In the Forest of the Blind： The Eurasian Journey of Faxian's Record of Buddhist Kingdoms

Author:

Matthew W. King

Publisher:

Columbia University Press

Publication date:

March 2022

Abstract:

The Record of Buddhist Kingdoms is a classic travelogue that records the Chinese monk Faxian’s journey in the early fifth century CE to Buddhist sites in Central and South Asia in search of sacred texts. In the nineteenth century, it traveled west to France, becoming in translation the first scholarly book about “Buddhist Asia,” a recent invention of Europe. This text fascinated European academic Orientalists and was avidly studied by Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. The book went on to make a return journey east: it was reintroduced to Inner Asia in an 1850s translation into Mongolian, after which it was rendered into Tibetan in 1917. Amid decades of upheaval, the text was read and reinterpreted by Siberian, Mongolian, and Tibetan scholars and Buddhist monks.

Matthew W. King offers a groundbreaking account of the transnational literary, social, and political history of the circulation, translation, and interpretation of Faxian’s Record. He reads its many journeys at multiple levels, contrasting the textual and interpretative traditions of the European academy and the Inner Asian monastery. King shows how the text provided Inner Asian readers with new historical resources to make sense of their histories as well as their own times, in the process developing an Asian historiography independently of Western influence. Reconstructing this circulatory history and featuring annotated translations, In the Forest of the Blind models decolonizing methods and approaches for Buddhist studies and Asian humanities.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. Chang’an to India

2. Beijing to Paris

3. Buddhist Asia to Jambudvīpa

4. Jambudvīpa to Science

5. Science to History of the Dharma

Conclusion

Appendix. The Inner Asian Record

[Dissertation] Kingly Exchange: The Silk Road and the East Eurasian World in the Age of Fragmentation (850-1000)

Author:
WEN, Xin

School:
Harvard University

Date Submitted:
2017

Abstract:
This dissertation is a cultural history of travel on the Silk Road in East Eurasia in the ninth and tenth centuries from the vantage point of Dunhuang, an oasis town situated between China proper and Central Asia. Following the near-simultaneous fall of the Tibetan empire, the Uyghur empire, and the Tang empire in the mid-ninth century, the East Eurasian world experienced a long period of political fragmentation. Such political fragmentation, together with the collapse of the extensive Sogdian diasporic network around the same time, is generally considered to have resulted in a relatively inactive period of travels on the Silk Road. In this dissertation, by examining medieval manuscripts in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, Khotanese, and Sogdian discovered in the sealed library-cave in Dunhuang and reading them in the contexts of transmitted Chinese texts produced in China proper, I argue that activities on the East Eurasian Silk Road during this period of political fragmentation not only persisted, but also took on a distinct and non-commercial form.

Informed by anthropological theories on gift exchange and hospitality, I argue that trans-regional travels in my sources were primarily the results of state endeavor: travelers were predominantly described as state envoys rather than private merchants, and that these envoys participated not in economic networks of commodified exchange, but in diplomatic networks of competitive gifting. That is to say, contrary to widespread assumptions about the Silk Road as a busy trading highway, the movements of people and goods in the area under my investigation were motivated primarily by the royal pursuit of glory rather than interest in profit. Political fragmentation and the presence of a much greater number of state entities in East Eurasia in the ninth and tenth centuries only enhanced such pursuit. Through investigating the non-commercial aspect of travel and the mechanism of negotiating social life on the road, I argue that the networks of competitive diplomacy through long-distance personnel and material exchange were as effective as commercial networks in facilitating trans-regional connections on the Silk Road.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part one – Geography and Diplomacy: Opening the Road

CHAPTER 1: THROUGH BROKEN GEOGRAPHIES: THE RE-CREATION OF
GEOGRAPHICAL INTELLIGIBILITY BETWEEN CHINA AND CENTRAL ASIA

CHAPTER 2: “BY THE ROAD WE BECOME ONE FAMILY”: DIPLOMACY ON THE
SILK ROAD

Part two: Gifts and Guest: Practices of Travel

CHAPTER 3: MOVING GIFTS

CHAPTER 4: WELCOME THE GUEST, PRAISE THE HOST

Part three: Economy and ideology: Results of Travel

CHAPTER 5: RECONSIDERING THE SILK ROAD ECONOMY

CHAPTER 6: KING OF KINGS OF CHINA: HYBRID STATE IDEOLOGY

Conclusion

Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools: The History of Travel Literature in Imperial China

