Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China 早期中古中國的書信與書信文化

Author:
Antje Richter

Publisher:
University of Washington Press

Publication Year:
2013

Abstract:
This first book-length study in Chinese or any Western language of personal letters and letter-writing in premodern China focuses on the earliest period (ca. 3rd-6th cent. CE) with a sizeable body of surviving correspondence. Along with the translation and analysis of many representative letters, Antje Richter explores the material culture of letter writing (writing supports and utensils, envelopes and seals, the transportation of finished letters) and letter-writing conventions (vocabulary, textual patterns, topicality, creativity). She considers the status of letters as a literary genre, ideal qualities of letters, and guides to letter-writing, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate each component of the standard personal letter. References to letter-writing in other cultures enliven the narrative throughout.

Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China makes the social practice and the existing textual specimens of personal Chinese letter-writing fully visible for the first time, both for the various branches of Chinese studies and for epistolary research in other ancient and modern cultures, and encourages a more confident and consistent use of letters as historical and literary sources.

Table of Contents:
Materiality and terminology --
Letters and literary thought --
Structures and phrases --
Topoi --
Normativity and authenticity

Et sinifisert rike?: Nordre Wei-dynastiets stilling i kinesisk historie slik det er fremstilt i engelskspråklig historievitenskap

Author:
Torheim-Sandvik, Ove Pils

Publication Year:
2011

School:
University of Oslo

Abstract:

This is a historiographical study of English language texts concerning history of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Based on available and relevant texts about Chinese history from the end of the nineteenth century until 2010, I will show in this paper how the view of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), in North China, has developed. I will show that there are two main currents: One, starting around 1914, describes Northern Wei as a dynasty that was culturally transformed into a Chinese empire. This means that the accounts of the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty suggests the sinicization of the Empire. This school of thought lasts until 2010, and is especially prominent in the general history books on China. This position is not static, but evolves in the course of the twentieth century. I will also show that this current is inspired by Chinese nationalist movements in the early 1900s, but later evolved to become a generally accepted explanation of the empire. The other school of thought started in the second half of the 1970s, and is both an active and passive resistance to sinicization as an explanation of the Northern Wei Dynasty’s historical development. This resistance came as a result of historical developments in Western science, where historians and the social sciences at this time confronted and questioned the established truths and the great narratives. I will show that this second direction is not uniform, but that one is trying to find new ways to explain the narrative of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Generally, I will show that prior to 1913 there is no unified narrative, but that with the introduction of the narration of sinicization there is a unity until the end of the 1970s. From this point develop several different trends with narratives that explain the Northern Wei Dynasty’s historical development.

Table of Contents:

Innledning

1 386–534 – En kort historie om Nordre Wei

2 1883–1940 – Nordre Wei som kinesisk historie?

3 1940–1978 – Ideen om sinifisering utvikles

4 1976–1996 – Holmgren og hennes samtidige

5 1991–2010 – De siste to tiår

Konklusjon

The Classic of Changes in Cultural Context: A Textual Archaeology of the Yi jing 易經

Author:
Scott Davis

Publisher:
Cambria Press

Publication Year:
2012

Abstract:

The Classic of Changes (Yi jing) is one of the most ancient texts known to human civilization, always given pride of place in the Chinese classical tradition. And yet the powerful fascination exerted by the Classic of Changes has preserved the archaic text, widely attracting readers with a continuing interest in trying to understand it as a source of reflection and guide to ordinary circumstances of human life. Its monumental influence over Chinese thought makes the text an indispensable element in any informed approach to Chinese culture.

Accordingly, the book focuses on the archaic core of the Classic of Changes and proposes a structural anthropological analysis for two main reasons. 

First, unlike many treatments of the Yi jing, there is a concern to place the text carefully in the context of the ancient culture which created it, allowing a fuller appreciation of its divinatory mission, a unique orientation towards writing and literature. 

Second, the approach differs from traditional exegesis which did not and ultimately could not address problems of textual understanding in a holistic sense. This book is not a translation of the Classic of Changes; it is a careful interpretation, or rather method of exploration, of the connectivities and topography of the text as a whole. 

By isolating the social forms of an individual life, against the background of the archaic cosmology, as the structural preconditions for each randomized divination, this analysis succeeds in illuminating dimensions of early Chinese life that would not otherwise be accessed through other historical or archaeological materials. 

