Preparing one’s act: performance supports and the question of human nature in early China

Author:

Maddalena Poli

School:

University of Pennsylvania

Year:

2022

Abstract:

Since the 20th century, Chinese institutions have been recovering a growing number of ancient objects, among which figure manuscripts produced during the Warring States (453–221 BCE) era. These are the protagonists of this dissertation. Chapter one articulates the overarching goal of my study: the importance of rigorous philological and intellectual engagement to promote the significance of these manuscripts in and beyond the study of early Chinese history. In Chapter two, I analyze manuscripts produced around 300 BCE as what I call “performance supports,” rather than self-contained philosophical and historical essays. My notion of “performance supports” incorporates observations about the composite nature of early Chinese manuscripts, but better accounts for other textual features, such as errors, abrupt endings, list-like passages, etc. Chapter three discusses the implications of my argument. I show how performance supports were used in practices of knowledge management that relied on, but went beyond, the written medium. I explore oratory, recitation, literary compositions, and writings used to organize and retrieve knowledge. I then compare performance supports to other Warring States texts, so as to highlight the peculiarities of both groups and confirm that the concept of performance support is not an ad-hoc solution. Chapter four focuses on the performance support *Natural Dispositions Come from Endowment 性自命出, and reconstructs ways in which this manuscript functioned as the basis for central philosophical debates on “human nature” (xing 性) during the Warring States period. The dissertation is completed by a new philological study of *Natural Dispositions.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE. Setting The Stage

CHAPTER TWO. Ancient Chinese Manuscripts As Performance Supports

CHAPTER THREE. The Performance. How performance supports were used, and by whom

CHAPTER FOUR. The Warring States debate on human nature

Concluding remarks

[Dissertation] The First Imperial Transition in China: A Microhistory of Jiangling (369 – 119 BCE)

Author:
Shen, Dewei

School:
Yale University 

Year:
2021. 

Abstract:

This dissertation challenges the dominant historical narrative about the rise of early Chinese empires, the Qin (221 – 206 BCE) and the Han (202 – 220 BCE), which tends to fixate on the grand strategy and military power of the conquerors while neglecting the agency of the conquered populations. To counteract this one-sided narrative, I investigate the area of Jiangling 江陵 in the middle Yangzi River region, where the capital of Chu 楚—then the most powerful state in South China—was located. Qin’s invasion of the Chu capital area in 278 BCE and Han’s takeover of it in 202 BCE make Jiangling an ideal case study for tracing how a former regional center responded to the rising imperial order from the mid-fourth through the second century BCE. Drawing on a wealth of new archaeological and manuscript evidence, this dissertation is among the first within early China studies to offer a locality-centered microhistory.

Chapter 1 analyzes the anatomy of this narrative, which I call the Great Unification—or dayitong 大一統—narrative. Chapter 2 examines settlement and architectural remains from Jinancheng 紀南城 and Yingcheng 郢城 to expose the reality of the Qin conquest. The available evidence suggests that the Qin invaders did not destroy indiscriminately but exercised violence strategically and relied on local know-how to fortify their colonial headquarters. Chapter 3 explores the changing mortuary landscape in Jiangling and the funeral workmen communities in particular. It argues that social change in postconquest Jiangling was the result of a series of negotiations between the native communities and the colonial governments, negotiations that were as constrained by local conditions as they were by imperial directives. Chapter 4 devises a funeral organizers-centered perspective to trace cultural shifts in Jiangling. Through a statistical analysis of the burial objects arranged by funeral organizers and their changing mortuary representations in tombs, the chapter reveals that cultural perceptions related to food and drink, personal property, and government service were deeply affected by the intrusion of Qin and Han modes of social organization. Chapter 5 scales up to a more macro level to analyze the institutional development of three rank systems, i.e., Qin, Neo-Chu, and Han. It discovers an important phenomenon called “rank inflation” and argues that the different ways of controlling rank inflation had a profound effect on Jiangling denizens. Chapter 6 utilizes a group of mortuary documents called gaodice 告地策 (“notifications to underworld authorities”) to focus on the lived experience of three widows of top rank-holders in Jianging, whose tombs were interred with such documents. The chapter reveals the tensions within newly emergent and liminal rank-related identities in the wake of the Han imperial incursion in Jiangling. In a brief conclusion, the dissertation offers some reflections on how to write the first imperial transition free from the Great Unification mantra.

