DOCSLIB.ORG

Aspects of Gender in the Unofficial History of the Scholars

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Aspects of Gender in the Unofficial History of the Scholars Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg Institut für Kulturwissenschaften Ost- und Südasiens - Sinologie Master Thesis in Chinese Studies (Heritage and Innovation) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Roland Altenburger Date of Submission: September 2020 Aspects of Gender in The Unofficial History of the Scholars Name: Dong Wu Address: Am Galgenberg 52D, 04-09-03, Würzburg, 97074, Germany Matrikel-Nr: 2369073 E-mail: [email protected] Acknowledgments It is not easy to have a chance to speak to the world. Fortunately, I get it right now. I have been studying at the Department of Sinology at the University of Würzburg since 2018, and I will graduate soon. Here I would like to give my deepest thanks to my teachers in the Department of Sinology. They offer the best education on Chinese studies in the world, and they helped me grow enormously. Prof. Dr. Roland Altenburger built up my academic skills. Before I came to the Department of Sinology, I knew nothing about researching Chinese literature although I am Chinese, and a big fan of Honglou meng 红楼梦 (The Red Chamber Dream). With Prof. Dr. Roland Altenburger’s instruction, I have finished 130 pages of academic papers on Chinese classical narratives including this master thesis, and they all got excellent or good grades. It is noteworthy that I had not written a single English academic paper before I came here. Isn’t it magical? It is all owing to Prof. Dr. Roland Altenburger’s remarkable instruction. Prof. Dr. Roland Altenburger’s courses on Sinological Methods, Rulin waishi 儒林外史 (The Unofficial History of the Scholars), gender history, and Tang Tales, built up my research skills step by step. His books and his papers are so brilliantly done. They are wonderful examples for me to follow. For my two term papers and my master thesis, he, as my supervisor, always discussed with me to choose a good topic, recommended me good books and articles, and generously lent me his books. Whenever I encountered questions during the writing process, he was always there to help either face to face or by email. He empowers and inspires me to fulfill my potential. He sets a high standard for his students. Our term paper officially requires 15-20 pages. He expects us to do 20 pages. So, I worked hard and made it. The length of the master thesis officially is 60- 80 pages. He expects us to do 80 pages. Then I worked extremely hard and did it. When I was writing, he constantly encouraged me that he believed I would deliver high- quality papers. It is his belief in my competence and his high standard that motivated me to reach my potential. After I finished my term papers, he would write one and a half pages of feedback to analyze my strength and weakness. They are like certificates which I treasure a lot. For this over 90-page thesis, he read every single word! Yes, every single word from 2 the main contents to footnotes! He corrected my mistakes in spelling, grammar, and even punctuation, reminded me to check primary sources, provided new sources, gave valuable comments, and pointed out the smallest formatting errors. He made every effort to improve this thesis, which shocked and moved me. With such a model supporting you, how could you not deliver your best? His passion for Chinese literature and history spills out of all his courses. His rich facial expressions, gestures, body posture, tone of voice make each topic exciting and fascinating. His broad knowledge of Chinese history and literature often amazed me. His critical and creative thoughts inspired me to think beyond the box. He welcomed our participation. We asked questions and exchanged ideas. He gave good comments and appreciated our contribution. Each of his class made my eyes shine. I learned a lot and had lots of fun. He is always helpful. When I was looking for internships and jobs, he wrote me a very good reference letter. When I asked for life advice, he always thought from my position. He is a model professor. He offers the best education about studying Chinese classical literature and history. He shows how tremendously a teacher can raise his students up. I am so lucky to be his student. Dr. Michael Leibold has a big impact on me. He is always ready to help. Whenever I met problems in study or life, he would solve them efficiently. He offered me jobs as a student assistant during my studies here. He took time to wrote a very good reference letter to me very quickly although he is always occupied with teaching and administrative responsibilities. He has a great sense of humor. Before I came to his office, I was often worried about my problems. He always examined my situation and offered advice in a very joyful way. I just could not help laughing and take it easy. Later I found out that whenever he talks to someone, he would make that person laugh. Isn’t it amazing? His Zhuangzi 庄子 course inspired me a lot. In this class, he asked difficult philosophical questions. In the beginning, you would think so hard but get no clue. But in the end, you were enlightened. You got the wisdom you needed for your life. He made Zhuangzi’s philosophy so intriguing and Zhuangzi so lovely. His brilliant way to approach this great and complex philosopher is so fantastic. Dr. Florian Thünken helped me a lot as well. He solved a critical format error of this