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BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE NATIONAL CHENGCHI UNIVERSITY NO.25
Publication date： 2016-06
Special Article Ethical Function of Bi-Xing in Classic Chinese Poetry
For the scholar-gentry class in the ancient China, poetry serves as a form of verbal communication and social interaction in their daily life. In such a historical context of poetry culture, the poetic device bi-xing begins to take on the function of ethical relations. Bi-xing is not merely about principle in poem for figuration or symbolization, but involves normative ethics according to which the scholar-gentry class behaves and communicates. This paper aims to examine poetry as a socio-cultural act in the context of Li culture in the ancient China, and discuss the ethical function of bi-xing in classic Chinese poetry.
In 1995, Leung Ping-kwan was invited to be guest editor of “Special Issue on Hong Kong Culture” in literature journal Today. Leung explained his concept in the introduction to the special issue, at the same time he also expressed his anxieties. Leung tried to resist the cultural anxieties in Hong Kong during the run-up to the territory’s handover to China by means of the selection of works in the special issue, which includes Leo Ou-fan Lee’s discussion of the marginality of Hong Kong culture, Liu Yi-chang’s discussion on the origins of Hong Kong literature starting from Wang Tao, and Rey Chow’s Postcolonial Self-Writing as “Neither Roots nor Hybrids”. After 12 years, Yip Fai was guest editor for the “Hong Kong Ten Years Special Issue” in Today’s 2007 summer issue in retrospection of the first decade since the handover. In the introduction to the special issue, Yip wrote that it was a “retrospective on the thoughts and observations by Hong Kong people during the past ten years”. The special issue looks into the myth of identity upon the territory’s ten year’s anniversary of the handover through the selection of short stories including “Translucent Human” by Yau Ching and “Mermaid” by Dorothy Tse Hiu-hung, film criticism by Shum Long-tin and social movement criticism by Chow Sze Chung. By analyzing the "Special Issue on Hong Kong Culture" and "Hong Kong Ten Years Special Issue" of Today in 1995 and 2007 respectively, this thesis discusses how the issues of "locality" in literature creation and criticism have evolved before and after the "handover" in 1997, and how was Hong Kong's " handover " to China represented and narrated in the works selected in these two special issues.
The controversy on the writing of Hong Kong literary history began in 1990s. Before that, there was no Hong Kong literary history written by local scholars. Around the time of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, several Hong Kong literary histories written by Mainland China scholars were published. Nevertheless, the perspectives and methodologies of these publications aroused great disputes among local Hong Kong scholars. To contend these speculations, three local scholars, William Tay, Wong Kai Chee and Lo Wai Luen, jointly compiled a series of anthologies of Hong Kong literature. In the prefaces “A Dialogue of Three Editors,” they conveyed a local perspective on the development of Hong Kong Literature. More than a decade later, another local scholar, Chan Kwok Kou Leonard, presided over an editorial committee to compile the Compendium of Hong Kong Literature. These two projects intend to retrieve “the presence of literature in Hong Kong in the past.” Situated in different moment of history, the two research teams were faced with different perplexities and readers. Through analyzing Tay, Wong and Lo’s “A Dialogue of Three Editors,” and Chan’s foreword of the Compendium of Hong Kong Literature, this paper compares how they relate “literary history” to “Hong Kong,” and their basic understanding of the framework of Hong Kong literary history. We will find that despite all these changes of thought in different periods, something remains unchanged, and this is where a historian pursues.
Theme Thesis Floating City / My City: Differences and Similarities in Macau Novels after the Return to China
Before Macau’s return to China in 1999, Macau was often presented in Macau novels as a gambling city, or a “floating city,” which not only reflected its ambiguous colonial past but also the political uncertainty it faced in the future. Such ambiguity and uncertainty led to loss of subjectivity, and the excessive emphasis on gambling led to the loss of idealism. This kind of consciousness was said to still predominate some writers’ mind even after Macau’s return to China. But at the same time, a couple of literary works which mainly focused on the destiny, the history, and the culture of Macau were also gradually published. The publication indicated the birth of “my city consciousness” — people in Macau started to feel less indifferent to their hometown, celebrating Macau as “my city” in the “my city” writing. Moreover, they were more willing to learn about its historical development, and value its cultural traditions. While this kind of writing may still be non-mainstream or even unpopular, it reasserted the sense of existence and the significance of idealism. This essay aims to analyze the Macau consciousness and Macau imagery constructed through novels with Macau-specific topics. I also aim at observing the differences and similarities in these 21st-century Macau writings before and after the city’s return to China.
