Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü
Identifieur interne : 000B07 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000B06; suivant : 000B08Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü
Auteurs : David JohnsonSource :
- The Journal of Asian Studies [ 0021-9118 ] ; 1981-02.
Abstract
The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.
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DOI: 10.2307/2054864
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<record><TEI wicri:istexFullTextTei="biblStruct"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title>Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title><author><name sortKey="Johnson, David" sort="Johnson, David" uniqKey="Johnson D" first="David" last="Johnson">David Johnson</name></author></titleStmt><publicationStmt><idno type="wicri:source">ISTEX</idno><idno type="RBID">ISTEX:E757889788A1BCA76015249D20353BA2469CF6AE</idno><date when="1981" year="1981">1981</date><idno type="doi">10.2307/2054864</idno><idno type="url">https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/fulltext.pdf</idno><idno type="wicri:Area/Istex/Corpus">000B07</idno><idno type="wicri:explorRef" wicri:stream="Istex" wicri:step="Corpus" wicri:corpus="ISTEX">000B07</idno></publicationStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct><analytic><title level="a">Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title><author><name sortKey="Johnson, David" sort="Johnson, David" uniqKey="Johnson D" first="David" last="Johnson">David Johnson</name></author></analytic><monogr></monogr><series><title level="j">The Journal of Asian Studies</title><title level="j" type="abbrev">J of Asian Stud</title><idno type="ISSN">0021-9118</idno><idno type="eISSN">1752-0401</idno><imprint><publisher>Cambridge University Press</publisher><pubPlace>New York, USA</pubPlace><date type="published" when="1981-02">1981-02</date><biblScope unit="volume">40</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">2</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="255">255</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="271">271</biblScope></imprint><idno type="ISSN">0021-9118</idno></series></biblStruct></sourceDesc><seriesStmt><idno type="ISSN">0021-9118</idno></seriesStmt></fileDesc><profileDesc><textClass></textClass><langUsage><language ident="en">en</language></langUsage></profileDesc></teiHeader><front><div type="abstract">The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.</div></front></TEI><istex><corpusName>cambridge</corpusName><author><json:item><name>David Johnson</name></json:item></author><articleId><json:string>07811</json:string></articleId><arkIstex>ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S</arkIstex><language><json:string>eng</json:string></language><originalGenre><json:string>research-article</json:string></originalGenre><abstract>The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.</abstract><qualityIndicators><score>9.172</score><pdfWordCount>10576</pdfWordCount><pdfCharCount>56465</pdfCharCount><pdfVersion>1.4</pdfVersion><pdfPageCount>17</pdfPageCount><pdfPageSize>483.12 x 737.28 pts</pdfPageSize><refBibsNative>true</refBibsNative><abstractWordCount>181</abstractWordCount><abstractCharCount>1118</abstractCharCount><keywordCount>0</keywordCount></qualityIndicators><title>Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title><pii><json:string>S0021911800078116</json:string></pii><genre><json:string>research-article</json:string></genre><host><title>The Journal of Asian Studies</title><language><json:string>unknown</json:string></language><issn><json:string>0021-9118</json:string></issn><eissn><json:string>1752-0401</json:string></eissn><publisherId><json:string>JAS</json:string></publisherId><volume>40</volume><issue>2</issue><pages><first>255</first><last>271</last><total>17</total></pages><genre><json:string>journal</json:string></genre></host><ark><json:string>ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S</json:string></ark><categories><inist><json:string>1 - sciences humaines et sociales</json:string><json:string>2 - bgi / prodig</json:string></inist></categories><publicationDate>1981</publicationDate><copyrightDate>1981</copyrightDate><doi><json:string>10.2307/2054864</json:string></doi><id>E757889788A1BCA76015249D20353BA2469CF6AE</id><score>1</score><fulltext><json:item><extension>pdf</extension><original>true</original><mimetype>application/pdf</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/fulltext.pdf</uri></json:item><json:item><extension>zip</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/zip</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/bundle.zip</uri></json:item><istex:fulltextTEI uri="https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/fulltext.tei"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title level="a">Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title></titleStmt><publicationStmt><authority>ISTEX</authority><publisher scheme="https://scientific-publisher.data.istex.fr">Cambridge University Press</publisher><pubPlace>New