Patricia Sieber (Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University) guest-edited a special issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (8:1, April 2021) on the topic of “The Protean World of Sanqu Songs.” The volume brings together work by established and emerging scholars from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. Collectively, the essays contribute toward a reappraisal of the cultural practices and social meanings surrounding the poetic and musical form of Yuan and Ming-dynasty sanqu songs. The issue is dedicated to Stephen H. West, one of the leading scholars of mid-imperial literature and Sieber’s PhD advisor.
INTRODUCTION
Patricia Sieber, “The Protean World of Sanqu Songs”
For free access to the introduction, see
https://read.dukeupress.edu/jclc/issue/8/1
SANQU AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE THEATER
Wilt L. Idema, “The Ultimate Sanqu Song: Yao Shouzhong’s ‘The Complaint of the Ox’ and Its Place in Tanaka Kenji’s Scholarship”
Karin Myhre, “Performing the Emperor: Sui Jingchen’s ‘Han Gaozu Returns to His Home Village'”
Wenbo Chang, “Performing the Role of the Playwright: Jia Zhongming’s Sanqu Songs in the Supplement to The Register of Ghost”
SANQU AS A CULTURAL FORM AND ITS SOCIAL DIFFUSION
Jaehyuk Lee, “A Dialectic Between Genres and Extensions of Poetic Functions: Zhang Kejiu’s ‘Regulated Songs'”
Ye Ye. Trans. Erxin Wang, “Yuan Ming Sanqu Songs as Communal Texts: Discovering Their Literary Vitality from a New Research Perspective”
Tian Yuan Tan, “In Praise of This Prosperous and Harmonious Empire: Sanqu, Ming Anthologies, and the Imperial Court”
SANQU AND LITERARY TRANSLATION
Patricia Sieber, Mario De Grandis, Ke Wang, Hui Yao, Jingying Gao, Ian McNally, Xu Yichun, and Jenn Marie Nunes, “In Search of Pure Sound: Sanqu Songs, Genre Aesthetics, and Translation Tactics”
THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS
Patricia Sieber, “A Flavor All Its Own: Some Theoretical Considerations on Sanqu Songs as Mixed-Register Literature”