CHAPTER I Having It Both Ways: Manors and Manners in Bai ]uyi's

The Estate and the State Poetic descriptions by Chinese literati of their own private pleasure gardens date to the Western Jin.1 Among the earliest examples are Chong's ~ * (249-300) writings on his famous Golden Valley Garden (Jinguyuan ~ ~ Ill). Such pieces as "Longing to Return, a Prelude" ,W; if ~I (to­ gether with a long preface; XQHW], pp. 643-44), "Longing to Return, a Lament" ,W; if"~ (XQHW], p. 644), and "Preface to the Golden Valley Poems"~~ "tt ,42 mix an ostentatious display of wealth with a devotion to living the simple life of a hermit.3 Located in the northwestern suburb of Luoyang, Shi Chong's splendid estate was a popular site where promi­ nent literary and political figures of the time such as Pan Yue it -8; (247-300) gathered to socialize, write poetry, and enjoy wine, feasts, and

1. I use the term ''pleasure garden" in a guarded manner. Virtually all the pre-Tang gar­ dens cited here had considerable economic functions. References to those functions are sec­ ondary, however, to the larger theme of the private garden as a place of withdrawal from the public world. 2.. Quan ]inwen, 33.13a-b (QSGSD, p. 1651a). 3· For translations of"Longing to Return, a Lament" and "Preface to the Golden Valley Poems," see Wilhelm, "Shih Ch'ung and His Chin-ku-yiian." For a more accurate translation by Richard Mather of"Preface to the Golden Valley Poems," see Minford and Lau, Cla55ical Chinm Literature, pp. 475-76. See also Owen, The Poetry of the Early T'ang, pp. 274-76. 12 Having It Both Ways

music.4 Pan Yue's own on an Idle Life f;t.1 Jl; ~ contains a significant section on his garden (with a lengthy catalogue of the fruits and vegetables growing there) and inaugurated a subgenre of the Ju form.5 Anticipated by Pan Yue's piece was Xie Lingyun's ~ ][ ~ (385-433) Fu on Dwelling in the Mountains Jr Jl; JIJ~/ which in turn exerted a tangible influence on the Fu 7 on Dwelling in the Suburbs ~~/l;Jii\. by ~:Jc~~ (441-513). Continu­ ing this tradition was Yu Xin's ~ 1t (513-81) Fu on My Small Garden •l' 00 Jli\., many of whose images and motifs were drawn from Pan Yue' s Ju.8 The theme of reclusion is omnipresent in all these works.9 There are too many examples in the shi form of poetry to enumerate. In addition to Tao Qian ~if' (365-427), known as the father of the "poetry of fields and gardens" (tianyuan shi 1!1 00 ~t") as well as the "patriarch of the eremitic poets" (yinyi shiren zhi zong F.~ ~ ~t" A. z ;f- )/0 mention should be made of Xie Tiao ~ JlJt (464-99), whose works, as we shall see, were frequent sources of in­ spiration in Tang garden poetry. Starting in the early Tang, especially during the second reign of Emperor Zhongzong tF ;f- (705-10), poems on the estates of members of the royal

4· One such gathering, as reported in Shi Chong's "Preface to the Golden Valley Poems," attracted thirty participants, all of whom wrote commemorative verses. Of those only Pan Yue' s "Poem Written at a Gathering at the Golden Valley" 1t- ~ 1f;: 11= "tt has been pre­ served (XQHW], p. 632). Shi Chong and Pan Yue were members of an elite literati group known as the Twenty-Four Friends.::=..+ IZ!1 .lt_; see]inshu, 40.II73- 5· See Wenxuan, 16.697-707. For English translations of Pan Yue's fu, see Watson, Chinese Rhyme Prose, pp. 64-71; and Knechtges, , 3: 145-57. 6. Quan Sungwen, 31.1a-ub (QSGSD, pp. 26o4a-9a). For a critical study together with a complete translation of Xie Lingyun' s fu in English, see West brook, "Landscape Description in the Lyric Poetry." 7· Quan Liangwen, 2pa-6b (QSGSD, pp. 3097b-99b). For a translation of Shen Yues fu with a commentary, see Mather, The Poet Shen Yueh, pp. 176-213. The esteem that Shen Yue accorded Xie Lingyun's fu can be gauged by the fact that he quoted the entire piece in his biography ofXie Lingyun in the Songshu (67.1754-71). 8. Quan Hou Zhouwen, 8.4a-5a (QSGSD, pp. 3921b-22a). For an English translation ofYu Xin's fu, see Watson, Chinese Rhyme Prose, pp. 103-9. 9· The private garden as a site of reclusion came into being only during this period. Pri­ vate gardens in earlier times had quite different functions, one of which was the display of wealth. A well-known example from the Western Han period (206 B.C.-A.D. 8) is the stu­ pendous garden built by a certain Yuan Guanghan ;it /Jt m, apparently a commoner, in a suburb of Chang'an. Probably because of its sumptuousness and his presumptuousness, Yuan was executed for unspecified crimes, and his garden was confiscated by the government (Liu Xin, Xijing zaji, 3-130-31). 10. This title was conferred upon Tao Qian in Zhong Rong' s Shipin, 1.13.