EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Premodern Literature 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 40 time, and significantly influenced later views on the 1402 usurpation. From a quasi-historical record, Cheng Ji’s text grew into a major novel, Sequel to the Record of Heroes and Martyrs (Xu yinglie zhuan 續英烈傳 ), and entered several popular collections of vernacular stories. In different texts, Cheng Ji assumes various guises: he appears as a court official, a Confucian loyalist, a Daoist practitioner, and a military general. By examining the above-mentioned materials in light of late Ming publishing culture, this paper investigates the social and cultural momentum that propelled the transformation of Cheng Ji from a historically obscure figure into a multifarious popular character in the textual world of seven- teenth-century China. I argue that studying Cheng Ji’s transformation enables us not only to scrutinize the power of falsification, imitation, and literary reconfiguration, but also to reassess the dissemination of stories in this period and to recognize the porousness of the epistemological boundaries separating history, fiction and popular knowledge. Liu Peng (Columbia University) Bringing Demons Under Control: Moral Agency in the Ming Novel Key words: demons, rebellion, fiction, the Mysterious Woman, moral agency The late Ming writer Feng Menglong’s (1574–1646) forty-chapter novel “The Three Sui Quash the Demons’ Revolt” (San Sui pingyao zhuan 三遂平妖傳 ) is based on the twenty-chapter namesake produced in the early Ming dynasty. The namesake novel can be called a folly and consequences story, which features a chain of comic events and lacks moral sense. Feng’s rewrite of this novel includes more supernatural beings and features the divine intervention of the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian Xuannü) in human affairs. More importantly, Feng used this Daoist goddess to frame the narrative, portraying her as a divine moral agent who helps subjugate demons and ultimately brings chaos under control. Through comparing Feng’s version with its predecessor, this paper argues that Feng’s work is not so much a patchwork to improve the previous story-telling as it is a significant rewrite in which the writer created a divine authority to establish a sense of right and wrong. In bringing the demons under her control, the Mysterious Woman, as a divine authority, maintains the advantage of the imperial court. Her appearance in Feng’s novel mediates moral tensions in the previous version of the story. I also show that by the time Feng wrote his novel, the Mysterious Woman had officially become a celestial protectress of the state. Feng’s appropriation of her story verifies the worship of this Daoist goddess by the Ming court. Lucas Aude (Research Center of East Asian Civilizations (CRCAO), Paris Diderot University) Transgressive Yet Tender: How Sons Rebel Against Their Fathers in Pu Songling's “Liaozhai zhiyi” Key words: disobedience, Oedipus, patriarchy, ambivalence, identification “Rebellious” is the word that best characterizes sons in two “Liaozhai’s Records of the Strange” (Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋誌異 ) tales by Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640–1715), “Yue Zhong” 樂仲 (Lz 442) and “Egui” 餓鬼 (Lz 240). Both stories involve sons who constantly transgress religious teachings or judiciary rules. This rebellious attitude results from a dissatisfaction they suffer because they cannot enjoy a particular object: one is deprived from his mother because of her Buddhist devotion, the other is prevented by law from giving free rein to his bad habits. Buddhism and the judiciary thus appear as authorities that assume paternal roles. Sons are entangled in what could be deemed a typically “Oedipal” situation, in which they relentlessly keep rebelling against everything that represents the father. Even bodily marks appear, symbolizing their attachment to the passions that go along with youth and the urge to violate laws. On the other hand, their demeanor sometimes tends to be obedient: sons try to please the father by succeeding in the examinations or by fulfilling a Buddhist pilgrimage. Sons’ behaviors are thus deeply ambivalent as they construct their identity both by infringing the paternal law and by identifying with it at the same time. Besides, these stories show how rebellious sons become fathers themselves. How then do they shoulder the fatherly responsibili-