Owing to the absence of words or phrases in English, this summary uses transliteration to translate the concept of the mourning practice between younger brother and elder sister in law, which are “saoshuwufu” (嫂叔無服) and “saoshuyoufu” (嫂叔有服) and “saoshufuyi” (嫂叔服議). This article start with the discussion of the meaning of “qin qin” (親親), which mainly refers to the blood relatives in the traditional mourning system. Therefore, the relationship between elder sister and younger brother in law shall not be considered as “qin qin”. Furthermore, because of their frequent intercourse, they shall not mourn for each other. Secondly, discussing the relevant provisions of saoshuwufu (嫂叔無服) in traditional mourning system, Jiang Ji, Cheng Can, Cao Xi who proposed “saoshuyoufu” by re-interpretation of the classics, or claim that there are profound emotions between younger brother and elder sister in law. Thirdly, expounding the reason why the mourning practice between younger brother and elder sister in law had been put forward in Wei Jin dynasty. The reason including the circulating of “Sangfu”, the prospering of family institution, and the influence of war and disease to social thoughts. This section is the most important part of this article. The last part of the article focuses on researching the connection between people who proposed saoshufuyi (嫂叔服議) and the advocates of nature in metaphysics. The two groups faced the same period factor but adopted different strategies, the former reformed feudal ethics rites, instead of confronting the rites.
The category of open-minded Fu in “Li Tai Fu Hui” of Yuan-long Chen in the Qing Dynasty collected “Da Yo Fu” of unconventional scholar, Yun-ming Zhu, in Wuzhong in the Ming Dynasty. In this category of Fu, the most representative Fu is “Da Ren Fu” of Xiang-ru Sima. Apparently, “Da Yo Fu” shares similar writing tone with “Da Ren Fu,” namely, “to become a deity.” However, according to the scrutiny of the texts, “Da Yo Fu,” which consists of nearly 20,000 words, not only retains the narrative structure of trips of great man and the spirit of under-appreciation of scholars, but also discusses about political situation at the time from a wide range of perspectives. It reflects the significant spirit of saving the world of Confucianism, which is different from the spirt of Taoism reflected in writing about great man after Han and Wei Dynasties. Based on “Da Ren Fu” of Xiang-ru Sima and “Da Ren Xian Sheng Zhuan” of Ruan Ji, this study carefully summarized the “great man” in the writing of Zhu. This study found that Zhu’s writing about great man reflects the writing style of “great man” in the Han and Wei Dynasties, as well as displays unique existence under the change of time which is different from that in the past. Therefore, this study further investigated the reason why “great man” in Zhu’s writing did not follow that in the Han and Wei Dynasties from the perspective of cultural research. This study mainly interpreted the living field of literati in the Ming Dynasty, including the influence of unique imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty on literati’s civil service, as well as restrictions on aloofness of literati imposed by social economy after the mid-Ming Dynasty, in order to clarify the cause of change in the image of great man in “Da Yu Fu.”
Ta-Tsi Chen (1886-1983), the first president at the reestablished National Chengchi University in Taiwan as well as the first director of the Confucius-Mencius Society in Taipei, dedicates all his life in culture and education. Chen is knowledgeable of Eastern and Western cultures: he focuses on learning psychology and logics from the West in the beginning of his academic life, then Hetuvidya in India, and in the later part of his life, he turns to study Confucianism, which includes thoughts of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi. After he establishes theories on Xunzi and Confucius, Ta-Tsi Chen writes The Record of Questions Waiting to Be Solved about Mencius (Mengzi daijie lu), and thus Mencius becomes the last important part of Chen’s study of Confucianism. This paper aims to examine theory on human nature and the part “waiting to be solved” in order to understand the main point of Ta-Tsi Chen’s thought as well as rethink the value of Mencius’ thoughts.
Mao Dun’s trilogy ‘Corrosion’ was published in Fiction Monthly Magazine from 1927 to 1928, and Chang Chunfan’s ‘Violet Heroine’ was published in Violet Magazine from 1929 to 1930. Not only their published time was near, the overlapping backdrop of the two works also showed convergence. Moreover, both their theme was “revolution plus love.” The two works reflected the complex and diverse social situations and people’s behaviors at the end of the 1920s as well as showcased the intertextuality and dialogues between serious literature and popular fiction. This article will discuss and compare the descriptions of male and female bodies against the backdrop of revolution as well as the implicit revolution anxiety in ‘Eclipse’ by Mao and ‘Violet Heroine’ by Chang. For example, the sick male body in Mao’s work forms a contrast to the martial female body in Chang’s story. Through the analysis of body display in the two works, this article further points out their difference of display modes and inner spirits under the same theme of “revolution plus love” in the hope to show the intertextuality and enrich the dialogues between serious literature and popular fiction.
