Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature

Discussions on Han Yu’s poetry are usually focused on “creativeness” in the context of the changeable Tang and Song poetry, regarding it as his motivation to pursue strangeness. But in fact, his most important innovation in poetry is the “strangeness” itself, which breaks Tang poetry’s aesthetic tradition that emphasizes classicality and harmony. The interest of adventurousness, humorousness, freshness and coarseness in his poems impacts on and overthrows the aesthetical ideal of classic poetry, and initiates the modernity of Chinese literature. This modernity is obviously suppressed, as Han’s poems have not been highly evaluated until the early Qing Dynasty, when Ye Xie respects Han in his Tracing the Cause of Poetry as one of the three greatest poets in Chinese history. Besides Ye’s respect for Han, Yuan Mei’s high praise on Song poetry also shows the establishment of a new aesthetic value which stresses modernity more than classicality. The dramatic changes of evaluation on Han’s poetry are closely related to the modernization of Chinese literature.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

Twenty-eight of the literary works unearthed from the Dunhuang Grottoes are marked with fu in the original volumes, which include traditional aesthetic fu pieces and popular fu pieces. Though not named as fu, many Dunhuang manuscripts have popular fu’s main characteristics such as being narrative, polemical, humorous and colloquial, and these can be certified by the pieces’ features and disseminating ways. The discovery of Dunhuang popular fu poems prompts new reconsideration and recognition of some serious problems in the fact that the world of high culture and the world of popular culture coexist in Chinese fu literary history. It also proves that popular fu is closely related to working people, because at first it is created and spread by their chanting without singing, which is the same as other art forms. And all these art forms were transmitted among working people by word of mouth.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

This article discusses the background and development of Buddhist verse such as the essential book of abridged Buddhist lauds that the author has mentioned in his “Tonkouhon sanmonrui to Shoudou, Henbun.” Aimed at religious rituals like memorial services held for ordinary people, this paper examines the evolving process of Pure Land Buddhist five-tune memorial services of repeating the name of Amitābha Buddha in 9th-and-10th-century Dunhuang and the simplified essential book of abridged Buddhist lauds’ influences on telling and singing literature. Because telling and singing literature like bianwen originate from preaching, the beginning and prevailing of telling and singing bianwen in Dunhuang should be at the end of the 9th century, in the 10th century, and probably after the 10th century. This study probes into the prevalence of Buddhist hymns and their origins, the Pure Land Buddhist five-tune method of repeating the name of Amitābha Buddha, and the blending among religious rituals, which are all noteworthy topics for bianwen research.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

This article discusses the meaning of the sword in Dunhuang telling and singing literature. Objects in Dunhuang telling and singing literature are seldom only simple and ordinary, but have divine power, contain deep meanings, or serve as the key of a story. In some texts, the sword performs a narrative function; for example, it tightens the structure of “Wu Zi-Xu Bianwen,” connects the plots, shapes Wu Zi-Xu into a courageous swordsman, and completely spotlights the topic of gratitude and revenge. The sword also represents martialism or symbolizes justice or warding off evil spirits in Dunhuang telling and singing literature. In Buddhist bianwen, the sword is often associated with the wisdom of liberation, while in historical bianwen, it symbolizes position and power.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

Gu Jiegang’s study on the article in the Book of Documents “Yaodian” is mainly focused upon its completion time. Gu starts to read the Book of Documents at the age of 16 in 1908, and he gradually suspects that “Yaodian” is later than the book. After a long-term deliberation and textual research, Gu publishes A Textual Research on the Completion Time of “Yaodian” in 1931, when he teaches Shangshu Studies in Yenching University. In the book, he claims that “Yaodian” was completed in the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. This argument is Gu’s most important achievement in “Yaodian” study, and it remains unchanged even when he passes away. This study elaborates his deliberating process with the massive notes he has left and points out that A Textual Research on the Completion Year of “Yaodian” differs from other textual studies documents primarily in the establishment of an enormous historical explanation system. Gu makes his every effort to have this system presented with good consistency and organization, and uses it to confirm “Yaodian”’s completion time.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

In Zuangzi, the outer world’s completeness is expressed as the full response to one’s deeds. A sentence carrying this idea appears in Chapter 4: if one can probe into his/her inside rather than contemplate with their mind, even ghosts will come and obey, not to mention humans. Compared with the Confucian idea that one has to use appropriate methods to pursue what they want and yet whether he/she can get it depends on his/her destiny, Zhuangzi’s idea seems more universal, closely connecting the power of virtues to complete realization. This universality contains a strong belief that plays as the core basis of Zuangzi’s thought: blessings correspond with virtues. The main goal of this study is to analyze this special quality in Zuangzi’s statement on practicing virtuous deeds and to highlight the existence of the correspondence between blessings and virtues by comparing it with Confucian statements. This investigation will surely help readers to know ontologically the essence of Taoism and the differences between Taoism and Confucianism.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

Over the past dynasties, there have been different evaluations of Eastern Han thinker Wang Chong’s Lunheng, and one reason for it is that the viewpoints of the chapters seem to contrast with one another, and that the author’s criticism is sometimes severe and sometimes weak. To interpret the inconsistencies of the book, past researchers have probed into various aspects, such as Eastern Han values, Wang’s personality defects, and Wang’s personal knowledge. Dissimilarly, this paper is of the opinion that there is a consistency among the different viewpoints in the Lunheng: a historical viewpoint set up for later generations to examine the images of the Eastern Han and its previous dynasties. In this unique historical viewpoint, Wang especially emphasizes the confrontation between the past and the present and worries about the exclusive effect caused by the policy of adopting sages and classics as the new model for the two Han Dynasties. Therefore, to fight against traditions, Wang bestows on his writings a subversive creativeness that contains two extremes: an interpretive concept that is urgent and full of rebelling thoughts, and an aesthetic strategy that replaces artistic methods by delaying time.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18

The Complete Song Poems and the Supplemented Complete Song Poems record 138 Song poets that have presented their poems to physiognomists, 482 presented poems, and 427 titles of these poems. To observe the development of this culture, this study classifies related information into four groups according to their times: the Northern Song, the transition from the Northern Song to the Southern Song, the Southern Song, and the period after the fall of the Southern Song. The following four issues are investigated: (1) the reason why the poets write poems to physiognomists, (2) the backgrounds of the physiognomists, (3) the poets’ attitudes toward divination, and (4) the poets’ values. It is ascertained that most physiognomists have worked hard on Confucian studies for the imperial examination but failed it, and that they praise divination, half doubt it, or conduct it with li (principle). As for the poets, what they value is the freedom of the mind.

BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.18