About me
Jonah Katz is a 3rd year Ph.D. student specializing in late imperial Chinese literature. He received his Master's degree in Chinese Literature from National Taiwan University and an Honors B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Utah. His planned dissertation topic is on the relationship between history and hearsay, the influence of Song biji xiaoshuo on the early development of the Chinese novel.
Presentation 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.
