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38
Performing the Tradition
Zhao Cui, as this would be one of his functions as an advisor with
cultural competence. Most commentators gloss “River Water” as a
variant title for a piece found in the Poems called “Swelling Water”
澠水, which reads as follows:
Swelling is that flowing river,
it goes to pay court to the sea.
Swift is that flying hawk,
now it flies up, now it settles down.
Oh, you brothers of mine,
oh, you friends among the people of the kingdom!
There is nobody who wants to heed the disorder,
yet who has no father and mother!
Swelling is the flowing river,
its flow is voluminous.
Swift is that flying hawk,
now it flies up, now it soars.
I think of those lawless men,
now they rise, now they set out.
Oh, the grief of the heart,
it cannot be stopped or forgotten.
Swift is that flying hawk,
it goes along that middle hill.
The people’s false speeches,
how is it that nobody stops them?
Oh, you friends of mine, be careful,
slanderous words are rising. 33
Duke Mu responds by offering “Sixth Month” 六月, the first three
stanzas of which read as follows:
In quiet rest of the sixth month,
the war chariots were equipped;
the four stallions were strong;
we loaded the uniforms;
the Xianyun were greatly ablaze,
we were thereby pressed;
—————
33. Mao #183. Karlgren, Book of Odes, pp. 126–27. The “Lesser Preface” 小序
states, “‘Swelling Water’ is meant to regulate King Xuan (r. 827–782 b.c.e.)” 沔水。
規宣王也.
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Performing the Tradition
39
the king sent out a war expedition,
in order to set aright the kingdom.
We matched according to quality the four black horses,
we trained them according to the rules;
in this sixth month,
we prepared our clothes;
our clothes were prepared
in our thirty league homesteads;
the king sent out a war expedition,
it was to help the Son of Heaven.
The four stallions were long and broad,
they were large and bulky;
we attacked the Xianyun,
and achieved fine deeds;
we were grave and reverent,
we provided the war clothes;
we provided the war clothes,
in order to settle the kingdom. 34
In this apparently simple poetic exchange there lurks the complex
issue of what cognitive scientists call “theory of mind”—the ability
of a sentient creature to form an impression of what another is
thinking. Theory of mind is measured in degrees that can be ex-
pressed through a series of nested statements such as, “I know X0;
you know (I know X)1; I know (you know (I know X))2; you know
(I know (you know (I know X)))3”; and so on. 35 In this case, Prince
—————
34. Mao #177. After Karlgren, Book of Odes, p. 120. Of this song, the “Lesser Preface” states, “‘Sixth Month’ is about King Xuan’s northern campaigns” 六月。
宣王北伐也. These campaigns were waged against the Xianyun “barbarian” tribes.
35. Such a nested series in negative form is at the heart of the famous anecdote found in the “Autumn Floods” 秋水 chapter of Zhuangzi (chap. 17):
Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling across the bridge over the Hao River.
Zhuangzi said, “Those minnows are darting about so freely—this is the happiness of fish!” Huizi said, “You are not a fish, so how can you know the happiness of fish?” Zhuangzi said, “You are not me, so how can you know that I do not know the happiness of fish?” Huizi said, “I am not you, so I certainly do not know if you know; but you are certainly not a fish, so your not knowing
the happiness of fish is completely proven!” Zhuangzi said, “Let’s return to the root of this argument. Your asking me something such as how do I know the This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:49 UTC
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40
Performing the Tradition
Chong’er is thinking that he wants help from Duke Mu when he
goes to the banquet.0 The duke knows the prince wants help.1 The
prince knows the duke knows the prince wants help.2 The duke
knows the prince knows the duke knows the prince wants help.3 It
is only at this third degree that the poetic exchange can effectively
take place. When Prince Chong’er offers a poem as a plea for help, it
is under the assumption that the duke knows why he is there, in
other words he knows that the duke knows what he wants. Like-
wise, the duke’s poem offered in response is read as a product of a
state of mind that includes an impression of the state of mind of the
prince (which includes an impression of the duke’s state of mind);
both the prince’s and the duke’s states of mind precede and coexist
with the offering of their poems. The poems cannot be read as
simple vessels of zero-degree states of mind. Without mutual and
preexisting impressions of each party’s state of mind at the time of offering, the poems would pass each other as ships in the night,
accomplishing nothing.
To attack it from a different angle, imagine that the prince simply
arrived at the banquet, walked straight up to the duke, and said, “I
need your help”—and that the duke replied, “You shall have it.”
