A CHINESE WRITER’S VICISSITUDE IN THE POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF EARLY MODERN CHINA LIJING PENG Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by Dr. Steve Coleman National University of Ireland, Maynooth Department of Anthropology Head of the Department: Dr. Mark Maguire September 2014 Tab le of Content Abstract .......................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements ........................................................................ 2 Notes on Transliteration and Translation ..................................... 5 Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................. 6 1.1 Research Themes ................................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Nationalist Ideologies in Early Modern Chinese Intellectual Fields ................................... 9 1.3 A Brief Introduction of Shen Congwen’s Life and Thoughts ............................................ 19 1.4 Understanding Shen Congwen from a Comparative Perspective...................................... 25 1.5 Shen Congwen and Xiangxi .............................................................................................. 28 Chapter 2 Research Background ................................................ 33 2.1 The Methodology of Historical Narratives ....................................................................... 33 2.1.1 Anthropology and Chinese Studies ........................................................................ 34 2.1.2 Ideologies of ‘nation’ in Chinese literary tradition ................................................. 36 2.2 The Social Reform in Early Modern China ...................................................................... 40 2.2.1 Early development of China’s Nationalism............................................................ 40 2.2.2 A new generation of intellectual literati ................................................................. 45 2.2.3 The Early Modern Folk Revival Movement .......................................................... 52 2.2.4 The linguistic landscape of Early Modern China ................................................... 55 2.3 The Hmong land ................................................................................................................ 60 2.3.1 Xiangxi Hmong in ancient and imperial China (11th century B.C. to 19th century A.D.) ............................................................................................................................... 60 2.3.2 Xiangxi and the Hmong in late Qing Dynasty ....................................................... 66 2.3.3 Xiangxi and the Hmong in Early Modern China.................................................... 73 Chapter 3 Chronotopes in Shen Congwen’s Novels ................... 81 3.1 Chronotopes and Literary Genres ..................................................................................... 81 3.2 ‘The Peach Blossom Land’, Theatre World and Timeless Present ................................... 85 3.2.1 The Imagined Utopia .............................................................................................. 85 3.2.2 The Theatre World .................................................................................................. 97 3.2.3 The Timeless Present ............................................................................................ 116 3.3 The ‘Mimesis’ of Shen Congwen’s Literature................................................................. 121 Chapter 4 Linguistic Landscape in Shen Congwen’s Works and Linguistic Differentiation in Xiangxi ........................................ 130 4.1 Shen Congwen and His ‘Minor Literature’ ..................................................................... 130 4.2 An Introduction to Languages in relation to Shen Congwen .......................................... 136 4.2.1 Han (Chinese) Dialects in Hunan Province .......................................................... 136 4.2.2 Introduction to the Hmong language .................................................................... 142 4.3 The Linguistic Landscape in Shen Congwen’s Works .................................................... 146 4.3.1 ‘New Life’ and Daily Life .................................................................................... 147 4.3.2 Deep ‘Hmong Mountain’ and ‘Chu State’............................................................ 157 4.4 Linguistic Differentiation in Current Xiangxi ................................................................. 169 4.4.1 Language Ideology and Linguistic Differentiation .............................................. 169 4.4.2 Language Right and Language Standardization ................................................... 174 4.4.3 Language Ideologies and Linguistic Differentiations in Xiangxi ........................ 180 Chapter 5 The Nationalist Ideology in the Literary and Memorial Worlds......................................................................................... 194 5.1 The ‘Chinese-ness’ in Shen Congwen’s Literary Worlds ................................................ 195 5.1.1 Heteroglossia and Indexicality in Novel The Long River .................................... 195 5.1.2 The Meaning of ‘Chinese Humanness’ and Nationalist Ideology ........................ 204 5.2 The National Sprit in Reading Shen Congwen ............................................................... 205 Chapter 6 Text-building and the Fluidity of Identity ............... 209 6.1 The ‘Fluid’ Identity in Text-building ............................................................................... 209 6.1.1 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................ 209 6.1.2 The ‘Heavenly Kings’ Texts Revisit ..................................................................... 212 6.2 Resonance and Wonder: A Survey of the Ethnographic Museum in Xiangxi ................. 217 6.2.1 Traditionalization, Resonance and Wonder .......................................................... 217 6.2.2 The Shan Jiang Region ......................................................................................... 221 6.2.3 The Ethnographic Exhibitions .............................................................................. 223 6.3 New Space and New Approaches ................................................................................... 236 Chapter 7 Conclusion ................................................................ 239 Bibliography ............................................................................... 246 Shen Congwen’s works ......................................................................................................... 246 Historical Archives on Xiangxi (in chronological order of composition) ............................. 246 Research Papers .................................................................................................................... 248 Abstract This dissertation explores the social and linguistic contexts of Shen Congwen's literary works, with a particular focus on (1) the way his works enriched and stratified nationalist ideology/narratives and (2) the linguistic ideologies, the historical images and the literary images registered as semiotic processes which mediated the Hmong identity formation and differentiation in Xiangxi, China. A range of scholars have demonstrated that the modern novel is one of the main tools for propagating the practices and ideologies of standardized language under nationalism. In this dissertation I examine the nature of the nationalist ideologies embodied in the still very young Modern Mandarin literature. Accordingly I have chosen texts in which collisions of different aesthetic and poetic traditions in Chinese history can be readily observed. Through a detailed analysis of literary devices including the juxtaposition of time-space configurations, the interactions of diversified linguistic elements and the micro-histories involved in the narratives, I demonstrate that Shen Congwen’s literary creations and literary language can be considered as valuable early attestations of the potential for creativity in modern Chinese realistic literature. In this research I also look into the dialogic relationships between standard and vernacular languages, and between classical and modern languages in current Xiangxi and in Shen Congwen’s literary works respectively. This study is one of the first sophisticated attempts to bring a Chinese regional language complex to the field of linguistic anthropology. This research also constitutes a historical (from Imperial to Early Modern period) and an ethnographic approach to the social, cultural and linguistic contacts between Southern ethnic groups (mainly the Hmong) and Han majority, and the ways in which these contacts have been played out in the spheres of mythological, political economic, ethnographic and poetic text-building. By doing so, it reveals that Early Modern Chinese nationalism has heterogeneous sources deriving from earlier intellectual histories. 1 Acknowledgements Shen Congwen’s literature opened a door of the poetic world; and since I first read his novels at a very young age literature has become a life-long passion and best consolation to me. For this reason I wish to deliver my deepest appreciations to this passed writer. My PhD study is funded by John Hume Scholarship