DOCSLIB.ORG

Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic of Mountains and Seas

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic of Mountains and Seas SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 120 July, 2002 Gendered Power: A Discourse on Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic of Mountains and Seas by Anne Birrell Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino- Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. We do, however, strongly recommend that prospective authors consult our style guidelines at www.sino-platonic.org/stylesheet.doc. Manuscripts should be submitted as electronic files, preferably in Microsoft Word format. You may wish to use our sample document template, available here: www.sino-platonic.org/spp.dot. Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers has been published electronically on the Web at www.sino-platonic.org. Issues 1–170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web. Please note: When the editor goes on an expedition or research trip, all operations (including filling orders) may temporarily cease for up to three months at a time. In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. You should also check our Web site at www.sino-platonic.org, as back issues are regularly rereleased for free as PDF editions. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Gendered Power: A Discourse on Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic ofMountains and Seas by Anne Birrell University of Cambridge Clare Hall 1 Gendered Power: A Discourse on Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic ofMountains and Seas My paper has a modest and limited aim: to describe the phenomena of female-gendered mythological references which are to be found throughout the text of the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan hai ching), and thus provide an introductory foundation for others to pursue more detailed and specialized investigations of the topic in the sinological and comparative disciplines of history, religion studies, sociology, anthropology, and art. I In this paper I argue that this ancient text privileges female gender in an unprecedented way in the ancient Chinese cultural tradition. In applying gender as a category of analysis, I aim to limit my study to this single text so as to evaluate its gendered statements and to discuss its system of female-gendered constructs? Evidence will be drawn primarily from the female-gendered mythological data in this text. Myth is defined here as a cultural construct that reflects a symbolic prehistorical mentalite.3 The modem critic must attempt to decipher this mythic construct and archaic mentalite. I engage in this gender discourse in the hope that my investigation and interpretation of the data will advance our understanding of the concept of woman as it is mediated through ancient oral myths that were preserved in classical writings.4 Gender criticism is productive for studying classical Chinese texts and it offers an entirely new perspective on the ancient cultural tradition. Among male-authored classical texts, for example, the Mencius (Meng Tzu) typically projects a patriarchal ideology.5 The male­ authored Biographies of Women (Lieh nil chuan) portrays female gender in ways that fulfil male aspirations for female subordination.6 The female-authored Lessons for Women (Nil chieh), for its part, proposes the moral and personal accommodation of women and their low position in the patriarchal system.7 Other classical texts give similar representations. Among classical Chinese texts the notable exception to the rule of gender asymmetry, in which the male predominates in terms of cultural superiority and moral values, is the Classic of Mountafns and Seas. 8 This text posits a balanced gender symmetry in which both female and male genders have significant functions and roles. Yet, as I shall show, woman acquires such prestige in terms of power, authority, and influence, that the text implicitly constructs a gender _0 asymmetry in which the female is accorded a privileged status. Traditional and modem sinological scholars have adopted a pluralistic and multi­ disciplinary approach to the classic. Classical and medieval Chinese commentators and 2 Anne Birrell, "Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic ofMountains and Seas" Sino-Platonic Papers, 120 (July, 2002) bibliographers have identified the text as geography, cosmology, prophecy, and fiction.9 Modem scholars have studied it from the standpoint of ethnology, medical science, religion, and mytho logy. 10 My own view is that the classic contains all these disciplinary strands, but the organizing principle is the human science of mythology. II Theoretical Perspectives My inquiry into the incidence of female-gendered myth has been informed by theoretical issues current in gender criticism. I have made use of the hierarchical opposition of male and female attributes proposed by Helene Cixous. 12 But I have done so from a comparative standpoint and in a way that demonstrates that, contrary to the concept of fixed gender attributes in Cixous's theory, the Chinese data indicate a wide variation of gender role and function. In this respect, the data confirm the early perception of Margaret Mead that there exists an "extraordinary diversity" of gender roles in the cultural history of humankind. 