Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia

Editor:
Michael Lackner

Publication Date:
December 2017

Publisher:
Brill

Abstract:

Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia offers insights into various techniques of divination, their evolution, and their assessment. The contributions cover the period from the earliest documents on East Asian mantic arts to their appearance in the present time. The volume reflects the pervasive manifestations of divination in literature, religious and political life, and their relevance for society and individuals. Special emphasis is placed on cross-cultural influences and attempts to find theoretical foundations for divinatory practices. This edited volume is an initiative to study the phenomena of divination across East Asian cultures and beyond. It is also one of the first attempts to theorize divinatory practices through East Asian traditions.

Table of Contents:


Introduction
Michael Lackner

Part 1: Divination and Literature: Excavated and Extant

1 A Recently Published Shanghai Museum Bamboo Manuscript on Divination
Marco Caboara

2 Hexagrams and Prognostication in the Weishu 緯書 Literature: The Thirty-Two-Year Cycle of the Qian zuo du 乾鑿度
Bent Nielsen

3 The Representation of Mantic Arts in the High Culture of Medieval China
Paul W. Kroll

4 Divination, Fate Manipulation, and Protective Knowledge in and around The Wedding of the Duke of Zhou and Peach Blossom Girl, a Popular Myth of Late Imperial China
Vincent Durand-Dastès

Part 2: Divination and Religions

5 A List of Magic and Mantic Practices in the Buddhist Canon
Esther-Maria Guggenmos

6 The Allegorical Cosmos: The Shi 式 Board in Medieval Taoist and Buddhist Sources
Dominic Steavu

7 Divining Hail: Deities, Energies, and Tantra on the Tibetan Plateau
Anne C. Klein

Part 3: Divination and Politics

8 Early Chinese Divination and Its Rhetoric
Martin Kern

9 Choosing Auspicious Dates and Sites for Royal Ceremonies in Eighteenth-century Korea
Park Kwon Soo

Part 4: Divination and Individual

10 Exploring the Mandates of Heaven: Wen Tianxiang’s Concepts of Fate and Mantic Knowledge
Liao Hsien-huei

11 Chŏng Yak-yong on Yijing Divination
Kim Yung Sik

12 From Jianghu to Liumang: Working Conditions and Cultural Identity of Wandering Fortune-Tellers in Contemporary China
Stéphanie Homola

13 Women and Divination in Contemporary Korea
Jennifer Jung-Kim

Part 5: Mantic Arts: When East Meets West

14 Translation and Adaption: The Continuous Interplay between Chinese Astrology and Foreign Culture
Che-chia Chang 張哲嘉

15 Against Prognostication: Ferdinand Verbiest’s Criticisms of Chinese Mantic Arts
Chu Pingyi 祝平一

16 Contradictory Forms of Knowledge? Divination and Western Knowledge in Late Qing and Early Republican China
Li Fan and Michael Lackner

17 Western Horoscopic Astrology in Korea
Jun Yong Hoon

Part 6: Reflections on Mantic Arts

18 How to quantify the Value of Domino Combinations? Divination and Shifting Rationalities in Late Imperial China
Andrea Bréard

19 Correlating Time Within One’s Hand: The Use of Temporal Variables in Early Modern Japanese “Chronomancy” Techniques
Matthias Hayek

20 The Physical Shape Theory of Fengshui in China and Korea
Oh Sanghak

[Dissertation] Negotiating Boundaries: Cross-Border Migrants in Early Medieval China

Author:
Wen-Yi Huang

School:
McGill University

Defended:
2017

Abstract:

