Edwardian Theatre and the Lost Shape of Asia: Some Remarks on Behalf of a Cinderella Subject'

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Edwardian Theatre and the Lost Shape of Asia: Some Remarks on Behalf of a Cinderella Subject' East Asian History NUMBER 19 . JUNE 2000 Institute of Advanced St udies Aust ralian Na ti onal Un ive rsit y Edi tor Ge remie R. Ba rm e Assi st a nt Edito r He le n Lo Edito ria l Bo ard Ma rk El vin(C o nvenor) Jo hnCla rk Andrew Fraser He le n Ha rd ac re Co inl Je ffco tt W. ]. F.Je nne r Lo Hui -mi n Ga vanMcCo rmack Da vid Ma rr Te ssa Mo rri s-Su zuki Michae l Unde rd ow n De sig n and Produc tio n Heen l Lo Bu si ne ss Ma na ge r Ma rion Week s Printed by Goa nna Print, Fy shwick, ACT Th isis the ni ne tee nt h issu e of East Asian History inthe se ri espr e vi ou sl y entit edl Papers on Far EasternHistory. Th e jo urna l ispu bli sh ed tw ice a yea r Co ntributio ns to Th e Ed ito r, East Asian History Di vi si o nof Paci fic and Asia nHi sto ry Re se arch Schoo l ofPacifi c and Asia n Studie s Au stralia n Natio nalUniv e rsity Ca nbe rra AC T 0200, Au st ra li a Pho ne +6 1 2 6249 3140 Fa x +6 1 26249 5525 emai l ge re mie @coom bs.a nu .edu .a u Sub scrip tion Enqui ries to Sub scriptio ns, East Asian History, at the abo ve add ress Annu alSub scriptio n Au st ralia A$45 Over seas US $45 (fo r two issu es) iii CONTENTS 1 Lu Xu n's Disturbing Greatness W. j. F.Jenner 27 Th e Ear ly -Qing Disco ur se on Loyalty Wing-ming Chan 53 Th e Da ri ya n ya, the State of the Ur iyangqai of the Altai, the Qa sa y and the Qa mni yan Ceveng (c. Z. Zamcarano) -translated by 1. de Rachewiltz and j. R. Krueger 87 Edwardian Th eatre and the Lost Shape of Asia: Some Re marks on Beha lf of a Cindere lla Subject Timothy Barrett 103 Crossed Legs in 19 30s Shanghai: Ho w 'Modern' the Modern Woman? Francesca Dal Lago 145 San Mao Makes Hi story Miriam Lang iv Cover ca ll grai phy Yan Zh enqing M�Y��, Tang calligra pher and statesman Cover illustrati on Maga zine advertisement for the med cii ne Bush iming EDWARDIAN THEATRE AND THE LOST SHAPE OF ASIA: SOME REMARKS ON BEHALF OF A CINDERELLA SUBJECT' � T H. Barrett As the ancie nt Chi nese phi losopher Me ncius fou nd out , those who have • This 60th George Ernest Morrison Lecture come a lo ng way to speak are pres umed to have somethi ng wor thwhile to in Ethnology was delivered by Dr Tim say for themse ves.l I shou ld th erefore at the outset disclaim all inte nt io ns Barrett of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, on 9 August other tha n to take up your time as agreeab ly as circumsta nces allo w. Eve n 1999 at the Australian National University, so , those circumsta nces do re qu ire that I sa y somethi ng inharmo ny with the Canberra. First published by the University estab ishedl traditio ns of this disti nguished series of le ctures , and somethi ng in that same year, it is reproduced here with the addition of illustrations supplied by the idea lly also in th e spirit of the grea t intercu tural l commu ni cator inwhose author. ho nour the series was first instituted. Comi ng as I do from Lo ndo n, my first thought was therefore to say somethi ng about the Ta ng dy nasty , for the obvious reaso nthat ever si nce the ear ly days of Arthur Wa ey'sl firsttra ns la tio ns Grea t Britai n has bee n know n amo ng Si no lo gists as a bastio nof Ta ng studies. Wa ley's firstefforts appeared almost simu lt aneous ly with the formatio n of the Schoo l of Orie nt a l and Africa n Studies inthe University of Lo ndo n, where I teach , si nce whe n Lo ndon has see n no t only A. C. Graham's work onTa ng poetry but also the entire career of E. D. Edwards and the initia l pub icatiol ns of J. K. Rideout , a former le cturer inthis series who was one of the fou nd ers of Ta ng studies inthis cou ntry. My ow nin troductio nto Chi nese studies , however , took place at Cambridge , where for ne ar ly ha lf a ce ntury the Chair of Chi nese has bee n occupied exc usivel ly by scho lars with stro ng interests inthe Ta ng: fir st E. G. Pu lleyb anl k, the n D. C. Twitchett , fo llowed by GlenDu dbridge and, si