Dottorato di ricerca in Lingue, Culture e Società Scuola di Dottorato in Lingue, Culture e Società 23° ciclo (A. A. 2007/2008 –A. A. 2009/2010) The Forest of Laughs ( Xiaolin ) Mapping the offspring of self-aware literature in ancient China SETTORE SCIENTIFICO DISCIPLINARE DI AFFERENZA : L-OR/21 Tesi di dottorato di Giulia Baccini , 955493 Direttore della Scuola di dottorato Tutori del dottorando Prof. Rosella Mamoli Zorzi Prof. Tiziana Lippiello Prof. Olga Lomová 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………. .4 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………...5 Chapter 1—The Xiaolin as a paiyou xiaoshuo …………………………10 1.1. Paiyou , the jester ………………………………………………………….12 1. 1. 2. The “Guji liezhuan” chapter, biographies about the jesters?...............14 1. 1. 3. Zhuangzi ’s zhiyan , jester-like words…………………………………25 1. 2. Western Han times—the poet as a jester ……………………………….32 1. 2. 1. Mei Gao………………………………………………………………35 1. 2. 2. Dongfang Shuo……………………………………………………….38 1. 3. Eastern Han times, the institution of Hongdu Gate Academy …………49 1. 4. The end of Han dynasty, beginning of Wei ………………………………57 1. 5. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….62 Chapter 2—To Understand a story, to understand a text ………………63 2. 1. A man of Chu got a pheasant: Narrative variation and motifs’ adaptation in ancient anecdotal lore — a case of study ……………………………………66 2. 1. 1. The Hanshi waizhuan : The envoy of Qi looses a swan goose………...68 2. 1. 2. The Shuiyuan : Wu Ze of Wei loses a swan goose…………………….72 2. 1. 3. The Lu Lianzi : Zhan Wusuo of Qi loses a swan goose………………..76 2. 1. 4. The Shiji : Chunyu Kun of Qi loses a swan goose……………………..80 2. 1. 5. The Xiaolin : A man of Chu got a pheasant. …………………………..88 2. 1. 6.The Yinwenzi : A man of Chu got a pheasant, a story about names and forms…………………………………………………………………..90 2. 1. 7. From the Yinwenzi to the Xiaolin ……………………………………...93 2. 2. The Xiaolin , a collection of funny stories ………………………………….98 2. 3. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………..110 Chapter 3—Handan Chun - a man of his own time …………………….111 3. 1. Few records for a famous scholar …………………………………………112 3. 2. Cao E stele’s inscription: a story about riddles …………………………..115 3. 2. 1. Riddle-Games as an entertaining performance at Western Han court…119 2 3. 2. 2. Kong Rong and riddle-like poetry…………………………………..123 3. 3. Handan Chun - a skilful poet and expert calligrapher …………………133 3. 3. 1. Calligraphy……………………………………………………………133 3. 3. 2. Poetry………………………………………………………………..136 3. 3. 2. 1. Poetry and games………………………………………………138 3. 4. Handan Chun and the Xiaolin …………………………………………....143 Conclusion ............................................................................................................150 Appendix A : Translation of the Xiaolin (Forest of Laughs)……………………..151 Appendix B: Translation of the Shiji’s “Guji liezhuan”chapter (excerpts)……....193 Appendix C: Translation of the Wenxin diaolong’s “Xie yin” chapter…………..204 Appendix D: Chinese texts.....................................................................................211 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................231 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, professor Tiziana Lippiello, for her support and advice throughout the thesis, and professor Olga Lomová whose guidance and good ideas enabled me to develop a deeper understanding of the subject. Professor Christoph Harbsmeier who kindly sent me some material, and also professor Ulrike Middendorf for the insights she has shared. Professor Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik for her welcome in Ljubljana and professor Attilio Andreini who helped me with difficult characters. I am grateful to Katarina Feriancikova and Miroslava Jirková for all the help and friendship they had given me. I wish to thank the “PhD gang,” past and present, of the third floor, in particular one person, he knows who he is. My colleagues and friends provided a stimulating and fun environment in which I learned a lot. I would also like to thank all the friends met in China and Prague who are still present in my life today. And last but not least my family who always supported me. 4 Introduction Literary history, as established in 20 th century China, mostly believed that Confucian conservatism had always oppressed and marginalized practices of “humour” in China. 1 This view, formulated in early 20 th century when anti-traditionalism prevailed among Chinese intellectuals, regarded entertaining practices as suppressed and suffocated by Confucian moralizing and at that time even the notion of “humour” itself was introduced to China using an English word ( humour -youmo 幽默). 