I'm picturing the first week of my class next fall. In class one, we'll go over the syllabus and I will really try to emphasize the overall shape of the course by talking about tropes and characters; e.g. The Recluse. I'll plan to have some fun pictures to go with these -- sort I've like I'm introducing the students to a Tarot deck. I'll also have some timelines to show the tremendous swath of time we are going to cover -- from the Han era, plus or minus a few centuries, up to 1981. I'm thinking of some device like a huge mountain for every big dynasty to make the historical "terrain" have more shape for the students. Lastly in that first class, I'll introduce Tao Qian briefly. I'll show them the Biography of the Master of Five Willows and read it aloud. We may have a brief discussion on it, or I may just let them go -- students like to be let out early on the first class, I think. They also want a clear sense of the difficulty level of the course, and I will certainly give them that as well. There will most certainly be a written assignment in the first week of class -- I'm considering having them write their own third-person autobiographies in the model of "Five Willows." More to come on this.
The second class meeting will also be the first main lecture. I'll introduce Chinese history again, but say something more about the significance of the Han dynasty and its collapse. I'll introduce some of the background of the Six Dynasties -- how much I talk about it still sort of unclear in my mind, but somehow I'd like them to go beyond the simple notion that since it lies between Han and Tang, it's not really all that important. If possible I'd like to say something about the intrigues of the Jin court, the power-struggles of major families like the Wangs and the Xies, and the presense of millenial Daoist cults. This is background, but will all get reviewed later if and when I cover Zhang Daoling and Shen Yue.
But my first lecture should not dwell too long on the backdrop of post-Han politics. I'll also give a very brief glimpse of the cultural achievements of the period -- some views of Wang Xizhi, or Wang Xizhi-like, calligraphy, come to mind. Apparently Gu Kaizhi was a great painter of the age, but I'm also not sure that I'll be able to find any works of his. Music of the qin was popular during this time as well -- I'm sure I can locate some suitable track to sample a bit for the students. My advisor P.'s lectures demonstrate amply the strength of incorporating these types of multimedia, so I'm pretty confident that trying my own hand at it will be a good idea.
Tao Qian: Thoughts about a reading list.
I'm already quite divided over how much and what reading to give students for the first week of class. One issue was whether to begin with Tao Qian, or to begin earlier in time, either with Sima Qian or even earlier, perhaps with a story from Constance Cook. However, since Tao Qian's introspective, personal look at his life and personality is clearly the most important part of the early part of the course (arguably the most important part of the entire course), I've settled now on beginning with Tao Qian. This introduces the problem of stepping backwards in time to look at Sima Qian. I think the solution to the problem will be to focus on Tao Qian's sensibility as part of the cultural response to disunion, bad politics, and nostalgia for the lost achievements of the Han dynasty. Han dynasty meaning, of course, the first big mountain on our time-terrain of Chinese history, to which we return to look at the models for Tao Qian's various writings: the biography (zhuan), the cautionary pieces, the funerary writings, and of course the poetry, which is perhaps the most innovative feature. I'd like to prepare a small "background packet" to insert after the Tao Qian readings that will help to demonstrate Tao's relationship to the Confucian tradition of the Han and even before the Han. I'd really like for students to understand, for example, that "Biography of Master Five Willows" is not only written in a form that evolved long before Tao Qian's time, but in fact with bits and pieces of old writings, of the zhuan form and other wise. As Davis tells us, it's a pastiche (maybe I'll actually introduce this term and this quote): "it is the skill of the pastiche in its sure simplicity which guarantees it as the work of Tao Yuanming." This is of key importance to an even more general and ambitious way of looking at Tao Qian: "he approached history as a poet." The connection in this simple sentence between historical thought and artistic endeavor is going to be the central problematic, I think, of the entire course. Though of course I will not speak of this so didactically when the time comes in class.
But back to the matter of what to assign as required reading. As I've indicated, I'm relying quite strongly on the translation and commentary of A.R. Davis (1983). Even though this is not the easiest text in the world, and it is absolutely littered with footnotes, I'm leaning towards using Davis for the class because he translates more of the prose material than any of the other translators. Besides, I can always tell students to simply read for the stories, and don't worry over much about the footnotes. In an ideal world, my undergraduates would be able to read in a single week the following materials:
The Biography of Master Five Willows
(one example from Ban Gu's Han shu)
(Bo Juyi 醉吟先生傳)
(Du Fu, poems from Four Pines)
I'm not as sure as I once was about how to go from "Five Willows" to an introduction to Sima Qian. I would like to cover the "Self Account," but by beginning with Tao Qian I sort of supercede it immediately. I predict it will come to me after I consider Wendy Larson's chapter in some detail. This is a good place to introduce the term biezhuan 別傳.
Appraisal of Shang Chang and Qin Qing
Davis' commentary also contains Xi Kang's version of the story. Shang Chang, who "was content with poverty," eventually ran away with his friend Qin Qing. This is a short and worthwhile reading, I think.
To My Sons, Yan and the Others
Not essential, perhaps, but a wonderful example of 'cautionary' literature. I think it would be useful to show that the autobiographical dimension penetrates to wide variety of genres that we normally don't think of. Back up: talk about how many genres there were in ancient China. Consider the central issues of self-doubt and questioning: give students the option of writing such literature on the Moodle site, perhaps for extra credit.
In Sacrifice for My Sister Madame Cheng
In Sacrifice for My Cousin Jingyuan
In Sacrifice for Myself
Funeral Elegy for the Summoned Scholar Tao by Yan Yanzhi
At least some of these will have to be read; I don't think it would take students too long to get through all three. I'll have to speak to them just a bit to help them see that funerary writing is an important art form in its own right, and symbolic of the close ties of friends and family to people of the past. Introduce terms like lei 誄 and wuhu ai zai! 嗚呼唉哉. There's plenty of television re-enactments of Bao Yu's elegy for his little girlfriend Fragrance from chapter 29 of Dream of the Red Chamber; I'm considering showing a short clip. Emphasize poignancy. When we make it to the final piece, figure out how to communicate to students the distinct "literary self-consciousness" indicated here. Compare In Sacrifice with Myself with the other pieces along the lines of moral uprightness, hermitage, poverty, drinking, books and learning.
To be continued: background material, how to introduce Sima Qian, and poetry, especially "The Return."
No comments:
Post a Comment