Our Cities and Their Places: A Human Geography Study on the Fu-Writing of the Ming Dynasty
Autor: | Yen-Chen Weng, 翁燕珍 |
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Rok vydání: | 2013 |
Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
Popis: | 102 This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part is “Our Cities,” and the second “Others' Places.” It is a base research of jingling fu and xinglu fu of Ming Dynasty, and studies thoroughly on the text. By exploring the structure of these fu, the research searches for the writers' threads of thoughts, to reveal the underlying theme of the works. In the order of written time, each of the works is analyzed for every aspects of meanings and its own specific characteristics. Finally the dissertation concludes with the shared qualities of these two types of fu. The Ming dynasty practiced the dual capital cities, and has the greatest amount of jingdu fu of all Chinese dynasties. The Ming dynasty also operated the tribute system, and had self-rule administrations and warrior estate. Fu writers traveled abroad and wrote about the war or their service as an envoy. Therefore, such works were highly related to politics of the Ming Dynasty. With the help of jingdu fu of the Ming Dynasty, one understands the writers' evaluation of the two capitals, while with xinlu fu one sees the writers' self-distinction from the Chinese-Foreign relationships. In both types of fu, the writers reveals their cultural identification. Genre and forms of literature change with the society, and the writers' situation and experiences differed from the past. Since the themes of these two types of fu were about contemporary political system of Ming Dynasty, the literary content had also had to be broaden, and as a result the from that carried the text needed to evolve. Fu writers of the Ming Dynasty had some similarities: all of the ten were from the south, all had visited Beijing and saw Beijing's prosperity. Not only were they well-educated and socially respected officials, they also were highly cultured artists and geographers. Each of the jingsu fu had different characteristics, but all of the works wrote about the following themes. Firstly, they discussed the terms and conditions of an ideal capital. Secondly, they described the planning of the two cites. Thirdly, they described the buildings. Fourthly, they compared the atmosphere of the two cities. With their descriptions of the cities' scenery, the fu writers revealed their abundant knowledge of natural geography. The writers expressed their value of the environment. For them, the Emperor chose Beijing as the capital city to show his determination to guard the nation's north boundary. On the other hand, Nanjing represented history and memories, it served as the capital city of culture. The writers racked their brains to shape with words the magnificence and the refinement of Beijing as well as the royal rites and regulations. Also, since Beijing had more than once experienced great fire and reconstructions, the fu that were written in different eras are important materials and references. Fu writers projected their emotions into their works, and therefore separated the works from general local topography. Fu writers of the Ming Dynasty wrote their jingdu fu mostly due to the tradition of fu-offering. Some offered the fu to the Emperor to show off the intelligence and writing skills, some wanted to flatter the Emperor, some wrote the fu as an allegory (although it never caused any difference), and some intended the fu to go down to posterity. As for the writers of xinglu fu, they occupied various official posts from generals to ambassadors. These officials had chances to travel around the country and abroad. In some works they described how carefully the foreign leaders treated them, to emphasize their admiration to China, strengthen the alternative culture, and revealed the writers feelings of cultural superiority. In some works they repeatedly express their longing for home and disagreements with foreign cultures. In some works the paid attention to cultural communication and cultural identity of being a Chinese. They used sao as the style of fu to record their marvelous journeys and aspiration. These works were filled with emotional, colorful and exotic rhetoric. The works that made a supreme effort at the power relationship of tribute system, on the other hand, were written in prose style. These fu were not only historical data, but also good enough to be seen as art. |
Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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