学校代码 10475 学 号 104752007

河南大学研究生博士学位论文

Bad Luck for Poets, Good Luck for Poetry

A Comparative Study of John Donne and Wang Wei

诗人不幸 诗之幸 约翰 邓恩与王维比较研究

专 业 名 称 英语语言文学 专 业 代 码 050201 研 究 方 向 英语诗歌 年 级 2000 级 研究生姓名 王改娣 导师姓名 职称 王宝童 教授 完 成 日 期 2003 年 4 月 论文主题词 约翰�邓恩/王维/诗歌/比较

Bad Luck for Poets, Good Luck for Poetry A Comparative Study of John Donne and Wang Wei

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By WANG Gaidi Supervisor: Professor WANG Baotong

Henan University April, 2003

Contents

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… i Abstract (English)………………………………………………………………… iii Abstract (Chinese)…………………………………………………………………. vii

Introduction………………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter 1. John Donne and Wang Wei in Common…………………………….. 9 1.1 Similar Position at Home………………………………………………….. 10 1.1.1 Donne and Wang Wei’s Influence in Home Literature………….…….. 11 1.1.2 Whence the Understatement…………………………………………... 14 1.1.3 Mistakes Must Not Go on…………………………….……………….. 19 1.2 Similar Life Experiences…………………………………………….…….. 23 1.2.1 Smooth First Period………………………………...……………….… 24 1.2.2 Frustrated Second Period…………………………………...…………. 26 Chapter 2. John Donne and Wang Wei Each in His First Period: Non-religious Poetry……………………………………………….. 33 2.1 Love and Women……………………………………………………………. 34 2.1.1 Donne’s Poetry of Love and Women……………………………….…. 35 2.1.2 Wang Wei’s Poetry of Love and Women……………………….….….. 54 2.1.3 Differences between Donne and Wang Wei on Love and Women………………………………………………… 59 2.2 Politics in Donne and Wang Wei’s Poetry……………………………….….. 72 2.2.1 Politics in Donne’s Poetry……………………………………………... 72 2.2.2 Politics in Wang Wei’s Poetry…………………………………………. 83 2.3 Grief of Parting in Donne and Wang Wei’s Poetry …………….……….…... 92 2.3.1 Donne’s Poetry on Parting……….……………………………………. 92

2.3.2 Wang Wei’s Poetry on Parting………………………………………… 97 Chapter 3. John Donne and Wang Wei Each in His Second Period: Religious 102 Poetry.…………………………………………………..3.1 Donne’s Divine Poetry………………………………………….…………...... 102 3.1.1 Influence of Christianity………………………………………………. 103 3.1.2 Religious Meditation in Donne’s Poetry…….………………………... 105 3.1.3 Secular Feature in Donne’s Divine Poetry……………………………. 123 3.2 Wang Wei’s Chan Poetry……………………………………………………. 129 3.2.1 Influence of Buddhism………………………………………………... 129 3.2.2 Chan Spirit in Wang Wei’s Poetry…………………………………….. 134 3.2.2.1 Poetry in Chan Terms…………………………………………... 135 3.2.2.2 Poetry in Chan Spirit…………………………………………… 139 3.2.3 Painterly Qualities in Wang Wei’s Chan Poetry………………………. 149 3.3 Differences between Donne and Wang Wei’s Religious Poetry…………….. 153 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………. 172 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….. 178

Acknowledgements

At the time when this dissertation is finally completed, all sorts of feelings well up in me, all fused into one word: THANKS. Thanks first go to my respected supervisor, Professor Wang Baotong, under whose guidance, I have studied poetry for three years, and from whose generosity and care I have inestimably benefited. In the process of my working on the dissertation, he has taken all the trouble to read and re-read the drafts and made priceless suggestions. I am also much indebted to Lady Liu Gang, associate researcher of library science and my supervisor’s wife, who has given me a great deal of encouragement during these years and never hesitated to lend me a hand. Equal thanks go to Professor Shirley Wood, who in her readiness to help a young pupil judged every word of the draft and replenished my thought in the making; and to Professor Gao Jihai and Professor Lü Changfa of the Research Institute of the Faculty of Foreign Language and Literature, Henan University, who have kindly read through my humble work and offered many useful and valuable suggestions. Special thanks must go to Professor Joseph Price of the English Department of Pennsylvania State University, an expert in poetry with great accomplishment, who has over the past year since I had the honour of making his acquaintance at the International Conference on Shakespeare Studies held in Kaifeng in the fall of 2002, always cared for me and been pleased to answer any of my questions by E-mail, and has read through the whole draft and given me such a lot of precious comments and advice. In addition, I owe a great debt to my parents and parents-in-law, without whose support and understanding, it would have been impossible for me to go on with my doctoral studies. I really hope I can repay them with a happy and carefree life for all. Also, I want to present my heartfelt thanks to my dear husband, Zhang Yanzhao, whose love and support, both spiritual and economical, have helped me tide over my MA study years and paved the way for the Ph. D. program. For six years, we have i shared weal and woe and rain or shine he has waded through without complaint. Whenever I was depressed, he would give me encouragement and confidence. His love is such as I can no way repay. Finally, I must hasten to extend my thanks to Professor Zhang Jin who has kindly taught me and taken pains to correct my papers, to Professor Xu Youzhi who found time out of pressing schedules to give me enlightening lectures, and to all people who have helped and cared for me during my study in Henan University.

ii Abstract

John Donne (1572-1631) of England and Wang Wei (701-761) of China, his senior by close to 9 centuries, have a lot in common both in life and work. Researches into Donne the leading metaphysical poet started right in his lifetime. Having suffered misreading for 2 centuries, Donne’s poetry experienced a renaissance in the early 20th century thanks to the recommendation by Professor H. J. Grierson (1866-1960) and the leading poet T. S. Eliot (1888-1965). In the 1940s and 1950s, “New Criticism” became very influential in America, which increased the popularity of metaphysical poetry in the English literary world. Up to the present day, interest in Donne has remained strong. However, in China, Donne’s significance has not been fully realized and there is a lot of work undone. On the other hand, researches into Wang Wei the leading Buddhist poet have a long history too. From the Tang Dynasty (618-907) through the Qing (1644-1911), critics on poetry rarely spared him. Even today, interest in Wang Wei remains keen. Nevertheless, researches into Wang Wei so far do not seem to match his superb achievements and contribution. It is for the above reasons that the author of this dissertation thinks it incumbent on her to make a special study of Donne and Wang Wei, and by bringing these two poets together over a space of about 9 centuries and a distance of 9,000 kilometers for comparison, to try to find some food for thought. This paper is designed in three chapters. Chapter one, consisting of two sections, mainly discusses the similarities between the two poets in life and career. In the first section, the author thinks that the literary position of Donne and that of Wang Wei in their home countries are alike. Traditionally, both poets have been labelled as “great minor” rather than “great major” poets. However, their achievements and influence have both proved that they deserve to rank among the first-rate poets or all-time greats. The second section analyzes the life experience of Donne and Wang Wei, each undergoing two phases, which naturally correspond to the two periods in their poetry composition. iii Chapter Two and Chapter Three are principally a probe into the poetical works of John Donne and Wang Wei. In Chapter Two, a comparative study is made between the non-religious poems by Donne and those by Wang Wei, each in his first period. Both poets were passionate and active. In terms of subject matter, Donne covered various aspects of love and women revealing his joys, frustrations and pains in the secular world, while Wang Wei extended his concern beyond love and women writing about friendship, folk feelings and frontier wars. There are three sections in this chapter. The first section deals with the differences and similarities between the two poets’ poems of love and women. Firstly, Donne’s love poetry is direct and passionate while Wang Wei’s is suggestive and delicate. Secondly, erotic love is prevalent in Donne’s poetry while spiritual love prevails in Wang Wei’s. Thirdly, their attitudes toward women, as reflected in their love poems, are totally different. Donne’s was one of contempt for women on quite a number of occasions while Wang Wei was always sympathetic for them. Last, love as a subject matter is dominant in Donne’s poetry while it is comparatively weak in Wang Wei’s. On the whole, however, a persistent pursuit of truth in love and life is striking in both poets. The second section analyzes the politics in Donne and Wang Wei’s poetry. In their early years, both poets had great expectations for their future and showed great concern for politics. Donne’s poems of love, as a rule, betray his politics while Wang Wei wrote a great number of frontier and satirical poems to express his. The third section concentrates on Donne and Wang Wei’s poems on parting. In Donne’s poems, this kind of feeling is extremely moving. Of all Wang Wei’s poems, more than one fourth are related to strong nostalgia and the grief of separation between friends. In sum, however their subject matter varies in this period, both Donne and Wang Wei used poetry to express their deep reflections on love, politics and other concerns. Throughout their writings, their passion for truth is fully shown. Chapter Three examines Donne and Wang Wei’s religious poetry. Each lost his wife around his middle age, Donne in his 40’s, Wang in his 30’s. After a succession of iv setbacks in life and career, both became disillusioned with reality in the mundane world. Donne turned his enthusiasm from politics to religion. In his Divine Poems, he praised Christ, repented his own sins, meditated upon death and longed for God’s grace and mercy. In 1615, he finally accepted holy orders and entered the Church of England. His religious poetry is as great as his love poetry and takes up an important position in metaphysical poetry, which he was regarded to have founded. Most of his followers were either devotional poets or wrote many excellent religious poems. On the other hand, in his second period, Wang Wei became a pious Buddhist, most of the time living in seclusion detached from wealth and fame. Being so devoted to Buddhism, which he practised constantly and therefore had gone to his heart and soul, he brought Buddhist outlook on life into his artistic conception, therefore greatly changed poetry. His Buddhist poetry, more popularly known as Chan (Chinese name for Buddhism) poetry, thus became unconventionally graceful and its esthetic value was unprecedentedly enhanced. Because he made a lasting contribution to poetry, he has earned the honorable title of “poet-Buddha” ever since. Judging from the above, we have reasons to say that frustrations pushed Donne and Wang Wei to religion and religion gave scope to their talent and brought their poetry each to a new height exercising great influence on later poets. In conclusion, the author of this dissertation wishes to point out that frustrations in life make good poets, a truth which has been borne out by lives of great poets throughout the ages. Donne and Wang Wei are among them. The setbacks in their life and career forced them to find consolation in poetry and use poetry as a tool to express their thought on life, which led to their great achievements in poetry. Later, in their search for truth and beauty, they each turned to religion. They combined poetry with religion and produced lasting pieces but with different features. Donne distinguishes himself by his energy and secularity while Wang Wei is known for his suggestiveness and painterly quality in poetry. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” (Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 49). Donne’s and v Wang Wei’s great achievements in poetry have been acknowledged in the history of world poetry, which are enough to place their authors among the major rather than minor poets of the world. In addition, both Donne and Wang Wei impress us by their persistent pursuit of truth, which is just what much of modern Chinese poetry wants. The author of this dissertation expects that her study of Donne and Wang Wei will not only be of value for the research into the two poets and for intercultural communication, but also serve to provide some food for thought for the development of poetry in the new century.

Key Words: John Donne; Wang Wei; Poetry; Comparison

vi 中文摘要

英国诗人约翰�邓恩 1572-1631 生活在 16 17 世纪之交 他和 8 世纪中国唐代诗人王 维 701-761 在人生经历和诗歌创作上有很多相似之处 邓恩为玄学派诗歌的代表人物 评 论界对其人其诗的研究从 17 世纪一直延续至今 虽然在 18 19 世纪 邓恩诗歌受到误解 但 在 20 世纪初 由于格里厄逊 H. J. Grierson 1866-1960 和 T. S. 爱略特 T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965 的倡导 邓恩诗歌重新获得评论界的青睐 尤其是 20 世纪 40 50 年代风靡一时的 新批评 派 更是把 玄学派 诗歌奉为英语诗歌的圭臬 时至今日 在英语文学界 玄学诗派研究仍 然是批评家关注的热点之一 但在国内 对邓恩诗歌的认识还远远不够 对邓恩诗歌的研究更 是刚刚开始 另一方面 历代学者对杰出禅诗诗人王维的研究同样具有悠久的历史 从唐至清

一千多年间 618-1911 各种诗论 诗话从未少论王维 至今依然 但相对于王维在诗歌上的 卓越艺术成就而言 目前对他的研究尚显单薄 在此情况下 作者希望本文对邓 王二人的研 究能对学界有所补益 另外 邓恩和王维相似的诗歌风格和创作态度正好为我们提供了一个进 行中英诗歌比较的切入点 使我们能够从各别诗人身上略窥中英诗歌和中英文化的走向 获得

宝贵的启示 本文分三章 第一章主要探讨两位诗人在生活和创作上的相似性 分两节 第一节论述邓恩和王维在 各自国家文学史上原有和应有的地位 两位诗人的传统定位比较相似 都属于 二流大诗人 这主要是种种历史和政治原因所致 而事实上 两位诗人成就斐然 影响深远 足以也应该位 列一流诗人之中 第二节简要分析邓恩 王维二人生平 发现他们的人生经历和政治道路都有

前后两个时期 因而他们的诗歌创作也分为两个阶段 接下来两章重点比较研究邓恩和王维的诗歌成就 第二章分析对比邓恩和王维第一阶段的非宗教诗作 在诗风上 两人前期都积极 昂扬 充满入世精神 在题材上 邓恩虽然侧重爱情诗的创作 但情诗中自有人生百态 相比较而言 王维的诗歌则题材广泛 涵盖爱情 友情 亲情 边塞战争等内容 本章分三节 第一节从文 化背景出发 比较了两人关于爱情和女性的诗作 首先 邓恩诗风热情 直率 而王维则含蓄 婉转 其次 邓恩情诗充满情爱色彩 而王维却更多地侧重精神上的爱恋 另外 两人诗中对 女性的态度也截然不同 邓恩多贬抑女性 王维对女性则充满同情 最后 爱情这一主题在邓 恩诗作中分量重 而在王维诗作中则相对较轻 但从总体上来说 两人对爱情和真理的真挚追 求是相似的 第二节分析邓恩和王维第一阶段诗歌中的政治因素 前期二人都充满了匡世经济 vii 之志 对时事政治相当关心 邓恩的许多情诗都流露出他的政治倾向 而王维则创作了许多边 塞诗和讽刺诗来表达政治情怀 第三节把邓恩和王维诗中占重要地位的离别诗挑选出来做一专 门分析 在邓恩的情诗中 与爱人的生死离别最为真挚动人 王维的离别诗占他全部诗作的四 分之一强 但绝大多数是思乡或与友人的离别 总的来说 不论题材的侧重点怎样 邓恩和王 维这一时期的诗作都体现出 诗 与 思 的完美结合 他们借助诗歌来思索人生 慨叹社会

表露真情 彰显出各自的真性情 第三章重点对比研究了邓恩和王维的宗教诗歌 个人和政治生活上的一系列挫折和打击 使两位诗人越来越看清了社会的真相 两人都是中年丧妻 备受生活和政治上的折磨 在仕途 无望的情况下 邓恩把热情转入宗教沉思 在圣诗中冥想基督 忏悔罪过 探究死亡 渴求上

帝的恩慈和宽恕 1615 年 他最终接受了圣职 了断尘缘 使自己完全投入基督教的怀抱 他的圣诗和情诗同样优秀 是构成 玄学派 诗歌不可或缺的一部分 在他影响下的玄学派诗 人大多也都是宗教诗人 或虽非宗教诗人却也创作了很多优秀的宗教诗 后期的王维则是一名 虔诚的佛教徒 他隐居山野 淡泊名利 潜心佛教 把宗教意境融入诗歌创作 使诗达到一种 新的艺术境界 他的宗教诗 即通常所说的禅诗 禅是佛教在中国发展形成的一宗 也泛指中 国化的佛教 优美 独特 具有极高的美学价值 基于他在诗歌上的卓越贡献和持久影响 王 维被誉为 诗佛 从邓恩和王维身上 我们可以看到他们都是遭受挫折后转向宗教寻求安慰 也正是宗教让他们的诗有了更好的发挥 把他们的诗各推向一个新的高峰 影响了后世一代一

代的诗人 上述事实向我们昭示着一条真理 诗人不幸 诗之幸 邓恩 王维苦难的经历和遭遇使 他们向诗歌寻求慰籍 借诗来表达对人生 对政治和爱情的感悟 从客观上成就了他们诗歌的 辉煌 随着时间的推移 他们又都转向宗教 在诗歌和宗教的相互交融中继续着对真和美的追 求 不同的社会 文化背景使他们的诗篇披上不同的色彩 获得了独特的魅力 邓恩以激情和 现世性见长 王维以含蓄和画意感人 两者形成鲜明对比 各为世界诗歌宝库增胜添彩 诗人

