Books by Casey Schoenberger
More information about the book, including the table of contents, can be found at global.oup.com/... more More information about the book, including the table of contents, can be found at global.oup.com/academic. Use promotion code AUFLY30 to save 30% Order your discounted copy here Please note that the currency is in UK sterling (£) or US dollars ($) and the discount is only valid on orders placed on global.oup.com.
Links for Music, Mind, and Language in Chinese Poetry and Performance: The Voice Extended.
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Articles by Casey Schoenberger
Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 2025
Xìngqù 興趣, translated here as "inspired appeal," represents a turning point in Chinese literary c... more Xìngqù 興趣, translated here as "inspired appeal," represents a turning point in Chinese literary criticism. In his Canglang shihua 滄浪詩話 ([Yan] Canglang's Poetic Discourses), Southern Song critic Yan Yu 嚴羽 (c. 1192-c. 1245) used it to describe High Tang (c. 712-766) poets' creative process, which he compared to Buddhist enlightenment and "entering the divine" (rushen 入神). This contributed to a late-Ming "archaist" (fugu 復古) trend, which devalued Song and Yuan poetry, and anti-archaist reactions, like Yuan Hongdao's 袁宏道 (1568-1610) notions of qù (charm, appeal) and yun 韻 (resonance). Early-Qing poetic doyen Wang Shizhen 王士禛 (1634-1711) synthesized this "talent learning" debate by defending more recent artists, like Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037-1101), with Buddhistic ideals, like an approach to evoking poetic objects called "not clinging nor diverging" (buji buli 不即不離), and the term shenyun 神韻 (divine resonance), originally from painting criticism...
SubStance (Special Issue on Life Writing and Cognition), 2022
Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC) is often called "the first Chinese poet," because the primary work attrib... more Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC) is often called "the first Chinese poet," because the primary work attributed to him, Li sao ("Sublimating Sorrow"), is the first in the tradition to evoke a distinctive persona engaged in self-reflection and personal narrative. To explain why this story of frustrated political ambition became arguably the first instance of Chinese autobiography or life writing, this paper uses the notion of "biological handicap," proposed by Amotz Zahavi. As a peacock's cumbersome tail feathers reduce its individual chances of survival but communicate valuable information to potential mates, the Li Sao's poetic persona uses images its audience understood as external marks of invisible, spiritual potency, like long eyebrows and fragrant adornments, to evoke unfulfilled political potential, resulting in an early model of literary interiority. The Li sao 離騷 ("Sublimating Sorrow," better known as "Encountering Sorrow" or "Leaving my Troubles" 1) may be the most influential poem in Chinese history. Formally, it laid groundwork for classical poetry and prose. 2 Thematically, it transmuted a regional genre of shamanistic ritual songs into a political life story imitated for 2,300 years. Though not escaping intermittent criticism, its putative author, a minister and royal clansman of the state of Chu 楚 named Qu Yuan 屈原 (ca. 4 th-3 rd cs. BC), has been hailed as "the first Chinese
Poetics Today, 2020
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in China and the West saw a wave of skeptical approaches ... more The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in China and the West saw a wave of skeptical approaches to metaphysics, ethics, and the physical sciences, including a related interest in "playing devil's advocate" for seemingly weak propositions. This paper analyzes two works of musical theater from these geographically remote traditions to argue that use of historically problematic romances to explore the relationship of ethics, emotion, and reason resulted in novel depictions of attachment emotions as neither purely selfless "gut reactions" nor calculating facades. Scenes depicting lovers' quarrels and morally flawed characters may paradoxically strike audiences as more authentically romantic because they dramatize an aspect of attachment emotions' functioning recently elucidated by cognitive science, namely that of "body budgeting" (allocation of energy resources by the brain). Monteverdi and Busenello's Coronation of Poppaea and Hóng Shēng's Palace of Lasting Life use contrastive poetic and musical styles to dramatize the "debate-like" quality inherent to such negotiations, further revealing a strong connection between the affective "ingredients" that make up socially mediated emotion states and the mechanisms by which music and prosody affect them.
CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 38.2, 2019
This paper draws on scholarship in performance history, art history, cognitive humanities, and th... more This paper draws on scholarship in performance history, art history, cognitive humanities, and the anthropology of urbanization and markets to argue that theatrical conventions like “fourth wall” illusion and asides first developed in China’s Song-Yuan period and matured in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries under the special influence of new demands of city life, commerce, and print culture. As anthropologists argue that participation in markets requires temporary, imaginative suspension of other roles and identities, so suspension of disbelief in mimetic portrayals (as opposed to storytelling evocations) of fictional characters with fictional minds requires “leaving one’s identity at the theater door.” Song-Yuan Chinese theater, like Japanese Noh of the Muromachi and later periods, accomplished this in a mediated fashion by including star characters to focus on and “spectators’ representative” characters to identify with. Drawing inspiration from the protean, promiscuous space and punning humor of printed miscellanies and annotated vernacular fiction, the late Ming comedy Ge dai xiao 歌代嘯 (A song for a laugh) “flattens” the “asymmetric” (mediated) structure of the traditional Yuan form it takes for its model by stringing together a series of loosely related vignettes featuring buffoonish “side” characters in a generic town setting.