thesis. Besides, he has the magical power to make complex things easy to understand. His course on transformation in urban and rural China helped me, a Chinese, know more, clearer, and deeper about what has happened in Chinese society. His efforts 3 in designing creative activities to make his teaching effective and fun are also appreciated. Prof. Dr. Björn Alpermann’s course on grassroots politics offered a broad picture of the dynamics underlying Chinese society. It is just so eye-opening. All the teachers in the department helped me to become a better version of myself. They built up my competence, confidence, and gratitude. I am so lucky to get the best academic education I have ever dreamed of. Thank you, my great teachers in the Department of Sinology at the University of Würzburg. Dong Wu Würzburg, December 2020 4 Contents Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................... 2 List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................... 6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 2. The Masculinity Ideal .............................................................................................. 11 2.1 True Virtues........................................................................................................ 12 2.2 True Learning ..................................................................................................... 27 3. Competing Discourse of Masculinity ..................................................................... 33 3.1 Masculinity and Sexuality .................................................................................. 33 3.2 Masculinity and Official Careers ....................................................................... 38 4. Scholars’ Anxiety about Masculinity....................................................................... 42 4.1 Outside Challenges ............................................................................................. 44 4.2 Inside Challenges ............................................................................................... 47 5. Pinniang: The Danger of Female Sexuality ............................................................. 49 5.1 Chen Munan and People of Welcome Pavilion ................................................. 50 5.2 Female Sexuality’s Disruptive Power ................................................................ 57 6. Miss Lu: A Domesticated Learned Woman ............................................................. 63 6.1 A Woman’s Unnatural Education and Aspiration.............................................. 63 6.2 Competing Criticisms on a Learned Woman ..................................................... 69 7. Mrs. Wang: A Family-destroying Shrew ................................................................. 74 7.1 A Shrew's Violation of Confucian Womanly Norms ......................................... 74 7.2 A Shrew's Destructive Force .............................................................................. 82 8. Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 89 Works Cited ................................................................................................................. 91 Declaration/Statement: ................................................................................................. 95 5 List of Acronyms RW Rulin waishi 儒林外史 (2 vols., Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1984). 6 1. Introduction The present study focuses on Rulin waishi 儒林外史 (The Unofficial History of the Scholars), a well-known Qing novel, from the perspective of gender. It attempts to contribute to the discussion about Chinese masculinity by identifying the representation of the scholars' masculinity in Rulin waishi. It also tries to offer a better understanding of the novel's position regarding femininity and women. In this project, “the novel”, “this novel”, “the text”, “the narrative”, or “the book” all refer to Rulin waishi. Rulin waishi provides a rich source to explore Chinese
Load more

Recommended publications
  • University of California Riverside
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Xi Tian August 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson Dr. Paul Pickowicz Dr. Yenna Wu Copyright by Xi Tian 2014 The Dissertation of Xi Tian is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 by Xi Tian Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, August 2014 Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson My dissertation rethinks satire and redefines our understanding of it through the examination of works from the 1930s and 1940s. I argue that the fluidity of satiric writing in the 1930s and 1940s undermines the certainties of the “satiric triangle” and gives rise to what I call, variously, self-satire, self-counteractive satire, empathetic satire and ambiguous satire. It has been standard in the study of satire to assume fixed and fairly stable relations among satirist, reader, and satirized object. This “satiric triangle” highlights the opposition of satirist and satirized object and has generally assumed an alignment by the reader with the satirist and the satirist’s judgments of the satirized object. Literary critics and theorists have usually shared these assumptions about the basis of satire. I argue, however, that beginning with late-Qing exposé fiction, satire in modern Chinese literature has shown an unprecedented uncertainty and fluidity in the relations among satirist, reader and satirized object.
