The Mediaeval Epic Narrative of 'Ji Bu Ma Zhen' (李布骂陣) 'Ji Bu Insulting the Enemy'

Authors

  • Paul Mirabile Heilongjiang University Haerbin, China

Keywords:

Tang Dynasty, Mediaeval Poetry, Knighthood, Oral Culture, Errant Literature, Liu Bang

Abstract

My essay is a historical and cultural interpretation of the Chinese mediaeval epic poem ' Ji Bu Ma Zhen' 'Ji Bu Insulting the Enemy ' ( 李布 陣 骂 ) within its cultural environment of the Tang period. Following a brief presentation based on Chen Yinke's observations, I succinctly expose the various Eurasian communities that contributed to the cultural landscape of that period, especially Indian Buddhism, a multi-faceted landscape that fashioned the poetic form of Ji Bu as recited by the wandering Buddhist monks or laymen. I conclude my essay with a dialectical discussion of the underlining Confucian and the Buddhist values that I believe to be present in the poem, whose composition, hence, can be called hybrid: linguistically, issued from a combined scriptural and an oral culture, sociologically, forged from the melded Confucian and Buddhist values, the very hybridity that marks the Tang period as a remarkable one in Chinese History.

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Published

2019-09-18