Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Middle Period China, 600-1300

Alexei Kamran Ditter (Ph.D., Princeton) is Professor of Chinese and Humanities at Reed College. He specializes in medieval Chinese literature, with research interests in entombed epitaphs, memory and commemoration, humor literature, and Tang dynasty narratives. In addition to publishing several articles, book chapters, and translations, he co-edited Tales from Tang China: Selections from the Taiping guangji (2017). He is currently completing a monograph titled Collaborative Remembering in 7th–10th century China and co-editing The Study of Medieval Chinese Entombed Epitaphs, an annotated anthology of translations. Xiao Rao (Ph.D., Stanford) is currently Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include anecdotal literature, cultural studies of laughter, and the intersection between religion and literati culture in Middle Period China. He is working on a monograph titled Tales of Wit and Enlightenment: Laughter and Buddhism in Middle Period China. His recent publications include “Humor under the Guise of Chan: Stories of Su Shi and Encounter Dialogues” (2022) and “Anomalous Writing as Memories of Trauma: War and Women in Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi” (2024).

• Introduction: Humor in Middle Period China Reading Humor in Middle Period China Part One: Medieval Foundations of Humor (6th–9th c.) 1. The Earliest Extant Chinese Jestbook: Record of Tales that Crack a Smile (Qiyan lu 啟顏錄) 2. Humor in Tang Poetry 3. Humor in Tang Dynasty Poetry Anecdotes 4. Riddling Tales from Records of the Mysterious and Weird (Xuanguai lu 玄怪錄) Part Two: Continuity and Innovation in the Comedic Repertoire (10th–13th c.) 5. Literary Jokes in “Remarks on Poetry” (shihua 詩話) 6. Humor and Laughter in Song Anecdotes about Chancellor Wang Anshi 7. Excerpts from The Collected Sayings of Aizi (Aizi zashuo 艾子雜說) 8. The Politics of Humor in Anecdotes of Performers Bibliography