nce Professor Du dbridge's retur nto Oxford , D. L. McMu llen . De ni s Twitchett and Da vid McMu llenwere both teachi ng there whe nI was anun dergraduate , and I am much indebted to both of them no t simp ly for my initia l educatio n in Chi nese but for their co ntinued guida nce , just as I am to my doctora l supervisor at Ya e,l Professor Sta nley Wei nstei n, author of Buddhism Under 87 88 T. H. BARRETI ] The former technology and its relationship the Tang. I have found much to ad mire, too, in the schol arship of Professor with religion I am beginning to explore Pulley blank an d his one time student Professor Dud bridge, as would re ad ily myself, for example in "Images of printing be come ap parent were I to ad dress you tod ay on some topic rel ated to Tang in seventh century Chinese religious liter­ ature," Chinese Science 15 (998): 81-93; I culture. hope to consider religion and gunpowder at Th is, however, I do not propose to do, even though in terms of my own some future point. abilities I can cl aim little more th an a cert ain famili arity with the history of 2 Marco Ceresa, La scopertadell 'acqua calda the Tang al one, an d only the history of religion an d thought, at th at. Th e (Milan: Leonardo, 1993), provides an re ason is th at despite al l the eminent schol ar s I have named, it would be excellent summary, with translated texts, of this momentous innovation. wrong for me to pretend th at Tang studies have an y gener al prestige within 3 See, for a volume uniting both forms of Brit ai n itself. Indeed, as the only occup ant of ach air of East Asi an History in Buddhism mentioned, L. Lancaster and W. the British Isles, a ch air formerly occupied by experts on the exp ansion of Lai, Early Ch'an in China and Tibet (Berk­ Europe in East Asi a an d on the modern history of Jap an , I am obliged to report eley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press, 1983). th at whenever I confess to fellow histori an s my preoccup ation with the religious thought of Chin a more th an a millennium ag o, I perceive if not an immedi ate gl azi ng over of the eyes in utter bo redom then a cert ain politely suppressed dis appointment th at aunique an d hitherto valu able post should be thrown aw ay on such fripperies. Wh at , af ter al l, to echo the Menci an experience once ag ai n, does it profit the wor ld to know an ything about the Tang, who for al l their long rule from the early seventh to the st ar t of the tenth century ar e as remote from us as ar e the Anglo-S axons of Ki ng Alfred's times ? Th e ag e th at we live in must surely owe very little to a time an d pl ace so remote . We should except, of course, one or two technologic alinnov ations, such as the printing of bo oks an d the discovery of gunpowder, bu t since Jo seph Needh am (another Cambridge fig ure) has now convinced al l of us th at the world owes much of its premodern technic al an d scienti fic knowledge to Chin a, this hardly calls for comment. Wh at , in an y case, does the history of religion have to do with printing an d gunpowder, ap ar t from the fact th at the earliest references to such things ar e al l in religious documents?] If we turn inste ad to matters of culture, then we can hardly see much in our contempor ary way of life th at can be tr aced back to Tang times, other th an perh ap s te adrinking, or wh at has from a slightly different an gle be en wryly termed the 'discovery of bo iling water', something which is such acommon fe at ure of our daily lives th at ag ai n it surely does not merit discussion. 2 And even if we look at the most novel an d exotic ad mixtures now to be found in the culture of English-spe aking countries, such as an interest in Buddhism, there is hardly an ything even there which provides a link with the Tang, unless perh ap s one includes the Tang connections of Ti be tan an d Ze n Buddhism- and the latter, though no dou bt first patented in Chin a, has al ways be en much more successfully marketed from Jap an .3 But the be st me asure of the irrelev ance of the Tang is surely to be found in its lack of an y contri bution to world liter ature.
