Tian Yuan Tan 陳靝沅

Position:

Shaw Professor of Chinese; Professorial Fellow of University College

Faculty / College Address:

China Centre / University College
 
Email: 

tianyuan.tan@ames.ox.ac.uk

 

Current Projects and Papers:

  • Principal Investigator, "TEXTCOURT: Linking the Textual Worlds of Chinese Court Theater, ca. 1600-1800", funded by European Research Council (ERC), under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 819953)
  • Co-Director (in collaboration with Professor Wang Shih-pe, National Taiwan University), CCFK-funded project “Textual Forms and the Construction of Knowledge in Late Ming Qu Anthologies” (Research Grant No. RG006-D-17)
  • textual editing and translation of a play by the Qing dynasty scholar Jiang Shiquan
  • "Rhetoric in Ming Dynasty China", Chapter 7 in The Cambridge History of Rhetoric, vol. 3: Rhetoric in the Renaissance c. 1415-1640, ed. Virginia Cox and Jennifer Richards (Cambridge UP, under contract)
  • a paper on a corpus of incomplete and variously titled manuscripts associated with a set of Kangxi era court plays
  • a short essay on "Chronology as Research Method"
  • "Cross-cultural Communication in Sanqu Studies: A Foreword"

Research Interests:

Chinese literature; literary history and historiography; text and performance; cross-cultural literary interactions; digital humanities

I research in four broad areas outlined below, connected by my interests in the contexts of literary production, criticism, and performance in pre-modern China, the various means and forms through which texts survived and functioned, and the making of literary history.

(1) Pre-Modern Chinese Literature, Literary History and Historiography

My research focuses on drama, songs, and other forms of vernacular literature in the later dynasties of China. My book Songs of Contentment and Transgression: Discharged Officials and Literati Communities in Sixteenth-Century North China (2010) reveals how stigmatised genres such as sanqu songs and drama were used by discharged officials in pursuit of a distinctive voice and identity that differentiated them from traditional Chinese elites.

I am also interested in how literary histories are constructed and how they shape our understanding of the literary past. Some areas I have worked on include the significance of the Mid-Ming (roughly 1450—1550) as a literary period, the problems of “attributive authorship”, and the reconsideration of set categories such as North/South and elite/court/popular culture.

(2) Textual Studies, Editing, and Bibliography

My research project on “Lost Songs” of Kang Hai (1475-1541)”, funded by the British Academy and the Sino-British Fellowship Trust from 2008 to 2010, focused on collating and punctuating a sixteenth-century sanqu collection newly rediscovered in Taiwan. Building on this project, I edited A Critical Edition of Kang Hai's Songs with Introduction, Notes, and Two Essays (2011). I am constantly fascinated by new questions and methodologies in paper-based and digital textual editing. My engagement in textual studies has also led me to explore issues such as authorship, the instability of performance texts, editing practices of traditional editors and modern scholars, the functions and limitations of anthologies, and textual segments.

(3) Imperial Court Culture and Performances

My new research project is on court theatre and performances in late imperial China. A Visiting Fellow Research Grant allowed me to conduct archival research at the National Central Library in Taipei. I was also awarded a British Academy Small Research Grant for a two-year research project on the role of literati playwrights in Qing court theatre. Another area I am continuing to work on is the imperial control over literary and theatrical productions.

(4) Reading Chinese Literature across Cultures

In recent years I began working on a few collaborative projects concerning cross-cultural literary interactions and the reception of Chinese literature across cultures. One focus is on Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a major playwright and a contemporary of Shakespeare. Using Tang Xianzu and his rich cultural afterlife as a case study, I explore the ways in which major literary writers are regarded as local and national cultural icons, and examine the translatability of their literary legacies across cultures. More recently, I contributed to the "National Bards in Comparative Perspectives" workshop organised by TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities.

 

Courses Taught:

  • Literary Worlds and Cultural Flows in Pre-modern China
  • Research Methods

Current DPhil Students:

 

Publications:

Books:

A. Monographs

1. Passion, Romance, and Qing: The World of Emotions and States of Mind in Peony Pavilion. 3 Volumes. Leiden: Brill, 2014. Vol 1: x, 522 pp; Vol. 2: iv, 502 pp; Vol. 3: iv, 524 pp. (Co-authored with Paolo Santangelo)

2. Kang Hai sanqu ji jiaojian 康海散曲集校箋 (A Critical Edition of Kang Hai's Songs with Introduction, Notes, and Two Essays). Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 2011. xxvi, 260pp. (Single-authored; PI of British Academy funded project, 2008-2010)

3. Songs of Contentment and Transgression: Discharged Officials and Literati Communities in Sixteenth-Century North China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010. xiv, 293pp. (Single-authored)

Published in Chinese as 《逍遙與散誕——十六世紀北方貶官士大夫及其曲家場域》 (translated by Prof. Zhou Rui 周睿). Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2021.

