2019 Vol. 2, No. 2

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The Orphan of Zhao: Joseph de Prémare in the Context of Traditional Chinese Drama
LI Sher-shiueh
2019, 2(2): 169-205.
Abstract:
In 1731, Joseph de Prémare, a French Jesuit, translated the Yuan play Zhao shi gu’er (The Orphan of Zhao). However, since his translation, titled Tchao-chi-cou-eull, ou Le petit orphelin de la Maison de Tchao, tragedie Chinoise, was published in 1735 in Jean Du Halde’s encyclopedic Description… de la Chine (1735), Prémare has faced harsh criticism. He has been charged with failing to translate the lyrics of the play on account of his insufficient knowledge of traditional Chinese drama. This paper argues for a re-evaluation of Prémare’s Tchao-chi-cou-eull by pointing out that according to his Notitia linguae sinicae (1728), Prémare was knowledgeable not only about Yuan drama but also about Li Yu’s Liweng shizhong qu. It also disputes the critical view of Prémare as having had failed to translate the lyrics of Tchao-chi-cou-eull based on several factors. First, Prémare did translate some four or five airs in the drama. Second, pursuant to his letter to the French Sinologist Étinne Fourmont, Prémare may have expected the latter to fill in the blanks by supplying translations of his own. Finally, Prémare had less than 10 days in which to translate the Tchao-chi-coueull before his ship was scheduled to leave China for France, and thus he did not have time to translate all the lyrics. Given these reasons, this paper argues that critics have been overly-hasty in their condemnation of Prémare’s translation, and that his text deserves more serious scholarly consideration and treatment.
[Abstract](438) [PDF 37212KB](282)
The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics
FENG Yi
2019, 2(2): 206-223.
Abstract:
In his book Pitch of Poetry, Charles Bernstein writes that his motto has long been Emily Dickinson’s“ Don’t you know that‘ No’ is the wildest word we consign to Language?”, indicating that his poetry resonates with the paradoxical meanings of“No” endowed by Dickinson. Bernstein’s poetry has a negative economy which is often simply interpreted as purely negative and misinterpreted. Zen and Taoism spread to America in the 1950s. Dr. D. T. Suzuki states that nothingness in Zen denotes not only negativity but also multiple possibilities. Similarly, in Taoism, nothingness is called the Tao, which can engender multiple particular entities and fullness in the universe. Bernstein claims that nothingness serves as a major and pivotal theme in his poetics. Nothingness in ZenTaoism plays an indispensable role in understanding fully Bernstein’s poetics and aesthetics. By interpreting some of Bernstein’s representative poems, I argue that the poetic nothingness in Bernstein’s poetry serves as not only an elegiac and negative force but also a positive force and a void for“pataquerical struggles” to be engendered in order to make poetics and aesthetics expand to the infinity. Moreover, Bernstein’s poetic nothingness is the amalgamation of American literary tradition, American post-conceptual ideas, as well as the nothingness in Zen-Taoism. What is the most significant is that the poetic nothingness in Bernstein’s poetry expands the notion of “art for art’s sake” and showcases Bernstein’s transcendence of the paradox of art.
[Abstract](338) [PDF 16892KB](269)
Emily Dickinson’s Pivot of the Dao
Tom Patterson
2019, 2(2): 224-245.
Abstract:
More and more articles have been published encouraging the use of a Chinese lens on Dickinson’s poetry (e.g. Kang, Uno, Chen and Patterson). This paper will use a Daoist lens to show how her writing captures a multitude of often contradictory perspectives in a number of conceptual areas. Her embracing this wide range of perspectives, as viewed in the classic Daoist text, the Zhuangzi, reflects a search for greater knowledge. Dickinson graphically refers to this broad business of hers as“circumference.” While Emily Dickinson has been criticized by some for her“homelessness,” for her poems having no center, no whole, yet from a Daoist viewpoint this criticism can be recalibrated into words of praise. When viewed through a Daoist lens her perspectivism reveals her skepticism, and her ability to hold more than one perspective in mind at the same time, both ways of looking at the world that Daoists, as expressed in the Zhuangzi, view as characteristic of higher wisdom. From a Daoist point of view each perspective, rather than compounding contradictions, is more accurately viewed as additional spokes added to the wheel of perspectives, the circumference that she so often mentions.
