Gender and Homeland - The Chu Ci Discourse in Han and Jin Ci Fu

Author: Zheng Yuyu / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This book is part of the "Contemporary Women Scholars Series" and was written by the renowned scholar Zheng Yuyu from National Taiwan University. Taking the works of Qu Yuan and Song Yu as its starting point, it explores the formation and development of the Chu-style fu poetry series in the Han, Wei, and Jin periods through the diverse interpretations of these texts by scholars across different eras. This approach outlines the personality traits and composition of intellectuals under the traditional Chinese cultural and political system. The author examines the three major themes of traditional Chinese fu poetry: the divine maiden, the travelogue, and the satire. Through the divine maiden symbol that resists class oppression with gender disguise, the clan and national imagination inspired by travel experiences, and the intellectual identity marked by the scholar's direct advice, the book discusses important cultural and intellectual historical events of the medieval period, such as the grand fu poetry of the Western Han court, the political culture of the Eastern Han scholar-gentry, and the Lao-Zhuang Xuanxue philosophy. It raises the political and cultural issues of gender and the state, exile and counter-exile, thereby offering a contemporary exploration of the form and meaning of Chu-style fu poetry.