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- All Subjects: Asian Literature
- Genre: Academic theses
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Bokenkamp, Stephen
Description
This thesis examines the play Qian Dayin zhichong Xie Tianxiang, written by the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) playwright Guan Hanqing (c.1225-1302). The first chapter of this paper provides brief background information about northern style Yuan drama (zaju) as well as a plot summary and notes about the analysis and translation. Through a close reading of the play, I hope to illustrate how the play's complicated ending and lack of complete resolution reveals why it has received relatively little attention from scholars who have previously discussed other strong, intelligent female characters in Guan Hanqing's plays. The second chapter of this thesis includes translation of the play that is comprised of a wedge preceding the four acts. Before each act of the play is a critical introduction and analysis of the act to follow. Although many of Guan Hanqing's plays have been translated into English, this play has never been translated.
ContributorsByrnes, Kelli (Author) / West, Stephen H. (Thesis advisor) / Zou, Yu (Committee member) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This thesis hopes to propose a new hypothesis about the origin of Chinese heptasyllabic poetry. Although there are numerous academic discussions in the existing poetic narrative, few of them have noticed the possible effect of the Celestial Master Daoism. Based on the literary analysis and formal comparison, this thesis first finds that, during the time Cao Pi曹丕 created his “Yange xing,” the first literati heptasyllabic poem, “cypress beam genre” (boliang ti柏梁體) poetry – the earliest form of heptasyllabic poetry – was already a normal, fixed, and mature poetic form within the community of Celestial Master Daoism. Therefore, Celestial Master Daoism’s mastery of boliang ti poetry and their intensive and frequent composition highly likely motivated Cao Pi, the new Wei ruler who took over the populace of Celestial Master Daoism and had a close relationship with Zhang Lu’s張魯 family, to learn and introduce this poetic form into his own poetic creation. Then, this thesis also traces this poetic form back to suburban sacrifice songs in the Han dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu, the prototype of boliang ti poetry appeared in suburban sacrifice songs created to express worship to heavenly and earthly deities. Hence, when the Celestial Master Daoism became the inheritor of regional power (mainly in Sichuan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi of today’s China) of the Han empire and hoped to establish their own regime, they created their own ritual texts by modeling after Han suburban sacrifice songs. In so doing, they demonstrated their legitimacy and exclusivity by connecting the regime itself with Dao.
ContributorsBai, Haihan (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Klein, Lucas (Committee member) / Williams, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The production of “separate collections” (bieji 別集) or collected works in China is a social practice that emerged between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. This research focuses on how the practice developed over the course of the Song dynasty (960-1279) in terms of literary materials involved, competences required, associated meanings, and its links to other social practices. I examine extant collected works, descriptions of them, and contemporary feedback on their production to create a series of snapshots that reveal its trajectory over time. Surveying the emergence of the practice in the early imperial period through its development in medieval times shows that pre-Song dynasty production of collected works was the result of several pre-existing conditions: competences related to bookmaking, the emergence of the idea of the inscription of authorial personality in literary works, the elevated status of belles-lettres, and several pre-existing tropes that lent it increasing importance. As the practice began recruiting scholars in 1020, it underwent a series of changes: attention to loss and variation between editions gave way to the search for missing works and the production of increasingly complete and authentic editions. This was followed in 1080 by several innovations, including the organization of works literary according to chronological order, rhyme, or topical category and insertion of annotations and a chronological biography. After 1180, compilers began synthesizing the accomplishments of previous editions to make editions that featured multiple annotators arranged in increasingly sophisticated ways for a new readership that were strongly associated with commercial printing. I identify six varieties of the production of the collected works of Song authors, each with distinct aims and associations that differed with respect to elements of practice, the practitioners they recruited, and how they linked with other social practices toward larger social goals. Findings contribute to Chinese book history by contextualizing change in formalistic trends over time. Identified as a social practice, the account of change and variation in the compilation of collected works during the Song presented in this research adds unique perspective to the subject of social change in this pivotal period of Chinese history.
