The Scribal Witness
Narrative Authority in Ancient Chinese Literature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20380447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Crone (0000-0002-4670-8085, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Pages | 265-285 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Early China (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0362-5028 • E-ISSN: 2325-2324 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/eac.2022.25 |
| OpenAlex | W4379159986 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
The scribe has been granted a special role in the creation of ancient Chinese narrative prose. Many texts seem to imply the presence of his person or written records, and scholars have often treated this feature as an indication of authorship. In this paper, I argue that another way of relating the scribe to ancient Chinese narrative prose is to see in him not an author but a witness of the events told. I will use several examples to demonstrate that the figure of the scribe stands out by its function of authenticating the narratives in which scribes takes part. Moreover, occasionally scribes appear to have been added to pre-existing “scribe-less” narratives. I will conclude my discussion by detailing how these findings shed light on the composition of individual pieces of literature and the nature of ancient Chinese narrative writing in general
Art · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Witness · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy
Writing and authority in early China
“I Write Therefore I Am”
Issues in Western Zhou Studies
A Self-Reflexive Praxis
Foundations of Confucian Thought
Legal Practice in the Formative Stages of the Chinese Empire
Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography
Literary Eyewitnesses
The Qinghua “Jinteng” Manuscript
| Highly cited | No |
|---|