Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2014

 

Book Circulation and the Poetics of East Asia—The Example of Chongbirok

 

 

(Abstract)

 

Zhang Bowei

 

 

 

Using the Korean literary work Chongbirok (清脾录) as an example, we can explore, from an empirical and theoretical perspective, the relationship between changes in “unending circulation” and book “circulation” in literary history. The special significance of Chongbirok in literary history lies in the fact that besides being concerned with Korean poetry, it also takes note of contemporary poetry in China, Japan and Annam from an “East Asian perspective” and with a “contemporary consciousness.” The work’s circulation in manuscript and block-printed editions in Korea, China and Japan and the fact that it was read, amended and disseminated among the literati reflect the way it epitomized the culture of “another country” in the eyes of the literati of these three countries, allowing us to trace the waxing and waning of their cultural power. From the response to Chongbirok, we can see that “readings” or even “misreadings” are connected with cultural communication among these East Asian countries and their mutual cultural identification. The emergence and influence of an East Asian literary perspective are reflected in book circulation. The phenomenon of book circulation in East Asia saw East Asian poetics take on a grand transnational consciousness quite different from the pre-18th century period.