Recommended publications
  • Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road
    PROCEEDINGS International Mogao Grottes Conference at Dunhuang on the Conservation of Conservation October of Grotto Sites 1993Mogao Grottes Ancient Sites at Dunhuang on the Silk Road October 1993 The Getty Conservation Institute Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road Proceedings of an International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites Conference organized by the Getty Conservation Institute, the Dunhuang Academy, and the Chinese National Institute of Cultural Property Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang The People’s Republic of China 3–8 October 1993 Edited by Neville Agnew THE GETTY CONSERVATION INSTITUTE LOS ANGELES Cover: Four bodhisattvas (late style), Cave 328, Mogao grottoes at Dunhuang. Courtesy of the Dunhuang Academy. Photograph by Lois Conner. Dinah Berland, Managing Editor Po-Ming Lin, Kwo-Ling Chyi, and Charles Ridley, Translators of Chinese Texts Anita Keys, Production Coordinator Jeffrey Cohen, Series Designer Hespenheide Design, Book Designer Arizona Lithographers, Printer Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 © 1997 The J. Paul Getty Trust All rights reserved The Getty Conservation Institute, an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, works internation- ally to further the appreciation and preservation of the world’s cultural heritage for the enrichment and use of present and future generations. The listing of product names and suppliers in this book is provided for information purposes only and is not intended as an endorsement by the Getty Conservation Institute. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conservation of ancient sites on the Silk Road : proceedings of an international conference on the conservation of grotto sites / edited by Neville Agnew p.
    [Show full text]
  • Transformation of Capital City in Tang and Song China, Ca. 700-1100
    From Closed Capital to Open Metropolis: Transformation of Capital City in Tang and Song China, ca. 700-1100 Hang Lin [email protected] Abstract. Chang’an of the Tang dynasty (630-907) and Kaifeng of the Song dynasty (960- 1127) represents two major stages in the development of the capital city in premodern China. In contrast to Chang’an, a semi-autonomous walled “urban village” separated by wide expanse of transitory space, Kaifeng was a dense city criss-crossed by ad hoc commercial streets filled with a variety of urban activities during days and nights. Indeed, during this period, a number of significant changes took place, which helped to erode the Tang urban structure and to give birth to a new, one in which the closed walled city transformed into an open market city. Based primarily on textual and material evidence, this paper outlines the characteristics of the layout and structure of the two cities and examines various aspects of the daily life in both cities. This comparative analysis sheds light on the unique pattern of transformation of cities in medieval China. Keywords: Chinese capital city, city transformation, Chang’an, Kaifeng, Tang dynasty, Song dynasty. Introduction Historians of premodern Chinese urbanism have long assumed that the origins of the Chinese imperial city plan stem from a passage in the Kaogong ji (Record of Artificers) section of the classical text Zhouli (Rituals of Zhou), which describes the city of the King of Zhou (Fig. 1): ‘When the artificer build the capital, [the city should be] a square of nine li on each side, with three gates on each side.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Chinese Constellations Junjun Xu Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Room 424, Apartment 20, No
    The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 260, 2009 c International Astronomical Union 2011 D. Valls-Gabaud & A. Boksenberg, eds. doi:10.1017/S174392131100319X Ancient Chinese constellations Junjun Xu Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Room 424, Apartment 20, No. 37 Xueyuan Street, Beijing, China email: [email protected] Abstract. China, a country with a long history and a specific culture, has also a long and specific astronomy. Ancient Chinese astronomers observed the stars, named and distributed them into constellations in a very specific way, which is quite different from the current one. Around the Zodiac, stars are divided into four big regions corresponding with the four orientations, and each is related to a totem, either the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger or the Murky Warrior. We present a general pattern of the ancient Chinese constellations, including the four totems, their stars and their