Author:
James M. Hargett

Publisher:
Seattle: University of Washington Press

Publication date:
December 2018

Abstract:
First-hand accounts of travel provide windows into places unknown to the reader, or new ways of seeing familiar places. In Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools, the first book-length treatment in English of Chinese travel literature (youji 遊記), James M. Hargett identifies and examines core works in the genre, from the Six Dynasties period (220-581), when its essential characteristics emerged, to its florescence in the late Ming dynasty (1368-1644). He traces the dynamic process through which the genre, most of which was written by scholars and officials, developed, and shows that key features include a journey toward an identifiable place; essay or diary format; description of places, phenomena, and conditions, accompanied by authorial observations, comments, and even personal feelings; inclusion of sensory details; and narration of movement through space and time.

Travel literature's inclusion of a variety of writing styles and purposes has made it hard to delineate. Hargett finds, however, that classic pieces of Chinese travel literature reveal much about the author, his values, and his view of the world, which in turn tells us about the author's society, making travel literature a rich source of historical information.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Harbingers in the Six dynasties
Articulation in the Tang
Maturity in the Song
Transition and innovation in the Jin, Yuan, and early to mid-Ming
The golden age of travel writing in the late Ming

史記秦漢史の研究

Author:
藤田勝久

Publication Year:
2015

Publisher:
汲古書院

Table of Contents:
はしがき
序　章　簡牘・帛書の発見と『史記』研究
一　『史記』注釈と出典研究
二　『史記』の素材と出土資料
〔『史記』の年代学と出土資料／記事資料と出土書籍／秦漢資料と『史記』の取材〕
三　漢太史令と出土資料〔黄老思想、天文の資料／史に関する規定〕
四　『史記』成立の諸問題〔古伝説・説話と公羊学／『史記』『漢書』の編集〕

第一章　司馬遷と《太史公書》の成立
一　司馬談の遺言をめぐって　　　　　　　　　
二　漢太史令の役割
三　武帝の時代―封禅と太初改暦　　　　　　 
四　《太史公書》の成立

第二章　司馬遷の旅行と取材
一　二十歳の旅行について―司馬遷の生年　　 
二　司馬遷の旅行と見聞
三　帝王の遺跡と諸民族―年代観と世界観　　 
四　屈原・賈誼の人物評価

附篇一　『史記』陳渉世家のフィールド調査
一　『史記』陳渉世家の歴史叙述　　
二　陳楚故城と楚王墓、楚墓　　
三　陳渉の郷里・陽城古城

附篇二　『史記』の編集と漢代伝承
一　『史記』にみえる漢代の伝承　　
二　「鴻門の会」の伝承―樊噲列伝　　
三　『楚漢春秋』と漢代伝承―項羽本紀

第三章　『史記』秦始皇本紀の歴史叙述
第一節　始皇帝と秦帝国の興亡
一　始皇帝の統一をめぐって―本紀（一）　　 
二　始皇帝の統一事業と巡行―本紀（二）
三　『史記』秦始皇本紀の歴史観―本紀（三）
第二節　始皇帝と諸公子について
一　始皇帝の夫人と扶蘇―婚姻と外交政策　　 
二　二世皇帝と諸公子の出自について
三　秦帝国の政権構造と諸国

第四章　『史記』と里耶秦簡―秦帝国の地方社会
一　洞庭郡の里耶古城をめぐる情勢　　
二　里耶秦簡にみえる郡県制　　 
三　秦帝国の滅亡と地方社会

第五章　『史記』秦漢史像の復元―陳渉、劉邦、項羽のエピソード
一　『史記』陳渉世家の地方社会　　
二 『史記』高祖本紀の地方社会　　
三 『史記』項羽本紀の社会情勢

第六章　『史記』項羽本紀と秦楚之際月表―楚と漢の歴史観
一　『史記』項羽本紀の構成　　　　　　　　　
二　『史記』秦楚之際月表の構成　
三　戦国・秦漢における諸国の暦法　　　　　　
四　『史記』にみえる楚・漢の評価