There is no subtext here. The plain discourse simply articulates the
state of mind of each party: pleading and agreement. The exchange
of poetry, however, is a much more nuanced interaction and is thus
more diplomatically useful. The very form of poetic offering—as a
ritual exchange of specially marked discourse within the context of
sharing food and drink—is an assertion of commonality and respect.
The respect is derived from the form of the ritual offering itself:
the language of the Poems and the mode of its offering (chanting, singing) are appropriate in this context. They signal an adherence to
—————
happiness of fish means you already knew that I knew it when you asked me. I know it as I stand over this river.” (Wang Xianqian, Zhuangzi jijie, p. 148) Huizi attempts to adhere to a logical argument, while Zhuangzi exploits the in-adequacy of language to frame such arguments. Theory of mind is not about knowing for certain what another is thinking—as Huizi points out, this is impossible without complete identity—it is about forming an impression of what another is thinking, which underlies the way we use language to communicate with others ( just as it does Huizi’s original question).
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Performing the Tradition
41
protocol, which is an explicit form of submission to the hierarchy of
power support
ed by that protocol.
Respect is also implied in the obliquity of the special language of
the Poems. The text of “Swelling Water” is not a direct plea for aid, but a description of a lamentable state of affairs that is traditionally attributed to the reign of King Xuan 宣 (r. 827–782 b.c.e.) of the
Western Zhou. Its key “inciting image” ( xing 興), meant to arouse sympathetic thoughts and feelings in those who hear it, is found in
the first couplet: “Swelling is that flowing river, / it goes to pay
court to the sea.” The image figures Prince Chong’er as a flowing
river that seeks help by paying court to the powerful state of Qin,
figured as the sea. It can only be understood as such if the flowing
water is taken as an analogy for lesser states paying homage to
greater ones. 36 The figure only crystallizes, making the urgency of the inherited words relevant to the present, if Duke Mu chooses to
take Prince Chong’er’s state of mind into account in listening to the
poem. The duke must also have prior knowledge of many things,
including the state of affairs in Jin, how they have affected Prince
Chong’er, the preeminent role Qin has among the feudal states, and
its relationship to Jin. Based on this knowledge, the duke can form a
reasonably accurate impression of what the prince must be thinking
when he offers the poem: “He comes to me for military aid to in-
vade Jin because he has been cheated out of his rightful place on the
throne, and because I am the ruler of a powerful state that is no
friend of the current Jin ruler.” 37 In his poetic offering, the prince is counting on the ability of the duke to form an accurate impression
of the prince’s state of mind prior to the actual performance of the poem. Based on such an impression, the duke can form an accurate
—————
36. I refer to the figure as an analogy rather than a metaphor because the image of lesser waters flowing into greater is not an absent, abstract verbal construct (vehicle) standing in for a specific notion (tenor) of lesser states paying homage to the greater; both waters and states are concrete and present phenomena similar in their adherence to the overarching principle of the lesser tending towards the greater.
37. The entry for Duke Xi 15th Year (645 b.c.e.) tells of a battle in which Duke Mu of Qin defeated and captured Duke Hui of Jin. Duke Mu was eventually forced to repatriate his prisoner because of the entreaties of his own wife, who happened to be Duke Hui’s elder sister.
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42
Performing the Tradition
“reading” of the prince’s poetic offering by measuring the words of
the poem against his impression of the sentiment that the prince
must be trying to express. If the words are too far out of alignment
with the supposed sentiment, it may mean one of several things:
(1) his impression of the prince’s motivations is erroneous, (2) his
reading of the poem is incompetent, or (3) the prince’s choice of
poem is incompetent. The prince, for his part, does not know if the
duke was successful in forming an accurate reading of the offered
poem until the duke responds in kind. The prince (in this case,
through his proxy, Zhao Cui) “reads” the response based on
the assumption that the duke knows what the prince is thinking.
The duke’s response, therefore, is based on the assumption that the
prince knows that the duke knows what the prince is thinking. The
whole interaction is a house of cards that will stand or fall depending
on whether the choice of poems bears out the assumptions.
The proof is in the poem, so to speak. In his poetic response the
duke has three choices: (1) he can offer a poem that indicates his
understanding of, and favorable disposition toward, the prince’s
request, (2) he can offer a poem that indicates his understanding and
unfavorable disposition, or (3) he can simply offer a poem that does
not indicate his state of mind with any degree of clarity. Thus, the
duke is not placed in the uncomfortable position of having to ex-
plicitly turn down a direct request, which would be his prerogative,
but which would also run the risk of making him lose face as a ruler
lacking in munificence.
