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- Convenors:
-
Michael Facius
(University of Tokyo)
Niels Bader (Freie Universität Berlin)
David Mervart (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Ivo Smits
(Leiden University)
- Stream:
- History
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Piso 0, Sala 0.09
- Start time:
- 31 August, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
Japanese intellectuals harnessed Sinitic writing for a wide range of work. Questioning the artificial modern/premodern divide, the panel showcases influential texts from various genres - poetry, stylistic primer, political treatise -, their intertextual webs, and their cultural and political impact.
Long Abstract:
Until quite recently, most historians would have planted Sinitic writing in Japan firmly on the premodern side of the epistemic rupture of the mid-nineteenth century. The waning power of the Qing empire and the superiority of Western science, or so the story went, relegated the Sinitic textual tradition to the fringes of intellectual production. This panel questions the utility of this divide. It presents Japanese case studies of Sinitic texts whose intertextual webs, lines of transmission, and currents of intellectual engagement did not adhere to simple periodization schemes.
Some of them were written in Japan, others based on Jesuit sources, yet others harking back to Tang China. What they share is that they left their mark on the Japanese intellectual landscape: A collection of Sinitic poetry often praised as embodying the best of what the form could do; a geopolitical handbook that circulated among foreign policy experts; an edition of medieval prose masters that served as a paradigm for good writing for almost a century.
Through these examples, the panel brings out the many purposes that Sinitic writing could fulfill before and after the advent of Western science or the naturalist novel. It argues, in fact, that the usefulness of Sinitic writing in a time of dramatic social, political and epistemic transformations was not accidental. It aims to show in concrete terms the various factors that contributed to its continuing relevance and adaptability.
At the same time, it is undeniable that Japanese actors continuously reflected on and reconstrued the Sinitic tradition. From the early nineteenth century onward, scholars were exploring new syntheses between Dutch (later Western), Chinese and indigenous modes of knowledge. And in the later twentieth century, many intellectuals began to see classical Chinese literature and philosophy as ultimately a thing of the past. The panel will also engage with these changing claims and perceptions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Michael Facius (University of Tokyo)
Paper short abstract:
The collection "Tang and Song Eight Prose Masters" was a model for elegant prose writing throughout the 19th century. Its popularity, the paper argues, was rooted in the political outlook of the Masters that tied style to government, a point resonating strongly with the Japanese political agenda.
Paper long abstract:
Starting with a government edition in 1814, the prose collection "Tang and Song Eight Prose Masters" (Tōsō hakka bun) began an impressive career in Japan that would last up to the Taishō period. Dozens of editions and commentaries were printed and used for language training throughout the country. Despite its immense significance as a model of Sinitic prose writing, however, the history of the reception and use of the collection in Japan has so far not been studied systematically. This paper aims to remedy this lack of attention.
On the bibliographical level, it does so by giving an overview of some of the more important editions of the Prose Masters from its original compilation by the early Qing scholar Shen Deqian (1673-1769) and the first official printing by the Shōheikō academy in Edo via the highly popular annotated version of the eminent mid-century historian Rai San'yō to Ishikawa Kōsai's lecture notes in the 1880s.
Just as importantly, the paper then proceeds to inquire into the reasons behind the popularity of the Prose Masters in Japan. To do so, it briefly turns to the background of the most influential writers of the group, Han Yu (768-824). In rejecting the ornamented and rhythmically stylized pianwen and embracing instead a clearer, simpler prose style, he also intended to reinvigorate a waning Confucian tradition and its relevance to governance.
It is precisely this claim to an organic bond between good writing and good governance, the paper argues, that attracted Japanese intellectuals to the Prose Masters. It shows how the reception of the collection was closely tied up with one of the key issues of Japanese political thought in the nineteenth century: how to make scholarship and writing respond to the needs of governance. Far from being sidelined by Western science and technology, the paper shows how throughout the nineteenth century the right kind of Sinitic writing was understood as part of the solution to Japan's political woes.