[Dissertation] Funerary Lists from Early Chinese Shaft Tombs

Author:
Hui, SUN

School:
Heidelberg University

Submitted:
2019

Abstract:
This dissertation presents a new approach to the whole corpus of funerary lists from early Chinese shaft tombs (dating from the late 5th century BCE to the 1st century CE). While existing research almost exclusively interprets them as “tomb inventory lists”, I provide an alternative interpretation. Combining codicological, philological and archaeological data with archaeological and ethno-sociological theories, I argue that the lists were created as tools for short-term administration of material components (sometimes also animals and personal resources) in certain actions before the entombment.

Chapter 1 introduces the Chinese funerary lists discovered to date and offers an overview of the scholarship on the creation and usage of the lists from the early shaft tombs. Chapter 2 guides the reader through the archaeological theory of “field of action”, which I adapt slightly for my analysis of the creation and usage of the early lists. The introduction of this theory is followed by the establishment of a hypothetical model of the early Chinese funerary cycle based on transmitted texts. Furthermore, a combination of this theory with the classic ethnological concept of rites de passage will clarify the motivation of the creation of those lists. Chapter 3 presents a detailed case study of the lists from tomb no. 1 at Leigudun 擂鼓墩, the tomb of the renowned Marquis Yi of Zeng (died ca. 433 BCE) 曾侯乙. Chapter 4 introduces the perspectives of the analytical device “field of action” for approaching the remaining lists. In addition, the two latter chapters indicate that the lists considerably complement the hypothetical model of the funerary cycle. Finally, as a conclusion, the lists were no “tomb inventory lists”. Instead, they were created and used in short-term administration of certain fields of action. None of them describes the final organisational pattern of the tomb goods and most of them do not even describe the final organisational pattern of the resources in the individual pre-entombment actions. Their creation and usage were motivated by the wishes to smoothly transform the status of the deceased and the bereaved through various rites de passage. 

Therefore, my discoveries do not only contribute to the rational understanding of the funerary practices involving those lists, but also provide the basis for a fundamental and necessary reorientation in the philological and archaeological research of those lists.

Early China 42 (2019) 《古代中國》第42期

Table of Contents:

Obituaries

LIU ZEHUA 劉澤華 (1935–2018)
Yuri Pines

LI XUEQIN 李學勤 (1933–2019)
Liu Guozhong, Edmund Ryden

REMEMBRANCES OF LI XUEQIN (1933–2019)

Articles

“XI SHUAI” 蟋蟀 (“CRICKET”) AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: ISSUES IN EARLY CHINESE POETRY AND TEXTUAL STUDIES
Martin Kern

A SELF-REFLEXIVE PRAXIS: CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS MANUSCRIPT AND TEXT IN EARLY CHINA
Rens Krijgsman

TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE: THE CHU CI 楚辭 (VERSES OF CHU) AS RESPONSE TO THE SHI JING 詩經 (CLASSIC OF ODES)
Michael Hunter

THE REIFICATION OF FATE IN EARLY CHINA
Mercedes Valmisa

INTERTEXTUALITY AND MEMORY IN EARLY CHINESE WRITINGS: A CASE STUDY FROM HUAINANZI
Oliver Weingarten

RU SCHOLARS, SOCIAL NETWORKS, AND BUREAUCRACY: DONGHAI 東海 MEN AND MODELS FOR SUCCESS IN WESTERN HAN CHINA (206 b.c.e.–9 c.e.)
Liang Cai

WRITING BEFORE INSCRIBING: ON THE USE OF MANUSCRIPTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF WESTERN ZHOU BRONZE INSCRIPTIONS
Ondřej Škrabal

Review

G. E. R. Lloyd and Jingyi Jenny Zhao, eds., in collaboration with Qiaosheng Dong, Ancient Greece and China Compared. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Paul R. Goldin

Bibliography

DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
Wen-Yi Huang, comp.

ANNUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wen-Yi Huang, comp.

Literate Community in Early Imperial China: The Northwestern Frontier in Han Times

Author:
Charles Sanft

Publisher:
SUNY Press

Publication date:
May 2019

Abstract:
Through an examination of archaeologically recovered texts from China’s northwestern border regions, argues for widespread interaction with texts in the Han period. This book examines ancient written materials from China’s northwestern border regions to offer fresh insights into the role of text in shaping society and culture during the Han period (206/2 BCE–220 CE). Left behind by military installations, these documents—wooden strips and other nontraditional textual materials such as silk—recorded the lives and activities of military personnel and the people around them. Charles Sanft explores their functions and uses by looking at a fascinating array of material, including posted texts on signaling across distances, practical texts on brewing beer and evaluating swords, and letters exchanged by officials working in low rungs of the bureaucracy. By focusing on all members of the community, he argues that a much broader section of early society had meaningful interactions with text than previously believed. This major shift in interpretation challenges long-standing assumptions about the limited range of influence that text and literacy had on culture and society and makes important contributions to early China studies, the study of literacy, and to the global history of non-elites.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. Interacting with Text in Early Imperial China and Beyond

