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Individual Papers on China
The Philosophical Significance of Ocular Metaphors in Ancient Chinese Thought
Anne Ghiglione, University of Montreal, Department of Philosophy, Canada
This paper discusses the interplay between metaphor and concept in Classical Chinese philosophical writings of the Warring States period (5th-3rd centuries B. C.) and contests the common assumption according to which Occidental rhetorical categories would be inadequate to analyse Chinese texts. It focuses on one particular kind of tropes, namely ocular metaphors, and on their philosophical meaning in an intellectual tradition that did not operate any theoretical distinction between the sensible world and a purely intelligible dimension. If the eyes of the body were not explicitly opposed to the eyes of the mind, what was then the function of ocular metaphors (and analogies) in the doctrines of the Sages? I will try to show, through textual analysis, that despite the lack of an epistemological dichotomy between the realm of senses and some elaborated forms of abstract thought, seeing was commonly used as an analogical and as a metaphorical model for knowing. In addition to the cognitive and epistemic function of visual perception as a trope, I will insist on the diversity of the semantic fields related to ocular metaphors both in Chinese and in Western traditions. By describing shortly their moral, mystical, aesthetic, political, psychological and heuristic facets, I intend to challenge Richard Rorty’s hypothesis according to which, in a given (written) culture, there would be a causal link between the widespread use of ocular metaphors and the development of philosophical speculation as well as of scientific, objective thinking.
Portrait of a (foreign) Lady: Chinese and Japanese Portrayals of Wang Zhaojun
Leo Shingchi Yip, Gettysburg College
Wang Zhaojun (Jp. O Shokun, ca. 30B.C.), an imperial consort of Han China, is arguably the most featured Chinese woman in various literary and art forms in China and Japan, including historical texts, poetry, tales, music, paintings, and theatre. According to historical records, Emperor Yuan sent Zhaojun off to marry the northern barbarian king to avoid diplomatic conflicts. Since then Wang Zhaojun has been a favorite topic for literary and artistic endeavors. Her images portrayed in Chinese works range from a tragic persona of political exile, a beauty who was misrepresented in her portrait due to her refusal to bribe the painter, a political victim who had to depart her lover and country; a virtuous Confucian female, a patriot volunteered to be married off to the barbarian king in exchange for peace, to a cultural ambassador promoting the unity of China and its ethnic minorities. In contrast with the Chinese, the Japanese depoliticalizes and domestifies the foreign story. Although the motif of political exile is retained, Japanese authors center on the Chinese beauty’s grief and suffering in exile, whereas the condemnation of corruption and praise for her virtues are absent.
By juxtaposing Chinese and Japanese portrayals of Wang Zhaojun in various genres, this paper examines how the conventions of the form and style, as well as the specific socio-cultural milieus shaped the different images. I will also look into the evolving treatment of the story in Japan in terms of Japan’s assimilation of Chinese materials from pre-kokinshu to medieval period.
Literature, the Market, and the Culture of Cynicism: On "Linglei" Writings of the "Post-80"
Yunshan Ye, Dickinson College
A handful of young writers, all born in the 1980s, have dominated the Chinese literary market since the beginning of the 21st century, a phenomenon that has generated heated debates among professional writers, literary and cultural critics, and general reading public. The controversy is further fueled by the appearances of three of the writers in the US Time Magazine (Chun Shu and Han Han in 2004, and Li Shasha in 2005). The Time Magazine labels these writers and their writings as “linglei” (radical, alternative), and sees them as part of the new cultural forces that drive today’s China. In this paper, I want to argue against the general tendency in the academia (both in China and the West) to dismiss these young writers and their writings as immature and superficial, and their success as an instance of literature being highjacked by commercialism, misread and exaggerated by Western media. I want to argue instead that the “post-80” represents a complex cultural phenomenon unique to China at this historical juncture, where globalization, commercialism, and political authoritarianism converge. Therefore, it is not only symptomatic of the field of Chinese literature that is increasingly tipping toward commercialism, but also symptomatic of a dystopian culture, specifically the culture of cynicism, that is characteristic of post-revolutionary China.
The Prominence of the Se-Zither in Early Chinese Musical Practice: A Reanalysis of Zhou and Han Archaeological and Historical Evidence
Ingrid M. Furniss, University of Texas at Arlington
Recent archaeological excavations have revealed a great deal about musical practice in early China. Material evidence in late Zhou and Han aristocratic tombs suggests that the large, twenty-five stringed se-zither held a prominent position in early musical performance. Evidence for its prominence is strongest in southern parts of China, particularly in the area formerly occupied by the states of Chu and Zeng. The se is by far the most common stringed instrument found in large and small, wealthy and modest aristocratic tombs in this area. It is frequently found alone or grouped with other instruments, such as drums, strings, bells, and/or chime stones, suggesting that it was highly esteemed as both a solo and ensemble instrument. Although fewer wooden examples survive in northern tombs, representations of the se in Han tomb tiles and funerary sculpture are also very common. This evidence runs contrary to the Han literary record, however, which suggests that the smaller qin-zither held greatest distinction as a solo and ensemble instrument. This paper will explore archaeological evidence for musical practice from northern and southern Chinese tombs and attempt to set the record straight about the early history of the se- and qin- zithers.
The Legitimacy of Race as an Analytical Category in Chinese Studies
Jing Jiang, Reed College
The legitimacy of race as an analytical category in Chinese studies has always been suspect. When sinologists do apply it in their research, they tend to stop short at the question of race in the formation of modern Chinese national identity. In my paper, I challenge this assumption and argue that a colonial discourse of race also informs the redefinition of gender identities within the newly imagined national landscape of late Qing and early Republican China. Through a comparative reading of Jin Yi’s Nü Jie Zhong (1903) and the Chinese translation of Herbert Spencer’s work on women’s rights, my paper, titled “Bell for Women’s World and the Man Who Rang It: Reassembling Masculinity in Crisis,” examines the process through which male elites at the dawn of the twentieth century mobilized the metaphor of interracial difference to define Chinese women as members of an inferior race lagging far behind their European counterparts. In this political pamphlet, which is sometimes applauded as the first manifesto of feminist movement in China, Jin Yi openly proclaims his admiration for “white men of Europe” and fantasizes about living as one of them in famous western metropolises. In his narrative, Chinese women emerge as the equivalent of benighted tradition, if not barbarity outright. I argue that the racialization of Chinese women is central to the emergence of modern Chinese masculinity, as it helps to alleviate the tremendous anxiety experienced by male intellectuals who were suffering a symbolic double emasculation at the turn of the twentieth century.