不幸 诗之幸 古往今来 一个个伟大的诗人都在验证着这条真理 美即真 真即美 济慈 邓恩和王维在诗歌上的杰出成就和巨大影响历经岁月考验 毫不褪色 使他们有足够的理由位列一流而非二流诗人群 他们诗中那份撼人心魄的率真和不 懈求索正是当今许多所谓新诗所缺者 本文作者希望通过对邓恩和王维诗歌的研究分析 为现

代诗歌的发展和繁荣提供些许借鉴

关键词 约翰�邓恩 王维 诗歌 比较 viii Introduction

It was the intensity and complexity of emotion and language in John Donne’s poetry that first aroused my keen interest. John Donne (1572-1631) was the founder of the metaphysical school in the late 16th and early 17th centuries in England. He was considered a master by many of his contemporaries but was almost forgotten for many years in literature due to some unjust but influential comments on his poetic works. However, Donne’s influence was never disregarded. Since the publication of Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the Seventeenth Century by H. J. C. Grierson (1866-1960), metaphysical poets have been rediscovered. In 1921, an article published by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) in Times Literary Supplement, later reprinted as The Metaphysical Poets, helped to improve the position of the metaphysical poets in the literary world. Donne gained respect in the 20th century, and his influence seems overwhelming in the literary world. As I learned more about his work, life and career, I found he had much in common with Wang Wei, one of the best loved Chinese poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Like Donne, Wang Wei (701-761) was thought of highly in his time. However, conflicts between Confucianism and Buddhism in Chinese ideology have affected the evaluation of Wang Wei’s poetry a great deal. Since Confucianism has long been dominant in China, Buddhism is considered only of second importance. Wang Wei’s poetry which is much associated with Chan, a Chinese Buddhist school, has always been deliberately ignored by Confucian critics. As a result, Wang Wei is rarely placed on a par with the first-class poets in Chinese literature. But the brilliance of Wang Wei’s poetry still remains. Up to the present, Chinese poetry has always been described as intangible, suggestive and possessing natural grace, qualities characteristically belonging to Chan poetry, which has an undeniable place in world literature. Even those traditionally considered as major poets, such as Li Bai (701-762) with his grandeur, Du Fu (712-770) with his profundity, and Bai Juyi (772-834) with his popularity, seem to be

1 overshadowed or even overwhelmed by Wang Wei with his simplicity and elegance (Qian Zhongshu 14-15). Although the two poets, Donne and Wang Wei, lived in different countries and in different ages, they shared a lot in life experience. Perhaps it would be worth while to make a comparative study of them. I checked information data and found nobody doing research of this nature. Burning with a desire to dig, I set about taking it as my task to discover how their poetry changed with life experience, especially how they combined poetry with religion so perfectly in their later periods. In the West, criticism on Donne began early and has become more and more heated up to the present. A. J. Smith’s John Donne, the Critical Heritage (1983) is a marvelous collection of all kinds of opinions on Donne and his poetry from 1598 to 1889. In the early years of the 20th century, H. J. C. Grierson and T. S. Eliot’s research brought Donne into the modern literary world. Since the 1940s, with the popularity of New Criticism, literary research on Donne has become very popular. Louis L. Martz’s The Poetry of Mediation: A Study in English Religious Literature of the Seventeenth Century, published in 1954 and revised in 1962, contains an entry, “Metaphysical Poetry,” in which he analyzes the meditative structure of Donne’s two Anniversaries and reveals “the dual vision of Donne’s poetry.” His study produced a great impact on later researches in Donne. Aldrich Deborah Larson’s John Donne and Twentieth-century Criticism came out in 1989. Larson mainly attempts to align Donne with, or set him in contrast to, various literary traditions and casts an eye on critics on Donne’s attitude to women, religion and science. J. B. Leishman in The Monarch of Wit: An Analytical and Comparative Study of the Poetry of John Donne (1951) arranges Donne’s poems into different classes based on biographical suppositions. In 1981, John Carey published John Donne: Life, Mind and Art. This is really an excellent critical work. In this book, Carey adopts a psycho-biographical approach to Donne in his study of the poet’s life, mind and art. Carey covers all of Donne’s writings: poetry, prose and sermons. Essential Articles for

2 the Study of John Donne’s Poetry edited by John R. Roberts in 1975 is divided into 8 sections: Donne’s reputation; Donne and the development of English Poetry; Donne’s use of tradition; prosody; love poetry; religious poetry; the “Anniversaries,” and miscellaneous poems. Besides the books mentioned above, there are many other critical works such as Arthur F. Marotti’s John Donne, Coterie Poet (1986), Critical Essays on John Donne (1994), and John Donne edited by Andrew Mousley (1999). There are also plenty of critical articles on Donne. For instance, in “John Donne,” Achsah Guibbory points out the characteristics of Donne’s poems. Joan Bennett gives an analysis of Donne’s secular and religious poems and concludes that the same profound feelings are shown by Donne both to his beloved and to God in her “The Love Poetry of John Donne.” Frances Austin’s “John Donne” in his The Language of the Metaphysical Poets does a good job on Donne’s poetry from a linguistic point of view. David Reid’s The Metaphysical Poets contains one chapter which covers Donne’s life, general characteristics of his poetry, satires and moral verse, some love poems and religious verse. In China, research on Donne was far from satisfactory in the past. Although one of the most influential poets in English literature, Donne was rarely included in books of English literature compiled by Chinese scholars. But things have been changing since Professor Yang Zhouhan’s book English Literature in the Seventeenth Century came out in 1985. Here, a whole chapter is devoted to Donne, mainly centering on Donne’s sermons with a few words on his “Holy Sonnet XIV.” Following that work was An Anthology of English Literature with Chinese Annotation, which contains five of Donne’s poems with detailed notes by Professor Yang. An Anthology of English Verse edited with an introduction by Professor Wang Zuoliang came out in 1993, which includes Donne’s “Holy Sonnet X” and 3 love poems. Professor Hu Jialuan’s An Anthology of Best English Poems published in 1995 also includes Donne’s “Holy Sonnet XIV” along with two others of Donne’s love poems. In 1997, Professor Wang Zuoliang gave a general survey of Donne’s poetry in his A History of English Poetry. A

3 Comprehensive History of English Literature, edited by Professor Hou Weirui (1999) presents an introduction to Donne and the metaphysical school. The Starry Heavens: English Renaissance Poetry and Traditional Cosmology written by Professor Hu Jialuan, which involves his excellent analyses of some of Donne’s poetry was published in 2001. And A Systematic Venture into John Donne by Yan Kui (2001), focusing on Donne’s poetic works, was the first such book published in China. Apart from these books, quite a number of critical articles on Donne and his poetry have been published in China, “A Mixture of Passion and Reasoning” by Liu Hanyu and He Changyi, “On Donne’s Cosmological Awareness” by Yan Kui, “A Simple Analysis on Conceits” by Lin Yuanfu, “Male-Chauvinism and Colonialism of the Metaphysical Poets” by Zhang Deming, to mention just a few. Nevertheless, compared with other poets with similar poetic achievements, Donne and his poetry are still far from familiar to Chinese readers. Until now, such study has been rather superficial than comprehensive. For that reason, the author of this dissertation attempts to do some research on the subject. On another hand, criticism on Wang Wei and his poetry is closely associated with that of Chan poetry, which has had a long history in China. Since the introduction of Buddhism to China in 2 BC (Buddhist Scriptures were brought here in AD 67), it has constantly affected Chinese poetry. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), China’s “metaphysical school” which originated in Taoism and Confucianism became much influenced by Buddhism, and poets tried to reflect such links in their composition. Most of China’s metaphysical poems had imitated the “pure conversation” style1 of the philosopher wits of the time of Wei (220-265), eminent scholars like He Yan (?-249),2 Xia Houxuan (209-254)3 and Wang Bi (226-249),4 centering on dull discussions of lofty nonmundane matters or cosmogony, and propagating nihilism. But metaphysical

1 清谈 之风 2 何晏 3 夏侯玄 4 王弼 4 poetry of the later stage (in Jin) shows elements of Buddhism joining in, which helped bring about Chan poetry. During the Tang through Song Dynasties (618-1279), Chan poetry became mature and reached a climax, as did criticism of Chan poetry. The Style of Poetry (Wang Changling, ca. 698-757)1 and The Form of Poetry (Jiao Ran, ?-?)2 of the Tang Dynasty mark the beginning of poetic criticism of Chan. On Poetry (Sikong Tu, 837-908)3 of the late Tang Dynasty and Canglang the Recluse on Poetry (Yan Yu, fl. 12th century)4 of the Song Dynasty 960-1279 are great works on poetry. In these two books, Sikong Tu and Yan Yu speak highly of Wang Wei’s poetry. There are also many books on classic poets and poetry concerned with the comments on Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, such as Selected Tang Poems with Comments by Hu Yinglin (1551-1602),5 Consummation of Tang Poetry by Zhong Xing (1574-1625) and Tan Yuanchun (1586-1637),6 From Er’an on Poetry by Xu Zeng (1612-1671),7 Speaking of Poetry by Shen Deqian (1673-1769)8 and From Cultivation Studio on the Poetry of Li Bai and Du Fu by Pan Deyu (1785-1839).9 Wang Wei’s poetry was collected even in his own time.10 Since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), quite a few famous collections have appeared. For example, Gu Qijing’s11 A Collection of Wang Wei’s Poetry was published in 1556; Gu Kejiu’s12 Wang Wei’s Poetry Collected in the Tang Dynasty came out in 1559. And The Annotated Poetry Collection of Wang Youcheng edited by Zhao Diancheng13 in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) has long been regarded as an authority. Modern scholars have also shown keen interest in Wang Wei’s poetry. Since 1994,

1 王昌龄 诗格 2 皎然 诗式 3 司空图 诗品 4 严羽 沧浪诗话 5 胡应麟 唐诗选评 6 钟惺 谭元春 唐诗归 7 徐增 而庵诗话 8 沈德潜 说诗晬语 9 潘德舆 养一斋李杜诗话 10 The first collection of Wang Wei’s poetry was compiled by his brother Wang Jin (王缙 700 -781) following Emperor Dai Zong’s decree. 11 顾起经 12 顾可久 13 赵殿成 5 more than 300 papers on this subject have been published in various journals in China.1 Yuan Xingpei’s An Artistic Research into Chinese Poetry (1987) contains comments on Wang Wei’s Chan poetry. Chen Yinchi gives an excellent introduction to Wang Wei’s life and Chan poetry in his Buddhism in The Sui and Tang Dynasties and Chinese Literature (2002). Of the modern scholars, Chen Tiemin is the most distinguished for his Fresh Views on Wang Wei which appeared in 1990. In this book, Chen Tiemin presents a fine analysis of Wang Wei and his poetry from various angles. By reexamining Wang Wei’s life and career, he clears up some long existing doubts in history. He edited the famous work The Annotated Poetry Collection of Wang Wei which was published in four volumes in 1997. Basing himself on Zhao Diancheng’s achievements, Chen Tiemin here furnishes his annotation with more abundant and more convincing findings. However, of all these critical essays and works, few are concerned with Wang Wei’s secular poems. In this dissertation, the author intends to do some work in this respect. In addition, though lots in common exist between Donne and Wang Wei, there have been no articles or books dealing with the comparison between the two. In this dissertation, a comparative study of the two poets is going to be made. Furthermore, though many critics have recognized John Donne’s and Wang Wei’s great achievements and widespread influence, few seem to question the way in which the two poets have been placed in literary history; still fewer raise any doubt about their inappropriate literary positions. This also is what the author of the present dissertation attempts to do. A number of literary approaches have been employed in this paper, including traditional theories such as historical, sociological, biographical approaches and contemporary theories such as New Criticism. Historical criticism and biographical criticism are important in the history of Chinese literary criticism. Mencius (372-289 BC) said, “If it is not enough to understand the author by chanting his poems and

1 The information came from http://www.cnki. net on March 6th, 2003. 6 reading his other works, one has to study the times in which he lived.”1As for New Criticism, the author finds it hard to put it aside when studying Donne’s poetry. “New Criticism is a species of formalism. As the term suggests, formalism emphasizes a text’s formal features. In doing so, it provides us with a vocabulary with which to articulate those characteristics thought to be peculiar, or at least especially pertinent to, literary texts” (Mousley 7). In this dissertation, the author is going to use “close reading” a lot to interpret poems. In addition, images in poems can never be overlooked. Zhu Guangqian once said, “There is an artistic conception in every poem, composed in feelings and images” (On Poetry 55). Images are especially important for classical Chinese poems, which are usually picturesque. Donne’s poetry is noted for its clever use of images and metaphors. How to interpret images is crucial to the understanding of both Donne’s and Wang Wei’s poetry. Analysis of figurative language such as images, symbols, metaphors and similes is an important point. In this dissertation, the author will try to use these methods in New Criticism to interpret Donne’s and Wang Wei’s poems. Furthermore, since the two poets are going to be examined through comparison here, the author thinks it necessary to get to them by “Parallel Study,” an important approach in Comparative Literature, and make a comparative study of Donne and Wang Wei in terms of their themes, subject matters, styles, characteristics and so on. In short, although different literary approaches are applied, they are only tools, or means to an end. That is to say, the author will use them to expound her view and will not spend much time in explicating them. The present thesis endeavors to compare Donne and Wang Wei from three angles. One chapter is devoted to the similarities between the two poets in life and career, since their poetic works are much related to their life experience. That is followed by a comparative study of Donne and Wang Wei’s non-religious poetry in the first period of each. Under relatively smooth conditions, what have they conveyed in their poetry? Are there any common points or unique things in their works? The third and last chapter is a

1 “诵其诗 读其书 不知其人可乎 是以论其世也.” 7 research into the religious poetry of Donne and Wang Wei. In the later period of each, both met with frustrations which changed their life and career, and pushed them to religion. In return, religion contributes a lot to their achievements, a considerable part of which are the religious poems they left us. In what way did they combine poetry with religion and how did they express their feelings through poetry? Are there any similarities, or differences? In the third chapter, the author intends to explore these questions. The conclusion will point out that frustrations are not always awful but sometimes helpful for a person especially for such literary figures as Donne and Wang Wei. In some degree, their accomplishments in poetry were considerably achieved in their suffering years. In addition, their consistent pursuit of truth throughout their poetry is worth considering, which is what modern Chinese poetry is largely deficient in. It is the strong belief of the author that her findings will be of value for the study of the two poets, for mutual communication between English and Chinese literature, and for the development of modern Chinese poetry.

8 Chapter 1 John Donne and Wang Wei in Common

John Donne is regarded as one of the most accomplished but also most controversial poets of the 17th century (Young 120). Despite his great achievements and influence on English poetry, he was considered only as a secondary poet for centuries. However, few people seemed to question his unfair treatment. On the other side of our globe, Wang Wei has had a similar position to Donne’s. Regardless of his popularity and influence, Wang Wei rarely attracts much attention in Chinese literary circles, where he is ranked only among the minor poets, at most a great minor poet. In addition to their similar literary positions, Donne and Wang Wei had a lot in common in their life and career. John Donne’s work and life experience fall into two stages. As a young man, he lived a carefree life and was avid for a bright future in politics. Reflecting his high spirits, his poems written in this period are vigorous, forceful and full of secular desires. Then a series of troubles befell him, blasted his promising political career and brought his lighthearted life to an end. Furthermore, his wife passed away leaving him a widower in his forties. Frustrated in life, Donne turned to religion and tried to find an answer in God, finally accepting ordination. He contemplated matters concerning life and death and wrote divine poems on salvation. Like Donne, Wang Wei’s life and work are also divided into two periods. In the first period, his career as a court official seemed to be smooth and successful. Determined to serve the state whole-heartedly, he was animated and showed great enthusiasm for politics. Most of his poems in this period are zealous and concern matters of this world. However, similar to Donne, his enthusiasm for worldly affairs was dampened by misfortunes, and his wife also died leaving him a widower in his middle age. As his political career was thwarted again and again, he gradually became disillusioned with reality and turned to religion for consolation. In his second period, 9 Wang Wei took to Chan, an important branch of Buddhism in China, and produced a large amount of Chan poetry, which exercised a great influence on Chinese literature. For that reason, he has been respected as China’s “poet-Buddha.”

