be followed?
When the bluebird leaves, the road to the clouds is
cut off, 91
Chang’e has returned to her place deep in the
lunar palace.
Behind the window screen she reflects on their
spring memories,
Behind the study curtains who pities the one chanting
alone at night?
I expect that at this very moment the moon up in
the sky,
Responds merely by shining upon both our hearts. (1.11)
大和初。有為御史分務洛京者。子孫官顯。隱其姓名。有妓善歌。時稱
尤物。時太尉李逢吉留守。聞之。請一見。特說延之。不敢辭。盛妝而
往。李見之。命與眾姬相面。李妓且四十餘人。皆處其下。既入。不復
出。頃之。李以疾辭。遂罷坐。信宿。絕不復知。怨歎不能已。為詩兩
篇投獻。明日見李。但含笑曰。大好詩。遂絕。詩曰。
三山不見海沉沉
豈有仙蹤尚可尋
青鳥去時雲路斷
嫦娥歸處月宮深
紗窗暗想春相憶
書幌誰憐夜獨吟
料得此時天上月
祇應偏照兩人心
—————
90. The legendary Three Divine Mountains 三神山, Penglai, Fangzhang,
and Yingzhou, were reputed to be the dwelling place of immortals in the Eastern Sea 東海.
91. Orioles with blue wings acted as messengers of the Queen Mother of the West 西王母. In Stories of Emperor Wu of the Han 漢武故事, when the Queen Mother was about to visit Emperor Wu, two birds flew in from the west. The birds are evoked as messengers between lovers. The “road to the clouds” means the path to heaven; the phrase is also used as an expression for advancement in officialdom.
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276
Placing the Poem
As this story belongs to the category of “stolen love,” one expects
some sort of reaction to the poems, whether it is positive or nega-
tive. This anecdote stands out in Storied Poems for the peculiar lack of efficacy of the poem cited in it. The poems that appear in every
other “stolen love” story are initially communicated between the
lovers themselves as a vehicle for expression of their feelings for one
another. Here, the nameless censor composes a love poem express-
ing the pain of separation, but instead of smuggling it to his lover he
submits it directly to the throne, an act that marks his composition
as a protest poem rather than a love poem. Because it is openly
submitted, the poem does not carry the weight of authentic feeling
guaranteed by secrecy; it cannot be inevitably disclosed to Li Fengji
and so sway him through its revelation of genuine sentiments. Since
the piece is addressed to him directly, Li can read it as a rhetorical
appeal made by an inferior to a superior. While he may appreciate
its aesthetic qualities, he can reject its import out of hand simply
because he has the power to do so. It is tempting to attribute this
rejection to faulty reading skills on Li Fengji’s part, but his smirk
tells another story.
The hapless censor has failed to effectively strategize his de-
ployment of poetic discourse. His poem may genuinely testify to his
suffering, but it lacks power because he has not successfully ma-
nipulated the contexts of poetic production or reception. In fact,
given the difference in political and social status between a censor
and a regent, there was probably very little the censor could have
done by way of strategy. For Li Fengji to even acknowledge the
challenge of someone so far beneath him (let alone acquiesce to it)
would result in a loss of face. Li’s awareness of this results in his
“smirk” (literally: “restrained laugh” 含笑), within which lies the
duplicity of knowing how he is expected to act and knowing that he
is not compelled to act at all. In his appraisal of the poems as “very
good,” he appreciates them on an aesthetic level while pointedly
ignoring any suasive power they are meant to have.
With this story, we have strayed very far from the canonical
model of poetry and the official accounts that seek to confirm it. We
have arrived at a depiction of poetry as a form of socially engaged
discourse that is just as likely to fall flat as it is to succeed, depending This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
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Placing the Poem
277
on the circumstances in which it is produced, performed, and re-
ceived. Poetry has been ignored before in the tradition, but always
at the listener’s peril. In the entries of the Zuo Tradition, when a ruler is deaf to protest cast in poetry, the narrative continues in
order to show us that he will live to regret it. This narrative ends
with two graphs literally meaning “then it was over” 遂絕. No re-
grets. No repercussions. The poem has simply failed.
These “stolen love” stories, extending from the fall of the Chen
dynasty in the late sixth century to the middle of the ninth century
in the Tang, form a larger story arc about the devolution of faith in
the power of poetic discourse to effect positive change in the world.
