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Through a Forest of Chancellors
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Through
a Forest of
Chancellors
Fugitive
Histories in
Liu Yuan’s
Lingyan ge,
an Illustrated
Book from
Seventeenth-
Century
Suzhou
Harvard-Yenching Institute
Monographs 66
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Published by the
Harvard University Asia Center
for the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2010
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Through
a Forest of
Chancellors
Fugitive
Histories in
Liu Yuan’s
Lingyan ge,
an Illustrated
Book from
Seventeenth-
Century
Suzhou
Anne Burkus-Chasson
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© 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928 and headquartered at Harvard University, is a foundation dedicated to the advancement of higher education in the humanities and social sciences in East and Southeast Asia. The Institute supports advanced research at Harvard by faculty members of certain Asian universities and doctoral studies at Harvard and other universities by junior faculty at the same universities. It also supports East Asian studies at Harvard through contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library and publication of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and books on premodern East Asian history and literature.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burkus, Anne Gail.
Through a forest of chancellors : fugitive histories in Liu Yuan’s Lingyan ge, an illustrated book from seventeenth-century Suzhou / Anne Burkus-Chasson.
p. cm. -- (Harvard-Yenching Institute monographs ; 66)
Includes
bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-674-03280-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Liu, Yuan, fl. 1668--Criticism and interpretation. 2. Liu, Yuan, fl. 1668. Ling yan ge gong chen tu. 3. Art and literature--China--History--17th century. 4. Illustrated books--China--
History--17th century. 5. Block books, Chinese. I. Liu, Yuan, fl. 1668. Ling yan ge gong chen tu. II. Title. III. Title: Fugitive histories in Liu Yuan's Lingyan ge, an illustrated book from seventeenth-century Suzhou.
ne1183.5.l6b87 2010
002.0951--dc22
2009034925
Index by Mary Mortensen
Printed on acid-free paper
Last number below indicates year of this printing
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
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Only the rereading counts, Nabokov said.
—Michael Ondaatje, Divisadero
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Publication of this book was partially underwritten by the Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. M. King Publishing and Communications Fund,
established by Stephen C. M. King to further the cause of inter-
national understanding and cooperation, especially between China
and the United States, by enhancing cross-cultural education and
the exchange of ideas across national boundaries through publica-
tions of the Harvard University Asia Center.
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For
Timothy and Lola
And in Loving Memory of
Haruko and Sambuco
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Acknowledgments
For institutional support, during the initial stages of research on this project, I thank both the Campus Research Board and the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
For assistance viewing the rare books in their extraordinary collections, I am grateful to the curators of the Kokuritsu kōbunshokan (National Archives of Japan), Tokyo; the British Library, London; the National Library of China, Beijing; and the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection, Princeton University. I am further indebted to Karen T. Wei, Head of the Asian Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who graciously responded to my every request for research materials.
Some of the ideas in this book were presented in talks given at Harvard University; the Institute for Fine Arts, New York University; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
I thank the audiences at these institutions for their interest and informed response.
Two anonymous reviewers for the Press posed questions I had avoided asking; I am grateful to them for their time and thoughtfulness.
An abbreviated version of some of the material published here first appeared in an essay I wrote for Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by Cynthia J. Brokaw and Kai-wing Chow © 2005 Regents of the University of California. I am grateful to the University of California Press for permission to reprint parts of that earlier work.
Many people have helped me in the research and writing of this book. Over the years, however, the manuscript was utterly transformed; I fear my teachers and colleagues may well have forgotten how much they contributed to a work they can no longer recognize. I thank them, nonetheless, for their instruction and support: Raoul Birnbaum, Judith Boltz, Cynthia J. Brokaw, James Cahill, Suzanne E. Cahill, Timothy Chasson, Tze-Huey Chiou-Peng, Thomas Ebrey, Sören Edgren, Rania Hunting-
ton, Jonathan Hay, Ginger Cheng-chi Hsü, Kohara Hironobu, Amy McNair, Oka-
moto Sae, Hitomi Omata, David Roy, Nancy Rubel, Barbara Stafford, Peter Stur-
man, Patti Tighe, M. Brigette Yeh, and Marcia Yudkin. Richard Barnhart deserves special thanks for his unwavering support of this project from its obscure beginnings to its end. John Ziemer, who has a subtle comprehension of Liu Yuan’s
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x Acknowledgments
work, fashioned this book with skill and dedication; I am most grateful for all that he has taught me about making books. Mary Mortensen prepared the Index. Neither my parents nor my Aunt Mary lived to see the completion of this book, but without the experience of their watchful love and generosity, I could not even have envisioned its possibility.
