CCCC: Intimacies of the Guestless Guesthouse Diplomacy with the Departed in Post-Parhae Japan

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Speaker: Jeffrey Niedermaier, Brown University

Title: "Intimacies of the Guestless Guesthouse: Diplomacy with the Departed in Post-Parhae Japan."

Abstract:

Its name evoking the sonorous chamber of a great migratory bird bearing messages from afar, the Kōrokan 鴻臚館 guesthouse was a major node in Japan’s diplomatic infrastructure as well as a symbolic component of the Heian state’s (794–1185) bid to present itself as a “Middle Kingdom” or “Central Efflorescence” (Chūka 中華) of Chinese inspiration: an outwardly radiating civilizing force and a destination for foreign tribute from all corners of the world. In practice, though, the Kyoto Kōrokan welcomed few visitors besides fur-clad emissaries from the northerly kingdom of Parhae 渤海 (J. Bokkai, C. Bohai), a close diplomatic and commercial partner to the Japanese court. In the decades after Parhae’s collapse in 926, the guesthouse gradually fell into disuse and disrepair.

For the Japanese literati who would receive their Parhaean peers in the Kōrokan, the guesthouse and its guests carried sense and sentiments in excess of raw geopolitical expediency. This surplus sentimentality is on retrospective display in a petition penned by the poet-official Sugawara no Fumitoki 菅原文時 (899–981) and presented to the emperor in 957, “Requesting That the Kōrokan Not Be Abandoned, so as to Cherish Persons from Afar and Encourage Our Men of Letters” (Kōrokan o haishitsu sezu shite, enjin o natsuke, bunshi o hagemasamu koto o kou 請不廃失鴻臚館懐遠人励文士事). Fumitoki was the grandson of the great statesman-scholar Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845–903), who carried out diplomacy and reveled at poetic banquets with his Parhaean counterparts, but Fumitoki fretted that younger graduates would never have the chance to engage in a “battle of brushes” (fude o tatakawashimu 闘筆) in a structure he valued as a “literary arena” (bunjō 文場). In this colloquium session, we will read Fumitoki’s petition and trace its nostalgic, counterintuitive, and heavily allusive argument resituating the guestless guesthouse in an affective economy of letters.

About Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have also been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend. o At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation. o No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting. o Refreshments will be served.