1.1 Similar Position at Home

The literary position of Donne and that of Wang Wei in their home countries are alike. Both have been classified usually as great minor poets, that is, both are great among second-rank rather than first-rank poets. In English literary tradition, Donne has neither a place equivalent to that of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in the 16th century, nor a significance like that of John Milton (1608-1674) in the 17th century. The popular view holds that in England, the late 16th century and the whole of the 17th century are marked more by the grandeur of Shakespeare and Milton than by the witticism and ingenuity of Donne. As a matter of fact, for more than 2 centuries, Donne’s poetry was nearly in oblivion. It is true that many readers were hindered by the difficulty in his poetry, but more people were bewildered by the phrase “metaphysical poetry.” Influenced by Samuel Johnson’s remarks, metaphysical poetry was long regarded as a term of abuse and the metaphysical poets, especially Donne, were often viewed as people with exotic taste. Just as T. S. Eliot says, Donne’s poetry is “the work of a generation more often named than read, and more often read than profitably studied” (qtd. in Clements: 123). On the other hand, works by Shakespeare who was a contemporary of Donne were much more valued in the late 16th century. In the 17th century, John Donne and his metaphysical poetry were again overwhelmed by Milton’s brilliance. Due to similar treatment, Wang Wei does not receive enough attention in Chinese literature. Wang Wei lived in the Tang Dynasty which has long been looked upon as the golden age of classical Chinese poetry. With tens of thousands of poems coming down to us, more than 2,000 names of poets are remembered, and poetry reached its zenith. In 10 the galaxy of Tang poets, Li Bai (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770) are most appreciated. Especially since the mid-Tang period (763-847) (Zhu Dake 11), Du Fu has generally been acknowledged to be the greatest poet in China (Qian Zhongshu 21), traditionally honoured as the “saintly poet.” However, Wang Wei who was also a great poet and whose achievements and influence are just as great as those of Du Fu seems to have been neglected most of the time.

1.1.1 Donne and Wang Wei’s Influence in Home Literature

Long recognized as a controversial poet, Donne presented poems involving totally different features. Having gone through two different phases of life, Donne deals a lot with the joys and disappointments of love and sex in his secular love-lyrics as a rake, but thinks seriously about the unification of man and God in his divine poems as a Christian humanist. Complex, witty conceits, sudden even jarring paradoxes and contrasts, strong imagery that combines the ornate with the mundane, and contemplations melding the natural world with the divine heavily mark Donne’s poetry (Young 120). Circulated in manuscript form in his lifetime, his poems exercised a profound influence on his contemporaries. The metaphysical school came into existence under such an influence. Poets of this school imitated Donne, and their poetry was generally characterized with Donne’s poetic style. George Herbert (1591-1674), Richard Crashaw (1613-1649), Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) and Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) are the best known of this group in which Donne’s influence is apparently recognizable (Adam 1062). Although Donne and his metaphysical poetry were overlooked for nearly two centuries, his influence has always existed. One example is that Donne is seen as the forerunner of many modern poets, notably the Modernist innovators of the first half of the 20th century (Young 121). In John Donne: A Collection of Critical Essays, Gardner speaks of the prevalence of Donne in the first half of last century, “it was largely taken for granted among literary persons, by many university teachers, and, I should say, by the majority of 11 undergraduates, that Donne was a more interesting and significant poet than Milton, and that in him English poetry reached a kind of high-water mark” (Gardner, John Donne 1). It is certain that Donne’s poetry has once again begun to receive serious critical attention and to be acknowledged as having an important influence on English men of letters since Grierson and T. S. Eliot’s rediscovery of Donne at the beginning of the 20th century. In general, Wang Wei’s poetry is in two phases, too. Poems in his first period involve a wide range of themes such as politics, love, friendship and daily life. Of these, his frontier poems have long been highly thought of. Wang Wei once lived in the army and was much touched by life at the frontier. He was a leading figure in the frontier group, which includes such poets as Gao Shi (700-765) and Cen Sen (715-770), and wrote a number of poems depicting frontier scenery, military life, soldiers’ homesickness, passionate patriotism and devotion to the state. However, compared with the nature poetry with Chan conception in the second period, his frontier poems are secondary. Owing to a sequence of frustrations in his life and career, Wang Wei became a devout Chan adherent in middle age. Deeply influenced by Chan, he was one of the pioneers in opening a new school of poetry, the Chan poetry of the Tang Dynasty. His Chan poetry naturally topped the list in this school. Of all Tang poems, nature and frontier wars are two most prominent themes (Ge Xiaoyin 108), and Wang Wei is the only poet who has made great achievements in both aspects. In the Tang Dynasty, Chinese poetry reached its peak. The biggest-ever collection, The Complete Poems of Tang, compiled jointly by 10 scholars in the Qing Dynasty, includes more than 2,200 poets with nearly 55,000 poems collected. From the Tang to the Qing, more than 1,000 years passed. What the Qing scholars could have collected was only a small part of the total. Imagine how many important poets with their fine poems have sunk in oblivion! Of so many names, Chu Guangxi (707-760?), Chang Jian (?-?), Wei Yingwu (737? 792), Liu Zongyuan (773-819), just to mention a few, have been regarded among the most distinguished poets and all of them are important members of the school of nature poetry, of which Chan plays an essential part. 12 Besides his great influence on later poets, Wang Wei’s Chan poetry has also had considerable influence on classical Chinese literary criticism. Although the influence of Buddhism has always been secondary to that of Confucianism, yet since the Tang Dynasty, whether a poem is conceived up to the level of Chan has been regarded as the highest criterion for judging its value. The reevaluation of Tao Qian’s poetry is a good illustration of this. Disgusted with the bureaucracy, Tao Qian, or Tao Yuanming (365-427), ended his official career and returned to his home village. Since he was disillusioned with the corruption of the imperial court and was eager to retreat to nature, his poems express his real joy in nature. The conception of most of his poems is in accordance with Chan. Although he clearly stated his reserve towards the Jing Tu Zong, a Buddhist branch, known as the Pure Land Sect, which was set up by his friend Hui Yuan (334-416),1 Tao Qian was certainly influenced by Buddhism, which is apparently reflected in his poems. In On Poetry, a famous book of poetic criticism by Zhong Rong (?-ca. 518)2 of the Liang Dynasty (502-557), Tao Qian is regarded as a second-class poet because of his peculiar style. However, from the Tang Dynasty on, Tao Qian began to be more appreciated; especially in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi (1037-1101) treasured him most, largely due to the sense of detachment in his poetry. As to Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, it actually led to a systematic way of appreciating poetry in Chan. Eminent critics like Sikong Tu in the late Tang Dynasty, Yan Yu in the Song and Wang Shizhen (1634-1711)3 in the Qing all got their first inspiration from Wang Wei’s Chan poetry (qtd. in Yu Leheng: 6-7),4 and they started a new way of poetic criticism by judging poetry from the philosophical angle of Chan. These facts point out that both Donne and Wang Wei have been among the most influential poets in their home literature. However, neither of them has a literary

1 慧远 2 钟嵘 诗品 3 王士禛 4 This notion is taken from Preface to A Collection of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran’s Poetry written by Qian Zhonglian in 1990. 13 position that can match their achievements. What can be the cause for such undervaluation?

1.1.2 Whence the Understatement

In his lifetime, Donne’s poems were merely circulated in manuscript form among his friends and relatives. The first collection of his verse was not published until 2 years after his death (1633). In Donne’s lifetime, his poetry was much honored by many of his contemporaries. Izaak Walton (1593-1683), a celebrated writer, wrote a famous biography to record Donne’s life and contribution to poetry and religion. Thomas Carew (1595-1640) was a well-known cavalier poet, and learned a lot from Donne’s witty conceits. In “An Elegy upon the Death of the Dean of Paul’s, Dr. John Donne,” Carew records people’s high respect and deep admiration for Donne:

Here lies a king, that ruled as he thought fit The universal monarchy of wit; Here lie two flamens, and both those the best; Apollo’s first, at last the true God’s priest. (95-98)

The first poet and critic to find fault with Donne was Ben Jonson (1572-1637), who stated that Donne’s “An Anatomy of the World” was “profane and Blasphemies.” Donne, “for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging” (qtd. in Young: 122).1 It is clear that what Jonson reprimanded was Donne’s innovative poetic techniques and the subjects of some of Donne’s poems. In 1693, John Dryden (1631-1700) first used the term “metaphysical” to characterize Donne more as a wit than as a poet. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) seized upon this term and developed it into abuse in describing poets whose intentions were, as he contended, to flaunt their cleverness and to

1 For this quotation, from Johnson’s conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden held between December 1618 and January 1619, see Poetry Criticism Vol.1, edited by Robyn V. Young. 14 deliberately construct paradoxes so outlandish and inadvertently pretentious as to be ludicrous, indecent, or both (Young 121). Since then, his remarks had misled numerous critics for nearly 2 centuries and a negative tone for Donne and his metaphysical poetry lingered in the literary world till the 19th century. In addition to critics’ negative attitude toward Donne, mainly due to Johnson’s misdirection, political factors in Donne’s poetry also retarded its circulation. Donne’s writing career was divided, as was his life, into two periods. In the first period (up to 1598), his poems, especially the Elegies, are obviously satirical and largely conceived to vilify women, especially Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603, Rn 1558-1603). “Many if not most of Donne’s Elegies were written in the 1590s” (Mousley 27) at the height of Elizabethan reign. Donne was strongly against a woman’s control, but it was impossible for him to subvert it. Under the overwhelming power of the Church of England, he was also destined to have slim chance in his political career as a Catholic. However, as a poet, Donne expressed his desire to restore male dominance in his special way. Contrasted with profound admiration for women in many Petrarchan sonnets1 of his time, debasement and contempt for women are usually found in Donne’s love poems. Donne’s target is clearly the Queen in his Elegies, which will be further dealt with in the next chapter. Therefore,

Five elegies (including “Loves Progress” and “To His Mistress Going to Bed”) were refused a licence to be published with his other poems in 1633. Probably it was not simply their eroticism that offended. Donne’s elegies might have seemed dangerous not just during Elizabeth’s reign but even later in James’s and Charles I’s, when Donne had finally achieved a position of prominence in the church, for repeatedly they imply that allegiances can be

1 Petrarchan sonnets are characteristic of, or derived from, the work of the major Italian poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca, 1304-1374), especially his sonnets and other love lyrics in Italian (Baldick 166). 15 withdrawn, that monarchs can be deposed – which was precisely the fate that awaited Charles. (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 39)

As for Wang Wei, his neglect in Chinese literature was primarily brought about in the conflict between Confucianism and Buddhism as well as the traditional approaches employed in literary criticism. Since Emperor Wu (156-87 BC, Rn 140-87 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25) accepted Dong Zhongshu’s (179-104 BC)1 suggestion to “prescribe all non-Confucian schools of thought and espouse Confucianism as the orthodox state ideology.”2 Confucianism had been given paramount importance in China. Supported by the imperial court, it became the dominating ideological standard for over 2,000 years and anything not in conformity with it faced condemnation. On the other hand, since its introduction to China, Buddhism had been spreading extensively in almost every field. In the Tang Dynasty, especially the high Tang (713-763), the social environment was one of leniency and the imperial court was magnanimous in religious matters. As a result, Buddhism could develop more freely and profoundly and since the Tang, Confucianism and Buddhism could complement each other in Chinese culture (Ge Zhaoguang 37). Gradually Buddhism took root in China and became a part of Chinese culture. By the Sui-Tang period (581-907), a number of China’s Buddhist sects had come into being, the Chan sect being the most important of them. Together they exercised great influence on Chinese ideology as a whole. On the other hand, the Confucian rulers who regarded Buddhism as foreign and unorthodox doctrines had always adopted a negative attitude toward it. For a long time, Buddhism was undervalued and described as straying from the main current of Chinese culture. In order to maintain the dominant position of Confucianism in the court, Confucian officials even suppressed Buddhism from time to time. In 835 Emperor Wu Zong

1 董仲书 2 罢黜百家 独尊儒术 16 (814-846, Rn 840-846) launched a large-scale suppression of Buddhism in which over 4,600 Buddhist temples were destroyed and 265,000-odd Buddhist monks and nuns forced to return to secular life. In 1587 and 1591, some senior Confucian officials submitted petitions to Emperor Shen Zong (1563-1620, Rn 1572-1620) of the Ming Dynasty against candidates referring to Buddhist scriptures in imperial examination and their suggestions were adopted (Ge Zhaoguang 75-76). Literature can never be separated from politics. The conflict between Confucianism and Buddhism greatly affected the literary world, where Confucianism held sway and Buddhism was only secondary. According to orthodox Confucian tenets, poetry should take as its bounden duty extolment, exposure, enlightenment, and exhortation. Du Fu’s poems are mostly in compliance with these requirements (Guo Shangxing & Sheng Xingqing 278-282), so Du Fu has been honoured as “a poet-sage.” For most of the time, Li Bai has been mentioned in the same breath as Du Fu in Chinese literature. However, Li Bai’s inclination to Taoism which advocates reclusion and “non-action”1 did not cater to the dominant Confucian standards. So, compared with Du Fu, Li Bai is merely in the second place (Qian Zhongshu 22). As the representative of Chan poetry, Wang Wei is more associated with Chan, or Chinese Buddhism, in his poetry than with Confucianism. Therefore, despite his great achievements, Wang Wei is often put in an inferior place to Du Fu. On the other hand, from the first poetry collection, the Book of Poetry,2 which was rumored to have been edited or rather pruned by Confucius, realistic tradition has been cherished in Chinese poetry. The ideal of service to the imperial court, loyalty to the state and devotion to the common people determine the basic tone in literary criticism. Du Fu witnessed the Tang Dynasty going from prosperity to decay and a majority of his best poems were about the people’s miserable conditions during the An

1 “无为” 2 诗经 17 Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion (755-763). He has traditionally been acknowledged as a realistic poet and his poetry as chronicling the political turmoil and people’s sufferings of his time. Thus, in Chinese literature, Du Fu is considered by most critics China’s greatest poet. Poets echoing Du Fu are liable to succeed in China. Contrary to the realistic tradition, Chan poetry tends to the unworldly, intangible and light. As the greatest of Chan poets, Wang Wei reached the highest peak in fusing poetry with Chan. Furthermore, Wang Wei was not only an outstanding poet, but also a great painter. He created the texture methods and his ink-wash painting has been generally acknowledged to be the very start of Chinese literati painting. Among the Southern School of painters, Wang Wei is considered the greatest master. In the history of classical Chinese painting, this school of painting enjoys the highest fame and the Southern style has become the standard for later painters. Wang Wei introduced his painting methods into his poetry, so as to produce delicate word pictures. The famous painter-poet Su Shi highly appreciated Wang Wei’s poetry and painting remarking, “When I read Wang Wei’s poetry, it presents pictures; when I view his painting, it contains poetry” (qtd. in Chen Yixin: Essays on Tang Poetry 132).1 “It is perhaps the painterly qualities of his poetry that have made him the most widely translated Tang poet” (Zhang Tingchen & Bruce M. Wilson 33). However, Wang Wei’s Chan poetry is far from the realistic tradition and Confucian ideology. Although he produced so many great poems with high artistic conception, he has seldom been given adequate attention, especially when compared with Du Fu and his realistic poetry. In Chinese literary tradition, Wang Wei and his Chan poetry have never been viewed as the mainstream, just as Donne and his metaphysical poetry have not in English literature. As similar as his achievements in poetry were to Du Fu’s, Wang Wei has always been given an inferior position in Chinese literature. In short, neither Donne nor Wang Wei had been adequately valued in the literary

1 味摩诘之诗 诗中有画 观摩诘之画 画中有诗 苏轼 东坡志林 18 tradition. One big reason is the political factors related to their poetry. Donne’s poetry implied some negative opinion on a woman’s sovereignty, so some of his poetry was not allowed to be published in the 17th century. With respect to Wang Wei, owing to the lack of political concern in his Chan poetry, he was considered passive or inactive and the artistic value of his poetry has long been neglected in Chinese literature. This may appear a contradiction between the two poets since one is rejected due to too much political concern while the other rarely gets adequate consideration owing to a lack of social involvement. Here we see how social functions are really crucial in the assessment of poetry. But one thing is usually ignored by numerous traditional critics, and that is Poetry is “best words in their best order” (Shelley). “The main function of poetry is to give esthetic pleasure. We mustn’t associate poetry with ideological enlightenment all the time. [ ] Similar to any other artistic forms, poetry has its own unique aesthetic function. It is unnecessary for poetry to be involved in too many fields such as philosophy, drama, novel and politics. When poetry attempts to perform all functions, it is sure to have no function and it is sure to be nothing” (Gu Zhengkun 33).

