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1
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The Yin Calendar in Qishi’s Theory of Wuji: With an
Explanation of the Six Emotions Divination in the
“Biography of Yi Feng”
According to the theory of Wuji : “Mao (卯) is “Tian
Bao” (天保); You (酉) is “Qi Fu” (祈父); Wu (午) is “Cai
Qi” (采芑); Hai (亥) is “Da Ming” (大明).” However,
scholars’ explanation for this classification method is
unclear. This paper asserts that the basis of the
classification method is the Yin calendar (殷曆).
First, what Wuji proclaims also appears in the
“Biography of Yi Feng” in Han History and in “Fanlishu”
in Shi Wei (詩緯．汎歷樞), in which the calendar used is
most likely the Yin calendar.
Second, according to Meng Kang, the term “Wuji” in the
“Biography of Yi Feng” signifies the year ying and yang
intersected. This means that the terrestrial branches of
Wuji could be the name of a year.
Third, according to “Qianzaodu” in Yi Wei
(易緯．乾鑿度), King Wen of the Zhou Dynasty was
enthroned in the year Wuwu (戊午蔀) 29th. The ancient
history recorded in “Ji Lan Tu” (稽覽圖) used the Yin
calendar and states that the year King Cheng was
enthroned should be Dinghai (丁亥). This is in
conformity with the statement that “Hai is “Da Ming””
and proves that Meng Kang’s explanation is correct.
Fourth, Wuji also states: “Xu (戌) is “The Crossing of
October”.” “The Crossing of October” cited in the
“Biography of Yi Feng” coincides with the Jiaxu (甲戌)
year of the Emperor Yuan in the Han dynasty. Therefore,
the terrestrial branches of Wuji possibly represent the
names of the years. The poems can be aligned with
various years of the Zhou dynasty. However, due to a
lack of documentation, some terrestrial branches could
not be correlated to specific years.
This paper also provides an explanation of the Six
Emotions divination in the “Biography of Yi Feng”.
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2
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An Analytical Investigation into the Relationship
between the Law and Revenge from the Han Dynasty to
the Southern and Northern Dynasties
Filial piety, as the core value of Confucian ethics, is
readily transposed into an ethics of loyalty: that is,
obedience to one’s master as opposed to obedience to
one’s father. In theory, these two lines of loyalty
should not be in conflict with each other. However,
revenge, a principle based on filial piety, inevitably
conflicts with law and justice, a sphere dominated by
loyalty.
In the light of this conflict between loyalty to the law
and filial piety, this paper looks at changes in
traditional views toward revenge from the Han dynasty to
the Southern and Northern Dynasties. While revenge was
given precedence during the Han dynasty, the rulers of
the Wei dynasty enacted laws curbing the act of revenge
in order to enforce the state monopoly on violence.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, a tolerant,
even positive attitude towards revenge dominated in the
south, while in the north loyalty to law was placed
above filial piety and laws were put in place
prohibiting acts of revenge.
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Lee, Long-shien
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3
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A Study on the Characteristics of Personal Pronoun
Usage in Poems of Cao Pi and Cao Zhi: Reviewing the
Theory of “Suppress Cao Pi and Exalt Cao Zhi” from the
Perspective of Choice and Use of Personal Pronouns in
“Character Representation” Poems
The usage of the Chinese personal pronoun has always
been an important issue that has received considerable
attention from scholars in the field of the Chinese
grammar. This essay explores personal pronouns in poems
written by Cao Pi and Cao Zhi and discusses their usage
primarily by examining the structure of their poems, an
approach which from traditional grammatical analysis.
Personal pronouns appear in over half of Cao Pi’s and
Cao Zhi’s extant poems. Several poems use more than one
personal pronoun. One reason for this may lie in the
face that their poems belong mainly to either yuefu or
the ancient style of poetry and they were influenced by
folk songs and the vernacular. Actually, the two poets
didn’t only mimic former styles, they also created new
stylistic features that relate to the thought and
expression of themselves as authors, the artistic
features in the structure of the poems, and readers’
explanation and evaluation of the poems.
This essay discusses several poems in which specific
personal pronouns were used and focuses on their usage.
Moreover, it seeks to identify the similarities and
differences between the two brothers’ poems. It is hoped
that this essay will contribute to our understanding of
the relationship between the two brothers and their
poetry.
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Lee, Hsi-chen
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4
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The Interplay between Classical Chinese Prose and
Fiction in the Tang Dynasty: A Study of Works by Han
Yu and Liu Zongyuan
The interplay between classical Chinese prose and
fiction during the Tang dynasty has long been a point of
interest in Chinese literary history. This paper will
first review literature on this topic by earlier
scholars. Then it will go on to look at works by Han Yu
(韓愈) and Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元)—two authors who have
historically moved between classical Chinese prose and
fiction—from three different perspectives in order to
reveal the interplay with fiction seen in their prose.
The relationship between the works of Han and Liu and
Tang dynasty fiction is first to be seen in their common
source in a historical/biographical tradition, with the
specific nature of their interaction in this respect
manifesting in the form of their fantastic, satirical
style. Next, looking at the authorial intent of both Han
and Liu, we can see that their use, in this particular
vein of writing, of characters existing at the margins
of society and anthropomorphized objects was in fact an
intentional ploy to express their disappointment with
and views on the world. This approach is both consistent
with the traditional view of fiction as “having some
value despite being of the small Way (小道)” and can be
seen as a conceptual elevation of this kind of
fantastic, satirical writing to the same level as the
classics, history, and poetry. This in turn served to
influence the self-awareness in later fictional
creations and foment a bi-directional interaction on the
notions of fictional creation. From this discussion, we
will be able to see clearly that both Han and Liu
employed the intent, contents and form of fictional
narrative when writing their classical prose. In doing
so, they expanded the range of artistic expression for
classical prose as a literary form even as their writing
served to nurture the production of fiction.