names. Keywords. China, constellations, mansions 1. Introduction Three enclosures, four symbols and twenty-eight mansions characterise the ancient Chinese constellations. This division of the starry sky began to appear in China before the Zhou and Qin dynasties. The three enclosures refer to three areas around the North celestial pole: the Purple Forbidden enclosure, the Supreme Palace enclosure and the Heavenly Market enclosure. The four symbols are distributed near the ecliptic Zodiac and the lunar orbit and are represented by four totems: the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Tortoise of the North. Every symbol was divided into seven sections which were know as mansions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Symbol of the Dragon and Ways to Shape Cultural Identities in Institute Working Vietnam and Japan Paper Series
    2015 - HARVARD-YENCHING THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON AND WAYS TO SHAPE CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN INSTITUTE WORKING VIETNAM AND JAPAN PAPER SERIES Nguyen Ngoc Tho | University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City THE SYMBOL OF THE DRAGON AND WAYS TO SHAPE 1 CULTURAL IDENTITIES IN VIETNAM AND JAPAN Nguyen Ngoc Tho University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City Abstract Vietnam, a member of the ASEAN community, and Japan have been sharing Han- Chinese cultural ideology (Confucianism, Mahayana Buddhism etc.) and pre-modern history; therefore, a great number of common values could be found among the diverse differences. As a paddy-rice agricultural state of Southeast Asia, Vietnam has localized Confucianism and absorbed it into Southeast Asian culture. Therefore, Vietnamese Confucianism has been decentralized and horizontalized after being introduced and accepted. Beside the local uniqueness of Shintoism, Japan has shared Confucianism, the Indian-originated Mahayana Buddhism and other East Asian philosophies; therefore, both Confucian and Buddhist philosophies should be wisely laid as a common channel for cultural exchange between Japan and Vietnam. This semiotic research aims to investigate and generalize the symbol of dragons in Vietnam and Japan, looking at their Confucian and Buddhist absorption and separate impacts in each culture, from which the common and different values through the symbolic significances of the dragons are obviously generalized. The comparative study of Vietnamese and Japanese dragons can be enlarged as a study of East Asian dragons and the Southeast Asian legendary naga snake/dragon in a broader sense. The current and future political, economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and Vietnam could be sped up by applying a starting point at these commonalities.
    [Show full text]
  • Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late-Ming China
    Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late-Ming China Noga Ganany Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Noga Ganany All rights reserved ABSTRACT Origin Narratives: Reading and Reverence in Late Ming China Noga Ganany In this dissertation, I examine a genre of commercially-published, illustrated hagiographical books. Recounting the life stories of some of China’s most beloved cultural icons, from Confucius to Guanyin, I term these hagiographical books “origin narratives” (chushen zhuan 出身傳). Weaving a plethora of legends and ritual traditions into the new “vernacular” xiaoshuo format, origin narratives offered comprehensive portrayals of gods, sages, and immortals in narrative form, and were marketed to a general, lay readership. Their narratives were often accompanied by additional materials (or “paratexts”), such as worship manuals, advertisements for temples, and messages from the gods themselves, that reveal the intimate connection of these books to contemporaneous cultic reverence of their protagonists. The content and composition of origin narratives reflect the extensive range of possibilities of late-Ming xiaoshuo narrative writing, challenging our understanding of reading. I argue that origin narratives functioned as entertaining and informative encyclopedic sourcebooks that consolidated all knowledge about their protagonists, from their hagiographies to their ritual traditions. Origin narratives also alert us to the hagiographical substrate in late-imperial literature and religious practice, wherein widely-revered figures played multiple roles in the culture. The reverence of these cultural icons was constructed through the relationship between what I call the Three Ps: their personas (and life stories), the practices surrounding their lore, and the places associated with them (or “sacred geographies”).
