Preface” as his definition of poetry. But a closer examination of his
source shows that he has quoted it selectively for his own ends. The
opening lines of the “Great Preface” read:
A poem is what intent goes to. In the mind it is intent; issuing forth in words it is a poem. When feelings are stirred within, they take on outward form in spoken words. When speaking them is not enough, then one sighs
them. When sighing them is not enough, then one intones and sings them.
When intoning and singing them is not enough, then, unconsciously, the
hands dance them and the feet tap them.
詩者。志之所之也。在心為志。發言為詩。情動於中而形於言。言之不
足。故嗟歎之。嗟歎之不足。故永歌之。永歌之不足。不知手之舞之。
足之踏之也。15
In his abridged citation of this passage, Meng Qi elides the preceding
mention of the concept of “intent” 志 and the ensuing discussion of
the musical quality of poetic utterance. 16 He reduces the equation to three terms—poem, feelings, and words—and draws a one-to-one
correspondence between the poem and the expression of internal
feelings in external words.
The reduction of the poetic process to these simple terms can be
found in Kong Yingda’s 孔穎達 (574–648) Standard Meaning of the
Mao Poems 毛詩正義, part of the Standard Meaning of the Five
—————
14. We might recall that Storied Poems is classified as a “general collection” of poetry in the bibliographical treatise of the New Tang History.
15. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, pp. 269c–70a.
16. By “intent” I do not mean a fully formed plan to act, but the legal usage referring to an overall state of mind when it is “firmly fixed” or “concentrated” upon something—a meaning derived “from Latin, an extending, from intentus, attentive to, strained, from past participle of intendere, to direct attention” ( The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd ed., s.v. “intent”). This etymology happily coincides with the traditional Chinese etymology of zhi 志 as “that to which the mind goes” 心之所之.
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Gleaning the Heart
Classics 五經正義, which was the curriculum for the civil service
examinations during the Tang. Meng Qi certainly became inti-
mately familiar with this commentary during his decades of prepa-
ration for the examinations. In Kong’s comment on this passage
from the “Great Preface,” he states:
The “feelings are stirred within” is still “in the mind it is intent”; “and take on outward form in spoken words” is still “issuing forth in words it is a poem.” The first part [of the passage] delineates how a poem follows from the manifestation of intent. This part describes how a poem is inevitably sung, and therefore it emphasizes the patterned language. . . . The “Bibliographic Treatise” [of the Han History] says, “If one recites the words, then it is called a poem; if one intones the notes, then it is called a song.”
Therefore, in the mind it is intent and issuing from the mouth it is words.
Recited words are a poem, and intoned notes are a song. When the notes
are distributed among the eight tones [of different instruments], it is called making music. All of these are simply different names for a single process extended over time.
情動於中。還是在心為志。而形於言。還是發言為詩。上辨詩從志出。
此言為詩必歌。故重其文也。 . . . 藝文志云。誦其言謂之詩。詠其聲謂
之歌。然則。在心為志。出口為言。誦言為詩。詠聲為歌。播於八音。
謂之為樂。皆始末之異名耳。17
To Kong, intent issuing forth in words as a poem is equivalent to
feelings stirred within taking on outward form in words. This
equation is based on a premise of the identity between intent and
feelings, which he asserts explicitly in his annotation of the nature of intent in the entry for Duke Zhao 25 of the Zuo Tradition: “Within the self it is feelings, but when feelings are stirred it forms intent.
Feelings and intent are one and the same; the difference only arises
from the word used” 在己為情。情動為志。情志一也。所從言之
異耳. 18 In claiming they are the same, Kong has actually made a subtle distinction: only when the feelings are stirred and given direction do they constitute intent. The equation in the “Great Pref-
ace” becomes clear: feelings stirred = intent; therefore, feelings
stirred expressed in words = intent expressed in words = a poem.
—————
17. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, p. 270a.
18. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 2, p. 2108b.
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Gleaning the Heart
169
The poem remains in its “pure” state when its words are simply
recited, granting a primacy to the text of the poem. When the
“patterned language” 文 of the poem is emphasized—that is, when
the notes are intoned or sung—it becomes a song, which can then be
set to music. Kong is careful to maintain, however, that this is not a
transformative process; the singing and music are merely the per-
formative aspect of the poem’s irreducible text.