York, USA</pubPlace><availability><licence><p>Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981</p></licence><p scheme="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-G3RCRD03-V">cambridge</p></availability><date>1981</date></publicationStmt><notesStmt><note type="research-article" scheme="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-1JC4F85T-7">research-article</note><note type="journal" scheme="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</note></notesStmt><sourceDesc><biblStruct type="inbook"><analytic><title level="a">Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title><author xml:id="author-0000"><persName><forename type="first">David</forename><surname>Johnson</surname></persName><note type="biography">David Johnson is a Senior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.</note><affiliation>David Johnson is a Senior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.</affiliation></author><idno type="istex">E757889788A1BCA76015249D20353BA2469CF6AE</idno><idno type="ark">ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S</idno><idno type="DOI">10.2307/2054864</idno><idno type="PII">S0021911800078116</idno><idno type="article-id">07811</idno></analytic><monogr><title level="j">The Journal of Asian Studies</title><title level="j" type="abbrev">J of Asian Stud</title><idno type="pISSN">0021-9118</idno><idno type="eISSN">1752-0401</idno><idno type="publisher-id">JAS</idno><imprint><publisher>Cambridge University Press</publisher><pubPlace>New York, USA</pubPlace><date type="published" when="1981-02"></date><biblScope unit="volume">40</biblScope><biblScope unit="issue">2</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" from="255">255</biblScope><biblScope unit="page" to="271">271</biblScope></imprint></monogr></biblStruct></sourceDesc></fileDesc><profileDesc><creation><date>1981</date></creation><langUsage><language ident="en">en</language></langUsage><abstract style="normal"><p>The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.</p></abstract></profileDesc><revisionDesc><change when="1981-02">Published</change></revisionDesc></teiHeader></istex:fulltextTEI><json:item><extension>txt</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>text/plain</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/fulltext.txt</uri></json:item></fulltext><metadata><istex:metadataXml wicri:clean="corpus cambridge not found" wicri:toSee="no header"><istex:xmlDeclaration>version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"</istex:xmlDeclaration><istex:docType PUBLIC="-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v2.2 20060430//EN" URI="journalpublishing.dtd" name="istex:docType"></istex:docType><istex:document><article dtd-version="2.2" article-type="research-article"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JAS</journal-id><journal-title>The Journal of Asian Studies</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title>J of Asian Stud</abbrev-journal-title><issn pub-type="ppub">0021-9118</issn><issn pub-type="epub">1752-0401</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Cambridge University Press</publisher-name><publisher-loc>New York, USA</publisher-loc></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.2307/2054864</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="pii">S0021911800078116</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">07811</article-id><title-group><article-title>Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</article-title><alt-title alt-title-type="left-running">David Johnson</alt-title><alt-title alt-title-type="right-running">Epic and History in Early China</alt-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib><name><surname>Johnson</surname><given-names>David</given-names></name><bio><p>David Johnson is a Senior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.</p></bio></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><month>02</month><year>1981</year></pub-date><volume>40</volume><issue>2</issue><fpage seq="5">255</fpage><lpage>271</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981</copyright-statement><copyright-year>1981</copyright-year><copyright-holder>Association for Asian Studies, Inc.</copyright-holder></permissions><abstract abstract-type="normal"><p>The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.</p></abstract><counts><page-count count="17"></page-count></counts><custom-meta-wrap><custom-meta><meta-name>pdf</meta-name><meta-value>S0021911800078116a.pdf</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta><meta-name>dispart</meta-name><meta-value>Articles</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-wrap></article-meta></front><back><fn-group><fn id="fn01" symbol="1"><label><sup>1</sup></label><p><citation id="ref001" citation-type="book"><source>The Secular Scripture</source> (<publisher-loc>Cambridge</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Harvard University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1976</year>), pp. <fpage>6</fpage>, 7, 17</citation>. I am of course familiar with Jaroslav Průšek's “History and Epics in China and the West” (in his <italic>Chinese History and Literature</italic> [Dordrecht: Reidel, 1970], pp. 17–34; first published in <italic>Diogenes</italic> [Montreal] 42 [1963]). Průšek offers many sound insights into the relationship between epic and history in Greece, but his assimilation of historiography in China to the mode of lyric poetry is, in my opinion, fundamentally mistaken. Frye provides a far more persuasive intellectual model than Průšek or the theoreticians he relies on. The first chapter of Frye's book is especially brilliant and stimulating.