Contents
The Liminal Folkloric Stone
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Intertexuality and Interpretation
Intertextual Reading
The Problematics of Stone Lore
Semantic Considerations
Nü-kua and Stone
Yü and the She Ritual
Rainmaking Rituals
The Feng-shan Ritual: The Imperial Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth
Shih kan-tang: The Evil-Warding Stone
The Inscribed Stone
Folk Legends about Stone’s Fertilizing Capability
Ming-shih: The Sonorous Stone
Shih Yen: The Talking Stone
Chao-shih and Shih-ching: The Stone That Illuminates and the Stone Mirror
Tien-t’ou Wan-shih: The Enlightened Crude/Unknowing Stone
Shih-nü: Stone Woman
The Mythological Dictionary of Stone
Chapter 3. Stone and Jade: From the Fictitious to the Morally Prescribed
The Sacred Fertile Stone
Precious Jade
The Unfolding of a Moral Vision: Chieh and Chen
Between Stone and Jade: An Issue of Authenticity and Artificiality - from the Moral to Metaphysical Vision
Chapter 4. The Story of Stone: The Problematic of Contradiction and Constraint
San-sheng Shih: The Stone of Rebirth
T’ung-ling shih and Wan Shih: The Stone of Divine Intelligence and the Unknowing Stone
The Liminal Stone
Is There a Beginning the Dream of the Red Chamber?
Chapter 5. The Paradox of Desire and Emptiness: The Stone Monkey Intertextualized
The Lustful Ape: Chinese and Indian Citations
The Trickster
The Knowing Stone
Chapter 6. The Inscribed Stone Tablet
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index