DOCSLIB.ORG

{PDF EPUB} Poetry and Prose of the Han Wei and Six Dynasties by Panda Books Han Dynasty

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
{PDF EPUB} Poetry and Prose of the Han Wei and Six Dynasties by Panda Books Han Dynasty Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Poetry and Prose of the Han Wei and Six Dynasties by Panda Books Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty ruled China from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. and was the second imperial dynasty of China. Though tainted by deadly dramas within the royal court, it is also known for its promotion of Confucianism as the state religion and opening the Silk Road trade route to Europe, permanently altering the course of Chinese history. Han Dynasty art and inventions like paper still influence the world today. Emperor Gaozu And The Start of the Han Empire. Following a mass revolt in the Qin Empire in 210 B.C. and brief control by warlord Xiang Yu, Liu Bang seized the title of emperor of the Han Dynasty in 202 B.C. He established the Han capital of Chang’an along the Wei River in one of the few surviving palaces of the Qin Dynasty and took the name Emperor Gaozu. The period of time where Chang’an served as the capital of the empire is known as the Western Han. It would last until around 23 A.D. Gaozu immediately recognized a number of kingdoms in Ancient China but systematically replaced many of the kings with members of his own Liu family before his death in 195 B.C. The idea was to prevent rebellions, but the Liu family kings often tested the stamina of the empire in favor of their own ambitions. Empress Lu Zhi. Following Gaozu’s death, the Empress Lu Zhi made an attempt to take control by murdering a few of Gaozu’s sons. Lu Zhi also personally mutilated and murdered her mother and Gaozu’s preferred mistress, Lady Qi, before throwing her body into a privy and showing it off to visitors. The power struggle lasted for 15 years, ending when Gaozu’s son, Emperor Wan, slaughtered Lu Zhi’s family and became emperor. Confucian Revival. Confucianism gained popularity among Han royalty around 135 B.C. during the early reign of Emperor Wu. Confucianism had stayed alive in China thanks to the efforts of intellectuals like Fu Sheng, who managed to keep some Confucian literature during the Qin Dynasty and beyond. Many Confucian texts had been confiscated by the Qin Dynasty and then permanently lost when the imperial library was burned down in a civil war in 210 B.C. Fu Sheng had saved The Book of Documents, and the Han Dynasty put forth a forceful effort to round-up remaining Confucian documents. Some were in the possession of kings, while others were found in the walls of Confucius’ home. In 136 B.C., a program in the imperial university was created for teaching the Five Classics of Confucianism—five books called the Book of Changes, the Book of Documents, the Book of Odes, the Book of Rites and the Spring and Autumn Annals— translated into modern script. By the year second century A.D., the university had 30,000 students studying Confucianism. Silk Road. In 138 B.C., a man named Zhang Qian was sent on a mission by Emperor Wu to make contact with tribes to the west. He and his party were captured by the Xiognu tribe, but Zhang Qian escaped and continued west. He reached Afghanistan, in an area known as Bactria, which was under Greek control. In Bactria, Zhang Qian saw bamboo and textiles brought from China and asked how they had gotten there. He was told that the items came from a kingdom in Afghanistan called Shendu. Thirteen years after he had left, Zhang Qian made his way back to the Emperor, told him of what he had seen and mapped out a route to send an expedition back there. The map and this route was used more and more, and developed into the international trade route known as the Silk Road. Map showing the expansion of Han dynasty in 2nd century BC. The orange line marks Zhang Qians travels. SY/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0. Han Dynasty Art. Most knowledge of Han Dynasty art comes from the tombs of ruling families. The Wu Family site in Jiaxiang is one of the most famous. With two underground chambers beneath four shrines, the tomb features 70 carved stones and painted ceilings and walls depicting historical figures. The site contained about 3,000 examples of Han Dynasty art figures, utilizing silver, bronze, gold, jade, silk and pottery. Two suits with 2,000 pieces of jade in each were discovered in the tomb. Found often in Han Dynasty tombs are models of houses in pottery form, with varying degrees of sophistication. The tomb are believed to have survived with their