The Literary Formation of Cultural Communities in Mid-Third- Through Early Fifth-Century China The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Chamness, Graham. 2018. The Literary Formation of Cultural Communities in Mid-Third- Through Early Fifth-Century China. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41128304 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Literary Formation of Cultural Communities in Mid-Third- through Early Fifth- Century China A dissertation presented by Graham James Chamness to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of East Asian Languages and Civilizations Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May, 2018 ii Dissertation Advisor: Professor Xiaofei Tian Graham James Chamness The Literary Formation of Cultural Communities in Mid-Third- through Early Fifth- Century China Abstract This dissertation explores elite social gatherings and the literature produced at those gatherings at the beginning of the period of division between north and south. This largely coincides with the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420), the first southern dynasty, whose court was founded south of the Yangzi River with the help of a small group of aristocratic families after the territorial loss of the north to invading tribes. Previous scholarship tends to characterize this period as a moment in history when the cultural elite turned inwardly toward an esoteric metaphysical discourse concerned with self- discovery. While not entirely false, this view is misleading at least in the sense that it overlooks the degree to which émigré elites of the Eastern Jin turned toward each other, through their shared interest in the discourse of the "arcane" (xuan), here referring to the mystical Way that was at once spoken of by the Taoist philosophical texts preserved from antiquity and by the Buddhist sutras being translated in China from India and Central Asia, and sought to rebuild a sense of community together in the absence of their ancestral heartland. I argue that the elite social gatherings we read about in works like the Shishuo xinyu 世說新語 (New Account of Tales of the World) and literary writings produced at those gatherings, such as the poems composed by various participants at the famous gathering at Lanting in 353, and other social writings preserved in Buddhist anthologies and personal literary collections reveal a common trope during this period of being joined together as a community through individual absorption in a shared mystical iii understanding of the ineffable Way, of the great men of the past, and of the teachings of the Buddha. Being defined in some sense by not belonging to the court, the elites from this brief slice of time configure themselves into cultural communities that are markedly different from the cultural worlds of the periods that come immediately before and after, when literary output was primarily centered around the court. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………………………….. viii Conventions ……………………………………………………………………………………… xii Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Reimagining the Group Identity of the “Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove” Introduction ....................................................................................... 13 In Search of the Bamboo Grove ......................................................... 17 Insider Connections ........................................................................... 23 The Source of Appearances ............................................................... 27 (a) Ruan Ji and Xi Kang ........................................................ 28 (b) Ruan Ji and Wang Rong .................................................. 29 (c) Xi Kang and Wang Rong .................................................. 31 (d) Wang Rong, The Latecomer ............................................ 33 (e) Shan Tao, The Profound Enigma ..................................... 35 Dubious Fellows ................................................................................. 40 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 47 Chapter 2: The Poetic Formation of a Lasting Group Identity at the Gathering at Lanting Introduction ....................................................................................... 49 Prelude ............................................................................................... 56 Natural Refrains ................................................................................. 60 Zhuangzian Mind ............................................................................... 67 v Confucius at the Rain Altar ................................................................ 75 Roaming with the Past ....................................................................... 87 The End (A Conclusion)......................................................................97 Chapter 2 Appendix: Translation of the Lanting Poems ............. 99 Chapter 3: Representations of Self and Community in Zhi Dun’s Poems on the Eight Precepts Fasting Ceremony Introduction ....................................................................................... 115 Merging into the Unseen ................................................................... 120 Consolation and Emptiness ............................................................... 126 The Ultimate Undoing ....................................................................... 138 Conclusion ...................................................................................... 151 Chapter 3 Appendix: Translation of Zhi Dun’s Poetic Writings .. 154 Interlude: The Cultural Landscape of Mount Lu before Huiyuan ............. 172 Kuang Su (or Lu Su?) ......................................................................... 173 Dong Feng’s Apricot Grove ................................................................ 174 Gongting Temple Spirit and the Spirit of Mount Lu ......................... 175 Wu Meng ............................................................................................ 177 Chapter 4: Retracing Connections around Late Third- and Early Fifth-Century Xunyang Introduction ....................................................................................... 181 Votive Society around Mount Lu ....................................................... 184 Karmic Connections ........................................................................... 190 Around Stone Gate ............................................................................. 195 vi Naming a Peak of One’s Own .............................................................204 Poems Ascending in Harmony ...........................................................210 Neighbors in Mind .............................................................................220 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 229 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 231 Bibliography ................................................................................... 234 vii to Gao Li, Zhang Gongquan, and Zhang Chi viii Acknowledgments This dissertation concerns the formation of communities, and it would have been impossible to complete without the support of an engaged community here in Cambridge. I have benefitted over the past several years from my mentors, teachers, colleagues, and friends, to all of whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude. One of the key assumptions of this dissertation is that “communities” are formed largely in the mind. In my mind, the sense of pride that has come with belonging to this community is one of the main forces that has sustained me in writing these chapters. The person to whom I surely owe the greatest thanks is my primary advisor and mentor, Xiaofei Tian. As I worked on chapters, Professor Tian was extremely generous with her time, enthusiastic with her comments, constructively unsparing with her criticisms, and always patient with me. The energy with which she approaches Chinese literature from all eras past and present is contagious, as anyone who has taken her seminars knows. If I have succeeded at all in breathing new life into any of the texts examined here, it is on account of her guidance. The mistakes that crept in are my own. I also owe thanks to my other two committee members, Stephen Owen and James Robson. They have both, at different times, stepped in with insightful comments, inspiring conversations, and invaluable feedback—not to mention all that I have learned from them in seminars during my first years at Harvard. Since I arrived here, each of my committee members has in one way or another impressed upon me the immensity of the Chinese cultural past. That past would never look the same without their contributions. There are many other teachers to thank who did not become part of my formal dissertation