The End of China's "Middle Ages" (Essays on Literature and Culture of the Mid-Tang Dynasty)

Author: Yu Wenyan (USA), translated by Chen Yinchai and Chen Lei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The End of the "Medieval" in China—Essays on Middle-Tang Literature and Culture is a work published by Professor Stephen Owen in 1996, consisting of an introduction and seven essays, with three English translations of classical poems and tales appended. In terms of the chronological scope it explores, it seems to extend the themes of Early Tang Poetry and High Tang Poetry, yet its focus differs significantly. While shorter than Professor Owen's previous two works, its breadth and depth of topics surpass them in many ways. As for the essence of each essay, Professor Owen has already elucidated it in the introduction, so further elaboration is unnecessary here.
The first essay, Uniqueness and Exclusivity, views the representation of identity in Middle-Tang literature as a form of exclusion from or exclusion of others. On the level of individual identity, such uniqueness manifests as a claim of superiority over others, but it can also be an alienation that leads to others' exclusion of oneself. In Middle-Tang works, uniqueness appears as a distinctive and recognizable style, which can be imitated by others but is always tied to a specific author. The next essay, Interpretations of Natural Landscapes, discusses various ways of representing landscapes, showing how the potential order of nature became a question in Middle-Tang times. On one hand, there are texts that present and evaluate nature in an orderly manner; such landscapes are architectural, a rarity in earlier poetry. On the other hand, there are representations of landscapes lacking potential order, which are mere accumulations of beautiful but disjointed details. The second essay is limited to the representation of physical world order, but the same issue arises in the events of the human world.
The third essay, Interpretation, explores a tendency in Middle-Tang times to offer speculative explanations for phenomena that either contradict common sense or interpret situations usually considered unremarkable. Such unique interpretations, lacking any evidence or textual support, often carry a tone of irony or even madness. The third essay, Wit and Private Life, examines the exaggerated interpretation of the playfulness of private spaces and leisure activities as a discourse of private values resisting conventional norms. The fourth essay, Early Ninth-Century Poetry and the Concept of Writing, discusses certain fundamental changes in the representation of writing, particularly poetry writing, during the Middle-Tang period. The last two essays explore the new romantic culture that took shape in the late eighth century.