Department of Chinese Studies

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences: Department of Chinese Studies

GEK1007: Chinese Heritage – History and Literature TERM PAPER for AY 2014/15 Semester 1

Understanding Tang Poetry “River Snow”

Paper submitted by:

Jolie Pang Hui Li (A0126292H) Tutorial group: D7 Understanding Tang Poetry “River Snow”

Chinese heritage is filled with history, literature and much more. The focus on understanding history with literature provides an insightful view of China’s past, its failures and success and how it helped shape modern China. History is defined as the study of past events while literature refers to written works. The history of China though complicated and messy, proved the statement “The empire, long divided, must unite, long united, must divide” which is from the beginning of “Three

Kingdoms”. Through the many wars and periods of unification or disunion, it saw the rise and fall of many different types of poetry styles, school of thoughts and poets.

This essay focuses on Tang dynasty poetry, the poet Liu ZongYuan and how his poem “River Snow” was affected by its historical context.

Tang dynasty

The Tang dynasty (618 – 907 AD) was an imperial dynasty of China that preceded the Sui dynasty. It was founded by the Li family by rebel general Li Yuan1.

The Li family claimed to be descendants of Laozi and were of Chinese and Turkish ancestry. The Tang dynasty rulers patronized Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.

The Tang dynasty was generally a stable period in Chinese history with the exception of a minor Zhou dynasty by Empress Wu (Wu ZeTian)2. Poetry (shi) was featured in the civil exams to express ones aims. The inclusion of a poetry section in the civil examinations in the Tang dynasty gave rise to the golden age of poetry in

Chinese History, this is often known as the high Tang3. Famous poets from this

1 Benn, C. D. (2002). C. D. Benn, Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty (pp. 1- 4). Greenwood Publishing Group 2 Ibid., (p. 4) 3 Lewis, M. E. (2009). M. E. Lewis, China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty (p. 4). Harvard University Press

2 dynasty include Li Bai, Wang Wei and Du Fu4.

Tang Poetry

Tang poetry was often occasional, written for imperial examination or some form of expression of romance. Tang poetry was innovative and had a new style

(Jintishi) rather than the old style (Gushi). The style of Gushi or Guti in direct translation means “old poetry”. It refers to the use of tonal qualities of the language and the lack of use of syntactic parallelism between the lines of couplets, is not sporadic or strictly patterned5. Jintishi is the “recent or newer” style in Tang dynasty.

However, though being the “recent or newer” style, it is similar to that of the Fu or

Rhapsody in the former Han dynasty. Jintishi uses regulated verse forms that rhyme on even lines and observe strict patterns or lengths and uses parallelism6.

Though these two styles were common in Tang poetry with the latter being preferred, there was another style, which is the Guwen. This resulted in the Classical

Prose movement (Guwen Yundong). The Guwen style was more similar to the Guti style that was more classical and opposed the use of parallelism7. It followed the style of the Classic of poetry which is traditionally Confucian but yet contemporaries it for that period of time. The Classical Prose movement criticized the Jintishi as rigid and overly ornate as it was more similar to the Fu. The Guwen style also used colloquial language in order to make the writings more direct, less embellished and simpler to follow. Two poets in the Tang dynasty are credited for advocating and leading the Classical Prose movement. They are Han Yü and Liu ZongYuan8, 9.

4 Ibid. 5 Mair, V. H. (2001). V. H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (p. 276). New York: Columbia University Press 6 Ibid. 7 Zhen, Y. (1988). Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four Masters. California: Stanford University Press 8 Ibid.

3 Liu ZongYuan

Liu ZongYuan (773 – 819 AD) was a Chinese poet who lived during the Tang

Dynasty. He was born in present day YongJi, Shanxi in the eight year of the Ta-li era of Emperor TaiZong10 but lived most of his life in Chang’an. Along with Han Yü, he is usually termed as the founder of the Classical Prose movement that tried to revive poetry by learning from classical masters and their unparalleled essays. He is also traditionally respected as one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and

Song Dynasties11.

In 796 AD at the age of 23, Liu ZongYuan passed the JinShi palace examination; the most prestigious and highest qualification12 as it promised a better civil career13. His growing reputation and initial success in his career lead to him joining the government of Wang ShuWen: a reformist movement in 80514. However this was short lived and within a few months due to his association with the failed reformist movement, he fell out of favour with the imperial government. He was exiled to YongZhou, Hunan for 10 years15 and then to LiuZhou, Guangxi where he eventually became the city governor and spent his last 4 years16, 17.