Champaign, Illinois
September 2009
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Contents
Figures xiii
Introduction
1
Part I The Composition of the Book
1
The Gallery of Portraits Re-created
7
Liu Yuan’s Cover Leaf / 8
Prefatory Autographs / 21
The Preface Writers License the Pictorial Book / 37
The List of Contents / 46
Lingyan ge, the Historical Site / 50
2
Composing the Vassal’s Figure
62
Unordinary Images / 63
Physiognomic Fantasies / 71
Costumes in Disarray / 85
Under the Guise of Bandits / 105
3
The Act of Turning the Leaf
125
Structures of the Book / 126
Re-reading Du Fu / 135
The Damask at Leaf’s Edge / 146
Part II The Publication of the Book
4
Painter, Publisher, Reader-Viewer: Whose Gallery?
163
The “Social Drama” of the Ming-Qing Transition / 165
Liu Yuan and Tong Pengnian / 172
A Model for Community: Echoing Voices Among the
Preface Writers / 183
Climbing Yingzhou: Wu Weiye’s Response / 185
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xii Contents
5
Vexations of Passage
194
Variant Endings / 195
Maxims, Furtively Impressed / 224
In the Hands of All the Masters / 226
From Manuscript to Printed Book / 251
Appendix
Liu
Yuan’s
Lingyan ge with Annotated Translations
255
Reference Matter
Notes
309
Works Cited
337
Character List
357
Index
367
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Figures
1.1
Liu Yuan (fl. mid-seventeenth century). Cover leaf from Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge. Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu kōbunshokan, Tokyo.
9
1.2
Anonymous. Cover leaf from Lidai minggong huapu. Comp. Gu Bing
(fl. 1594–1603). Hulin [Hangzhou]: Shuanggui tang, 1603. Thread-bound
book, woodblock-printed on paper, 33.4 × 22.7 cm. National
Library of China, Beijing, Rare Book no. 01471.
10
1.3 He
Zhen
(fl.
1541–1607). Yunzhong baihe 雲中白鶴 (White cranes among
clouds), 1544. Stone seal with intaglio legend and side inscription, shown
with seal impression. (Source: Shodō zenshū, betsukan 別卷 1, p. 64, pl. 39.) 13
1.4 Anonymous.
Liqi bei ( Han Lu xiang Han Ji zao Kongmiao liqi bei), 156 ce.
Ink rubbing from the Ming period of a stele erected at Confucius’s Shrine,
Qufu 曲阜, Shandong. Detail from an album of 82 leaves, ink on paper,
27.0 × 13.5 cm. (Source: Zhongguo gudai beitie taben, p. 20, catalogue no. 14.) 16
1.5
Wen Zhengming (1470–1559). Frontispiece attached to Wen Boren (1502–
75), Miniature Portrait of Yang Jijing 楊季靜, 1530. Portion of the handscroll, ink on paper, 29.0 × 58.0 cm. Collection of the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
17
1.6 Zhang Bi (fl. mid-seventeenth century). Preface to Jianyuan tang jixuan minggong siliu jinsheng, attributed to Tan Yuanchun (ca. 1585–1637). 1631–44.
Thread-bound book, woodblock-printed on paper, 19.6 × 11.5 cm. The
East Asian Library and the Gest Collection, Princeton University.
18
1.7 Anonymous. Cover leaf from Jiezi yuan huazhuan, comp. Wang Gai (1645–
1707). Nanjing: Jiezi yuan sheng guan, 1679; re-issued Kangxi period, late
seventeenth century. Thread-bound book, woodblock-printed on paper,
29.2 × 18.1 cm. C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.
18
1.8
Wen Zhengming (1470–1559). Essay on Streams and Rocks, ca. 1530s. Colophon attached to Lu Zhi 陸治 (1496–1576), Streams and Rocks. Detail of a portion of the handscroll, ink on paper, 32.4 × 128.9 cm. The Nelson-Atkins
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xiv
Figures
Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: acquired through the
Fortieth Anniversary Fund, F75-44.