1.1.3 Mistakes Must Not Go on

Poetry that has stood the test of time and change is surely best. Brow may wrinkle and hair grow gray; but the value of good poetry never knows decay. After two centuries’ oblivion, Donne’s poetry finally began to enjoy positive acceptance by literary critics in the 19th century. From the 19th through the 20th centuries, critical interest in Donne’s poetry was renewed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Browning (1812-1889), and other influential poets and critics threw a favorable light on his works. In 1912, H. J. C. Grierson’s pioneering edition of Donne’s poems came out, which advanced the study of Donne. “This collection settled questions of spelling, authenticity, and misattribution, and sparked further critical interest in Donne’s poetry” (Young 121). In 1921, Grierson’s Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the

19 Seventeenth Century and T. S. Eliot’s book review, “The Metaphysical Poets,” finally steadied Donne’s prestigious fame in English literature. Eliot makes a simple comparison between Donne and Tennyson, Browning and Milton:

The difference is not a simple difference of degree between poets. It is something which had happened to the mind of England between the time of Donne or Lord Herbert of Cherbury and the time of Tennyson and Browning; it is the difference between the intellectual poet and the reflective poet. Tennyson and Browning are poets, and they think; but they do not feel their thought as immediately as the odour of a rose. A thought to Donne was an experience; it modified his sensibility. [⋯] In the seventeenth century a dissociation of sensibility set in, from which we have never recovered; and this dissociation, as is natural, was aggravated by the influence of the two most powerful poets of the century, Milton and Dryden. (Eliot 127-128)

Grierson, moreover, remarked, that Donne “sounded some notes which touch the soul and quicken the intellect in a way that Milton's magnificent and intense but somewhat hard and objective art fails to achieve” (35). Especially in the 1940s and 50s, Donne’s poetry was admired greatly with the prevalence of New Criticism. According to Redpath:

The Songs and Sonnets are superior as a body of love-lyrics to any equivalent number of poems by the poets mentioned above (Herrick, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Browning and Swinburne); and that, if we survey English poetry from end to end, we are unlikely to find any serious rivals to the Songs and Sonnets as love-lyrics, except the sonnets of Sidney and Shakespeare, and the love poems of Yeats and, possibly, of Hardy. (Redpath 2)

20

Here Redpath mentions only the Songs and Sonnets, not including other such excellent works of Donne as the Elegies and Holy Sonnets. “But the most intense and personal of Donne’s poems, after the love songs and elegies, are his later religious sonnets and songs; and their influence on subsequent poetry was even more obvious and potent” (Grierson, Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the Seventeenth Century 11). “Donne proved a rich poetic resource for both secular and religious poets” (Guibbory, “John Donne” 125). As the reevaluation of metaphysical poetry was conducted, the place of Donne as founder of the metaphysical school deserved to be reconsidered first in English literature. A. J. Smith’s comments are quite to the point:

He is not a poet for all tastes and times; yet for many readers Donne remains what Ben Jonson judged him: ‘the first poet in the world in some things.’ His poems continue to engage the attention and challenge the experience of readers who come to him afresh. His high place in the pantheon of the English poets seems secure. (“John Donne” 80)

In Chinese literature, Wang Wei should also be ranked among the first-rate poets with the recognition of the influence of Chan in Chinese culture. Chan, a Chinese sect of Buddhism, differs a lot from Indian Buddhism. Combined with Taoism and Xuan Xue, or Chinese Metaphysics, which prevailed in the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220-420), Chan bears strong Chinese characteristics. Especially in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the social atmosphere was less rigid, which enabled Chan to mature. “The word of Chan is an abbreviation of Channa,1 which is the Chinese phonetic rendering of the Sanskrit word dhyana, meaning meditation”(Guo Shangxing & Sheng Xingqing 140). With this special way of thinking, Chan greatly appealed to the

1 禅那 21 literati and officials in feudal China, who were closely linked with the fate of the state. When scholars in feudal China met with setbacks, they would retreat to Chan for freedom or solace. Most officials had double personalities. In the officialdom, they were Confucians who served the state, but in their free time, they became devout Chan adherents. Liu Zongyuan, Liu Yuxi (772-842), Su Shi and Huang Tingjian (1045-1105) are some examples. Since high offices in the Tang Dynasty were awarded through the imperial examination, chiefly in poetry, almost all high officials in Tang were poets. In addition, when they composed poetry (composing poems was part of their life then), the conception of Chan was actually the highest standard to judge the quality of a poem. In fact, the nature of Chan is close to that of poetry. Chan adherents advocate a transmission from mind to mind without the use of written texts. Meditation and sudden illumination are stressed in the Chan School. Of course, words cannot be totally abandoned in actuality, but special emphasis has always been put by Chan practitioners on the connotation of the words. By the 12th century Chan had been even more popular among men of letters. Yan Yu, an important literary critic of the time, likened poetry composition to practise in Chan, and put forward his famous theory of “wonderful insight.”1 According to this theory, the key point in composing poetry, as in practising Chan, is also sudden illumination, for which knowledge is secondary. The most excellent poems are those that are transparent and intangible like the sound in the air, the color of the objects, the moon in the water and the image in the mirror. The words end but the meanings go on.2 In this sense, poetry and Chan melt together and share the same essence. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), poet and critic Wu Ke (fl. 12th century) wrote three poems entitled “Poems on Poetry Composition” dealing with the relationship between Chan and poetry. The first poem goes as follows:

1 妙悟 2 Yan Yu, a prominent literary critic in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), is famous for judging poetry with Chan. The above comments on poetry appear in his book, Canglang the Recluse on Poetry. The Chinese version reads “故其妙处 透彻玲珑 不可凑泊 如空中之音 相中之色 水中之月 镜中之象 言有尽而意无穷.” 22

Learning to compose is like to meditate On bamboo cots or poufs without a date. And when all truths illume the mind one day, You’re above the world whate’er you write or say.1

Sudden illumination or Revelation is the same aim for poets and Chan adherents alike. In such case, practising Chan and composing poetry have no difference. What is more, the doctrines of Chan are often illustrated in poems. Besides poetry many other fields were also considerably influenced by Chan, such as painting, architecture, even daily life. In fact, like Confucianism, Chan has long been acknowledged as an important part of Chinese culture. That is why as founder of Chan poetry, Wang Wei could have such a large readership and he has become the most widely translated Tang poet. It is therefore ridiculous, to my mind, to place an important, influential poet such as Wang Wei with the minor or secondary poets. The author of this paper holds that, owing to his unrivaled achievement in poetry, Wang Wei ought to enjoy an equivalent place to that of Du Fu. The mistake cannot go on into the new century.

1.2 Similar Life Experiences

Like their works, the life of Donne and that of Wang Wei each fall into two phases. Living a steady life in youth, both were active in politics. They were ambitious and confident in their bright future. Under such conditions, they wrote quite a number of poems on secular themes. The great bulk of John Donne’s love poems, like the majority of his Songs and Sonnets and many of his Elegies, were written before his secret marriage to Ann More. However, after a series of setbacks, he turned to religion for

1 In Chinese, the poem goes, “学诗浑似学参禅 竹榻蒲团不计年 直待自家都了得 等闲拈出便超然.” 吴 可 学诗诗 The translation of Chinese poems in this paper has been done by the author unless otherwise noted. 23 consolation and escape. In his second period, Donne wrote many religious poems, which are both divine and sacred. At this time, his political career had been totally blasted and he buried himself in poetry and attempted to meditate on religion. In these devotional poems, Donne was far away from secular emotions. In 1615, he accepted ordination, and the death of his wife further strengthened his dedication to religion. On the other hand, Wang Wei had a similar experience to John Donne’s. His first period of life was smooth and successful. The poems in this period are diversified. But after he was exiled, he began to be disillusioned with social reality. Later he went through a succession of political upheavals and became totally disappointed with life and officialdom. When he was 31 years old, his wife died, leaving him a permanent widower. He practised Buddhism seriously, and his Chan poems were composed under such conditions. In his later years, he lived a half-official-half-recluse life.

1.2.1 Smooth First Period

John Donne was born in a wealthy Catholic family in London, in the year 1572. He was given a well-bred education in his father’s house till he was 10 years old, according to Walton, Donne’s biographer. Then he was sent to Oxford University where he stayed for 3 years. Being extremely studious, he did an excellent job there and was qualified to receive his first degree. At that time, England was under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, whose father King Henry VIII (1491-1547, Rn 1509-1547) had separated from the Catholic Church controlled from Rome and established the Church of England with the ruler of England as the head (See p28). Protestantism was dominant. It was compulsory for a candidate for Bachelor of Arts to take the Oath of Supremacy and subscribe to the Thirty-Nine Articles, neither of which was permitted by a rigid Catholic family like Donne’s. But the Oath of Supremacy was not demanded of freshman under 16. So Donne received his education but couldn’t take his degree. After that, he was transferred from Oxford to Cambridge where he was also a most diligent student. But he

24 couldn’t take a degree there either, for the same reason. After Cambridge, he returned to London and was admitted as a law student at Lincoln’s Inn where his wit as well as his learning was greatly improved. During that period he seemed to be a rakehell and was best remembered as a ‘great visitor of ladies’ and ‘frequenter’ of the theater (Redpath 7). He was attracted by the Roman poets and read extensively. In 1596 and 1597, Donne took part in two expeditions under the Earl of Essex. In 1597, soon after he returned from the expeditions, Donne became employed as private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. Since Egerton himself was a former Catholic, Donne was not required to renounce his belief in Catholicism. “Nor did his Lordship in this time of Master Donne’s attendance upon him, account him to be so much his servant, as to forget he was his friend; and, to testify it, did always use him with much courtesy, appointing him a place at his own table, to which he esteemed his company and discourse to be a great ornament” (Walton 326). Donne’s political career seemed to be promising. However, his bright prospects came to an end when Donne fell in love with Ann More, niece of Egerton’s wife, daughter of Sir George More. After that, Donne began to live an “exile” life till he finally entered the Church of England (q.v. 1.2.2). As for Wang Wei, his experience in the first period is even more brilliant than Donne. Wang Wei was born to an official’s family in Qi county of what is now Shanxi province, in 701. According to the Lives of Tang Talents,1 he was believed to be rather a born talent than a trained one. At the age of 9, Wang Wei was already known for his capabilities in prose-writing, calligraphy and music. As he grew up, his talents in poetry, painting and music matured extensively. In his first visit to Chang’an (name of Xi’an before 1369), capital of the Tang Dynasty, he was treated by the nobility with great courtesy. Prince Qi, the younger brother of the Emperor, thought highly of Wang Wei. When he learned Wang Wei was preparing for the imperial examination, he suggested taking Wang Wei to Princess Yuzhen. Wang Wei played the pipa and the princess was

1 唐才子传 25 struck by the wonderful music, which turned out to have been composed by Wang Wei himself. Later, the princess found that a large number of her favorite poems were also written by Wang Wei. Deeply impressed by his remarkable talents, the princess warmly recommended him to the officials in charge of the imperial examination. In 721, Wang Wei came out first in the highest imperial examination. After that, he began to enter officialdom.

1.2.2 Frustrated Second Period

In a society full of complicated political and religious struggles, good luck cannot follow a person all the time. While Donne and Wang Wei each seemed to have made a wonderful start in their political career, misfortunes soon befell them. For more than 10 years, Donne had lived in great poverty due to unemployment. Apart from his Catholic faith, the direct reason for his ill fortune was his falling in love with Ann More when he was chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor of England. Ann happened to be the niece of Egerton’s wife. Egerton put a great value upon Donne’s learning and personality. But because Donne was poor, and George More (Ann’s father) was very rich, the latter did not think Donne a proper match for Ann, therefore could not agree to this marriage. Without Ann’s father’s approbation, the two lovers chose to get married secretly in 1601. Furious, Sir George More put Donne into prison and ruined his worldly hopes. When Donne was finally released, he could not find a job. Immediately after Donne was dismissed by Sir Thomas Egerton, he sent a sad letter to his wife to inform her of it. In the letter, he wrote: “John Donne, Ann Donne, Undone” (qtd. in Person: 1), which exposes his despondence in their marriage. Later, in his declining age, Donne wrote in his sickbed “A Hymn to God the Father,” in which two words, “more” and “done” resembling the two lovers’ names once again appeared in the last two lines in each stanza: “When thou hast done, thou hast not done, / For I have more” (5-6) (11-12); “And having done that, thou hast done, / I fear no

26 more” (17-18). When Donne composed this poem, he had been converted to the Church of England and had accepted sacred orders for many years. “He expressed the great joy that then possessed his soul in the assurance of God’s favor to him” (Walton 352). Yet, even near his death, he still seemed to condemn himself for his marriage, which “was the remarkable error of his life” (Walton 351). Truly, Donne’s political career was totally demolished after his marriage to Ann More. Although Sir George More forgave them at last, Donne’s promising future in politics was forever gone. In addition, Donne’s family was becoming larger and larger because Ann had a child every year and he was scarcely able to support his family. For many years, Donne and his family lived a hard life even with some patrons’ help. It is certain that Donne’s marriage greatly hindered him from achieving his political ambition. Apart from his marriage, his political career was also gravely affected by his Catholic belief in the midst of the severe conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism, which marked England in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the early years of the first century, Christianity came into shape in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Later, with the split of the Roman Empire into two in 395, Christianity also split into two schools: the Roman Catholic Church of the Western Empire, and the Orthodox Church of the Eastern Empire. In the Middle Ages, Roman Catholicism was extremely powerful and it dominated people’s mind. Except the few Jews, the majority of people in western European countries remained Catholic. “The medieval Papacy was a centralized, international organization which succeeded in establishing a highly profitable monopoly in the grace of God” (Morton 184). The Church had been an independent power, in some respects equal to the State. It possessed large property in many western European countries. The Pope had the power to appoint the leading priests in every church; in return, the Church sent large sums of money to the Pope. What’s more, to win support from the Pope, the kings paid large sums of money from state revenues to Rome. As a result, rather than just a spiritual leader, the Pope became head of heads in Western Europe.

27 The antagonism to papal monopoly was first expressed by John Wycliffe (1330?-1384), an English reformer. Wycliffe’s On Civil Lordship gave inspiration to John Huss (1372?-1415) of Czechoslovakia, who led a religious movement which heralded the Reformation (Ma Chaoqun134, 145). In England, which steadily grew in strength with rapid economic development, King Henry VIII was not satisfied with the Church interfering with state affairs, and made up his mind to free his country from papal control. It happened that his queen Catherine had borne no heir to the throne. Henry submitted an application to the Pope stating his reasons for a divorce. But the Pope turned him down. Henry was irritated and decided to break with Rome once and for all. He stopped paying the large tribute to the Pope in 1533 and confiscated the property of the Church in England. In the following year, England was totally separated from Rome and the Church of this country was renamed Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church. “The King was made head of the Church with power both to appoint its leading officials and to determine its doctrine. So far as England was concerned the Church was now no longer part of an international organization but was part of the apparatus of the State and its fortunes were bound up with those of the Crown” (Morton 188). By the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholicism had been largely defeated in England. As Donne was born to a Catholic family in the reign of the anti-Catholic Queen Elizabeth I, his Catholic identity was a significant obstacle in his political career. Even when he was yet in his teens, Donne could not take his BA degree, and after he lost Sir Thomas Egerton’s protection, he had few opportunities in politics. Donne’s dissatisfaction with a female’s reign may serve as another factor which led to his ill luck in politics. Early in the mid 1590s Donne was much associated with Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1567-1601) who was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite minister but unwilling to be subject to Elizabeth. “Throughout the 1590s Essex was engaged in a prolonged struggle for power with the queen that set him against the court establishment and that ended only in 1601 with his trial and execution for treason [⋯].

