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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.20
Publication date： 2013-12
Special Article Literary Criticism as Methodology of Literary Study ─Exemplifying with Zhu Ziqing’s Critical Works
“Literary Criticism” is a prevalent subject of study in the literature curriculum of many universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong nowadays. The introduction of this “modern” and “western” concept into the discipline of Chinese study is meant to equip the teaching and learning of literature with methodology and analytical skills. In the same vein, the subsequent development of “Chinese history of literary criticism” aims to explore how literature is approached and understood in the past. Therefore, the study of literary criticism, together with the study of history of criticism, is not exclusive and autonomous, but conducive to the study of literature proper. This paper examines the emergence of the concept of “literary criticism” in modern China, and the way it enhances the study of Chinese literature in university, exemplifying with the critical works of Zhu Ziqing.
Researchers study the modern Tang-hua with the Buddhist classics of Huang-po school and Sōtō School, and anthologies of Guqin, which were transmitted to Japan in Ming Dynasty. In addition, scholars also rely on the textbooks for Tang interpreter (Toutuuzi) edited by Okazima Kanzan, such as Compilation of Tang Hua (Tang Hua Cuan Yao), Handbook of Tang Hua (Tang Hua Bian Yong), Handy Compendium of Tang Translation (Tang Yi Bian Lan), Collection of Formal and Colloquial Tang Yin (Tang Yin Ya Su Yu Lei), and so on. They include annotations or phonetic notation which are of value for the studies of modern Tang-hua. As one of the most important Toutuuzi textbooks in Edo period, Tang Poetry Anthology and Tang Yin (Tang Shi Xuan Tang Yin) includes some Katakana influenced by Okazima Kanzan. It is believed that this book is edited by Toutuuzi Liu Dao-Biao. This paper mainly focuses on the labial-dental (light-dental) in Tang Poetry Anthology and Tang Yin. It is observed that Liu records not only the “fei, fu, feng” in modern Chinese but also the combination between the labial and guttural in Japanese phonology at that time. Taking Wuyin, Hanyin and modern Toon as references and using the four books by Okazima Kanzan as comparison, this paper also aims to compare and contrast their phonetic notations.
Theme Thesis Reception Theory and Chinese Phonology: the Reception History of Ben Yun Yi De by Wei-lin Long
The signification of text is not a self-sufficient or closed system. Scholar nowadays should address the basic factors such as author, text, phoneme, and reader in the interpretation of classical phonological literature. From Bernhard Karlgren onwards, the Chinese phonologists mostly follow the mainstream of the history of phonology, regarding rhyme books and rhyme tables as objective records of dialects. This approach assumes the equivalents between the text and the phoneme, and fails to show the relations among text, author and reader. While seemingly scientific and objective, it actually narrows the horizon of viewing and isolates Chinese phonology from other disciplines of humanities. Professor Guo-yao Lu in his “Linguistics and Reception Theory” calls for the attention to reception theory among linguistics scholars, asking for more emphasis on the reader’s responses in the studies of linguistics. The present paper, as a response to Professor Lu’s article, goes further to conceptualize the possibility of applying reception theory to the construction of the history of Chinese phonology. The reception history of Wei-Lin Long’s Ben Yun Yi De is used as the case study of the paper. Firstly, there would be a diachronic survey of the different understandings and evaluations made by readers of Ben Yun Yi De from 1750 to 2012. Secondly, I will probe into the possible factors which cause different responses in different readers from the perspective of phonological history. By so doing, I argue for the significance of reception theory in the studies of Chinese phonology.
Theme Thesis The Henan and Shandong Dialects in Qing Dynasty: TiBi GuangZeng FenYun WuFang YanYin and DengYun JianMing ZhiZhangTu
In Qing Dynasty, a variety of rhyme books and rhyme charts reflect the diverse sound system of the time and serve as important corpus for the studies of modern Chinese speech. This paper aims to examine the Henan dialect in TiBi GuangZeng FenYun WuFang YanYin and Shangdong dialect in DengYun JianMing ZhiZhangTu so as to explore the circumstances that cause sound changes at the time. The seemingly arbitrary tone patterns in TiBi GuangZeng FenYun WuFang YanYin may have something to do with immigration that changes the contemporary speech. While the unique type of initial in DengYun JianMing ZhiZhangTu may come from the sound change which happens only in the specific region. Both the spontaneous internal changes and the external factor, migration, play important roles in the phonological changes in Qing Dynasty.
Theme Thesis Emergence of Medial [i] in Modern Chinese
The historical period from Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty is critical for the development of Chinese phonology. Many phonological phenomena in modern dialects can date back to Song Dynasty. During that time, diachronic sound changers across dialects can be observed, and found in the rhyme books and rhyme tables in Ming Dynasty. This paper aims to examine the special medial [i] which involves composition of onsets, rhymes and syllables. I will mainly focus on the diachronic alternations of the medial [i] so as to tease out the historical phonological changes since Song Dynasty. The medial [i] which is absent in Middle Chinese may appear in Modern Chinese, when the onset is the second grade (i.e. category) of velars, as shown in example (1) and (2): (1) kɔŋ > ʨiaŋ jiang (江) ‘big river’ (2) ɣɔŋ > ɕiaŋ xiang (巷) ‘alley’ Other examples include words such as jie (皆) ‘all,’ jie (佳) ‘good,’ jian (間) ‘room’ and jan (眼) ‘eyes’. One of the Chinese rhyme books in Yuan Dynasty, Zhong Yuan Yin Yun, made no difference among the second grade of velars (e.g. jiang 江 ‘big river’, jiang 講 ‘speak’, kang 港 ‘harbor’) and the third grade (e.g. jing 京 ‘capital’, jing 驚 ‘surprise’, jiang 姜 ‘person’s name’) and the fourth grade (e.g. jing 徑 ‘route’, jing 涇 ‘name of a river’). Other two rhyme books (c.a. 1442-1642 A.D) in Ming Dynasty also report a similar pattern of the medial [i]. Taking examples from Four-Sound Deng Zi in Song Dynasty, Zhong Yuan Yin Yun (1324 A.D) in Yuan Dynasty, Yun Lue Yi Tong (1442 A.D) and Yun Lue Hui Tong (1642 A.D) in Ming Dynasty, this paper aims to examine the development of the medial [i] and its interplay with structures of onsets, rhymes and syllables.
