Questions on the Reading
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Week 10
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| Questions on the Reading for week 10 (March 27 and
29) |
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*Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 444-450, 458-467.
*Japan: A Documentary History. pp. 196-197.
*"Letter to the Viceroy of the Indies," pp. 316- 318.
*A Heritage of Kings, pp. 219-230.
*The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong, pp. 241-336.
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Introduction to "Re-investigation of Antiquity in Late
Imperial China, Choson Korea, and Tokugawa Japan."
The fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644, as earlier the demise of
the Zhou dynasty and the disintegration of the Tang empire, rekindled
debates about the Way and the Confucian canon. The presence of Jesuit
priests, with their religious claims and their scientific equipment,
further intensified these renewed attempts to restore to the present
the perfect wisdom of Antiquity: if these foreign methods had any
validity, then surely the ancients must have possessed them, too.
Scholars in Tokugawa Japan similarly re-examined ancient Chinese
texts, but they arrived at conclusions that differed greatly from
those of their Qing counterparts.
The readings for Thursday juxtapose ideal visions of ritual with
detailed descriptions of ritual practice. In the excerpt from A
Heritage of Kings, King Yongjo improvises a ritual in order
to secure his succession. In an unprecedented ceremony he attempts
to depose his mentally ill son without delegitimizing his grandson.
[Note: King Yongjo (r. 1724-1776) was the father of Prince Sado
(married Lady Hyegyong) who was in turn the father of "the
grand heir" (later King Chongjo, r. 1776-1800).]
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King Chongjo and Lady Hyegyong in a procession
to the tomb of Princess Sado. Details fron Royal Procession
to the City of Hwasong. Courtesy of the National Museum of
Korea.
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Portrait of King Youngjo
Choson (1900 A.D.) Anonymous, Colors on silk, 110X68 cm, Changdukgung
Palace, Seoul.
The authority of King Youngjo is projected through his figure
in his royal top hat and royal robes with dragon pattern. However,
his face with his sharp eyes, clear-cut nose, soft lines of
his mouth represents his as a man of virtue. |
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Illustrated manuscript of the royal ritual
record of the sixtieth anniversary of the consummation in
1749 of the marriage of Lady Hyegyong, wife of the murdered
Crown Prince Sado and mother of King Chongjo, showing the
polychrome court painting style. Ink and colours on Korean
paper, dated 1809.
Page ht: 47.5 cm; double page width:57.5 cm.
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| Questions |
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- How does the "rediscovery of Confucianism" in Qing/Ch'ing-dynasty
China and in Tokugawa Japan differ from "Neo-Confucianism"?
Which new topics, interests, or insights do they discuss and which
aspects of Neo-Confucianism do they criticize or abandon? How
do Qing/Ch'ing and Tokugawa authors defend their superior claim
to Antiquity?
- This week's selections from the Sources of Chinese Tradition
(second edition) and the Sources of Korean Tradition present
ideal views on ritual and social relations, while the selections
from The Scholars (ca. 1750) and from Yi Kwanghyon's diary
(1762) describe individual instances of ritual negotiation. If
we understand ritual as a negotiation of power and social relations
through an arrangement of bodies and objects in space and time
that departs from the everyday, then what do these rituals negotiate?
What is the relationship between ritual and raw power?
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