28 Such sentiments find an echo in Donne’s privately circulated Elegie” (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 32). Donne’s political inclination was fully embodied in these poems. Women are usually ugly, disgusting and abnormal in the Elegies, and they are actually used to hint at Queen Elizabeth I. After Queen Elizabeth’s death, King James I (1566-1625, Rn 1603-1625) was enthroned by the Protestant parliament in 1603. But Donne’s misfortunes continued. His Catholic identity still prevented his political advancement. Although King James greatly appreciated Donne’s learning, he turned down all requests for secular employment for Donne. Instead King James persuaded Donne to accept holy orders. Donne hesitated for a few years but since his political career was bleak, he finally determined to leave the troublesome society and find a permanent shelter in the Church. In 1615, Donne accepted ordination at last. Most of his religious poetry was written in the period between his marriage and his ordination. In the Holy Sonnets, he tried to focus on his trouble about himself and clamour for deliverance (Reid 23). In 1617, Ann died after giving birth to the 12th child. Her death obviously deepened Donne’s religious feelings. In short, Donne’s political ambition was never fully realized until his death, although he was nominated Bishop of St. Paul’s. Misfortune and hardship also befell Wang Wei. Like Donne, his political career was far from smooth. In his youth, Wang Wei was renowned for his talents for poetry, painting and music. When he went to Chang’an to take the imperial examination hoping to get some official rank, he was warmly welcomed. Before long, Wang Wei came out among the top few in the examination and was offered an official post in the capital. His political future was shining bright when, as head of the Court Orchestra, he performed before some friends the Yellow Lion dance introduced from India and Ceylon for the exclusive pleasure of the Emperor. He was then informed against, considered to have acted in defiance of imperial law and consequently banished from the court, and sent to a remote place. When poet Zhang Jiuling (678-740) became Prime Minister in 734, Wang Wei

29 was full of hopes in Zhang because he knew Zhang was an upright man with fair mind. Wang Wei dedicated a poem to Zhang and hoped to be put in an important position. Much to his satisfaction, in the next year, Wang Wei was transferred back to Chang’an and promoted. Unfortunately, Zhang was edged out from the imperial court by the notorious courtier Li Linfu (?-752) and was exiled to Jingzhou two years later. Seeing this, Wang Wei felt discouraged. Under Li Linfu’s rampant power and influence, his future was doomed to be gloomy. Since his talents could not be fully displayed, Wang Wei was unhappy and began to feel tired of officialdom. Born in a Buddhist family, Wang Wei was greatly influenced by his mother, a pious Buddhist. As he suffered from political conflicts, his desire to serve the state was gradually worn down. Chan offered him a good chance to escape from the troublesome society, and he began to plunge into it for spiritual consolation. In “On His White Hair,” he expresses his innermost thoughts and feelings: “My life is full of sadness and dismay, / Except in Buddhism, I can nowhere stay” (3-4).1 For a time, he dwelled in seclusion in the Zhongnan Mountains and made friends with monks and recluse scholars. He led a half-scholar-half-recluse life in which he felt quite happy. But though Wang Wei never looked for trouble, trouble looked for him. In 755, An Lu-shan (?-757) and Shi Siming (?-761) led a military rebellion that forced Emperor Xuan Zong (685-762, Rn 712-756) and his retinue to flee to Sichuan. Failing to catch up with the emperor, Wang Wei was detained in the eastern capital, Luoyang, by the rebel forces. They had long heard of his great talents, therefore forced him to accept an official post, under their control. After the rebellion, Wang Wei was almost executed because of this. Luckily, he was finally exempted from penalty owing to a poem (“Composed By the Dark Blue Pool”) which he had composed against the rebel forces during the rebellion:

The land in smoke, how hearts with pain are wrought! O when shall we be back with our Lord at court?

1 一生几许伤心事 不向空门何处销 王维 叹白发 30 Acacia leaves are falling to empty halls; Though strings are being plucked, the music palls!1

In the poem, Wang Wei expressed his empathy for people’s suffering and his strong indignation against the enemy. Thanks to this poem and the effort of his brother Wang Jin to rescue him, he was treated with leniency but was demoted and assigned some work in the palace of the crown prince. Through this series of upheavals, Wang Wei was totally disillusioned with fame and wealth. Although he was later appointed to the post of a Deputy Minister, he paid more attention to Buddhism. In the imperial court, he was an upright official, but in his free time, he was a devout Buddhist. In his later years, he bought Wangchuan Villa which was located in the mountains to the south of the capital Chang’an. Leading the life of a recluse, he tried to keep away from politics. His poem, “For Vice-Magistrate Zhang,” well reveals his mind:

In the vale of years what I like is still; I care for nothing and live at my will. Having no better use now for the world, I can only come back to my mountain old. Winds from pines blow my loose sashes flying; The moon illumes my fingers on the strings striking. You asked me the mundane law of rise and fall, Ah, hark the fishers’ song telling their lore!2 (Trans. Wu Juntao 173)

The poet no longer cared about “the mundane law of rise and fall.” Instead, the

1 万户伤心生野烟 百官何日再朝天 秋槐落叶空宫里 凝碧池头奏管弦 王维 凝碧诗 2 晚年惟好静 万事不关心 自顾无长策 空知返旧林 松风吹解带 山月照弹琴 君问穷通理 渔歌 入浦深 王维 酬张少府 31 “mountain old,” the “pines”, the moonlit mountain and the river fully occupied his mind. In Chinese history and painting, the fisherman is the image of a hermit, who lives simply away from the world and avoids other people. In that quiet villa, Wang Wei composed a large group of Chan poems in which he infused nature with his unique metaphysical speculation. Donne and Wang Wei were neither of them fortunate either in their life or career. Among other things, the social environment was also an important factor in their setbacks. As a poor Catholic, Donne was rejected again and again. Even when he finally won the King’s favor, he still could not achieve his political ambitions. With no way out, he gave himself up to religion and released his vexation in poetry. As to Wang Wei, his fate largely depended on the imperial court. When the emperor was wise, his abilities were likely to be recognized. But when treacherous men controlled the court, his future was affected. A series of unfortunate events, particularly the humiliating experience during the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion, caused him to realize the cruelty of society and pushed him to Chan and Chan poetry.

32 Chapter 2 John Donne and Wang Wei Each in His First Period: Non-religious Poetry

In their respective first periods, both Donne and Wang Wei aspired high in life and in politics. They cast their eyes on love, on political and other secular affairs. In Donne’s time, social contacts between males and females were quite free. Known as a gallant in his early years, Donne probed deeply into the nature of love. In his poems, he expresses his passion and doubts as well as contempt for love. He experienced joys and frustrations but never stopped in his quest for true love. Love poetry had great significance for Donne in his first period. It not only demonstrated his apprehension of true love, but also provided for him a place to harbour his political ideas. Since the Anglican Church had become established as the state religion in England, Donne’s political career was hindered by his Catholic faith. In addition, his secret marriage to Ann More irritated his patron Sir Thomas Egerton, who was her uncle, and further overshadowed his political career. Bitterly discouraged, Donne expressed his dissatisfaction and cynical emotion in his love poems. He examined physical love to mock at moral law. C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) once remarked, “there are poems in which Donne attempts to sing a love perfectly in harmony with the moral law, but they are not very numerous and I do not think they are usually his best pieces” (152). In many of his poems, Donne made his women unattractive to break away from the beautiful images of women in the old tradition. He stressed male dominance again and again to attack Elizabethan sovereignty. While reading Donne’s love poems, we can deeply feel his passion as well as frustration between the lines. Different from Donne, whose love poems occupy a dominant position in his first period, Wang Wei involves more subjects in his poems. Friendship, love, war and especially politics are found in them. Wang Wei lived in the booming period of the Tang Dynasty, known as the high Tang, when China was the richest and strongest country in

33 the world. The material requirements of life were abundant; cultural and political life was comparatively free and encouraging, and the imperial examinations first instituted by the founder of Tang, Emperor Gao Zu (566-635, Rn 618-626), in 622, provided great opportunity for scholars to realize their ideals or dreams in society. Never had they been so confident, so to speak, in Chinese history. Wang Wei was no exception. At the time he held great expectations for being chosen by the emperor to serve in the court and display his talent in the betterment of the country. His poetry is filled with sharp insight into the society, bewailing the sufferings of the weak and sympathizing with their misfortune. In fact it may be said that Wang Wei’s ambitions were based on his pity or sympathy for the ordinary people. In their first period in life, both Donne and Wang Wei produced great quantities of poetry of grief or separation, into which they pour their most sincere, most tender feelings.

2.1 Love and Women

As has been said earlier, Donne’s and Wang Wei’s writing careers can each be split into two periods. In their first period, each is deeply involved in mundane affairs and shows much concern for them. Consequently, their poems in this period are largely associated with ordinary feelings. Donne chose love as the main theme to reveal every aspect of his emotions. In his Songs and Sonnets, Elegies and Satyres, for example, Donne refers to various aspects of love, such as faithfulness, inconstancy, sexual passion, disillusionment. Through detailed discussions on love, Donne expresses his idea of life and of society. Much of Wang Wei’s attention, however, is given to politics, frontier wars, friendship and other matters. It would be right to say that the subject of love predominates in Donne’s poetry while a broader sense of love is apparent in Wang Wei’s poetic works.

34 2.1.1 Donne’s Poetry of Love and Women

In his youth, John Donne was known as Jack Donne, a “great vistor of ladies” and “frequenter” of the theater noted for his love poetry. It is almost exclusively Donne’s poetry, rather than his sermons and other prose works, that constitutes Donne’s claim to literary status, and his love poetry plays an important role. John Donne’s love poetry is mainly composed of the notable Songs and Sonnets, which is a collection of 54 love lyrics, and 20 Elegies. The Elegies here are different from ordinary funeral songs; they are love poems, too:

‘The original meaning of elegia or elegeia’, we have been told, ‘was a funeral elegy written in elegiacs (elegi), that is to say, in couplets consisting of an hexameter followed by a pentameter, but Ovid and other Roman poets used the word to describe a love-poem written in metre’ [ ]. By Donne’s time, in consequence, Ovid’s Amores were habitually termed ‘elegies’. So were Donne’s own efforts, even if their Ovidian dimension is quite pronounced for some readers, distinctly less so for others. In the event, Donne’s elegies became in his own time the most popular of his poems.” (Patrides 134)

Love is presented at a variety of levels in Donne’s poetry. In “The Indifferent,” “Community” and “Confined Love,” a complete freedom from any serious commitment is to be found; in “The Apparition,” “Love’s Deity” and “Twickenham Garden,” frustrated passion is overwhelming. And in “The Canonization,” “The Undertaking” and “The Relic,” Donne intends to raise love to a religious level. In writing such vividly different experiences in love, Donne attempts to find a final definition of true love. The process of exploration is hard and perplexing. Generally speaking, Donne goes through

35 three stages. First, he indulges in sexual pleasure, but soon he is disillusioned with physical love. Then he finds that purely spiritual love is not enough for the fulfillment of true love, either. He continues his quest and finally, in the third stage, gets the real sense of love, which means a harmonious unification of both body and soul. First, Donne attaches sexual significance to love. He indulges in physical lust and praises erotic pleasure. In most of Donne’s love poems, the center is the bed in explicitly amorous contexts. “The Sun Rising” expresses the reckless pride and satisfaction felt by the lover in bed with his mistress. At the beginning of this poem, the sun is contemptuously addressed as an old busy fool. He is told to “go chide / Late school boys, and sour prentices, / Go tell court-huntsmen that the King will ride, / Call country ants to harvest offices” (5-8),1 but leave the lovers in their bed. In this fussy world, too many people are confined in social conventions and business, such as schoolboys, prentices, and court-huntsmen who are just as busy and foolish as the sun. Although in the same world, they hardly live their own lives. The schoolboys follow their teachers obediently; the prentices are controlled by their masters harshly; the court-huntsmen have to devote all their flattery to the King, and the farmers spend all their time on farming and harvests through hard work. Only the poet and his lover can enjoy life and be true and sincere to each other. In their world of love, the speaker admires his lover whole-heartedly and values her above everything else:

She is all States, and all Princes, I, Nothing else is. Princes do but play us; compar’d to this, All honor’s mimic; all wealth alchemy. (21-24)

1 Except special indication, the quotations of Donne’s poetry in this dissertation come from The Selected Poetry of Donne. Ed. Marius Bewley. New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1979. 36 Against the brilliance of his lover, everything in the secular world is insignificant. Even “the sun, as a physical center of gravity and a potent symbolic center is supplanted by the lovers’ bed. Love is what makes the world go round, and the bed is at its fixed center” (Mousley 2). “Thou, sun, art half as happy as we, / In that the world’s contracted thus” (25-26). Finally, the poet commands the sun to shorten its natural course and limit its natural task: “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; / This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere” (29-30). Reading this poem, one must be impressed by Donne’s emphasis on and praise of love on the sexual love. Erotic pleasure is love and love is erotic pleasure. In fact, Donne wrote a lot about women. The majority of his Songs and Sonnets are ostensibly connected with badgering, wheedling, coaxing, or upbraiding an imagined mistress, just in order to gain sexual satisfaction. In “The Flea,” “Donne adopts a cynical and rather flippant tone towards his woman, using his wit to try to belittle and overcome her moral arguments, in favour of immediate pleasure” (Mackean, par. 3):

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deny'st me is; It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. (1-4)

This is a poem of seduction. The flea is used as a clever image by Donne to convey his desire for having sexual intercourse with the mistress. These lines like “This flea is you and I, and this / Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” (12-13), directly disclose his erotic intention. In an informative article, Marcel Françon makes clear that the flea had already been used widely in Europe in the 16th century in erotic, facetious and satiric poetry (qtd. in Redpath: 175). Although erotic pleasure is emphasized by Donne, women are seldom admired in

37 his love poems. In most cases, they are viewed as commodities to serve men’s physical needs. “Community” is a case in point. In this poem, women are merely ‘things indifferent’ (3) that ‘all’ men can ‘use’ (12). They seem to have no moral value, no spiritual identity, so much so that sexual love becomes a mere physical lust. Alongside many poems in Songs and Sonnets, some Elegies also focus on sexuality. In Lewis’s opinion, “Elegy XIX: Going to Bed” is a celebration of simple appetite. It is intended to arouse the appetite it describes, to affect not only the imagination but the nervous system of the readers (153). Apparently, the poet seems to be ready in bed and is waiting for his mistress to undress herself. It is absolutely a poem of seduction, in which the poet attempts to urge and lure the woman to bed. The poem begins with lines full of sexual puns or carrying sexual ambiguities:

Come, Madam, come, all rest my powers defy, Until I labor, I in labor lie. The foe oft-times having the foe in sight, Is tir’d with standing though he never fight. (1-4)1

With these lines, an atmosphere of sexual passion is set up and the poet’s erotic purpose is very clear. However, no matter how desirous the poet is, he doesn’t give any direct description of the woman’s beauty. In fact in Donne’s love poetry, direct description of a woman’s physical beauty is rare. Instead, he employs a wealth of analogy to illustrate the state or rather pleasure of enjoying sexual love. In “Elegy XIX,” Donne uses this method to reveal the delight of the eye when the woman undresses: “Your gown, going off, such beauteous state reveals, / As when from

1 Clay Hunt believes words like “powers” (1), “labour” (2), “standing”, “fight” (4), “world” (6), “stand” (12), “tread” (17) and “Receiv’d” (20) either are sexual puns or carry sexual ambiguities (“Elegy 19” 188). 38 flow’ry meads the hill’s shadow steals” (13-14). In place of a direct portrayal of the woman’s exquisite body, Donne writes about what he feels like when he is there waiting for her to undress (Bennet 161). Through the poet’s imagination, the woman’s physical charm is fully perceived by the reader. When writing about his desire for the woman’s body, in an ecstasy of delight, the poet addresses her as:

O my America! my new-found-land, My kingdom, safeliest when with one man mann’d, My mine of precious stones, my empery. (27-29)

The physical beauties of the mistress are compared to material riches explored and possessed by the man. And the poet’s physical lust is analogized to an explorer’s avarice, which vividly conveys the poet’s sensual greed. Meanwhile, “the cadences of the verse the slow, powerful surge of rhythms through ‘Before, behind, between, above, below’ (26) to the outburst of ‘O my America! my new-found-land’ (27) underscore the metaphoric suggestion of rapt physical passion” (Hunt 189). For Donne, love can not only bring him erotic ecstasy, but also lead to suffering and disillusionment. From time to time, Donne shows his doubt about women’s loyalty. In “Song: Go and catch a falling star,” the poet’s doubt is made quite clear. The poem begins with a list of impossible things:

Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the Devil’s foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy’s stinging, And find

39 What wind Serves to advance an honest mind. (1-9)

All seven things mentioned here are impossible to do in the world. The impossibilities in the first stanza set against the impossibility of women’s faithfulness in the second stanza:

If thou be’st born to strange sights, Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee, Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me All strange wonders that befell thee, And swear Nowhere Lives a woman true, and fair. (10-18)

Even if a man really has an inborn ability to see strange things and even if such a man spends his entire lifetime going over the world and views all the seven wonders really exist, one thing still remains unchangeable: it is impossible to find a woman both true and fair. Here, the poet seems quite certain of a woman’s extreme disloyalty and has already reached his universally applicable conclusion. But he doesn’t stop here. In the third stanza, he continues to heighten the truth of his conclusion through confuting a hypothesis. “If thou find’st one, let me know, / Such a pilgrimage were sweet” (19-20). And the poet goes so far as not to present a faithful woman before us to destroy his conclusion in the second stanza, but go on to dismiss any chance, however slim, for a woman to prove her truth:

40 Yet do not, I would not go, Though at next door we might meet, Though she were true, when you met her, And last, till you write your letter, Yet she Will be False, ere I come, to two, or three. (21-27)

With this, the poet’s meaning is made undeniably clear. He is extremely disappointed at women’s faithlessness, and warns his reader of this truth he found. Driven by women’s falseness, men have become most fickle. Since a woman can never be expected to be true, a man will scatter his love among different women in “The Indifferent”:

I can love both fair and brown, Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays, Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays, Her whom the country form’d, and whom the town, Her who believes, and her who tries, Her who still weeps with spongy eyes, And her who is dry cork, and never cries; I can love her, and her, and you and you, I can love any, so she be not true. (1-9)

The poet loses interest in a particular woman and any woman can be his mistress. His mind has been too fully preoccupied with cynicism to allow any belief in true love. The only thing enjoyable left between him and women is sexual intercourse: “Must I, who came to travel thorough you, / Grow your fix’d subject, because you are true?” (17-18).