The Fu Genre of Imperial China, Studies in the Rhapsodic Imagination, Nicholas Williams, ed., 2019
Twentieth- and twenty-first century critics know Xu Wei primarily as a painter and, more recently... more Twentieth- and twenty-first century critics know Xu Wei primarily as a painter and, more recently, a dramatist. As Yuan Hongdao has become better known in recent centuries for his lifestyle essays rather than his poetry (the reverse of his situation in life), Xu’s own poetry, and especially his poetry in the complex fu genre, have received little attention in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. But it is in Xu’s fu poetry where one finds many of his most eloquent and detailed statements on art and personal taste— viewpoints that presaged and likely influenced many poets, essayists, and tastemakers of the seventeenth century. This essay argues that Xu adapted special characteristics of the fu genre—its blending of lyricism with logical argumentation and commemoration with remonstrance—to the purposes of an early modern critique of poetic expression and artistic consumption, and that, in so doing, he not only breathed new life into the fu genre, but made a major early contribution to the burgeoning literature of individual taste.
Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 2019
This article draws on historical linguistic evidence, archeological finds, and written accounts o... more This article draws on historical linguistic evidence, archeological finds, and written accounts of ancient practices to argue that, in the pre-Qin and Han periods of Chinese history, an important stratum of knowledge related to earthly energies, vibrations, pitch, tonality, music, memory, and recitation existed in conceptual parallel to systems of visual knowledge of heavenly bodies, light, color, and the written record. Masters of the former set of skills were frequently blind and entrusted with a distinct set of ritual and advisory functions, including ushering in the seasons, pronouncing on elements of the calendar, predicting military fortunes, and performing official policy admonishments. Of particular importance to this group of experts was the concept of "winds" or "airs" (fēng) and a closely related verb for "sing," "chant," or "remonstrate" (fĕng). The etymological relationship of these words, along with words for listening, smell, sounds, and fragrance, led to a conceptual blending whereby the "energy" (qi) of wise words and "fragrant" virtue could carry on "winds" of oral transmission to correct public morality and governance. This led to an etiological hierarchy, in some ways inverted by current standards, in which the purpose of studying pitch and tonality was not, first and foremost, analysis of music qua art, but rather the encoding, transmission, and influence of natural energies and social harmony.
Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, 2018
The relationship between music and Tang poetry is a topic of ongoing interest, usually approached... more The relationship between music and Tang poetry is a topic of ongoing interest, usually approached from the perspective of individual genres. This article considers the relationships of three major genres of Tang poetry to music, morality, and one another to argue that musical and ethical considerations were important factors in the waxing and waning of those genres. By the mid-Tang, and perhaps much earlier, the musical system for Han and Six Dynasties yuefu poetry had been lost. Citing poems, critical writings, and histories of such poets as ShenYue, Yuan Jie, Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, and Li Qingzhao, however, this article shows how yuefu, shi, and quzi ci poets reappropriated the idea of “music bureau” pieces to experiment with, and stand in for, even
older, Confucian ideals on the relationship of lyrics to music and morality. By citing examples where ethical considerations prompted poets and musicians to reinvent and reinterpret older forms, this article complicates the notion of a straight line of development from folk song to literati imitation to antiquarian exercise.
CLEAR: Chinese Literature Essays, Articles, Reviews, 2013
Translations by Casey Schoenberger
A Topsy-Turvy World: Short Plays and Farces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties Edited and introduced by Wilt L. Idema, Wai-yee Li, and Stephen H. West, 2023
English translation of a comedic, late-Ming variety drama (zájù 雜劇).
Metamorphoses, 2018
Peer-reviewed translation of Xu Wei's "Rhapsody on the Lotus" for Smith's Translation Journal, Me... more Peer-reviewed translation of Xu Wei's "Rhapsody on the Lotus" for Smith's Translation Journal, Metamorphoses.
An "ink splash" painting of a lotus by Xu Wei with accompanying poem translated. See also "Rhapso... more An "ink splash" painting of a lotus by Xu Wei with accompanying poem translated. See also "Rhapsody on the Lotus," translated for Metamorphoses.
Reviews by Casey Schoenberger
Asian Studies Review
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Review of special issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, titled "The Sound and S... more Review of special issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, titled "The Sound and Sense of Chinese Poetry."
Digital Humanities Projects by Casey Schoenberger
A digitization of the largest premodern collection of traditional Chinese vocal melodies, a Qianl... more A digitization of the largest premodern collection of traditional Chinese vocal melodies, a Qianlong-era compendium of dramatic and stand-alone melodies performed in the Kun opera style.
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Books by Casey Schoenberger
Articles by Casey Schoenberger
older, Confucian ideals on the relationship of lyrics to music and morality. By citing examples where ethical considerations prompted poets and musicians to reinvent and reinterpret older forms, this article complicates the notion of a straight line of development from folk song to literati imitation to antiquarian exercise.
Translations by Casey Schoenberger
Reviews by Casey Schoenberger
Digital Humanities Projects by Casey Schoenberger
older, Confucian ideals on the relationship of lyrics to music and morality. By citing examples where ethical considerations prompted poets and musicians to reinvent and reinterpret older forms, this article complicates the notion of a straight line of development from folk song to literati imitation to antiquarian exercise.