treasures intact because their outside areas were not adorned in any special way, but marked only by a large pile of dirt. Wang Mang and the New Dynasty. The Western Han ended in 9 A.D. when government official Wang Mang took advantage of long-term internal disarray to seize the throne and try to stabilize the empire. The last several emperors had died young and their power had consistently transferred to their maternal uncles in the role of commander in chief. Wang Mang took power through this method, but broke with tradition by declaring “the New Dynasty.” Wang Mang broke apart the aristocratic estates and redistributed them among the peasants. The peasant class became frustrated by massive flooding and by 23 A.D., their anger manifested in rebels called the Red Eyebrows. An uprising ensued, resulting in the destruction of Chang’an and the beheading of Wang Mang. Liu Xiu, a descendent of Gaozu, took advantage of the moment and grabbed control, establishing a new capital in Luoyang and the new dynasty known as the Eastern Han. Eastern Han Palace Wars. Following the death of Emperor Zhang in 88 A.D., the Han Empire was almost exclusively ruled by boys in their early teens, a circumstance that set up palace intrigue and directly led to its fall. During the emperor’s early years of rule, the power was in the hand of his mother, who leaned on her own family to keep control. The young emperors were kept isolated with eunuchs, who became their closest allies and often co-conspirators. This dynamic lead to several instances of eunuchs slaughtering families to help the emperor maintain control. Invention of Paper. Paper was invented in China during the Han Dynasty. The court eunuchs were good for more than power plays; one of them, Cai Lun, is credited with developing paper as around 105 A.D. Cai Lun pounded ingredients like bamboo, hemp, rags, fishing nets and mulberry tree bark into a pulp, mixing in water and spreading it flat. The use of paper is said to have spread quickly through the empire. Innovations in Writing. Around the same time, Xu Shen compiled the first Chinese dictionary, which included Han era characters as well as those from the Zhou and Shang periods. This dictionary continued to be an invaluable tool into the 20th Century in deciphering archaeological inscriptions. This same era also featured a boom in the work of historians. Sima Qian created the ambitious first history of China through the dynasties, “The Grand Scribe’s Records.” Containing 130 chapters, it is another book that is still used as a source for modern historians. Han Dynasty Ends. The Han Dynasty’s predilection for court intrigue eventually got the best of it. In 189 A.D., a minor war in the palace broke out between the Empress Dowager’s family and the eunuch allies of the young emperor. Also involved was a religious cult called the Yellow Turbans who had tried to start a civil war and usher in their own dynasty. As the situation deteriorated, the military marched in to take control in a conflict that would last until 220 A.D., when the last Han emperor was dethroned and the dynasty finished. The Six Dynasties Period (220 AD-589) followed the Han Period, bringing with it a rise in Daoism and Buddhism that would transform China. Han Dynasty Timeline: 206 B.C. – Han Dynasty founded. 206-24 A.D. – Western Han Dynasty rules China. 202 B.C. – Liu Bang seizes the title of emperor of the Han Dynasty. 195 B.C. – Liu Band dies and Empress Lu Zhi, tries to take power in a struggle that will last 15 years. 141 B.C.-87 B.C. – Reign of Emperor Wu, breaking records for the longest reign at 54 years. 141-86 B.C. – Emperor Wu adopts Confucianism. 9 A.D. – Wang Mang declares the “New Dynasty.” It will last until 25 A.D. 25-220 A.D. – Eastern Han Dynasty rules China. 100 A.D. – Xu Shen completes first Chinese dictionary. 105 A.D. – Cai Lun invents paper in China. 130 B.C. – The Han Dynasty opens up trade with the West. 184 A.D. – The Yellow Turban Rebellion breaks out. 220 A.D. – Fall of Han Dynasty. SOURCES. The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Mark Edward Lewis. The Dynasties of China. Bamber Gascoigne. Early China: A Social and Cultural History. Li Feng. Readings in Classical Chinese Poetry and Prose: Glossaries, Analyses. This supplemental volume continues the rigorous standard set forth in the main, three-volume Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader while reinforcing its linguistic lessons from carefully chosen representative works. Comprised of three parts — “Poetry,” “Lyrics,” and “Prose” — it presents texts, chronologically, that represent the artistic embodiment of China’s Confucian and Taoist thought. Two introductions separately describe the structural and formal features of regulated verse and parallel prose; each genre is unique to Chinese literature yet both share common characteristics tempered by the Chinese language.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Discovery of Chinese Logic Modern Chinese Philosophy