      This dissertation is the first full-length study of cross-border migrants in early medieval China. Its focus is on the nearly four hundred southern migrants, who moved, as war captives or as asylum seekers, to the Northern Wei (386-534 CE) from the three successive southern states of Song (420-479 CE), Qi (479-502 CE), and Liang (502-557 CE). It provides a bottom-up approach to early medieval interstate politics, and adds a human dimension to it.  It also offers an historical perspective on contemporary issues on migration and integration.
      Scholars have long recognized the four hundred years between the Han (206 BCE-220 CE) and Tang dynasties (618-916 CE) as an era of great migrations, migrations that transformed the political and cultural landscapes of southern and northern China. In this multi-power period, large-scale migrations, internal or external, occurred most frequently under the watch of the Northern Wei regime, and the Northern Wei government played an active role in facilitating and controlling migration. Accordingly, primary sources on displaced persons, especially southern migrants, who went to Northern Wei, are relatively abundant, which give an up-close picture of a group of people long neglected in Chinese history.
      My thesis employs a wide variety of primary sources. It includes, besides received textual records (official and unofficial histories, geographical texts, Buddhist hagiographies, anecdotes, and legal texts), also excavated funerary inscriptions, and archaeological materials. Theoretically grounded, it draws inspiration from literature on boundary work theory in other parts of the world to examine the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion at play between southern migrants and the Northern Wei government, between southern migrants and Northern Wei elites, and within the communities of southern migrants. 
      This project consists of four chapters. The first chapter, “People on the Move,” presents an overview of the cross-border migrants under study. It examines different patterns of side-changing and stresses the diversity among cross-border migrants. The remainder of the dissertation is a social history of cross-border migrants. 
      Chapter 2, “State and Cross-Border Migrants,” centers on the physical side of boundary work by looking into Northern Wei policies to control migration, including the bureaucratic terminology on border crossers, the identity verification process of migrants, and the rewards and punishments foreseen and doled out.
      Chapter 3, “Integration of Cross-Border Migrants,” investigates the extent to which cross-border migrants were integrated into the host society. It first analyzes how the Northern Wei elites erected boundaries between themselves and newcomers, particularly by means of food and language. It then discusses southern migrants’ varying survival strategies, ranging from the quotidian act of eating northern foods to long-term tactics of marriage alliances with northern leading families, recreating their local bases in the north, and utilizing migrant networks.
      The fourth chapter, “Those Who Were Left Behind,” explores the negative consequences of cross-border migration on the migrants’ families left behind in the south, including the difficulties of ransoming migrants, the problems of repatriating migrants’ remains for burial, and the inheritance issues caused by the double marriage of their husband or father at both sides of the border.

Heavenly Numbers : Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China

Author:
Christopher Cullen

Publication Date:
16 November 2017

Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract:

This book is a history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies. It is these individuals, their observations, their calculations, and the words they left to us that provide the narrative thread that runs through this work. Throughout the book, the author gives clear translations of original material that allow the reader direct access to what the people in this book said about themselves and what they tried to do.

Table of Contents:

1: The astronomical empire
2: Li in everyday life: dates and calendars
3: The Emperor's Grand Inception, and the defeat of the Grand Clerk
4: The Triple Concordance system & Liu Xin's 劉歆 'Grand Unified Theory'
5: The measures and forms of heaven
6: Restoration and re-creation in the Eastern Han
7: The age of debates
8: Liu Hong 劉洪 and the conquest of the moon
9: Epilogue

Darstellung Des Bogenschiessens in Bronzeinschriften Der West-Zhou-Zeit (1045-771 V.Chr.), Die: Eine Philologische Quellenanalyse

Author:
Adamski, Susanne

Publisher:

Harrassowitz

Publication date:

1 June 2017

Abstract:

Das laut überlieferter konfuzianischer Texte überwiegend als „Ritual“ klassifizierte und mit bestimmter Funktion und Symbolik versehene Bogenschießen, das vom Westlichen Zhōu-Adel (1045-771 v.Chr.) praktiziert wurde, tritt auch in originären Bronzeinschriften jener Zeit zutage. Die bisherige Forschung hat sich zwar vereinzelt mit diesem Phänomen auseinandergesetzt, zeigt sich jedoch teilweise von späteren Quellen beeinflusst oder berücksichtigt unterschiedliche grafische, syntaktische und semantische Deutungsmöglichkeiten der Inschriften nur unzureichend. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht daher, welche Merkmale des Bogenschießens in den Primärquellen tatsächlich feststellbar sind, und liefert erstmals eine vollständig nachvollziehbare, umfassend annotierte Transkription und Übersetzung von fünf Bronzeinschriften der West-Zhōu-Zeit, die das Bogenschießen thematisieren. Ausführliche Glossen erörtern epigrafische Probleme und Aspekte des historisch-gesellschaftlichen Kontextes. 

Im Rahmen der Einzelanalysen, die mehrere Übersetzungsmöglichkeiten einbeziehen, untersucht Susanne Adamski, welche möglichen Funktionen aus Wortlaut und Aufbau der jeweiligen Inschrift abzuleiten sind und ob das dort dargestellte Bogenschießen wirklich als „Ritual“ im Sinne sowohl heutiger Ritualdefinitionen als auch der tradierten Ritenliteratur auszumachen ist. Bisherige sinologische Annahmen werden dabei widerlegt. Die Studie bietet in dieser Form eine neue Herangehensweise an die Analyse von Bronzeinschriften als historisch-gesellschaftliche Dokumente und richtet sich an Sinologen und Historiker mit Interesse an der frühchinesischen Gesellschaft und Epigrafik.