    [Show full text]
  • Stele for Magistrate Jing Yun 景雲: an Eastern Han Memorial Stele from the South-West with Reference to the Chuci 楚辭
    Bulletin of SOAS, 84, 1 (2021), 115–140. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unre- stricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi:10.1017/S0041977X20003079 First published online 14 January 2021 Stele for Magistrate Jing Yun 景雲: An Eastern Han memorial stele from the south-west with reference to the Chuci 楚辭 Hajni Elias1 University of Cambridge [email protected] Abstract An Eastern Han stele with an unusual relief decoration and 367 character memorial inscription tells us much about the south-west of China in early imperial times. Unearthed in 2004 from the banks of the Yangtze River and dated to 173 CE, the stele was dedicated to Quren county magistrate Jing Yun who died 70 years earlier in 103 CE. The paper provides a full translation, annotation, and analysis of the stele’s commemorative text, which borrows from the content and language of one of China’soldest anthologies of poems, the Chuci, and places it in its historical context. It also examines the iconography at the head of the stele which reflects beliefs in transcendence and the pursuit of immortality prevalent at the time and demonstrates its close relation to the inscription. Overall, the paper suggests that the decoration and text together exhibit a regional heritage that is distinct to the south-west, its memorial culture, and poetic and religious traditions.
    [Show full text]
  • Middle Byzantine Appropriation of the Chinese Feng-Huang Bird Alicia Walker Bryn Mawr College, [email protected]
    Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College History of Art Faculty Research and Scholarship History of Art 2010 Patterns of Flight: Middle Byzantine Appropriation of the Chinese Feng-Huang Bird Alicia Walker Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/hart_pubs Custom Citation Alicia Walker, "Patterns of Flight: Middle Byzantine Appropriation of the Chinese Feng-Huang Bird," Ars Orientalis 37 (2010): 188-216. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/hart_pubs/56 For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARS ORIENTALIS 38 ars orientalis 38 ars orientalis volume 38 issn 0571–1371 Printed in the United States of America editorial board © 2010 Smithsonian Institution, Lee Glazer and Jane Lusaka, co-editors Washington, D.C. Martin J. Powers Debra Diamond Cosponsored by the Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, and the Massumeh Farhad Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Ars Orientalis solicits scholarly manuscripts Thelma K. Thomas on the art and archaeology of Asia, including the ancient Near East and the Islamic world. Fostering a broad range of themes and approaches, articles of interest to scholars in diverse editorial committee fields or disciplines are particularly sought, as are suggestions for occasional thematic issues Sussan Babaie and reviews of important books in Western or Asian languages. Brief research notes and Kevin Carr responses to articles in previous issues of Ars Orientalis will also be considered.
    [Show full text]
  • Random Preoccupations Mercedes Nuñez Bridgewater State College, [email protected]
    Bridgewater Review Volume 28 | Issue 1 Article 9 Jun-2009 Random Preoccupations Mercedes Nuñez Bridgewater State College, [email protected] Recommended Citation Nuñez, Mercedes (2009). Random Preoccupations. Bridgewater Review, 28(1), 15-18. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol28/iss1/9 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. RANDOM PREOCCUpaTIONS Mercedes Nuñez SOME UNKNOWN VENUS, Vermillion Bird Suite, 2008, collage, oil on Arches paper. BRIDGEWATER REVIEW JUNE 2009 15 RANDOM PREOCCUpaTIONS MERCEDES NUÑEZ VO US , Dragonfly Suite, 2007, collage,acrylic on Suite, 2007, Dragonfly Arches paper. RANDOM PREOCCUPATIONS, No. 1, 2008, collage, oil on Arches paper. BRIDGEWATER REVIEW JUNE 2009 17 Z E Ñ U N ES BELLE FOURCHE, Sixieme, Vermillion Bird Suite, 2008, collage, oil on steel. D E C ER M S N The work featured here are selections from three separate suites: and complexities of Greek Mythology inspires the inclusion of text, O I T RANDOM PREOCCUPATIONS, 2007–present, DRAGONFLY SUITE, mathematical expressions and astronomical configurations as a means pa 2007–2008 and THE VERMILION BIRD SUITE, 2008–present. These of storytelling. The work expresses the influence of numbers and visual suites integrate art and writing and explore an inner landscape constellations over a person’s decisions. DRAGONFLY SUITE deals that appears irrational and random. However, the suites are similar to specifically with the cycle of the dragonfly, which begins in the watery how a musical composition comes together in a number of movements. depths, then emerges past this surface; it is an emblem of balance, a REOCCU P Each suite focuses on the complexity of making decisions and the metaphorical cycle of re-awakenings—both life and love—beneath the myriad forces that diverge and converge in order to do so.