</p></fn><fn id="fn02" symbol="2"><label><sup>2</sup></label><p><italic>The Secular Scripture</italic>, p. 8.</p></fn><fn id="fn03" symbol="3"><label><sup>3</sup></label><p>“Matter” (or <italic>matière</italic>) is used by scholars of medieval European literature to refer to the entire range of incidents and characters that came to be associated with King Arthur, with Charlemagne, or with ancient Rome (the <italic>matière de Bretagne, matière de France, matière de Rome).</italic> Wu Tzu-hsü is obviously far less important in Chinese literary tradition than Arthur or Charlemagne were in Europe, but it is extremely useful to have a word that refers specifically to all the stories, anecdotes, ideas, and so on that cluster around certain individuals or events. These systems of“stuff-material” seem to me a prime subject for future research.</p><p>Studies of the <italic>chanson de gate</italic>, the <italic>volksepos</italic>, and other medieval European epic genres have much to offer the student of early Chinese literature. A good introduction to the recent scholarly work is provided by <citation id="ref002" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Fisher</surname><given-names>John</given-names></name>, ed., <source>The Medieval Literature of Western Europe: A Review of Research, Mainly 1930 to 1960</source> (<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>New York University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1966</year>).</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn04" symbol="4"><label><sup>4</sup></label><p>Although the range of titles ought to preclude any accusation of cultural chauvinism, of “Orientalist” imposition of non-Chinese standards, let me say explicitly that I believe this question to be fundamentally different from questions like “Why was there no industrial revolution in China?” or even “Why did the Chinese produce no tragic drama?” The category of epic or saga is virtually universal; the others are not.</p></fn><fn id="fn05" symbol="5"><label><sup>5</sup></label><p>Compare the statement of the Chadwicks: <citation id="ref003" citation-type="book">“Our belief is that primary hero stories are contemporary, i.e., that the first stories which celebrate a hero's exploits are composed within living memory of the events” (<source>The Growth of Literature</source>, 3 vols. [<publisher-loc>Cambridge</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Cambridge University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1932</year>–40], 1:<fpage>215</fpage>)</citation>; quoted in <citation id="ref004" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Wailes</surname><given-names>Stephen</given-names></name>, “The <italic>Niebelungenlied</italic> as Heroic Epic,” in <name><surname>Oinas</surname><given-names>Felix</given-names></name>, ed., <source>Heroic Epic and Saga</source> (<publisher-loc>Bloomington</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Indiana University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1978</year>), p. <fpage>135</fpage>.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn06" symbol="6"><label><sup>6</sup></label><p><italic>Tso chuan</italic>, Chao 20, 30, 31; Ting 4; Ai 1, 11. See <citation id="ref005" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Legge</surname><given-names>James</given-names></name>, trans., <source>The Chinese Classics</source>, vol. <volume>5</volume>, <italic>The Ch'un Ts'ew with the Tso Chuen</italic> (<year>1872</year>; rpt. <publisher-loc>London</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Henry Frowde</publisher-name>, n.d.): <fpage>680B</fpage>–81A, 734B–35B, 737B, 755B–56A, 794B, 825B–26A</citation>. All material cited from <italic>Tso chuan</italic> is in these passages.</p></fn><fn id="fn07" symbol="7"><label><sup>7</sup></label><p><italic>Kuo yü (Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ed.</italic>), 19.216–19; <italic>chüan</italic> 20 and 21, passim.</p></fn><fn id="fn08" symbol="8"><label><sup>8</sup></label><p><italic>Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu</italic> (Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an ed.), 9a–9b; 14.8b–9a, Bb–14b;23.5b–7a.There is a German translation: <citation id="ref006" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Wilhelm</surname><given-names>R.</given-names></name>, trans., <source>Frühling und Herbst des Lü Bu We</source> (<publisher-loc>Jena</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>E. Diedrichs</publisher-name>, <year>1928</year>). 