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The Formation of a Tragic Story: The Death of Li Yu and Related Legends
This article examines the well-known story of the death of Li Yu, the Last Lord of Southern Tang, who was poisoned to death with “qianji yao” (牽機藥) by Emperor Taizong of Song in 978. However, there is a divergence of views regarding the timing and reasons for Li’s death as recorded in the biographies of Li Yu written during the Song dynasty. Based on the archives preserved in online databases, this research discovers that the earliest documentation of Li’s death can be found in Xu Xuan’s tomb epitaphs, which suggest that Li’s death was caused by “sickness.” While opinions with regard to the cause of Li’s death remained unanimous during the Northern Song period, the story that Emperor Taizong poisoned and murdered Li was first mentioned in Moji (默記), a miscellany written and edited by Wang Zhi (王銍) during the Southern Song period in the early 12th century. Although Wang’s story was scarcely referenced throughout the Southern Song period, his narrative of Li’s tragic death became popular during the Ming dynasty. To some extent, the story of Li’s death gradually turned out to be far-fetched and remained inconsistent with the historical accounts of his death from the Song dynasty. What is the reason for a less recognized story in the Song dynasty to be prevalent and influential among the writings of the Ming literati? How should readers from different spatio-temporal backgrounds assess the credibility of varying narratives considering the legends of Li’s tragic death? This article, thus, aims to analyze the pivotal factors that led most contemporary readers to favor Wang Zhi’s story over the records preserved in the Northern Song.
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Fang, Cheng-hua
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2
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Wang Yangming and His Disciples’ Discussion of Psychophysical Nature
During the Ming Dynasty, the reevaluation from a Confucian approach to psychophysical nature involved critical reflection and questioning of Zhu Xi’s notion of the nature-Qi relationship. While Zhu Xi employed the theory of goodness to examine the goodness of nature, he suggested that “psychophysical temperament” passively limits one’s path to the cultivation of virtues. As such, Zhu Xi’s focus revolved around the discipline to minimalize deviation from psychophysical temperament, thereby restoring and epitomizing the goodness of nature in its original state. On the other hand, Wang Yangming posited the principle that “nature is Qi; Qi is nature” and attempted to dismantle the opposition between nature and psychophysical temperament. Specifically, his idea that “nature first appears in Qi” transformed psychophysical temperament from an object that remained to be disciplined to the necessary condition for realizing the goodness of nature. However, as Wang’s school of thought began to diverge, his disciples became divided over the relationship between nature and psychophysical temperament. This study presents the diversity of perspectives on psychophysical nature among scholars of Yangmingism by investigating the following four aspects: “the balance between psychophysical temperament and psychophysical nature,” “the nature-Qi relationship,” “the good and evil of human nature and psychophysical nature,” and “the change of psychophysical temperament as the outline or validation of personal growth.”
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Chen, Jen-yan
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3
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The Idea of Friendship in Thought: The Evolution and Contextualization of Hong Dae-yong’s Quest for Friendship in the Joseon Dynasty
This paper attempts to employ the concept of “friendship” as an exploratory approach to reconstructing the transformation of Hong Dae-yong’s thought and the development of his friendships during his Joseon mission to China. Firstly, the paper explicates different contextual backgrounds and characteristics of “friendship” in the late-Ming Yangmingism as well as in the late Joseon Kingdom, and explores the unique features of Hong’s desire to build friendships. Drawing attention to how Hong’s cultivation of friendships is incorporated into the idea of teacher-friendship, which serves as a crucial part of the cultivation of mind and human nature, this paper contends that Hong’s thoughts on friendship become the intellectual nourishment for his subsequent theoretical framework that accommodates a diversity of perspectives. Secondly, the paper illustrates how Hong’s practice of friendship and his selection of confidants have influenced the shaping of his ideological stance, leading him to embrace a mindset of respecting “heretics” by accepting the views of his friends while rejecting the Joseon cultural climate of “warding off evil spirits.” Finally, the paper argues that the realization of Hong’s cultural encounters and ideological changes mainly derives from the internal driving force of his own character. His desire for acquiring friendships reinforces the foundation for his transformation in thought, thereby achieving “quest for friendships” in practice. In addition, Hong’s “friendship” builds effective communication bridges for different sides to mitigate conflicts and facilitate potential changes during cultural clashes. Therefore, instead of emphasizing on the abrupt transitions in Hong’s thought, the paper highlights the term “evolution” to demonstrate the subtle formation of his way of life and thinking.
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Wang, Yu-tzu
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4
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In the Shade of the “Left-wing Lu Xun” Discourse–A Preliminary Study of the “May Fourth Lu Xun” in the Malaysian Chinese Literature of the 1920s
After the rise of leftist thought in China in the 1930s and its interaction with the local social condition in Malaya, the Malayan Chinese have accordingly practiced and developed their own “Left-wing Lu Xun” discourse. This discourse facilitated the wider dissemination of Lu Xun’s works and ideas in Malaya’s colonial society after the 1930s, and served as an interface between two kinds of revolutions—the political and the literary. Although the discourse remained influential in Malayan Chinese thought and literature, it simultaneously exposed the blind spot and ideological prejudice in understanding Lu Xun. As the study of the “Left-wing Lu Xun” tradition was initially advocated by Malaysian Chinese literary historians such as Fang Xiu, Zhang Han and others, who subsequently established a robust scholarly framework on this subject. Nonetheless, while Lu Xun’s life cannot be solely determined by “leftism,” the discourse formulated by Fang Xiu and the other scholars has overshadowed the “May Fourth Lu Xun” in the Malaysian Chinese literature and obscured the complicacy of Lu Xun’s thought. In short, the context of the “May Fourth Lu Xun” was submerged in the notion of the “Left-wing Lu Xun.” Therefore, this paper attempts to trace and outline Lu Xun’s presence and influence in Malaysian Chinese literature before the formation of the “Left-wing Lu Xun” based on investigating limited newspaper sources. Additionally, the paper briefly explores the literary context of the May Fourth Movement in Malaysian Chinese literature, thereby discerning the multifaceted and complexified layers of Lu Xun’s thoughts and position in the Malaysian Chinese literature of the 1920s, aiming to restore the overlooked “May Fourth Lu Xun” under the construct of “Leftist Lu Xun” research.
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Khor, Teik-huat
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5
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“Britain Is an Island:” The Construction of British Islandness and Identity in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England
This article examines the discourse of the British island-nation constructed in early modern England through an archipelagic lens to explore the multi-faceted and overlapping relations among the islands, the seas, as well as the main island and its adjacent isles. Beginning with a discussion of Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola’s circumnavigation of Britain in AD 83, as recorded by Tacitus in Agricola (c. 97), this research aims to investigate the correlation between British identity and British islandness in early modern England. This paper first traces the notion and development of “the island of one crown” from the Middle Ages to the mid-Tudor era. It then analyzes the mid-Tudor concept of “one isle one realme,” and, from the 1570s to the early seventeenth century, how English intellectuals used a vibrant language of islands to contemplate the nation’s future direction. In particular, through accounts of island circumnavigation, English intellectuals articulated the geographical features and the ethnic and cultural diversity of the British. This perspective allows insight into how the concept of “Great Britain,” drawing on cultural heritages before and of the Middle Ages, the island-nation imagination, and the subsequent Acts of Union, sought to influence contemporary national policy and political thought.
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Lin, May-shine
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