    [Show full text]
  • Communication, Empire, and Authority in the Qing Gazette
    COMMUNICATION, EMPIRE, AND AUTHORITY IN THE QING GAZETTE by Emily Carr Mokros A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland June, 2016 © 2016 Emily Carr Mokros All rights Reserved Abstract This dissertation studies the political and cultural roles of official information and political news in late imperial China. Using a wide-ranging selection of archival, library, and digitized sources from libraries and archives in East Asia, Europe, and the United States, this project investigates the production, regulation, and reading of the Peking Gazette (dibao, jingbao), a distinctive communications channel and news publication of the Qing Empire (1644-1912). Although court gazettes were composed of official documents and communications, the Qing state frequently contracted with commercial copyists and printers in publishing and distributing them. As this dissertation shows, even as the Qing state viewed information control and dissemination as a strategic concern, it also permitted the free circulation of a huge variety of timely political news. Readers including both officials and non-officials used the gazette in order to compare judicial rulings, assess military campaigns, and follow court politics and scandals. As the first full-length study of the Qing gazette, this project shows concretely that the gazette was a powerful factor in late imperial Chinese politics and culture, and analyzes the close relationship between information and imperial practice in the Qing Empire. By arguing that the ubiquitous gazette was the most important link between the Qing state and the densely connected information society of late imperial China, this project overturns assumptions that underestimate the importance of court gazettes and the extent of popular interest in political news in Chinese history.
    [Show full text]
  • Appropriating the West in Late Qing and Early Republican China / Theodore Huters
    Tseng 2005.1.17 07:55 7215 Huters / BRINGING THE WORLD HOME / sheet 1 of 384 Bringing the World Home Tseng 2005.1.17 07:55 7215 Huters / BRINGING THE WORLD HOME / sheet 2 of 384 3 of 384 BringingÕ the World HomeÕ Appropriating the West in Late Qing 7215 Huters / BRINGING THE WORLD HOME / sheet and Early Republican China Theodore Huters University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu Tseng 2005.1.17 07:55 © 2005 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Huters, Theodore. Bringing the world home : appropriating the West in late Qing and early Republican China / Theodore Huters. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8248-2838-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Chinese literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Chinese literature—20th century—Western influences. I. Title. PL2302.H88 2005 895.1’09005—dc22 2004023334 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid- free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access ISBN for this book is 978-0-8248-7401-8. More information about the initiative and links to the open-access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY- NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author.
    [Show full text]
  • READING BODIES: AESTHETICS, GENDER, and FAMILY in the EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE NOVEL GUWANGYAN (PREPOSTEROUS WORDS) by QING
    READING BODIES: AESTHETICS, GENDER, AND FAMILY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE NOVEL GUWANGYAN (PREPOSTEROUS WORDS) by QING YE A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2016 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Qing Ye Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetics, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Maram Epstein Chairperson Yugen Wang Core Member Alison Groppe Core Member Ina Asim Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2016 ii © 2016 Qing Ye iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Qing Ye Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literature June 2016 Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetic, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation focuses on the Mid-Qing novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words, preface dated, 1730s) which is a newly discovered novel with lots of graphic sexual descriptions. Guwangyan was composed between the publication of Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase, 1617) and Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber, 1791). These two masterpieces represent sexuality and desire by presenting domestic life in polygamous households within a larger social landscape. This dissertation explores the factors that shifted the literary discourse from the pornographic description of sexuality in Jin Ping Mei, to the representation of chaste love in Honglou meng.