1928).</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn09" symbol="9"><label><sup>9</sup></label><p><italic>Shih chi, chüan</italic> 66, with supplementary information in <italic>chüan</italic> 31 and 41 (pp. 1461–72 and 1739–46 of the Chung-hua shu-chü ed.). <italic>Shih chi</italic> 66 is translated by <citation id="ref007" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Watson</surname><given-names>Burton</given-names></name> in his <source>Records of the Historian: Chapters from the <italic>Shih Chi</italic> of Ssu-ma Ch'ien</source> (<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Columbia University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1969</year>), pp. <fpage>16</fpage>–<lpage>29</lpage>.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn10" symbol="10"><label><sup>10</sup></label><p><italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu, chüan</italic> 3–5, with scattered material in <italic>chüan</italic> 7–9.</p></fn><fn id="fn11" symbol="11"><label><sup>11</sup></label><p>For a detailed analysis of the Wu Tzu-hsü story as presented in <italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic> and <italic>Yüeh chüeh shu</italic>, see my <citation id="ref008" citation-type="journal">“<article-title>The Wu Tzu-hsü <italic>Pien-wen</italic> and Its Sources: Part I</article-title>,” <source>Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies</source> <volume>40</volume>, <issue>1</issue> (June <year>1980</year>): <fpage>128</fpage>–43.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn12" symbol="12"><label><sup>12</sup></label><p>“The Wu Tzu-hsü <italic>Pien-wen</italic>, Part I,” n. 139.</p></fn><fn id="fn13" symbol="13"><label><sup>13</sup></label><p><italic>Wu Yüeb ch'un-ch'iu</italic> (Ssu-pu pei-yao ed.), 3.4a–4b; 4.11b.</p></fn><fn id="fn14" symbol="14"><label><sup>14</sup></label><p><italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu, 4.</italic> lb; 5.6a.</p></fn><fn id="fn15" symbol="15"><label><sup>15</sup></label><p><italic>Yüeh chüeh shu</italic> (Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ed.), 14.69.</p></fn><fn id="fn16" symbol="16"><label><sup>16</sup></label><p><italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic>, 10.9b, 5b–6a.</p></fn><fn id="fn17" symbol="17"><label><sup>17</sup></label><p>Some of the instances have already been pointed out. In addition, there are several cases where <italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic> is so dependent on an earlier source that its often faulty text can be corrected by comparison with that source. Comparison of <italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic>, 4.11a.3, with <italic>T so chuan</italic> (Legge), 758.11–12, shows that a passage has fallen out between yü and <italic>Ch'u</italic>, or between <italic>Ch'u</italic> and <italic>shih</italic>—a case of omission by <italic>homioteleuton</italic>, to use the technical text-critical term (where the copyist leaves out the material between two occurrences of a word in single passage). Garbled passages in 5.6b.9–7a. 13 can be corrected by comparison with <italic>Kuo yü</italic>, 19.218.10–219.3. Comparison of 3.6b.11 with <italic>Shih chi</italic> (Chung-hua shu-chü ed.), 31.1463.8, suggests that the second <italic>tsu</italic> is a duplication. And—as Hulsewè has also observed in <italic>T'oung pao</italic> 57 (1971): 165—3.3b.3 can be corrected by reference to <italic>Shih chi</italic>, 66.2173.6.</p></fn><fn id="fn18" symbol="18"><label><sup>18</sup></label><p><italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic>, 10.5a–5b.</p></fn><fn id="fn19" symbol="19"><label><sup>19</sup></label><p><citation id="ref009" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Ch'i-yu</surname><given-names>Ch'en</given-names></name>, ed., <source>Han Fei-tzu chi shih</source>, 2 vols. (rev. ed., <publisher-loc>Hong Kong</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Chung-hua shu-chü</publisher-name>, <year>1974</year>), 9.521, <fpage>554</fpage></citation>; <citation id="ref010" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Liao</surname><given-names>W. K.</given-names></name>, trans., <source>The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu</source> (<publisher-loc>London</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>A. Probsthain</publisher-name>, <year>1954</year>), <volume>I</volume>: <fpage>283</fpage>, 301–2.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn20" symbol="20"><label><sup>20</sup></label><p><citation id="ref011" citation-type="book"><name><surname>de Bary</surname><given-names>W. T.</given-names></name> <etal></etal>, eds. <source>Sources of Chinese Tradition</source> (<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Columbia University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1960</year>), pp. <fpage>270</fpage>–71, 272–73.