Beyond Grief: Dirge Writing in the Han China (206 BCE-220 CE)

Abstract

The dirge (lei 誄) was a funerary text composed to commemorate sociocultural elites in Han funerary practices. However, it became obsolete after the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) and receives limited scholarly attention today, leaving a significant aspect of Han memorial culture understudied. After an overview of the current scholarship on the dirge, this study aims to provide a cultural history of the dirge during the Han. Instead of answering “what is a dirge” with a static definition, this study questions the conventional understanding of genre and examines the interaction between the function and textual structure of the dirge. By analyzing the writer-mourner-deceased power dynamics, this study will pay specific attention to the role of the writer in dirge production. The first two chapters will examine the structure and function of the dirge. In addition to providing a standardized paradigm of dirge writing during the Han, Chapter 1 plans to elucidate the orality and materiality that destabilized the text. I will challenge the conventional idea of genre by offering a function-centered perspective. I will analyze the composite texture of the dirge to further explain its textual instability. Chapter 2 will examine the function of dirge by comparing the dirge with functionally and textually similar texts. I try to answer whether the function of the dirge lies in conferring the posthumous name. By elucidating the changing role of scholar-officials as dirge writers in late Eastern Han, this study will delve into the power dynamics between the writer, the mourners, and the deceased in the production of the dirge. Chapter 3 will focus on the shifting communal identity of scholars and its reflection in their archetypical reconstruction of the deceased. Chapter 4 will elaborate the interplay between funerary practice and personal expression in Han-Wei period dirges. I will examine Cao Zhi’s 曹植 (192-232 CE) “Dirge for Wang Zhongxuan” in terms of the interaction between his identity and the text, and how this demonstrates the distinctive state-scholar relationship in that sociocultural context. This study aims to dismiss the teleological narrative of the dirge and situate the dirge as a textual product of the funerary practice within its sociocultural context. This study will also enrich scholarly understanding of the relationship between text, writer, and context in dirge production. Through the lens of the dirge, this study will contribute to the understanding of genre, authorship, and identity against the backdrop of Han memorial culture.