Texts on the Civilization of Medieval China: "Embodiment, Impersonation, and Interpretation in Medieval and Early Modern Textual Culture" 234

It is often observed that the term xue 學, commonly rendered in English “study,” is primarily centered in traditional Chinese materials on ideas of replication or imitation, and that it belongs to a cognate family including relatives such as xiao效, jiao 教, and xiao 孝. This can serve as a useful reminder that the intertwined fields of medieval education and textual exegesis often come into better focus when viewed not as about dissemination of knowledge or information but rather as about the shaping and duplication of bodies. Filial piety and death ritual (which we will address in the seminar) are cultural spheres that immediately spring to mind in this context, but a focus on embodiment provides a useful critical perspective for a wide range of medieval textual and social practices, as performance, impersonation, ventriloquism, or the crucial dimension of medieval textual hermeneutics whereby a textual interpretation is corporeally instantiated through viva voce (and often agonistic) verbal performance. We will pursue these issues through careful study of primary sources relating to medieval and early modern hermeneutics, personality appraisal, ritual practices and ritual “breakdowns” as well as the closely intertwined traditions of court speech and civil examination culture.