The Cult of Happiness: Nianhua, Art, and History in Rural North China
James A. Flath, 2004, Chapter 4, p. 92-95.
• Winner, 2005-2006 Raymond Klibansky Prize, Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme (ASPP)
The presence in folk art of theatrical and artistic conventions raises some interesting points about the historical nature of the subject. If the graphic representation of historical narratives was produced as a set of conventional but evolutional motifs, can the historical narrative be understood in those same terms? I have thus far insisted that nianhua cannot be taken as a literal representation of anything that they may represent, and that the most we can take from nianhuais some indication of how subjects were cognitively ordered. So, without claiming that people really believed history to be synonymous with endless variations on the themes of classical romances, nianhua may still provide some insight into how history was understood, not as a grand cycle of rise and decay as Dun Lichen would have it, but as a conventionalized historical landscape.
The theatre was thoroughly historical by nature, and as if to prove the point, one of the few theatrical prints to place the action in the context of an actual theatre includes the following inscription: “We (actors) praise good and punish evil by differentiating what is good and what is not; and the deeds of a thousand years are before your eyes. We’ll tell tales about the world, sing ballads of ruin, and show where happiness is and where it is not. The history of seventeen dynasties lies before your eyes.”
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Monumenta Nipponica, an interdisciplinary journal on Japanese culture and society, was founded in 1938, making it one of the oldest English-language academic journals in the field of Asian studies. Published semiannually as an international forum for research on Japan by Sophia University, Tokyo, MN carries both original scholarly contributions on history, literature, art history, religion, and thought, and translations of important Japanese literary and historical sources. Early volumes included articles in German and other European languages, but from volume 19 (1964) English has been the sole language of publication. Beginning with volume 60 (2005), the journal has been published online through Project 
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