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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.19
Publication date： 2013-06
Theme Thesis Twenty-two Particles of the New Oracle Rejoinings
Oracle assemblage is one of the most fundamental work in the research of oracle field. It has very high value for both laying foundation of research and proceeding to the understanding of the Shang Dynasty history. This article, focusing on the arrangement of the Yin dwelling place Pit YH127 collected in IHP, provides the new 22 particles of assemblages. I present the explanation individually as well as the interpretation to those more undamaged inscription after the assemblage, for the purpose of providing more reliable and complete data for the field of oracle academy.
Theme Thesis Oracle Bone Rejoining and Clear Book of Rubbings
This paper aims to examine the clear book of rubbings in three aspects by example of the nine cases of the newly patched oracle bones. I examine the first three cases in terms of the morphology of the oracle bones. And from the fourth to the eighth cases, I will analyze the inscriptions on the edges of the oracle bones. Lastly, I use the ninth to showcase the significance of the clear rubbings in oracle bone rejoining.
Theme Thesis A Preliminary Study and Verification of the Oracle Bone Rejoining Based on the Shape of Fracture
A fundamental work in oracle bone studies is oracle bone rejoining, which can be achieved according to typeface, broken characters, the shape of fracture, identical diction, and so on. This paper is a preliminary study of oracle bone rejoining based on the shape of fracture with discussions of the definition, history and examples of this method. This paper also explores how this method of rejoining may be verified by introducing four groups of oracle bone inscription fragments.
Oracle bones are often in fragments and so are the inscriptions on them. Rejoining the fragments of the similar themes is one of the significant research works in oracle bone studies. Oracle bone rejoining is often seen as an obscure knowledge and not many clear instructions are there for the researchers to come. Numerous research papers in the literature have offered princples, methods, or qualifications of oracle bone rejoining, but they tend to cover only the general idea. To make it easier for the beginners, I argue that if the more details of the instructions can be shared, the better understandng of the methods can be achieved. Thus I will share my years of experiences in the field so as to show how to infer the missing words from the rejoinings and to narrow down the search range for the missing parts.
Founded in the first year of Xiantong Emperor of Qing dynasty (1909), Southern Society was a literary group advocating a revolution, which aimed to topple the rule of Qing dynasty. And its cultural thoughts were “reviving the soul of the nation, and promoting the quintessence of the national culture.” Although it was a literary group, it was deeply associated with Chinese national culture and national quintessence. As members of Southern Society, Ma Xu-lun, Hu Pu-an, and Huang Kan lived in the crisis of survival of the nation at the end of Qing dynasty. They advocated the revolution to topple the rule of the Man people, calling for the rise of the national soul. In addition, as scholars, they studied Chinese national culture, and promoted the quintessence of the nation. And later, on the path of academic study they returned to the unique and fundamental study of Chinese national culture, that is, philology. Starting from the study of Shuowen, they eventually planted a fruitful garden of academic studies, leaving treasures of cultural legacy for the field of Chinese national culture at the beginning years of the ROC. This was indeed a great representation of the cultural spirit of Southern Society, which upheld “the rise of the national soul and the promotion of Chinese national culture.” Also this appeared as an important footnote for the cultural spirit of Southern Society, that is,“preserving studies to protect the nation, starting from philology.”
Daoism has always been closely linked to the philosophy of the hermit as politics often appear vile in Zhuangzi. This is in sharp contrast to Confucian intellectuals who are expected to participate and serve in the public domain. Daoist figures are often regarded as political escapists, preferring to stay true to their personal aesthetics. This paper aims to rethink the simple equation of Daoist aesthetics and political escapism so as to make manifest the political criticism implied in the Daoist aesthetics of Zhuangzi, and to disclose the political responses in Zhuangzi in terms of micro-power. By re-examining these two aspects of Zhuangzi, the idea of Daoist intellectuals may be redefined. Zhuangzi shows that due to the interconnectedness of language and political power, political domination prevails, and there is no escape from social responsibilities and politics. Thus to find true inner peace, one must not only return to “zi ran” , but also participate in politics and respond to it strategically and critically. This paper also briefly engages in the discussion of a cross-cultural exchange in the effort to bring together Mo Zhongshan’s criticism of the “observation of change” in Daoism with Yu Lien’s “strategic positioning,” in order to, from the viewpoint of Daoist intellectuals, disclose the insight into biopolitics in Zhuangzi.
The protagonist in “Mei-Fei Legend” is a sharp contrast to the historical figure Yang Gui-Fei. Based on the historical records of Yang Gui-Fei and the poems“Song of Everlasting Sorrow” and “White-Haired Woman of Shang-yang Palace” by Bai Ju-Yi, “Mei-Fei Legend” means to mirror history and reveal the main cause of the collapse of Tang Dynasty. This paper aims to examine the plot and characters in “Mei-Fei Legend” so as to see how they mirror history and in turn reinterpret it. If Mei-Fei symbolizes integrity and decency, Yang Gui-Fei is the total opposite of her. By using a “mirror image”, the text implies it is Tang Xuan-Zong who chooses Yang Gui-Fei over Mei-Fei and if he that should be responsible for the An-Shih Rebellion and the decline of the Tang Dynasty.
Fiction has emerged as a major medium for modern Chinese to express their imagination and ‘narrate’ the country since Liang Qichao advocated the importance of ‘New Fiction’. Over the past century, fiction （including both its form and content） has undergone various changes in response to the transformation of the modern Chinese society. In 1993, David Der-wei Wang initiated a discussion on ‘Imagination of China’, examining how Chinese people imagined the past, present and future of the country through fiction as a means of narration. Based on the notion of ‘visuality’, this paper strives to examine an alternative approach to imagine China. The goal is to highlight how a new generation of authors from colonial Taiwan and semi-colonial Shanghai ‘imagined China’ by adopting a ‘new’ perspective. Through analyzing the fictions of Liu Na'ou, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang, this paper demonstrates how ‘visualization’ was used to imagine China and how this approach reflected and shaped China’s modern experience. The rise of Neo-Sensationism in Shanghai in the 1930s motivated writers such as Liu Na'ou and Mu Shiying’s to incorporate a wealth of visual elements into their fictions. Tracing the origin of this narrative strategy, we could conclude that it was not generated by the local cultural community in China, but was inspired by Liu Na'ou, a Taiwanese author. This new narrative approach（having evolved from the intricate processes of imperialism, colonialism, and localization ） indeed revolutionalized the way people imagined. So, how did Liu Na'ou’s fictions gain recognition in semi-colonial Shanghai in the 1930s? What were the political and cultural factors that facilitated and impeded this writing style? In addition, what kinds of historical framework were manifested in his fictions? This paper first examines the literary experience of Liu Na'ou in both Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period and Japan. Special emphasis was put on how he introduced ‘colonial gaze’ to China as an innovative approach to imagine the country. Then, the paper further discusses how Mu Shiying and Eileen Chang modified and ‘mimicked’ the‘colonial gaze’, which in turn shows how this new generation of writers imagined the ‘modern’ China. Mu Shiying used the technique of visualization to illustrate the disparity in wealth during Shanghai’s semi-colonial period in the 1930s. On the other hand, Eileen Chang employed the same narrative strategy not only to examine and reflect on the traditional and modern China, but also to question the underlying authority conferred by the colonial gaze through ‘gazing’ at the colonizer. It is believed that Liu Na'ou, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang’s strategies of ‘mimicry’ varied due to different periods of time and diverse perspectives. However, such‘mimicry’ was not mere ‘replication,’ but a new form of creation, which was deviated from the mainstream and represented an ‘alternative’ approach to imagine China.
