The picture shows experts restoring ancient Chinese texts. Digitalization has facilitated effective conservation of and access to classical texts.   ( SHANGHAI LIBRARY)

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WUHAN—Scholars exchanged ideas on the differences and commonality of research approaches to classical Chinese literature, as well as the diversity and effectiveness of its interpretation at an international symposium in Wuhan on June 30 and July 1.

In recent decades, the Western “diachronic” academic process has been fully presented in China in a “synchronic” manner, with the influx of theories and approaches relating to existentialism, structuralism, formalism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and hermeneutics, said Dai Jianye, a professor at Central China Normal University.

At the same time, Chinese scholars have also construed or reflected on traditional research methods from different perspectives, such as elucidating China’s “sentimental tradition,” summarizing the characteristics of “ancient Chinese hermeneutics” and interpreting China’s “classical poetics,” which has facilitated the gradual transition of traditional research methods to modern academic paradigms, Dai said.

“The relatively independent existence and evolution of ancient Chinese literary traditions determine the separation of Western literary concepts and the reality of Chinese literature,” said Fang Ming, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University.

 

Researchers on ancient Chinese literature have the responsibility to evaluate its writing and reading trajectories truthfully and analyze the validity of interpreting ancient Chinese literature through contemporary Western literary concepts. In the study and writing of the history of ancient Chinese literature, it is necessary to present Chinese positions, perspectives, values and methods, thus revealing the diversity and academic features of Chinese literary history, Fang said.

In the big data era, data analysis has brought new growth points for classical literature research. With his research team, Wang Zhaopeng, a professor at the South-Central University for Nationalities, explored the chronological and geographical data of writers in the Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties (960-1279) based on collections of chronological records, notes and other research. They developed the “Chronicle Map of Tang and Song Literature” by combining data and maps with GIS technology.

The data shows that judging from the static distribution of the poets, the center of poetry moved from the Yellow River basin area before the Mid-Tang Dynasty, to the south in the Late Tang and the Five Dynasties period that followed. When looking at the dynamic distribution of the poets, one will find the poets’ activity space was much larger than that of their birthplaces, and the poets’ mobility made up for the imbalance of their birthplace distribution. Whether it was in the capital city as a political center or in a local zhou or county far from the political center; whether it is a culturally and economically developed area or a remote and backward area, there were active poets and poetry creation. However, as a political and cultural center, the capital city of Chang’an had a strong attraction to the poets in the Tang Dynasty. Chang’an and Luoyang were the absolute centers of poetry creation.

Although digitization facilitates data retrieval and subtly changes one’s learning methods, problem awareness and research models, one must be conscious of the typical “symptoms” brought to poetry annotation in the digital age, said Chen Fei, editor of the journal Literature & Art Studies, who added that typical errors of poetry annotation in the digital age include missing notes regarding the allusions, note errors, inaccurate interpretations, inaccurate explanations of the words, misunderstandings of names of places and failures to tackle redundant aspects.

It is vital to value the classics and return to literature, constantly improving one’s perception and interpretation of the texts. It is also necessary to advocate poetry learning and reconstruct poetics, striving to perfect one’s mastery of poetry and classical Chinese literature. These are essential to enhancing the level of poetry annotation and even for overall classical studies in the digital age, Chen concluded.

 

(edited by JIANG HONG)