Structural Transformation and Historical Expression in Dynastic Legend of Early China---Review of Sarah Allan’s Study on the Ancient Legends of China in The Heir and The Sage

摘要

As an important scholar of contem-porary sinology, Sarah Allan’s research on Chinese ancient history, on the basis of continuing the tra-dition of historical studies and archaeology, used Claude Lévi-Strauss’ theory and method of struc-turalism for reference, and opened a new path for western Sinological research. Her study of ancient legends initiated wide interest in the circles of si-nology, and was considered to be both special and very innovative. In her masterpiece The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early China, Allan used a method for analyzing mythology which is transformed from anthropological structuralism. She made an in-depth and systematic research on the dynastic legends from the legendary period of Tang Yao to the periods of Yin and Zhou which were recorded in the classical literature of the pre-Qin period, and discussed heuristically the his-torical perception, structure characteristics of the expressions, as well as the values of the subject in the legendary records. By summarizing the theoret-ical logic and main ideas of The Heir and the Sage, this article attempts to open a preliminary discus-sion on how to promote anthropological research on the legendary period of early China using the meth-odology of structuralism. In her Sinological re-search works which are dedicated to the study of the legendary period of ancient China, such as The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early Chi-na,The Shape of the Turtle:Myth ,Art and Cosmos in Early China, and The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue:Root Metaphor in Early Chinese Philo-sophical Thought, Allan has tried to use the meth-odology of structuralism to analyze the historical expressions and ideas contained in ancient Chinese literature. In so doing, she is seeking to re -ex-plain the historical consciousness and philosophy of ancient China. It could be said that Allan’s Sino-logical research has pronounced anthropological features concerning her problems, consciousness, and theoretical methods. From 1966 to 1972 , Allan studied at Depart-ment of Oriental Languages, the University of Cali-fornia at Berkeley where she trained with several famous Sinologists, such as Peter a. Boodberg, Wolfram Eberhard and Chen Shixiang. From 1974 to 1995, Allan was employed at SOAS, University of London, where she became a colleague of Angus Graham, Din Cheuk Lau, Paul Thompson and oth-er well-known Sinologists, and, while there, pro-moted research on the literature, archaeology, ide-ology and culture of the pre-Qin period in the cir-cles of British Sinology. In 1996, Allan returned to the United States, and worked for the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Litera-ture at Dartmouth University. In addition to her in-depth research on ancient historical legends and the classical philosophy of China, she also made a great academic achievements on the research of Jiaguwen ( inscription on bones and tortoise shells from the Shang dynasty) , inscriptions on bronzeri-tual vessels, and bamboo slips, etc. As pointed out by Li Xueqin, “Sinologists often have their own learning system. Yet, at the same time, their ideas will inevitably be influenced by the ideolog-ical trends of the time;especially those theoretical changes in philosophy, sociology and historical studies will periodically be reflected in the works of Sinologists. If we do not notice this, it will be dif-ficult to understand the unique ideas or styles of some Sinologists.”Therefore, concerning the rea-son why Allan’s Sinological studies showed strong Anthropological features even though she received a very classical Sinological training, Sinological Studies has exhibited overlapping characteristics with Anthropology. It also should be noted that since the 1960s, Lévi-Strauss’ structural anthro-pology has widely and deeply influenced the whole of western academia during that time. It is within this context that Allan used the methodology of structuralism in her study of the mythology of ancient Chinese historical legends. It can be said that extracting the key elements from myths, then, regrouping or reorganizing them so as to explore or uncover out their basic structure and patterns of meaning is the main academic interest of Allan’s Sinological research with anthropological features. In fact, Sinological research with anthropological features or historical research using the methodolo-gy of structuralism has become an academic trend since the 1960s. Therefore, although Allan was a Sinologist who received classical training in school, her studies were deeply influenced by Structural Anthropology. The Heir and the Sage is a repre-sentative work of foreign Sinologists’ using a struc-turalist method of mythology to analyze the history of ancient China. The Heir and the Sage begins with the premise that