From the optimism found in the portrayal of Yang Su’s genuine
“anguish” and “change in countenance,” to the pragmatism of Han
Huang’s staged response, to the cynicism of Li Fengji’s smirk, a
distinct anxiety finds its way to the surface of these narratives.
The anxiety is born of a suspicion that gradually allows itself to
be spoken: poetic discourse has no inherent suasive power; it all
depends on the who, where, and when of its production, per-
formance, and reception: on how competently it is deployed and
received. This truth is effaced from canonical writings on poetry—
particularly the “Great Preface” and the ensuing critical writings
that reiterate the principles found there. It is only in the practice of poetry as it is depicted in narrative that the unspoken truth may be
revealed.
The static nature of critical discourse on poetry is a result of the
expectations governing what one says in that genre of writing.
These expectations are formed by the desire to find ancient ideals
inherent in the object at hand or to show that a certain age has
strayed from those ideals. That same desire informs the effort of the
preface to Storied Poems, to carve out for that work an acceptable niche in the tradition.
The narrative anecdote is less beholden to these desires. As a re-
flection of practice rather than theory (no matter how murky that
reflection may be), narrative discourse is more susceptible to desires
regarding what people might do with poetry—or to anxieties about what they cannot do with it—rather than what poetry is supposed
to be. The narrative form of the anecdotes in Storied Poems creates a This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
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278
Placing the Poem
space in which to portray poetry as a s
ocially engaged form of dis-
course, a space in which canonical precepts can be questioned or
even subverted. Examining these narratives gives us a different eye
with which to see this thing called “poetry” ( shi 詩).
By the end of the Tang, the shi poem has emerged as a highly
malleable form of discourse. For the self that utters a poem, it ap-
pears as a powerful means of manipulating the behavior and im-
pressions of others—but only if handled with competence, only
when the words are well put on the page and in the surrounding
world. The enduring lesson that the narratives of Storied Poems
teach is that the full maturity of poetic competence in the Chinese
tradition meant the death of poetry’s innocence, in practice if not in
principle. In order to retain its suasive power, the poem has to be
viewed as a genuine and spontaneous expression of the heart, even though both the person who produces it and the person who receives it surely know—in their heart of hearts—that this is a fiction.
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Conclusion
At this point, it may be possible to step back and make a tentative
generalization regarding the development of the concept of poetic
competence over the fifteen hundred years that separate the earliest
narratives of the Zuo Tradition from the latest narratives of Storied Poems. With each successive age, the notion of poetic competence spreads to a larger group of people using a larger repertoire of words
for poetic performance. And yet, with each successive age, the
concerns addressed by those people with that repertoire diminish
in scope.
The
Zuo Tradition depicts a group of specialists, the Tradition-
alists, who attempt to monopolize the correct performance, use, and
interpretation of the Poems, a limited corpus of texts for offering and citation. They do so with (in their minds at least) nothing less
than the fate of domains hanging in the balance. Poetic performance
always takes place on a public stage, usually before a figure of au-
thority. Even the most minor of exchanges between individuals re-
flects on the status of an entire state. Poetic competence in the
pre-Qin emerges as a highly politicized concept, with a restricted
repertoire of words and limited field of application. It truly is a
matter of diplomacy, which sees the individual striving to produce
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280
Conclusion
an apt offering or citation to ensure that his state stays on the right
side of the Tradition.
In the final analysis, the aggregate of the narratives that constitute
the Zuo Tradition is about more than any single state or group of states. It is about the Tradition itself and about its power to make
the conduct and speech of individuals, courts, states, and the world
morally intelligible. In such a context, poetic competence emerges as
an important strand of cultural competence. It allows the speaking
subject to weave his discourse into the strongest fibers of the larger
Tradition while still pursuing the more limited goals of state and
person. The Zuo Tradition sets the basic premise required for poetic competence to emerge; it portrays the poetic utterance as an instance of discourse able to shape events in a world that is shaped by
and understood through discourse.
The
Han History widens the net of poetic performance to include
words produced in song form as the result of a passionate outburst.
