Words Well Put

Home > Other > Words Well Put > Page 28
Words Well Put Page 28

by Graham Sanders


  cesses and failures so that they might examine and rectify themselves.

  古有采詩之官。王者所以觀風俗。知得失。自考正也。38

  The mechanics of this are explained in the “Economic Treatise”

  食貨志 of the same history:

  During the first month of spring, when the common folk were about to

  disperse [to work the fields], runners would circulate throughout the

  roadways, sounding wooden clappers to gather poems. They would then

  submit them to the Music Masters who would regularize the keys and have

  them played for the emperor. Thus the saying, “The king does not even

  peek out his doors or windows, yet he is aware of everything in the world.”

  孟春之月。群居者將散。行人振木鐸徇於路。以采詩。獻之大師。比其

  音律。以聞於天子。故曰。王者。不窺牖戶而知天下。39

  —————

  38. Ban, Han shu, juan 30, p. 1708.

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  Gleaning the Heart

  181

  The doctrine of “gathering poems” 采詩 from the people in order to

  inform the emperor of the quality of his rule had a profound

  influence on concepts of poetry in the Chinese tradition. It is fas-

  cinating to see how this doctrine plays out against Meng Qi’s meth-

  ods. Instead of runners circulating throughout the streets in search

  of oral compositions by the common people, Meng has traveled

  the pages of books in search of written texts by and about the offi-

  cial class of which he was a member. Instead of Music Masters

  regularizing the compositions and having them performed for the

  emperor, Meng has edited and categorized the texts for our reading

  pleasure. Thus, we are able to observe the “customs” of the literate

  class to which he belonged.

  The ancient practice of culling texts is found in other prefaces of

  the Tang period. Fan Shu, in his colophon to Friendly Debates at

  Misty Brook, states that “the Sages selected from among the sayings of village elders; and Confucius collected the airs and ditties of the

  myriad states” 野老之言。聖人采擇。孔子聚萬國風謠, saying of

  his sources that “I have a great many old books, and, if we go by

  their accounts, surely they can shine with an aura of grandeur even

  if they may not approach the level of ancient classics” 攄昔籍眾多。

  因所聞記。雖未近於丘墳。豈可昭於雅量. 40 In his colophon to

  Miscellaneous Records of Cloud-Dwelling Immortals 雲仙雜記, Feng

  Zhi 馮贄 claims to have drawn upon his vast library of over two

  hundred thousand juan in order to “fashion a separate book from

  their essence [literally, ‘fat and marrow’]” 其膏髓別為一書. 41

  Though the practice of compiling a collection of excerpts from

  other books was not new to the Tang, it does seem to have become a

  popular pastime for the literate class of the period.

  For Tang collectors, the orally transmitted anecdote attracted

  more attention than the written anecdote, as can be seen from the

  following quotations from prefaces:

  —————

  39. Ban, Han shu, juan 24a, p. 1123. Yan Shigu 顏師古 (581–645) glosses the term

  “gathering poems” as “to gather poems of resentful criticism” 采取怨刺之詩也,

  another indication of the strong association between dissatisfaction and poetry.

  40. Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 141.

  41. Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 142.

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  182

  Gleaning the Heart

  Since I was a young child, I have heard many stories about the past. They are not strictly canonical works; so I append them to the end of the

  xiaoshuo classification.

  余自髫丱之年。便多聞往說。不足備之大典。故系之小說末。42

  Now, I have drawn in great detail upon the conversations I had both night and day during that time and recorded them all in no particular order,

  entitling the collection A Record of Fine Conversations with His Honor Liu.

  I pass it on to fellow enthusiasts as an aid in conversation.

  今悉依當時日夕所話而錄之。不復編次。號曰劉公嘉話錄。傳之好事以

  為談柄也。43

  In his free time he would drift in his boat, passing along things he had heard and writing them down. And thus the collection is called Hearsay Noted.

  暇日瀧舟傳其所聞而載之。故曰傳載。44

  I remember when I was a young boy repeatedly hearing the high officials

  tell stories of our dynasty amongst themselves. Then they would all talk at length about the particularly extraordinary parts. I have taken the vestiges of these stories that must be true and compiled them into a small scroll in my free time, entitling it Miscellaneous Records of Pine View Studio.

  浚憶童兒時。即歷聞公卿間敘國朝故事。次兼多語其事特異者。取其必

  實之跡。暇日輟成一小軸。題曰松窗雜錄。45

  In his preface to Collecting Mr. Liu’s Stories of the Past 次柳氏舊聞, Li Deyu gives a fascinating glimpse into the oral transmission of

  these sorts of stories. 46 He states that the stories regarding the reign of Xuanzong in his collection were told to him by his father, Li Jifu

  李吉甫, who heard them from his friend, Liu Mien 柳冕, who heard

  them from his father, Liu Fang 柳芳, who got them firsthand from

  —————

  42. Liu Su 劉餗 (fl. 728), preface to Amusing Stories of the Sui and Tang 隋唐嘉話, in Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 93.

