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Editorial Report

 
No. 44 Editorial Report

 

  1. This issue of the Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University (“the Bulletin”) received a total of 55 submissions (43 from Taiwan and 12 from overseas). 5 submissions were rejected and returned after preliminary editorial committee review. Of the remaining 50 submissions, 49 submissions excluding the feature article went through double-blind reviews by at least two extramural experts for each submission. Excluding the feature article, 11 out of 54 submissions were accepted, resulting in an acceptance rate of 20.3 percent, and a rejection rate of 79.7 percent. This issue publishes 6 academic articles, with 1 articles by full-time teachers of the Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University, the rate for internal release is 16.6 percent. The Bulletin aims to enhance academic quality, broaden research perspectives, and cordially invites submissions from scholars.

  2. The featured article in this issue, “Multiplicity in Unity: Original and Transformed Forms of Daoist Divinities—The Queen Mother of the West, the Mysterious woman, Local Protective Spirits, and the Five Camps Generals,” is authored by Academician Lee Fong-mao. Addressing a long-standing discontinuity in the history of Chinese mythology, the article argues that Yuan Ke’s concept of xianhua (“immortal myths”), limited to the pre-Qin and Han periods, excludes Daoist mythology and thus creates a significant gap in mythological historiography. With the steady expansion of Daoist studies, materials preserved in the Daoist canon now offer the means to bridge this gap and to trace the historical transformation of divine images.
    Drawing on Prasenjit Duara’s concept of “superscribing symbols,” which emphasizes continuity across layered historical processes, the author proposes a complementary analytical perspective by distinguishing between a deity’s “original form” and its subsequent “transformed forms.” This framework highlights the multivalent nature of Daoist divinities and conceptualizes the Daoist canon as a “cultural treasure chest” capable of preserving, absorbing, and continually reshaping mythological traditions.
    The article examines two groups of divinities as case studies. The first comprises Xiwangmu and the Mysterious woman of the Nine Heavens. Although their origins can be traced to the pre-Qin and Han periods, their images were systematized within medieval Daoism and have since appeared in shifting patterns of visibility. Their continued resonance with contemporary gender consciousness leads the author to characterize them as “eternal goddesses of femininity and maternity.” The second group consists of the Five-Camp generals and earth gods and spirits. These minor deities persist not only in classical texts and historical records but also in popular ritual practices such as the Pacification of the Five Camps and Xietu rites, reflecting enduring communal needs for protection, territorial stability, and a sense of inhabitable security.
    Through these examples, the article demonstrates the mutual dependence of myth and ritual and elucidates the cultural significance of Daoist mythology across narrative, social, and cultural-psychological dimensions. Oscillating between transformation and continuity, Daoist mythology reveals the cumulative power of culture, with the Daoist canon functioning as a cultural repository whose value continues into the present.

  3. This issue originally planned a special article column section “Plural Perspectives on the Book of Documents”, but after review, the number of articles recommended for publication was limited, which made it difficult to demonstrate the richness of the designed theme. Therefore, this special section was canceled. The submissions were reassigned as general submissions.
  4. The second special article column section, curated by Professor Chin Pei-yi of the Department of Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University, is titled “Across Time, Across Borders, Across Forms: Interpreting Confucian Classics in Edo Japan.” Confucian texts were introduced to Japan as early as the 3rd–5th centuries CE, with the arrival of the Analects of Confucius and Thousand Character Classic. By the Asuka period, Prince Shōtoku had cited Confucian principles in his Seventeen-Article Constitution, advocating a synthesis of native and Chinese values. In the Heian period, Confucian texts became core to official education, with scholars like the Kiyohara family emphasizing textual variants, pronunciation, and annotation. From the Muromachi to early Edo periods, Confucian texts were interpreted in vernacular Japanese and transcribed into kana glosses known as shōmono, exemplified by Kiyohara Nobukata. With the introduction of Zhu Xi’s commentaries via Zen monks, Edo scholar Hayashi Razan institutionalized Zhu Xi’s thought as shogunate orthodoxy. Over time, Japanese Confucianism moved beyond hereditary scholars and clergy, evolving into a vibrant field marked by competing schools, philological rigor, and return to classical sources. Edo scholars developed an independent exegetical style, combining new commentaries and empirical methods. They adapted Confucian texts into vernacular Japanese and reinterpreted them to suit local social and political contexts, creating a distinct form of “othering” in both language and thought. This process of decontextualization and recontextualization reflects how Chinese classics, once transplanted to a foreign land and era, were reshaped by Japanese cultural, religious, and political frameworks. This special issue aims to illuminate the diversity of Confucian scholarship in Edo Japan and deepen the study of Japanese Sinology. Submission for this special article column section ends by the beginning of February 2026.
     
