KHEE Heong KOH. A Northern Alternative

Much has been made of the supposedly uncanny directional orientation in Chinese culture. Even in giving directions, Chinese people often refer to the points of the compass rather than left or right. One might speak of the regions “north” and “south” of the river (Hebei and Henan), but rarely of the river's “left bank” as one might in Paris or New Orleans. North-south dichotomies appear often in Chinese cultural history: between northern and southern Buddhism during the period of disunion, between northern and southern Chan in the Tang and later, and between northern and southern painting styles associated with the great artist and critic Dong Qichang. Now Khee Huong Koh suggests a directional reorientation of Ming Neo-Confucianism, presented in the form of a rediscovery or rehabilitation of a forgotten or obscured northern way. In other words, in China it is the north and not the south that embodies the forlorn “lost cause” represented by Dixie, the Mezzogiorno, or Patagonia.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Buddhism · China · Dichotomy · Geography · Literature · Uncanny · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies