The Divided Liang Dynasty Literary World Seen through the Liu-Dao Dispute

The tension between the literary styles of Liu Xiaochuo 劉孝綽 (481–539) and Dao Qia 到洽 (490–527) can be understood as a debate between poetic genius and a more scholarly focus, signaling a confrontation between the capital's literary camps in the Putong reign 普通 (520–527) of the Liang Dynasty 梁 (502–557). The major difference between the literary camps lies in the consideration given to natural poetic talent versus erudition in writings. When Xiao Gang 蕭綱 (503–551), Liu Xiaochuo's supporter, became crown prince in 531, his own conflict with the scholarly group including Dao Gai 到溉 (477–548) and Zhu Yi 朱异 (483–540) probably prompted his “Letter to the Prince of Xiangdong” 與湘東王書 (Yu Xiangdong Wang shu). In this letter Xiao Gang displays his literary view deemphasizing scholarly learning and erudition in poetry. By comparison Xiao Yan 蕭衍 (464–549) and Xiao Yi 蕭繹 (508–555) valued scholarly learning still more and regarded literature as a relatively insignificant talent or minor accomplishment. Xiao Gang represents a departure—by placing literary talent above scholarship, he catered to the fashion among the Liang Dynasty's nobility for reciting poetry and writing fu 賦 (rhapsody) while “rarely taking classical studies as their profession” 罕以經朮為業 and thus elevated the social status of belles lettres.

On the early lokapāla statues in the Buddhist sculptures unearthed in Chengdu

In recent years, some lokapāla statues which might be carved in the Liang dynasty of the Southern Dynasties are unearthed in Chengdu area, the features of which have some differences from that of the lokapāla statues of the northern system found in Khotan, Dunhuang and other areas; they have some similarities with the early lokapāla statues of the Northern Wei dynasty, but also have some differences. The early lokapālas in the Buddhist scriptures have only names and titles with little concrete descriptions; the archaeologically discovered lokapāla statues enriched our understandings of this motif.

Imagining a Universal Empire: a Study of the Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions Attributed to Li Gonglin

This article is not concerned with the history of aesthetics but, rather, is an exercise in intellectual history. “Illustrations of Tributary States” [Zhigong tu 職貢圖] as a type of art reveals a Chinese tradition of artistic representations of foreign emissaries paying tribute at the imperial court. This tradition is usually seen as going back to the “Illustrations of Tributary States,” painted by Emperor Yuan in the Liang dynasty 梁元帝 [r. 552-554] in the first half of the sixth century. This series of paintings not only had a lasting influence on aesthetic history but also gave rise to a highly distinctive intellectual tradition in the development of Chinese thought: images of foreign emissaries were used to convey the Celestial Empire’s sense of pride and self-confidence, with representations of strange customs from foreign countries serving as a foil for the image of China as a radiant universal empire at the center of the world. The tradition of “Illustrations of Tributary States” was still very much alive during the time of the Song dynasty [960-1279], when China had to compete with equally powerful neighboring states, the empire’s territory had been significantly diminished, and the Chinese population had become ethnically more homogeneous. In this article, the “Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions” [Wanfang zhigong tu 萬方職貢圖] attributed to Li Gonglin 李公麟 [ca. 1049-1106] and created during the period between the Xining 熙寧 [1068-1077] and Yuanfeng 元豐 [1078-1085] reigns of the Shenzong emperor 神宗 [r. 1067-1085] of the Song dynasty, is used as a case study for investigating the actual tributary relations between the Northern Song [960-1127] state and its neighboring countries. In doing so, I demonstrate that while certain parts of the “Illustrations of the Tributary States of the Myriad Regions” are historically accurate, a considerable portion of the content is the combined product of historical remembrance and the imagination of empire. In the international environment of the Song empire, China was captivated by the dream of being a universal empire envied by its “barbarian” neighbors. Particularly worth emphasizing is the fact that the artistic tradition of painting “Illustrations of Tributary States” as well as the accompanying idea of China as a universal empire continued well into the Qing [1644-1911] period, reflecting the historical longevity and lasting influence of the traditional conception of the relationship between China and the world.

DICEN LAS CRÓNICAS QUE UN MONJE BUDISTA...

Crónica del viaje que realizó un monje budista llamado Hwui Shan que arribó a la tierra del Fusang, probablemente Mesoamérica, entre 499 d. C. y 548 d. C. y que retornó a China con noventa años de edad. En el año 629 d. C. un grupo de historiadores oficiales de la corte de la dinastía Liang documentó el extraordinario viaje de los cinco monjes y sus descripciones de la tierra del Fusang. Extractos del Liáng Shū fueron también incluidos por Ma Taulin o Ma Twan-lin en su enciclopedia histórica llamada Wen-hsien t’ung-K’ao «Investigaciones de antiguallas» publicada por el emperador mongol Jintsung alrededor de 1321. Este artículo nos documenta además la resistencia oficial mexicana para abrirse a la posibilidad de iniciar investigaciones ciertas ya que las ofrecidas hieren cierto orgullo nacionalista de los antropólogos mexicanos e impiden profundizar mediante una investigación multidisciplinaria en la posibilidad de alguna interacción cultural asiática en MesoaméricaAbstractChronicle of the journey made by a Buddhist monk named Hwui Shan who arrived to Fusang, probably Mesoamerica, between AD 499 and AD 548 and returned to China when he was 90 years old. In AD 629, a group of official historians from the court of the Liang dynasty documented the extraordinary journey of five monks and their descriptions of the Fusang. Ma Taulin or Ma Twan-lin's historical encyclopedia called Wen-hsien t'ung-K'ao (“Investigations of Antiques”), published by Mongol emperor Jintsung around 1321, also included excerpts from the Book of Liang or Liáng Shū. This article also documents the Mexican official reluctance to be open to the possibility of initiating true research on this topic since the existing one hurts some kind of nationalistic pride of Mexican anthropologists and prevents to dig into, through multidisciplinary research, the possibility of some Asian cultural interaction in Mesoamerica.

Orality and the Transmission of Interpretations in Two Versions of Huang Kan’s Lunyu Yishu: Teaching Lunyu from the National University of the Liang to the Periphery of the Tang Empire

This article explores the received version of Huang Kan’s (488–545) Lunyu Yishu and a Tang manuscript fragment that stems from it, with a view to investigating residues of the oral transmission of glosses and interpretations of the Lunyu (the Analects). The discussion is based on close readings of passages that display remnants of the oral transmission of interpretations and attest to pedagogical techniques applied by Huang Kan during the Liang Dynasty (502–557) and by an unknown tutor in Dunhuang toward the end of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The two versions of the Lunyu Yishu are read as texts of oral utterances that bear evidence of two distinct layers of recognizable oral vestiges.