2 As a result, in sinology until recently the topic of “humour” 3 in literature was – with only few exceptions – 4 perceived as marginal to the understanding of ancient Chinese society and culture (as very few works have been published on the topic of Chinese humour, which, though, do not bring valued insights to the topic). 5 However, in early sources there are evidences of entertaining practices linked to humour, which can be traced back to Warring States period. The first step toward a reconsideration of the tradition could be due to the findings, particularly from the last decade (referring in particular to Guodian 郭店 excavation in late 1993), of new 1 See for example: Feinberg, L. 1971, Asian Laughter: An Anthology of Oriental Satire and Humor , New York, Weatherhill; or Hu, Weihe, 2004, “The Confucian Politics of Appearance: And Its Impact on Chinese Humor,” in Philosophy East and West , Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 514-532. 2 Lin Yutang 林語堂 (1895-1976) used the world youmo 幽默, previously meaning “dark” or “quiet,” to translate the English word “humour;” two essays, in particular, started the discussion about this topic influencing the literary circles: ”Zhengfan sanwen bing tichang youmo” 征譯散文並提倡幽默 in Chenbao fukan 晨報副刊, 23-5-1924, and “Youmo zahua” 幽默雑話, Chenbao fukan 晨報副刊, 9- 6-1924. Then Lin’s “Lun youmo” 論幽默 published in the Lunyu 論語magazine in 1-1-1939 gave the most echoed contribute about the topic of “humour” in the literary debate of the time. For a survey about Lin Yutang and his magazines see Laughlin, Charles A, 2008, The literature of leisure and Chinese modernity , Honolulu, University of Hawaii press; in particular the chapter “Enjoying: essays of the Analects Group,” pp. 109-138. 3 The concept of “Humour” is difficult to define because even if scholars of different disciplines (philosophers, philologists, sociologists, linguist etc) have tried to find an all-encompassing theory of humour and laughter, mistakenly suggesting that it could “exists something like an ‘ontology of humour’, and that humour and laughter are transcultural and ahistorical”, they both are, in reality, cultural determined phenomena (Bremmer and Roodemburg, 2007, p. 3). In this thesis, I will use, then, the word “humour” (as it is defined by recent cultural studies) as: “the most general and neutral notion availed to cover a whole variety of behaviour: from […] practical jokes to puns, farce to foolery. Humour seen as any message –transmitted in action, speech, writing, images or music- intended to produce a smile or a laugh,” (Bremmer and Roodemburg, 2007, p. 1). 4 Knechtges, David R., 1970-71, “Wit, Humor, and Satire in Early Chinese Literature (to A.D. 220)” in Monumenta Serica , Vol. XXIX, pp. 78-98; Harbsmeier, Christoph., 1989, "Humor in Ancient Chinese Philosophy." Philosophy East and West Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 289-310, and 1990, “Confucius Ridens: Humor in the Analects.” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studie s, Vol. 50, N.1, pp. 131–162. 5 George Kao, 1946, Chinese Wit and Humor or Henry W. Wells, 1971, Traditional Chinese humor: a study in art and literature , Bloomington, Indiana University Press. 5 textual materials which obliged the scholars to confront with a different reality of texts and thoughts (expressed by the texts) from that they have previously reconstructed. This led to a rethinking of the terminology previously used, 6 and to a discussion of the notions about Chinese history (and the fields linked to it, such as society, literature, philosophy, etc.), which before were rarely being questioned. 7 Moreover, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the archaeological discovery at the Donghuang ’s site brought to light previously unseen kinds of fu poetry (labelled sufu 俗賦 or vulgar fu ) ascribed to the early Tang period. Subsequently, the discovery in the Yinwan 尹灣 tomb n. 6 (Jiangsu, 1993) of the “Shenwu fu” 神烏賦, written in a style similar to those of Donghuang’s and dated back to Western Han times, 8 added another piece to a better understanding of the literary panorama during Han times. 9 Reconsidering the textual material in the light of the information revealed by the new findings, it is possible to see how in ancient China, the cultural and literary panorama was not dominated by monolithic views. In particular, as far as western Han court is concerned, it is evident that its cultural atmosphere was not unidirectional. The scholars who referred to the traditional learning were engaged in a continuous debate with another group within the educated elite who were representative of its non-canonical lineage. My research is part of this debate. My approach aims to point out that the traditional negative judgment about entertaining literature (with “humorous” features) was a product of the view of Han dynasty traditional scholars (Liu Xiang, Liu Xin, Ban Gu), who saw in the didactic stand the primary