Early Tang Dynasty Chuanqi Fiction: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

The Center for Chinese Studies presents a talk with Jue Chen on chuanqi fiction from the Tang Dynasty.

The early Tang chuanqi 傳奇 fiction, despite its small number of texts extant, is regarded by many scholars as the fountainhead in the history of pre-modern Chinese fiction. It is generally believed that this genre has only three pieces that are still available to us, namely, Gujing ji 古鏡記 (Record of an Ancient Mirror), Bu Jiang Zong baiyuan zhuan 補江總白猿傳 (Supplement to Jiang Zong’s Biography of a White Ape), and Youxianku 遊仙窟 (Dalliance in the Immortal’s Den). The speaker has explored these through an interdisciplinary perspective from history, religion, art and archaeology. His analysis shows that they share a common set of compositional methods: the method of calculated anachronism, of intertextuality, and of circumstantial details. These methods form a unique mode of representation not seen in previous dynasties. In addition, they provide us with a new understanding of the function of the genre in medieval Chinese cultural history.

Speaker/Performer: Jue Chen, Chinese Literature and History, National Tsing Hua University