) conquered the entire land of Sichuan (316 BC). This region may well have been Qin’s first colony before it finally unified China and created an empire (221 BC). Forceful military acquisitions of the land and the construction of a colonial landscape reshaped the indigenous cultures. The adoption of the metropolitan cultures (traditionally recognized as “sinicization”) continued for more than five hundred years.
In the past, historians have tended to view cultural change under Qin and Han colonial rule as a normative process, by which the superior metropolitan cultures were passively accepted by the “naturally” inferior, local peoples of ancient Sichuan. However, the society of ancient colonial Sichuan was dynamic, composed of complex interactions among mobile individuals and groups. Local and metropolitan identities emerged nearly simultaneously. Micro and macro identities developed in close relationship with each other and were mutually constitutive. The peoples in ancient Sichuan were not merely “sinicized,” but rather that they often played an active role in constructing their local cultural identities within greater imperial world.
Studies of ancient China often take cultural contact as monolithic and portray China as a state/empire with a monotonic voice. This dissertation seeks to deconstruct the Sino-centric identity through the investigation of the contact between China and her neighbor, ancient Sichuan. I see the cultural contacts as a set of diversified, uneven and heterogeneous interactions, rather than a one-way process. This dissertation deploys an interdisciplinary approach to address this question and to produce a critical synthesis based on the methods of history and archaeology; it analyzes textual sources in the form of standard histories, local histories and inscriptional evidence; and material cultures from burials and other sites. These approaches are well integrated with each other and will be used in both macro and micro contexts. Several expressions of identity are examined including local intellectual agency, ritual practice, and the compilation of local history.
Monday, March 19, 2018
[Dissertation] Study of the Cang Jie pian: Past and Present
Author:
Christopher Foster
Defended:
2017
School:
Harvard
Abstract:
Lost for nearly a millennium, recent manuscript discoveries are bringing back to light a foundational work of Han period “primary education 小學”: the Cang Jie pian 蒼頡篇. This dissertation looks at the study of the Cang Jie pian from two perspectives, that of the past and of the present. It begins with the latter, addressing fundamental methodological issues for modern scholarship on the Cang Jie pian. Chapter One and Chapter Two ask how, despite the fact that the Cang Jie pian failed to be transmitted to the present, we may still identify manuscript evidence with this title. Textual identity is conceived of as a (potentially shifting) pattern of constitutive characteristics, that then serve as criteria for affiliating new text to the Cang Jie pian title with varying degrees of confidence. Chapter One presents a textual history of the Cang Jie pian via received sources; Chapter Two lists all prospective Cang Jie pian manuscript pieces. Perhaps the most important Cang Jie pian manuscript however was not archaeologically excavated, but purchased for Peking University off the antiquities market. Chapter Three investigates the authenticity of this artifact, and concludes that it is indeed genuine, by identifying novel features first seen on the Peking University Cang Jie pian that have since been confirmed in archaeologically recovered data. The dissertation next turns to the role the Cang Jie pian played in the spread of literacy during the Western Han. The nature of the Cang Jie pian as a primer employed in scribal training is discussed in Chapter Four. A case study of the Cang Jie pian manuscript fragments at Yumen Huahai watchtower shows that even conscripted soldiers were copying this text in study. Yet a survey of the Peking University manuscript’s vocabulary, in Chapter Five, reveals that the Cang Jie pian included sophisticated language that was not purely oriented toward government administration or military duty. Not only were scribes equipped with an erudite written vocabulary, through informal education networks like at Yumen Huahai, a broader range of Han society benefited from “trickle down” literacy.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Why I Chose to Study the Cang Jie pian
Chapter One: The Cang Jie pian According to Received Sources
Chapter Two: Newly Discovered Manuscript Evidence of the Cang Jie pian
Chapter Three: On the Authenticity of the Peking University Cang Jie pian
Chapter Four: Learning with the Cang Jie pian
Chapter Five: Vocabulary of the Cang Jie pian
Christopher Foster
Defended:
2017
School:
Harvard
Abstract:
