港大中文學院

2022/23 School of Chinese Seminar

Networks of Poems, Readers, and Books: Compiling and Reading Pre-Tang Poetry Anthologies in Late Imperial China

詩歌、讀者、書籍網絡：明清時期先唐詩總集的編撰與閱讀

Dr. Jing CHEN陳婧博士

Hong Kong Polytechnic University香港理工大學

Date: April 27, 2023 (Thursday)

Time: 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Venue: Room730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus

Language: English

Abstract:

With the rise of print culture in late imperial China, the production of poetry anthologies became a pervasive social and cultural practice involving various agents serving as editors, readers, commentators, and printers. By combining approaches from anthology studies, book history, and digital humanities, this talk examines the diverse practices of compiling 23 pre-Tang poetry anthologies between the 1500s and 1800s from macroscopic and microscopic perspectives, aiming to explore how poetic tradition was transmitted via anthology-making practices. First, by applying citation network analysis, I compare and visualize the extensive network for the table of contents among these poetry anthologies that contain over 7000 poems, showing that the continuous production of a similar type of books has gradually formulated a repackaged shared pre-Tang poetic tradition for the new Ming-Qing readers. Second, by creating graph databases for several influential anthologies, I reconstruct the networks of books and readers to compare the circulation and reception of poetry anthologies representing different literary tastes among two groups of targeted readers. Finally, by reflecting upon the power of digital humanities tools such as networks and graph databases, this study sheds new light on the study of poetry anthologies compiled in the era of print culture.

隨著印刷文化在明清時代的興起，詩歌總集的編撰成為一種普遍的社會和文化實踐，其間涉及到編輯、讀者、評點者、印書商等各方勢力的參與。 本講座結合選集研究、書籍史、數字人文研究方法，從宏觀和微觀的角度考察15世紀到19世紀之間23種先唐詩歌總集的編纂，探索詩歌傳統如何通過總集編纂在明清社會得以傳播。通過網絡分析法，本講座對這些包含7000多首詩的詩集目錄進行比較和可視化，展示同類書籍的持續生產為新的明清讀者制定了一個共享的先唐詩傳統。 其次，通過為幾種有影響力的選集建立圖數據庫，本講座重構了包括書籍和讀者的網路，從而比較代表不同文學品味的詩歌選集在兩類目標讀者中的流通和接受情況。 最後，通過反思網絡分析和圖數據庫等數位人文學科工具的力量，這項研究為研究印本時代編纂的詩歌總集提供了新的啟示。

Biography:

Dr. Jing CHEN is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on classical Chinese poetry and poetics, traditional Chinese literary thought, print culture, literary anthology, and the application of digital tools to the studies of premodern Chinese literature. Currently she is working on two Digital Humanities projects that explore the citation network of Chinese poetry anthologies and the poetry exchange network among late imperial women poets.

陳婧，美國伊利諾大學厄巴納-香檳分校東亞語言與文化系博士，現任香港理工大學中國文化學系助理教授。其研究興趣包括中國古典詩歌與詩學，中國傳統文學思想，印刷文化，詩歌總集，以及數字工具於中國古代文學研究的應用等。目前她正致力於兩個結合了數字人文中的網絡分析法與傳統文學研究的項目，一者探討中國歷代詩歌選集的引文網絡，二者探討明清女詩人之間的詩歌唱遊網絡。

All are welcome