Transmission of Bai Juyi's Poems in China
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Bai Juyi’s Poetry as a Common Culture in Pre-modern East Asia by Lin, Che-Wen, Cindy A thesis submitted in confirmation with the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts Graduate Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto @ Copyright by Lin, Che-Wen, Cindy, 2012 Bai Juyi’s Poetry as a Common Culture in Pre-modern East Asia Lin, Che-Wen, Cindy Master of Arts Graduate Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This paper applies a hermeneutic approach to analyze, and a comparative approach to examine, Bai Juyi’s poems referenced in Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, Tongguk Yi Sang-guk Chip by Yi Kyu-bo and Kyewŏn Pilgyŏngjip by Ch’oe Ch’i- wŏn. Through exploring Bai’s poetry in these texts, the author discovers how Murasaki, Sei, Ch’oe, and Yi contributed to transculturuation in Korea and Japan. Furthermore, the transculturation demonstrated by these literati shows a diversity of patterns: cultural mobilization from west to east; the emergence of overlapping histories in different eras and locations; a disappeared culture, recovered through being transmitted to other regions; cultural transplantation or transformation resulting from cultural contacts; and cultural products helped to stimulate economic growth. Subsequently, Bai Juyi’s works stand as a testament to the power of great poetry to improve and enhance cultures across a broad span of time and space. ii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. iii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Bai Juyi’s Life ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Transmission of Bai Juyi’s poems in China ........................................................................................... 5 Chinese Literary Theory ......................................................................................................................... 7 Bai Juyi’s theory of his poetic compositions .......................................................................................... 9 Bai Juyi’s literary contributions to China ............................................................................................. 11 Transmission of Bai’s poems to Japan.................................................................................................. 14 Japanese Literary Theory ...................................................................................................................... 18 The commonality between Bai Juyi, Murasaki Shikibu, and Sei Shōnagon ........................................ 22 Song of Lasting Pain ............................................................................................................................. 24 Aware by Murasaki ............................................................................................................................... 30 Sei and her Empress: mutually implicit recognition and the same level of Chinese learning .............. 36 More wokaši by Sei ............................................................................................................................... 43 Making excuses to avoid embarrassment as emotional appeals developed .......................................... 58 Conclusion: Literary world of Murasaki and Sei in Heian Japan ......................................................... 70 Cultural transmission from Tang China to Silla Korea ........................................................................ 74 How were Bai Juyi’s poems transmitted to Korea? .............................................................................. 76 Korean poetry theory ............................................................................................................................ 79 Ch’oe’s literary works........................................................................................................................... 80 How do Ch’oe’s poems relate to Bai’s poems? .................................................................................... 84 iii Yi Kyu-bo’s Life ................................................................................................................................... 92 Yi Kyu-bo’s literary theory ................................................................................................................... 94 Alternate Rhyming between Bai Juyi and Yi Kyu-bo .......................................................................... 