Chinese history has been regarded traditionally as a history of dynasties, each of which had a peri-odic pattern, i. e. the founding king built his sov-ereignty based on his virtue, and unless the off-spring of the King lost their virtue excessively, the power would be inherited. However, if one emper-or had misbehaved, oppressed the people, the dy-nasty would collapse, and another sage from anoth-er clan would become the new ruler, and pass his rule to his offspring. Allan believes that the histori-cal cycle theory is closely related to the concept of“manifest destiny”, which can usually be observed in a series of legends recorded in various works of classical literature from the pre-Qin period to the early years of the Han dynasty. Seen as a kind of contradiction between structural repetition and theme repetition in historical expression, the har-mony between the two powers, namely hereditary rule and rule through virtue, is the core content emphasized by “manifest destiny”. The most typi-cal expression of the conflict of this structural prin-ciple is the contradiction between hereditary trans-mission and abdication, which also appears in a variety of styles of historical expressions found in various classical literature. For instance, we find the repeated emphasis of this kind of structural contradictory theme by using the relationship be-tween the king and the minister, between the min-ister and the hermit, between the regency and reb-el. Thus, Allan stressed that in these classical lit-erary texts, Chinese philosophers continue to bal-ance these contradictory relationships. Therefore,“history”, as presented in the literature, will have a similar function with that of the “myth”, name-ly, that is, “to expose the logical contradiction, and debug these conflicting principles.” So, she firmly believes that the historical records in the ancient Chinese literature are actually a kind of narrative of myth restricted by a specific structural principle, or that the ancient Chinese philosophers who created these ancient historical documents“structured” various historical changes in the“hot society” with a simple and pure mythical thinking of a “cold society”. In order to explain the way historical expres-sion which “structured” the historical change with mythical thinking, Allan borrowed Lévi - Strauss metaphor of “tinker”, and provided it with a vivid interpretation. The Savage Mind discussed that the reason why the so - called mythical thinker was more like a tinker, but not an inventor, was be-cause a tinker collects many things which might“come in handy” in his warehouse;when a tinker was carryies out work, he knew which “parts” in his warehouse were available to solve the problem, and the function of these “parts” had also been determined by their previous history in other cases. So the meaning of the choice here was the possible arrangement in the reorganization of the structure;as a kind of limited choice, the skill of repair was to solve a new problem in the existing framework. Thus, based on a method of using structuralism to analyze mythology, Allan found a series of “frag-ments of historical relics and events ” of dynastic replacement in the literature of early China, and placed them with another legend in another era within a restricted scope and meaning so as to highlight the structural precondition held by this replacement of arrangement. Hence, the research of The Heir and the Sage cross-cuts myth and his-tory, and discovered the basic structure of histori-cal expression of the dynastic legend. In Allan’s eyes, the transfer of dominion from Emperor Yao to Emperor Shun in ancient historic legends was the original embodiment of the basic structure and thematic value of the historical ex-pression. In order to highlight the key function played by the successors in compromising the con-flict between virtue without inheritance and inherit-ance without virtue, Allan made a structural com-parative analysis of the identity of symbols of vari-ous characters that appeared in the legends. When it came to the comparison between Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun, the relationships between a sage king and a founding minister, an off -stage king and a regent, a father-in-law and a son-in-law became the main connotations in the struc-ture of ruler - successor relationship; When it came to the comparison between Emperor Shun and Danzhu, the relationships between a virtuous saint and an heir, a regent and a rebel prince, a brother-in-law ( husband’s side) and another brother-in law ( wife’s side) constructed the main meaning of the structural relationship between a successor and a prince who had lost his throne. When it came to the comparison between the Emperor Shun and Xuyou, the relationships between a king with moral stains and a saint with obsession for moral cleanliness, a minister on a stage and a hermit, a man with kinship relations and the other without constructed the main connotation of the structural relationship between a