This provides a penetrating anthropological view into the conditions of thought in an archaic society to a degree previously unavailable. This book is thus a bold and powerful attempt at modeling an ancient culture in a way never before conceived sociologically, a profound auto-ethnography teaching us about the philosophical anthropology of its makers and preparing the way for further understanding of later classical texts. It will be of interest to all those engaged in seeking philosophical anthropological understanding of culture and writing, and especially contributes to the study of cultures of antiquity and their modes of thought.

古代東アジアの道路と交通

Editors: 
鈴木靖民& 荒井秀規

Publication Year:
2011

Publisher: 
勉誠出版

Abstract: 
ヒト・モノ・情報などの移動・交流・伝達を司り、国家経営の要諦をなす道路・交通制度。古代東アジアにおける大型計画道路の画期として知られ、近年その発掘調査により実相が明らかになりつつある秦の直道を中心に、古代東アジア諸国の道路構造や道路網、交通制度などを多角的に分析することで、「道路」そして「交通」の歴史的意義を解明する。


Table of Contents:

序言―古代東アジアの道路と交通　鈴木靖民

第Ⅰ部　古代の直線道路・東アジアの視角
　　東アジアの古代道路―世界的視圏から　木下良
　　中国古代道路史概観　武部健一
　　中国陝西省富県における秦の直道遺跡の発掘　張　在明
　　入唐求道巡礼行記―山越えの軍用道・始皇帝の直道を歩く　小鹿野亮
　　秦の「直道」と道路構造　早川　泉

第Ⅱ部　中国唐代の道路・交通
　　北宋天聖令からみる唐の駅伝制　中大輔
　　唐日伝馬制小考　永田英明
　　洛陽から四方に通じる大道とその遺跡　塩沢裕仁
　　長安と洛陽を結ぶ二つの道―「臨泉駅」銘石刻を中心に　河野保博
　　唐代の交通と商人の交易活動　荒川正晴
　　唐代の通行証―標準型・簡易型による区別　桜田真理絵

第Ⅲ部　諸国の交流と道
　　渤海の交通路　小嶋芳孝
　　古代韓半島の道路と国家　山本孝文
　　契丹（遼）の交通路と往来する人　澤本光弘
　　海上のクロスロード―舟山群島と東アジア　田中史生
　　古代国際交通における送使　河内春人

第Ⅳ部　古代日本の道と制度
　　日本における直線道路の成立　近江俊秀
　　畿内における計画道路網の形成過程　中村太一
　　大野城・基肄城と車路について　木本雅康
　　古代官道車路と鞠智城　鶴嶋俊彦
　　敦賀周辺の古代交通路と地域認識　門井直哉
　　古代東アジアの道制と道路　荒井秀規

Critics and Commentators: The Book of Poems as Classic and Literature 詩經

Author:
Rusk, Bruce

Publication Year:
2012

Publisher:
Harvard University Press

Abstract:

At once a revered canon associated with Confucius and the earliest anthology of poetry, the Book of Poems holds a unique place in Chinese literary history. Since early imperial times it served as an ideal of literary perfection, as it provided a basis for defining shi poetry, the most esteemed genre of elite composition. In imperial China, however, literary criticism and classical learning represented distinct fields of inquiry that differed in status, with classical learning considered more serious and prestigious. Literary critics thus highlighted connections between the Book of Poems and later verse, while classical scholars obscured the origins of their ideas in literary theory.

This book explores the mutual influence of literary and classicizing approaches, which frequently and fruitfully borrowed from one another. Drawing on a wide range of sources including commentaries, anthologies, colophons, and inscriptions, Bruce Rusk chronicles how scholars borrowed from critics without attribution and even resorted to forgery to make appealing new ideas look old. By unraveling the relationships through which classical and literary scholarship on the Book of Poems co-evolved from the Han dynasty through the Qing, this study shows that the ancient classic was the catalyst for intellectual innovation and literary invention.

The Mozi as an Evolving Text 墨子

Editor:
Carine Defoort

Publisher:
Brill

Publication year:
2013

Abstract:
Mozi (ca. 479-381), known as the first outspoken critic of Confucius, is an important but neglected figure in early Chinese philosophy. The book Mozi, named after master Mo, was compiled in the course of the fifth - third centuries BCE. The seven studies included in the The Mozi as an Evolving Text take a fresh look at the Core Chapters, Dialogues, and Opening Chapters of the book Mozi. Rather than presenting a unified vision of Mohist thought, the contributions search for different voices in the text and for evolutions or tensions between its chapters. By analysing the … read moreMozi as an evolving text, these studies not only contribute to the rejuvenation of Mozi studies, but also to the methodology of studying ancient Chinese texts.