9 Mair, V. H. (2001). V. H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (p. 304). New York: Columbia University Press 10 Chen, J.-S. (1992). In J.-S. Chen, Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–819 (p. 7). Cambridge University Press 11 (2010). K.-i. S. Chang, & S. Owen (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature (Vol. 1, p. 531). Cambridge University Press 12 Chen, J.-S. (1992). J.-S. Chen, Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–819 (p. 49). Cambridge University Press 13 (2010). K.-i. S. Chang, & S. Owen (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature (Vol. 1, p. 332). Cambridge University Press 14 Ibid., (p. 333) 15 Mair, V. H. (2001). V. H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (p. 304). New York: Columbia University Press 16 Ibdi. 17 Fan, C. (2010). C. Fan, Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea: The Natural World and Material Culture of Twelfth-Century China (A China Program Book) (J. M. Hargett, Trans., p. xxix). University of Washington Press

4 Similar to his predecessors, such as Qu Yuan and successor Su Shi, his exile

brought about the flourishing of his literary career where he produced poems, fables,

reflective travelogues and essays that contained Confucianism, Daoism and

Buddhism elements. From this, it does seem that depression and situations of

despair provide the best opportunity for the flourishing of literature.

Liu ZongYuan’s best-known travel pieces are the Eight Records of Excursions

in Yongzhou (Yongzhou ba you ji, 永州八游记)18. His works mainly mourn his

banishment or celebrate his freedom from office. One of his most famous poems

Jiangxue (江雪) or in English “River Snow” has been a source of inspiration for many

paintings.

River Snow

江雪千山鸟飞绝

万径人踪灭孤舟蓑笠翁独钓寒江雪

Thousand hill bird flight cut A thousand hills, but no birds in flight, Ten thousand path person trace end Ten thousand paths, with no person's tracks. Lonely boat big straw hat raincoat old man A lonely boat, an old man with a straw hat and raincoat, Alone fish cold river snow Fishing alone in the cold river snow.

“River Snow” or Jiangxue was written by Liu ZongYuan during his exile and is

an autobiographic poem. This poem is an example of using minimum words to

express a “maximum” message. In just 20 characters, Liu ZongYuan is able to put

his message across. Liu ZongYuan, now torn between mourning his old life and

finding an appreciation for his peaceful new one wrote this poem. This poem is

18 Mair, V. H. (2001). V. H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (p. 556). New York: Columbia University Press

5 image filled where Liu ZongYuan paints the scenery in front of him to explain his feelings.

Though Liu ZongYuan criticised the Jintishi, “River Snow” shows the use of both Jintishi and Gutishi. “River Snow” is 4 lines regulated and has 5 characters in each line that follows the Jintishi. However, there is a lack of parallelism and rhyming or tonal patterning on even lines, this is the Gutishi.

The first half of the poem describes the surrounding and portrays that there is no one and nothing around. It can be interpreted in two ways, the first is a peaceful nature environment (“a thousand hills”) that is uncivilized (“Ten thousand paths, with no person's tracks”) or a state of turmoil of which even the birds are scared and hiding (“no birds in flight”) and no man dare to walk this road. Liu ZongYuan is trying to find peace within him, to remove the searing pain of loss of his old life and that his environment is supposed to give him peace but yet he is still feeling pain and turmoil.

In the second half of the poem, it can be see that the fishermen is being aloof from the world, being able to detach himself from the world, just fishing by himself.

This portrays a Daoism view of eliminating himself from the world and that he is able to find peace in his new life. “River Snow” can be seen as being similar to the Lyrics of Chu where Qu Yuan laments about his situation. Though Qu Yuan was not able to accept the facts and situation and chose to die, it seems that Liu ZongYuan was able to accept his situation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Tang Dynasty brought about a new wave of poetry and poets that led to the high Tang period. The Tang poetry style differed mainly between the Jintishi and Gutishi the former being favoured. The historical context and happenings within the Tang dynasty and during Liu ZongYuan’s time affected

6 his literary writings. Thus most of his literature flourished through his exile and period of lament similarly to other poets before and after him.

Liu ZongYuan’s “River Snow” is a good example of how his feelings were being put into a poem that used imagery and express a bigger picture with minimum words. “River Snow” also showed how Liu ZongYuan differed from the other poets of his time by writing about his laments rather than occasions and romance and how he did not confer to popular standards by using the Gutishi instead of Jintishi.

7 Bibliography

Zhen, Y. (1988). Images and Ideas in Chinese Classical Prose: Studies of Four

Masters. California: Stanford University Press.

Lewis, M. E. (2009). China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Harvard

University Press.

Mair, V. H. (2001). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia

University Press.

Benn, C. D. (2002). Daily Life in Traditional China: The Tang Dynasty. Greenwood

Publishing Group.

Chang, K.-i. S., & Owen, S. (Eds.). (2010). The Cambridge History of Chinese

Literature (Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.

Chen, J.-S. (1992). Liu Tsung-yüan and Intellectual Change in T'ang China, 773–

819. Cambridge University Press.

Fan, C. (2010). Treatises of the Supervisor and Guardian of the Cinnamon Sea: The

Natural World and Material Culture of Twelfth-Century China (A China Program

Book). (J. M. Hargett, Trans.) University of Washington Press