Lost for nearly a millennium, recent manuscript discoveries are bringing back to light a foundational work of Han period “primary education 小學”: the Cang Jie pian 蒼頡篇. This dissertation looks at the study of the Cang Jie pian from two perspectives, that of the past and of the present. It begins with the latter, addressing fundamental methodological issues for modern scholarship on the Cang Jie pian. Chapter One and Chapter Two ask how, despite the fact that the Cang Jie pian failed to be transmitted to the present, we may still identify manuscript evidence with this title. Textual identity is conceived of as a (potentially shifting) pattern of constitutive characteristics, that then serve as criteria for affiliating new text to the Cang Jie pian title with varying degrees of confidence. Chapter One presents a textual history of the Cang Jie pian via received sources; Chapter Two lists all prospective Cang Jie pian manuscript pieces. Perhaps the most important Cang Jie pian manuscript however was not archaeologically excavated, but purchased for Peking University off the antiquities market. Chapter Three investigates the authenticity of this artifact, and concludes that it is indeed genuine, by identifying novel features first seen on the Peking University Cang Jie pian that have since been confirmed in archaeologically recovered data. The dissertation next turns to the role the Cang Jie pian played in the spread of literacy during the Western Han. The nature of the Cang Jie pian as a primer employed in scribal training is discussed in Chapter Four. A case study of the Cang Jie pian manuscript fragments at Yumen Huahai watchtower shows that even conscripted soldiers were copying this text in study. Yet a survey of the Peking University manuscript’s vocabulary, in Chapter Five, reveals that the Cang Jie pian included sophisticated language that was not purely oriented toward government administration or military duty. Not only were scribes equipped with an erudite written vocabulary, through informal education networks like at Yumen Huahai, a broader range of Han society benefited from “trickle down” literacy.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Why I Chose to Study the Cang Jie pian
Chapter One: The Cang Jie pian According to Received Sources
Chapter Two: Newly Discovered Manuscript Evidence of the Cang Jie pian
Chapter Three: On the Authenticity of the Peking University Cang Jie pian
Chapter Four: Learning with the Cang Jie pian
Chapter Five: Vocabulary of the Cang Jie pian
Sunday, March 18, 2018
[Dissertation] Scribes in Early Imperial China (秦漢帝國的史職官吏)
Author:
Tsang Wing Ma
Advisor:
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low
School:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Scribes were the writing specialists of the ancient world. The study of scribes in ancient China appears to be less developed than those in other ancient civilizations due to the scarcity of the evidence. A group of highly educated intellectuals dominated the transmitted textual tradition in ancient China, and they portrayed scribes as corrupt officials manipulating the laws and documents to their own benefit. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years because of the modern excavation of administrative and legal texts from the workplaces and tombs of scribes in mainland China. These excavated texts allow for the recovery of the scribes’ world, which was previously overshadowed by that of intellectuals.
This dissertation presents a social, institutional, and material history of scribes in early imperial China (221 BCE—220 CE). By utilizing both the transmitted and excavated texts, the author argues against the stereotypical descriptions of scribes in current scholarship. Specifically, he examines how scribes evolved from a caste of hereditary specialists to a type of imperial officials during the political and social transitions from the Zhou to the Qin and Han periods; how scribes actually carried out the many administrative tasks under the unified empire and the problems and difficulties they encountered during their official service; and, finally, how the materiality of writing surfaces in early imperial China influenced the administrative work and qualifications of scribes.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter One: Clerical or Ritualistic?
The Origin and Early Development of the Scribal Profession in China
Chapter Two: The Evolution of Scribes in Early China:
Case Study of the Sima Family
Chapter Three: Family Ties or Age?
Scribes and Assistants in Qin and Early Han China
Chapter Four: Between the State and His Superior:
The Anxiety of Being a Scribe in the Qin and Han Bureaucratic Hierarchy
Conclusion
Tsang Wing Ma
Advisor:
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low
University of California, Santa Barbara
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
Scribes were the writing specialists of the ancient world. The study of scribes in ancient China appears to be less developed than those in other ancient civilizations due to the scarcity of the evidence. A group of highly educated intellectuals dominated the transmitted textual tradition in ancient China, and they portrayed scribes as corrupt officials manipulating the laws and documents to their own benefit. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years because of the modern excavation of administrative and legal texts from the workplaces and tombs of scribes in mainland China. These excavated texts allow for the recovery of the scribes’ world, which was previously overshadowed by that of intellectuals.