2. Contexts and Sources

3. Posted Texts

4. Statements of Individuals and Groups

5. Composite Texts

6. Practical Texts

7. Cultural Texts

8. Letters

Conclusion

La fabrique du lisible: La mise en texte des manuscrits de la Chine ancienne et médiévale

Author: 
Jean Pierre Drège; Costantino Moretti

Publisher: 
Paris : Collège de France, Institut des hautes études chinoises

Publication Year: 
2014

Abstract:

La fabrique du lisible rassemble 51 contributions consacrées aux manuscrits chinois anciens et médiévaux. Le livre chinois est ici abordé sous tous ses aspects. Une attention particulière est accordée à la forme des livres et à leur mise en texte. 

Si la plupart des articles concernent la période médiévale, et en particulier les manuscrits de Dunhuang, plusieurs contributions sont aussi consacrées à des manuscrits de l’époque des Han. La prise en compte de l’évolution du livre chinois sur la longue durée constitue une des spécificités de cette étude. 

La fabrique du lisible bénéficie en outre d’un grand nombre d’illustrations couleur qui permettent de se représenter très clairement les différents types de manuscrits décrits et analysés dans cet ouvrage.

Table of Contents:

Textes du Canon confucéen et philologie  (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Le Livre des Mutations 周易 (Dimitri Drettas)

Le Livre des Documents 尚書 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Le Livre des Odes 詩經 (Olivier Venture)

Le Cérémonial de Mozuizi 磨嘴子儀禮  (Olivier Venture)

Les Printemps et Automnes 春秋 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Le Livre de la Piété filiale 孝經 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

L’Approche de la perfection (Françoise Bottéro)

Les Entretiens de Confucius 論語 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les manuels de caractères de l’époque Qin-Han (Françoise Bottéro)

Les livres de rimes 切韻 (Françoise Bottéro)

La Liste essentielle des noms corrects 正名要錄 (Françoise Bottéro)

Les recueils d’anecdotes historiques (Olivier Venture)

L’Histoire des Han 漢書 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les recensions manuscrites du Laozi 老子 (Dimitri Drettas)

Les Six arcanes stratégiques 六韜 (Olivier Venture)

Les calendriers (Alain Arrault)

Le manuscrit arithmétique de Zhangjiashan 張家山算數書 (Jean-Claude Martzloff)

Le Livre des Calculs 算經 (Jean-Claude Martzloff)

Deux types de manuscrits mantiques (Dimitri Drettas)

Les recueils de matière médicale 本草 (Éric Trombert)

Les recettes médicamenteuses 藥方 (Catherine Despeux)

Les encyclopédies 類書  (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les manuels de correspondance 書儀 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Un poème des Han : L’« Exposition du corbeau prodigieux » de Yinwan 尹灣神烏傅 (Valérie Lavoix)

L’Anthologie des belles-lettres 文選 (Valérie Lavoix)

Les registres surimposés de deux copies anciennes du Dharmapāda (Costantino Moretti)

Les divisions du Sūtra du Lotus 法華經  (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Le Sūtra du Diamant 金剛經 (Sylvie Hureau)

Les copies signées du Sūtra d’Amitāyus 無量壽經 (Costantino Moretti)

Les commentaires de sūtra bouddhiques (Sylvie Hureau)

L’organisation du texte et du commentaire dans le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse 大智度論 (Costantino Moretti)

Notes et Catégories doctrinales du Traité des étapes de la pratique du yoga 瑜伽師地論分門記 (Costantino Moretti)

Techniques de repérage dans un recueil d’interprétations de termes bouddhiques 法門名義集 (Costantino Moretti)

Un talisman-dhāraṇī (Christine Mollier)

La table des matières de l’Essentiel des secrets suprêmes 無上袐要 (Christine Mollier)

Le stūpa du Sūtra du coeur de la perfection de gnose 般若波羅蜜多心經  (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Deux diagrammes de cosmologie bouddhique (Françoise Wang-Toutain)

Le diagramme des explications doctrinales d’un commentaire au Traité sur la production de la foi dans le Grand Véhicule 大乘起信論 (Françoise Wang-Toutain)

