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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.38
Publication date： 2022-12
Special Article A Brief Discussion of Questions Concerning the Authenticity and Morals of Using Looted Artifacts
From ancient times, China has always been plagued by tomb-robbing, a problem that has become ever more severe over the last thirty years. Tomb-robbing causes many different types of damage: the most obvious is the damage to the ancient tombs themselves, but this also has a definite effect on the study of Chinese history. Chinese history is not at all an eternally unchanging heritage of the past, but rather is constantly evolving. As new resources appear, there comes new understanding. The new resources for ancient Chinese history mainly come from archaeological discoveries, and archaeological discoveries often come from the excavation of ancient tombs. Since tomb-robbers destroy the archaeological context of ancient tombs, they rob history of archaeological information and raise many questions about the authenticity of the robbed artifacts. This study examines four different robbed artifacts: the Jin Hou Su bells in the Shanghai Museum, the Bin Gong xu in the Poly Museum of Beijing, the Warring States Chu manuscript “Ziyi” in the Shanghai Museum, and the Warring States Chu manuscript in the collection of Tsinghua University. Although questions have been raised about the authenticity of all four of these artifacts. I show on the basis of various types of information that all four are certainly authentic. Nevertheless, I note that there is perhaps an even more serious ethical problem in using these robbed artifacts: to what extent are the Chinese cultural and educational institutions that buy these robbed artifacts on the Hong Kong antique market repatriating them to the mother country, or are they supporting the illicit antiquities market and encouraging even more tomb-robbing? Based on the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) treaty concerning the import and export of cultural artifacts, I argue that the actions of the Chinese institutions are legal, and that even though there is certainly the unhappy side-effect of further encouraging tomb-robbing, once the artifacts have been robbed there are both scholarly and ethical imperatives to return them to China.
Shrine poetry can be traced back to the Southern Dynasties. Shrines worship historical figures and local deities, shrine poetry is therefore inherently different from Buddhist temple-visit poetry, which emphasizes more on the reflection on Buddhist philosophy. The writing style of shrine poetry developed gradually during the Southern Dynasties, from focusing on historical themes, joint creation of poems on the same topics by literary groups, to incorporating Chu Ci verses as the literary foundation for writing on sacrificial rituals, enhancing the expression of poets’ subjective consciousness. The location of shrines and visiting experience directly affected literati’s attitudes and perspectives toward shrines. On the other hand, their writing on the deities or historical figures being worshipped at shrines and selection of topics indirectly reflected how historical figures in the pre-Qin and the Han dynasties were accepted and appraised during the Southern Dynasties. This thesis studies literati’s shrine poetry in the Southern Dynasties and analyzes, from the spacial dimension, how history themes, cherished memories of the past, sacrificial rituals, landscape writing and individual lyrical expression were integrated to create shrine poetry, which further brought about the trend of visiting shrines and writing poetry on history themes among intellectuals in the Tang Dynasty.
The current discussions of “Kong” of poetry in academic field are mainly focusing on the influence of Wang Wei’s poetry and Zen Buddhism. This paper intends to trace the “Kong” of Liang Chen’s poetry based on the existing foundations, delineating the context change of imagery and explicating the inheritance relationship with Wang Wei’s poetry. From the point of view of this paper, the “Kong” of Liang Chen’s poems, in addition to the emblematic imagery of previous literature, also incorporates the sound and light used in Buddhist analogies of emptiness. It can be inferred that the lack at the perceptual aspect belongs to the poetic tradition of the previous generation, while the vanity at rational facet is enhanced and influenced by the prevalent of Buddhism. In other words, illusory in a poetry is established on lack and then transferred to vanity. Finally, infused and enhanced the sense of emptiness with sound and light. Through scrutinizing the “Kong” of Liang Chen’s poetry with the emptiness of Wang Wei’s poetry, this paper clarifies the relationship between the traditional inheritance and new context over time. To elaborate, the formation of new imagery is related to literary traditions and deserved further inspection.