This dissertation presents a social, institutional, and material history of scribes in early imperial China (221 BCE—220 CE). By utilizing both the transmitted and excavated texts, the author argues against the stereotypical descriptions of scribes in current scholarship. Specifically, he examines how scribes evolved from a caste of hereditary specialists to a type of imperial officials during the political and social transitions from the Zhou to the Qin and Han periods; how scribes actually carried out the many administrative tasks under the unified empire and the problems and difficulties they encountered during their official service; and, finally, how the materiality of writing surfaces in early imperial China influenced the administrative work and qualifications of scribes.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter One: Clerical or Ritualistic?
The Origin and Early Development of the Scribal Profession in China
Chapter Two: The Evolution of Scribes in Early China:
Case Study of the Sima Family
Chapter Three: Family Ties or Age?
Scribes and Assistants in Qin and Early Han China
Chapter Four: Between the State and His Superior:
The Anxiety of Being a Scribe in the Qin and Han Bureaucratic Hierarchy
Conclusion
Thursday, March 15, 2018
[Dissertation] The Rise of a Manuscript Culture and the Textualization of Discourse in Early China
Author:
Rens Krijgsman
Defended:
2017
School:
Oxford University
Advisor:
Dirk Meyer
Abstract:
This thesis analyses a change in the ways people composed and engaged with texts during the Warring States (481-221 BCE) period in Early China. It examines changes in the textual sphere as a result of an emergent manuscript culture, that is to say, the increased spread and reliance on manuscript texts for the communication of ideas. This shift moved away from the predominantly oral, commemorative, and ritual use of text in earlier periods, and provided key elements that would function in the text based discourse of the early empires. It influenced the way text across a variety of genres of writing was used and understood, structured and composed, and how it was collected and combined to form new arguments.
I focus on texts from the Documents 書, and Odes 詩 genres, in addition to philosophical texts dealing with the past, and collections of sayings and arguments dealing with questions from cosmological to ethical issues. These materials form the mainstay of Warring States intellectual discourse, and exemplify the following textual developments: 1) the rise of collecting materials into compilations; 2) the emergence of genre classification; 3) the development of new authorship functions, 3) an increase in textual structuring and the integration of lore about the past, 4) the development of commentarial traditions, 5) the emergence of an explicit, self-reflexive understanding of writing and transmission, 6) advances in material structuring of manuscript-texts that interrelate form and content.
The analysis is based primarily on excavated materials not edited during the early empires, and engages with comparative and interdisciplinary theory. It argues against models solely based on transmitted sources, which explained Warring States developments as a response to socio-political contexts. Instead, it posits developments in the textual culture itself as a necessary condition to explain the changes in intellectual discourse of the period.
Rens Krijgsman
Defended:
2017
School:
Oxford University
Advisor:
Dirk Meyer
Abstract:
This thesis analyses a change in the ways people composed and engaged with texts during the Warring States (481-221 BCE) period in Early China. It examines changes in the textual sphere as a result of an emergent manuscript culture, that is to say, the increased spread and reliance on manuscript texts for the communication of ideas. This shift moved away from the predominantly oral, commemorative, and ritual use of text in earlier periods, and provided key elements that would function in the text based discourse of the early empires. It influenced the way text across a variety of genres of writing was used and understood, structured and composed, and how it was collected and combined to form new arguments.
I focus on texts from the Documents 書, and Odes 詩 genres, in addition to philosophical texts dealing with the past, and collections of sayings and arguments dealing with questions from cosmological to ethical issues. These materials form the mainstay of Warring States intellectual discourse, and exemplify the following textual developments: 1) the rise of collecting materials into compilations; 2) the emergence of genre classification; 3) the development of new authorship functions, 3) an increase in textual structuring and the integration of lore about the past, 4) the development of commentarial traditions, 5) the emergence of an explicit, self-reflexive understanding of writing and transmission, 6) advances in material structuring of manuscript-texts that interrelate form and content.
The analysis is based primarily on excavated materials not edited during the early empires, and engages with comparative and interdisciplinary theory. It argues against models solely based on transmitted sources, which explained Warring States developments as a response to socio-political contexts. Instead, it posits developments in the textual culture itself as a necessary condition to explain the changes in intellectual discourse of the period.