Les dhāraṇī des neuf planètes 九曜真言 en forme de vajra (Françoise Wang-Toutain)

Les manuscrits illustrés (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les cartes géographiques dans la Chine ancienne (Olivier Venture)

Ponctuation, balises et autres signes de lecture (Olivier Venture et Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les pièces de soie 帛書 (Olivier Venture)

Les tablettes 木牘 (Olivier Venture)

Les rouleaux de lattes de bois et de bambou 木竹簡 (Olivier Venture)

Les rouleaux de papier 卷軸 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les ôles chinoises 貝多 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les reliures en sūtra 經摺裝 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les livres en tourbillon 旋風裝 (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Les codices (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Manuscrits et pièces insolites (Jean-Pierre Drège)

Ximing Monastery: History and Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Author:
Xiang Wang

Publisher:
LAP Lambert Academic Publishing

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:

Presented in the cultural context of medieval Chang’an and the broader network of Buddhist Asia, this book provides an interdisciplinary study of Ximing Monastery (Ximingsi 西明寺) in Tang China (618-907). As a premier center of Buddhist learning, Ximingsi not only served as a national shrine active in state-protection movement, but also attracted a steady stream of Chinese pundits, Indian missionaries, Korean scholars and Japanese pilgrims. Despite its fame, Ximingsi has yet to receive a full scholarly treatment. 

Drawing from a large body of widely-scattered literature as well as numerous marginal notes, the first part of the book offers a consideration of the monastery’s dark prehistory, a sketch of its literary imaginaire, and a presentation of its complex religio-political history, with special attention to the interaction between politics and Buddhism. The present study also attempts to reconstruct the religious space of Ximingsi in relation to the Indian Jetavana Vihara and the Daianji Temple in Japan. Lastly, the final chapters explore the monastery's celebrated library, highlighting its rich bibliographical tradition and its role in cultural exchange between China and Japan.

Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon

Editors:
Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Publication Year:
2015

Abstract:
A monumental work in the history of religion, the history of the book, the study of politics, and bibliographical research, this volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the fourth century to the digital era. Approaching the subject from a historical perspective, the book ties the religious, social, and textual practices of canon formation to the development of East Asian Buddhist culture and opens up the study of Chinese Buddhist texts to readers interested in the evolution of Chinese writing in general and the Confucian and Daoist traditions in particular.

The collection undertakes extensive readings of major scriptural catalogs from the early manuscript era as well as major printed editions, including the Kaibao Canon, Qisha Canon, Goryeo Canon, and Taisho Canon. Contributors add fascinating depth to such understudied issues as the historical process of compilation, textual manipulation, physical production and management, sponsorship, the dissemination of various editions, cultic activities surrounding the canon, and the canon's reception in different East Asian societies. The Chinese Buddhist canon is one of the most enduring textual traditions in East Asian religion and culture, and through this exhaustive, multifaceted effort, an essential body of work becomes part of a new, versatile narrative of East Asian Buddhism that has far-reaching implications for world history.

Table of Contents:

Preface, by Lewis Lancaster

Introduction, by Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia

Part I: Overview

1. The Chinese Buddhist Canon Through the Ages: Essential Categories and Critical Issues in the Study of a Textual Tradition, by Jiang Wu

2. From the "Cult of the Book" to the "Cult of the Canon": A Neglected Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, by Jiang Wu

Part II: The Formative Period

3. Notions and Visions of the Canon in Early Chinese Buddhism, by Stefano Zacchetti

4. Fei Changfang's Lidai sanbao ji 歷代三寶記 and Its Role in the Formation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Tanya Storch

Part III: The Advent of Printing

5. The Birth of the First Printed Canon: The Kaibao Edition and Its Impact, by Jiang Wu, Lucille Chia, and Chen Zhichao

6. The Life and Afterlife of Qisha Canon, by Lucille Chia

7. Managing the Dharma Treasure: Collation, Carving, Printing, and Distribution of the Canon in Late Imperial China, by Darui Long

Part IV: The Canon Beyond China

8. Better Than the Original: The Creation of Goryeo Canon and the Formation of Giyang Pulgyo, by Jiang Wu and Ron Dziwenka

9. Taisho Canon: Devotion, Scholarship, and Nationalism in the Creation of the Modern Buddhist Canon in Japan, by Greg Wilkinson

Appendix 1. A Brief Survey of the Printed Editions of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, by Li Fuhua and He Mei

Appendix 2. The Creation of the CBETA Electronic Tripitaka Collection in Taiwan, by Aming Tu