    [Show full text]
  • Traditional Chinese Constellations from More Than 3,000 Years Ago
    Traditional Chinese Constellations From more than 3,000 years ago Yuanming Wang (Uni Sydney; CSIRO; OzGrav) 13th century (Song dynasty) Chinese constellations – ‘officials’ (星官 xīng guān) • From ~ 4,000 BC • Found on a mural in a Neolithic tomb • A unified system established at ~ 270 AD, containing 1464 stars in 284 constellations • A kingdom on the sky • The Three Enclosures (三垣 Sān Yuán) • The Four Symbols (四象) • The Twenty-Eight Mansions (二十八宿 Èrshíbā Xiù) The Three Enclosures • Centered on the North Pole • The Purple Forbidden enclosure (紫微垣 zǐ wēi yuán) • The Supreme Palace enclosure (太微垣 tài wēi yuán) • The Heavenly Market enclosure (天市垣 tiān shì yuán) The Purple Forbidden enclosure Living place of the emperor The Supreme Palace enclosure Working place of the emperor The Heavenly Market enclosure Trading place with other cities/countries “Weaver Girl” and “Cowherd” • Vega – Weaver Girl I (织女 zhī nǚ) • Altair – Drum at the River II, also called Cowherd (牛郎 niú láng) • Milky Way – Heavenly River (天 河 tiān hé) • Chinese Valentine’s day (7th day of the 7th lunar month) – 七夕 qī xī “Celestial Wolf” and “Bow and Arrow” – Jǐng Mansion (井宿) • Sirius – Celestial Wolf (天狼 Tiān láng) – enemies of ancient China • Bow and Arrow (弧矢 hú shǐ) – points to the wolf • Market for soldiers (军市 jūn shì) – trap for catching the wolf • Wild cockerel (野鸡 yě jī) – bait in the trap The Twenty- Eight Mansions • The lodge of the Moon • One star from each mansion as (距星 jù xīng) - to establish a spherical coordinate system The Four Symbols • The Azure Dragon of the East (青龙) • The Vermilion Bird of the South (朱雀) • The White Tiger of the West (白虎) • The Black Tortoise of the North (玄武) Relation to Chinese astrology • Horn (Spica) – door of the Heaven: • Mars, Venus passed through = enemies might come • Five planets near there = drought might happen Heart (Antares, alpha Scorpius): • Brighter = war inside country • Water Star – Silver • Gold Star – Yellow • Global Land • Fire Star – Reddish • Wood Star – Orange- white • Soil Star – pale gold.
