HICCS 2025

This panel delves into Chinese literary and cultural studies, exploring the emotional dimensions of Mudan Ting through Luo Rufang’s thought, the representation of Ming imperial imagination, and the symbolic role of water in The Story of the Stone.

Jonah Katz
Harvard University, Ph.D Student

Title:
Learning with Feeling: A New Reading of Mudan Ting through the Thought of Luo Rufang

Abstract:
The playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) was fortunate to have called himself a student of one of the most influential Confucian scholars of his era, Luo Rufang (1515-1588). Literary scholars have speculated that Luo's thought may have had an influence observable in Tang Xianzu's plays, an important piece of evidence for the broader claim that intellectual trends during the Ming dynasty had a significant influence on contemporary literature. Most scholars have made such speculations about Luo Rufang and his student's plays, however, primarily by relying on the brief summary of Luo's thought given in Huang Zongxi's (1610-1695) biographies of Ming scholars. Deeper engagement with Luo’s recorded discourses, in fact, reveals many more shared ideas between Luo and Tang than previously suggested. Tang Xianzu, like his teacher, was a scholar who could discourse on learning, and especially on the value of emotions, but was also able to do so using his
dramatic works as a vehicle for his thought. This presentation attempts a reading of Tang's masterwork, Mudanting (The Peony Pavilion) alongside a new critical analysis of concepts core to Luo Rufang's thought: 1. Feeling as a basis for Confucian learning and practice, 2. The "Scene" (guangjing), and 3. Heavenly Knowledge. By reading these texts side-by-side, one can make sense of some of Mudan ting's most idiosyncratic aspects and show both how Tang Xianzu absorbs and questions ideas from Luo Rufang, thus giving a fuller account of the play's philosophical significance.

Tsz Wing Giovanna WU (胡梓穎）
The Education University of Hong Kong, Assistant Professor

Title:
The Inner Palace Edition of Feng Tianming Sanbao Xia Xiyang and the Imagination of Great Ming in the Court Drama of the Ming Dynasty

Abstract:
The Inner Palace edition of Feng Tianming Sanbao Xia Xiyang (or Eunuch Sanbao Sailing to the West Seas under Heaven’s Mandate) is the only Ming court drama preserved today that narrates the history of the Ming dynasty. Previous studies were conducted either to determine whether the drama describes the official history from a historiographical perspective or compare it with the plots of the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Luo Maodeng’s Sanbao Taijian Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi (or the Romance of the Eunuch Sanbao Sailing to the West Seas) and Peng Heling’s Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang (or Eunuch Saobao Sailing to the West Seas). However, it has neither been analyzed in the context of court drama of the Ming Dynasty nor positioned in the history of Ming drama. As a court drama compiled by the anonymous playwright(s) of the Inner Palace, the ideology and aesthetics of the Ming court inevitably constrained the plots and performing methods of Sailing to the West Seas. All these constraints not only show the Ming court’s attitudes toward the “distinction between Hua and Yi” after the overthrow of the Mongolian rule of the Yuan Dynasty but also reflect their impression and even imaginings of the prosperous era of the Great Ming. For this reason, I will investigate the extent to which the court drama shows the ideological form of the rule of the Ming Dynasty. I will also analyze the aesthetics of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty from the court drama from the perspective of material culture.

Peng Liu
Rutgers University, Assistant Teaching Professor

Title:
Water in The Story of the Stone

Abstract:
This paper examines how water serves as a philosophical, religious, and aesthetic foundation within The Story of the Stone (aka. Dream of the Red Chamber). The novel indisputably bears Buddhist undertones, due to numerous Buddhist ideas, temples, and professionals in the story. In addition to teaching the achievement of enlightenment through passion, how does the novel represent Buddhist ideas about space and material reality? Conversely, how do Buddhist perspectives on space and material reality influence the novel’s fictional space? To answer these questions, this paper draws attention to the relationship between the novel and the concept of “Water Meditation” from the Surangama Sutra. I argue that the novel’s Grand View Garden is modeled upon Buddhist meditative practice. In particular, through storytelling, the novel transforms meditative space into physical space. During the time the novel was conceived, the Surangama Sutra enjoyed popularity among intellectuals. The sutra features “Water Meditation,” a meditative practice aimed at altering perceptions of reality. Practitioners are encouraged to view the material world as consisting of nothing but water. Water embodies purity of the mind, whereas stone represents a danger obstructing the achievement of mental tranquility. The Buddhist opposition of water and stone not only contributes to configuring the novel’s fictional space but also foretells the destinies of its major characters. The male protagonist Jia Baoyu is a reincarnation of a precious jade; his female companions in the garden embody the essence of water. As a stone in the Buddhist way, Baoyu must disappear from the garden and the narrative.