41 The rhetorical question here highlights the falseness of women; it seems to make a reasonable excuse for the poet’s fickleness. If anyone is doubtful about the poet’s judgement of women’s inconstancy, he must be completely convinced after reading the third stanza:

Venus heard me sigh this song, And by Love’s sweetest part, variety, she swore She heard not this till now; and that it should be so no more. She went, examin’d, and return’d ere long, And said, “Alas, some two or three Poor heretics in love there be, Which think to ’stablish dangerous constancy. But I have told them, ‘Since you will be true, You shall be true to them, who are false to you.’” (19-27)

Instead of setting a hypothesis as he does in “Song: Go and catch a falling star,” the poet invites Venus, goddess of love and beauty in Roman mythology, to help him prove his idea. Since Venus is both female and the highest authority of love, what she declares must be most convincing. First, Venus asserts “variety” (20) to be love’s sweetest part. Then she declares those who believe in women’s faithfulness to be “poor heretics” (24). “ ‘Since you will be true, / You shall be true to them, who are false to you!’ ” (26-27). After Venus’s conclusion, women’s inconstancy has been authoritatively confirmed. However, one thing should not be overlooked, that is, Donne is making use of Venus to speak out his complete disillusionment with women and love. While “Song: Go and catch a falling star” merely shows Donne’s disappointment at women’s falseness, his bitter hatred for women’s disloyalty is fully revealed in “The Apparition”:

42 When by thy scorn, O murd’ress, I am dead, And that thou think’st thee free From all solicitation from me, Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, And thee, feign’d vestal, in worse arms shall see. (1-5)

Even when the poet is “dead” from the mistress’s unfaithfulness, his ghost will haunt her posthumously. Frustrated in love, the poet uses rather acrid language to disparage the mistress by describing her as a woman whose sexual desire is like a valley that can never be filled:

Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, And he, whose thou art then, being tir’d before, Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think Thou call’st for more, And in false sleep will from thee shrink, And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou Bath’d in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie A verier ghost than I. (6-13)

Perhaps this poem is filled with the strongest emotion of all Donne’s love poems. In his resentment at his mistress’s inconstancy, the poet shows some scorn for sexual love. He seems to realize that love based on sexual pleasure is never permanent and sexual love itself can never represent true love. The poem, “Farewell to Love” is just a renunciation of sex. At the beginning, the poet seems desirous of sexual intercourse because he has no experience of love. For some reason, he thought there was something divine in love, and therefore reverenced and worshipped it: “I thought there was some deity in love, / So

43 did I reverence, and gave / Worship, [ ]” (2-4). However, soon after he has sexual act with his beloved, his idea of love is totally different. Instead of reverencing and worshipping it, he is quite disillusioned. In depression and disappointment, he declares, “Being had, enjoying it decays” (16). Only the lion and the cock remain brisk after the act of love, but men can not: “Ah, cannot we, / As well as cocks and lions jocund be / After such pleasures?” (21-23). In “The Broken Heart” or “Farewell to Love,” Donne even claims that love is a momentary state. Thus, erotic pleasure is not the real implication of true love. Frustrated in sexual love, Donne begins to keep an eye on purely spiritual love. Among all his love poems, “The Undertaking” is perhaps the only open, general panegyric on Platonic love. In the poem, Donne not merely holds spiritual love in esteem but asks others to do the same. In Donne’s view, keeping Platonic love deep in his heart is “one braver thing / Than all the Worthies did” (1-2). Contrasted with common men’s physical love, people with Platonic love care little about sex but put much value on virtue in women. However, just as it would be absurd to teach anybody now how to cut specular stone, since whoever might learn how to cut it would not be able to find any to cut, Donne will not tell his Platonic love to anyone because there is no woman left who can be loved in this way. It will make no difference to other people’s way of loving and they will continue to love as they did before:

So, if I now should utter this, Others (because no more Such stuff to work upon there is) Would love but as before. (9-12)

Thus, Donne is particularly cherishing his Platonic love and tries his best to protect it from being profane. In the world full of erotic desire, Platonic love is the last innocent thing. Donne intends to keep it in the safest place, so he hides it deep in his heart and

44 makes it a permanent secret. He does so and tells anyone who has Platonic love to do the same. Is purely spiritual love the perfect kind of love the poet is seeking for? In “The Triple Fool,” the poet makes a negative answer. In this poem, the poet gives a full description of his suffering from spiritual love. At the very beginning, the poet mocks himself by saying, “I am two fools, I know, / For loving, and for saying so / In whining poetry” (1-3). It is painful for the poet to fall in love with a woman, so he wants to let out his grief and yearning in verse in order to lessen his pain. However, someone sets the verse to music and sings it publicly, which reawakens the poet’s suffering:

But when I have done so, Some man, his art and voice to show, Doth set and sing my pain, And, by delighting many, frees again Grief, which verse did restrain. (12-16)

Originally, the poet had expected to use verse to divert himself from loneliness and lovesickness. But when the poet listened to these songs, his yearning for his lover as well as his pain greatly increased: “To love and grief tribute of verse belongs, / But not of such as pleases when ‘tis read, / Both are increased by such songs” (17-19). Then, the poet is trebly a fool because he loves, expresses his love in poetry and enables others to set the poetry to music and sing it. Therefore, spiritual love can only be cherished deep in the heart and it is foolish for a man to put it into real practice. In other words, purely spiritual love is far from realistic and it is not sufficient to constitute true love. Then, what is true love? Disappointed and disillusioned, Donne goes on with his pursuit. In “Air and Angels,” he finally solves this problem. This poem presents a vivid account of Donne’s search. In the end, he obtains the true implication of love, which is a harmonious unification of body and soul.

45 There are three stages in the poet’s quest for true love in this poem. First, the poet is overwhelmed in spiritual love for the woman:

Twice or thrice had I loved thee, Before I knew thy face or name, So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame, Angels affect us oft, and worship’d be; Still when, to where thou wert, I came, Some lovely glorious nothing I did see. (1-6)

Though the woman lives more in the poet’s imagination than in the real world, the readers are still touched by her extraordinary charm. Meanwhile, the poet’s strong yearning for the woman is overwhelming in the lines. This reminds me of a love song, “The Reeds,” in Chinese Book of Poetry. In this poem, the woman’s beauty and the man’s lovesickness are not described directly, but both can be fathomed by the reader between the lines:

The reeds grow green; Frosted dew-drops gleam. Where was she seen? Beyond the stream. Upstream I go, The way’s so long. And downstream, lo! She’s thereamong. (1-8) 1 (Trans. Xu Yuanzhong,

1 “蒹葭苍苍 白露为霜 所谓伊人 在水一方 溯洄从之 道阻且长 溯游从之 宛在水中央 ” 诗 经 蒹葭 46 On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme 57).

The first two lines indicate the season through the description of the reeds. In the next two lines, the woman appears, but no portrayal of her physical beauty can be found. The last four lines tell us how the man is involved in pursuing the woman. However, no matter how long a journey he goes, and no matter how hard he courts the woman, his endeavors end up in nothing. “The more inaccessible his love, the more beautiful she would appear, not only in the eyes of the searcher but also of the reader. This method may be called ‘non-descriptive description’ [ ]” (Xu Yuanzhong, On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme 58). And the next two stanzas resemble the first one. Donne employs this method in “Air and Angels.” The woman is not portrayed directly. However, the more the poet desires to see her, the more beautiful she seems to be, and the deeper the love which the poet is holding toward her is. However, purely spiritual love can hardly satisfy the poet’s thirst for true love; the point is that physical identification is also an essential element:

But since my soul, whose child love is, Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do, More subtle than the parent is, Love must not be, but take a body too, And therefore what thou wert, and who, I bid Love ask, and now That it assume thy body, I allow, And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow. (7-14)

Since a body is required in love, the image of the woman appears much clearer than before and her imaginative beauty is revealed particularly in Lines 13-14. Until now, the spiritual love and the physical desire only belong to the poet and there is no evidence

47 that shows the woman’s cooperation with him. Actually, the love described above is not the perfect kind the poet seeks. He is much bewildered and disturbed:

Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought, And so more steadily to have gone, With wares which would sink admiration, I saw I had Love’s pinnace overfraught; Every thy hair for love to work upon Is much too much, some fitter must be sought; For, nor in nothing, nor in things Extreme, and scatt’ring bright, can love inhere. (15-22)

Feeling overburdened, the poet is sure that love from one single side is not true love. He expects a harmonious state of love, a perfect fusion of soul and body based on mutual mind between the lovers:

Then, as an Angel, face, and wings Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear, So thy love may be my love’s sphere; Just such disparity As is ’twixt Air and Angels’ purity, ’Twixt women’s love, and men’s will ever be. (23-28)

Only when the woman responds to his love and fully accepts his love both spiritually and physically can true love be acquired. In this part, the poet uses two images, air and angels to suggest woman’s love and man’s. According to Joan Bennet, “the air-body of the Angels is neither nothing, nor too much, but just sufficient to confine a spirit on earth. So the woman’s love for him is a resting-place for his spirit” (“The Love Poetry

48 of John Donne” 173). Of course, the spiritual mixture is much associated with physical unification at the same time. In “The Ecstasy,” the poet stresses the idea that true love requires both spiritual and physical coalescence. Mutual mind is, first of all, the essential part of true love. When two separate souls are combined, love mingles both so that each complements the other, as a result they will become stronger, richer, and greater than they were before (Redpath 324) just as a more vigorous violet will be grown after it is transplanted:

A single violet transplant, The strength, the color, and the size, (All which before was poor, and scant,) Redoubles still, and multiplies. (37-40)

However, the union in spirit is far from enough for true love because physical union is also indispensable: “But oh alas, so long, so far / Our bodies why do we forbear?” (49-50). Just as celestial intelligences are related to the ‘spheres’ which they control, souls are related to their bodies (Redpath 324): “They are ours, though they are not we, we are / The intelligences, they the sphere” (51-52). With spiritual love on one side, sexual love stays on the other: “Which sense may reach and apprehend, / Else a great Prince in prison lies” (67-68). Love can only be set free in the human sphere through the medium of bodies; and can only be revealed to others through physical intercourse:

To our bodies turn we then, that so Weak men on love reveal’d may look; Love’s mysteries in souls do grow, But yet the body is his book. (69-72)

49 There are two popular opinions on sexual love in Donne’s time. One is that marriage, and marriage alone, sanctifies the sexual act. The other is that it is alike sinful within or without the marriage bond to the medieval view. According to Joan Bennett, Donne accepts neither view. The purity or otherwise of the act depends for him on the quality of the relation between the lovers. In Donne’s poem we neither know nor care whether the marriage ceremony has taken place. For Donne, if delight in one another is mutual, physical union is its proper consummation; but, if the lovers are not “inter-assured of the mind” (“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” 19), then “the sport” (“Farewell to Love” 27) is “but a winter-seeming summer’s night” (12), and “at their best / Sweetness and wit, they are but Mummy possess’d” (“Love’s Alchemy” 23-24) (166). Thus, the quality of sexual love is up to whether the lovers have mutual minds. With spiritual love as the base, a combination between lovers is not harmful for true love at all:

And if some lover, such as we, Have heard this dialogue of one, Let him still mark us, he shall see Small change, when we are to bodies gone. (“The Ecstasy” 73-76)

A true lover, having heard the ‘dialogue’ that the two souls were having as one, will observe that the essential part of their love will be unchangeable once the souls have returned to their bodies. True love is obtained through union of soul and body. In “The Good-morrow” the poet shows confidence in the strength and durability of this new unification: “Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally; / If our two loves be one, or, thou and I / Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die. (19-21). Everything that contains controversial elements dies. However, the love between the poet and his mistress is totally alike. With harmonious union, both spiritual and physical, they may never perish and will surely achieve immortality.

50 So far, the poet’s pursuit appears fruitful. He finally sees the true meaning of love in the harmonious union of body and soul. When two lovers reach this stage, they find anything outside insignificant compared with their perfect love. Meanwhile, the world outside seems secondary to their world of love: “Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown, / Let us possess our world, each hath one, and is one” (“The Good-morrow” 13-14). For the poet and his mistress, their perfect love is sufficient and nothing else is important. They even shorten the sun’s task and order him to revolve around their world of love: “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; / This bed thy center is, these walls, thy sphere” (“The Sun Rising” 29-30). According to Donne, true love exceeds anything else in the material world and is worth pursuing. Consequently, any interference with his true love should be fought against. At the beginning of “The Canonization,” Donne shows his scorn on others’ pursuit of wealth and high social status on the one hand and expresses firm determination to keep his true love on the other hand:

For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love, Or chide my palsy, or my gout, My five gray hairs, or ruin’d fortune flout, With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve, Take you a course, get you a place, Observe his honor, or his grace, And the King’s real, or his stamped face Contemplate; what you will, approve, So you will let me love. (1-9)

In the early 17th century, Donne’s attitude towards love was not in compliance with the Petrarchan tradition. “In Petrarchan poetry, the mistress is chaste and remote (cool like ice, unmovable like a statue) and the male lover is constant in his devotion” (Guibbory,

51 “John Donne” 135) Compared with many contemporary Petrarchan love poems, Donne’s love poems appeared quite divergent from Petrarchism1 in spirit. Some of his poems were too cynical and flippant; others expressed or implied satisfaction in a physical relationship, or clearly invited one (Redpath 48). More important, his definition of true love was derived from lovers’ mutual passion, both spiritual and physical. In “The Canonization,” Donne stresses the special significance of true love and defends it furiously:

Alas, alas, who’s injured by my love? What merchant’s ships have my sighs drown’d? Who says my tears have overflow’d his ground? When did my colds a forward spring remove? When did the heats which my veins fill Add one more to the plaguy bill? Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move, Though she and I do love. (10-18)

The lovers must be too conspicuous not to be reprimanded in normal social conventions because they are oblivious of the tricks, schemes and flattery in others’ pursuit of wealth and honor. True love is too pure and holy beyond the secular world and is disapproved of by the laymen. The poet is not defeated, but keeps fighting against tradition and utilitarianism. In the above stanza, he questions the secular world, whether his love causes any harm to others. These rhetorical questions need not be answered because it is

1 The widespread imitation of Petrarch’s love poetry in Europe, reaching its height in the 16th century, is known as Petrarchism. This important imitative tradition is marked by the increasingly conventional presentation of courtly love, in which the despairing poet speaks in fanciful and paradoxical terms of his torments as the worshipper of a disdainful mistress. A notable Petrarchan convention is the blazon or catalogue of the lady’s physical beauties: coral lips, pearly teeth, alabaster neck etc. Petrarchism is evident in French poets of the Pléiade and in the English sonneteers from Wyatt to Shakespeare (Baldick 166). 52 clear that his love is harmless to anyone. Aware of this, the poet is completely relieved, “Call us what you will, we are made such by love” (19). The lover and his mistress will be always united to protect their love:

Call her one, me another fly, We are tapers too, and at our own cost die, And we in us find the Eagle and the Dove. The Phoenix riddle hath more wit By us, we two being one, are it. So to one neutral thing both sexes fit, We die and rise the same, and prove Mysterious by this love. (20-27)

With sincere love, the lovers are willing to be like flies burning themselves to death by approaching fire. They are inclined to be tapers, consuming themselves in sexuality as candles shortening while burning. Or they can be “the Eagle and the Dove” (22) to find strength and gentleness in each other. Their love will last forever as a phoenix can always gain rebirth from fire. The lovers remove themselves from the ordinary world. In the last stanza, true love is canonized. Men in “countries, towns, courts” (44) adore the speaker and his lover’s reverend love. Donne’s persistence in true love wins at last. Moreover, throughout the poem, the first and last lines of each stanza end with the same word “love.” This carefully wrought self-enclosed structure reflects Donne’s determination to guard his true love: “We can die by it, if not live by love” (28). In “The Relic,” through the mainly Catholic languages of ritual and miracle, the token of true love between the poet and his mistress, “a bracelet of bright hair about the bone” (6), is uplifted to be a faith, which is adored by the laity:

Then he that digs us up will bring

53 Us to the Bishop, and the King, To make us relics; then Thou shalt be a Mary Magdalen, and I A something else thereby; All women shall adore us, and some men. (14-19)

In “The Funeral,” the poet appears to be a “love’s martyr” (19), and is willing to secure the mistress’s true love in his death: “That since you would save none of me, I bury some of you” (24). Then, the poet orders “whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm / Nor question much / That subtle wreath of hair, which crowns my arm” (1-3). In sum, though Donne's poems are extraordinarily witty and ingenious, they are passionate and emotional at the same time. In his love poems, Donne depicts love in practically all aspects. He writes about many sorts of themes such as sexuality, loyalty, misogyny, and mutual love and experiences joys and disillusionment. However, after he progresses from thought to thought, he finally finds true love lies in the marriage of true minds and bodies. No matter how clever his conceits, or how revolutionary his thought, his love poems always center on a quest for truth in love from beginning to end.