  5. The 46th special article column section, curated by Professor Yang Ming-chang, Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University, is entitled “Cultural Transmission and Everyday Imagery in the Age of Manuscripts.” The rise of AI models has propelled digital networks from an earlier stage centered on speed and reproducibility into a new generative era. A historical perspective, however, reminds us that cultural recording and transmission were not always so efficient. Paper did not replace bamboo and wooden slips until the Eastern Jin, marking the formal advent of the age of paper manuscripts. Although woodblock printing emerged in the Tang dynasty, large-scale printing only came to dominate after Feng Dao of the Five Dynasties engraved and disseminated the Nine Classics nationwide. From the Eastern Jin through the Five Dynasties and early Song, paper manuscripts thus remained the principal medium of cultural transmission. Su Shi personally experienced this major shift in media technology. In Li shi shanfang cangshu ji (Memoir of the Li Family's Mountain Study), he noted that the increasing ease of obtaining books paradoxically fostered superficial scholarly attitudes, while recalling his earlier years of diligent study when texts were scarce and had to be copied by hand. Although he acknowledged the convenience brought by paper and printing, his response was marked by ambivalence—a sentiment that closely parallels contemporary reflections on generative AI. Even after printed books became dominant, manuscripts retained distinctive value. Each manuscript preserves its own individuality, offering important evidence for the study of scribes, textual transmission, and historical context. The Dunhuang manuscripts and ancient Japanese copies from the Nara and Heian periods provide especially rich materials for understanding manuscript culture. This special topic invites contributions that explore cultural transmission, knowledge formation, and everyday imagery in the manuscript age. Submission for this special article column section ends by the beginning of Aug 2026.
  6. The Bulletin continues to win subsidies this year. It was selected as a THCI Core journal in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and won the highest biennial ranking of THCI consecutively in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023, by the Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan. We hereby thank all of our supporters in the academic fields and the Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences for their recognition and acknowledgement.

  7. In order to provide a platform for smooth submission and communication, to promote specialization, internationalization and digital accessibility, the Bulletin established a new and designated website sponsored by Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences with multilingual user interfaces supporting Chinese, English and Japanese in June 2023. The main content on the website includes latest news, submission requirements, and provides access to view and download past issues. The website facilitates viewing and circulation, as well as integration with domestic and overseas academic circles. The new website address is https://bdcl.nccu.edu.tw

  8. The Bulletin has been publishing electronic versions simultaneously with paper versions since inception. The content of the Bulletin is included in and downloadable from databases of academic journals including Airiti Library (www.airitilibrary.com), HyRead (https://www.hyread.com.tw), TOAJ (https://toaj.stpi.narl.org.tw), LawData (https:// lawdata.com.tw), NCL Taiwan Periodical Literature (https://tpl.ncl.edu.tw/NclService), Taiwan Citation Index – Humanities and Social Sciences (https://tci.ncl.edu.tw), Taiwan Journals Search (https://p.udpweb.com/soc), etc. In addition, the Bulletin is also included in the NCCU academic journal database system (https://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw), available for all scholars to use.
     
  9. We hereby extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for all the support and hard work by submitters, reviewers, the editorial committee, special article column coordinators, editors and Showwe Information Co., Ltd., who made the successful publication of this issue possible.

The Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature
National Chengchi University Editors Dec 2025