Half-dead but half-alive : literary transformation in late sixth-century China

Abstract

The late sixth-century in China is a high time of historical transition, in that it witnessed the ending of three hundred years of division between the north and the south, during which time, the north was mostly under the non-Han rule and struggling with its imperial claim; whereas the south experienced continuous dynastic successions through five Han regimes while losing its imperial power over the traditional heartland of China. This is also one of the most significant periods of literary transformation in medieval China as well, for during this period of political turmoils, chaotic warfares and dynastic changes, the previously separated literary worlds were brought to an intense, even violent interaction with each other. The goal of this study, therefore, is to explore the literary transformation during this period, focusing first and foremost on the north which, upon the fall of the Southern Liang, had hosted a massive migration of the southerners and become the new center of the literary activities. Instead of taking at face value the viewpoints that it is a period that witnessed the cultural and literary unification of the northern “substance” and the southern “ornamentation” led by the the territorial and political unification of the north and the south, this study questions the very premise of claiming the northern “substance” as opposed to the southern “ornamentation”. Looking closely into the extant literary and non-literary writings, historical and anecdotal accounts, as well as other relevant texts of the period in question, this study challenges the above viewpoints with brand new perceptions on the Northern Dynasties literature as well as on the literary transformation primarily shown by the writings of the southern court exiles. It begins with an overall examination of the images of the “north” and the south”, which argues that the images of this early medieval binary as we see today, are more of a “constructed” binary through various processes, some more intentional than others. Concentrating on the Northern Dynasties, this study goes on with a newly developed perspective in which the relationship between the northern literature and the northern imperial court is highlighted, and special attention is paid to the court’s functions on the institutional level in literary production, circulation and reception. Given that “dislocation” is one major motif of the late sixth century literary writings, this study continues to explore the literary transformation as is typically exhibited in the northern writings by the southern exile. Following two leads in this part of research, namely the “presentation of the self” and the “construction of the historical narrative”, it conducts a close examination of the literary transformation reflected in relevant writings. Eventually, this study concludes that the literary transformation and the altered literary landscape owing largely to this transformation towards the late sixth century is primarily resulted from the changed dynamics of literary production rather than from an imagined unification of the northern literature and the southern literature.