Ecology in the Spiritual Landscape of Strange Anecdote Collections in Early China

宇宙学文本中对“奇怪的”有机体的描述是否说明了对生态现象的理解有别于经典经典文献中提出的理解？这种强调“奇怪事物”与吉祥/不吉祥符号以及政治/精神权威之间联系的世界观，是不是汉朝中央集权瓦解后出现的世界观？或者它可以追溯到更早的文本，如《淮南子》和邹岩(公元前305-240年)著作的剩余片段？近年来，人们对收集异常现象和宇宙文本的兴趣与日俱增。可能最著名的是罗伯特·坎帕尼，对异常情况的收集进行了系统的分析，认为这反映了一种世界概念，即世界上居住着各种形式的奇怪的非人类力量。这些实体可能对人类有害、有益，甚至无关紧要，但尽管它们具有奇妙的品质，潜在的假设似乎是它们确实存在，或者至少看起来可能存在。维拉·多罗费娃-利希特曼将一个重要的宇宙学文本解释为一幅“精神景观图”(与可观察到的拓扑图相反)，这将有助于我理解这一文本和其他类似的文本。这些文本在一定程度上说明了从汉代开始的转变，即按照邹燕最先奠定的路线，将以前被边缘化或忽视的地方知识纳入其中，扩大已知世界的地理范围。我的研究将建立在这项工作的基础上，通过观察一个具体的元素，生态现象，以了解它们在这些收藏中的作用，从而扩大对这些文本是如何使用的，为什么它们被汇编，以及它们如何能够启发那些使用它们的人的特定世界观的学术理解。在对前现代中国的研究中，植物的文化意义一直没有得到充分的研究，特别是在它们与前现代中国宇宙学理论的关系方面。本文的局限性之一是有必要限制一次来源的数量。虽然描述性风格的宇宙学作品的语料库很小，但在更广泛的幸存文献中提到的植物群是巨大的。为了限制研究范围，我将主要集中在前面提到的宇宙学轶事集合，同时参考整个奇闻轶事集合中的生态表现，以及它们可能的一些先例。这些参考资料将不可避免地受到限制，因为每个案文都有自己的研究价值。另一个限制将是时间上的：唐代以后的资料将不会被查阅，这反映了学术界将唐代视为分水岭的普遍惯例。最后，我的研究必然是文本的，这意味着从这些文本中收集的任何结论可能至少部分限于前现代中国中的少数人，他们是有文化的。此外，由于时间和空间的原因，我不能将考古来源作为我研究的主要重点，但我会尝试参考考古证据，以检查任何过于雄心勃勃和过于广泛的结论。总而言之，我的研究主题将是生态现象在中国早期异象记述集所描绘的精神景观中的地位。通过利用当前对这个时代的宇宙学思想的研究，以及对相关宗教概念和历史环境的研究，我将考察汉朝灭亡是否出现了一种独特的生态观及其在世界上的地位和与人类的关系，以及这种世界观的前身是如何与基于帝国中心重要性的地理学的规范理解相对立的。

Do accounts of 'strange' organisms in cosmological texts illustrate an understanding of ecological phenomena distinct from the one presented in the classical canonical literature? Is this worldview - that emphasises the connection of 'strange things' to auspicious/inauspicious signs and to political/spiritual authority - one that appears in the wake of the collapse of the centralising authority of the Han dynasty? Or can it be traced back to earlier texts such as the Huainanzi and the remaining fragments of the writings of Zou Yan (305-240 BCE)? There has been a growth of interest in collections of anomalies and cosmological texts in recent years. Collections of anomaly accounts have been systematically analysed, perhaps most notably by Robert Campany, as reflecting a conception of the world populated by strange, non-human forces that take all manner of forms. These entities may be harmful, helpful or even indifferent to humans, but despite their fantastic quality, the underlying assumption appears to be that they did, or at least plausibly could, exist. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann's interpretation of one significant cosmological text as a "mapless map" of a "spiritual landscape" (as opposed to a map of observable topology) will inform my understanding of this text and others like it. These texts in part illustrate the shift, beginning in the Han dynasty, to expand the geographical scope of the known world along lines first laid down by Zou Yan, incorporating local knowledge that was previously sidelined or ignored. My research will build on this work by looking at a specific element, ecological phenomena, to understand their role in these collections and thereby broaden the scholarly understanding of how these texts were used and why they were compiled, as well as how they can illuminate the particular worldview of those who made use of them. In the scholarship on pre-modern China, the cultural meaning of plants in particular has been understudied, especially in terms of their relationship to theories of pre-modern Chinese cosmography. One limitation of this thesis is the necessity of restricting the number of primary sources. While the corpus of descriptive-style cosmographic works is small, the references to flora in the broader surviving literature is enormous. To limit the scope of research, I will be mainly focusing on the aforementioned cosmographic collections of anecdotes, while making reference to the representations of ecology throughout strange anecdote collections, as well as some of their possible antecedents. These references will by necessity remain limited, as each text could merit its own study. Another limitation will be temporal: post-Tang dynasty material will not be consulted, reflecting the general convention in the scholarship to treat the Tang as a watershed. Finally, my research is by necessity textual, which will mean any conclusions gleaned from these texts is likely to be at least in part limited to the minority in pre-modern China who were literate. Moreover, while for reasons of time and space I will not be able to make archaeological sources the main focus of my study, I will attempt to make reference to the archaeological evidence as a check to any over-ambitious and too wide-reaching conclusions. In conclusion, the topic of my research will be the status of ecological phenomena in the spiritual landscapes depicted in collections of anomaly accounts of Early China. By making use of current research on cosmological thought of this era, as well as studies of related religious concepts and historical circumstances, I will examine whether a distinct conception of ecology, its place in the world and relationship with humanity, emerged in the collapse of the Han dynasty, and how the precursors of that worldview existed in opposition to canonical understandings of geography based on the importance of the imperial centre.