[Abstract](369) [PDF 19648KB](1647)
Beauties in Qing Court Art: On Jiao Bingzhen’s Album of Classical Ladies
JIN Yingcun
2019, 2(2): 246-261.
Abstract:
As a court painter in Qing dynasty under the Manchu’s authority, Jiao Bingzhen created the Album of Classical Ladies, with its highly decorative style, mainly to serve as a visual pleasure for the Qing’s court. Yet, besides the basic quality of female being an object for the male’s beholding as a visual enjoyment, which is common throughout Chinese court arts, this album also reflects crossing-cultural elements including the introduction of western painting techniques, the tradition of paintings of beautiful women generated from the southern literati class, together with the rich, bright surface preferred by the Manchu aesthetics. This essay intends to explore the causes of the combinations as well as the transition of meanings in painting of beautiful women from a cultural level to the court’s establishment, thus, to better identify the aesthetic and political functions of this artwork in specific context.
[Abstract](352) [PDF 23284KB](270)
Misreadings and “Non-existent” Parody: Umberto Eco’s Critical Interpretation and His “Pragmatic” Writing
LU Yi
2019, 2(2): 262-288.
Abstract:
“ Parody” is an age-old phenomenon of writing. In the “ Preface” of Misreadings——a collection of experimental writings, Umberto Eco described the texts as“pastiche” and“parody.” Undoubtedly, Eco’s denomination inspires us to reconsider the definition of the“parody” in the context of the“ postmodern.” By examining the works of Linda Hutcheon and Mario J. Valdés, we can discuss the topic from the perspective of Typology and Hermeneutics. Besides, Margaret A. Rose’s Genealogy Study can help us to reconsider its contemporary meaning with perspective of etymology. On the other hand, both types of parodic writing collected in this book not only reflect the“critical interpretation” idea of Eco, but also offer a table for the idea to mediate the disagreements in the theories of Hutcheon and Valdés by the Semiotics and Reader Reception. In the meanwhile, the two kinds of parodic writing also enlighten the readers on the different phases of interpretative process for expecting them to become the“critical interpreter.” In this sense,“parody” is not just a phenomenon of writing as a literary technique, but an avant-garde creative writing practice in the field of Semiotics, as well as a means of historical reading with a critical intention in the process of interpretive activities.
[Abstract](337) [PDF 32007KB](281)
From “l’écart” to “common”: Discussion on François Jullien’s Communication between Chinese and Western Thoughts
DONG Shubao
2019, 2(2): 289-301.
Abstract:
From“ l’écart” to“ common,” François Jullien diligently catches their respective“unthought” between Chinese and European thoughts, and he hopes that he could seek the way out of ontology from Western philosophy in the 20th century. The new concepts of“l’écart” and“l’entre” created by François Jullien, are his theoretical fruit and tool of thought on the basis of his long-term philosophical research between China and Occident, and is also his generalization and summarization on the basis of carrying out concrete practice about Chinese thought research. To do so, he abandons the idea of difference from Derrida and Deleuze, and he replaces“difference” by“ l’écart,” making“ l’écart” produce“ l’entre” in order to seek an understandable“common,” enabling Chinese and European thoughts to look at each other, take advantage of each other, and communicate with each other. François Jullien explores the philosophical question“how to think” between “Being” in Western philosophy and“life” in Chinese thought, and finally moves towards the communication between Chinese and Western thought and culture.
[Abstract](350) [PDF 11444KB](273)
The Construction of “Xing”: The Directness of Moral Phenomenological Intentionality
LI Zhichun
2019, 2(2): 302-320.