According to the Book of Jin (Jin Shu), the notes and commentaries of Gu-Liang Chuan written by Hsu Miao were popular and well-received in trhe period of Jin Dynasty. The Collected Annotations of Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang (Chun Chiu Gu Liang Ji Jie) written by Fan Ning quoted Hsu Miao several times and celebrated him as a prominent scholar in the studies of Gu-Laing. Hsu Miao wrote three books on Gu-Liang, including Annotations of the Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang (Chun Chiu Gu Liang Chuan Chu), Analysis of the Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang (Chun Chiu Gu Liang Chuan Yi), and Answering Questions on the Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang (Hsu Miao Da Chun Chiu Gu Liang Yi). However, all these books are long lost. What is still available today can only be found in the Annotations and Analysis of Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang (Chun Chiu Gu Liang Chuan Chu Yi) collected and edited by Ma Guo-han in the Ching Dynasty. This volume with a total of 89 sections is the most comprehensive collection among the recovered compilation of the lost writings of Gu-Liang studies that include seven schools and nine types. Ma Guo-han maintains that one can hardly determine the fragments are from Annotations of Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang or Analysis of Spring and Autumn Gu-Liang, that is why he names the collection generally as Annotations and Analysis (Chu Yi). It is this volume that helps preserve and provide a general picture of Hsu Miao’s studies of Gu-Liang. This paper will mainly focus on examining the volume so as to discuss the key ideas of Hsu Miao’s studies of Gu-Liang. For example, the changes in literary style reflect Hsu Miao’s rigorous approach. Hsu Miao puts strong emphasis on the things he aims to celebrate, while giving only simple outlines of the things with which he disagrees. He writes in a direct manner, and tends to record incidents, especially important events, as they actually occurred. His work is also about the most powerful kings of his time, the Chou Emperor and the imperial household. Though he avoides commenting on his relatives and on those he respects, he does not let this pracice stop him from recording the truth. This study uses this method in an effort to recover the content made by Hsu Miao by piecing together the fragments of this highly treasured work to better profile the essence of Gu-Liang-ism.
Many scholars and editors contributed to the project of the Explanatory Notes to the Five Classics in Tang Dynasty. The studies on the scholars and editors are however relatively scarce, because little historical records on them are available. To bridge the gap, this paper aims to look into the life of Ma Chia-Yun, one of the famous scholars who participated in the project, so as to provide a clearer picture of the Confucian studies in the beginning of Tang Dynasty. Firstly, certain historical records are drawn from New Book of Tang (Shin Tang Shu) and Book of Tang (Joe Tang Shu) and Retribution after Death (Ming Bao Gee) in order to piece together the life experiences of Ma Chia-Yun. Secondly, the time point where he critiqued Kong Yin-Da and his impact on the studies of the Explanatory Notes to the Five Classics are also examined. The result of the above studies would shed more light on the editing process of Explanatory Notes to the Five Classics in the 16th year of Zhenguan period and the history of the study of Confucian classics in Tang Dynasty.
This paper aims to analyze the statements, allegories and morals on “true knowledge” and “tao” in the chapters of Huai Nan Zi so as to rethink the two terms. Huai Nan Zi defines “tao” as the “change of the universe” and the way man responds to it. To be more specific, “tao” is the way the “true man” responds to the world when he acquires the “true knowledge” through a certain cultivation. Living up to “tao” has less to do with the exploration of the world at the cognitive level than the way how one deals with oneself and the world. Similarly, “true knowledge” is not just an epistemological theory but the day to day practice of “tao” and the wisdom gained from it. Thus “knowing ‘tao’” means putting it into practice in daily life.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s in Hong Kong, leftist culture was ubiquitous both within and without the realm of leftist media. It widely infiltrated into neutral publications such as Sing Tao Daily and Overseas Chinese Daily News (Hua Qiao Ri Bao). It was because a set of shared terminology was used to help disseminate and establish a “shared leftist ideology.” Leftist tendency was spotted in several supplement sections of Hua Qiao Ri Bao which were set up in the 1940s. Among them, “Student Weekly” (“Xue Sheng Zhou Kan”), targeted at the students, emphasized on enlightenment and self-reform. Terms which originated from leftist theories and writings of Mao Zedong were widely used in these supplements—“neo-democracy,” “the masses,” “the people,” “self-reform,” “going towards the masses,” and so on. As Mao Dun has pointed out, post-war leftist youth literature in Hong Kong was a hands-on practice in “joining in the combat,” “living among the masses, with an aim to spread leftist ideology and reform one’s thoughts. While contributing to the leftist propaganda campaign, young writers were also, to some extent, being used and manipulated. By examining “Xue Sheng Zhou Kan” of Hua Qiao Ri Bao, this paper aims to trace a long forgotten history of young writer’s journey to “self-reform” and to look into how the leftist camp propagated a “shared ideology” and their impact on the non-leftist publications in the post-war Hong Kong.