Meng Qi’s emphasis on feelings and words is not novel. The
practice of “reciting a poem” 賦詩 to express a political or diplo-
matic “intention,” depicted so often in the Zuo Tradition, gradually eclipsed the denotation of zhi 志 as pure “intent.” As Stephen Owen puts it, “Ultimately the ethical and political dimensions of Zhi [志]
became so strong in the tradition that most writers on literature
preferred to substitute other terms as the source of the poem in the
psyche, especially qing [情], ‘the affections.’” 19 One such writer, Lu Ji 陸機 (261–303), in his Poetic Exposition on Literature 文賦, coined the phrase, “a poem follows from the feelings” 詩緣情, which became the dominant concept of poetry into the Tang. 20
The preface to the Anthology of Literature 文選 by Xiao Tong
蕭統 (501–31) quotes the very same abridged passage from the “Great
Preface” as Meng Qi does, with no mention of intent or music. An-
other Tang preface, by Li Deyu, for Notes on Traveling in Zhou and
Qin 周秦行紀, drops the element of poetry altogether and works in
the opposite direction as Meng Qi. Li’s preface discusses how one
penetrates to the state of mind through words, not how feelings
produce words: “By examining the words, one will know the inte-
rior. By savoring the phrases, one will discern the state of mind”
故察其言而知其內。玩其辭而見其意矣. 21 Li Deyu is interested in
reception, in knowing the interior through words. This concept was
discussed at length as early as Mencius 孟子 (2A.2, 4A.15, 5A.4, 5B.8).
Meng Qi is interested in both production and reception, but both he
and Li Deyu make a strong link between feelings and words.
—————
19. Owen, Readings, p. 28.
20. Lu Ji, Wen fu, p. 104.
21. Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 113.
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170
Gleaning the Heart
By opening his preface with a selective quotation from the “Great
Preface,” Meng invokes an ancient tradition while simultaneously
staking out his own position in relation to it. He focuses on the
feelings as the source of poetic production—a tendency inherited
from changes in the tradition outlined above. He makes the words—
the text—his primary objective and dispenses with the musical aspect
of poetry, which is to be expected in a collection consisting of a
patchwork of excerpts from written sources. Finally, by engaging
the “Great Preface,” Meng signals that he is using this canonical
work as a metatext, not only in constructing his own preface, but in
selecting and editing his entries as well. The explicit relationship
invoked with the “Great Preface” continues in Meng’s own preface.
________________________
故怨思悲愁。常多感慨。
And thus resentment and melancholy always
result in many passionate outbursts.
________________________
The use of the connective “thus” 故 sets up a strong logical link:
this sentence is a specific example (though not necessarily the only
one) of the general principle stated in the previous sentence. In this
case, the “feelings stirred within” are “resentment” 怨思 and “mel-
ancholy” 悲愁, and the “outward form in words” is a “passionate
outburst” 感慨. All of these terms have a significant history, which
may help to explain why Meng Qi chooses to use them here.
The term for “resentment” (or, more precisely, “resentful
thoughts”) appears in the “Lesser Preface” to one of the Poems,
“Scattered Waters” 揚之水, which is read as a criticism of King Ping
of Zhou (r. 770–720 b.c.e.):
“Scattered Waters” criticizes King Ping.
He did not care for his people, but garrisoned them afar in his mother’s homeland. The people of Zhou harbored resentful thoughts over this.
揚之水。刺平王也。不撫其民。而遠屯戍于母家。周人怨思焉。22
—————
22. Mao #68. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, p. 331b.
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Gleaning the Heart
171
These “resentful thoughts” supposedly led to the composition of a
poem about “scattered waters” that “cannot even bear a bundle of
firewood away” 不流束薪—a metaphorical image for the shallow
feelings that King Ping had for his people.
The feeling of resentment was associated with the Poems long
before the “Lesser Prefaces.” In the Analects, Confucius is portrayed as urging his disciples to study the Poems for their many practical uses, including that “one may express resentment” 可以怨 through
them (17.9). Sima Qian, in his “Grand Historian’s Account of
Himself,” says, “On the whole, the three hundred Poems were
composed as a means for the worthies and sages to vent their frus-
tration” 詩三百篇。大抵賢聖發憤之所為作也. 23 The “Great Pref-
ace” also comments on this topic in its description of how a poem
reflects the circumstances that produce it: “The tones of a chaotic
age are resentful and angry” 亂世之音怨以怒. 24 Immediately prior to this, the “Great Preface” does allow that the “tones of a well-governed age are peaceful and joyous” 治世之音安以樂, but the
dominant view came to regard poetry as a vehicle for dissatisfaction.
As we shall see, the “wronged” official is a recurrent protagonist in
the anecdotes collected by Meng Qi; so it is not surprising that he
would emphasize this aspect of poetry.