    [Show full text]
  • Aesthetics, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words)
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Oregon Scholars' Bank READING BODIES: AESTHETICS, GENDER, AND FAMILY IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE NOVEL GUWANGYAN (PREPOSTEROUS WORDS) by QING YE A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2016 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Qing Ye Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetics, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Maram Epstein Chairperson Yugen Wang Core Member Alison Groppe Core Member Ina Asim Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2016 ii © 2016 Qing Ye iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Qing Ye Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literature June 2016 Title: Reading Bodies: Aesthetic, Gender, and Family in the Eighteenth Century Chinese Novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words) This dissertation focuses on the Mid-Qing novel Guwangyan (Preposterous Words, preface dated, 1730s) which is a newly discovered novel with lots of graphic sexual descriptions. Guwangyan was composed between the publication of Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase, 1617) and Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber, 1791). These two masterpieces represent sexuality and desire by presenting domestic life in polygamous households within a larger social landscape.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Reading in Late Imperial China, 1000-1800
    A HISTORY OF READING IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA, 1000-1800 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Li Yu, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2003 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Galal Walker, advisor Professor Mark Bender Professor Cynthia J. Brokaw ______________________________ Professor Patricia A. Sieber Advisor East Asian Languages and Literatures ABSTRACT This dissertation is a historical ethnographic study on the act of reading in late imperial China. Focusing on the practice and representation of reading, I present a mosaic of how reading was conceptualized, perceived, conducted, and transmitted from the tenth to the eighteenth centuries. My central argument is that reading, or dushu, was an indispensable component in the tapestry of cultural life and occupied a unique position in the landscape of social history in late imperial China. Reading is not merely a psychological act of individuals, but also a set of complicated social practices determined and conditioned by social conventions. The dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses motivation, scope, methodology, and sources of the study. I introduce a dozen different Chinese terms related to the act of reading. Chapter 2 examines theories and practices of how children were taught to read. Focusing on four main pedagogical procedures, namely memorization, vocalization, punctuation, and explication, I argue that the loud chanting of texts and the constant anxiety of reciting were two of the most prominent themes that ran through both the descriptive and prescriptive discourses on the history of reading in late imperial ii China.
    [Show full text]
  • The Scholars
    Week 26: The Scholars SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO AN 18TH CENTURY NOVEL: THE SCHOLARS Why are we doing this sequence, a sequence that involves looking at a scroll and reading a novel? Well, in part, it's just to give you some relief, to do something fun. And you'll see that the scroll and novel go together to some extent. Both of them come from the mid 18th century in the Qing dynasty. The scroll is from around 1751. It was of the city of Suzhou. It was around 12 meters long. In fact, it's known as Prosperous Suzhou, and that's a good name for it because the city is prosperous. It was the most cultured and most prosperous city in the southeast. And the scroll is certainly showing you everything you would want to know about that prosperous city. It was done for a particular reason. The emperor had traveled south on his southern tour in 1751, and he was so impressed by the city of Suzhou that he ordered up a scroll showing the city. And this scroll you're going to be looking at was the result of that. It's a very intensive scroll, that is, it's filled with detail. There're around 4,800 people in the scroll. I didn't do the counting, by the way. 2,000 architectural attributes, or 2,000 buildings. The novel, which is commonly known as The Scholars, might more properly be called The Unofficial History of the Confucians, or Rulin Waishi. It was set not so far away, in the city of Nanjing, formerly the southern capital of the Ming dynasty along the Yangtze River.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1g94d1hb Author Tian, Xi Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Xi Tian August 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson Dr. Paul Pickowicz Dr. Yenna Wu Copyright by Xi Tian 2014 The Dissertation of Xi Tian is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Uncertain Satire in Modern Chinese Fiction and Drama: 1930-1949 by Xi Tian Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, August 2014 Dr. Perry Link, Chairperson My dissertation rethinks satire and redefines our understanding of it through the examination of works from the 1930s and 1940s. I argue that the fluidity of satiric writing in the 1930s and 1940s undermines the certainties of the “satiric triangle” and gives rise to what I call, variously, self-satire, self-counteractive satire, empathetic satire and ambiguous satire. It has been standard in the study of satire to assume fixed and fairly stable relations among satirist, reader, and satirized object. This “satiric triangle” highlights the opposition of satirist and satirized object and has generally assumed an alignment by the reader with the satirist and the satirist’s judgments of the satirized object.