Friday, December 29, 2017
[Dissertation] Fringes and Seams: Boundaries of Erudition in Early Medieval China
Author:
Nicoll-Johnson, Evan Vincent
Defended:
2017
School:
UCLA
Abstract:
In China’s early medieval period, scholastic erudition and refined self-expression were requisite talents of the literate elite, and achievement in both areas depended on the production, circulation, and consumption of texts. This dissertation examines several methods of textual organization and compilation that arose and flourished in this period. Although such works served as testaments to the broad erudition of their compilers, they were also criticized for their unrestrained ambition, disorderly structure, and problematically “miscellaneous” contents. The first two chapters address bibliographic treatises compiled during the Han and early Tang dynasties, showing how these ambitious scholarly projects relegated complexly organized works to categories reserved for “miscellaneous” texts. I find that the earlier treatise, contained
in Han shu, is inconsistent in the qualities it assigns to texts it describes as za 雜, or “miscellaneous,” while the later treatise, found in Sui shu, displays the influence of the centuries of intervening textual production and circulation through a new interest in scribal practices and compilation techniques, which is also apparent in its critiques of all its “miscellaneous” texts. Each of the remaining three chapters addresses a different method of textual reuse that arose in the centuries between these two bibliographies. In chapter three, I discuss the extensive historiographic annotations to Sanguo zhi and Shishuo xinyu, which have themselves been criticized for their disorderliness, and also make frequent use of texts bibliographies describe as “miscellaneous.” Chapter four is focused on Jinlouzi 金樓子, a uniquely structured compilation of private writings and gathered anecdotes, showing how its distinctive approach to textual reuse and organization has influenced its complex transmission and reception. Chapter five discusses collections of liezhuan 列傳 biographies compiled for several dynastic histories, using analysis of phrases that describe reading and erudition to examine the development of a standard biographical style. By combining digital analyses of patterns within these texts with investigation of their structure and contents, I show how these texts, though maligned for their disorderliness and “miscellaneousness,” are all attempts to bring a quickly expanding corpus to order, and to find new ways to make use of the many texts to which their compilers had access.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Disorderly Texts and the Textual Order: Za in the Han shu Bibliographic
Treatise
2. Redefining Disorder: Za in the Sui shu bibliographic treatise
3. Supplementing the Records and Anecdotes: Annotation and Bibliography
4. Brick by Brick: Jinlouzi and the Construction of a Textual Identity
5. Patterns of Erudition: Identifying and Defining “Broad Reading”
Conclusion
Nicoll-Johnson, Evan Vincent
Defended:
2017
School:
UCLA
Abstract:
In China’s early medieval period, scholastic erudition and refined self-expression were requisite talents of the literate elite, and achievement in both areas depended on the production, circulation, and consumption of texts. This dissertation examines several methods of textual organization and compilation that arose and flourished in this period. Although such works served as testaments to the broad erudition of their compilers, they were also criticized for their unrestrained ambition, disorderly structure, and problematically “miscellaneous” contents. The first two chapters address bibliographic treatises compiled during the Han and early Tang dynasties, showing how these ambitious scholarly projects relegated complexly organized works to categories reserved for “miscellaneous” texts. I find that the earlier treatise, contained
in Han shu, is inconsistent in the qualities it assigns to texts it describes as za 雜, or “miscellaneous,” while the later treatise, found in Sui shu, displays the influence of the centuries of intervening textual production and circulation through a new interest in scribal practices and compilation techniques, which is also apparent in its critiques of all its “miscellaneous” texts. Each of the remaining three chapters addresses a different method of textual reuse that arose in the centuries between these two bibliographies. In chapter three, I discuss the extensive historiographic annotations to Sanguo zhi and Shishuo xinyu, which have themselves been criticized for their disorderliness, and also make frequent use of texts bibliographies describe as “miscellaneous.” Chapter four is focused on Jinlouzi 金樓子, a uniquely structured compilation of private writings and gathered anecdotes, showing how its distinctive approach to textual reuse and organization has influenced its complex transmission and reception. Chapter five discusses collections of liezhuan 列傳 biographies compiled for several dynastic histories, using analysis of phrases that describe reading and erudition to examine the development of a standard biographical style. By combining digital analyses of patterns within these texts with investigation of their structure and contents, I show how these texts, though maligned for their disorderliness and “miscellaneousness,” are all attempts to bring a quickly expanding corpus to order, and to find new ways to make use of the many texts to which their compilers had access.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Disorderly Texts and the Textual Order: Za in the Han shu Bibliographic
Treatise
2. Redefining Disorder: Za in the Sui shu bibliographic treatise
3. Supplementing the Records and Anecdotes: Annotation and Bibliography
4. Brick by Brick: Jinlouzi and the Construction of a Textual Identity
5. Patterns of Erudition: Identifying and Defining “Broad Reading”
Conclusion
Sunday, October 29, 2017
[Dissertation] Culture Change and Imperial Incorporation in Early China: An Archaeological Study of the Middle Han River Valley (ca. 8th century BCE - 1st century CE)
Author:
Glenda E. Chao
Thesis Advisor:
Li, Feng
School:
Columbia University
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
This dissertation analyzes historical and archaeological evidence of culture change and the effects of state and imperial expansion on local communities to show that early Chinese cultural history is enriched when commoners are taken into account. I do this by focusing on heretofore unexamined evidence in the middle Han river valley of north-central Hubei province in early China during the 8th century BCE to the 1strd century CE. I argue that this was a particularly important region because it was an important crossroads where multiple polities interacted in the period between the fall of the Western Zhou state and the rise of China’s first empires, the Qin and the Han.