    The Discovery of Chinese Logic Modern Chinese Philosophy Edited by John Makeham, Australian National University VOLUME 1 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/mcp. The Discovery of Chinese Logic By Joachim Kurtz LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kurtz, Joachim. The discovery of Chinese logic / by Joachim Kurtz. p. cm. — (Modern Chinese philosophy, ISSN 1875-9386 ; v. 1) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17338-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Logic—China—History. I. Title. II. Series. BC39.5.C47K87 2011 160.951—dc23 2011018902 ISSN 1875-9386 ISBN 978 90 04 17338 5 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. CONTENTS List of Illustrations ...................................................................... vii List of Tables .............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Old Master
    INTRODUCTION Four main characteristics distinguish this book from other translations of Laozi. First, the base of my translation is the oldest existing edition of Laozi. It was excavated in 1973 from a tomb located in Mawangdui, the city of Changsha, Hunan Province of China, and is usually referred to as Text A of the Mawangdui Laozi because it is the older of the two texts of Laozi unearthed from it.1 Two facts prove that the text was written before 202 bce, when the first emperor of the Han dynasty began to rule over the entire China: it does not follow the naming taboo of the Han dynasty;2 its handwriting style is close to the seal script that was prevalent in the Qin dynasty (221–206 bce). Second, I have incorporated the recent archaeological discovery of Laozi-related documents, disentombed in 1993 in Jishan District’s tomb complex in the village of Guodian, near the city of Jingmen, Hubei Province of China. These documents include three bundles of bamboo slips written in the Chu script and contain passages related to the extant Laozi.3 Third, I have made extensive use of old commentaries on Laozi to provide the most comprehensive interpretations possible of each passage. Finally, I have examined myriad Chinese classic texts that are closely associated with the formation of Laozi, such as Zhuangzi, Lüshi Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lü), Han Feizi, and Huainanzi, to understand the intellectual and historical context of Laozi’s ideas. In addition to these characteristics, this book introduces several new interpretations of Laozi.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: an Introduction for Language Teachers
    and XU Kirkpatrick CHINESE RHETORIC AND WRITING In Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: An Introduction for Language Teach- ers, Andy Kirkpatrick and and Zhichang Xu offer a response to the argument that Chinese students’ academic writing in English is influenced by “culturally nuanced rhetorical baggage that is uniquely Chinese and hard to eradicate.” Noting that this argument draws from “an essentially monolingual and Anglo-centric view of writ- WRITING AND RHETORIC CHINESE ing,” they point out that the rapid growth in the use of English worldwide calls for CHINESE RHETORIC “a radical reassessment of what English is in today’s world.” The result is a book that provides teachers of writing, and in particular those involved in the teaching of Eng- lish academic writing to Chinese students, an introduction to key stages in the devel- AND WRITING opment of Chinese rhetoric, a wide-ranging field with a history of several thousand years. Understanding this important rhetorical tradition provides a strong foundation for assessing and responding to the writing of this growing group of students. AN INTRODUCTION FOR Andy Kirkpatrick is Professor and Head, School of Languages and Linguistics, at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Directly prior to that he was Director of the Research Centre LANGUAGE TEACHERS into Language Education and Acquistion in Multilingual Societies at the Hong Kong Insti- tute of Education. He is the author of English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: A Multilingual Model (Hong Kong University Press, 2010) and the editor of the Routledge Handbook of World Englishes (2010). He is editor of the journal Multilingual Education and of the book series of the same name (both with Springer).
