Metamorphosis of the Private Sphere: Gardens and Objects in Tang–Song Poetry (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

'The Chinese garden has been explored from a variety of angles. Much has been written about its structural features as well as its cosmological, religious, philosophical, moral, aesthetic, and economic underpinnings. This book deals with the poetic configurations of the private garden in cities from the ninth to the eleventh century in relation to the development of the private sphere in Chinese literati culture. It focuses on the ways in which the new values and rhetoric associated with gardens and the objects found in them helped shape the processes of self-cultivation and self-imaging among the literati, as they searched for alternatives to conventional values at a time when traditional political, moral, and aesthetic norms were increasingly judged inapplicable or inadequate. The garden was also an artifact and a locus for material culture and social competition. Focusing on a series of anecdotes about private transactions involving objects in gardens, the author dissects the intricate nexus between the exchange of poetry and the poetry of exchange. In tracing the development of the private urban garden through the writings of Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Sima Guang, and their contemporaries, the author argues that this private space figured increasingly as a place of disengagement for those out of political power and hence was increasingly invaded by political forces.' This Book Delineates The Correlation Between The Evolution Of The Private Sphere And The Conscious Efforts Of Chinese Literati To Search For And Formulate Alternatives When Conventional Values, Whether Political, Moral, Or Aesthetic, Were Found To Be Inapplicable Or Inadequate. In Addition To Exploring The Garden As The Physical Space Of The Private Sphere, This Book Examines The Modes In Which Certain Cultural Artifacts (for Example, Fantastic Rocks, Rare Birds, And Precious Paintings) Moved To And Across Different Private Spaces. It Also Exemplifies Ways In Which The Private Sphere Could Become Problematic Or Even Collapse As Its Values Confronted The Norms Of The Public Domain. Drawing On A Wealth Of Textual Sources, The Author Offers A Detailed Study Of The Functions Of Gardens And The Aesthetic Objects Placed In Them In The Emotional And Psychological Lives Of Their Owners And Sheds Light On Aspects Of Chinese Literati Culture In The Tang-song Period That Have Not Received Adequate Scholarly Attention.--book Jacket. 1. Having It Both Ways: Manors And Manners In Bai Juyi's Poetry -- The Estate And The State -- How To Possess A Garden -- The Middling Hermit -- 2. The Poetics Of Space: Presence And Mediation -- A Gated Space -- Naturalizing The Garden -- Nature Framed, Nature Reflected -- Southern Landscapes In Northern Gardens -- 3. Fetishism And Anxiety: A Poetic Biography Of Fantastic Rocks -- Obsession And Fetishism In The Chinese Tradition -- The Rock Topos In Pre-tang Poetry -- The Ugly, The Grotesque, And The Useless -- Niu Sengru's Petromania -- From Apologia To Satire -- The Philosophical Critique In The Northern Song -- Redefining The Ugly, The Grotesque, And The Useless -- Reconciling Theory And Practice -- Coda -- 4. Words And Things: The Exchange Of Poetry And The Poetry Of Exchange -- A Tale Of Two Cranes -- A Beloved Concubine In Exchange For A Horse -- Spontaneous Artistry And Calculated Exchanges -- Three Poems, Two Rocks, One Painting -- 5. Old Men At Home: The Rhetorics Of Joy And Leisure -- The Transcendence Of Sorrow And The Theme Of Joy -- Glorifying The Community Of Joyful Elders -- (dis)content With Leisure -- Back To Gardens -- Postscript: Reflections On The Private Sphere. Xiaoshan Yang. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [257]-270) And Indexes.