Yutai xinyong 玉台新咏 (The Original Poetic Compositions in The Jeweled Palace) is an overwhelmingly important anthology of poetry that was passed down from the period of the Six Southern dynasties (Liuchao 六朝). In the Song dynasty founded by the House of Zhao it was said that the anthology was compiled by Xu Ling 徐陵, and this point of view has thereupon been taken universally since the Yuan and Ming periods. In this article after the “Preface” (“Yutai xinyong xu” 玉台新咏序) by Xu Ling comes under rigorous scrutiny, a reasonable interpretation is brought to light, where it may have been revealed unmistakably in the “Preface” that the anthology was compiled by a beautiful imperial concubine who had basked in the supreme favor with the emperor, and possessed formidable talent. The present author works on the research studies to prove that it is unlikely for the viewpoint implied in the “Preface” to have been an artful pretext for the editorship. And to judge from the matters of the empresses and concubines in the Liang and Chen imperial harem, a valid conclusion follows in the research studies, where Yutai xinyong is most likely to have been edited by Lady Zhang Lihua 张丽华 (?–CE 589), the imperial concubine of the Last Emperor of Chen (Chen houzhu 陈后主) (CE 553–604). And in addition, to centre around the focal point, the close investigations have, in this connection, been pursued into such crucial questions as the editions of the anthology and the accounts written in former times of the anthology, so that further clarification could be given to break down the popular misconception about the editorship of the anthology.
The description concerning the foreign affairs and exotic imagination in the vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties, in a way, reveal the Chinese people’s vision of the world, which does not only lend a vivid note on the contemporaneous Sino-foreign relationship and its challenge to the traditional society, but also provides an interesting proof for attesting the “others’ perspective” found at the core of contemporary culture theory. This text expounds the historical and cultural contexts of such description and imagination, especially those of Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. It makes clear that the exotic areas described in fiction do not necessarily equal to those of real countries existing now. Only after the Qing dynasty, did Chinese fiction begin to give clear features of foreign countries and fully exhibit their literary values. So the change of exotic imagination is the landmark between ancient and modern fictions.
Based on historical documents concerning reprinted or illustrated editions of Ming-Qing popular fictions and the sequels to some of them, this article presents a study of the widespread use of typographic and lithographic printing in Shanghai between 1874 and 1911 and the dissemination of Ming-Qing popular fictions. The advent and widespread use of typographic and lithographic printing had both positive and negative effects on the dissemination of Ming-Qing popular fictions, which finalized the transformation of Chinese fiction written in the colloquial style from traditional popular fiction to new fiction or modern fiction in the late Qing period.
As the greatest event in the historical development of Chinese literature in the 20th century, May Fourth literary revolution expedites the transition of the Chinese literature from tradition to modernity by advocating the reforms in literary concepts, genres and language. The so-called Tongcheng School which lasts more than two hundred years in the Qing dynasty turns out to be a sacrifice in the old and new conflicts of the literary revolution at the turn of the 20th century. The paper attempts to explore further the conflicts and difficulties during the process of this transition by analyzing the late Tongcheng School and its conflicts with the May Fourth new literature in the hope of deepening the understanding of the literary innovation.
The new vernacular, a literary language that narrows the gap between written and oral language, has played a vital role in the past more than four score years since its birth in the May Fourth new literature. However, the evaluation towards the new vernacular is still controversial and uncertain due to the constraints of research documents that can be available or because of the prejudice and stereotyped opinions held by scholars. This paper is written to explore the origin, features and some debates concerning the new vernacular and propose my personal views for the purpose of furthering this study in this field.
The late Qing revolution saw the rise of the Poetic Revolution. Although its proponents did not succeed in breaking away from the constraints of the prosody of old poetry, the Poetic Revolution paved the way for the May Fourth New Poetry Revolution. The new poetry of the Poetic Revolution was produced against the background of the Opium War, and this historical context determined its goals and values. Ultimately, the emphasis it gave to how new poetry could serve Chinese society proved the stumbling block in its development. New poetry was caught in a conflict between form and content, between tradition and modernity, between the West and China, and between the prosody of classical “old poetry” and the free verse of new poetry.
Since 1990s, the phenomenon of the urbanization has determined the shift of focus in the creation of Chinese local novels. In the cultural conflicts between agricultural civilization, industrial civilization and post industrial civilization, the connotation of Chinese local literature have extended to reflect the life of farmers who have walked out their hometown and worked in the city. This topic has become an unneglectable resource for Chinese writers. At the same time, to reflect the wandering state of the body and soul of migrant workers also enlarged the border of local literature.