    [Show full text]
  • Ernest Major's Shenbao Publishing House
    Transcultural Studies 2015.1 171 Recasting the Chinese Novel: Ernest Major’s Shenbao Publishing House (1872–1890) Catherine Vance Yeh, Boston University The modern novel announced its arrival in China after the aborted Hundred Days Reform of 1898 with the claim of being the truly “new novel” (xin xiaoshuo 新小 說).1 Recent scholarship (including my own) has highlighted the social and political factors that contributed to the novel becoming an engine in China’s literary and social transformation.2 The novel’s potential to address the larger issues of state and society and to advance reform was crucial in elevating the standing of this genre, which also resonated with the writers’ quest for the new and the modern.3 These developments, however, were only made possible through a set of material and cultural conditions that have received far less attention and shall be addressed in this article.4 The new material conditions included new-style publishing 1 This study took many years to reach completion. Although it was first conceived as part of my recent book, Catherine Vance Yeh, The Chinese Political Novel: Migration of a World Genre (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), it soon developed into a separate unit that was more suited to publication as a research article. My work has benefitted from the support and help of a number of scholars. I owe a large debt to the Heidelberg public sphere research group, where the first buds for this study emerged many years ago and where, in 2005, I first gave a talk presenting a systematic outline.
    [Show full text]
  • Satirical Fiction in Wartime Chongqing (1937-1945)
    The Transformation of Satire: Satirical Fiction in Wartime Chongqing (1937-1945) Chia-ying Shih A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: John Christopher Hamm, Chair Yomi Braester Zev Handel Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Asian Languages and Literature - 1 - ©Copyright 2014 Chia-ying Shih - 2 - University of Washington Abstract The Transformation of Satire: Satirical Fiction in Wartime Chongqing (1937-1945) Chia-ying Shih Chair of the Supervisory Committee: John Christopher Hamm, Associate Professor The Department of Asian Languages and Literature This dissertation investigates the development of satirical fiction published in wartime (1937- 1945) Chongqing and its influence on the subsequent development of Chinese satirical fiction. Through the examination of newspapers and literary periodicals published in Chongqing, it identifies the wartime period as a turning point in the politicization of Chinese satirical fiction. "Politicization" here indicates the narrowing of satirical fiction from a range of different cultural, social and political issues to a more dominant concern with political problems. Writers use satire to expose various aspects of government problems or to express their discontent toward political authority. The extent to which writers reflect the expectation of reform from a political system which might self-correct should be judged from the political and social context in which they write and their attitude toward the authority. - 3 - Chapter 1 Introduction I. Modern Chinese Satire: An Important but Understudied Literary Mode On October 11, 2012, Chinese novelist Mo Yan 莫言 (1955- ) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His winning of the prize stirred up many debates in China and the West, as his close relationship with the Chinese Communist government presented a major problem for those who claimed he did not deserve to win.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Becoming Sages: Qin Song and Self-Cultivation in Late Imperial China
    Becoming Sages: Qin Song and Self-Cultivation in Late Imperial China Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Zeyuan Wu Graduate Program in East Asian Languages and Literatures The Ohio State University 2020 Dissertation Committee Meow Hui Goh, Advisor Patricia Sieber, Co-advisor Udo Will Ying Zhang 1 Copyrighted by Zeyuan Wu 2020 2 Abstract This dissertation aims to understand the significance of qin songs (songs accompanied on the qin, the seven-stringed zither) to their practitioners in late imperial China. The qin was known as an instrument for self-cultivation throughout Chinese history. However, our current knowledge of how qin music was used for self-cultivation purposes in premodern China is largely limited to the ideological aspect, awaiting to be supported or modified by investigations of specific historical practices. Looking into different qin practitioners’ works, activities, social connections, and life experiences, this dissertation shows how they made various use of qin song—the musical form and activities related to it—to achieve their goals of becoming the ideal self. I argue that late imperial qin songs were often composed and edited for the purpose of communicating general moral principles and particular moral exemplarity to a larger community of the like-minded (zhiyin). As a result, activities related to these songs allowed the practitioners to extend their social influence on their way of pursuing sagehood. The social function of the songs challenges today’s widespread assumptions that both qin music and self-cultivation are primarily meditative and solitary.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poet As Scholar: Essays and Translations in Honor of Jonathan Chaves
    SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 272 October, 2017 The Poet as Scholar: Essays and Translations in Honor of Jonathan Chaves edited by David K. Schneider 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.
    [Show full text]