Traditional historiography attributes culture change during this period and in this region to the imposition of a holistic set of customs by elites representing state or imperial power on newly conquered lands. The sources used and analyses employed are disproportionately derived from elite contexts. As a result, current historical narratives privilege elite views of culture and society. By contrast, my dissertation employs a methodology that utilizes newly excavated archaeological data to enrich extant narratives of the early cultural history of this region. I do this in two ways. First, I interweave archaeological evidence of ordinary peoples’ cultural practices into the dominant political and social histories of the era. Second, I focus on the middle Han river area as a geographical crossroads that was as culturally complex as frontier regions, a perspective rarely taken in traditional studies of early China.
Chapter 1 lays out the three-tiered theoretical and methodological framework of the dissertation. I first outline theories of culture change in ancient colonial encounters, derived from anthropological discourse, and that can be utilized to understand my novel data. I then describe how archaeologists utilize material evidence of past funerary rituals, which form the bulk of my data, to study culture change. Finally, I talk about the quantitative methods through which I render the archaeological data intelligible to interpretation.
In Chapter 2, I engage with the third and narrowest tier of my methodology by using assemblage theory as the basis for archaeological periodization of funerary ceramics at Bianying 卞營 cemetery. This method takes as its premise the idea that the appearance of new ceramic types and the disappearance of others, signify moments of change due either to incoming practices or internal development, when the social and cultural affiliations of the community of mourners came under question, thus, allowing for the assertion and negotiation of emergent cultural identities.
In Chapter 3, I use exploratory data analyses to identify meaningful patterns in the seven chronological periods identified in Chapter 2. In interpreting these patterns, I explain how, within the realm of funerary ritual, the introduction of new cultural practices into Xiangyang engendered the formation of hybrid culture at Bianying, and how the active agency of the local population was expressed through this process.
In Chapter 4, I employ these previous analyses in returning to the level of culture change in order to build a more robust model of cultural hybridity in early imperial China. To do this, I analyze the more rural and idiosyncratic cemetery of Wangpo 王坡, located four kilometers north of Bianying. I use the evidence of hybridized burial practices at Wangpo to show how my model destabilizes accepted analytical categories and, thereby, allows new narratives of early imperial history in China to emerge, narratives that bring the discipline into dialogue with the study of other regions of the ancient world.
In Chapter 5, I construct a new history of cultural formation in Xiangyang. I do this by interweaving the archaeological narrative outlined in chapters 2 through 4 with textual evidence drawn from bronze inscriptions, excavated texts, and transmitted historical records. I reconcile contradictions between the archaeological and textual records by tacking back and forth between these two categories of source materials, treating both as different facets of the same story. In doing so, I present a holistic narrative of elite political designs on Xiangyang and its effects on locals, arguing that both groups mutually constructed one another in forming what we now know to be early imperial China. This work has important implications for further research by demonstrating the value of making more nuanced use of newly excavated material to reinvigorate the genre of regional history in China.
** Thank Dr. Albert Galvany for sharing this information
Glenda E. Chao
Thesis Advisor:
Li, Feng
School:
Columbia University
Defended:
2017
Abstract:
This dissertation analyzes historical and archaeological evidence of culture change and the effects of state and imperial expansion on local communities to show that early Chinese cultural history is enriched when commoners are taken into account. I do this by focusing on heretofore unexamined evidence in the middle Han river valley of north-central Hubei province in early China during the 8th century BCE to the 1strd century CE. I argue that this was a particularly important region because it was an important crossroads where multiple polities interacted in the period between the fall of the Western Zhou state and the rise of China’s first empires, the Qin and the Han.
