Search

This article introduces readers to the articles presented in this special issue of "Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies" devoted to the history of modern Chinese calligraphy, much of which is seen as departing from traditional styles. The articles were chosen among many presented at a conference, "Beyond Pen and Ink: International Research Conference on Chinese Calligraphy Outside of Historical Boundaries," sponsored by National Taiwan Normal University's Institute for Research on Art History, in Taibei, Taiwan, on November 1-2, 2008.

This paper aims to investigate the 'paucal' construction [無口舍物 X] 'very few， barely5 in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). The elements that can occur in this construction include nouns, adjectives, modal verbs, psychological verbs, active verbs, and 'H列 + active verb.' According to the 'scalar model,' all of these elements should possess the feature [+scalar] to specify the idea 'scalar.5 Adjectives, in particular, should make [+positive] prominent as well. 口舍物 'what' can be treated as a 'semi-adverb' when it modifies the following verbal elements. The grammaticalization of 卩舍物 4whaf from a interrogative pronoun to a semi-adverb, which has not heretofore been discussed, is another focus of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The School of Practicing Both Daoism and Exorcism includes the Zhengyi School and the Third Matriarch School of Lu-shan. Its practioners serve as liturgical specialists only for the Chiao sacrifice, not for the salvation of the dead. Although scholars have focused on its origins and liturgy, there have been no comprehensive studies of the documents used in the rituals. In this paper, I discuss relevant Daoist ritual documents and analyze the Keelung Guangyuan Altar's seven-day chiao ceremony which was performed at Songshan Cihui Temple in 2005. In that particalar year, they integrated a traditional five-day chiao ritual into the liturgy. I then compare the documents from the 2005 performance with those from the five-day Chiao of the Inauguration List in the "Zhuanglin Xudaozang." Furthermore, I investigate the new version of the ritual documents used by the head priest, Li You-kun, in light of actual needs. This paper is divided into five sections. The introduction focuses on clarifying the meaning of relevant Daoist ritual documents. The second section discusses structure of the rituals and the relationship between the rituals and documents. The third section analyzes the form and function of petitions documents. The fourth section investigates pass permits (die…), talismans and announcing documents. The conclusion discusses the meaning of these Daoist ritual documents, their origins and their transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the distinction between finite clauses and non-finite clauses in Taiwanese Holo, which was brought up in Tang (1998). The distinction depends on whether the clauses can form A-not-A questions, and/or whether they may have the empty pronoun PRO as subject. If a predicate verb or adjective can form an A-not-A question, then the clause containing this predicate is a finite one. If a predicate verb or adjective may have PRO as subject, then the clause containing this predicate is a non-finite one. In the course of discussion, we touch upon questions such as the distinction between small ‘pro’ and big ‘PRO’, as well as the comparison between the various syntatic structures of the complement clauses of control verbs, raising verbs, and exceptional case-marking verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]