EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Premodern Literature 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 34 Borevskaya Nina (non affiliated) Specific Aspects of Literary Insertions’Modification (XVIth century novel “Xi Yangji”) Key words: China, premodern novel, prose composition 1. In this paper I develop a conclusion stated in my Ph.D. thesis (1970), that unlike previous novels, Lo Maodeng’s adventurous epic ( 三寶太監西洋記通俗演義 ) exploited a road of Zheng He maritime voyages as a string for episodes compiled from miscellaneous sources. I analyze why and how these old stories were compounded to create a new unity. 2. I concur that poetical incorporations were “intentionally modified” to apply the novel’s context (http://www.happycampus.com/doc/13108262 ), but highlight that while eluding references, the author afforded not just slight modernization of words or lines from famous poems of Tang, Song and Yuan peri- ods, but shaped new poems by free composition. I delineate the purpose of poetic insertions as an artistic expression and demonstration of author’s scholarship. 3. The role of prosaic incorporations was multifunctional. I assume that Lo was the pioneer in using geographic records in the novel. The very fact of Xiyang Ji publication in 1597 — only a century and a half after the voyages and some 50–70 years since its members’ main publications — much perplexed the task of structuring the novel. It resulted in a non-organic contamination of mythological fantasies with military, ethnographic and geographic documentary passages. Modification concerns the mode of narration (some data were exposed in the form of dialogs). Legends and novellas were incorporated with dramatic distor- tions — either as parenthesis or by transforming its actors into expedition participators (while changing their characters). I conclude that the main pathos of modifications lies in glorifying the heroes of a new age of geographic discoveries and the third estate heroes — handworkers (i. e. the modernization of the legend about Ch’in Shi Huang’s jade seal) and to parody the traditional generals and monks (by travestying canonic texts etc.). Cesarino Loredana (South University of Science and Technology of China) The Tang Courtesan of Pingkang District ( 平康妓 ) in Ming and Qing Sources Key words: Pingkang ji, Pei Siqian, Tang courtesans, Ming anthologies of women poetry, “Shi nüshi” Before the development of the printing culture, Chinese books were written, circulated and preserved in handwritten copies. Consequently, during their long transmission process, many texts have been altered either by casual mistakes or by intentional corrections and reinterpretation of contents made by copyists and editors of literary collections. As suggested by C. Nugent, “this is nowhere more true than in a man- uscript-based literary culture like the Tang (618–907) in which each reproduction had to be done by hand and depended on the unreliable tools of the eyes, ears, mouth, and memory. Textual reproduction resulted in textual change, whether intentional or otherwise, and created a very different kind of text from what we find in later print-based literary cultures” (Nugent, 2010). Starting from this assumption, this paper will discuss the textual changes that affected the story of the Tang anonymous courtesan of Pingkang district (Pingkang ji 平康妓 ) and the authorship of the poem “Pre- sented to Pei Siqian” 贈裴思謙 listed under her name in the Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 (1707). In the first part of this paper, the author will present literary evidence to prove that this poem has been actually written by the Tang scholar Pei Siqian 裴思謙 (jinshi 838). To do so, she will compare some sig- nificant passages extracted from primary sources published between the Tang 唐 and the Qing 清 dynasty (1644–1912), such as the “Beilizhi” 北里志 by Sun Qi 孫棨 (late 9th c.), the “Shi Nüshi” 詩女史 by Tian Yiheng 田藝衡 (born 1524), the “Mingyuan Shigui” 名媛詩歸 by Zhong Xing 鍾惺 (1574–1624) and the “Quan Tangshi”. In the second part of this paper, the author will discuss the textual manipulations that over the centuries altered the original anecdote about Pei Siqian and his poem, focusing mainly on the role played by the “Shi Nüshi” in transferring the authorship of these verses from the Tang scholar to the anonymous courtesan of the Pingkang district and, consequently, in the formation of Tang poetical canon.