Traditional historiography attributes culture change during this period and in this region to the imposition of a holistic set of customs by elites representing state or imperial power on newly conquered lands. The sources used and analyses employed are disproportionately derived from elite contexts. As a result, current historical narratives privilege elite views of culture and society. By contrast, my dissertation employs a methodology that utilizes newly excavated archaeological data to enrich extant narratives of the early cultural history of this region. I do this in two ways. First, I interweave archaeological evidence of ordinary peoples’ cultural practices into the dominant political and social histories of the era. Second, I focus on the middle Han river area as a geographical crossroads that was as culturally complex as frontier regions, a perspective rarely taken in traditional studies of early China.
Chapter 1 lays out the three-tiered theoretical and methodological framework of the dissertation. I first outline theories of culture change in ancient colonial encounters, derived from anthropological discourse, and that can be utilized to understand my novel data. I then describe how archaeologists utilize material evidence of past funerary rituals, which form the bulk of my data, to study culture change. Finally, I talk about the quantitative methods through which I render the archaeological data intelligible to interpretation.
In Chapter 2, I engage with the third and narrowest tier of my methodology by using assemblage theory as the basis for archaeological periodization of funerary ceramics at Bianying 卞營 cemetery. This method takes as its premise the idea that the appearance of new ceramic types and the disappearance of others, signify moments of change due either to incoming practices or internal development, when the social and cultural affiliations of the community of mourners came under question, thus, allowing for the assertion and negotiation of emergent cultural identities.
In Chapter 3, I use exploratory data analyses to identify meaningful patterns in the seven chronological periods identified in Chapter 2. In interpreting these patterns, I explain how, within the realm of funerary ritual, the introduction of new cultural practices into Xiangyang engendered the formation of hybrid culture at Bianying, and how the active agency of the local population was expressed through this process.
In Chapter 4, I employ these previous analyses in returning to the level of culture change in order to build a more robust model of cultural hybridity in early imperial China. To do this, I analyze the more rural and idiosyncratic cemetery of Wangpo 王坡, located four kilometers north of Bianying. I use the evidence of hybridized burial practices at Wangpo to show how my model destabilizes accepted analytical categories and, thereby, allows new narratives of early imperial history in China to emerge, narratives that bring the discipline into dialogue with the study of other regions of the ancient world.
In Chapter 5, I construct a new history of cultural formation in Xiangyang. I do this by interweaving the archaeological narrative outlined in chapters 2 through 4 with textual evidence drawn from bronze inscriptions, excavated texts, and transmitted historical records. I reconcile contradictions between the archaeological and textual records by tacking back and forth between these two categories of source materials, treating both as different facets of the same story. In doing so, I present a holistic narrative of elite political designs on Xiangyang and its effects on locals, arguing that both groups mutually constructed one another in forming what we now know to be early imperial China. This work has important implications for further research by demonstrating the value of making more nuanced use of newly excavated material to reinvigorate the genre of regional history in China.
** Thank Dr. Albert Galvany for sharing this information
Friday, September 22, 2017
[Dissertation] Presence and Praise: Writing the Imperial Body in Han China
Author:
Sharon Sanderovitch
Defended:
2017
School:
UC Berkeley
Advisor:
Mark Csikszentmihalyi
Abstract:
The ruler’s body in early Chinese literature—whether silent and tranquil or bearing the scars of restless public toil; whether emanating light from the depths of the palatial chambers or displaying charisma while traversing the empire—has served as an idiom for the articulation of competing ideals of rulership, governance, and bureaucratization. This work takes the idiom of the ruler’s body and the language of imperial representation as the primary object of scrutiny. It analyzes prevalent rhetorical and literary patterns in light of observations gained in the cross-cultural study of the royal body, metaphor in political discourse, and theories of representation. In particular, I am interested in the way top-down representation, of the ruler by his officials, was conceptualized and advocated in bodily terms, giving rise to some of the most common figures in early Chinese literature. This attention to the work of language in the political discourse of the early imperial period reveals some of the unique features of Chinese theories of monarchy, and brings to light paradigms that structure the literary representation of rulers and rulership across seemingly incompatible genres.