Table of Contents:

Danksagung

Regierungsdaten der West-Zhōu-zeitlichen Herrscher

Vorbemerkungen

1. Einleitung

1.1 Gegenstand der Untersuchung

1.2 Forschungsstand

1.3 Methode und Inschriftenkorpus

2. Analysen West-Zhōu-zeitlicher Bronzeinschriften zum Bogenschießen 

2.1 Analyse der „Mài fāngzūn 麦方尊“-Inschrift

2.1.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift

2.1.2 Glossen

2.1.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift

2.1.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Mài fāngzūn“-Inschrift

2.2 Analyse der „Zuò Bóguǐ 柞伯簋“-Inschrift

2.2.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift

2.2.2 Glossen

2.2.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift

2.2.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Zuò Bó guǐ“-Inschrift

2.3 Analyse der „Lìng dǐng 令鼎“-Inschrift

2.3.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift

2.3.2 Glossen

2.3.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift

2.3.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Lìng dǐng“-Inschrift

2.4 Analyse der „Jìng guǐ 靜簋“-Inschrift

2.4.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift

2.4.2 Glossen

2.4.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift

2.4.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Jìng guǐ“-Inschrift

2.5 Analyse der „Yì hégài 義盉盖“-Inschrift

2.5.1 Transkription und Übersetzung der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift

2.5.2 Glossen

2.5.3 Inhaltsangabe der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift

2.5.4 Inhaltsanalyse der „Yì hégài“-Inschrift

3. Auswertung: Zur Darstellung des Bogenschießens in

Bronzeinschriften der West-Zhōu-Zeit

4. Fazit: Zur kulturellen Bedeutung

des West-Zhōu-zeitlichen Bogenschießens

Literaturverzeichnis

Verzeichnisse

Indices 

Über den Alltag hinaus: Festschrift für Thomas O. Höllmann zum 65. Geburtstag

Editors:
Shing Müller and Armin Selbitschka

Publishing Date:
25.10.2017

Publisher:
Harrassowitz Verlag

Abstract:

In 21 Beiträgen ehren Schüler und Weggefährten aus München, Münster, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Cambridge und Oxford (GB), Los Angeles (CA), Tempe (AZ), Beijing und Shanghai den international renommierten Sinologen und nunmehr Präsidenten der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Thomas O. Höllmann anlässlich seines 65. Geburtstags. 

Höllmanns vielseitigen Forschungsinteressen Rechnung tragend vereint die Festschrift Untersuchungen aus den Bereichen Archäologie, Geschichte, Kunst, Philosophie und Ethnologie. Sie beleuchten verschiedenste Aspekte des täglichen Lebens vor allem in China vom Altertum bis in die Gegenwart. Dazu zählen ebenso die Aufnahme fremder Technologien in der Bronzeverarbeitung wie die Untersuchung von Ritualen und Wohnformen in der chinesischen Frühgeschichte, die Neubewertung zweier grundlegender Inschriftentexte aus der frühen Kaiserzeit wie die moderne Reinterpretation klassisch konfuzianischer Hochzeitsfeierlichkeiten. Ergänzt werden die Studien zur chinesischen Geschichte durch Beiträge zum Stadtleben der gebildeten Oberschicht im alten Indien und zum Leben mit Ruinen im antiken Rom. Auf diese Weise bietet dieser vielseitige Band nicht nur Sinologen, sondern auch archäologisch, geschichtswissenschaftlich, kunsthistorisch, philosophisch und ethnologisch interessierten Lesern zahlreiche Möglichkeiten, Neues zu entdecken.

Table of Contents:

Vorwort
Tabula gratulatoria
Schriftenverzeichnis

Hans van Ess, München
Mit Thomas Höllmann Tür an Tür

ALLTAG UND MEHR IM ALTEN CHINA

Jessica Rawson, Oxford
Bronze Vessels in Early China

Lothar von Falkenhausen, Los Angeles
Communication with the Divine Sphere in Ancient China

Maria Khayutina, München
Western Zhou Living Ambience: Earth-Sheltered Dwellings
in the Feng River Valley

Reinhard Emmerich, Münster
Chinas Zweiter Kaiser in neuem Lichte?

Armin Selbitschka, Shanghai
Quotidian Afterlife: Grain, Granary Models, and the Notion of Continuing
Nourishment in Late Pre-imperial and Early Imperial Tombs

Michael Loewe, Cambridge
Displaced Persons in Han China and the So-called “Mausoleum Towns”

Bai Yunxiang 白雲翔, Beijing

論漢代人生活中的魚和觀念中的魚

(Fish in Han China: Aesthetic, Symbolic, and Culinary Aspects)

Catrin Kost, München
Von Schmutzfinken, Saubermännern und Barbaren: Überlegungen
zur Stellung der Körperpflege im China der Han-Dynastie

Annette Kieser, Münster
Von Duftsäckchen und Schweinekoben: Toilettenmodelle
aus Gräbern der Sechs Dynastien in Südchina

