by Chen Jack W
dard Chinese cosmology, the numerology of three and nine, and the me-
taphors of “warp” ( jing 經) and “woof” ( wei 緯) for the major north-south and east-west courseways.25 This last point, the implied identifica-
tion of the capital to a loom, suggests that the royal city is not only a
framework, but also a matrix, a site of creation—and what is created is
nothing less than the political space of a kingdom or empire.26
That the “Kaogong ji” emphasized the cosmological correlations of the
palace points, more broadly, to what Paul Wheatley calls the “cosmo-
magical symbolism of the Chinese city in classical times.”27 Wheatley ar-
gues that “in the imperial capitals the symbolism of the center was more
strongly developed, for it was at this quintessentially sacred spot that was
raised the royal palace, which corresponded to the Pole Star ( Pei-Ch’en),
the residence (at the axis of the universe, be it noted) whence T’ai-i
watched over the southerly world of men.” To support his claim, Wheat-
ley draws upon the Rites of Zhou description of the Grand Minister of
Education 大司徒 and his topomantic duties, as well as on the theory
that the Han capital was laid out according to the Dipper constellations,
with the imperial palace located approximately in the seat of the pole-
star.28 Though this is an attractive argument, Wheatley misreads the Rites
of Zhou passage, which refers specifically to the king’s city-state ( wangguo 王國) and not to the palace-city.29
It is with the maturation of correlative cosmology in the early imperial
period that one also finds a fuller articulation of what one might call “pa-
—————
25. On the cultural significance of “three” and “nine” in China, see Granet, La Pensée chinoise, pp. 127–248 passim.
26. I am drawing upon the work of the social theorist Henri Lefebvre, who has written,
“Each state claims to produce a space wherein something is accomplished—a space, even, where something is brought to perfection: namely, a unified and hence homogenous society.” Lefebvre, Production of Space, p. 281.
27. Wheatley, Pivot of the Four Quarters, p. 411.
28. Wheatley, Pivot of the Four Quarters, p. 428.
29. See Zhou li zhushu, 10.66a-b, in Shisanjing zhushu, p. 704. For a fuller assessment of Wheatley’s monograph, see Keightley, “Religion and the Rise of Urbanism.”
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Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
latial cosmology.”30 By the Eastern Han, the connection between the hu-
man architecture of the palace and the cosmic forms of Heaven and Earth
had been imagined by texts such as Ban Gu’s “Rhapsody on the Western
Capital” 西都賦:
As for the palace buildings
其宮室也，
Their forms and images were derived from
體象乎天地，
Heaven and Earth;
And their warps and wefts from yin and yang. 經緯乎陰陽。
They were located at the very seat of terrestrial
據坤靈之正位，
numina,
While imitating the round and square of the
倣太紫之圓方。31
Tai and Zi constellations.
The palace-city of Chang’an is represented here as the microcosm of the
universe, with its architectural forms dictated by the patterns of Heaven
and Earth and yin and yang. Although this may have been simply a hyperbolic claim (in a genre replete with hyperbole), the characterization of the
Western Han capital as a cosmopolis was also the image against which the
Eastern Han defined itself. Ban Gu answers the “Rhapsody on the West-
ern Capital” with the “Rhapsody on the Eastern Capital” 東都賦, in
which the palace structures of Luoyang, the Eastern Han capital, display a
simple elegance that puts those of Chang’an to shame:
Thus, within the imperial city
於是皇城之內，
Palace buildings were dazzling bright,
宮室光明，
Mansion courtyards divinely beautiful.
闕庭神麗。
As for opulence, it could not be thought
奢不可踰，
excessive,
In its modesty, it could not be called
儉不能侈。32
extravagant.
The competing visions that Ban Gu offers point to an underlying ambigu-
ity in discourses on the palace. The palace symbolized the political theol-
—————
30. For a convenient account of pre-Han correlative thought, see Graham, Disputers of the Tao, pp. 313–330.
31. Wen xuan, 1.11. For the translations of Ban Gu, I have consulted Knechtges, trans., Wen xuan, or Selections of Refined Literature, vol. 1, pp. 115–17, 157.