Abstract:
“Xing” is rarely seen in western language expression, but it is common in Chinese poetry language. The difference between Chinese and Western poetry in language is actually the difference in thinking and being of mode. The unique of“Xing” has been revealed since from the time that Confucius changed Xing from a general name to a specific name and even Wang Fuzhi revealed his essential characteristics. From such a perspective, “Xing” is“the directness of moral phenomenological intentionality”: The so-called“ directness of phenomenological intentionality” means that its intentionality (construction) is carried out directly in intuition, not through the space-time form and logical category of Kant’s theory.“Morality” here demonstrates that this kind of thinking is different from Husserl’s theory and it is not cognitive but valuable. Its creative“moral subject” points to all things in the universe, endows them with“meaning” and creates the existence of “value meaning.” At the same time, although there is no space and time in the form of creation, there is“space and time” in the content of being: The content of“time” is that people always endow their unfolding lives of time to the world, where the world’s constant changing is representative of unfolding life; The“space” in content is not the“physical space,” but the“meaning space” through wihch people deal with things. Although its expression on distance is not precise, it has the meaning of life, which is the essence of “Xing” and explains why“Xingfa” is possible.
[Abstract](297) [PDF 19719KB](277)
Chinese Perspectives in French Comparatism
ZHANG Yinde
2019, 2(2): 321-332.
Abstract:
China is increasingly integrated into French comparatism, thanks to the rise of the country and its cultural renewal. This study attempts to present the dynamism peculiar to this phenomenon. The paper first recalls the roles played by historical factor and institutional changes in the configuration of the field. Next, it focuses on the three most fertile areas of development: literary relationships, thematic studies, and comparative poetics. By examining recent findings and trends, the aim is to highlight some aspects characterizing the Sino-Western comparatism abroad, which is subject to contextual inflection.
[Abstract](369) [PDF 10053KB](352)
Biennial Report on Chinese Comparative Literature Studies (2017-2018)
JI Jianxun
2019, 2(2): 335-362.
Abstract:
This paper presents a general review of Chinese comparative literature studies in 2017-2018. The report includes the following contents: a retrospection of Chinese comparative literature studies for the past 40 years and its future prospects; development trends of Chinese comparative literature studies in the biennium 2017-2018; academic activities and publications; Chinese-foreign literary relationship studies; comparative poetics; literary anthropology and world minority literature studies; international sinology and overseas Chinese literature studies; translation studies; and interdisciplinary studies. Through these topics, I seek to highlight emergent issues as well as scholars’ reflections on and resolutions of those issues.
[Abstract](355) [PDF 25880KB](288)
Problem Domain and Methodology of Comparative Literature Studies: Interview with Professor Yang Huilin
YANG Huilin, WU Jian
2019, 2(2): 365-276.
Abstract:
Professor Yang Huilin expounds his views on the problem domain and methodology of comparative literature studies by answering questions on the topics of interdisciplinary research based on his research experience of the comparison of theology and humanities, scriptural reasoning, etc. Yang believes that comparative literature needs to find productive and instrumental concepts instead of only adopting descriptive ones. In this respect, the study of Ereignis by Western scholars such as Heidegger may bring us useful inspiration. Yang also believes that the discipline construction of comparative literature does not have to rush to establish the“Chinese school,” and that comparative literature is more like a problem domain. More importantly, it is necessary to stimulate unique problem awareness and research methods through comparative research.
[Abstract](360) [PDF 11281KB](288)
John Pomfret, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present
Lee Moore
2019, 2(2): 379-380.
Abstract:
[Abstract](403) [PDF 2620KB](310)
Patrick Hanan, trans., Quelling the Demons’ Revolt: A Novel from Ming China. Attributed to Luo Guanzhong. Introduced by Ellen B. Widmer and David Der-wei Wang
WANG Ke
2019, 2(2): 381-386.
Abstract:
[Abstract](306) [PDF 6048KB](346)
Andrew H. Plaks. Archetype and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Chamber. Translated by XIA Wei
WU Ke
2019, 2(2): 387-391.
Abstract:
[Abstract](339) [PDF 4460KB](277)
XIE Zhichao. The Writer of Liberal Tradition: Jack Kerouac
DONG Botao
2019, 2(2): 392-394.
Abstract:
[Abstract](282) [PDF 2796KB](278)
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