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 / Jing Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wang, Jing, 1950-

Series:

Post-contemporary interventions.

Post-contemporary interventions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cao, Xueqin, approximately 1717-1763. Hong lou meng.

Cao, Xueqin.

Wu, Cheng'en, approximately 1500-approximately 1582. Xi you ji.

Wu, Cheng'en.

Shui hu zhuan.

Chinese literature--History and criticism.

Chinese literature.

Stone in literature.

Stone--Folklore.

Stone.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Intertextuality and Interpretation

2. The Mythological Dictionary of Stone

3. Stone and Jade: From the Fictitious to the Morally Prescribed

4. The Story of Stone: The Problematic of Contradiction and Constraint

5. The Paradox of Desire and Emptiness: The Stone Monkey Intertextualized

6. The Inscribed Stone Tablet

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages [319]-332) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781322198453

1322198454

9780822379737

0822379732

OCLC:

896861957