Manifest in Words, Written on Paper : Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China

by Nugent, Christopher M. B.

• ISBN13: 9780674056039
• ISBN10: 0674056035
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-01
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

This study aims to engage the textual realities of medieval literature by shedding light on the material lives of poems during the Tang, from their initial oral or written instantiation through their often lengthy and twisted paths of circulation. Tang poems exist today in stable written forms assumed to reflect their creatorsrs" original intent. Yet Tang poetic culture was based on hand-copied manuscripts and oral performance. We have almost no access to this poetry as it was experienced by contemporaries. This is no trivial matter, the author argues. If we do not understand how Tang people composed, experienced, and transmitted this poetry, we miss something fundamental about the roles of memory and copying in the circulation of poetry as well as readersrs" dynamic participation in the creation of texts.We learn something different about poems when we examine them, not as literary works transcending any particular physical form, but as objects with distinct physical attributes, visual and sonic. The attitudes of the Tang audience toward the stability of texts matters as well. Understanding Tang poetry requires acknowledging that Tang literary culture accepted the conscious revision of these works by authors, readers, and transmitters.

Table of Contents

Figures	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Textual Variation in Poetic Manuscripts from Dunhuang	p. 27
The "Qinfu yin" Manuscripts	p. 31
Dates and Copyists	p. 35
Formal Variation	p. 39
Textual Variation: General	p. 49
Types of Variation	p. 51
Understanding Variation	p. 54
Shorter Works from Earlier in the Dynasty: Gao Shi	p. 65
The Roles of Textual Memory and Memorization in Medieval Literary Culture	p. 72
Extraordinary Memory	p. 76
Ordinary Memory	p. 88
Content: What Did People Memorize?	p. 88
Method: How Did They Memorize?	p. 97
Limitations and Accuracy	p. 106
Memory and Poetic Circulation	p. 117
The Roles of Orality in Tang Poetic Culture	p. 126
Composition	p. 137
Circulation	p. 153
Audience	p. 155
Commercial Markets	p. 162
Authorial Control and Tenuous Survival	p. 167
Written Composition and Circulation	p. 177
Composition	p. 181
Spontaneity and Performance	p. 184
Writing as Artistic Effort	p. 189
Circulation	p. 192
Sending Poems	p. 195
Inscribing Poems	p. 199
Market Circulation	p. 214
Textual Reproduction and Change	p. 221
Individual Literary Collections	p. 236
Gathering the Texts	p. 239
Editing and Copying	p. 248
Roles of Collections in Tang Literary Culture	p. 258
Collections and Critical Attitudes Towards Poetry	p. 276
Conclusion	p. 285
Appendix
Types of Variants Found in the "Qinfu yin" Manuscripts	p. 297
Reference Matter
Works Cited	p. 313
Index	p. 333
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