The main texts that drive the inquiry in the three core chapters date from two middle points in the long span of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE): the reign of Emperor Cheng 成帝 (r. 33 – 7 BCE) in the late Western Han, and the reign of Emperor Zhang 章帝 (r. 75 – 88) in the early Eastern Han. The first chapter takes Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (79 – 8 BCE) Shui yuan 說苑 as the gate to an ongoing intertextual discourse of rulership and bureaucratization, looking in particular at metaphors that take the ruler’s body as the source domain. I show, in the second chapter, that some of the conceptual paradigms that structure such figurative constructions in the discourse of authority and delegation underlie literary strategies that support the goals of the ruler’s encomiasts. At the center of analysis in this chapter is Cui Yin’s 崔駰 (d. 92) “Four Panegyrics for the Imperial Tours” 四巡頌—a text that fell under the radar of most early-China scholars, East and West, due to a long interruption in its transmission. In the third chapter, focusing on the summaries and evaluations Ban Gu 班固 (32 – 92) had appended to the imperial chronicles of the Hanshu 漢書 (History of the Han), I argue that awareness to the poetics of praise is instrumental to the study not only of the rhetorical construction of the ruler’s body but also the language of imperial historiography.
This work thus examines the relation between metaphor and politics, body and representation, and history and praise so as to highlight features of the early Chinese discourse of rulership that will have hermeneutical and analytical value for scholars of Chinese literature, political thought, and theories of monarchy across cultures.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Body, Metaphor, and Representation
Chapter 1: Metaphors of the Body Natural—Reading Liu Xiang’s “Way of the Ruler”
Chapter 2: The Poetics of Praise—Cui Yin’s “Four Panegyrics for the Imperial Tours”
Chapter 3: Praise and Paratext—Ban Gu’s History of the Han
Bibliography
Sharon Sanderovitch
Defended:
2017
School:
UC Berkeley
Advisor:
Mark Csikszentmihalyi
Abstract:
The ruler’s body in early Chinese literature—whether silent and tranquil or bearing the scars of restless public toil; whether emanating light from the depths of the palatial chambers or displaying charisma while traversing the empire—has served as an idiom for the articulation of competing ideals of rulership, governance, and bureaucratization. This work takes the idiom of the ruler’s body and the language of imperial representation as the primary object of scrutiny. It analyzes prevalent rhetorical and literary patterns in light of observations gained in the cross-cultural study of the royal body, metaphor in political discourse, and theories of representation. In particular, I am interested in the way top-down representation, of the ruler by his officials, was conceptualized and advocated in bodily terms, giving rise to some of the most common figures in early Chinese literature. This attention to the work of language in the political discourse of the early imperial period reveals some of the unique features of Chinese theories of monarchy, and brings to light paradigms that structure the literary representation of rulers and rulership across seemingly incompatible genres.
The main texts that drive the inquiry in the three core chapters date from two middle points in the long span of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE): the reign of Emperor Cheng 成帝 (r. 33 – 7 BCE) in the late Western Han, and the reign of Emperor Zhang 章帝 (r. 75 – 88) in the early Eastern Han. The first chapter takes Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (79 – 8 BCE) Shui yuan 說苑 as the gate to an ongoing intertextual discourse of rulership and bureaucratization, looking in particular at metaphors that take the ruler’s body as the source domain. I show, in the second chapter, that some of the conceptual paradigms that structure such figurative constructions in the discourse of authority and delegation underlie literary strategies that support the goals of the ruler’s encomiasts. At the center of analysis in this chapter is Cui Yin’s 崔駰 (d. 92) “Four Panegyrics for the Imperial Tours” 四巡頌—a text that fell under the radar of most early-China scholars, East and West, due to a long interruption in its transmission. In the third chapter, focusing on the summaries and evaluations Ban Gu 班固 (32 – 92) had appended to the imperial chronicles of the Hanshu 漢書 (History of the Han), I argue that awareness to the poetics of praise is instrumental to the study not only of the rhetorical construction of the ruler’s body but also the language of imperial historiography.
This work thus examines the relation between metaphor and politics, body and representation, and history and praise so as to highlight features of the early Chinese discourse of rulership that will have hermeneutical and analytical value for scholars of Chinese literature, political thought, and theories of monarchy across cultures.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Body, Metaphor, and Representation
Chapter 1: Metaphors of the Body Natural—Reading Liu Xiang’s “Way of the Ruler”
Chapter 2: The Poetics of Praise—Cui Yin’s “Four Panegyrics for the Imperial Tours”
Chapter 3: Praise and Paratext—Ban Gu’s History of the Han
Bibliography
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)