The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms
The turn of the third century CE—known as the Jian’an era or Three Kingdoms period—holds double significance for the Chinese cultural tradition. Its writings laid the foundation of classical poetry and literary criticism. Its historical personages and events have also inspired works of poetry, fiction, drama, film, and art throughout Chinese history, including Internet fantasy literature today. There is a vast body of secondary literature on these two subjects individually, but very little on their interface.

The image of the Jian’an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian’an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses.

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The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms
The turn of the third century CE—known as the Jian’an era or Three Kingdoms period—holds double significance for the Chinese cultural tradition. Its writings laid the foundation of classical poetry and literary criticism. Its historical personages and events have also inspired works of poetry, fiction, drama, film, and art throughout Chinese history, including Internet fantasy literature today. There is a vast body of secondary literature on these two subjects individually, but very little on their interface.

The image of the Jian’an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian’an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses.

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The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms

The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms

by Xiaofei Tian
The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms

The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms

by Xiaofei Tian

Hardcover

$49.95 
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Overview

The turn of the third century CE—known as the Jian’an era or Three Kingdoms period—holds double significance for the Chinese cultural tradition. Its writings laid the foundation of classical poetry and literary criticism. Its historical personages and events have also inspired works of poetry, fiction, drama, film, and art throughout Chinese history, including Internet fantasy literature today. There is a vast body of secondary literature on these two subjects individually, but very little on their interface.

The image of the Jian’an era, with its feasting, drinking, heroism, and literary panache, as well as intense male friendship, was to return time and again in the romanticized narrative of the Three Kingdoms. How did Jian’an bifurcate into two distinct nostalgias, one of which was the first paradigmatic embodiment of wen (literary graces, cultural patterning), and the other of wu (heroic martial virtue)? How did these largely segregated nostalgias negotiate with one another? And how is the predominantly male world of the Three Kingdoms appropriated by young women in contemporary China? The Halberd at Red Cliff investigates how these associations were closely related in their complex origins and then came to be divergent in their later metamorphoses.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674977037
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 06/04/2018
Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series , #108
Pages: 470
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Xiaofei Tian is Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Note on Sources xi

Timeline of Chinese Dynasties xiii

Map xv

Introduction 1

Part I The Plague

Chapter 1 Plague and Poetry: Rethinking Jian'an 11

Introduction: Looking Back 11

"Dead Poets Society" 13

Gathering at Ye 30

The Poems 35

Reperforming Nostalgia 58

The Jian'an That Is Unlike "Jian'an" 72

Conclusion 78

Chapter 2 Circling the Tree Thrice: Lord, Vassal, Community 79

Introduction: Wang Can's Jade Pendant 79

Food and Feast 84

The Ideal Feast 90

Two Perspectives on Food 102

A Man of Taste 113

Gifts, Letters, Exchange 120

Give and Take 120

Ownership and Competition 131

A Dark Exchange 140

Conclusion 148

Part II The Bronze Bird

Chapter 3 The Southern Perspective: "Fan Writing" 159

Introduction: The Southern Perspective 159

The Fan 163

An Account of Luoyang 167

Bronze Bird 173

"Fan Writing" 181

The Poetics of Unified Empire 196

Conclusion 205

Chapter 4 Terrace and Tile: Imagining a Lost City 208

Introduction: Views of Ye 208

Ascending the Terrace: Early Writings 213

A Changed View from the Terrace 222

Irony and Criticism: Later Variations 241

Fragmentation: The Bronze Bird Inkstone 253

Conclusion 279

Part III The Red Cliff

Chapter 5 Restoring the Broken Halberd 283

Introduction: The Broken Halberd 283

Going Local, Getting Personal 284

The Southern Turn in the Ninth Century 290

Owning Red Cliff 302

Dongpo's Red Cliff 315

A Storyteller's Vision 325

The Reel Red Cliff 335

Conclusion 343

Epilogue. The Return of the Repressed 346

Appendix A Cao Cao's "Short Song" 359

Appendix B Red Cliff Poems 362

Appendix C A Duel of Wits across the River between Two Army Counselors 371

Works Cited 425

Index 435

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