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn21" symbol="21"><label><sup>21</sup></label><p><citation id="ref012" citation-type="book"><source>Early Chinese Literature</source> (<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Columbia University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1962</year>), p. <fpage>188</fpage>.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn22" symbol="22"><label><sup>22</sup></label><p><citation id="ref013" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Kierman</surname><given-names>Frank</given-names><suffix>Jr</suffix></name>., trans., <source>China in Antiquity</source> (<publisher-loc>Amherst</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>University of Massachusetts Press</publisher-name>, <year>1978</year>), p. <fpage>364</fpage></citation>. This is a translation of the 1963 revision of Maspéro's <italic>La Chine Antique</italic>, first published in 1927.</p></fn><fn id="fn23" symbol="23"><label><sup>23</sup></label><p>A late Ch'ing compilation of all known references to works dating from Later Han times.</p></fn><fn id="fn24" symbol="24"><label><sup>24</sup></label><p>A work in 8 <italic>p'ien</italic> called <italic>Wu Tzu-hsü</italic> is listed in the “Miscellaneous Philosophers” (<italic>tsa tzu</italic>) section of the <citation id="ref014" citation-type="book"><source>Han shu</source> catalogue (<publisher-loc>Peking</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Chung-hua shu-chü</publisher-name>, <year>1962</year>), p. <fpage>1740</fpage></citation>. This probably presented teachings attributed to Wu Tzu-hsü but could well have contained anecdotes of some complexity about his life as background for his ideas. In <italic>Hou Han yi-wen chih</italic>, we find in the “Miscellaneous Histories” (<italic>tsa shih</italic>) section an epitome of Chinese history called <italic>Ku chin chu</italic> which we are told recounted episodes like the one in which the evil Ch'in eunuch Chao Kao pointed at a deer and called it a horse, and in the “Historical Excerpta” <italic>(shih ch'ao</italic>) section there is listed a book called <italic>Tung li</italic>, which was a general history of China and included even trivial matters (Shih-yüan ts'ung-shu ed., 2.17a–18b, 26a–27a). Each of these could easily have contained material on Wu Tzu-hsü. <italic>Hou Han yi-wen chih</italic> also lists many biographies (2.63b ff.). Although all the titles listed have Han-time subjects, the genre must have been in existence for some time, and hence it is at least conceivable that there had been a biography of W u Tzu-hsü. (On early biographies, see also <italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, pp. 361–62). Finally, there are works concerning a particular locality or region, such as “Stories of the Elders of P'ei-kuo” <italic>(P'ei-kuo ch'i-chiu chuan</italic>) and “Accounts of Lu-kuo's Ancient Worthies” (<italic>Lu-kuo hsien-hsien chuan</italic>), which appear to have combined notices of famous or exemplary native sons with accounts of local traditions and customs (2.66b ff., esp. 67a. 10–11, 68b.2–3, 69b.2). If there were works of this sort for the Soochow or Hangchow areas, they could well have included material about Wu Tzuhsü. Indeed, such works could be among the ancestors of <italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic>.</p></fn><fn id="fn25" symbol="25"><label><sup>25</sup></label><p>On the Wu Tzu-hsü cult, see my <citation id="ref015" citation-type="journal">“<article-title>The Wu Tzu-hsü <italic>Pien-wen</italic> and Its Sources: Part II</article-title>,” <source>Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies</source> <volume>40</volume>, <issue>2</issue> (December <year>1980</year>): <fpage>472</fpage>–98.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn26" symbol="26"><label><sup>26</sup></label><p>Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968.</p></fn><fn id="fn27" symbol="27"><label><sup>27</sup></label><p><italic>The Local Cultures</italic>, pp. 438–46.</p></fn><fn id="fn28" symbol="28"><label><sup>28</sup></label><p><italic>The Local Cultures</italic>, pp. 446–48.</p></fn><fn id="fn29" symbol="29"><label><sup>29</sup></label><p><italic>The Local Cultures</italic>, p. 452.</p></fn><fn id="fn30" symbol="30"><label><sup>30</sup></label><p><italic>The Local Cultures</italic>, pp. 346–47.</p></fn><fn id="fn31" symbol="31"><label><sup>31</sup></label><p><italic>The Local Cultures</italic>, pp. 393–94.</p></fn><fn id="fn32" symbol="32"><label><sup>32</sup></label><p>The evidence for this conclusion is presented in my “The Wu Tzu-hsü <italic>Pien-wen</italic>, Part II.”</p></fn><fn id="fn33" symbol="33"><label><sup>33</sup></label><p>Maspéro's general position is given in <italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, pp. 357–65. It was first proposed in a paper on what he called “Le roman de Sou Ts'in,” <citation id="ref016" citation-type="book"><source>Études Asiatiques publées à l' occasion du vingt-cinquième anniversaire de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient</source> (<publisher-loc>Paris</publisher-loc>, <year>1925</year>), <volume>2</volume>: <fpage>127</fpage>–41</citation>. This was refined in a lecture given in 1929 called “Le roman historique dans la littéature Chinoise de l'Antiquité,” reprinted in his <citation id="ref017" citation-type="book"><source>Mélanges posthumes</source> (<publisher-loc>Paris</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Presses universitaires de France</publisher-name>, <year>1950</year>; rpt. 1967), <volume>3</volume>: <fpage>55</fpage>–<lpage>62</lpage>.