David Mervart (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Paper short abstract:
While marketed as a distinct brand of scholarship, Edo-period Rangaku was suffused with Sinological erudition. On a case study of an 1805 translation text with an important mid-century political afterlife the paper seeks to document the synergy of the 'Dutch' and classical 'Chinese' expertise.
Paper long abstract:
In many accounts, Rangaku still poses as the supposed harbinger of the western scientific modernity. However, the men of 'Dutch' learning still acquired their literacy and erudition from the authoritative body of universal (i.e., 'Chinese') learning. Although in the competitive intellectual marketplace they might brand themselves 'Rangakusha'—distinct from other 'schools'—they continued to use the texts, genres and tools of textual criticism established in the classical studies.
An 1805 translation entitled Nikoku kaimeiroku (Record of the Congress between Two Countries) is a case in point. The text that started its complicated career a century earlier as a Jesuit report on the 1689 Russo-Qing border negotiations ended up re-translated (via Dutch and by Rangaku experts including Shizuki Tadao) in Nagasaki in the aftermath of Rezanov's visit. It offered a historical precedent for dealing with northern barbarians who demand trading and diplomatic relations. Circulated in manuscript copies and perused among others by Mitsukuri Genpo or Kawaji Toshiakira, the negotiators of the US and Russia treaties in 1850s, it had a role to play in the mid-century transition.
The translation in the strict sense was supplemented by extensive commentaries that drew on both Dutch and Chinese sources in a critical synthesis that would be difficult to reproduce anywhere else at the time. The text represents a track record of the world of philological and historical scholarship that merged the 'Dutch' and the classical ('Chinese') expertise.
Apart from the canonic classics, numerous Sinitic texts were consulted by the Nagasaki translators, including the Ming and Qing imperial and provincial gazetteers, Longsha jilüe (Survey of the Amur), or the famous Zhifang waiji (Record [of places] outside the [jurisdiction of the] Office of Geography) by the Beijing Jesuit Giulio Aleni, but also historical and contemporary documentaries on the functioning of the Qing imperial government like Qing sanchao shilu or Yanpu zaji and diplomatic and military annals like Pingding Zhunge'er fanglüe (Strategy for pacifying the Dzunghars).
Rather than focus on the import and circulation of any particular Chinese book, however, the paper documents this synergy between the two strands of philological scholarship straddling the supposed 'premodern'-'modern' divide.
Niels Bader (Freie Universität Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates how and why commented and annotated translations identify and explain allusions to classical Chinese texts in Natsume Sōseki's Chinese poetry. It argues that this practice contributed significantly to the writer's contemporary image as one of the last men of Chinese learning.
Paper long abstract:
Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) is not only acclaimed as "giant" of modern Japanese literature, but also regularly referred to as one of the last great masters of classical Chinese poetry (kanshi). It is largely due to these kanshi that he is likened to the literati of Chinese learning (bunjin) in premodern times. Yet, as classical Chinese texts themselves have since become much less accessible to common readers who lack the necessary educational background, this paper argues that, to a significant extent, the image of Sōseki has been elaborated and exalted over the last one hundred years by writers of commented and annotated translations.
This genre of texts, building on premodern exegetical traditions, occupies an important place between literary works written in classical Chinese and their further reception. While corresponding to contemporary needs by providing translations into classical and modern Japanese, they also provide explanations of the meaning of characters and expressions as well as a large array of interpretations and comments. Regularly, special emphasis is placed on identifying allusions to classical Chinese texts. The exact quantity and quality of locating and commenting upon these allusions differ considerably, with some annotated translations uncovering huge numbers of allusions including many that seem more or less far-fetched.
As Sōseki's kanshi have been a favorite subject of such commented and annotated translations - with more than a dozen different publications, written by men such as his disciple Matsuoka Yuzuru or the renowned Sinologist Yoshikawa Kōjirō - these texts allow for productive juxtapositions to critically analyze their contents, discursive strategies, aims, and impact. By associating Sōseki with a vast number of classical sources, these texts deeply affected the contemporary image of Sōseki as one of the last Japanese of classical Chinese learning, positioning him in a complex network of classical literary, mythical, religious and ethico-political ideas.