EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Premodern History 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 120 Tianwen suanfa 天文算法 (astronomy and mathematics) and shushu 術數 (divinatory and numerological techniques), between the practical and the speculative. It shows that numerical knowledge in the Song-Yuan period was defined in broader terms and circulated in a wider intellectual arena. Hrubý Jakub (Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences) Necrology of Empress Yang and the Life of an Empress in Medieval Sources Key words: legitimation, Jinshu, Jin Dynasty, Zuo Fen, idealized empress The Biography of Empress Yang of the Jin Dynasty (3rd century AD) which forms a part of the Biogra- phies of the Empresses and Imperial Consorts in the Jinshu 晉書 and the Necrology composed by Zuo Fen 左芬 after the death of Empress Yang which is incorporated into the same chapter of the Jinshu provide a rare glimpse into the way the images of imperial icons were formed as well as into the complex factors influencing the compilation. While the Necrology is presumably a contemporary text, the Jinshu was com- piled only some three hundred years later at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Yet, the basic features of the depiction of Empress Yang’s life are the same. Being the first “model” history compiled by the newly founded History Office, the Jinshu offers a highly idealized portrait of a model empress, whose life is pre- sented as a sequence of events illustrating all the virtues ascribed to an empress as an exemplary woman and wife, thereby offering moral guidance. Surprisingly, Zuo Fen’s text is written in much the same vein, albeit for different reasons. Her highly formal and ritualized expression of grief aimed at winning the favour of the emperor through cunning assertions of dynastic and imperial legitimacy depict the deceased woman not as a human being, but as the ideal Empress worthy of the name. I would argue that it was precisely this formal lifeless quality of the Necrology, devoid of any personal traits, which appealed to the Tang compil- ers, who turned the text into a useful tool, which deepened the normative and educational message of the whole chapter on imperial spouses. Establishing the normalcy and resurrecting the Confucian orthodoxy was perceived as essential after centuries of political and social irregularities. Hüsemann Jörg Henning (Leipzig University) Old Texts and New Realities — Writing History in the Shuijing zhu of Li Daoyuan Key words: Shuijing zhu, Li Daoyuan, Northern Wei, nostalgia, preserving the past Regarded as one of the “Three Books of the Northern Dynasties” (Bei chao san shu 北朝三書 ) the Shuijing zhu 水經注 of Li Daoyuan 酈道元 (?–527) is no doubt one of our most important sources for our knowledge of the period of division. Traditionally the text is labeled as a commentary to the Shuijingwhichwas finished shortly after the Three Dynasties (220–265) at the earliest. In the preface to his influential Wangshi hejiao Shuijing zhu 王氏合校水經注 , the Qing scholarWang Xianqian 王先謙 (1842–1918) sees Li Daoyuan’s approach as a way to preserve antiquity (cun gu 存古 ) by using the rivers as a basic framework. Connected to a geographical place, the author portrays and discusses topics like historical geography, historical events and persons, anthropology, architecture and religion — the mirabilia of a geographical place — in the majority of the cases rather briefly. In the Shuijing zhu’s descriptions numerous architectural remains like cities, bridges, inscribed stone steles, and graves were in different stages of decay or already destroyed and lost. Since often he compared past accounts with the present situation of the outer world, Li Daoyuan developed a clear understanding of the break between antiquity and presence. In a quite nostalgic way he laments about the losses of objects of cultural value and hence former cultivated times. The glorious past, now rotten and lost, becomes a projection screen in light of the present chaotic times. The notion of change, omnipresent throughout Li Daoyuan’s whole text, must have made it clear to him that also the material culture of his own times was only ephemeral. Moreover, the changes made it hard for him to gather clear historical knowledge TakingWang Xianqian’s idea of preserving as a point of departure, I will discuss in my presentation how Li Daoyuan perceived bygone times, which possibilities he had to gather knowledge about the past and how he composed his materials to create a trustworthy record.