Early Chinese Poetics in the Horizon of Memory: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Reflections in Cross-Civilisational Comparisons

Abstract

Memory has become one of the most influential concepts in European humanities and social sciences over the past three decades. It has been widely employed across an expanding range of disciplines and discourses, and interacts with traditional terminology and methodologies within the humanities. With the intensification of intellectual exchanges between overseas Sinology circles and the Chinese academia community in recent years, Western theories of memory have been extensively integrated into the study of classical Chinese texts. As a result, research on early Chinese poetics—exemplified by the Book of Songs (Shijing) —has entered an intensively interdisciplinary field. This article explores the theoretical trajectories, methodological orientations, and developmental trends that have shaped the study of "memory" within early Chinese poetics. By tracing the intellectual genealogies and academic contexts of both Chinese and Western traditions, it delineates the multiple dimensions and overall configuration of current memory-based paradigms in the field of early Chinese poetic studies.

Keywords

historical memory / cultural memory / orality and writing / the Book of Songs (Shijing)

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