The Story of Stone: Intertextuality, Ancient Chinese Stone Lore, and the Stone Symbolism in Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, and The Journey to the West (Post-Contemporary Interventions)

In this pathbreaking study of three of the most familiar texts in the Chinese tradition—all concerning stones endowed with magical properties—Jing Wang develops a monumental reconstruction of ancient Chinese stone lore. Wang’s thorough and systematic comparison of these classic works illuminates the various tellings of the stone story and provides new insight into major topics in traditional Chinese literature.Bringing together Chinese myth, religion, folklore, art, and literature, this book is the first in any language to amass the sources of stone myth and stone lore in Chinese culture. Uniting classical Chinese studies with contemporary Western theoretical concerns, Wang examines these stone narratives by analyzing intertextuality within Chinese traditions. She offers revelatory interpretations to long-standing critical issues, such as the paradoxical character of the monkey in__The Journey to the West__, the circularity of narrative logic in__The Dream of the Red Chamber__, and the structural necessity of the stone tablet in__Water Margin.__By both challenging and incorporating traditional sinological scholarship, Wang’s__The Story of Stone__reveals the ideological ramifications of these three literary works on Chinese cultural history and makes the past relevant to contemporary intellectual discourse. Specialists in Chinese literature and culture, comparative literature, literary theory, and religious studies will find much of interest in this outstanding work, which is sure to become a standard reference on the subject. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Chapter 1. Intertexuality and Interpretation 14 Intertextual Reading 25 The Problematics of Stone Lore 32 Chapter 2. The Mythological Dictionary of Stone 48 Semantic Considerations 48 Nü-kua and Stone 57 Yü and the She Ritual 70 Rainmaking Rituals 76 The Feng-shan Ritual: The Imperial Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth 79 Shih kan-tang: The Evil-Warding Stone 84 The Inscribed Stone 85 Folk Legends about Stone’s Fertilizing Capability 88 Ming-shih: The Sonorous Stone 91 Shih Yen: The Talking Stone 94 Chao-shih and Shih-ching: The Stone That Illuminates and the Stone Mirror 96 Tien-t’ou Wan-shih: The Enlightened Crude/Unknowing Stone 97 Shih-nü: Stone Woman 98 The Mythological Dictionary of Stone 101 Chapter 3. Stone and Jade: From the Fictitious to the Morally Prescribed 108 The Sacred Fertile Stone 112 Precious Jade 122 The Unfolding of a Moral Vision: Chieh and Chen 135 Between Stone and Jade: An Issue of Authenticity and Artificiality - from the Moral to Metaphysical Vision 168 Chapter 4. The Story of Stone: The Problematic of Contradiction and Constraint 186 San-sheng Shih: The Stone of Rebirth 190 T’ung-ling shih and Wan Shih: The Stone of Divine Intelligence and the Unknowing Stone 206 The Liminal Stone 211 Is There a Beginning the Dream of the Red Chamber? 221 Chapter 5. The Paradox of Desire and Emptiness: The Stone Monkey Intertextualized 234 The Lustful Ape: Chinese and Indian Citations 236 The Liminal Folkloric Stone 9 The Trickster 247 The Knowing Stone 256 Chapter 6. The Inscribed Stone Tablet 264 Conclusion 282 Notes 292 Bibliography 332 Index 346 In this pathbreaking study of three of the most familiar texts in the Chinese tradition—all concerning stones endowed with magical properties—Jing Wang develops a monumental reconstruction of ancient Chinese stone lore. Wang’s thorough and systematic comparison of these classic works illuminates the various tellings of the stone story and provides new insight into major topics in traditional Chinese literature. Bringing together Chinese myth, religion, folklore, art, and literature, this book is the first in any language to amass the sources of stone myth and stone lore in Chinese culture. Uniting classical Chinese studies with contemporary Western theoretical concerns, Wang examines these stone narratives by analyzing intertextuality within Chinese traditions. She offers revelatory interpretations to long-standing critical issues, such as the paradoxical character of the monkey in The Journey to the West , the circularity of narrative logic in The Dream of the Red Chamber , and the structural necessity of the stone tablet in Water Margin. By both challenging and incorporating traditional sinological scholarship, Wang’s The Story of Stone reveals the ideological ramifications of these three literary works on Chinese cultural history and makes the past relevant to contemporary intellectual discourse. Specialists in Chinese literature and culture, comparative literature, literary theory, and religious studies will find much of interest in this outstanding work, which is sure to become a standard reference on the subject.

In this pathbreaking study of three of the most familiar texts in the Chinese tradition--all concerning stones endowed with magical properties--Jing Wang develops a monumental reconstruction of ancient Chinese stone lore. Wang's thorough and systematic comparison of these classic works illuminates the various tellings of the stone story and provides new insight into major topics in traditional Chinese literature.