99 Courtesan culture depicted by Bai Juyi and Yi Kyu-bo ..................................................................... 111 How did Yi’s literary theory change Han literature in Korea? ........................................................... 117 Conclusion: Silla and Koryŏ Korea .................................................................................................... 123 A common culture among China, Korea, and Japan as seen through Bai’s poems ............................ 124 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 129 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 138 iv Introduction Bai Juyi (772-846)1 was a famous Chinese poet in the mid-Tang era. While he was alive, Bai’s poems were already widely known throughout Tang China (618-906), Silla Korea (57 BCE-935), and Heian Japan (794-1185) in pre-modern Asia.2 In Japan, the Entire Corpus of Bai’s Work (Haku-shi monjū 白氏文集), was extensively referenced in Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari 源氏物語) by Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部 970-1014?) and Pillow Book (Makura no sōshi 枕草子) by Sei Shōnagon (清少納言 966-1025).3 In Korea, Bai’s corpus of literary work was modelled in the Corpus of Prime Minister Yi from the Eastern State (Tongguk Yi Sang-guk Chip 동국이상구깁東國李相國集) by Yi Kyu-bo (이규보李奎報 1168-1241)4 and Collection of Pen Cultivation at Kyewŏn (Kyewŏn Pilgyŏngjip 겨원 필경집桂苑筆耕集) by Ch’oe Ch’i- wŏn (최치원崔致遠 855 - 949).5 I hypothesize that Bai Juyi is a representation of a common element among the three pre-modern states for his compatibility to their respective aesthetic 1 J.A.G Roberts, A Concise History of China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 70. Stephen Owen, trans. ed., An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), 442. Shizunaga Takeshi, Kanseki Denrai: Haku Rakuten no Shiika to Nihon (Tōkyō: Bensei Shuppan, 2010), 44, 137. Bai Juyi is also known as: Juyi Bai; Pai, Chü-i; Chü-i Pai; Po, Chü-i; Chü-i Po; Bai, Juyi 白居易; Haku Kyoi in Japanese; Bei Goy 배거이 in Korean; Bai Letiān in English; 白楽天 in Chinese; Haku Rakuten in Japanese. 2 Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom et al., Sources of East Asian tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 9 Tang China, 483 Silla Korea, 618-619 Heian Japan. 3 Koike Seiji, "Genji monogatari" to "Makura no sōshi": nazotoki Heian misuterī (Tōkyō: PHP Kenkyūjo, 2008), 268, 271-272 Murasaki was born in 973 or 978. 4 Yi Kyu-bo, Tongguk Yi Sang-guk Chip (Sŏul: Tongguk Publisher, 1958), preface, 1. Sin Yong- ho, Yi Kyu-bo ŭi ŭisik segye wa munhangnon yŏn’gu (Sŏul Tŭkpyŏlsi: Kukhak Charyowŏn, 1990), 9. Wei Xusheng, Zhongguo Wen Xue Zai Chaoxian (Guangzhou: Hua Cheng Chu Ban She, 1990), 24, 45, 153. Shizunaga, Kanseki Denrai, 241. 5 Fang Xiaowei, Cui Zhiyuan Si Xiang He Zuo Pin Yan Jiu (Yanzhou Shi: Guang Ling Shu She, 2007), 1, 283. Liu Qiang, Gaoli Han Shi Wen Xue Shi Lun (Xiamen: Xiamen Da Xue Chu Ban She, 2008), 75, 171-175 Yi Kyu-bo and Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn were not the only Korean literati who modelled their writings on or referred to Bai’s poem, but Yi Kyu-bo and Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn were two of the most prominent ones. 1 2 traditions. Therefore, my objective of the paper is to find textual evidence of Bai Juyi’s poetic compositions that demonstrates a common culture within pre-modern East Asia in Tang China, Silla and Koryŏ Korea, and Heian Japan. Arthur Waley, a Western Sinologist, translated Bai’s collections of poetry in 1919,6 Murasaki’s Tale of Genji in 1925, and Sei’s Pillow Book in 1928; since then Western scholars, including Burton Watson and Stephen Owen, have also translated Bai’s poetry. Subsequently, the Japanologists, Edward G. Seidensticker and Royall Tyler translated Tale of Genji; Ivan Morris and Meredith McKinney, both of who are Japanese translators, translated Pillow Book.7 I aim to apply a hermeneutic approach to analyze, and a comparative approach to examine, lines of Bai’s poems and styles of his literature that were referenced in the original text of Tale of Genji by Murasaki and the translated text by Seidensticker, the original text of Pillow Book by Sei and the translated text by Morris, two original Korean texts by Yi and Ch’oe, and Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn’s and Yi Kyu-bo’s poems compiled into Sŏ Kŏ-jŏng’s Eastern literature anthology, (Tongmunsŏn 東文選) and Kim Pu-sik’s Original History of Three Nations (Wŏnbon samguk sagi 原本三國史記). Furthermore, I will explore how Murasaki, Sei, Ch’oe,