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"Structure" and "Communitas" in Po Chü-yi's Tomb Inscription=白居易墓誌銘中的「結構」和「群體」 |
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| Author |
Shinohara, Koichi (著)=篠原亨一 (au.)
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| Source |
中華佛學學報=Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal=Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies
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| Volume | n.4 |
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| Date | 1991.07 |
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| Pages | 379 - 450 |
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| Publisher | 中華佛學研究所=Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies |
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| Publisher Url |
http://www.chibs.edu.tw/publication_tw.php?id=12
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| Location | 新北市, 臺灣 [New Taipei City, Taiwan] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 中文=Chinese; 英文=English |
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| Note | Koichi Shinohara is a professor of McMaster University. 作者篠原亨為馬克馬斯特大學教授。 |
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| Keyword | mu-chih ming=墓誌銘; Po Chü-yi=白居易; 結構因素; 群體語言; 唐代; 佛教 |
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| Abstract | Chinese Buddhist biographies in the three major collections, Kao-seng chuan, Hsü Kao-seng chuan, and sung Kao-seng chuan, are largely based on stupa inscriptions, ie., tomb inscriptions for monks. The stupa inscriptions were generally written by secular scholar-officials, in many cases men of great literary fame occupying high government positions. As a consequence, these documents might reasonably be interpreted as reflecting the religiosity of such educated and privileged lay Buddhist followers or sympathizers. In this paper I investigated the implications of these basic facts by examining in some detail the inscriptions written by Po Chü-yi (772-846), the famous T'ang poet who occupied several very high offices in the course of his long career in government. My strategy was to examine Po Chü-yi's stupa inscriptions by (1) placing them in the larger context of the entire category of tomb inscriptions that Po Chü-yi wrote, and (2) identifying one important aspect of the rhetorical dynamic of these inscriptions. I used the concepts "structure" and "communitas" proposed by an anthropologist Victor Turner in identifying this rhetorical dynamic. Turner suggested that we understand our social experiences and our places in society in terms of two contrasting models: (1) "society as a structure of jural, political, and economic individuals" ("a differentiated, culturally structured, segmented, and often hierarchical system of institutionalized positions"), and (2) "communitas of concrete idiosyncratic individuals, who, though differing in physical and mental endowment, are nevertheless regarded as equal in terms of shared humanity ("society as an undifferentiated, homogeneous whole, in which individuals confront one another integrally"). My central conclusion in the present paper is that the these two often contradictory views of society and the individuals' relationship to it are found in Po Chü-yi's tomb inscriptions in general as well as in his stupa inscriptions. I further anticipate that this conclusion might apply more generally to at least a large part of Chinese tomb and stupa inscriptions written by other authors.
The paper is divided into three sections. In the first section, I discuss the two autobiographical inscriptions that Po Chü-yi's wrote for himself: the "Internal Tomb Inscription of a Drunken Poetry" and the "Biography of A Drunken Poet." In the former Po Chü-yi wrote about himself using the conventions of tomb inscriptions, which were usually composed after the death of the subject. The "structural" elements are generally prominent in tomb inscriptions, which describe the successful official careers of their subjects in glowing terms. Such a biography written by the subject himself implies a basic contradiction, and that contradiction surfaces in a condensed manner in Po Chü-yi's fictitious description of his own death. Po Chü-yi's autobiographical voice intrudes loudly here, and that voice speaks in the language of "communitas". The language of "communitas" is a good deal more prominent in the second work, which Po Chü-yi wished to be carved on stone and placed near his tomb. Here Po Chü-yi draws a self-portrait in a highly poetic language, in which the subject "forgets" his worldly self and achieves spiritual fulfilment through wine and poetry.
In the second part of the paper I examined the tomb inscriptions written by Po Chü-yi by focusing on two examples: the "Tomb Inscription for Lord Wang, Administrator of the Granary Section of Yang-chou Prefecture of the T'ang Dynasty" and the "External Tomb Inscription for Lord Wu, Regional Chief of Jao-chou Prefecture". As is usual in most tomb inscriptions these two inscriptions describe the lives of their subjects with considerable emphasis on. "structural" features (family background, official examinations they passed, and government offices they occupied, etc.). Yet, these inscriptions also introduce the "communitas" viewpoint as well: in the case of t |
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| ISSN | 10177132 (P) |
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| Hits | 1373 |
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| Created date | 1998.07.22
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| Modified date | 2017.06.15 |
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