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Kang, Yun-mei
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5
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The Basic Characteristics of Zhu Xi’s Worldview
Zhu Xi’s worldview has four basic characteristics: a
“this-worldly” monism, cyclic evolution, organicism, and
belief in cosmic principle (tian li). These attributes
are closely related and must be considered as a whole,
although each individually implies an entire set of
secondary concepts and ideas. The canon of
“this-worldly” monism is integrated with Zhu’s idea of
holism, his belief that everything is an inseparable
unity and originates from the same “dynamic element” —
qi (energy/matter). It also means naturalism, natural
deities and ghosts, the unity of the sacred and the
secular, the unity of nature and humanities,
intra-subjectivity, the unity of mind and matter, the
unity of yin and yang (negative and positive aspect of
the same “dynamic element” qi) and the unity of the five
phases (wu-xing) all represent different but
corresponding aspects of this “dynamic element.” The
canon of cyclic evolution implies a worldview of
“becoming,” a process philosophy that includes a belief
in equilibrated and universal tenets. It also means the
cyclic evolution of yin and yang and the five phases,
and the spontaneity of the evolution and creation of
nature. The canon of organicism indicates a kind of
“life philosophy,” a belief that everything is a part of
one body, as well as belief in concepts such as the
“direct correspondence” between heaven and man, the
unity of heaven and man, and the mind of heaven and
earth. The belief in cosmic principle implies
disenchantment, rationalization under evolutionary
principles, a return to basic principles, the sagely
nature of humanity and the cosmos, the inseparability of
principle and qi, as well as the ideas that heaven is
the principle, “nature/essence” is the principle, and
the No Ultimate (wuji) gives birth to the Supreme
Ultimate (Taiji). It also means the oneness of
nature/essence and function, and the priority of
principle to qi. In sum, the world in Zhu Xi’s mind is
an organic entity that evolves according to cosmic
principles in a cyclic way.
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Wu, Chan-liang
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6
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Manipulating Kingship Discourse: Henry VIII’s New
Historical Interpretation of Ancient Kingship
This paper deals with the kingship propaganda promoted
by Henry VIII during the English Reformation.
Reformation caused an unprecedented crisis for King
Henry. He had to explain his expansion of kingship to
win back the support of his people, which was crucial to
the survival of his regime. He reinterpreted ancient
kingship to build a foundation for his own kingship.
However, his interpretation of King David and King John
shows that he did not mean to clarify the essence of
kingship, but rather to take these examples as immediate
evidences to validate his own kingship. Henry was
pursuing a propaganda campaign. The conclusion of this
paper will contribute to the debates of Tudor political
history and English Reformation.
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Lee, Juo-yung
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7
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Performing Mother Power in Coriolanus: Shakespeare’s
Volumnia and Her Afterlives on Stage
Volumnia cuts a striking figure in the gallery of
Shakespearean mothers. Although the plot of Coriolanus
follows closely Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians
and Romans, the effects Shakespeare aims at in this play
seem to go far beyond political morality lessons
expounded by the sources. The play’s ambiguity on the
political, ethical and philosophical levels, as Jan Kott
puts it, makes it a great hall of mirrors, where no
clear-cut moral lessons can be expected. This
distinctive ambiguity could be hard to swallow, like
“caviar to the common taste.” Although Coriolanus has
long been deemed difficult and, compared with other
Shakespearean tragedies in the canon, its reception at
the box office has remained relatively cold, critics
today have largely agreed to read the way Shakespeare
impassively withholds explanation as signature touches
of the play’s virtuosic design.
This paper attempts to scrutinize the complex picture
Shakespeare paints of Volumnia in this play and
contemplate the challenges the role poses for the stage.
Although she has implanted clear-cut ideas in her
son—from which he cannot emancipate himself, she remains
enigmatic in her innermost being, leaving much unsaid.
As a dangerous woman who destroys the man she loves, she
is all the more frightening for being a mother, who is
supposed to be the source of nurture and life.
Shakespeare’s bold characterization of the Roman mother
is not for the faint-hearted and has put generations of
actresses to the test.
Taking a good look at Shakespeare’s adaptations of his
sources, the first part of the paper clarifies how
Shakespeare colors this extraordinarily powerful mother
with disturbing, darker shades after expanding the role
Volumnia plays for the Coriolanus story. The second part
of the paper reviews the play’s early performance
history and illustrates how Coriolanus productions
before the twentieth century sought to dispel the
threatening elements of the Roman mother by textual
surgery or other cosmetic treatments. The third part of
the paper highlights the most notable Coriolanus
productions after the twentieth century and examines
different types of strategies employed for the stage
interpretation of Volumnia. The wealth of performance
data surveyed here should bring into relief the open
nature of Shakespeare’s text, how it encourages
interpretations of different emphases, and how hard it
is to hope for a fully gratifying stage realization of a
character like Volumnia.
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Hsieh, Chun-pai
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