Trauma and Transcendence in Early Qing Literature (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

'The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the Manchu conquest of China were traumatic experiences for Chinese intellectuals, not only because of the many decades of destructive warfare but also because of the adjustments necessary to life under a foreign regime. History became a defining subject in their writings, and it went on shaping literary production in succeeding generations as the Ming continued to be remembered, re-imagined, and refigured on new terms. The twelve chapters in this volume and the introductory essays on early Qing poetry, prose, and drama understand the writings of this era wholly or in part as attempts to recover from or transcend the trauma of the transition years. By the end of the seventeenth century, the sense of trauma had diminished, and a mood of accommodation had taken hold. Varying shades of lament or reconciliation, critical or nostalgic retrospection on the Ming, and rejection or acceptance of the new order distinguish the many voices in these writings.' Front Matter 1 Contents 7 Introduction 15 Part I - Poetry 85 Introduction 87 History and Memory 113 Loyalism, Exile, Poetry 163 Qian Qianyi and His Place in History 213 Part II - Prose 233 Introduction 235 Mao Xiang and Yu Huai 245 Between Worlds 263 Novelty, Character, and Community in Zhang Chao's Yu Chu xinzhi 296 Fictional Reunions in the Wake of Dynastic Fall 324 Dreaming the Past 359 Part III - Drama 387 Introduction 389 "Crossing the Sea in a Leaking Boat" 401 Wu Weiye's Dramatic Works and His Aesthetics of Dynastic Transition 441 Music and Performance in Hong Sheng's Palace of Lasting Life 468 "I Don't Want to Act as Emperor Any More" 502 Index 525 Series List 549