Classicisms in Chinese Literary Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Shields
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Bai Juyi ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
The Tang Dynasty

The tradition of classical studies in China after the fall of the Han continued to flourish, though in changing forms from the period of division through the end of the Tang dynasty. The ongoing relevance of the Classics and the Masters Texts to both the educational and institutional systems of successive dynasties guaranteed that elites would sustain a heritage of scholarship and transmit commentaries over generations. And yet the classicist tradition was not merely a static corpus of commentary on “dead” texts but rather a dynamic and stimulating body of knowledge that inspired new literary compositions, philosophical reflection, and ultimately new styles of writing, both poetry and prose. This chapter traces the most important classicist revivals and the most prolific and influential writers in the classicist tradition, including authors such as Yuan Jie, Li Hua, Han Yu, Bai Juyi, and others.

From Talented Poet to Jealous Wife: Reimagining Su Hui in Late Tang Literary Culture

NAN Nü ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Qiaomei Tang
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Chinese Woman ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Visual Materials

Abstract Su Hui was a late fourth century Chinese woman who is famed for her creation of brocade palindromic poems. Due to an account of her life story, attributed to the female emperor Wu Zetian, that highlighted her jealous disposition, Su Hui is remembered today primarily as a talented but jealous wife, which is in contrast with how she was viewed in the period prior to the Wu version. Tracing the genealogy of Su Hui’s narrative in pre-Tang and Tang literary and visual materials, this article demonstrates that the definitive version of Su Hui’s story is misattributed to Wu Zetian and, more importantly, that the image of this well-known figure of early medieval China underwent a transformation that reflects important aspects of Late Tang literary culture. In ‘boudoir lament’ poetry of the Southern Dynasties period, Su Hui is the stock image of a melancholy wife longing for her absent husband. In ‘frontier’ poetry of the Tang dynasty, she is a worrying wife concerned with her military husband fighting on the borderlands. It is in a Late Tang prose account misattributed to Wu Zetian that we finally see her as a jealous woman competing for her husband’s affections. The transformation of Su Hui’s image across three major literary genres over a period of half a millennium offers readers a window into the literary and cultural changes that took place in medieval China.

On Translation of Cultural Images in Chang Hen Ge from the Perspective of Reception Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-541
Author(s):  
Yiying Yang
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Reception Theory ◽  
Cultural Images ◽  
Bai Juyi ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Ethnic History ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Narrative Poem ◽  
Cultural Connotations

Abstract Based on concepts of horizon of expectation and indeterminacy in reception theory, this paper reports a comparative analysis of Chang Hen Ge, a narrative poem written by Chinese poet Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty, and its English translations by William John Bainbrigge Fletcher, Herbert Allen Giles, Xu Yuanchong as well as Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. Results are as follows: 1) Xu’s translation is the best in that he adds annotations and combines literal and free translations so as to explicate cultural connotations and underlying implications of images while meeting and broadening target readers’ horizon of expectation. In addition, he tries to replicate figurative characteristics and transform rhetorical techniques of original cultural images to retain the source text’s indeterminacy and aesthetic value and to provide target readers with intense aesthetic experience. 2) There are inappropriate and inaccurate translations of cultural images in all the four English translations, and they are caused by differences in ethnic history, religious belief, mode of thinking, features of English and Chinese as well as the subjectivity of translators.

COASTAL ALTERATION AND CHANGES IN SHORELINE MORPHOLOGY DUE TO ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES IN MIIRAKU TOWN ON FUKUE IS. IN THE GOTO ARCHIPELAGO

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryo Sakamoto ◽  
Ryo Sakamoto ◽  
Satoquo Seino ◽  
Satoquo Seino ◽  
Hirokazu Suzaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tang Dynasty ◽  
National Park ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Sand Transport ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Tang Dynasty ◽  
Coastal Changes ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
Nagasaki Prefecture

A construction of breakwaters and other shoreline structures on part of a coast influences drift sand transport in the bay, and causes comprehensive topographic changes on the beach. This study investigated shoreline and coastal changes, taking as an example of Shiraragahama Beach in Miiraku on the northwestern end of Fukue Island, Nagasaki Prefecture (Kyushu, Japan). Miiraku, adjacent to Saikai National Park, appears in the revered 8th century poetry collection “Manyoshu” and served as a port for a ship taken by the Japanese envoy to China during the Tang Dynasty (618-709). Because of the recent development of breakwaters for a fishing harbor, the shore environments of this beach have changed significantly. In this study, the status of silt deposits and topographic changes on this beach arising from the construction of a harbor breakwater were evaluated by comparing aerial photographs taken in different years. Next, the changes in the shoreline visible from aerial photographs from 1947 to 2014 were analyzed. Lastly, the altitude of the beaches was measured using accurate survey methods. The following results were obtained: 1) coastal erosion made rock cliffs to fall off along the shore and deposited sand on this beach; 2) the more serious advances or retreats of the shoreline took place around shoreline structures; 3) sandbars and beach cliffs were formed.

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