  43. Wei Xuan 韋絢 (fl. 840), preface to A Record of Fine Conversations with Adviser to the Heir Apparent Liu 劉賓客嘉話錄, in Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 129.

  44. Preface to Hearsay Noted from the Great Tang Dynasty 大唐傳載, in Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 132.

  45. Li Jun 李濬, preface to Miscellaneous Records of Pine View Studio 松窗雜錄, in Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 139.

  46. Huang, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo, p. 115.

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  Gleaning the Heart

  183

  the eunuch favorite of Xuanzong himself, Gao Lishi 高力士—

  truly a case of hearing something from “a friend of a friend of a

  friend.”

  These prefaces consistently depict members of the official class

  telling stories to each other as a form of amusement in their free

  time, constituting an oral literature that has received scant scholarly

  attention due to its ephemeral nature. Coupled with this is the

  practice of writing these stories down at one’s leisure as a form of

  amusement in itself. Wei Xuan’s preface makes explicit the expec-

  tation that the conversations he records will become fodder for

  further conversation: “I pass it on to fellow enthusiasts as an aid in

  conversation.” It soon becomes clear that it is a misguided task to

  attempt to draw a clear distinction between the orally transmitted

  anecdote and the textually transmitted anecdote, since any given

  story likely existed in both forms at so
me point in time.

  What does this mean for Meng Qi and Storied Poems? There is

  only one entry (1.8) in which Meng explicitly states that he is re-

  cording an eyewitness account that was told to him. There are many entries that seem to be derived from textual sources; there are others

  for which provenance remains unclear. The background for all of

  these entries, however, is a rich complex of casual storytelling and recording. When Meng Qi came to compile his collection, he surely

  drew on his memory of stories both read and heard. The complexity

  of his sources is mirrored within the text of the anecdotes them-

  selves, which contain poems written and sung, read and heard.

  Meng Qi names his collection Benshi shi 本事詩. The term benshi 本事 literally means “based in events” in its verbal form and “originative events” in its nominal form. Thus the collection might

  be called Poems Born of Events, connoting that each poem included in the collection has some sort of background story, a series of

  events that led up to a particular instance of poetic production/

  performance and its subsequent reception/appreciation. These

  events are related in the form of a story, and because many of the

  poems in the collection are quite well known, it seemed appropriate

  to render the title as Storied Poems in English. There is an early usage of the term benshi in a discussion of the Zuo Tradition in the

  “Bibliographic Treatise” of the Han History:

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  184

  Gleaning the Heart

  The disciples [of Confucius] each withdrew and spoke [of their Master’s

  words] differently. [Zuo] Qiuming feared that they would become com-

  placent in their own understanding and lose sight of the truth. So he examined the originative events [behind the Master’s words] and composed

  the Tradition in order to show clearly that the Master did not use groundless words in uttering the Classic [of Springs and Autumns].

  弟子退而異言。丘明恐弟子各安其意。以失其真。故論本事而作傳。明

  夫子不以空言說經也。47

  This passage is a reference to the belief that Zuo Qiuming (or Zuo-

  qiu Ming) wrote the Zuo Tradition as a supplement to the Springs and Autumns by Confucius, providing background stories in narrative form to fill out the laconic words of the chronicle. In addition

  to its emphasis on the truth, this early usage is also important be-

  cause it identifies the term benshi with historical narrative, the form underlying the anecdotes of Storied Poems. It also sets up the relationship between a core text (a classic or a poem) and a supple-

  mentary text (a historical narrative or an anecdote) that may be used

  to elucidate and stabilize the interpretation of the core text, which is in danger of being misunderstood or misrepresented. In essence, the

  benshi or “originative events” convey the material context of an utterance to provide a privileged mode of interpreting and fixing the

  meaning of that utterance.

  Meng Qi then goes on to explain the division of his collection

  into “seven headings akin to the Four Beginnings,” returning to his

  metatext, the “Great Preface,” which closes by defining the four

  sections of the Classic of Poetry (“Airs” 風, “Greater Odes” 大雅,

  “Lesser Odes” 小雅, “Hymns” 頌) and terms them “the Four Be-

  ginnings; they are the apex of the Poems” 是謂四始。詩之至也. 48

  This concept of the Four Beginnings has absolutely nothing to do

  with Meng Qi’s “seven headings,” which describe the circumstances

  that prompted poetic production, the deportment of the poet, the

  emotional quality of the poem, the conditions under which the

  poem was produced or received, the poem’s function, and so on.

  Furthermore, his headings are devoid of the overarching moral or

  —————

  47. Ban, Han shu, juan 30, p. 1715.

  48. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, p. 272c.

