A Research Into Ancient Jottings In Suzhou

As a flexible way of writing, jottings have always been favored by men of letters and scholars but they were never classified in the traditional literary catalogue. However, in the past few decades, scholars have come to realize the historical value of jottings and also they’ve made some progress in the research into jottings. And up to now, the research has touched such areas as the compilation of jottings, the history of jottings, historical facts hidden in jottings and so on, but little has been done on the jottings produced in a particular region. And my research, which will be presented in two volumes, will specially focus on the jottings produced in Suzhou.VolumeⅠis trying to trace the development of ancient jottings in Suzhou by placing them in three different historical stages and analyzing typical works in each stage. Below are the five sections consisting of the volume.Introduction: In this section, I first make a summary of the researches done into the jottings so far and then present the methods I adopt in my research. Of course, before I can establish my own criterion of how jottings should be classified, I have to determine Suzhou’s territory and review the evolution of“stories”, which was used as a term for a literary genre in the traditional literary catalogue, and how jottings used to be classified and are now classified. Ancient jottings in Suzhou are classified into three categories: story jottings, history jottings, academic jottings.Chapter 1 the beginning stage——Suzhou jottings from Weijin to Song and Yuan DynastiesSuzhou jottings date back to the Six Dynasties but only a few remain. Among them are Mr. Lu’s Review, Fantasies and Homour and the content of these works is characterized by tales of ghost or humorous stories. But to our regret, none of them is in its complete form.Some breakthroughs were made in jottings produced in the Tang Dynasty. Typical works include Lu Changyuan’s Bianyizhi, in which Mr. Lu tries to reveal some falsehoods of Buddhism and Taoism by telling some tales of mystery and the supernatural, and Luo Yin’s jottings, which are in fact an unofficial record of the Tang society, ranging from history, figures and customs.A great many jottings written in the Song and Yuan Dynasties feature remarks on historical events and historical investigation. Literary anecdotes, social institutions, landscapes are all common topics in the former category and in the latter category are about trifles as well as the authentication of classical works.Chapter 2: the maturing stag——Suzhou jottings in the Ming Dynasty Jottings began to thrive during the latter half of the Ming Dynasty. With the enhancement of the educational standards, men of letters in different social statuses took up jottings and thus a diverse range of jottings sprang up, among which story jottings stood out.These tales and stories in this kind of jottings feature ghosts and monsters, karma and supernatural divination and many of them were patterned and adapted. These storytellers tried to refute some traditional ideas through their active creation.Besides, great achievements were also made in history jottings, in which many subjects were included, such as trifles, anecdotes, livelihood and financial condtions. For example, Lu Rong’s Shuyuanzaji is all about people’s life, Wang Shizhen’s Yanshantangbieji and Fengzhouzabian historical events and institutions, Feixin’s Xingchashenglan and Gujie’s Haichayulu landscapes and customs and Dunyinzalu, Meihuacaotangbitang and Changwuzhi literary ideas and humanity. All of these works are of great help for people to have a better understanding of the Ming society.Compared with the two kinds of jottings mentioned above, jottings about textual criticism were not well written and often mixed up with jottings about anecdotes and trifles, to which Zhang Fengyi’s Tanlu, Wang Shimao’s Dushidingyi and Qian Xiyan’s Xixia belong. Only Wang Shizhen focused on textual criticism and authentication in his work Shichengkaowu, which was the first one of its kind.On the other hand, with the development of the publishing industry in the Ming Dynasty, such publishers as Gu Yuanqing, Yuan Jiong and Lu Yanzhi appeared in Suzhou. They felt it their duty to collect and compile jottings and published Stories in Mr. Gu’s Study, Stories by Forty Writers in the Ming Dynasty Compiled by Mr. Gu, Guangsishijia Stories and Yanxia Stories. These publishers’efforts have made great contributions to the preservation and publication of works of jottings.Chapter 3 the prime——Suzhou Jottings in the Qing DynastySuzhou jottings reached their prime in the Qing Dynasty and all kinds of them were developed in a balanced way.Typical story jottings in this period are Niu Xiu’s Gusheng and Shen Qifeng’s Xieduo. The former was the forerunner of Liaozhai while the latter the heritage of it and both of them have a special place in the history of the Qing jottings. In terms of content, jottings in the Qing Dynasty were no longer all about mystery but more concerned with real life. Even if some jottings look like stories of mystery but were in fact expressions of social realities. In addition, changes also took place in jottings’form due to the influence from the writing of tales. As a result, stories in jottings were narrated at great length in a roundabout way.The most jottings in this dynasty are about history. The subjects range from historical events, institutions, customs to culture. For example, Lu Wenheng’s Se’an Essays and Wang Jiazhen’s Yantang Trifles deal with the political unrest and social disturbance at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty; Zhang Tingxiang’s Buyuanfuzhai Trifles and Wang Tao’s Wengyou Pieces of Discourse are concerned with the social reality at the ending of the Qing Dyansty. Another kind of jottings, which stood out among the jottings in the Qing Dynasty, is about traveling and customs and Suzhou jotting writers created some works of this kind, too, like Gu Lu’s Qingjialu, Yuan Xuelan’s Wujunsuihuajili, Wang Zhencheng’s Ninggutajilue, Wang Tingyun’s Yuexihuanyoulue and Wang Tao’s Yingruanzaji. After the Opium War, the ban on the maritime trade was lifted and intellectuals’life was greatly enriched. Therefore, their writings began to look international. For example, In Wang Tao’s Manyousuilu, he described in detail what life was like abroad and thus promoted Western culture, science and advanced thoughts.In the Qing Dynasty, much was done about textual criticism. As the birthplace of Wu Academic School, which belonged to Qianjia Academic School, there appeared a great number of textual criticism jottings in Suzhou, whose content varies according to different trends of thoughts. Gu Yanwu’s Rizhilu is his masterpiece, a typical work of academic jottings at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Its splendor lies in that Mr. Gu examined and corrected all the classical works in the past and made himself an academic role model in history. Another masterpiece of this kind in the beginning period is He Zhuo’s Yimendushuji, in which Mr. He not only did textual research but also made his comments on literary works. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, typical works of academic jottings are Hui Dong’s Jiuyaobiji and Songyabiji and Wu Yifeng’s Xunzhitangzachao. Mr. Hui Dong focused on linguistic explanations to ancient works while Mr. Wu Yifeng did collation in more areas such as literary rhyme, institutions and so on. Finally, in the twilight of the Qing Dynasty, typical works of academic jottings include Song Xiangfeng’s Guotinglu, in which linguistic explanations and full interpretations of ancient writing were made, Ye tingguan’s Chuiwanglu and Ouboyuhua, which touch the field of ancient inscription on tablets of metals as well as classical works, thus enlarging the range of textual criticism and Jiang Hen’s Guanzhaizazhi, which is very original of its kind because in it Mr. Jiang advocates that academic research should be applied to current affairs, which was in fact a realistic challenge intellectuals would have to meet given the social background of the time.Ending words: In this sector, I’m trying to demonstrate the impact that Suzhou local culture has had on the creation of jottings by analyzing such factors as educational standards, the tradition of political retreat and local scholars’attitudes towards academic research.VolumeⅡrecords the life stories of Suzhou jotting writers, the content of their jottings and how their works got distributed and published. From Wei to late Qing dynasty, are recorded more than 140 writers of more than 200 jottings works.