[DOWNLOAD] "Motivation and Meaning of a "Hodge-Podge": Duan Chengshi's Youyang Zazu." by The Journal of the American Oriental Society " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Motivation and Meaning of a "Hodge-Podge": Duan Chengshi's Youyang Zazu.
- Author : The Journal of the American Oriental Society
- Release Date : January 01, 2003
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 278 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION With the compilation of the work that he named Youyang zazu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang), the erudite scholar, traveler, and chronicler Duan Chengshi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (ca. 800-863) made a most delightful contribution to the world of Chinese informal narrative. (1) The unusually varied content of the over thirteen hundred entries included in this work describes the world that Duan heard about, read of, or personally observed. The structure and organization of the collection reinforces this miscellaneous subject matter; together, these elements produce a collection that seems familiar and yet is somehow perplexing. The collection has been largely ignored, particularly as a literary text, in both Western and Chinese Sinology. One reason for this is that in large part scholars have treated the collection as a repository of information useful to the social scientist or historian, (2) and another is that critics have attempted to come to an unambiguous understanding of it by relegating it to one or another literary category. In order to study or categorize the work, critics have found it necessary to focus on parts, rather than the whole, and to determine which parts are most representative of the work. (3) This is analogous to analyzing a sumptuous stew by attempting to taste the carrots, onions, and morsels of meat separately, while ignoring the flavor of the stew as a combination of all of the ingredients. (4) It is my hope that keys to appreciating the collection as a literary work in its own right may come not only by disassembling, naming, and studying the pieces, but also by savoring some of the richness and complexity of these "tidbits" as they sit together.