2.1.2 Wang Wei’s Poetry of Love and Women

In classical Chinese poetry, the subject of love is relatively weak compared with other subjects. Wang Wei’s poetry is a case in point. Unlike John Donne, Wang Wei appeared fairly detached from the expression of love. As a result, there are only a few love poems in Wang Wei’s poetry collection. Among these, a general feature can be found: Wang Wei’s love poems are all symbolic and implicit and, again different from Donne, Wang Wei shows deep sympathy for women, who were usually victims of severe oppression in feudal China. “Lady Xi” is an outstanding example:

54 Think not your favour great today Could drive old bliss off her mind: Those flowers she faced but, full of tears, No words for her liege could find.1

In this poem, Wang Wei sings of a woman who remains consistent and faithful in love regardless of temptation and threats. The story took place during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC). In 680 BC, the king of the state of Chu conquered the state of Xi and forced the queen to marry him. Though he made a special pet of her in his palace, the lady never would change her mind and even after she had given him two children, she still refused to talk to the conqueror. As a member of the weaker sex, she had no other way to lodge her protest. Her homeland had been destroyed, her family broken up, her husband killed and she herself had been reduced from queen to sex slave. Flowers didn’t give pleasure or relief. They only caused plentiful tears, bitter tears, to swell her eyes. By saying no words to the invading king, Lady Xi expressed her hatred and rebellion as well as her devotion to her former husband. Speech is great, but silence is greater. But Wang Wei was not writing about history alone. As a matter of fact, Lady Xi was occasioned by what he saw as a similar incident. Emperor Xuan Zong had a brother, Prince of Ning, who was fond of beautiful women and kept dozens of them for his own delight. But when he chanced to see a baker’s wife who was particularly fair-faced, he became enamoured again, paid a large sum of money to the baker and took her away by force. Though the prince treated her with special favor, she still missed her husband and always kept silent. Then one year later when the prince sent for the baker and placed him before the woman, she fixed her eyes on her husband, tears flowing down her cheeks though she was still silent. The scene moved everyone present, Wang Wei in

1 莫以今时宠 能忘旧日恩 看花满眼泪 不共楚王言 王维 息夫人 55 particular. At the behest of the prince for a poem, Wang Wei composed “Lady Xi.”1 Touched by this poem, the prince was said to return the woman to the baker finally. In Wang Wei’s love poems, special attention is often paid to some unfortunate women. Centering on Lady Ban, Wang Wei wrote three poems to describe her sorrow as an imperial concubine. Lady Ban lived in the Western Han Dynasty (220 BC-AD8). As she was beautiful, she was taken to the palace to wait on Emperor Cheng Di (Rn 32-7 BC). She won the emperor’s great favor owing to her literary talent as well as her good looks. However, an emperor’s love could never be stable. When another beauty caught his fancy, Lady Ban was soon out of favor. In sadness and solitude, she had to spend her later years with the disfavored queen.2 Wang Wei seldom calls a spade a spade in his poetry. He usually hides his purport between the lines. The third poem about Lady Ban, “Flower Lore,” demands careful

1 This event has been recorded in Meng Qi’s Incidents in Poetry: 宁王曼贵盛 宠妓数十人 皆绝艺上色 宅左有卖饼者妻 纤白明媚 王一见注目 厚遗其夫取之 宠惜逾等 环岁 因问之 汝复忆饼师否 默 然不对 王召饼师使见之 其妻注视 双泪垂颊 若不胜情 时王座客十余人 皆当时文士 无不悽异 王 命赋诗 王右丞维诗先成 莫以今时宠 能忘旧日恩 看花满眼泪 不共楚王言 孟棨 本事诗 2 It is said that Lady Ban wrote several poems to express her sorrow and plaint. “A Song of Grief” was the most famous of them:

Glazed silk, newly cut, smooth, glittering, white, As white, as clear, even as frost and snow. Perfectly fashioned into a fan, Round, round, like the brilliant moon, Treasured in my Lord’s sleeve, taken out, put in Wave it, shake it, and a little wind flies from it. How often I fear the Autumn Season’s coming And the fierce, cold wind which scatters the blazing heat. Discarded, passed by, laid in a box alone; Such a little time, and the thing of love cast off. (Trans. Amy Lowell, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang: Selected Translations of Chinese Poems 64)

Lady Ban compared herself to a silk fan in the emperor’s hand, which was favored in summer but deserted in autumn. Following is the Chinese original of the poem:

怨歌行 班婕妤 新制齐纨素 鲜洁如霜雪 裁为合欢扇 团圆似明月 出入君怀袖 动摇微风发 常恐秋节至 凉飙夺炎热 弃捐箧笥中 恩情中道绝 56 reading:

Dost wonder if my toilet room be shut? If in the regal hall we meet no more? I ever haunt the Garden of the spring; From smiling flowers to learn their whispered lore.1 (Trans. W. J. B. Fletcher, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang: The English Translation of 100 Tang Quatrains 12)

Since the emperor no longer stayed with her, the woman in the poem had no mood to make up. No chance to be with the emperor, she could only linger in the garden where the emperor and some newly favored concubines enjoyed themselves. No word in the poem is directly related to sorrow, but a sense of grief is distinct. In feudal China, thousands of young girls were picked out and forced to wait on the emperor regularly. Once they entered the imperial palace, they would not only lose their freedom but also be deprived of their right of love and marriage. Maybe a few of them could win the emperor’s favor, but no one was sure of being favored forever. Most such girls had to pass their lonely nights and days in melancholy in some back quarters of the palace year after year till their death. In describing Lady Ban who was one of such girls, Wang Wei avoided any direct mentioning of her sadness and longing for love and affection but centered on revealing her loneliness felt in the emperor’s garden when the talk and laughter of the emperor with his newly favored concubines wafted to her ear from beyond the flowers. The bitter feeling of being forsaken and her aspiration for love is at once clearly shown. Language in Wang Wei’s love poems is usually simple, but the meaning is profound. For example, in “A Song in Yizhou Tune,” Wang Wei portrayed a woman’s deep yearning for her husband in very plain words:

1 怪来妆阁闭 朝下不相迎 总向春园里 花间笑语声 王维 班婕妤 其三 57

Cool breeze, bright moon, bitter lovesick pain! He’s been in the army for years of more than ten. Before he left I urged him to send back words By wild geese returning, and send back words again.1

A moonlit night is usually connected with grief of parting. On such a lonely night described in the poem, the woman feels great pain from separation with her husband, who has been away not for one night, but for thousands. Before he set out more than ten years ago, she exhorted him again and again to send back letters, but where are they? Thus past and present make the woman’s anxiety even more touching. Of Wang Wei’s few love poems, “Love Seeds” is undoubtedly the most popular one:

The red bean grows in southern lands. With spring its slender tendrils twine. Gather for me some more, I pray, Of fond remembrance ’tis the sign.2 (Trans. Fletcher, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang: The English Translation of 100 Tang Quatrains 10)

Red beans or love seeds are from love trees3 and have long been regarded as symbols of love and affection. The poet uses the metaphor of love seeds to express his fond

1 清风明月苦相思 荡子从戎十载馀 征人去日殷勤嘱 归雁来时数附书 (王维 伊州歌 ) 2 红豆生南国 春来发几枝 愿君多采撷 此物最相思 (王维 相思 ) 3 A legend in China tells of a nobleman taking the beautiful wife of one of his subordinates as his own. Seeing her husband forced to kill himself in protest, she decided to follow him and also committed suicide. In her will, she pled with others to bury her with her husband in the same grave. But the angry nobleman did just the opposite: he ordered his men to bury them in two places far away from each other. However, a tree grew out of each of the two graves overnight and their branches stretched all the way till they joined to form one plant, attracting a pair of love birds to sit in and sing moving songs. Ever since then, the trees have been known as love trees and the red seeds they bear as love seeds. 58 feelings. Due to the simple tune and words as well as the endless love conveyed, the poem was set to music in Wang Wei’s lifetime and was widely sung. It was said that Li Guinian, a famous singer contemporary with Wang Wei, sang this poem very often and moved his listeners to tears when he wandered about destitute in the south during the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion. Meanwhile, “Love Seeds” is also considered as a song of friendship by some critics. Such an explanation doesn’t contradict the above analysis of love; instead, it is the very charm of Wang Wei’s poetry which is characteristically suggestive and plentifully meaningful.

2.1.3 Differences between Donne and Wang Wei on Love and Women

From the above analysis of Donne and Wang Wei with regard to their poems of love and women, large differences between the two great poets merit our attention. First, Donne and Wang Wei are very different when expressing their opinions on love in their verses. Like most English poets, Donne remains passionate and candid most of the time. In his love poems of every hue, he applies forceful and somewhat forthright language to demonstrate his love, hate and desire. For example, in “The Prohibition,” Donne employs a lot of powerful means in his search for the right direction of love:

Take heed of loving me; At least remember, I forbad it thee: Not that I shall repair my unthrifty waste Of breath and blood, upon thy sighs and tears, By being to thee then what to me thou wast; But so great joy our life at once outwears: Then, lest thy love, by my death, frustrate be,

59 If thou love me, take heed of loving me.

Take heed of hating me, Or too much triumph in the victory: Not that I shall be mine own officer, And hate with hate again retaliate; But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror, If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate: Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee, If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.

Yet, love and hate me too; So, these extremes shall neither’s office do: Love me, that I may die the gentler way; Hate me, because thy love’s too great for me; Or let these two, themselves, not me, decay; So shall I live thy stay, and triumph be: Then, lest thy love, hate, and me thou undo, Oh, let me live; yet love, and hate me too.1

Throughout the poem, the most noticeable thing is Donne’s use of imperatives which makes the expression very forceful. As soon as the poem opens, the poet comes straight to the point. “Stanza 1 warns the beloved not to love her lover, because the excess of joy which that would give him might kill him, and so frustrate her love for him. Stanza 2 warns her not to hate him, for that would kill him too, and so she would lose the glory of her triumph” (Redpath 165). Thus, she should neither love nor hate her lover since he will be killed by both. Stanza 3 shows how to find a harmony between love, hate and

1 This quotation is from The Songs and Sonnets edited by Theodore Redpath. 60 the lover’s life. In order to preserve the mistress’s love, her hate and her lover at the same time, she must “let these two, themselves, not me, decay; / So shall I live thy stay, and triumph be” (21-22). Then both the mistress and her lover will be satisfied. On the other hand, suggestiveness is the key feature of Wang Wei’s poems of love and women. Different from Donne’s direct expression of his innermost passion, Wang Wei always hides his feelings and reveals them by means of various images. It is hard to find any explicit revelation of love or hate in his poems. In “Love Seeds” and “Song in Yizhou Tune,” the red beans and the moon are not only natural objects but are also used to convey the poet’s intention. The four lines in “Love Seeds” all focus on “red beans” or “love seeds” in south China, where the addressed lives. Through the description of “the red beans” in the south, the poet expresses his lovesickness for his beloved there, and the poet’s yearning for his love becomes stronger. Here, the poet doesn’t pour out his emotions straightforwardly in the poem. Instead, he just talks about red beans till the end and lays much emphasis on collecting them. However, the reader is alert, sees clearly what the poet is driving at, and enjoys the way of expression. In this poem, not a single line is clearly related to lovesickness but no line is removed from such emotion. Hence, Wang Wei reveals his idea of love successfully and the image of “red beans” has since become a symbol of love. Next, erotic themes distinguish Donne clearly from Wang Wei. C. S. Lewis comments on this feature in Donne’s love poetry:

The sentiment of Donne’s love poems is easier to describe than their manner, and its charm for modern readers easier to explain. No one will deny that the twentieth century, so far, has shown an extraordinary interest in the sexual appetite and has been generally marked by a reaction from the romantic idealization of that appetite. We have agreed with the romantics in regarding sexual love as a subject of overwhelming importance, but hardly in anything else. On the purely literary side we are wearied with the floods of

61 uxorious bathos which the romantic conception undoubtedly liberated. As psychologists we are interested in the new discovery of the secreter and less reputable operations of the instinct. As practical philosophers we are living in an age of sexual experiment. [ ] It seems odd, at first sight, that a sixteenth-century poet should give us so exactly what we want; but it can be explained. (151)

But in his own time, Donne’s openness was much criticized. Ben Jonson once commented that Donne’s “Anniversary” (“An Anatomy of the World”) was “profane and full of Blasphemies” (qtd. in Young: 122). On the other hand, sexual elements can never be found in Wang Wei’s poems of love and women. Like any other traditional scholar in the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei was brought up in Confucian teachings which stress moral virtue and benevolence before anything else. The purpose of poetry was to teach people how to speak and act properly, and sex should never be mentioned in literary writings. Confucius (551-479 BC) himself compiled the Book of Poetry, the theme of which he expressed as “a pure and unadulterated mind.”1 “Wooing and Wedding” is a love poem? No! Confucius speaks of it as “full of joy but not licentiousness, of sadness but not grief.”2 What’s more, as “a Buddha of a poet” with which he has been respectfully styled, Wang Wei was devoted to Buddhism whose “ten commandments” include “Keep off obscenity” from the mind as well as from behavior. Last but not least, Wang Wei passed the imperial examination in flying colors and was holding an official post; he knew what he was doing and expected to set an example in word and deed. It was but natural for him to avoid sex in his poems. Again, Donne and Wang Wei’s attitudes toward women in their love poems are totally different.