Unearthing the Changes: Recently Discovered Manuscripts of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and Related Texts 新出土竹簡《易經》與相關文本

Author: 
Edward L. Shaughnessy (夏含夷)

Publication Year:
2014

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Abstract:

In recent years, three ancient manuscripts relating to the Yi jing (I Ching), or Classic of Changes, have been discovered. The earliest—the Shanghai Museum Zhou Yi—dates to about 300 B.C.E. and shows evidence of the text’s original circulation. The Guicang, or Returning to Be Stored, reflects another ancient Chinese divination tradition based on hexagrams similar to those of the Yi jing. In 1993, two manuscripts were found in a third-century B.C.E. tomb at Wangjiatai that contain almost exact parallels to the Guicang’s early quotations, supplying new information on the performance of early Chinese divination. Finally, the Fuyang Zhou Yi was excavated from the tomb of Xia Hou Zao, lord of Ruyin, who died in 165 B.C.E. Each line of this classic is followed by one or more generic prognostications similar to phrases found in the Yi jing, indicating exciting new ways the text was produced and used in the interpretation of divinations. 

Unearthing the Changes details the discovery and significance of the Shanghai Museum Zhou Yi, the Wangjiatai Guicang, and the Fuyang Zhou Yi, including full translations of the texts and additional evidence constructing a new narrative of the Yi jing’s writing and transmission in the first millennium B.C.E. An introduction situates the role of archaeology in the modern attempt to understand the Classic of Changes. By showing how the text emerged out of a popular tradition of divination, these newly unearthed manuscripts reveal an important religious dimension to its evolution.

Table of Contents:

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Divining the Past, Divining the Future: Archaeology and the Rediscovery of the Changes
2. The Context, Content, and Significance of the Shanghai Museum Manuscript of the Zhou Yi 上博《周易》
3. Translation of the Shanghai Museum Manuscript of the Zhou Yi
4. The Wangjiatai Bamboo-Strip Manuscripts of the Gui cang  王家台《歸藏》
5. Translation of the Gui cang Fragments 
6. The Fuyang Zhou Yi Manuscript 阜陽《周易》
7. Translation of the Fuyang Zhou Yi Manuscript 
Conclusions and Conjectures

文献と遺物の境界：中国出土簡牘史料の生態的研究

Editors:

籾山明(Akira MOMIYAMA)、佐藤信(Makoto, SATO)

Publication Year:

2011

Publisher：

六一書房 

Abstract:

これまでの中国出土簡牘研究は、文字の釈読や語句の解釈に専念するあまり、簡牘(木簡・竹簡)の出土遺物としての側面を軽視してきた感がある。本書はこうした傾向に対する批判に立って、簡牘が文献と遺物の境界に位置する史料であるとの視点から、研究を新たなステージに引き上げようとする試みである。

具体的には、簡牘と出土遺構の関連性、文書の書き手と行政実務、作製から再利用・廃棄に至る簡牘のライフサイクル、墓中に副葬される簡牘の意味、および紙への移行の実態などの問題が、それぞれの史料に即して実証的に分析される。そこに見えてくるのは、多様な形態をもち、移動し、生成・消滅する動的な史料としての出土簡牘の姿であり、また担い手となる古代人の行動と人間関係である。この点において本書は、社会史的な関心にも十分に応える内容となっている。中国史研究者のみならず、日本木簡研究や史料論に関心をもつ方々に、ぜひ一読をお願いしたい。 

Table of Contents: 

額済納調査報告記

中村威也 著

３−１９

Ｋ七一〇遺跡の性格について

高村武幸 著

２１−３６

漢代辺郡の都尉府と防衛線

片野竜太郎 著

３７−６０

序論

籾山明 著

６３−６７

簡牘文書の種類と遺址諸要素の関係

李均明 著

６９−７９

漢代簡牘文書における正本・副本・草稿と署名の問題

邢義田 著

８１−１３８

候官における簿籍の保存と廃棄

青木俊介 著

１３９−１６１

簡牘の再利用

高村武幸 著

１６３−１８４

馬王堆三号墓出土簡にみる遣策作成過程と目的

鈴木直美 著

１８５−２２２

日本古代文書木簡の機能と廃棄

佐藤信 著

２２３−２３８

簡牘・【ケン】帛・紙

籾山明 著

２３９−２５２

下層の歴史と歴史の下層

劉増貴 著

２５３−２６９

書写材料とモノの狭間

陶安あんど 著

２７１−２７９