Meng continues this gloomy but traditional view in his second
example of an emotion that stimulates poetic production: melan-
choly. This term finds an early usage in the Lyrics of Chu (in the third of the “Nine Arguments” 九辯): “Far from the prime of my
fragrant lushness, I am decrepit and melancholy” 離芳藹之方壯兮。
余萎約而悲愁. 25 There is a definite connotation of sadness due to separation (temporal or spatial) that well suits the thematics of
many entries of Storied Poems.
After specifying the types of emotions in which he is interested,
Meng Qi turns to the nature of the poetic utterance itself. What I
translate as “passionate outburst” 感慨 literally means to be “moved
by passion” and carries connotations of righteousness, often to the
—————
23. Sima Qian, Shi ji, vol. 10, juan 130, p. 3300.
24. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, p. 270b.
25. Qu et al., Chu ci, p. 11.
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172
Gleaning the Heart
point of moral indignation. The idea of a verbal outburst suits the context in which Meng Qi uses this term because a sense of “passion” 慨 (or 慷慨) is frequently associated in the tradition with po-
etic production. It is the most common tag phrase to appear before
outburst songs in the Han History, the “passionate outburst” in song being the stock response to trying circumstances.
By referring to the “passionate outburst,” Meng Qi integrates
spontaneity into his model of poetic production. While this may be
his intention, it is already clear from pre-Tang narratives containing
poetry (as it is in the entries of Storied Poems itself ) that the act of uttering a poem is often carefully staged, involving an awareness
of time, place, and audience. Passion may serve as the poem’s im-
petus and can also characterize the impression that its performance
creates, but the deployment of the verbal “outburst” itself can be
highly controlled by an agent with a degree of poetic competence.
While Meng Qi is not free to acknowledge this within the restrictive
parameters of rhetoric appropriate for a preface, the anecdotes
themselves bear out a sophisticated awareness of the multivalent
qualities of poetic competence, as I will show in the next chapter.
________________________
抒懷佳作。諷刺雅言著於群書雖盈廚溢閣。其間
觸事興詠。尤所鍾情。不有發揮。孰明厥義。
Exquisite compositions of lyricism and elegant words of
admonition may be recorded in myriad books filling up
shelves and overflowing cabinets, but instances in them of
being moved to intone a poem by encountering events
are what really cause one’s feelings to well up. If these in-
stances are not manifested, then who will comprehend
their significance?
________________________
Here Meng Qi moves from his model of poetic production to the
issue of the inscription of poetic utterance in writing. The term
“exquisite composition” 佳作 suggests a work of literature worthy
of preservation. Using a parallel construction—a common practice
in prefaces—Meng pairs this term with “elegant words” 雅言. This
term appears in the Analects (7.17) to describe the orthodo
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Gleaning the Heart
173
in which Confucius recited the classics, but here it seems simply to
denote “elegant language.”
The way in which Meng Qi chooses to qualify these two terms is
significant. The phrase I translate as “lyricism” 抒懷 literally means
to “pour forth what you hold in your heart.” Meng coined this term
based on a similar phrase meaning “to pour out your feelings” 抒情,
which appears in the Lyrics of Chu (in the first of the “Nine Pieces”
九章): “Sorrowfully I plead my case and summon my cares; I
unleash my ire and pour out my feelings” 惜誦以致愍兮。發憤以
抒情. 26 What at first glance may have seemed a fairly neutral term is tinged with the familiar pattern of highly personal dissatisfaction,
the expression of which involves the baring of one’s soul. The en-
tries of Storied Poems contain many examples of such personal expression, but usually with an awareness of the reaction of the au-
dience to which one “pleads a case.”
The second qualifying phrase employed by Meng, “admonition”
諷刺, has an overtly political character. It means something like “to
jab with gentle language” and is drawn from the following passage in
the “Great Preface”:
Superiors use the feng to transform inferiors. Inferiors use the feng to criticize superiors. When patterned language is paramount in making a
veiled admonition, then he who speaks it is without culpability and he
who hears it will take sufficient warning. Therefore, it is called feng.
上以風化下。下以風刺上。主文而譎諫。言之者無罪。聞之者足以戒。
故曰風。27
I have left the word feng 風 untranslated because of its multiple denotations in this passage. 28 Its primary meaning is as an abbreviation for the “Airs of the States” 國風, the first section of the
Classic of Poetry that includes short folk songs purportedly from the different states of ancient China. These pieces are usually referred to
collectively as a synecdoche for the entire Classic of Poetry although they are not entirely representative of the work’s other sections.
Words Well Put Page 26