Shing Müller, München
Zelte der Tuoba-Xianbei im 5. Jh.: Eine vorläufige Untersuchung

Lin Meicun 林梅村, Beijing
唐代文人的追求與夢想—唐代文人庭院建築遺跡調查
(Pursuit and Dreams of Chinese Scholars in the Tang Dynasty:
A Survey on Scholars’ Courtyards of Tang Times based on
Archaeological Finds and Written Sources)

JENSEITS DER CHINESISCHEN KULTUR

Roderich Ptak, München
Vom „Hundestaat“ nach Liuqiu und zu den „Ziegen-Inseln“:
Anmerkungen zu einer Meerfahrt im Lingbiao lu yi

Erhard Rosner, Göttingen
Marginalien zur Geschichte des Betelkauens in China

Hans van Ess, München
Der Name der Uiguren

Bruno J. Richtsfeld, München
Ursprungsmythen der Lhopa (Bangni-Bokar) in Südost-Tibet

Jens-Uwe Hartmann, München
Das Leben des kultivierten Städters im frühen Indien: Alltag oder Ideal?

Martin Zimmermann, München
Lost cities, urban explorers und antike Landschaften: Vom Leben mit Ruinen

PHILOSOPHISCHE ASPEKTE

Guje Kroh, München
Überlegungen zu Begriffen des Erkennens bzw. Wissens bei Xi Kang

Marc Nürnberger, München
Meister des Alltags

Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Tempe
Reflections on Chinese Student Opinions on
the Modernized Zhu Confucian Wedding

KOLOPHON

Lothar Ledderose, Heidelberg
Kolophone in China und Europa

Sinology in Post-Communist States: Views from the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia

Editor:
Chih-yu Shih

Publication Date:
March, 2016

Publisher:
The Chinese University Press

Abstract:

Drawing on extensive historical studies of the lives and works of distinctive yet understudied sinologists in the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia, this volume takes readers on a journey of exploration and rediscovery of post-communist sinology—an important topic that we know surprisingly little about. After the end of the Cold War, the China Studies research agenda in these four countries has evolved divergently without any apparent shared orientation, despite the previously shared socialist and Communist legacies. Contributors draw on case studies to illustrate how sinologists in these countries actively use diverse approaches to map China’s modern evolution and deconstruct stereotypical notions of China’s rise in the twenty-first century. These hallmark studies also reveal sinologists’ deep engagement with the Chinese humanities. The conclusions in this volume have major implications for the evolution of intellectual history and its analysis, by emphasizing the importance of individualized agency to the practice of post-Communist sinology as both a statement of identity and a strategy for survival during tumultuous political times.

Table of Contents:

List of Contributors vii

Introduction:
An Anthropology of Knowledge in Post-Communist Sinology xi
Chih-yu Shih

Part I Doing Sinology from Post-Communist Perspectives

1 Beyond Academia and Politics: Understanding China and
Doing Sinology in Czechoslovakia after World War II 1
Olga Lomová and Anna Zádrapová

2 Linguistic Choices for the Identity of “China” in the
Discourse of Czech Sinologists 27
Melissa Shih-hui Lin

3 Surging between China and Russia: Legacies, Politics,
and Turns of Sinology in Contemporary Mongolia 41
Enkhchimeg Baatarkhuyag and Chih-yu Shih

4 Sinology in Poland: Epistemological Debates and
Academic Practice 61
Anna Rudakowska

5 The Lifting of the “Iron Veil” by Russian Sinologists
During the Soviet Period (1917–1991) 93
Valentin C. Golovachev

6 Soviet Sinology: Two Conflicting Paradigms of
Chinese History 115
Alexander Pisarev

7 Chinese Studies in Post-Soviet Russia: From Uneven
Development to the Search for Integrity 133
Alexei D. Voskressenski

Part II Being Sinologists in Post-Communist Societies

8 Polish Sinology: Reflections on Individualized
Trajectories 159
Bogdan J. Góralczyk

9 “The Songs of Ancient China”: The Myth of “The Other”
Appropriated by an Emerging Sinology 189
Olga Lomová and Anna Zádrapová

10 Between Sinology and Socialism: The Collective Memory
of Czech Sinologists in the 1950s 213
Ter-Hsing Cheng

11 Tangut (Xi Xia 西夏) Studies in the Soviet Union: The Quinta
Essentia of Russian Oriental Studies 233
Sergey Dmitriev

12 Different Ways to Become a Soviet Sinologist:
A Note on Personal Choices 253
Marina Kuznetsova-Fetisova

Conclusion:
The Evolution of Sinology after the Communist Party-State 267
Chih-yu Shih