32. Wen xuan, 1.32.
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Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
279
ogy of the imperial cult and was thus represented on the grand scale of
cosmological principles, but at the same time, because ideals of modera-
tion and frugality prohibited sovereign excess, the palace was not sup-
posed to display extravagance in any way.33
Ban Gu’s two capital rhapsodies point to an important problem in the
history of palatial ideology, one that follows upon similar arguments by
philosophical writers in the centuries prior to the Eastern Han. For ex-
ample, Xunzi, in his “Regulations of the King” 王制 chapter, describes
the True King as one who understands ritual propriety and thus restrains
himself from self-indulgence: “His clothing has ordinance; his palace
buildings have proper measure; attendants are of determinate number;
and the articles of funerary rites and sacrifices all have proper gradation
and appropriate usage” 衣服有制，宮室有度，人徒有數，喪祭械
用皆有等宜.34 While clothing, architecture, attendants, and ritual im-
plements are all symbols of authority, Xunzi argues that true sovereignty
is not predicated solely on power, but on moral exemplarity. The palace,
as a potential object of excess, should therefore conform to ritual stan-
dards and regulations.
The concern with palatial excess was not only articulated by writers in
the Confucian tradition, but also in other, more eclectic traditions. For
example, the “Holding to Restraint” 禁藏 chapter of the Guanzi 管子
makes a parallel argument to that of the Xunzi:
Now, the fact that one does not float ice [in drinks] in the winter is not because
one begrudges ice; the fact that one does not dry oneself before fire in the sum-
mer is not because one begrudges fire. Rather, it is because these are neither prop-
er nor comfortable for one’s body. As for enlightened kings not embellishing
their palaces, it was not that they delighted in smallness; and as for their not listening to bells and drums, it was not that they detested music. Rather, it was be-
cause these things brought harm to fundamental activities and injury to moral
teachings.
—————
33. More generally, Ban Gu’s rhapsody, as Knechtges has argued, “wa
s to demonstrate that the Eastern Han was superior to the Western Han because of its adherence to Confucian ritual principles.” Moreover, as represented in the rhapsody, the emperor of the Eastern Han “is a paragon of frugality and moderation.” See Knechtges, “To Praise the Han,” pp.
129–30.
34. Xunzi jijie, 9.158.
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280
Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
夫冬日之不濫，非愛冰也；夏日之不煬，非愛火也；為不適於身，便
於體也。夫明王不美宮室，非喜小也；不聽鍾鼓，非惡樂也。為其傷
於本事，而妨於教也。35
Missing from the Guanzi statement is any reliance upon a ritual super-
structure; what it poses instead is an economic morality based upon the
natural law of the body. An analogy is forged: just as the body naturally
dislikes cold in the winter and heat in the summer, the wise sovereign
does not aggrandize his palaces or indulge in music, as such activities
would harm the body politic. This follows the logic of askēsis: the sover-
eign, after all, is supposed to embody the empire as a totality—that is, as
the microcosm of the body politic—and thus, the resources of the empire
should not be used to satisfy his own desires, but to preserve the live-
lihoods and morality of his subjects.
Palaces and Tyranny
While the Xunzi and Guanzi passages both correlate the idea of askēsis to the general theory and practice of kingship, other early texts identify particular rulers who exemplified this virtue. Having personally labored for a
number of years to control the floods of the Yellow River, the sage-king
Yu was perhaps the single figure who best represented tireless self-
discipline for the good of the people. Confucius, in the following passage
from the Analects, praises Yu on this basis:
The Master said: “In Yu I can find no flaw! His food and drink was simple, but
he displayed the utmost filiality upon ghosts and spirits; his clothing was mean
but he displayed the utmost beauty in his ritual cap and gown; his residence was
lowly, but he exerted himself to the utmost in ditches and channels. In Yu I can
find no flaw!”
子曰：禹，吾無閒然矣！菲飲食而致孝乎鬼神，惡衣服而致美乎黻
冕，卑宮室而盡力乎溝洫。禹，吾無閒然矣！36
For Confucius, Yu represents utter devotion to ritual propriety and sov-
ereign duty. Eating only coarse food and wearing base clothing, Yu does
not spend the kingdom’s wealth upon his own needs, though he is not mi-
—————
35. Li Xiangfeng, ed. and annot., Guanzi jiaozhu, 53.1007. For the translation, I have consulted Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 2, p. 215.
36. Lunyu 8.21 / Lunyu jishi, 16.561.
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Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
281
serly in matters of sacrifice and ritual. His self-restriction extends to his
own residence ( gongshi 宮室), which is purely functional and serves only
to house him. It is important to note that, in this context, the term be-
comes doubly ambiguous. First, at the time Yu was supposed to have lived,
gongshi might have either referred to a palatial structure or simply to a residential building structure. Second, and directly related to the argument
of the passage, because Yu’s gongshi appears humble and lowly—that is,
lacking the grandeur that would mark it as the royal dwelling—it simply
becomes a residence like any other.
