Through a Forest of Chancellors Read online




  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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terms

  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