13 Thirdly, I have adopted Jacques Derrida's gender concept of "the feminine-as-alternative logic" to explore the language and symbolic structure of gender in the Classic ofMountains and Seas. 14 Fourth, I make use of revisionist studies of the theoretical foundation of Frederick Engels which has recently been usefully applied by classical scholars.15 Engels demonstrated that the position of women in antiquity was not always subordinate to that of men; he argued that. among tribal orders in the prehistorical era there existed a pre-class egalitarianism between males and females which became eroded by the emergence of private property as an organizing principle in society. Moreover, he maintained, the system of private property generated a class structure that did not privilege female gender. Engels based his ethnographic and historical reconstructions on Western classical literature. In my paper I will utilize only one classical Chinese text to validate his theory on the prehistorical position of women, as this is expressed in ancient myth. Postmodern scholars have rediscovered in Jakob Bachofen's theory of "mother right" (Mutterrecht) a comparative model for examining whether females in prehistorical societies enjoyed.Wl equal or even privileged position. In his theory, Bachofen argued that "mother right" represented the natural and biolQgical relationship between mother and child which developed into a matriarchy, and later into a "gynocracy," or civil rule by women. 16 Despite the methodological problems inherent in his work, such as unreliability of sources, the outmoded term "matriarchy" (now replaced by "female gender"), and his acceptance of the mid-nineteenth- Anne Birrell, "Female-Gendered Myth in the Classic ofMountains and Seas" 3 Sino-Platonic Papers, 120 (July, 2002) century Western image of the perfect woman, it remains instructive for rediscovering the dominant mother figure in obliquely narrated passages and the obscure references to all-female societies .. Bachofen's theory has also served to underscore that, although the mother figure occurs in the classical Chinese text, the text itself does not indicate the presence of the mythological construct of a matriarchy, but, on the contrary the presence of the controlling figure of the woman (nu) in whom are invested symbolic emblems of power, authority, and influence. Since this subject is a complex one and the data are varied and abundant, my procedure will be relatively simple. First, I will identify the female mythical figures in the classic, explaining in each case my criteria of selection. Second, I will specify the function and role of each female figure. Thirdly, J will indicate how the text uses power imagery to reinforce these functions. Then I will briefly mention the general incidence of female gender in the text apart from female figures, which is manifested in geographical names, ritual, and clan names. I will also summarize the major occurrences of gendered liminality, that is, figures of indeterminate or ambiguous gender, and related myths. Briefreference is made to the feminization of male names and titles.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Six Principles of Chinese Writing and Their Application to Design As Design Idea
    ISSN 1923-1555[Print] Studies in Literature and Language ISSN 1923-1563[Online] Vol. 8, No. 3, 2014, pp. 84-88 www.cscanada.net DOI: 10.3968/4968 www.cscanada.org The Six Principles of Chinese Writing and Their Application to Design As Design Idea ZHOU Zhen[a],* [a]Academy of Fine Arts, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China. The Six Principles are the principles of Chinese *Corresponding author. characters’ formation and application which was Received 12 February 2014; accepted 26 May 2014 developed during the formation of Chinese characters. Published online 25 June 2014 As an open set with new characters constantly being developed, the total number of Chinese characters from Abstract past to present reaches a tremendous sum. The Chinese Given the impact that nationality and locality have on the dictionary published by the People’s Republic of China in essential elements of design, it is a demanding task for 1989 covered about 56,000 characters. It is really amazing Chinese designers to set up new Chinese design styles. that such huge and complicated character-formation can In my opinion, the Six Principles of Chinese Writing (六 be generalized by only six principles. = 書原理), which are the principles of Chinese characters’ In my opinion, the Six Principles comprise a set of formation and application, is a set of design idea that can design thoughts based on using graphics to indicate be applied to modern design. In this paper, I present my meanings. From this standpoint, the Six Principles can research on the new design idea of design based on the be regarded as an effective design method which can be Six Principles of Chinese writing with mark design as applied to modern design, especially in the field of visual examples.
