Through a forest of chancellors: Fugitive histories in Liu Yuan's Lingyan ge, an illustrated book from seventeenth-century Suzhou

Research output: Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook

Abstract

Liu Yuan’s Lingyan ge, a woodblock-printed book from 1669, re-creates a portrait gallery that memorialized 24 vassals of the early Tang court. Liu accompanied each figure, presented under the guise of a bandit, with a couplet; the poems, written in various scripts, are surrounded by marginal images that allude to a contemporary novel. Religious icons supplement the portrait gallery. Liu’s re-creation is fraught with questions. This study examines the dialogues created among the texts and images in Lingyan ge from multiple perspectives. Analysis of the book’s materialities demonstrates how Lingyan ge embodies, rather than reflects, the historical moment in which it was made.

Liu unveiled and even dramatized the interface between manuscript and printed book in Lingyan ge. Authority over the book’s production is negotiated, asserted, overturned, and reinstated. Use of pictures to construct a historical argument intensifies this struggle. Anne Burkus-Chasson argues that despite a general epistemological shift toward visual forms of knowledge in the seventeenth century, looking and reading were still seen as being in conflict. This conflict plays out among the leaves of Liu Yuan’s book.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Place of PublicationCambridge, Mass
PublisherHarvard University Press
Number of pages378
ISBN (Print)9780674032804
StatePublished - 2010

Publication series

NameHarvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series
Volume66

Keywords

  • Art and literature
  • Block books, Chinese
  • Illustration
  • Illustrated books

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