{"title":"Praising a Ruler at a Dangerous Time: Two Poems by Lu Yun for Sima Ying","authors":"Fusheng Wu","doi":"10.1179/152991010X12863647122325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991010X12863647122325","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Through close contextual and intertextual analysis of poems that the literatus Lu Yun composed for the Jin dynasty's de facto ruler in the early fourth century, a most chaotic and brutal period of China's political history, this essay demonstrates the remarkable creativity involved in the writing of highly formal and seemingly conventional verse. It examines in particular Lu's skillful manipulation of allusions to the Shi jing (Classic of Songs) and other classics of antiquity. Contrary to the notion of panegyric poetry as a routine performance that aimed only to present a pompous facade, my analysis suggests that allusions can signify the poet's excruciating effort to negotiate a way out of a delicate or even, treacherous situation.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2010 1","pages":"51 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2010-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991010X12863647122325","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65833169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bibliography of Western Works on Early Medieval China (2002–2009)","authors":"Kenneth H. Klein","doi":"10.1179/152991010X12863647122361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991010X12863647122361","url":null,"abstract":"Bibliographic coverage of Western language scholarship on the early medieval period in China has been pursued through a succession of compilations: (1) Francoise Vitali, Etat des travaux sur l’histoire de la Chine, de 316 a 589, en langue occidentale (microfiche). Paris: Universite de Paris-Sorbonne, 1969; (2) Albert E. Dien, “Six Dynasties Bibliography, 1970–1980,” Nan-pei-ch’ao studies 4 (1980); (3) Kenneth Klein, “Bibliography of Western Works on Early Medieval China (1981–1993),” pt. 1 in EMC 1 (1994), pt. 2 in EMC 2 (1995); (4) Kenneth Klein, “Bibliography of Western Works on Early Medieval China (1994–1996),” EMC 3 (1996); (5) Cynthia L. Chennault, “An Annotated Bibliography of Western Works on Early Medieval China (1997–2001),” EMC 8 (2002). This bibliography continues the series, and groups publications under these subject headings:","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2010 1","pages":"67 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2010-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991010X12863647122361","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65833331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Oral Formula and Intertextuality in the Chinese “Folk” Tradition (Yuefu)","authors":"Alexander J. Beecroft","doi":"10.1179/152991009X12541417793479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991009X12541417793479","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Previous interpretations of early Chinese poetry (especially Han and Six Dynasties yuefu, or folk poetry) in terms of Milman Parry's and Albert Lord's oral-traditional poetics have run into a variety of conceptual and practical difficulties. I attempt to offer a more fruitful reading of the yuefu corpus in terms of orality, drawing in part on a re-reading of Parry and Lord and in part on recent linguistics-oriented scholarship in Classics. Through an analysis of three anonymous yuefu, and two by named authors (Shen Yue and Xiao Tong), I argue for the interpretation of the anonymous poems as constructed on principles familiar from oral poetics, such as the use of formulaic systems for generating phrases, and show that the yuefu by named poets are constructed differently. Similarly, I demonstrate that the anonymous poems, while seemingly random in thematic sequencing, share a division into six-line units, while the yuefu by named poets are more tightly integrated thematically but divided into units of irregular length. An understanding of the techniques of composition used for these two categories of poems is crucial, I argue, to their interpretation.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2009 1","pages":"23 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991009X12541417793479","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65833321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Woman in the Tower: “Nineteen Old Poems” and the Poetics of Un/concealment","authors":"Xiaofei Tian","doi":"10.1179/152991009X12541417793433","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991009X12541417793433","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper examines a group of anonymous poems thought to date from the second century AD. Ostensibly straightforward and transparent, the poems tantalize the reader with a protean quality, for it is often difficult to determine who is speaking what to whom. This impression is confirmed by the diverse and often conflicting interpretations made by late imperial Chinese commentators. How do the poems do this? What are the possible consequences for the later development of classical Chinese poetry? These are the questions I address in this paper, with particular attention to the poems' ambiguous personae and incomplete narratives.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"122 1","pages":"21 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991009X12541417793433","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65833306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sites of Recognition: Burial, Mourning, and Commemoration in the Xun Family of Yingchuan, AD 140–305","authors":"H. Goodman","doi":"10.1179/152991009X12541417793514","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991009X12541417793514","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Using recent scholarship in archeology and social history, this study translates traditionally transmitted texts concerning the burials, funerals, and eulogies of the Xun family of Yingchuan. This focus creates a type of narrative over many generations that has never been attempted for an early medieval Chinese lineage. Details emerge of family locales, social bonding, and values, as well as insights into the situation of women. Ultimately, it contributes to the understanding of how politically important elite families fared from the end of Han through Western Jin. In the case of the Xuns, the evidence of burials and commemorations combined with other data shows that members fared variously but it can be argued that the family tended to diminish in importance after leading members' reputations were attacked, the family cemetery ruined, and the dynasty conquered. Nonetheless, a certain loyalty to the Sima dynasts can still be seen to operate.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2009 1","pages":"49 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2009-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991009X12541417793514","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65832934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Way of the Warrior in Early Medieval China, Examined through the \"Northern Yuefu\"","authors":"S. Pearce","doi":"10.1179/152991008790012862","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991008790012862","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the notion of the noble savage, war has pervaded human life for a very long time. And it has existed within all major societies including, of course, China. But having accepted the strong tendency of men to kill each other, it is useful to give thought to the differences between societies. Who has been doing the fighting? How have war and the fighting man been viewed and portrayed? And who has written the books in which these portrayals have been presented? Violence and violent domination have flourished as themes in China’s popular fora—the romance novel, the kungfu movie. But the Chinese literary elite, particularly in the last thousand years, has tended to downplay, mask, or caricaturize these central elements of human life and human nature. In this very preliminary study I focus on China’s Northern Dynasties, when war and the warrior were, by some at least, more openly exalted. Although military traditions in China stretch back to the Bronze Age, the starting point for this study will be the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) which, building on the Qin, established a new model of empire and of army. The military traditions of Han","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2008 1","pages":"113 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991008790012862","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65832574","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Recruitment Revisited: the Commissioned Civil Service of Later Han","authors":"R. de Crespigny","doi":"10.1179/152991008790012871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991008790012871","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Though the imperial service of Later Han employed some 150,000 men, the majority held only junior rank, in secretarial and technical posts or low-level positions in the police and the military. High office was reserved for those with an imperial commission, on which basis they could rise to power and authority. This paper discusses how such commissions were obtained, and the processes which recruited officials and ensured support for the government among the leading classes of the empire. Most men who received commissions were recommended by the officials in charge of their local communities, and were subject to a period of probation at the capital before receiving a substantive post. Few reached high office through the Imperial University.","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2008 1","pages":"1 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991008790012871","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65832795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Loyalties Divided: The Question of Political Allegiance in the Tang-Türgish Conflict of 708–709","authors":"J. Skaff","doi":"10.1179/152991008790012907","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991008790012907","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"2008 1","pages":"171 - 190"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991008790012907","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65832487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Climate Change and Migrations of People during the Jin Dynasty","authors":"C. Chin","doi":"10.1179/152991008790012853","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1179/152991008790012853","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41624,"journal":{"name":"Early Medieval China","volume":"237 1","pages":"49 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2008-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1179/152991008790012853","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65832707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}