successor and the one who refused to take the throne. It was just through the twinning structural analysis based on identity sym-bols that a basic principal framework of the throne was presented. Allan even believed that the legend of Qi, the son of Emperor Dayu, who had inherited his throne from his father and built Xia Dynasty, actually shared the same basic structure and value themes with other legends where the throne was not inherited. At the same time, in order to reconcile the contradiction and to balance the structure, the damage to the hereditary principle in the last leg-end of throne transmission would contribute to the confirmation of hereditary principle in the next leg-end of throne transmission throne , which was the structural motivation for the historical change . Through investigation of the various legends of throne transmission in prehistoric Chinese dynas-ties, The Heir and the Sage not only wanted to re-veal the “basic structure” of historical expression, but also attempted to discuss the issue of historical change in prehistoric Chinese history within a structural framework. Allan pointed out that in the records of Chinese classical literature, there were four non -hereditary kingship transfers from Em-peror Yao’s time to early Zhou Dynasty. These are, respectively, Yao to Shun, Shun to Yu, the Xia Dynasty to the Shang and the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou. Although the characters involved in the leg-ends of dynasty transfers differed, the ancient Chi-nese scribes recorded history according to the pro-totype of the Yao to Shun kingship transfer. So, these legends can be treated as a historical transfer and thematic embodiment in a basic structure. By connecting the historical transfers to a basic struc-ture, The Heir and the Sage completed an analytic explanation of the dynastic legends from the time of Yao to the time of the Shang and Zhou. Allan also pointed out in her “conclusion” that these legends have continuously influenced traditional thoughts, not only in literature but also in the media of politi-cal expression in the whole process of the develop-ment of Chinese history. As a guiding thought in historical perception, the prototype and identity symbols set up by “Manifest Destiny” has been continuously imitated in the historical reality, and as such it still has influence in present China. Therefore, although there were all kinds of struc-tural transformations and historical changes, prin-cipal contradictions and reconciliation of heredity and virtue, as the basic structure and value theme in historic legends, becomes a collective con-sciousness in deep society, which not only pieces itself into legends and history, but also reaches re-ality and contemporary world, so, it is a historical and structural theme for us to comprehend Chinese traditional thinking and values. Since the rise of structuralism, the relation-ship between structure and history became a core question debated in the fields of anthropology and history. Although, to some extent, the dialectical relationship between structure and history has been recognized in academia, anthropologists’ insistence on structural constancy, and the historians’ adher-ence to historical changes, makes the academic in-terface of the two sides dubious. In reality, the o-riginal structural anthropology was “anti - histo-ry”. Thus, its research objective was usually the“cold society”, i. e. that without history, and was based on legends passed down orally in people’s words. Orthodox historical studies were “anti -structure”, so the object of its research was usually“hot society” with history, and was based on his-torical records. If the two subjects stuck to the“cold - hot” research standard, nothing wrong would happen. However, at the so called “history opening” point where “cold history” switched to“hot history”, structure and history deeply inter-twined. At this moment, the boundary between an-thropology and historical studies becomes dubious, too, so the appearance of so -called “interdisci-plinary” research is inevitable. Needless to say, Allan’s book The Heir and the Sage is a work that is hard to be simply classified into a certain catego-ry. Compared to Xu Xusheng’s book zhongguo gushi de chuanshuo shidai ( Legend Times of Chi-nese Ancient History ) , Allan’s book reveals that what hides behind the historical “truth” told by legends is a mechanism of structural change and historical expression. And, to testify that the mechanism is of great importance for us to compre-hend the so- called“legendary times” which just opened the chaos, because it is usually the struc-tural mechanism expressed at the point of the“end of legends” and the “beginning of history” that will build the overall picture and characteristics of value in a civilized society. The reason why the“Manifest Destiny” discussed in The Heir and the Sage is a kind of value theme with historical pene-tration is because the history and civilization opened by it rose from a deep structure.