In the history of Neo-Confucianism, the debate over the similarities anddifferences between Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan has always been an unavoidable topicfor Confucian scholars. By the early Qing Dynasty, it had gradually moved towards the path of text-based examination in terms of methodology. This article does not explore the differences between Zhu and Lu’s thoughts, but focuses instead on Li Fu’s Comprehensive Analysis of Master Zhu’s Late Works (Zhu Zi Wannian Quanlun) as the object of investigation, and explores this early Qing scholars’ examination of “Zhu and Lu’s similarities and differences.” First of all, it explains that Li Fu went against the rise in popularity of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, and used the prestige of Zhu’s philosophy to promote Lu’s school of thought in the Comprehensive Analysis of Master Zhu’s Late Works. Second, it analyzes Li Fu’s interpretation of and comments on Master Zhu’s academic correspondence with Lu Jiuyuan and his friends, which concentrated on several key exchanges and provocations, including the exchanges after the “Goose Lake Meeting,” Master Zhu’s “Epitaph of Cao Lizhi (Cao Lizhi Mubiao)” and the debate over “non-polarity” (“wuji”), to reveal his position on Zhu and Lu’s similarities and differences. Finally, this paper points out that even though Li Fu experienced transformative developments in his research methodology, as a traditional Neo-Confucian scholar, he never deviated from the guiding principles of the school of thought to which he belonged. His research methodology differed from that of evidential studies during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, the two actually belonged to different academic systems. Li’s methodology started with original historical records and removed the metaphysical significance of Zhu and Lu’s scholarship during the process of seeking the similarities and differences between Zhu and Lu. This approach highlighted the tendency towards practical and concrete learning of the early Qing Neo-Confucianism. However, the overall significance of the original meaning of the Neo-Confucianism was also lost in the process. The empirical research direction initiated by Li in turn became the dominant trend for later Confucian scholars.
Among 17th century vernacular short stories, the Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor (Doupeng xianhua) was one that reformed the narrative mode. Previous studies focused on the story’s transformation of the narrative mode and its mocking of the official dynastic histories. They overlooked the structural relationship among the seedlings, the arbor, and the story and few of them discussed the story’s reading activities in terms of its paratext. The article focuses on the narrative strategy and the reading ethics of the Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor. It first analyzes the particularity of the story’s narrators and the division of the story’s structural levels and observes the significance that the “arbor” is endowed with in the story. Secondly, it explores the layout and the narrative strategy of the story’s 12 chapters and their allegorical/prophetic meanings. Finally, it observes the correspondence, conflict and reconciliation between the story’s paratext (marginalia and illustrations) and its main body, and points out the complexity of the story’s reading ethics. The article highlights the literary experimental characteristics of the Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor and the important value of its paratext in interpreting the story’s meanings. By doing so, it reveals the significance of the Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor for the development of vernacular short stories.
Ye Shan’s Prose Collection is the “projection of feelings and thoughts” of Yang Mu between the ages of 19 and 25. When he was studying at Tunghai University, Yang immersed himself in British romantic poets’ works such as William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), John Keats (1795-1821), among others, and he was deeply inspired and influenced. “Letters to Keats,” the second part of the Collection, was written during his military service. Even in the battlefield of Kinmen accompanied with wells and barn lanterns, Yang had never given up on exploring the true meaning of romanticism and he further embodied this thinking into his writing. This spirit persisted throughout his life and still could be seen in his late works. This article analyzes Yang Mu’s reflection on romanticism, focusing on the initial formation of thought and his literary skills. Based on this, the trajectory of Yang’s creating process from Mt. Dadu to eattle can be observed. Through a holistic-time analysis, this research highlights Yang Mu’s significant role in the inheritance and development of romanticism in modern China. In the special context of the time, his creative trait on writing connected and influenced a generation embracing romanticism.
