EAS103H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Bai Juyi, Lantingji Xu, Written Chinese
Document Summary
What kind of impact did chinese writing have on elite life in heian japan? (as evidenced in murasaki"s diary?) Keep in mind difference between the language itself (system of sounds that make up words) and how words are written (system of symbols that represent words) Questions posed for deceased ancestors and answers to questions, outcome of events recorded. Stele inscription of the first emperor (219 bce) Orchid pavilion preface (353 ad) by wang xizhi. Later on, because of buddhism, people started writing the way they spoke-> birnacular. 20th century- debates about updating chinese writing system: Didn"t because of sounds (needed to capture different dialects, etc_ Female emperor used great cloud sutra-> buddha reincarnated as female. Choe chiwon (b. 857): went to china at age 12, passed civil service examination, returned to silla and called for reforms. Inside tang empire, difficult to separate chinese from barbarians. Tang rulers= not completely chinese (emperor= chinese and turkish)