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn34" symbol="34"><label><sup>34</sup></label><p><italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, p. 357. Neither “romance” nor “novel” is a good translation of <italic>roman</italic> in this context, so I have left it untranslated.</p></fn><fn id="fn35" symbol="35"><label><sup>35</sup></label><p><italic>Mélanges posthumes</italic>, 3: 61.</p></fn><fn id="fn36" symbol="36"><label><sup>36</sup></label><p>“Le Roman de Sou Ts'in,” p. 135.</p></fn><fn id="fn37" symbol="37"><label><sup>37</sup></label><p><italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, p. 360.</p></fn><fn id="fn38" symbol="38"><label><sup>38</sup></label><p><italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, p. 364.</p></fn><fn id="fn39" symbol="39"><label><sup>39</sup></label><p><citation id="ref018" citation-type="book"><source>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</source> (<publisher-loc>London</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Oxford University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1971</year>)</citation>; <citation id="ref019" citation-type="book"><source>Intrigues</source> (<publisher-loc>Ann Arbor</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>University of Michigan Press</publisher-name>, <year>1964</year>).</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn40" symbol="40"><label><sup>40</sup></label><p><italic>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</italic>, p. 15.</p></fn><fn id="fn41" symbol="41"><label><sup>41</sup></label><p><italic>China in Antiquity</italic>, p. 363.</p></fn><fn id="fn42" symbol="42"><label><sup>42</sup></label><p>His only detailed work concerns the <italic>Shih chi</italic> biography of Su Ch'in, and there he reasons from anachronisms, for which one can imagine a multitude of causes other than origin in a <italic>roman.</italic> He does not make it clear if his belief that other such works existed is also based on the presence of anachronisms or on other criteria.</p></fn><fn id="fn43" symbol="43"><label><sup>43</sup></label><p><citation id="ref020" citation-type="journal">“<article-title>Narratives in <italic>Tso chuan</italic></article-title>,” <source>Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies</source> <volume>37</volume>, <issue>2</issue> (<year>1977</year>): <fpage>323</fpage>–52.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn44" symbol="44"><label><sup>44</sup></label><p>“Narratives,” 350–51.</p></fn><fn id="fn45" symbol="45"><label><sup>45</sup></label><p>“Narratives,” 352.</p></fn><fn id="fn46" symbol="46"><label><sup>46</sup></label><p><italic>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</italic>, pp. 15 et seq.</p></fn><fn id="fn47" symbol="47"><label><sup>47</sup></label><p>“Narratives,” 343, 351.</p></fn><fn id="fn48" symbol="48"><label><sup>48</sup></label><p><citation id="ref021" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Hawkes</surname><given-names>David</given-names></name>, trans., <source>Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South</source> (<publisher-loc>Boston</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Beacon Press</publisher-name>, <year>1962</year>), p. <fpage>75</fpage></citation>. There are numerous other allusions to Wu Tzu-hsü in the “Nine Declarations,” e.g., pp. 64–65 and 80. Hawkes dates the “Nine Declarations” to around 250 b.c. (p. 59).</p></fn><fn id="fn49" symbol="49"><label><sup>49</sup></label><p>I am indebted to Michael Dalby's “Revenge and the Law in Traditional China,” forthcoming in the <italic>American Journal of Legal History</italic>, for this reference. The <italic>Kung-yang chuan</italic> is traditionally ascribed to Kung-yang Kao, who is said to have lived in the late fifth century b.c., but it was not put into written form until the middle of the second century b.c. (<citation id="ref022" citation-type="book"><source>Kanseki Kaidai</source>, <name><surname>Koson</surname><given-names>Kacsura</given-names></name> [<publisher-loc>Tokyo</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Meiji shoin</publisher-name>, <year>1922</year>], pp. <fpage>28</fpage>–<lpage>29</lpage></citation>; Legge, <italic>The Ch'un Ts'ew with the Tso Churn</italic> [cited n. 6], pp. 36–37). <italic>Ku-liang chuan</italic>, whose origins are even cloudier than <italic>Kung-yang chuan's</italic>, but obviously is closely related to it, contains a similar passage.</p></fn><fn id="fn50" symbol="50"><label><sup>50</sup></label><p><citation id="ref023" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Yüan</surname><given-names>Juan</given-names></name>, ed., <source>Shih-san ching chu-shu</source> (<year>1815</year>;rpt. <publisher-loc>Taipei</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Yi-wen Publishing</publisher-name>, 1965), <volume>7</volume>: <fpage>25</fpage>. 