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: an Introduction For
    and XU Kirkpatrick CHINESE RHETORIC AND WRITING In Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: An Introduction for Language Teach- ers, Andy Kirkpatrick and and Zhichang Xu offer a response to the argument that Chinese students’ academic writing in English is influenced by “culturally nuanced rhetorical baggage that is uniquely Chinese and hard to eradicate.” Noting that this argument draws from “an essentially monolingual and Anglo-centric view of writ- WRITING AND RHETORIC CHINESE ing,” they point out that the rapid growth in the use of English worldwide calls for CHINESE RHETORIC “a radical reassessment of what English is in today’s world.” The result is a book that provides teachers of writing, and in particular those involved in the teaching of Eng- lish academic writing to Chinese students, an introduction to key stages in the devel- AND WRITING opment of Chinese rhetoric, a wide-ranging field with a history of several thousand years. Understanding this important rhetorical tradition provides a strong foundation for assessing and responding to the writing of this growing group of students. AN INTRODUCTION FOR Andy Kirkpatrick is Professor and Head, School of Languages and Linguistics, at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Directly prior to that he was Director of the Research Centre LANGUAGE TEACHERS into Language Education and Acquistion in Multilingual Societies at the Hong Kong Insti- tute of Education. He is the author of English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: A Multilingual Model (Hong Kong University Press, 2010) and the editor of the Routledge Handbook of World Englishes (2010). He is editor of the journal Multilingual Education and of the book series of the same name (both with Springer).
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Three
    526 Chapter Three 經學昌明時代 The Period of Advancement of Classical Scholarship [3/1 SVA Introductory Comments: In the opening section of Chapter Three, Pi Xirui quotes extensively from the "Rulin zhuan" chapter of the Shi ji so as to support his position that during the reign of Emperor Wu (141-87 B.C.), Classical Scholarship was in its purest and most orthodox form. He also uses the lack of information in the "Rulin zhuan" regarding the Old Script Documents, Zhouli, Mao Shi, and Zuozhuan to argue that Sima Qian did not have access to these texts, which are texts of the "Old Script" school.] 3/11 The "Rulin zhuan" chapter of the Shi ji states, "When the present emperor2 ascended the throne, there were men such as Zhao Wan 趙綰 and Wang Zang 王臧3 who clearly understood Confucian learning and the 1[SVA: Section 3/1 corresponds to pp.69-72 of the Zhonghua ed. and to pp.60-64 of the Yiwen ed.] 2(3/1, n.1) Zhou Yutong comments: In the Chinese jinshang 今上, "the present emperor," refers to Emperor Wu of the Han. 3(3/1, n.2) Zhou Yutong comments: Zhao Wan 趙綰 was a native of Dai 代 and Wang Zang 王臧 was a native of Lanling 蘭陵. They both studied the Lu 527 emperor himself was also inclined toward it.4 He thereupon issued an order recruiting scholar-officials in the recommendation categories of Straightforward and Upright, Worthy and Excellent, and Learned.5 After this, as for giving instruction in the Songs, in Lu it was Master Shen Pei 申 培公, in Qi it was Master Yuan Gu 轅固生, and in Yan, it was Grand Tutor Han Ying 韓(嬰)太傅.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China
    Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China ANNE BIRRELL Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities / Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. Licensed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 In- ternational (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits readers to freely download and share the work in print or electronic format for non-commercial purposes, so long as credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require per- mission from the publisher. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The Cre- ative Commons license described above does not apply to any material that is separately copyrighted. Open Access ISBNs: 9780824880347 (PDF) 9780824880354 (EPUB) This version created: 17 May, 2019 Please visit www.hawaiiopen.org for more Open Access works from University of Hawai‘i Press. © 1988, 1993 Anne Birrell All rights reserved To Hans H. Frankel, pioneer of yüeh-fu studies Acknowledgements I wish to thank The British Academy for their generous Fel- lowship which assisted my research on this book. I would also like to take this opportunity of thanking the University of Michigan for enabling me to commence my degree programme some years ago by awarding me a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship. I am indebted to my former publisher, Mr. Rayner S. Unwin, now retired, for his helpful advice in pro- ducing the first edition. For this revised edition, I wish to thank sincerely my col- leagues whose useful corrections and comments have been in- corporated into my text.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Letters and Intellectual Life in Medieval Japan: the Poetry and Political Philosophy of Chūgan Engetsu