Poetic competence may now be enacted on a potentially limitless
repertoire of words by anyone with the ability to put words into
song form. Competence in this case does not require the knowledge
and skill of a specialist in the Tradition, but the ability to stage the outburst in such a way that the sincerity of its words will not be
questioned. Under this model, competence in poetry shifts from
adeptly using old words to fashioning sincere expression of heartfelt
new words. A secondary competence is found in the subsequent
inscription of these words by the officials who made it their task to
collect and record them as part of historical biographies. This
largely ineffectual poetry recasts competence as the ability to
maximize the appearance of authenticity in order to secure a place
in the eyes of posterity, rather than to effect immediate change in
the present.
The narratives that depict song performance in the Han History
create a space in which the utterance of noncanonical words is le-
gitimate if not entirely suasive. The lack of traditional sanction for
these words means they remain largely powerless to effect change in
the world. The stage for poetic performance during the Han re-
mains politically charged, but a tension emerges between the dis-
course of politics, which deals with the legitimization and mainte-
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Conclusion
281
nance of imperial power, and the discourse of the heart, which deals
with the frustrations that arise from political anxiety and failure. It
is the discourse of politics that eventually triumphs in shaping the
world, although the discourse of the heart is given a voice in the
subsequent representation of that world in historical writing.
Topical
Tales
shrinks the stage of poetic competence to encompass
daily verbal interaction between members of the elite ruling
class during the Southern dynasties. Appreciation of poetic compe-
tence, which itself includes the notion of appreciation, becomes a
means of evaluating the individual apart from the destiny of states or
dynastic houses. A man, woman, or child may succeed or fail in the
moment of his or her poetic utterance and reception. The prize is
the right to be considered by one’s peers as “one who knows,” as
a connoisseur who is able to properly handle poetic discourse,
whether it be the received text of the Poems, a text drawn from another source, or an original composition. Competence in such a
context is not a matter of achieving an external goal through the
deployment of poetic discourse so much as owning and displaying
one’s competence as an end in itself.
Poetic competence during the Tang dynasty emerges as a multi-
valent notion, informed on the one hand by received notions and
narratives, and on the other hand by the realities of poetic practice
during an age in which the ability to produce and evaluate poetry
became de rigueur among the literate class as a means of social
and political advancement. The ability to successfully produce,
perform, and receive poetic discourse begins to yield a benefit for
the individual in a broadening sphere of experience, including the
political, social, and romantic realms. The political savvy and eru-
dition of the Zuo Tradition, the apparent sincerity of the Han History, and the
polished wit and talent of Topical Tales come together to produce a powerful mode of discourse that can yield great benefits for those who have the competence to deploy it at the right time
and place before the right person. Those who lack such competence
are doomed to fail.
As the manipulation of the variables of poetic production and
reception rises to the surface of narratives in the Tang, it spells the
end of any remaining faith in the power of poetry as an inherently
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Conclusion
suasive form of discourse. As the shi poem becomes an increasingly self-conscious form of self-representation, clues as to the nature of
the speaking subject behind the words are legible less in the words
themselves than in how those words are put into the world. There are two hearts or minds ( er xin 二心) at work in each person: one
that is inscribed in the poem and one that frames that inscription for
the reception of others. One must look to the uttering rather than
the utterance to discover the person behind it. 1
Over time, as more people develop facility with the tools of po-
etic competence and gain a voice in recording performances of
competence in narrative form, the importance of poetic competence
is inevitably diffused. The more discourse there is, the less any one
instance of discourse seems to matter. Poetry, as a special form of
language that is marked as distinct from mundane conversation, will
always carry the promise of extraordinary power. The explicit de-
piction of the betrayal of that promise by the time of the Mid-Tang
dynasty is both a symptom of and a catalyst for the maturation of
China’s entire literary tradition.
—————
1. The most celebrated narrative of the Tang that deftly captures this duplicitous quality of discourse is “The Story of Yingying” 鶯鶯傳 by Yuan Zhen 元稹 (779–
831), in which the young maiden, Yingying, sends an erotic verse beckoning her would-be seducer, Zhang, only to harshly upbraid him for his impertinence with a carefully prepared speech upon his arrival. The next night, she initiates a sexual liaison with him on her own terms, thus calling the consistency of her motives into question. Stephen Owen says of this: “A large space is opened here for interpretation. . . . But whatever interpretation we make, discourse no longer directly represents the feelings, motives, and intentions of the human subject. Once initiated, such destabilization of the authority of discourse is infectious” ( The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages,” p. 159).
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