15a–16a.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn51" symbol="51"><label><sup>51</sup></label><p>3.4b–5a. The quoted passage is at 5a.2.</p></fn><fn id="fn52" symbol="52"><label><sup>52</sup></label><p><italic>Tso chuan</italic> (Legge), pp. 681A, 734B–35B; <italic>Lü-shih ch'un-ch' iu</italic> (cited n.8), 14.8b–9a; <italic>Shih chi</italic> (cited n. 9), 66.2173–74.</p></fn><fn id="fn53" symbol="53"><label><sup>53</sup></label><p><italic>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</italic> (Crump), p. 104.</p></fn><fn id="fn54" symbol="54"><label><sup>54</sup></label><p><italic>The-Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu</italic> (cited n. 19), 1: 229. <italic>Wu Yüeh ch'un-ch'iu</italic> also has a version of this episode, naming Chao Pass (3.3b.4–6).</p></fn><fn id="fn55" symbol="55"><label><sup>55</sup></label><p><italic>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</italic> (Crump), pp. 535; 145 and elsewhere; and 546–7.</p></fn><fn id="fn56" symbol="56"><label><sup>56</sup></label><p>D. C. Lau, trans., <italic>Mencius</italic> IB. 3.</p></fn><fn id="fn57" symbol="57"><label><sup>57</sup></label><p><italic>Kuo yü(citedn.7), 20.230.U;Han Fei-tzu chi shih</italic> (cited n. 19), 5.308, 6.394, 403; <italic>The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu</italic>, 1: 159, 211, 218. It is characteristic that one of the allusions in <italic>Han Fei-tzu</italic> (Liao 1.159) contains a reference to another incident—King Kou-chien consulting the Ta-P'eng tortoise oracle—that is mentioned nowhere else. Note that <italic>Shih chi</italic>, 41.1740, recounts Yüeh's offer to submit to Wu, but says nothing about Kou-chien's exile in Wu. Indeed, it seems to imply that the offer was not accepted.</p></fn><fn id="fn58" symbol="58"><label><sup>58</sup></label><p><italic>Chan-Kuo Ts'e</italic> (Crump), p. 135.</p></fn><fn id="fn59" symbol="59"><label><sup>59</sup></label><p><italic>The Complete Works of Han Fei Tzu</italic>, 1: 283, 301–2; <italic>Han Fei-tzu chi shih</italic>, 9.521, 554.</p></fn><fn id="fn60" symbol="60"><label><sup>60</sup></label><p>Such works could also have been put into written form at an early date, considering the intensely literary bent of early Chinese high culture. But narratives of the sort I have in mind would have been rather impressive literary achievements, and this makes the seeming absence of references to such works in Han and pre-Han texts rather hard to explain. The nonexistence of such references, however, is a point on which a good deal of further research needs to be done. And, in any case, I believe my argument holds regardless of whether these hypothetical narratives were written or oral.</p></fn><fn id="fn61" symbol="61"><label><sup>61</sup></label><p>I am departing from the usual definition of “epic,” but the characteristics I imagine these early works to have had—length, narrative coherence, stress on heroic action—seem to me to be at the heart of what we call epics. Many medievalists, such as <citation id="ref024" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Jackson</surname><given-names>W. T. H.</given-names></name>, call works such as the <italic>Chanson de Roland</italic>and the <italic>Niebelungenlied</italic>epics. (See his <source>The Literature of the Middle Ages</source> [<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Columbia University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1960</year>], p. <fpage>175</fpage>.)</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn62" symbol="62"><label><sup>62</sup></label><p>See <citation id="ref025" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Kierman</surname><given-names>Frank</given-names></name>, “Phases and Modes of Combat in Early China,” in <source>Chinese Ways in Warfare</source>, eds. <name><surname>Kierman</surname><given-names>Frank</given-names></name> and <name><surname>Fairbank</surname><given-names>John</given-names></name> (<publisher-loc>Cambridge</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Harvard University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1974</year>), pp. <fpage>62</fpage>–<lpage>63</lpage></citation>. Note also his remarks on the prevalence of warfare in <italic>Tso chuan</italic>, pp. 28–29. A good impression of the pervasiveness of warfare in Ch'un-ch'iu and Warring States times is provided by <citation id="ref026" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Hsu</surname><given-names>Cho-yun</given-names></name>, <source>Ancient China in Transition</source> (<publisher-loc>Stanford</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Stanford University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1965</year>), chap. 3, esp. tables 5 and 6</citation>. See also the remarks on the military in this period in <citation id="ref027" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Creel</surname><given-names>H. G.