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  Gleaning the Heart

  185

  political connotations attributed to the Four Beginnings. Meng Qi is

  simply trying to pull the mantle of tradition over his work by

  forging another link (albeit a tenuous one) with the canonical

  “Great Preface.” One must look elsewhere to discern the prove-

  nance of his headings.

  Storied

  Poems belongs to a lineage, stretching back to the Western

  Han, of works that may be called “anecdotal collections” 故事集,

  and which often have categorized contents. The exemplars of such

  collections are New Narratives 新序 and Garden of Stories 說苑, both compiled by the great classical scholar and bibliographer Liu Xiang

  劉向 (ca. 77–6 b.c.e.). The first of these works corrals notable his-

  torical anecdotes from the pre-Qin and Han periods under the

  headings “Miscellaneous Incidents” 雜事, “Criticisms of Extrava-

  gance” 刺奢, “Men of Integrity” 節士, and “Excellent Strategies”

  善謀. The second work collects similar material, and employs a

  more ambitious classificatory scheme:

  Kingly Way 君道

  Excellent Persuasions 善說

  Courtier’s Skill 臣術

  Executing Orders 奉使

  Laying Foundations 建本

  Stratagems 權謀

  Establishing Integrity 立節

  Perfect Fairness 至公

  Cherishing Virtue 貴德

  Martial Guidance 指武

  Repaying Kindness 復恩

  Erudition 談叢

  Principles of Rule 政理

  Miscellany 雜言

  Esteeming Worthies 尊賢

  Analysis of Things 辨物

  Remonstrance of Rule 政諫

  Refining Statutes 修文

  Respectful and Prudent 敬慎

  Returning to Substance 反質

  Judging from the headings and contents of these collections, Liu

  Xiang intended them to be repositories of exemplary behavior (of

  both the ruler and the ruled) to be used for the moral edification

  of the reader. His most famous work of this type is Biographies of

  Virtuous Women 列女傳, which contains the stories of exemplary

  women in history, divided into seven categories pertaining to

  womanly virtue, such as “Maternal Conduct” 母儀 and “Chastity”

  貞順. Such textbooks of proper conduct satisfied the ruler’s need for

  criteria to “evaluate the personality” 人物品評 of his subjects.

  The disintegration of the Han dynasty and mass migrations to the

  “uncivilized” southlands in the early fourth century loosened the

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  186

  Gleaning the Heart

  hold that Confucian mores had on elite society and wrought great

  changes in Chinese culture, which was not without implications for

  the tradition of the anecdotal collection. Liu Xiang’s examples of

  staid behavior based on Confucian precepts of morality were joined

  by relatively outlandish examples of strange and spontaneous con-

  duct among reclusive
members of the elite who devoted themselves

  to the “natural” 自然 and engaged in abstruse causerie known as

  “pure talk” 清談. The anecdotal collection that incorporates exam-

  ples of this “new” type of behavior is Liu Yiqing’s Topical Tales: A New Edition (discussed in the previous chapter). Not only is the content of this collection less orthodox, but its purpose is as well. As Richard Mather, who has translated the work in its entirety, says, “It

  was partly an aid to conversation, and certainly one of its aims was

  to provide enjoyable reading.” 49 Many aspects of Topical Tales help explain how a collection such as Storied Poems took shape, so I will digress here to examine its organization in more detail.

  In similar fashion to Liu Xiang’s anecdotal collections of centu-

  ries earlier, Topical Tales is divided into 36 categories, which have been translated by Mather as follows:

  Virtuous Conduct 德行

  Worthy Beauties 賢媛

  Speech and Conversation 言語

  Technical Understanding 術解

  Affairs of State 政事

  Skill and Art 巧藝

  Letters and Scholarship 文學

  Favors and Gifts 寵禮

  The Square and the Proper 方正

  The Free and Unrestrained 任誕

  Cultivated Tolerance 雅量

  Rudeness and Contempt 簡傲

  Insight and Judgment 識鑒

  Taunting and Teasing 排調

  Appreciation and Praise 賞譽

  Contempt and Insults 輕詆

  Classification Acc. to Excellence

  Guile and Chicanery 假譎

  品藻

  Admonitions and Warnings 規箴

  Dismissal from Office 黜免

  Quick Perception 捷悟

  Stinginess and Meanness 儉嗇

  Precocious Intelligence 夙惠

  Extravagance and Ostentation

  汰侈

  Virile Vigor 豪爽

  Anger and Irascibility 忿狷

  Appearance and Behavior 容止

  Slander and Treachery 讒險

  —————

  49. Mather, Tales of the World, p. xiv.

  This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:44 UTC

  All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

  Gleaning the Heart

  187

  Self-renewal 自新

  Blameworthiness and Remorse

 

‹ Prev