    Chinese Letters and Intellectual Life in Medieval Japan: The Poetry and Political Philosophy of Chūgan Engetsu By Brendan Arkell Morley A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Language in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor H. Mack Horton Professor Alan Tansman Professor Paula Varsano Professor Mary Elizabeth Berry Summer 2019 1 Abstract Chinese Letters and Intellectual Life in Medieval Japan: The Poetry and Political Philosophy of Chūgan Engetsu by Brendan Arkell Morley Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese University of California, Berkeley Professor H. Mack Horton, Chair This dissertation explores the writings of the fourteenth-century poet and intellectual Chūgan Engetsu 中巌円月, a leading figure in the literary movement known to history as Gozan (“Five Mountains”) literature. In terms of modern disciplinary divisions, Gozan literature straddles the interstices of several distinct areas of study, including classical Chinese poetry and poetics, Chinese philosophy and intellectual history, Buddhology, and the broader tradition of “Sinitic” poetry and prose (kanshibun) in Japan. Among the central contentions of this dissertation are the following: (1) that Chūgan was the most original Confucian thinker in pre-Tokugawa Japanese history, the significance of his contributions matched only by those of early-modern figures such as Ogyū Sorai, and (2) that kanshi and kanbun were creative media, not merely displays of erudition or scholastic mimicry. Chūgan’s expository writing demonstrates that the enormous multiplicity of terms and concepts animating the Chinese philosophical tradition were very much alive to premodern Japanese intellectuals, and that they were subject to thoughtful reinterpretation and application to specifically Japanese sociohistorical phenomena.
    [Show full text]
  • Han Dynasty Classicism and the Making of Early Medieval Literati Culture
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 In Pursuit of the Great Peace: Han Dynasty Classicism and the Making of Early Medieval Literati Culture Lu Zhao University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Asian History Commons Recommended Citation Zhao, Lu, "In Pursuit of the Great Peace: Han Dynasty Classicism and the Making of Early Medieval Literati Culture" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 826. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/826 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/826 For more information, please contact [email protected]. In Pursuit of the Great Peace: Han Dynasty Classicism and the Making of Early Medieval Literati Culture Abstract This dissertation is focused on communities of people in the Han dynasty (205 B.C.-A.D. 220) who possessed the knowledge of a corpus of texts: the Five Classics. Previously scholars have understood the popularity of this corpus in the Han society as a result of stiff ideology and imperial propaganda. However, this approach fails to explain why the imperial government considered them effective to convey propaganda in the first place. It does not capture the diverse range of ideas in classicism. This dissertation concentrates on Han classicists and treats them as scholars who constantly competed for attention in intellectual communities and solved problems with innovative solutions that were plausible to their contemporaries. This approach explains the nature of the apocryphal texts, which scholars have previously referred to as shallow and pseudo-scientific.
    [Show full text]
  • ARCHAISM in HAN YU' S POETRY by ALEX YANG B. A., the University
    ARCHAISM IN HAN YU' S POETRY by ALEX YANG B. A., The University of British Columbia, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA March 2007 © Alex Yang, 2007 11 Abstract Han Yii has long been considered an ardent supporter of the revival of the ancient ways or the fugu movement during the mid Tang. This image of Han is largely based on his prose writings, which generally resemble the simple and unembellished style of the ancients. Nevertheless, while a dedication to fugu may be observed in Han's prose, it is not at all evident in his poetry, which follows a highly unique style of its own and contains some of the most bizarre examples of classical Chinese verse. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how Han Yii's poetic style contradicts the principles of fugu. In my first chapter, I will define the meaning of fugu and explain how it is both a literary movement for recreating the achaic writing style and an intellectual movement for revitalizing Confucian values. I will also make a quick comparison between Han Yii's eccentric poems and his genuine fugu poems. The former account for most of his famous works, and the latter only a small fraction of his works. The disparity in number should prove that Han consciously chose to develop a bizarre style in favour of an orthodox fugu one. In the following chapters I will analyze several prominent characteristics of Han Ill Yti's poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • The Images of Jiangnan in Zhao Mengfu's (1254-1322) Poetry/ Li E University of Massachusetts Amherst
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2005 The images of Jiangnan in Zhao Mengfu's (1254-1322) poetry/ Li E University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses E, Li, "The images of Jiangnan in Zhao Mengfu's (1254-1322) poetry/" (2005). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 1481. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/1481 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE IMAGES OF JIANGNAN IN ZHAO MENGFITS (1254-1322) POETRY A Thesis Presented by LIE Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS September 2005 Asian Languages and Literatures © Copyright by Li E 2005 All Rights Reserved THE IMAGES OF JIANGNAN IN ZHAO MENGFU'S (1254-1322) POETRY A Thesis Presented by LIE Approved as to style and content by: Alvin P. Cohen, Ch£ir Shaodan Luo, Member Doris G. Bargen, Director Asian Languages and Literatures ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to thank thesis my advisor, Professor Alvin Cohen, who read several drafts of my thesis and gave me invaluable comments and suggestions about everything, from my big arguments to grammar and spelling. His help, patience, and understanding have encouraged me to finish my thesis in time. Through working with him during the whole writing process, I have had a much better understanding of his boundless generosity and kindness both as a teacher and as a person.