ContributorsBilling, John Samuel (Author) / Oh, Young (Thesis advisor) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Committee member) / West, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
As many modern scholars have warned, the complexity of Tang narratives is far
beyond the reach of Lu Xun’s twentieth-century generic labels. Therefore, we should have
an acute awareness of the earlier limiting view of these categorizations, and our research
should transcend the limitations of these views in regard to this extensive corpus or to being
confined to rigid and meager reading of the richness of the stories. This dissertation will
use a transdisciplinary methodology that incorporates both history and literature in close
reading of seven Tang tales composed in the mid-to-late Tang eras (780s–early 900s), to
break the boundaries between the two generic labels, chuanqi and zhiguai, and unearth
significant configurations within these literary texts that become apparent only through
stepping across genre.
beyond the reach of Lu Xun’s twentieth-century generic labels. Therefore, we should have
an acute awareness of the earlier limiting view of these categorizations, and our research
should transcend the limitations of these views in regard to this extensive corpus or to being
confined to rigid and meager reading of the richness of the stories. This dissertation will
use a transdisciplinary methodology that incorporates both history and literature in close
reading of seven Tang tales composed in the mid-to-late Tang eras (780s–early 900s), to
break the boundaries between the two generic labels, chuanqi and zhiguai, and unearth
significant configurations within these literary texts that become apparent only through
stepping across genre.
ContributorsLiu, Qian (Author) / West, Stephen H. (Thesis advisor) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Cutter, Joe R (Committee member) / Tillman, Hoyt C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Based on literary works produced by the multiethnic literati of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), this dissertation examines Chinese conceptions of the Steppe world in the early years of the Mongol era (1206–1260). As I show, late Jin literati, who took arduous journeys in the Eurasian Steppes, initiated transcultural communications between the Chinese and Steppe worlds. Their writings encouraged more Chinese literati to reach out to the Mongols and hence facilitated the spread of the ideal Confucian-style governance to the Mongol empire. In general, I follow the approach of New Historicism in analyzing poetic works. Even though the Mongol conquest of China damaged many northern literary texts, materials surviving from the thirteenth century still feature a great diversity. I brought historical records and inscriptions on stela to study the social conditions under which these literary works were produced. This dissertation aims to contribute a new voice to the ongoing effort to modify the traditional linear understanding of the development of Chinese literary tradition.
ContributorsWen, Zuoting (Author) / West, Stephen H. (Thesis advisor) / Tillman, Hoyt C (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Brown, Claudia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
This dissertation focuses on the unique construction of cultural identity in Yuan and Ming Dynasty zaju drama. In the three zaju plays examined in this dissertation, a multiethnic China is portrayed with theatrical characters from both Han and non-Han cultures interacting closely in both public and private spheres, negotiating cultural identities and power. This process involves performing different cultural identities, invoking different norms and negotiating for status in different social contexts. The fluidity of cultural identities in these plays arises because they can be performed through scripts and stage directions. The first chapter investigates the Yuan zaju play Tiger Head Plaque in a late Ming edition, which portrays cultural identities by addressing the different orders of nomadic aristocracy and Chinese imperial bureaucracy. Misperceptions of one’s social roles in public and domestic spheres are attributed to a mindset shaped by Jurchen aristocracy. The Jurchen people who established an empire in China must properly assume both official and family roles to ensure the orderly functioning of bureaucratic and private systems within the society, rather than allowing them to interfere with each other. The second chapter explores the Yuan zaju play Purple Cloud Courtyard, which displays a self-awareness of theatricality by blurring the lines between performance and real-life actions. The play uniquely treats the trope of “theater” by emphasizing that every act is a performance. However, this does not imply that everything is false like theater. Instead, authenticity can be achieved through emotional exchanges, making the performances authentically resonant. The third chapter investigates the Ming zaju play Meteor Steed, which depicts the negotiation of cultural identities through the deliberate choice of language in a cross-cultural marriage. The intentional use of their native languages by both parties serves as a performative act that engages their respective cultural orders, allowing them to compete for a leading position in the marriage by assuming and altering roles. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights how the Yuan and Ming zaju theater highlights the construction of identities as performance entailing fluidity of cultural identities.
ContributorsLiu, Mi (Author) / Ling, Xiaoqiao (Thesis advisor) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Oh, Young Kyun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024