</given-names></name>, <source>The Origins of Statecraft in China</source>, <volume>I</volume> (<publisher-loc>Chicago</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>University of Chicago Press</publisher-name>, <year>1970</year>), chap. 10.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn63" symbol="63"><label><sup>63</sup></label><p>D. C. Lau, trans., <italic>Mencius</italic> IIIB.9.</p></fn><fn id="fn64" symbol="64"><label><sup>64</sup></label><p><italic>Shih chi</italic> (cited n. 9), 130.3319–20. Compare <citation id="ref028" citation-type="book"><name><surname>Watson</surname><given-names>Burton</given-names></name>, <source>Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Grand Historian of China</source> (<publisher-loc>New York</publisher-loc>: <publisher-name>Columbia University Press</publisher-name>, <year>1958</year>), p. <fpage>57</fpage>.</citation></p></fn><fn id="fn65" symbol="65"><label><sup>65</sup></label><p><italic>Sources of Chinese Tradition</italic> (cited n. 20), p. 257, quoting <italic>Han shu</italic> (Chung-hau shu-chu ed.), 56.2523.</p></fn></fn-group></back></article></istex:document></istex:metadataXml><mods version="3.6"><titleInfo><title>Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="alternative" contentType="CDATA"><title>Epic and History in Early China: The Matter of Wu Tzu-hsü</title></titleInfo><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">David</namePart><namePart type="family">Johnson</namePart><role><roleTerm type="text">author</roleTerm></role><description>David Johnson is a Senior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.</description></name><typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource><genre type="research-article" displayLabel="research-article" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-1JC4F85T-7">research-article</genre><originInfo><publisher>Cambridge University Press</publisher><place><placeTerm type="text">New York, USA</placeTerm></place><dateIssued encoding="w3cdtf">1981-02</dateIssued><copyrightDate encoding="w3cdtf">1981</copyrightDate></originInfo><language><languageTerm type="code" authority="iso639-2b">eng</languageTerm><languageTerm type="code" authority="rfc3066">en</languageTerm></language><abstract type="normal">The interconnected body of stories about Ch'un-ch'iu-Warring States times, known to most Chinese and embodied in a wide variety of verbal forms both oral and written, was a secular mythology—secular because it concerned men acting in the datable past, mythology because it was invested with a special authority for the culture at large. In my study of the sources and transmission of one small part of this mythology, the matter of Wu Tzu-hsii, I conclude that in the period down to the Former Han regional epics and hero stories were important vehicles for the transmission of Wu Tzu-hsü's story and of other stories like it. This part of Chinese verbal culture underwent a profound transformation during the imposition of centralized national rule in Ch'in and Han times. The epic tradition gradually disappeared and the old stories that survived were infused with a new meaning by historians who were driven by what can only be called a didactic imperative. Thus, epic was overwhelmed by history—China's secular scripture. The early literary versions of the matter of Wu Tzu-hsü provide compelling evidence of this.</abstract><relatedItem type="host"><titleInfo><title>The Journal of Asian Studies</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="abbreviated"><title>J of Asian Stud</title></titleInfo><genre type="journal" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</genre><identifier type="ISSN">0021-9118</identifier><identifier type="eISSN">1752-0401</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID">JAS</identifier><part><date>1981</date><detail type="volume"><caption>vol.</caption><number>40</number></detail><detail type="issue"><caption>no.</caption><number>2</number></detail><extent unit="pages"><start>255</start><end>271</end><total>17</total></extent></part></relatedItem><identifier type="istex">E757889788A1BCA76015249D20353BA2469CF6AE</identifier><identifier type="ark">ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.2307/2054864</identifier><identifier type="PII">S0021911800078116</identifier><identifier type="ArticleID">07811</identifier><accessCondition type="use and reproduction" contentType="copyright">Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981</accessCondition><recordInfo><recordContentSource authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-G3RCRD03-V">cambridge</recordContentSource><recordOrigin>Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981</recordOrigin></recordInfo></mods><json:item><extension>json</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/json</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/6GQ-6VTBZ8J9-S/record.json</uri></json:item></metadata><serie></serie></istex></record>Pour manipuler ce document sous Unix (Dilib)
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