Synopses & Reviews
Remembered today primarily as a poet, calligrapher, and critic, the protean Su Shi was an outspoken player in the contentious politics and intellectual debates of the Northern Song dynasty. In this comprehensive study, Egan analyzes Su's literary and artistic work against the background of eleventhcentury developments within Buddhist and Confucian thought and Su's dogged disagreement with the New Policies of Wang Anshi.
Egan explicates Su's views on governance, the classics, and Buddhism; and he describes Su's social-welfare initiatives, arrest for disloyalty, and exiles. Finding a key to the richness of Su's artistic activities in his vacillation on the significance of aesthetic pursuits, Egan explores Su's shi and ci poetry and Su's promotion of painting and calligraphy, looking specially at the problem of subjectivity. In a concluding chapter, he reconsiders Su's role as a founder of the wenren ("literati") and challenges the conventional understanding of both Su and the Northern Song wenren generally.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 433-452) and indexes.
About the Author
Ronald C. Egan is Professor of Sinology in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University.
Stanford University
Table of Contents
Preface
Chronology of the Life of Su Shi
PART 1: FIRST FAME AND REMONSTRATIONS: THE DECREE EXAM
A. On Rites, Human Nature, and Governance
B. On Historical Figures
C. The Essay on Zhang Liang
PART 2: NATIONAL POLITICS: OPPOSITION TO THE NEW POLICIES
A. Initial Dissent
B. Protest Poetry from the Provinces
C. Arrest and Trial
PART 3: TOWARDS THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE AND SELF
A. On the New Learning and Other Fallacies
B. Commentaries on the Changes and Documents
PART 4: NATIONAL POLITICS AGAIN: YUANYOU-PERIOD FACTIONALISM
A. The Split with Sima Guang
B. The Dispute with Cheng Yi
C. "Saying White Is Black and West is East"
PART 5: PROVINCIAL ACTIVISM IN AND Our OF OFFICE
Famine Relief in Hangzhou
Other Undertakings as Prefect
Private Initiatives
PART 6: A THOUSAND ARMS AND EYES: BUDDHIST INFLUENCES
A. The Centrality of Compassion
B. Chan, Pure Land, Bodhisattvas
C. No-Mind and Responding to Things
D. Non-Attachment
E. Lingering Reservations
PART 7: THE MIRROR IN THE MIND: POETRY IN THE SHI FORM
A. The Uses of Play
B. Imaging the Poet in the World
C. The Problem of the Emotions
PART 8: THE LITERATURE OF EXILE
A. The Cirumstances of Exile
B. Philosophy and Its Limitations
C. East Slope, Tao Qian, Determined Contentment
D. Transcending the World of Men
E. Poetry of Resentment and Defiance
PART 9: CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING
A. BROADENING Guwen Views on Calligraphy
B. Expressing New Meaning
C. The Moment of Execution
D. Two Approaches to Painting
E. Signification of the Painted Subject
F. Pattern, Lodging, Knowledge
G. Painting and Poetry
H. The Question of Motivation
PART 10: WASHING AWAY THE SILKS AND PERFUMES: SUBJECTIVITY IN THE SONG LYRIC (CI)
A. Reasons for a New Style
B. Xiaoling: Abroad in the World
C. Manci: Fading Visions, Fleeting Thoughts
CONCLUSIONS
A. Early Appraisals
B. Ambivalence over Aesthetic Pursuits
C. The Meanings of Wen
D. The Utility of a Multidimensional View
Abbreviations Used in the Notes
Notes
List of Works Cited
Chinese Title Index
Glossary-Index