Confucius draws a contrast between palatial extravagance and Yu’s
famed hydraulic labors, shifting the problem of the palace from an eco-
nomic critique of aesthetic pleasure to a discussion of leisure and ease. Yu
is simply too busy to care about the size or beauty of his palace. The ab-
sence of leisurely ease was a commonplace in stories of the ancient sage-
kings and cultural heroes; in fact, one of the chapters of the Classic of
Documents is a speech in which the Duke of Zhou argues that the sagely
rulers of the past never had time to enjoy their ease, but toiled tirelessly
for the sake of the people.37 Conversely, then, a sovereign who indulged in
activities of leisure was at the least negligent, or worse, despotic. The last
Shang king Zhou provides the major counterexample to Yu. According to
the Shi ji, Zhou brought about the downfall of the Shang dynasty by ig-
noring the remonstrations of his ministers and devoting himself to sen-
sual pleasures. The Shi ji passage reads:
He was fond of wine, licentious in his pleasures, and enamored of women. He
adored his concubine Daji and obeyed her in whatever she said. Thus, he had
Music-master Juan compose new and licentious sounds, dances of the northern
ward, and seductive music.38 He imposed heavy taxes, filling Deer Terrace with
cash and Great Bridge Granary with grain.39 Moreover, he collected hounds,
horses, and rare objects, cramming full his palace chambers with them. Moreover,
—————
37. This is the chapter “Take No Ease” 無逸; see Shang shu zhengyi, 16.109a–111a, in Shisanjing zhushu, p. 221–23.
38. The “northern ward” ( beili 北里) refers to the entertainment district of the capital, where brothels were located.
39. According to the Shi ji jijie 史記集解 ( Collected Explications of The Records of the Historian) of Pei Yin 裴駰 (fl. 5th century), Deer Terrace was located in the city of
Chaoge. Pei Yin notes that the Great Bridge Granary was located at Julu River. Quoted in Shi ji, 3.105–106.
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Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
he enlarged the parks and terraces at Shaqiu, taking many wild beasts and flying
birds and putting them there. He was disrespectful to ghosts and spirits. He
would hold great orgies at Shaqiu, making pools out of wine, hanging forests of
meat, making men and women to strip their clothes and chase one another
around, and drinking long into the night.
好酒淫樂，嬖於婦人。愛妲己，妲己之言是從。於是使師涓作新淫
聲，北里之舞，靡靡之樂。厚賦稅以實鹿臺之錢，而盈鉅橋之粟。益
收狗馬奇物，充仞宮室。益廣沙丘苑臺，多取野獸蜚鳥置其中。慢於
鬼神。大聚樂戲於沙丘，以酒為池，縣肉為林，使男女裸相逐其間，
為長夜之飲。40
The account of Zhou’s misdeeds begins with a description of his sensual
proclivities, attributing his despotism to an infatuation with his concu-
bine Daji. From Zhou’s indulgence in corporeal gratification, the account
then moves to his heavy taxation and hoarding of grain, and then to his
boundless desire for exotics and hunting animals and his enjoyment of
pleasure parks, and ends with his impiety and scandalous orgies. The nar-
rative shows how desires may begin in the ruler’s body, but result in larger
economic hardships for his subjects and injury to public morality. One
might even say that Zhou was a tyrant in the Aristotelian sense of the
term: a ruler who is not only a slave to his appetites and desires, but even
worse, spreads his immorality throughout the polis.41
Mention of Zhou’s palace appears only in passing, as one example of
sovereign depravity among others, though it has implications for under-
standing the exact problem with the Shang ruler’s model of rulership. His
excessive delight in hunting—so much so that he uses the palace to stable
horses and kennel hounds—reflects his loss of reasoned moral judgment.
There is a suspicion of desire here, one that was influenced by early
philosophical accounts of askēsis, such as the following passage from the
Laozi:
The five colors cause a man’s eyes to go blind,
五色令人目盲，
The five tones cause a man’s ears to go deaf,
五音令人耳聾，
The five flavors cause a man’s palate to be ruined,
五味令人口爽，
Galloping about to hunt in the fields
馳騁田獵，
Causes a man’s mind to run riot,
令人心發狂，
—————
40. Shi ji, 3.105.
41. See the discussion in Boesche, Theories of Tyranny from Plato to Arendt, pp. 51–60.
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Palatial Form and the Rhapsodic Imagination
283
Hard-to-get goods
難得之貨，
Cause proper behavior to be injured,
令人行妨，
Therefore the sage acts as the belly and
是以聖人為腹
not the eye,
不為目，
And thus gets rid of that and takes this.
故去彼取此。42
What the Laozi describes is the ruinous effect of a surfeit of sensuous
pleasure (what one might, in fact, call aesthetic perception, in the original
sense of aesthesis). The sage who chooses the belly ( fu 腹) over the eye ( mu 目) is choosing to satisfy need and rejecting the endless appetite of