    [Show full text]
  • Authority, Hermeneutics, and the Zuo Tradition from Western Han to Western Jin (2Nd C
    Merging Horizons: Authority, Hermeneutics, and the Zuo Tradition from Western Han to Western Jin (2nd c. BCE –3rd c. CE) By Pauli Wai A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Robert Ashmore, Chair Professor Michael Nylan Professor Mark Csikszentmihalyi Fall 2013 Abstract Merging Horizons: Authority, Hermeneutics, and the Zuo Tradition from Western Han to Western Jin (2nd c. BCE–3rd c. CE) by Pauli Wai Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert Ashmore, Chair This dissertation examines the central forms of exegetical authority from early to early medieval China, focusing on the reception history of the Zuo Tradition 左傳 from Western Han to Western Jin (2nd c. BCE–3rd c. CE). Most modern scholarly works treat the Zuo Tradition as a historical narrative of great literary value about China’s Spring and Autumn period (722–468 BCE). My research, however, studies the value and status of this text as an exegetical tradition from the perspective of classicists spanning five centuries. These early scholars on the Zuo Tradition measured its worth according to how well it preserved and explicated the visions of Confucius as lodged in the wording of Annals 春秋 the Classic. Conceptions about the Zuo Tradition evolved through a series of debates and arguments in expository letters, memorials, and essays, as well as commentaries on the Annals and Zuo Tradition. During the Western Han (206 BCE–9 CE), the Shiji 史記 advanced the conception of the Zuo Tradition as a corrective to the divergent interpretations of the Annals.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright 2001 Yale University the Five "Confucian" Classics, by Michael Nylan Endnotes
    Copyright 2001 Yale University The Five "Confucian" Classics, by Michael Nylan Endnotes Page ¶ Chapter 3 — The Documents 121 1 "…a son"—The epigraph comes from W.M. Lee (1987). A long, voluminous literature debates whether the oracle bone inscriptions, often phrased in positive and negative pairs, represent "a wish, a forecast, or a statement of intent" put to the ancestors or alternative charges. David Keightley, David Nivison, and Ken Takashima all agree that the paired inscriptions represent alternative charges to the ancestors; Qiu Xigui has come to believe that they are probably right. Readers interested in this rather technical question may consult Early China 14, pp. 113-14, 154-55, where Qiu Xigui and David Nivison lay out their positions. 121 2 "…of interpretive puzzles"—See Edward Shaughnessy (1991), chap. 3, for a useful section showing how close some of the early Shang shu chapters are to bronze inscriptions in both language and content. Shaughnessy (1997), esp. chaps. 4 and 5, presumes this close relation. But for intriguing disparities between the Documents texts and inscriptional material from the Western Zhou bronzes, see Jessica Rawson (1989); David Keightley (1971). 121 2 "…in its fifty chapters"—To take just one example, most commentators have assumed that the "Lüxing" chapter dates to the court of Duke Mu of Qinn (ca. 661 BC), but Shirakawa Shizuka (1980) sharply disagrees, thinking that it refers to mythic events supposedly dating to the time of the Yellow Emperor as a "cover" for its description of the collapse of the state of Lu in 550 BC. 122 1 "…the nation celebrated"—Haun Saussy (1993), p.
    [Show full text]