    [Show full text]
  • Using a Radical-Derived Character E-Learning Platform to Increase Learner Knowledge of Chinese Characters
    Language Learning & Technology February 2013, Volume 17, Number 1 http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2013/chenetal.pdf pp. 89–106 USING A RADICAL-DERIVED CHARACTER E-LEARNING PLATFORM TO INCREASE LEARNER KNOWLEDGE OF CHINESE CHARACTERS Hsueh-Chih Chen, National Taiwan Normal University Chih-Chun Hsu, National Defense University Li-Yun Chang, University of Pittsburgh Yu-Chi Lin, National Taiwan Normal University Kuo-En Chang, National Taiwan Normal University Yao-Ting Sung, National Taiwan Normal University The present study is aimed at investigating the effect of a radical-derived Chinese character teaching strategy on enhancing Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ Chinese orthographic awareness. An e-learning teaching platform, based on statistical data from the Chinese Orthography Database Explorer (Chen, Chang, L.Y., Chou, Sung, & Chang, K.E., 2011), was established and used as an auxiliary teaching tool. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest quasi-experiment was conducted, with 129 Chinese- American CFL learners as participants (69 people in the experimental group and 60 people in the comparison group), to examine the effectiveness of the e-learning platform. After a three-week course—involving instruction on Chinese orthographic knowledge and at least seven phonetic/semantic radicals and their derivative characters per week—the experimental group performed significantly better than the comparison group on a phonetic radical awareness test, a semantic radical awareness test, as well as an orthography knowledge test. Keywords: Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), Chinese Orthographic Awareness, Radical-Derived Character Instructional Method, Phonetic/Semantic Radicals INTRODUCTION The rise of China to international prominence in recent years has made learning Chinese extremely popular, and increasing numbers of non-native Chinese students have begun to choose Chinese as their second language of study.
    [Show full text]
  • Jade Huang and Chinese Culture Identity: Focus on the Myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi”
    Journal of Literature and Art Studies, June 2016, Vol. 6, No. 6, 603-618 doi: 10.17265/2159-5836/2016.06.003 D DAVID PUBLISHING Jade Huang and Chinese Culture Identity: Focus on the Myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi” TANG Qi-cui, WU Yu-wei Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China This paper focus on the myth of “Huang of Xiahoushi” (夏后氏之璜), focusing on the distribution of Jade Huang (玉璜) since the early neolithic and its process of pluralistic integration. The paper explores the story of ethnic group, cultural identification and the significance of Jade Huang in the discourse construction of etiquette civilization behind the mythic narrative based on multi-evidence method and the local meaning of literature in ancient Chinese context. Keywords: Jade Huang, Huang of Xiahoushi, unified diversity, Chinese identity, etiquette civilization, multi-evidence method Introduction Modern archeological relics including potteries, jades and bronzes bring back the lost history; the process of how Chinese unified diversity took shape in general and the great tradition of jade culture in eight thousand in particular. The handed-down documents echo each other at a distance provide solid evidences for the origin of civilization of rite and music and the core values based on jade belief. Jade Huang is an important one of it. It is illuminated by numerous records about Jade Huang in ancient literature, as well as a large number of archaeology findings past 7,000 years. The paper seeks to focus on the following questions: what is the function of Jade Huang in historic and prehistoric period? Moreover, what is the function of “Huang of Xiahoushi”, which belonged to emperor and symbolized special power in historic documents and myths and legends in ancient china? Jade Huang: Etiquette and Literature Jade Huang (Yu Huang, Semi-circular/annular Jade Pendant) is a type of jade artifact which is seemed to be remotely related to etiquette and literature.
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation of Chinese Learners' Acquisition and Understanding of Bushou and Their Attitude on Formal In-Class Bushou Instruction
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses November 2014 An Investigation of Chinese Learners' Acquisition and Understanding of Bushou and Their Attitude on Formal In-Class Bushou Instruction Yan P. Liu University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Recommended Citation Liu, Yan P., "An Investigation of Chinese Learners' Acquisition and Understanding of Bushou and Their Attitude on Formal In-Class Bushou Instruction" (2014). Masters Theses. 98. https://doi.org/10.7275/6054895 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/98 This Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN INVESTIGATION OF CHINESE LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION AND UNDERSTANDING OF BUSHOU AND THEIR ATTITUDE ON FORMAL IN- CLASS BUSHOU INSTRUCTION A CASE STUDY A Thesis Presented By YANPING LIU Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS September 2014 Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Asian Languages and Literatures AN INVESTIGATION OF CHINESE LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION AND UNDERSTANDING OF BUSHOU AND THEIR ATTITUDE ON FORMAL IN- CLASS BUSHOU INSTRUCTION