第七章　項羽と劉邦の体制―秦と楚の社会システム
一　秦代の地方統治と情報伝達　　　
二　秦の滅亡と項羽の体制　　　　　
三　楚漢戦争期の体制と戦略

第八章　『史記』呂后本紀の歴史観
一　『史記』にみえる呂后の人物像　
二　『史記』呂后本紀の素材と編集　
三　『史記』呂后本紀の歴史観

第九章　『史記』漢代諸表と諸侯王
第一節　張家山漢簡「秩律」と漢王朝の領域
一　「秩律」にみえる県の所属　　　　　　　　　
二　「秩律」にみえる漢王朝と諸侯王国
〔代国をめぐって／長沙国と武陵郡をめぐって／楚国をめぐって／梁国と淮陽国をめぐって〕
三　張家山漢簡「秩律」と楚国の領域

　第二節　漢代の郡国制と諸侯王―徐州楚王陵の印章・封泥
一　漢代初期の王朝と諸侯王　　　　　　　　　
二　淮陰侯韓信の失脚と諸侯王
三　漢代の郡国制と東方社会―楚国の官制と領域

終　章　『史記』の歴史叙述と秦漢史
一　『史記』の取材と編集　　　　　　　　　　
二　『史記』の構造と歴史観　
三　秦漢時代の国家と地域社会〔『史記』秦漢史の歴史叙述／古代専制国家の概念／秦漢時代の県社会〕

あとがき・初出一覧・『史記』篇目、『漢書』篇目・索引（文献と出土資料、事項）

Reading Medieval Chinese Poetry : Text, Context, and Culture

Editor:
Paul W. Kroll

Publisher: 
Brill

Publication Year:
2014

Abstract:

Nine renowned sinologists present a range of studies that display the riches of medieval Chinese verse in varied guises. All major verse-forms, including shi, fu, and ci, are examined, with a special focus on poetry’s negotiation with tradition and historical context. Dozens of previously untranslated works are here rendered in English for the first time, and readers will enter a literary culture that was deeply infused with imperatives of wit, learning, and empathy. Among the diverse topics met with in this volume are metaphysical poetry as a medium of social exchange, the place of ruins in Chinese poetry, the reality and imaginary of frontier borderlands, the enigma of misattribution, and how a 19th-century Frenchwoman discovered Tang poetry for the Western world.

Table of Contents:

- Paul W. Kroll
Introduction

- Wendy Swartz 
Trading Literary Competence: Exchange Poetry in the Eastern Jin

- Robert Joe Cutter
Shen Who Couldn't Write: Literary Relationships at the Court of Liu Jun

- David R. Knechtges
Ruin and Remembrance in Classical Chinese Literature: The "Fu On The Ruined City" (蕪城賦) by Bao Zhao 鮑照

- Ding Xiang Warner
An Offering to the Prince: Wang Bo's Apology for Poetry

- Timothy Wai Keung Chan
Beyond Border and Boudoir: The Frontier in the Poetry of the Four Elites of Early Tang 

- Paul W. Kroll
Heyue yingling ji 河嶽英靈集 and the Attributes of High Tang Poetry

- Stephen Owen
Who Wrote That? Attribution in Northern Song Ci

- Ronald Egan
When There Is a Parallel Text in Prose: Reading Lu You's 陸游 1170 Yangzi River Journey in Poetry and Prose

- Pauline Yu
Judith Gautier and the Invention of Chinese Poetry

Visionary Journeys: Travel Writings from Early Medieval and Nineteenth-Century China 神遊：中國中古時代與十九世紀行旅寫作

Author: 
Xaiofei, Tian

Publisher: 
Harvard University Asia Center

Publication Year: 
2011

Abstract: 
This book explores two important moments of dislocation in Chinese history, the early medieval period (317–589 CE) and the nineteenth century. Tian juxtaposes a rich array of materials from these two periods in comparative study, linking these historical moments in their unprecedented interactions, and intense fascination, with foreign cultures.

Table of Contents:

Seeing with the mind's eye --
Journeys to other worlds --
Xie Lingyun, Poet of purgatory --
The rhetorical schemata of seeing --
Poetry and experience in the nineteenth century.