B. Edited Books

1. 1616: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's China. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2016. xxii, 326pp. (Lead Editor and PI of CCKF funded project (2014-15), with Paul Edmondson and Shih-pe Wang)

2. Yingyu shijie de Tang Xianzu yanjiu lunzhu xuanyi 英語世界的湯顯祖研究論著選譯 (An Anthology of Critical Studies on Tang Xianzu in Western Scholarship). Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 2013. xiv, 362pp. (Co-editor, with Xu Yongming; funded by Harvard-Yenching Institute and PRC International Project Network Grant)

3. Text, Performance, and Gender in Chinese Literature and Music: Essays in Honor of Wilt Idema. Leiden: Brill, 2009. xii, 468pp. (Co-editor, with Maghiel van Crevel and Michel Hockx)

 

Edited Journal Issues

Guest editor (with Ming Tak Ted Hui), Special Issue: "Conceptualising Chinese Court Literary Cultures" 中国宮廷文学文化:概念与阐释, Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture  (NJCLC)《南洋中华文学与文化学报》, No.4 (May 2023), 226pp. Publisher website

 

Journal Articles:

“Do the Parts Add Up? Textual Systems and Segments of Sijieji 四節記 (Four Seasons) in Ming Anthologies,” Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore (Min-su ch’ü-I 民俗曲藝), No. 225 (September 2024): 17-57. Publisher website

"Reworking Songs Past and Present: Literary Forms and Traditions in Chinese Court Drama," Special Issue: "Conceptualising Chinese Court Literary Cultures," Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture  (NJCLC), No.4 (May 2023): 163-178. Publisher website

"Introduction" (co-authored with Ming Tak Ted Hui), Special Issue: "Conceptualising Chinese Court Literary Cultures," Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture  (NJCLC), No.4 (May 2023): 1-6. Publisher website

“TEXTCOURT: Developing a Digital Approach to Chinese Court Drama” (co-authored with Ewan Macdonald and Ming Tak Ted Hui), Journal of Digital Archives and Digital Humanities, No.10 (2022): 1-31. https://doi.org/10.6853/DADH.202210_(10).0001

"Ou Mei hanxue mailuo zhong de Ming Qing shiwen" 歐美漢學脈絡中的明清詩文 (Ming and Qing dynasty Poetry and Prose in the History of Western Sinological Research), Zhongguo shehui kexue bao 中國社會科學報 (Chinese Social Sciences Today), Issue 2546 (07 Dec 2022): 10.

Tian Yuan Tan & Wilt L. Idema, "Interview with Scholars of the Ming", Ming Studies, Issue 85-86 (2022): 134-143. DOI: 10.1080/0147037X.2021.1991723

“Ming Qing gongting yanju de wenben shijie” 明清宮廷演劇的文本世界 (Textual Worlds of Court Theater in Late Imperial China), Bulletin of the Department of Chinese Literature, National Chengchi University《政大中文學報》, No. 37 (2022): 5-52. DOI: 10.30407/BDCL.202206_(37).0001

“Yuan Dynasty Poetry” (co-authored with Ming Tak Ted Hui), In Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies. Ed. Tim Wright. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0194

"In Praise of This Prosperous and Harmonious Empire: Sanqu, Ming Anthologies, and the Imperial Court," Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, Volume 8, Issue 1 (April 2021): 139-162. DOI 10.1215/23290048-8898661

“Springtime Passion and Literary Tradition in Peony Pavilion”, International Communication of Chinese Culture, Volume 3, Issue 1 (2016): 57-65.

“Emerging from Anonymity: The First Generation of Writers of Songs and Drama in Mid-Ming Nanjing,” T’oung Pao 96 (2010): 125-164.

“The Transmission of Sanqu Songs, Writers’ Reputation, and Literati Network in the Mid Ming: Local and Translocal Considerations,” Ming Qing Studies (2010): 193-215.

“A Collation and Annotation of Kang Hai’s Newly Discovered Song Collection Pandong yuefu houlu,” (Part 2) (in Chinese), with revisions by Sun Chongtao, Studies in Culture & Art (Wenhua yishu yanjiu), Volume 2, No. 5 (2009): 145-175.

“A Collation and Annotation of Kang Hai’s Newly Discovered Song Collection Pandong yuefu houlu,” (Part 1) (in Chinese), with revisions by Sun Chongtao, Studies in Culture & Art (Wenhua yishu yanjiu), Volume 2, No.4 (2009): 117-134.