    [Show full text]
  • Celestial Secrets
    5.3 : The Minor and Major Formulas of the Six Spirits 201 Translator’s Note : The first four of these six spirits, namely the Green-Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Dark Warrior, represent the tra- ditional Chinese guardian spirits of the four directions (east, west, south, and north, respectively) as well as groupings of stars in the four quadrants of the sky. The resonance of these spirits, their direc- tions and colors, and the movements of their associated stars in the sky, with the four zàng organs is obvious. The one common thread running through these formulas, besides their classical composition and the almost universal overlap with formulas from the Shānghánlùn that are much more widely known, is that each of them begins the list of indications with the phrase 天行 tiānxíng. Once again, rather than translating it here as “epidemic,” as most modern translators of TCM literature would do and as may be appropriate for most contexts in medical literature from the Sòng period on, I have chosen a literal reading here as “celestial move- ments” because it would be ahistorical to read the later technical meaning back into this early occurrence: The Chinese characters simply mean actions, activity, or movements, in or of the sky (as a location) or Heaven (in the context of Heaven and Earth, as the com- plementary duality that constitutes the macrocosm, with Humanity in the middle). I invite the reader to make up their own mind on the specific meaning of this phrase in the formulas below, but I see it here used in the sense of occurrences in the sky in the narrow sense, and in nature in general in the broader sense, since anything that happens on earth is of course due to resonance with change happening above.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva
    Press Release The Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva The Beginning of the World Dragons, Phoenix and Other Chimera 11 November 2020 – 18 April 2021 Since time immemorial, China has been interested in the Great Narrative of the Universe. Even before the first dynasties, observers of the Heavens were tracking the movement of celestial bodies. Cosmology, followed by astronomy, became State sciences and the sovereigns – the Sons of Heaven – were to be the custodians of this interdependence between the sky and the Empire. China was thus as much part of Heaven as of Earth. As is demonstrated in the exhibition The Beginning of the World: Dragons, Phoenix and other Chimera, the history of this relationship can be observed through the prism of jade. Arcing back over eighty centuries, this venerable stone has been a kind of mirror reflecting Heaven, Earth, and mankind. Its inner beauty enchants and delights as much as it leaves us pondering. The role of jade is exemplified through emblematic symbols, a mythical bestiary, and ritual implements. There are over two hundred remarkable pieces on display from the collection of Sam and Myrna Myers – a collection that started in Switzerland in 1966 when they visited Vladimir Rosenbaum's art gallery in Ascona. Other gems, agates, turquoises, and crystals, as well as delicate liturgical silk fabrics embroidered with gold thread, are also part of this exceptional collection. General curator: Laure Schwartz-Arenales Guest curator: Jean-Paul Desroches Scenography: Nicole Gérard with the help of Corine Racaud In partnership with: Adrien Bossard, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice, France (The exhibition is scheduled to be presented in Nice, from 8 May to 24 August 2021) 1 Sam and Myrna Myers at the Baur Foundation A Return to the Source In a return to the cosmological foundations that shaped the history of the Celestial Empire, this exhibition of jewels from Sam and Myrna Myers's (fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Chinese Constellations
    The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 260, 2009 c International Astronomical Union 2011 D. Valls-Gabaud & A. Boksenberg, eds. doi:10.1017/S174392131100319X Ancient Chinese constellations Junjun Xu Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Room 424, Apartment 20, No. 37 Xueyuan Street, Beijing, China email: [email protected] Abstract. China, a country with a long history and a specific culture, has also a long and specific astronomy. Ancient Chinese astronomers observed the stars, named and distributed them into constellations in a very specific way, which is quite different from the current one. Around the Zodiac, stars are divided into four big regions corresponding with the four orientations, and each is related to a totem, either the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger or the Murky Warrior. We present a general pattern of the ancient Chinese constellations, including the four totems, their stars and their names. Keywords. China, constellations, mansions 1. Introduction Three enclosures, four symbols and twenty-eight mansions characterise the ancient Chinese constellations. This division of the starry sky began to appear in China before the Zhou and Qin dynasties. The three enclosures refer to three areas around the North celestial pole: the Purple Forbidden enclosure, the Supreme Palace enclosure and the Heavenly Market enclosure. The four symbols are distributed near the ecliptic Zodiac and the lunar orbit and are represented by four totems: the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermillion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West and the Black Tortoise of the North. Every symbol was divided into seven sections which were know as mansions.
    [Show full text]