Goddesses in Historical Perspective: Interpretation, Representation, Transformation

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Immortal, but not eternal, goddesses in Chinese art and literature are provocative signs of their times. Examining images of goddesses as both powerful signifiers and indices of real power, this panel will explore the historical forces that bear upon the representation and interpretation of the divine and the female. Chair Paul Katz will open the discussion with comments on gender roles and the significance of goddesses in Han and non-Han religious traditions. Monica Zikpi will consider the early reception of the urtext of goddess literature, the Chuci. She will argue that Wang Yi’s foundational commentary “rhetoricized” the female deities to fit the gender ideology of the late Han dynasty. In doing so it articulated a standard for hermeneutics—and poetics. Hu Qiulei will take up the latter thread, discussing the different symbolic meanings of the goddess in court fu (rhapsody) before and during the Jian’an period, arguing that the goddess changed from a symbol of centralized power to that of a literary community. Wang Lu will contribute a perspective on the interaction of visual arts, Buddhism, and popular devotion in later imperial history. Analyzing Buddhist texts, a series of paintings and engravings, and folklore fieldwork related to sericulture deities, she will demonstrate that substitutions between different deities in written and visual sources were commonplace and not unaffected by gender politics. Vivian-Lee Nyitray will draw the papers into discussion from her career-long perspective on the study of women and Chinese religions.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Monica Eileen McLellan Zikpi, University of Oregon

Chair

• Paul R. Katz, Academia Sinica

Individual Presentations

• Gendered Hermeneutics in Wang Yi’s Commentary on the Chuci - Monica Eileen McLellan Zikpi, University of Oregon

• From Symbol of Imperial Power to Symbol of Literary Community: Representations of Women in Early Medieval Court Literature - Qiulei Hu, Whitman College

• The Changing Portrayal of The Chinese Silkworm Deity in Later Imperial China - Lu Wang, Dartmouth College

Discussant

• Vivian-Lee Nyitray, Chongqing U of Posts and Telecom