Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature

Chinese classical literature is now faced with four levels of adversity. First, in the field of liberal arts, the humanities are falling out of favor compared with social sciences. Second, in the scope of the humanities, literature has been losing ground and declining in comparison with history and philosophy. Moreover, within the field of literature, oriental literature is less popular than western literature. Last, as far as Oriental literature is concerned, classical literature is not valued as much as modern literature. It is thus evident that Chinese classical literature is in the adversity of declination no matter how it is categorized. The declination of literature indicates the decomposition of the culture that sustains it. As a result, readers find it difficult to integrate into the world created by the author, nor do they find the world meaningful. For instance, the story of Li Si could strike a chord, while nowadays, he is hard to be identified with. Another example is that the story of Guan Zhong and Bao Shu-Ya, which used to be a much-told tale and regarded as a model of ideal friendship, can’t be realized now. I believe that as long as language continues to be used and treated with deep affections, literature will never disappear. We are living in a time when literature changes drastically. The inheritance and development of literary texts suggest the inter relationship of the text and its readers. Readers interpret the literary work through personal experiences and endow it with new meanings. Thus, with its intense power, Chinese literary classics live and last until today.

The paper focus on the relationship between the mythical jade and the origin of civilization. Based on the study of jade myths of Sumer, Egypt and China, we could find the ideological motivation which leads the people in prehistory went into the birth of civilization. The paper analyses the mythical jade as an kind of the divine object of ancient fetishism, how develop the early economic and religious ideas, and push forward the earliest international trade and cultural exchange which both impact the birth of city and Bronze Age.

Xi Wang Mu image system is the most important divinity appeared in the mythical topic of Han stone engraving. In the study of Han stone engraving data, the “nine tails fox” is as important as the “pound medicine rabbit” with the Xi Wang Mu and her animal images, and also to be provided across the regional phenomena. Besides the study of the auspicious characteristic of the nine tails fox, and to probe into the supernatural stories or strange tales (ghosts, evils, spirits) of Wei Jin Dynasties (including 魏Wei, 晉Jin, 宋Song, 齊Qi, 梁Liang, 陳Chen, 北朝Bei) for the changes of the fox spirit and the narrative of the mystical spirits, the paper would like to draw the intention to the relationship between Xi Wang Mu and the nine tails fox in Han stone engraving. The nine tails fox is the major object to be studied in my paper by using text interpretation and iconological method to analyse the narrative function between the historical records and image data of the nine tails fox, and also to study the disposition relations between Xi Wang Mu and the nine tails fox in the Han tomb chamber space. Lastly, proceeding thus to find out the meanings and symbols of the image data,which shows the divinity duty of Xi Wang Mu and the sacred narrative function of the nine tails fox.

The folklore study approach of mythology has been well explored by Chinese scholars both theoretically and practically. Mr Xie Liuyi, Mr Yang Kun and Mr Yuan Ke elucidated the theories while Mr Gu Jiegang and Mr Wen Yiduo practically studied the myths from the view of Folklore. The folklore study of the Mythology focuses on the complete composite form of the myths, and the folk behaviours are regarded as the extensions and manifestations of the myths. The folklore view of Mythology study can expand the space of Mythology study from the perspectives of material acquisition through fieldwork, text structure analysis, discus of its occurrence and evolution, and the reveal of its function.

In a contemporary rewriting of “Literary History”, the focal point should be a history of “Literary History,” that is it discusses the history of “Literature” formation. In other words, the focus of discussion is the “History of Literary History,” rather than a “History of Literature,” as it is called. Moreover, as we mean to discuss the process of “Literature Formation,” an enormous system of meaning signification will inevitably be implicated, within which nothing is more important than the derivation of the meaning of “wen” as well as its conceptual frameworks, which will situate “wen,” “renwen,” and even “wenxue” and embody a comprehensive signification schema. Beginning with the analogy, found in the Yi zhuan《易傳》, between “tian wen” (“the pattern of heaven”) and “ren wen” (“the pattern of people”), the paper will first discuss the worldview of “ren wen”, primarily focusing on “categorical association” (“lian lei”) and “energy correspondence” (“qi gan”). Next, it will discuss how verbal repetition and figural language mark this ren wen worldview. Finally, this worldview will be placed in the history of the construction of “wen” (both heavenly and human), where it should be seen both as calling forth archetypal images, and at the same time as an interplay with distinct conceptual domains.The interweaving of opposed yet related polarities (as in cross-categorical connections and repetitive illustration) are the traces of this interplay. In the end, what is called “wen ming” (“patterned brilliance”) is perhaps the condition in which these polarities achieve total interpenetration. In which case, that which began as a brilliant whole is also a whole brilliance after completion.

The theory and teachings of Confucianism comprise the core of Chinese culture, and throughout the ages, the value system embodied by Confucianism has guided the moral codes of behavior and beliefs of people. Confucianism has permeated various aspects of life in most fundamental ways, including the realm of politics. Thus, the concept of politics in pre-Qin Confucianism is an important topic of study in research on Chinese culture. This article first explores the nature of power in politics and then delineates the basic characteristics of the political structure in ancient China in order to understand the political atmosphere during the era of pre-Qin Confucianism. Secondly, I also examine ideas on how to practice politics found in the works of Mengtzu and Confucius, comparing them to excavated documents. The article then delves into the relationship between monarch (“jun”), subject (“chen”) and people (“min”) in Confucian political thought.

This article analyzes the theory of the system of the ancestral temple number of Zheng-Xuan (鄭玄) and Wang-Su (王肅) from the palace memorials in Han-Shu (漢書). We know Wang-Su’s hypothesis of Nine Ancestral Temples follows Liu-xin’s ( 劉歆) etiquette learning, and Zheng-Xuan’s hypothesis of Seven Ancestral Temples follows Wei-Xuan-Cheng’s ( 韋玄成) and Liu-xin’s etiquette learnings. The article reveals the cause of the arguments between Zheng-Xuan and Wang-Su is that we cannot determine which one is right or wrong in the academic background of Han Dynasty. However, Liu-xin finds a new research method in order to fill the vacancies of the emporers’ etiquette. On the contrary, his behavior provokes the etiquette argument and the cleavage in Confucian classics.

The “Wuxing Zhi” of Xu Hanshu is the most important document about the anomaly (zaiyi) theories of eastern Han dynasty after the “Wuxing Zhi” of Hanshu. This article focuses on the editers of the “Wuxing Zhi” of Xu Hanshu and compares their edition style between the two “Wuxing Zhi”. Sima Biao (the author of the Xu Hanshu) said the main editors of the “Wuxing Zhi” were only Ying Shao, Dong Ba, Qiao Zhou. But he also accepted the Cai Yong’s ideas. Ying Shao’s article was written early, but it was not the most important opinions in the “Wuxing Zhi”. There are two differences between the two “Wuxing Zhi”. First, Xu Hanshu also used the wuxing style but mixed the wuxing and the wushi. It also changed the category about comets and meteorites. Second, Xu Hanshu did not quote the document source clearly like Hanshu and did not supplement the lost record about anomalies (zaiyi).

About the 30th year of Guangxu (1904), Lin Chuanjia, Dou Jingfan, Huang Ren and so on have written their own “The history of Chinese literature”. This knowledge and subject has been forwarded to the modernization. During the hundred years until now, the works of “The history of Chinese literature” have been already more than a thousand. However, the qualified and superior ones are few. The reason is because of the lack or improper of the essentialism, the epistemology and the methodology. Among these, “the history viewpoint of literature” is the more focal point. Probably being without a conscious history viewpoint of literature, or because of seeking for the modernization and the revolution of academic circle, they have been deeply influenced by “the doctrine of evolution” of western biology and sociology. During that period of time, “the evolution history viewpoint of literature” was quite popular. Or being controlled by the dogmatic Marx and Lenin thought and political conscious states, “the materialistic dialectical history viewpoint of literature” became an ossified frame during that period of time.These two history viewpoints are the products of the time and the environments. They are both from the west. Their aptness has been criticized from 1990, when “the theory on the history of literature” started to be the upsurge. However until now, the academic circle still just broke it but not construct it. Nobody could restructure a systematic and arranged “interpretation model” from the existing history viewpoint of literature in Chinese ancient times. Then take it as the theory foundation of writing “The history of Chinese literature”. The research aims at the Chinese ancient primary “sourcing history viewpoint of literature”. By the way of the related text's understanding, interpretation, analysis and synthesis, the author tries to clarify and arrange the hidden and scattered idea. In the theory suppose of “history viewpoint of literature”, the systematic and arranged “interpretation model” can be restructured.