    [Show full text]
  • THE GOVERNING PRINCIPLES of ANCIENT CHINA Based on 360 Passages Excerpted from the Original Compilation of Qunshu Zhiyao
    三六〇 第一冊〈中英對照〉 THE GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OF ANCIENT CHINA Based on 360 passages excerpted from the original compilation of Qunshu Zhiyao VOLUME 1 English Translation Group of Qunshu Zhiyao 360 Malaysian Han Studies Table of Contents 目錄 中國古代的治國原則 The Governing Principles of Ancient China 前言 Preface .........................................................................i 編譯組序 Qunshu Zhiyao 360 Editorial Notes ............... vi Chapter One 君道 THE WAY OF A LEADER 修身 Character Building .................................................2 戒貪 Guard against greed .....................................2 勤儉 Be frugal and diligent ..................................9 懲忿 Refrain from anger .................................... 11 遷善 Emulate good deeds ................................. 13 改過 Correcting our own mistakes .................. 14 敦親 Be Respectful of Relatives .................................. 19 反身 Self-Reflection ..................................................... 24 尊賢 Be Respectful of Wise and Able Ministers ....... 41 納諫 Be Receptive to Counsels from Ministers ........ 51 杜讒邪 Be Averse to Slanderous and Malevolent Advice ................................................................... 58 審斷 Be Perceptive and Astute .................................... 60 Chapter Two 臣術 THE ART OF A MINISTER 立節 Uphold Integrity .................................................. 68 盡忠 Serve with Utmost Loyalty ................................. 73 勸諫 Presenting Counsels ........................................... 77 舉賢 Nominating the Right Administrators
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of Chinese Character Acquisition
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Learning and Teacher Education Education 2017 The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem Justin Olmanson University of Nebraska at Lincoln, [email protected] Xianquan Chrystal Liu University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Olmanson, Justin and Liu, Xianquan Chrystal, "The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem" (2017). Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. 239. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/239 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Volume 4 (2017)
    [Show full text]
  • Handbook of Chinese Mythology TITLES in ABC-CLIO’S Handbooks of World Mythology
    Handbook of Chinese Mythology TITLES IN ABC-CLIO’s Handbooks of World Mythology Handbook of Arab Mythology, Hasan El-Shamy Handbook of Celtic Mythology, Joseph Falaky Nagy Handbook of Classical Mythology, William Hansen Handbook of Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch Handbook of Hindu Mythology, George Williams Handbook of Inca Mythology, Catherine Allen Handbook of Japanese Mythology, Michael Ashkenazi Handbook of Native American Mythology, Dawn Bastian and Judy Mitchell Handbook of Norse Mythology, John Lindow Handbook of Polynesian Mythology, Robert D. Craig HANDBOOKS OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY Handbook of Chinese Mythology Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England Copyright © 2005 by Lihui Yang and Deming An All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yang, Lihui. Handbook of Chinese mythology / Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner. p. cm. — (World mythology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57607-806-X (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 1-57607-807-8 (eBook) 1. Mythology, Chinese—Handbooks, Manuals, etc. I. An, Deming. II. Title. III. Series. BL1825.Y355 2005 299.5’1113—dc22 2005013851 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116–1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Aspects of Cyclic Myth in Chinese and Western Literature
    ASPECTS OF CYCLIC MYTH IN CHINESE AND WESTERN LITERATURE ROBERT SHAN-MU CHEN B.A., Soochow University, 1969 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Programme of Comparative Literature We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF. BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 197? Robert Shan-mu Chen, 1977 i In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Robert Shan-mu Chen Department of Comparative Literature The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Datp October 20, 1977- J /ABSTRACT This thesis is a comparative study of the history and literary form of the cyclic myth in Chinese and Western European culture. The cyclic myth is seen as a complex of discrete myths and rituals which tend to identify man with the periodic regeneration of nature and celestial bodies in order to ensure personal duration against the flux of time. By comparing the origins and transformations of the cyclic myth in both cultures the essential distinctions between Chinese and Western literature will be re• vealed as both cosmological and ontological.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction k dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversee materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6* x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 WU CHANGSHI AND THE SHANGHAI ART WORLD IN THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURIES DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Kuiyi Shen, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor John C.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Paintings in Chinese Publications, 1956-1968: an Annotated Bibliography and an Index to the Paintings
    THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES MICHIGAN PAPERS IN CHINESE STUDIES Chang Chun-shu, James Crump, and Rhoads Murphey, Editors Ann Arbor, Michigan Chinese Paintings in Chinese Publications, 1956-1968: An Annotated Bibliography and An Index to the Paintings by E. J. Laing Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies No. 6 1969 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Copyright 1969 by Center for Chinese Studies The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-89264-124-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-89264-006-5 (paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12789-4 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-472-90185-2 (open access) The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ C ontents Foreword and Acknowledgments BIBLIOGRAPHY Notes on the Bibliography 1 Annotated Bibliography 1 INDEX Guide to the Index 33 Key to Biographical Sources 35 Abbreviations used in the Index 37 Key to Short Titles used in the Index 37 Index 41 Foreword and Acknowledgments Among the many contributions to scholarly endeavor in the field of Chinese painting made by Dr. Osvald Siren were his "Annotated Lists of Paintings and Reproductions of Paintings by Chinese Artists. TT These "Annotated Lists" were published as a part of his Chinese Painting, Leading Masters and Principles (The Ronald Press Company, New York, 19 56-58, 7 volumes). Since 19 56, the publication of reproductions of Chinese paint- ings has continued at a great pace throughout the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing to Read: the Case of Chinese
    PACLIC 29 Writing to read: the case of Chinese Qi Zhang Ronan G. Reilly School of Applied Languages and Intercultural Department of Computer Science Studies, Dublin City University Maynooth University [email protected] [email protected] Abstract 2 A brief introduction to Chinese orthography This paper describes two experiments that explore the potential role of Chinese character Before we look into the relationship between writing on their visual recognition. Taken writing and reading, it is necessary to provide a together, the results suggest that drawing brief overview of Chinese orthography. There are Chinese characters privileges them in memory three tiers in the orthographic structure of a in a way that facilitates their subsequent visual Chinese character: stroke, radical, and character recognition. This is true even when the (Shen and Ke, 2007). Usually, several strokes congruency of the recognition response and other potential confounds are controlled for. function as building blocks to construct a radical, and one or more radicals are used to form a 1 Introduction character. There are generally two kinds of Chinese With China’s rapid economic rise, the Chinese characters: integral and compound (Shen and Ke, language is becoming more of a practical and 2007; Wang et al., 2003). The former are attractive subject for university students across the composed using one radical only, while the latter world. There has, consequently, been an increase consist of two or more radicals. For example, 女 in the popularity of learning Chinese as a foreign (nǚ) means female and 马 (mǎ) denotes the language (henceforth, CFL). According to a report meaning of a horse.
    [Show full text]
  • Ambiguity of Avalokiteśvara and the Scriptural Sources for the Cult of Kuan-Yin in China
    中華佛學學報第 10 期 (pp.409-464)：(民國 86年)， 臺北：中華佛學研究所，http://www.chibs.edu.tw Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal, No. 10, (1997) Taipei: Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies ISSN: 1017─7132 Ambiguity of Avalokiteśvara and the Scriptural Sources for the Cult of Kuan-yin in China Yü Chün-fang Associate Professor, Rutgers University Summary The bodhisattva Kuan-yin is also known as Kuan-shih-yin or Kuan-tzu-tsai, among other names. The bodhisattva is described as princely and heroic in some scriptures, although in the Lotus Sutra there is reference to his feminine manifestations. The paper discusses the ambiguous of the bodhisattva's name, gender, and status by examining the main scriptural sources for the cult of Kuan-yin as developed in China. Important sutras such as the Lotus, the SurangamaL, the Pure Land Kuan ching as well as a few esoteric sutras will be discussed. Distinctive beliefs shall be examined together with ritual practices as well as art historical evidences. A comparison between the popular “33 forms of Kuan-yin” with those mentioned in the scriptures will be made in order to suggest some possible processes through which this originally Indic bodhisattva became transformed into the Chinese “Goddess of Mercy”. Keywords: 1.Kuang-shih-yin 2.Kuan-shih-yin 3.Kuan-tzu-tsai 4.Kuan-yin 5.thirty-three manifestations p. 410 ↴ Avalokiteśvara is commonly known as Kuan-yin (Perceiver of Sounds) or Kuan-shih- yin (perceiver of the World's Sounds) in China. [1] A Chinese saying aptly describes the great popularity of this savior bodhisattva: “Everybody knows how to chant A-mi-t'o-fo [Amitabha], and every household worships Kuan-yin.” Neither Kuan-yin nor Kuan-shih-yin, however, corresponds to Avalokiteśvara, but rather to Avalokitaśvara, a name not used in the Buddhist world.
    [Show full text]