19
1.9 Anonymous.
Cao Quan bei ( Han Heyang ling Cao Quan bei), 185 ce. Ink
rubbing probably from the Ming period of a stele excavated during early
Wanli period, mid-sixteenth century, at Geyang district, Shaanxi province,
now in the collection of the Forest of Stelae, Xi’an, Shaanxi. Dimensions
of original stele approximately 272.0 × 95.0 cm. Detail from an album of
42 leaves, ink on paper, 25.0 × 11.5–11.6 cm. (Source: Zhongguo meishu quanji, Shufa zhuanke bian 1: Shang-Zhou zhi Qin-Han shufa, pp. 172–73, pl. 100.) 19
1.10 Song Jue (1576–1632). In Praise of Blackie’s Portrait, 1617. Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 118.0 × 32.0 cm. (Source: Mingmo Qingchu shufa zhan,
catalogue no. 32.)
20
1.11 Anonymous.
Xia Cheng bei, 170 ce. Ink rubbing from the Song period of
a stele originally erected in Hebei, now lost. Detail from an album of 42
leaves, ink on paper, 26.4 × 14.6 cm. (Source: Zhongguo gudai beitie taben, p. 24, catalogue no. 18.)
20
1.12 Wang Shizhen (1526–90). Preface to Fangshi mopu, comp. Fang Yulu (fl. 1570–1619). Shexian, Anhui, ca. 1590, 3b–4a. Thread-bound book,
woodblock-printed on paper, 24.6 × 14.7 cm. The East Asian Library
and the Gest Collection, Princeton University.
22
1.13 Liu Yuan (fl. mid-seventeenth century). “My Own Narration,” preface
to Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge. Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669, 1a–b. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu
kōbunshokan, Tokyo.
23
1.14 Anonymous. “Geng Chunchen, ‘the Pure Vassal,’ Makes a Report on
the Son of Heaven’s Vapor,” in Anonymous, Sui Yangdi yanshi, chapter
18, first illustration, leaf 35b. Suzhou: Renrui tang, 1631. Thread-bound
book,woodblock-printed on paper, 23.7 × 14.5 cm. C. V. Starr East
Asian Library, Columbia University.
24
1.15 Tong Pengnian ( juren 1651). “Preface,” preface to Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge. Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669, 1a–b. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu kōbunshokan, Tokyo.
25
1.16 Anonymous.
Bamboo Slips, in Fangshi mopu, comp. Fang Yulu (fl. 1570–
1619). Shexian, Anhui, ca. 1590, 3.10b. Thread-bound book, woodblock-
printed on paper, 24.6 × 14.7 cm. The East Asian Library and the Gest
Collection, Princeton University.
26
1.17 Wen Zhengming (1470–1559). Record of the Pavilion of the Old Drunkard, 1551.
Detail of a hanging scroll, ink on paper, 53.5 × 28.6 cm. Collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic
of China.
28
1.18 Da Zhongguang (1623–92). Taking Shelter at a Mountain Temple. Hanging scroll, ink on silk, 191.8 × 51.6 cm. Kyoto National Museum. (Source:
Shodō zenshū, vol. 21, pl. 60.)
28
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Figures
xv
1.19 Shen Bai (fl. mid-seventeenth century). “Inscription,” preface to Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge. Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669, 2b. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu kōbunshokan,
Tokyo.
28
1.20 Dong Qichang (1555–1636). Colophon attached to Wang Xizhi (303–61),
Ritual to Pray for Good Harvest, 1604. Detail of a handscroll, ink on paper, 30.0 × 372.0 cm. Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951 (1998-140.1-.2).
Photo: Bruce M. White. Princeton University Art Museum.
28
1.21 Yuan Fang (fl. mid-seventeenth century). “Preface,” preface to Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge. Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669, 1a–b. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu kōbunshokan,
Tokyo.
29
1.22 Xiao
Zhen (d. 1674). “Preface,” preface to Liu Yuan jing hui Lingyan ge.
Suzhou: Zhuhu tang, 1669, 1a. Album of 45 leaves, woodblock-printed
on paper, 25.0 × 14.8 cm. Kokuritsu kōbunshokan, Tokyo.
30
1.23 Yan Zhenqing (709–85). Record of the Altar of the Transcendent of Mount Magu, 771. Ink rubbing from the Song period of a stele originally erected on Mount Magu, Nancheng district, Fuzhou, now lost. (Source: Songta