Wallace Welcome Page / Announcements / EA105 Summer 2013

 

LEGEND

❖ Testable topics and materials
◊ Other topics and materials
✓ To be completed by class time

text

Premodern texts & concepts: China

*This Web page is related to multiple class sessions.

Topics

*No class period covers all of these topics. Some versions of this course will skip some of the below topics.

Terms
❖ caizi-jiaren (才子佳人 scholar-beauty) narratives
❖ qing (情, love, erotic love)
❖ wuxing (五行, five elements, five movements)

Texts
❖ Story of the Stone • Dream of the Red Chamber (Shitouji 石頭記 • Honglou Meng 紅樓夢) by the once-wealthy scholar Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹, 1715?–63, Qing dynasty)
❖ "The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu" (8th c., Tang dynasty)

About Topics Summer 2013: All the terms are relevant. Stone is required. "Hou Xiaoyu" is optional.

About the topics of these sessions*

General comment

Story of the Stone has a large cast of characters. The stories of each of these characters are interspersed (that is, pieces of each of the stories appears in various chapters rather than isolated in specific chapters). Although we are going to read Volume 1 in full (26 chapters), in all cases place the emphasis on the romantic events related to this triad of individuals: Bao-yu, Dai-yu, Bao-chai and romantic events related to Xi-feng. In addition (if this is a regular term course, not summer), for our purposes, the story of Qin Shi / Qin Ke-qing is important. (*If you are reading in Chinese and need to match up our English names of characters with the original names, see, on bSpace

This focus will help facilitate reading speed and bring your attention on what is relevant to this class. That being said, along the way there are some minor substories that are instructive to the author's view of romance and, if you are a strong reader, please pay attention to these as well (Aroma, Caltrop, Yuan-chun, Adamantina, "the Mattress" and so on).

The characters we track use various names, not just one. Here is a PDF that lists most of those basic names. It will be helpful to most of you for keeping track of who you are reading about. And, if you are reading in Chinese, it will help you convert to some of the unusual English names that we use: Characters to track in Story of the Stone, Volume 1.

Five elements (wuxing)

We discuss "worldviews" and how they set out different cause-and-effect models used in narratives. In this case we look at the "Five Elements" in Story of the Stone to consider the relationship between Baoyu, Daiyu and Baochai.

Qing

Qing is a key term for us. The main points of this session:

  • Qing (nasake in Japanese) is preeminently important to The Tale of Genji and many other premodern Japanese texts and remains important today
  • Qing is a broad, flexible term and means different things in different contexts in Chinese literature
  • Qing in Story of the Stone is, crudely speaking, of two varieties: "hard" qing (more along the lines of lust) and "soft" qing (represented by Baoyu's attitude. However, do not over-simplify this! It isn't quite that simple. Refer to the lecture content.

Vocabulary notes

caizi-jiaren (才子佳人 scholar-beauty): 才子, caizi is a young man of talent, usually terms of scholarship and worldly acumen; the 佳 jia of 佳人 jiaren means "good, auspicious, beautiful; delightful".

Required or suggested readings

Summer 2013 assignments:

  • Thu, June 6:
    • REQUIRED: Read with care and thought (we will be returning to the pattern described here over-and-over) Scholar-beauty stories - caizi jiaren (bSpace, PDF)
    • REQUIRED: Read with care and thought Story of the Stone
  • Recommended as short, entertaining, and a very different perspective than Stone:
    • "The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu" (eBrary, in: Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader—Tale 6)
  • Recommended if you are interested in the key concept of qing or history of words that describe emotions / mental states / character qualities, or if you had problems following my comments in lecture:
    • Love and Emotions
  • Recommended if you are interested in the five elements as a way to consider love triangles or inter-presonal psychology, or as an unusual perspective for understanding Stone or because you did not follow the material given in lecture:
    • Deficiency of Yin in the Liver

Bibliography

Premodern texts

  • Story of the Stone Vol. One.
    • Core course text
  • "The Tale of Huo Xiaoyu" (eBrary, in: Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader—Tale 6)
    • Additional reading in Chinese premodern fiction, from the Tang dynasty, about 800 years before Stone

About love in premodern Chinese texts

  • Scholar-beauty stories - caizi jiaren (bSpace, PDF)
  • "Eroticism in Late Ming, Early Qing Fiction: The Beauteous Realm and the Sexual Battlefield" by Keith McMahon in T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 73, Livr. 4/5 (1987), pp. 217-264 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/4528390)
  • "The Cult of Love in Some Texts of Ming and Qing Literature" by Paolo Santangelo in East and West, Vol. 50, No. 1/4 (December 2000), pp. 439-499 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/29757462)

About qing

  • Selections from Love and Emotions in Traditional Chinese Literature, edited by Halvor Eifring (Brill, 2004). (bSpace, PDFs)
    • Very interesting, solid analysis of qing, we cover the basics in class

About the five elements in Story of the Stone

  • "The 'Deficiency of Yin in the Liver': Dai-yu's Malady and Fubi in Dream of the Red Chamber" by Chi-hung Yim in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) , Vol. 22, (Dec., 2000), pp. 85-111 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/3109444)
    • Very interesting analysis of the Stone storyline based on the five elements, we cover the basics in class usually

Other, related to Story of the Stone

*UNDER CONSTRUCTION: If this red font phrase underneath the session title has not been erased it means something on this page is incomplete. Perhaps I want to recheck information or perhaps I haven't converted the page from the version of the previous class. It is available but should be taken dubiously.

*ABOUT THIS SESSION: My hope is that you look at this portion BEFORE a session. If there is content here it might help you focus on the main points of the day. However, I add various things here at various times. When I feel I haven't succeeded in class stating something clearly, I might restate it here. Of if it is a difficult concept in might be given in written form here. I will assume that you have read and rechecked for changes this session in preparation for any midterm or test.

Schedule:

M, June 17
Tu, June 18
W, June 19
Th, June 20

M, June 24
Tu, June 25
W, June 26
Th, June 27

M, July 1
Tu, July 2
W, July 3
Th, no class


Course theme: The interpretation of East Asian narrated romance (premodern and modern) through awareness of worldviews and select core values as context.

Course goals:

1) Deeper and more accurate interpretations of East Asian romantic narratives premodern and modern.

2) Vertical analysis (contemporary narratives compared to historical traditions) — As a necessary activity in working towards Goal #1, we try to take a measure of the place of premodern values (relevant to romance) in instances of modern East Asian cinema (with speculation of what this might suggest of society).

3) Horizontal analysis (comparison to one another of values in film and beyond of China, Korea and Japan) — As a derivative of #2, a comparison of China, Korea and Japan, finding differences and similarities worth noting.

Primary means to the goal: Disciplined interpretation & analysis constrained to specific method and rules that consider narratives within cultural context. Analysis is carried out through individual, team, and classwide exercises, reports, presentations & discussions. The class, therefore, is part lecture, part discussion and part workshop.

Course rules:

"all about love" "equal interest in the three countries" "beat average Joe" "subtle differences" "contribution to the class" "tolerance of others" "team cooperation" "narratives are not reality" "subtitles are the official language"