Event

This paper discusses how prevalent dietary beliefs contributed to the literary motif of spatiotemporal displacement in narratives written in early medieval China (approx. 2nd–5th centuries CE). In this repertoire of narratives, the stereotypical Chinese protagonist, unlike Rip Van Winkle, manages to survive his stay in a Shangri-La where time elapses significantly faster relative to the real world. The focus of the present study is the role of peach and sesame in facilitating the adventure of Liu Chen 劉晨 and Ruan Zhao 阮肇 in an account preserved in an early fifth-century anthology, Youming lu 幽明錄. We rely on recipes and records of life-prolonging diets in early anecdotal texts and Daoist scriptures to uncover how and when these foodstuffs were believed to have magical powers. We observe how these magical ingredients underpin the process of fantasy in this narrative, and in other similar narratives within this unique literary tradition of spatiotemporal journeys.

* Penn EALC Rickett Lecture