In the ritual form of offering a poem, respect is shown through
adherence to the demands of protocol in making the utterance. The
obliquity of language in poetic offering also shows respect, in sur-
rendering some measure of control to the interlocutor in his recep-
tion of the utterance. In this context, poetic competence becomes a
matter of maintaining as much control as possible over one’s poetic
utterance while not overstepping the bounds of decorum. This is
achieved by correctly gauging the state of mind of one’s interlocutor
so that one may make the most efficacious choice of poem and the
most adept timing of its delivery. When Hu Yan advises the prince
to take Zhao Cui with him to the banquet, it is because he has
recognized that the banquet is the best time and venue for the prince
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Performing the Tradition
43
to make his plea. The offering of a poem at a banquet is demanded
by protocol, but Hu Yan realizes that it can also be seized as an
opportunity to advance his master’s cause. He shows sensitivity to
the variables of poetic competence (time, place, person) even if he
does not possess the actual Traditional knowledge that Zhao Cui
has. The ritual exchange of poetry becomes a double-edged sword
for those in a position of power. The prince is beholden to speak to
the duke in a certain fashion with certain words, but, provided he
does so competently, the duke is then beholden to make a response.
If the prince were to make a direct request of the duke in plain
language, the duke could obviate the embarrassment of refusing him
by ignoring the request altogether as a violation of protocol. Once
the prince has agreed to play by the rules of the game, the duke must
abide by them as well. To refuse to play would be to erode the very
underpinnings of his symbolic power. It is the ritual context of the
utterance that demands attention, more than the words themselves,
which are heeded because of the ritual context. The eventual transition of the Poems from a corpus for ritual reenactment to a rhe-
torical resource entails a shift in potency from ritual context to the
words themselves, as will be seen later in this chapter.
When Zhao Cui makes the choice of “Swelling Waters” for the
prince, it is a choice informed by a sophisticated theory of mind. He
knows that the duke knows that they are there to enlist Qin’s su-
perior military might in the campaign to take the throne of Jin.
Zhao Cui chooses a poem that flatters the duke in its opening image
by figuring him as the great sea to which all the lesser powers, in-
cluding Prince Chong’er himself, flow. The rest of the poem la-
ments that no one will come to the aid of a party wronged by
slander: “There is nobody who wa
nts to heed the disorder, / yet
who has no father and mother!” and “The people’s false speeches, /
how is it that nobody stops them?” The offered language of the
poem casts Duke Mu as a powerful and great ruler, while subordi-
nating Prince Chong’er to a position of humility combined with
righteous indignation. The audience at the banquet—other officials,
court musicians, attendants—will have taken the point. The lan-
guage of the Poems may be oblique, but Zhao Cui manages to pitch it so that Duke Mu would appear culturally incompetent if he were
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44
Performing the Tradition
not to acknowledge the implicit request and ungracious if he were
not to grant it. Poetic competence thus goes far beyond simply
knowing the Poems, and includes a practical sense of where, when, and before whom they are best deployed for a desired effect.
The Duke of Qin may have been willing to grant Prince
Chong’er’s request all along, but the cultural competence of Hu Yan
and Zhao Cui have made it very difficult for him to do otherwise.
The narrative indicates that the duke responds immediately by of-
fering the poem “Sixth Month” without any intervening actions or
words. The prince’s performance is so pointed as to create a tension
that demands immediate resolution. The duke’s ability to respond
instantly without deferring to his own advisors or musicians reflects
well on his cultural competence. The positive nature of his re-
sponse—“The king sent out a war expedition / in order to set aright
the kingdom”—reflects well on his sense of righteousness. It seems
that the prince, with the aid of his advisors, was successful in the
timing of his offering, thus extracting the desired reading and re-
sponse from his audience.
The ball then returns to Prince Chong’er’s court, for he must
demonstrate that he has successfully read the duke’s poetic offering
in response. The prince is clearly not up to the job, remaining silent
and motionless until Zhao Cui prompts him by saying, “Chong’er
bows in acceptance of this!” 重耳拜賜. 38 The prince takes the cue but, just as with his excessive apology for the water-splattering incident, he clumsily overdoes the obeisance by “stepping down,
Words Well Put Page 7