Abstract

This dissertation, a study of the form, content and development of qingtan or "pure conversation" from the late Han through the Six Dynasties, focuses mainly on the Wei-Jin period . It begins with a bibliographical introduction to modern scholarship on qingtan and its principal historical source, the Shishuo Xinyu, and closes with an appended article in Chinese where the present author explores the traditional and modern meanings of qingtan, qingyi and other cognate terms. Part I of the dissertation proper describes in Chapter One the cultivation of qingtan as a social art and intellectual exercise, and lists in Chapter Two the themes of such conversations. Topics derived from the key Taoist texts, the Book of Changes, the School of Names, and Buddhist sutras are given especial attention. Part II devotes three chapters to the historical development of qingtan. Chapter Three establishes the linkage between the articulate scholars suffering persecution during the last years of the Eastern Han and the incipient movement toward qingtan. The careers of such conversationalists as Xun Can, He Yan, Xiahou Xuan, Wang Bi, and Zhong Hui are cited in the same chapter as evidence for the first flowering of qingtan in the Wei dynasty. Chapter Four goes on to describe its temporary withering during the first years of the Eastern Jin and its second flowering during a later period distinguished by such conversationalists as Wang Yan, Pei Wei, and Guo Xiang. Chapter Five emphasizes the key role of the statesman Wang Dao for the preservation of qingtan during the early years of the Eastern Jin, and the contributions of such scholars as Yin Hao, Liu Tan, Wang Meng, Zhi Dun and Sun Sheng during a third flowering of this art. After noting the further enrichment of qingtan by Buddhist monks, the chapter concludes with a brief account of its decline in the subsequent Southern Dynasties