“Contending with Displacement: Two Forms of Retirement in Wang Jiusi’s Songs and Drama,” (in Chinese), Journal of Theater Studies (Xiju yanjiu), 3 (2009): 49-74.

“The Wolf of Zhongshan and Ingrates: Problematic Literary Contexts in Sixteenth-Century China,” Asia Major, Third Series, Volume 20, Part 1 (2007): 105-131.

“The New Discovery of Kang Hai’s (1475-1541) Sanqu Collection and Its Significances,” (in Chinese), Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu tongxun (Taipei: Academia Sinica), Volume 16, No.2 (2006): 75-91.

“Prohibition of Jiatou Zaju in the Ming Dynasty and the Portrayal of the Emperor on Stage,” Ming Studies, Number 49 (Spring 2004): 82-111.

Chapters in Books:

“Song of Dragon Well Tea” (co-translated with Pingyu Sun), in Wilt L. Idema, Wai-yee Li, and Stephen H. West,, eds. A Topsy-Turvy World, Short Plays and Farces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties (New York: Columbia University Press, 2023 ), pp.379-390.

"Jidi jijing zhi yingluan xiqu wenxue: Longjing chage jianjiao"「即地即景」之迎鑾戲曲文學——《龍井茶歌》箋校, in Shih Te-Yu 施德玉 and Wang Xue-yan 王學彥 eds. 2021 Xiqu guoji xueshu yantaohui ji zhuhe Zeng Yongyi yuanshi bazhi rongqing 2021戲曲國際學術研討會 暨祝賀曾永義院士八秩榮慶 (International Xi Qu Academic Conference 2021 & The Festschrift in Celebration of Academician Tseng Yong-Yih's 80th Birthday) (Taipei: Guoli Taiwan xiqu xueyuan, 2023), vol.2, pp.773-783.

"Yinyan: Ou Mei hanxue mailuo zhong de Ming Qing shiwen" 引言:歐美漢學脈絡中的明清詩文 (Foreword: Ming and Qing dynasty Poetry and Prose in the History of Western Sinological Research), in Ye Ye 葉曄 and Yan Zinan 顏子楠, eds. Xihai yizhu: Oumei Ming Qing shiwen lunji 西海遺珠:歐美明清詩文論集 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2022), pp.1-6.

Song of Dragon Well Tea and Other Court Plays: Stage Directions, Spectacle, and Panegyrics”, in Patricia Sieber and Regina Llamas, eds. How to Read Chinese Drama: A Guided Anthology. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2022, Chapter 13, pp.309-324.

“Ming Qing gongting juben zhi bianzhuan ji zuozhe wenti chutan” 明清宮廷剧本之編撰及作者問題初探 (A Preliminary Study of the Compilation and Authorship of Drama in Ming and Qing Imperial Courts), in Gugong bowuyuan (Ming Qing gongtingshi yanjiu zhongxin) 故宮博物院(明清宮廷史研究中心)ed., Ming Qing gongtingshi xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (di’er ji)明清宮廷史學術研討會論文集(第二輯)(Beijing: Gugong chubanshe, 2017), pp 435-447.

“Jiang Shiquan juzuo zhong de xi yu qu” 蔣士銓劇作中的“戲”與“曲” (Performance and Poetry in Jiang Shiquan’s Dramatic Works), in Tsung-Cheng Lin and Zhang Bowei, eds., Cong chuantong dao xiandai de Zhongguo shixue 從傳統到現代的中國詩學 (From Tradition to Modernity: Poetic Transition from 18th to Early 20th Century China). Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2017, pp.30-47.

“Traditions and Transitions in Eighteenth-Century Qu Poetry: The Case of Jiang Shiquan (1725-1785)”, in Tiziana Lippiello, Chen Yuehong and Maddalena Barenghi, eds., Linking Ancient and Contemporary: Continuities and Discontinuities in Chinese Literature. Venice: Edizioni Ca'Foscari, 2016, pp.229-245. (Sinica Venetiana series)

“Introduction.,” in Tian Yuan Tan, Paul Edmondson, and Shih-pe Wang, eds., 1616: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's China. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, pp. 1-4.

“Sixty Plays from the Ming Palace, 1615-18”, in Tian Yuan Tan, Paul Edmondson, and Shih-pe Wang, eds., 1616: Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu's China. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2016, pp. 96-107.

“Shared Words and Worlds of Love in Peony Pavilion,” in Tian Yuan Tan and Paolo Santangelo, eds. Passion, Romance, and Qing: The World of Emotions and States of Mind in Peony Pavilion (3 vols.). Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2014, pp. 1454-1481.

“Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare: Two Theatrical Cultures in Global Perspective,” (in English and Chinese) in Tang Xianzu-Shashibiya wenhua gaofeng luntan ji Tang Xianzu he Wan Ming wenhua xueshu yantaohui lunwen ji, ed.  Society of Chinese Theatre Studies (Tang Xianzu Branch) and Suichang Association of Social Sciences. Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2012, 24-29.  

“Reflections on the Study of Court Theatre in Late Imperial China” (in Chinese), in Ming Qing gongtingshi xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Volume 1), ed. Palace Museum. Beijing: Jijincheng chubanshe, 2011, pp.467-477.

“Rethinking Li Kaixian’s Editorship of Revised Plays by Yuan Masters: A Comparison with His Banter about Lyrics,” in Text, Performance, and Gender in Chinese Literature and Music: Essays in Honor of Wilt Idema, ed. Maghiel van Crevel, Tian Yuan Tan, and Michel Hockx. Leiden: Brill, 2009, pp.139-152.

“A Study of Kang Hai’s Composition of Southern Songs in His Later Years, Along with a Discussion on the Tune Title Langtaosha,” (in Chinese) Mingdai wenxue lunji, ed. Chen Qingyuan. Fuzhou: Haixia wenyi chubanshe, 2009, pp.1065-1076.

“The Sovereign and the Theater: Reconsidering the Impact of Ming Taizu’s Prohibitions,” Chapter 9 in Long Live the Emperor: Uses of the Ming Founder across Six Centuries of East Asian History, ed. Sarah Schneewind. Ming Studies Research Series, Number 4. Minneapolis: Society for Ming Studies, 2008, pp.149-169.

“The Discovery of Materials Related to the Mid Ming Writer Kang Hai and Its Significances,” (in Chinese) in Zhongguo Xiju: Cong Chuantong dao Xiandai (Chinese Drama: From Traditional to Modern Forms), ed. Dong Jian and Rong Guangrun. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2006, pp.179-196.

“A Study of a ‘New’ Huaben Story in Jingshi tongyan: ‘Ye Fashi Fushi Zhenyao’ (Exorcist Ye Subdues the Demon with a Charmed Rock),” (in Chinese) in Mingdai xiaoshuo mianmianguan: Mingdai xiaoshuo guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji (Aspects of Ming Dynasty Fiction: Proceedings of the International Conference on Ming Fiction), ed. Kow Mei Kao and Huang Lin. Shanghai: Xuelin chubanshe, 2002, pp.354-371.

Book Reviews:

Review of Sophie Volpp, Worldly Stage: Theatricality in Seventeenth-Century China, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 72.2 (2012): 430-437.

Review of Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema eds. and trans., Monks, Bandits, Lovers, and Immortals: Eleven Early Chinese Plays, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, 21:3 (2011), 400-402.

Review of Daniel Bryant, The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483-1521) and His World, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72:3 (2009), 581-582.

Review of Qingyun Wu trans., A Dream of Glory (Fanhua meng): A Chuanqi Play by Wang Yun, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72:3 (2009), 582-584.

Review of Zong-qi Cai ed., How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology, in Monumenta Serica 56 (2008): 519-521.

Any other information (e.g. consultancy, public engagements, positions):

Media:

Professional Activities:

  • Secretary-General, European Association for Chinese Studies (2012-2018)
  • Board Member, Ming Qing Studies
  • Academic Board Member, Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (Beijing Normal University)
  • Academic Board Member, Sinica Venetiana book series, Edizioni Ca'Foscari (Ca'Foscari University Press)
  • Academic Advisory Board Member, Zhonghua youxiu chuantong wenhua yanjiu 中華優秀傳統文化研究
  • Advisory Board Member, Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (NJCLC) 南洋中華文學與文化學報
  • Advisory Board Member, Chung Cheng Chinese Studies 中正漢學研究
  • Overseas Advisory Board Member, 東亞漢籍與儒學研究中心
  • Board of Advisors, Renaissance Studies: Journal of the Society for Renaissance Studies, 2020-2025
  • International Editorial Advisor, Southern University College Academic Journal 南方大學學報
  • Editorial Board Member, Qingdai wenxue yanjiu jikan (Journal of Qing Dynasty Literature)
  • Editorial Board Member, Xiqu yu suwenxue yanjiu 戲曲與俗文學研究
  • Editorial Board Member, Korea Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
  • Editorial Board Member, International Communication of Chinese Culture
  • Editorial Board Member, Critical Survey
  • European Science Foundation (ESF) College of Expert Reviewers, 2019-2022
Tian Yuan Tan