Paul F Rouzer

Writing another's dream : the poetry of Wen Tingyun

This is the first full-length study of the poetry of Wen Tingyun (c. 812-c. 866), a major writer of the Late Tang. Though modern Chinese literary history has generally perceived Wen as an innovator of the song (ci), this study argues that he only gains full stature when his lyric poetry (shi) is examined. In such an examination, he emerges as the near equal of his great contemporaries Li Shangyin and Du Mu and as a powerful representative of the spirit of his age. Though the book focuses on a single poet, it takes larger poetic developments as its context and locates Wen within the cultural and literary changes of the early to mid-800s, a period of poetic experimentation and innovation. It contains translations of more than 60 of Wens poems, most of which appear in English for the first time, and it examines the world of other poets in his milieu.

The Transport of Reading: Text and Understanding in the World of Tao Qian (365-427) (review)

Published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute HJAS 72.1 (2012): 170–178 emphasize the figure of Queen-consort Kōmyō as both a manifestation of bodhisattva Kannon and thus endowed with a body that is female and pure (p. 261), and as a female version of the bodhisattva-ruler typical of Buddhist political thought. The Hokkeji nuns also claimed that motherhood played an active role in the salvation of sentient beings (in contrast, again, to the passive role of motherhood asserted by monks). That the leading nuns of Hokkeji characterize their own temple as being autonomously governed without interference from Ritsu monks further illuminates their ideas of women’s agency (pp. 284–98). In sum, the observations in this chapter might contribute to a rethinking of widespread ideas about women’s religiosity in premodern Japan. In a short epilogue, Meeks emphasizes the need to focus more on “Buddhism on the ground,” that is, “Buddhism as it was encountered and reproduced by those not representing the interests of elite scholar-priests” (pp. 309–10). This is certainly an important direction for future research, especially now that several studies have demonstrated the non-monolithic and complex nature of elite discourses and their tendency to self-deconstruct.2 Well written and well edited, this book is a landmark in scholarship on Japanese Buddhism, women and Buddhism, and the history of monastic institutions.