1 子曰 诗 三百 一言以蔽之 曰 思无邪 2 子曰 关雎 乐而不淫 哀而不伤 62 In the majority of his love poems, Donne shows deep contempt for women. Donne denies women’s individuality by showing indifference to either good or ill qualities of women in “Community.” In his opinion, women are nothing but objects to be used, so it is unnecessary for men to give them a lot of care:

If then at first wise Nature had Made women either good or bad, Then some we might hate, and some choose, But since she did them so create, That we may neither love, nor hate, Only this rests: All, all may use. (7-12)

According to Redpath, this poem is possibly the most cynical of the Songs and Sonnets (139). The poet here condemns women as a whole and prefers promiscuous sexual intercourse. Meanwhile, he also displays his cleverness in the employment of conceits in this poem. In the last stanza, a clever simile is used to suggest women: “But they are ours as fruits are ours” (19). A man can enjoy women in the same way he enjoys fruits. While eating fruits with hard surface, he is accustomed to throwing away the shell after eating the kernel. Then, it is natural and right for a man to change women constantly when he is tired of one particular woman: “Chang’d loves are but chang’d sorts of meat, / And when he hath the kernel eat, / Who doth not fling away the shell?” (22-24). Donne greatly degrades women in such contemptuous attitudes. Abandoning the clichés of earlier love poetry —cheeks like roses, lips like cherries, Cupid shooting arrows of love (Abrams 1062) — Donne smears the images of women in his poems most of the time. “Elegy II: The Anagram” is a typical example. Instead of having golden hair, small mouth, pearly white teeth, the mistress in this poem has small and dim eyes, big mouth, black teeth, rough skin, yellow cheeks and rough and red hair:

63

For, though her eyes be small, her mouth is great, Though they be Ivory, yet her teeth be jet, Though they be dim, yet she is light enough, And though her harsh hair fall, her skin is rough; What though her cheeks be yellow, her hair’s red, Give her thine, and she hath a maidenhead. (3-7)

All these features lead her “to be foul” (32). In describing the mistress’s ugly body, Donne moves from high to low. After the depiction of the unsightliness in her face, he began to describe her private parts: “That dirty foulness guards, and arms the town” (42). However, “though seven years, she in the stews (brothels) had laid, / A Nunnery durst receive, and think a maid” (47-48). No one dares to marry her and even “dildoes, bedstaves, and her velvet glass / Would be as loath to touch” (53-54) her body.1 To describe her face and her genitals, the poet uses words, “foul” (32) and “foulness” (42). “Just as the foulness of the one reflects the foulness of the other, so the larger implication of the poem is that this low grotesque female body mirrors, even in its distortion, the traditionally beautiful female body” (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 29). However, the beauty of the female body is controlled in men’s hands. Just as the title of this poem, “The Anagram,” means that “if we (men) might put the letters but one way” (17), a new word will be produced, men can also rearrange his ugly mistress’s body to make her beautiful: “Though all her parts be not in the usual place, / She hath yet an anagram of a good face” (15-16). At the end of the poem, Donne reveals his true import. That is, men are always superior to women and should control everything about women. According to him, women are totally mindless. In “Mummy,” he warns men: “Hope not for mind in women; at their best / Sweetness, and wit, they are but Mummy, possess’d” (23-24). Women are even reduced to lumps of

1 Dildoes, bedstaves, and her velvet glass are all instruments of female masturbation (Patrides 139). 64 dead flesh. Going to bed with women is like having intercourse with a dead body (Guibbory, “John Donne” 138). As a matter of fact, the ugly woman described in Donne’s poems was meant for none other than the ruling Queen Elizabeth. According to Corns, probably most of the Elegies were written in the 1590s (126). Born in 1533, Elizabeth was already in her aging years when Donne wrote such poems. Additionally, this queen remained single till her death. At the beginning of “The Anagram,” the description of the disgusting mistress fits the old queen exactly. On his part Donne, born in a Catholic family, had adequate reasons to be disgusted with this old Protestant queen. With respect to Wang Wei, he usually sympathizes with women in misfortune, and that is obvious in his poems. Deeply touched by women’s great misery, he represents their physical and spiritual torture vividly through poetry. For example, in his first poem in the “Lady Ban” series, Wang Wei shows great pity for the deserted imperial concubines:

When glowworms passed her window decked with jade, And the golden hall with voices none was laid, Behind gauze curtains she through autumn nights, Watched how the lonely lamp’s light so long stayed.1

Except for some fireflies and a lamp, no one comes to visit Lady Ban who has lost the emperor’s favor. Like any other forsaken imperial concubine, she is destined to spend the rest of her life in loneliness and sorrow, which is obvious in the poem. Instead of detailed description of Lady Ban’s melancholy experience, Wang Wei chooses a momentary scene in her life and presents a picture of a lonely beauty under the solitary light of a lamp on an autumn night. Through the picture, the poet’s compassion for women is clearly felt.

1 玉窗萤影度 金殿人声绝 秋夜守罗帏 孤灯耿不灭 (王维 班婕妤 其一) 65 Moreover, Donne’s poems of love and women constitute the largest part of his poetic works while such poems are comparatively few with Wang Wei. If we come to the root of the above differences, we can find that they were caused by widely different cultural and social backgrounds. As we know, English culture has as its important source the Greek and Roman mythology, where the gods and goddesses are mostly noted for their passionate love. Such influence can be clearly seen in English literature, the poetry in particular. Secondly, in the early 17th century, England was greatly affected by the Renaissance. Humanism was the core of the ideology, which helped to liberate people from the asceticism of the Middle Ages. The Petrarchan sonnet, a major form of love poetry, was introduced to England from Italy with the spread of the Renaissance. Following this introduction, a group of important love poets emerged. Around John Donne’s time, William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), Michael Drayton (1563-1631), Andrew Marvell and many other prestigious poets all produced high-quality love poems. Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) explained why love poems occupy a dominant place in Western poetry in his speech entitled The Insuperable Difficulty :

The idea seems to have existed that woman was semidivine, because she was the mother, the creator of man. And we know that she was credited among the Norsemen with supernatural powers. But upon this northern foundation there was built up a highly complex fabric of romantic and artistic sentiment. The Christian worship of the Virgin Mary harmonized with the northern belief. The sentiment of chivalry reinforced it. Then came the artistic resurrection of the Renaissance, and the new reverence for the beauty of the old Greek gods, and the Greek traditions of female divinities; these also colored and lightened the old feeling about womankind. Think also of the effects with which literature, poetry, and the arts have since been cultivating

66 and developing the sentiment. Consider how the great mass of Western poetry is love poetry, and the greater part of Western fiction love stories. (qtd. in Liu Yulin: 10)

Though Donne rarely showed respect for women and uttered a different voice in his poetry, he was certainly under the influence of this cultural tradition. According to Lewis, Donne’s love poetry primarily developed the style of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), who was merely a Donne with most of the genius left out. Compared with Wyatt, his immediate predecessor, so to speak, Donne kept the vividness of conversation where Wyatt too often had only the flatness, and Donne stung like a lash where Wyatt merely grumbled. As a matter of fact, Donne had already surpassed not only Wyatt but all the Elizabethans in what might be called their Wyatt moments, and appeared rather as the innovator who substituted a realistic for a decorated kind of love poetry (144-145). On the other hand, as far as Wang Wei is concerned, cultural and social factors are different. First, the traditional orthodox Chinese ethics represented by Confucianism disapproved of the theme of love in literature. Chinese mythology attributes the creation of human beings to Nü Wa,1 the great goddess. China’s earliest poetry collection, the Book of Poetry, was said to contain a lot of love poems. However, with the disintegration of matriarchy and the establishment of the feudal system, women were held inferior to men for thousands of years. To suit the needs of feudalism, the Book of Poetry was pruned by Confucius himself and a large number of love poems were removed for fear they would distract people’s attention and bring harm to men and society. Ever since this book, love poems had usually been

1 An ancient Chinese myth tells of the origin of human beings: One day, Nü Wa saw her reflection in the water unintentionally while sitting near a river. Out of her own image, she made a number of human beings with earth. Feeling it was too slow to make men by hand, Nü Wa broke off a branch and used it to strike a mixture of earth and water. With her lashings, muddy drops splashed everywhere and turned into numerous men and women. Therefore, Nü Wa has been regarded as creator of man. 67 rejected in feudal China. Women’s position in feudal China was another factor leading to the underdevelopment of Chinese love poems. Before the fall of feudalism, young women were forbidden to go out of doors. They were deprived of the rights of receiving education, attending social activities, meeting males, even love and marriage, which was usually arranged by their parents. For most Chinese women in those years, the only men they were familiar with were father, husband and son. In the long history of Chinese feudal society, especially since the Western Han Dynasty, women were generally considered subsidiary property to men. When a man was short of money, he had the right to sell his wife to make a living. When a woman’s husband died, she had either to choose to remain a widow for the rest of her life, or be buried alive to accompany her husband underground. With very few exceptional cases, romance was almost unheard of. On the other hand in China’s feudal years there was a special group of women, the courtesans, deserving our attention. Most of such women had great talent for music, painting and poetry.1 They entertained men from all walks of life, especially the scholars, rich men, local and court officials. Thus, a strange phenomenon in Chinese literature is that many love poems were written by or in close connection with such women. One example is, “Parting” by Du Mu (803-853), which portrays the poet tearing himself away from a girl singer:

Deep, deep our love, too deep to show. Deep, deep we drink; silent we grow. The candle grieves to see us part:

1 Courtesans began from singing and dancing girls in feudal China. Most of them were well trained in music, painting, poetry and other artistic skills. Their poetry is also an important part in Chinese literature. Xue Tao (762?-834?), Li Shishi (fl. 11th century), Dong Xiaowan (1624-1651), Liu Rushi (1618-1664), just to mention a few, all left excellent poems behind them. Besides their artistic talent, they are also known for their lofty style and ardent patriotism. For instance, when the Ming Dynasty was about to be destroyed, Liu Rushi, who had become concubine of Qian Qianyi (1582-1664) a Ming official and famous poet, suggested she and her husband commit suicide for the nation. But Qian refused and stopped her from killing herself, too. 68 It melts in tears with burnt-out heart.1 (Trans. Xu Yuanzhong, On Chinese Verse in English Rhyme 330)

Wang Wei, however, lived a detached life and never took up with such girls. In addition, influenced by Buddhism, Wang Wei kept in strict accordance with Buddhist doctrines which reject the seven emotions and the six sensory pleasures. Thus, it was impossible for him to make acquaintance with courtesans like other romantic scholars. Consequently, it was not likely for him to produce such love poems. Last but not least, Donne lived at a time of great social changes, when capitalism was replacing feudalism and beginning the development of modern science. He was keen on observing the changes in society and took delight in using new terms and new notions in his poetry. To attain novelty in expression, he introduced brand-new images from law, science, philosophy, etc. into poetry and made commonplace things in life look new. This striking feature characterizes most of Donne’s poems and sharply marks off Donne and his followers, later referred to as metaphysical poets, from other poets. In the 18th century, Johnson condemned Donne for showing off his learning in poetry. In his opinion, Donne was rather a wit than a poet. However, Johnson wronged Donne. “In fact, of course, when we have once found out what Donne is talking about —that is, when Sir Herbert Grierson has told us —the learning of the poet becomes unimportant. The image will stand or fall like any other by its intrinsic merit — its power of conveying a meaning ‘more luminously and with a sensation of delight’” (Lewis 147). For example, in “The Good-morrow,” Donne applies geographical images to illustrate the difference between his devoted love and the laity’s love. In the second stanza, the poet certainly thinks of the discoveries in the 16th and 17th centuries:

And now good morrow to our waking souls,

1 多情却似总无情 唯觉尊前笑不成 蜡烛有心还惜别 替人垂泪到天明 杜牧 赠别 69 Which watch not one another out of fear; For love, all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere. Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone, Let maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown, Let us possess our world; each hath one, and is one. (8-14)

Donne believes the love between him and his lover is so forceful that it can overwhelm “all love of other sights” (10). Their own love can turn a little room into a world which is more important than “new worlds” discovered. It seems that the lovers have given up the mortal world but have created a spiritual world through their mutual love. They are not “sea discoverers” (12) and they don’t need any “maps” (13) which direct ways for the laity to discover “worlds on worlds” (13) in a geographical sense. For the lovers, their world is formed by the possession of each other. The image, “sea discoverers,” also suggests mundane joys and excitements as contrasted with the spiritual quietude or tranquility of the lovers. In Donne’s time, discovery of new worlds must have been related with extreme happiness and greatest honor, but the poet leaves that behind and puts value on the lovers’ spiritual world, whose happiness and honor are deemed much greater. In the third stanza, Donne continues to use geographical images to represent the mortal world which serves as a foil to the lovers’ peaceful spiritual world:

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest, Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp North, without declining West? Whatever dies was not mix’d equally; If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

70 Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die. (15-21)

The first three lines clearly suggest that the world of the lovers is as small as the lovers’ eye. However, this small world is much more serene and secure than the two mortal “hemispheres” which are sharply cold in the “North” and declining in the “West.” “Whatever dies, was not mix’d equally”, but the true lovers are forever immortal because “our two loves be one” or the two lovers love so identically that neither slackens in love; then neither of them can come to an end. Meanwhile, “Spies” (small telescopes) in “The Canonization” shows Donne’s deep interest in astronomy:

You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage; Who did the whole world’s soul contract, and drove Into the glasses of your eyes So made such mirrors, and such spies, That they did all to you epitomize, Countries, towns, courts: beg from above A pattern of your love! (39-45)

The poet compares the two lovers’ eyes first to mirrors then to spies so that they can take “countries, towns, courts” into sight. For Donne, clever manipulation of new knowledge is almost everywhere in his works. Few of his poems are free of such expressions. Especially in his later period, he seldom wrote about joy or suffering of love in its variety but he still employed many images, similes, metaphors and other clever expressions, largely derived from his new knowledge, in his divine poetry. Both Donne and Wang Wei have used poetry to demonstrate their idea of love and women. Donne did it through his conceits, and boldly, as he declared, “I am two fools, I

71 know, / For loving, and for saying so / In whining poetry” (1-3) in “The Triple Fool.” Wang Wei did it in a half-hidden way but lacked no tenderness in his character.

2.2 Politics in Donne and Wang Wei’s Poetry

Ambitious as Donne and Wang Wei were in their first period, it was impossible for them to avoid politics. Though Donne primarily wrote about love, his political enthusiasm was high. Due to his religious belief differing from or rather opposed to the ruling monarch’s, and also because of his secret marriage, his political future was severely spoiled. For quite a long time, he was almost unable to support his enlarging family. In such circumstances, Donne displayed his frustrated ambition in seemingly amatory poetry. Sometimes, he was sharp and cynical. And at other times, he was aspiring and ambitious. In these poems, he exposed his deep concern about politics. For Wang Wei, gaining success in politics was the major aim in his youth. According to Confucian teachings, the brightest future for a scholar was to serve in the imperial court. This was true for Wang Wei, who was eager to demonstrate his ability in the political arena. Thus, in his first period, Wang Wei was active and thoughtful. Encouraged by a heroic spirit which found an expression in the frontier wars, he wrote many poems to praise it. On the other hand, Wang Wei showed great sympathy for the poor and afflicted people. However, what with his not being very successful in politics in his first period, and what with his too lowly official position, he could hardly do anything to change the situation except writing sympathetic lines, in which he sang of his ideal world and expressed his understanding of justice in his own fashion.

2.2.1. Politics in Donne’s Poetry

Donne lived from 1572 to 1631 and half of his life was spent in the Elizabethan reign (1558-1603). Under the powerful Queen Elizabeth I, Donne used love and poetry

72 to embody his frustrated ambitions for socioeconomic, political power. For example, the real subject of his Elegies behind love is political power and ambition. Love becomes merely the vehicle of the metaphor; the tenor is invariably political (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 25). When the political nature is explicit, the erotic relations between men and women in these love poems are liable to disappear. In Donne’s witty love poetry, love is not only a metaphor for politics but love itself is political, in which power transforms relations between men and women. The Elegies involve much representation of female bodies and sexual relations and at the same time politics is rarely separable from erotic depiction. Karl Marx said, “The direct, natural, and necessary relation of person to person is the relation of man to woman” (qtd. in Guibbory: “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 26). This notion is well presented in Donne’s love poems because he exploited the political essence within amatory relations between men and women in his Elegies. Different from a mutual love attributed to the mistress in some poems in the Songs and Sonnets like “The Good-morrow,” “The Canonization” or “The Ecstasy,” a persistent misogyny or a debasement of female bodies is evident in many of his Elegies. Much as it is a fact that there are quite a few poems concerning a degradation of women in the Songs and Sonnets, misogyny is not a prevailing subject there. “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is in high praise of loyalty between lovers and “The Undertaking” shows Donne’s approval of Platonic love. However, the subject of misogyny is obvious in many of his Elegies. The main reason lies in the different historical contexts in which the Songs and Sonnets and the Elegies were written. According to Theodore Redpath, “Donne’s love-lyrics, with the possible exceptions of the “Nocturnal” and “The Dissolution,” were written before the middle of 1614, when Donne was probably forty-two” (4). But “many if not most of Donne’s Elegies were written in the 1590s” (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 27). As we know, Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603 and the 1590s belongs to this period. In 1603, King James I began his reign, which suggests that the majority of the

73 Songs and Sonnets were finished through the late Elizabethan period and before the Jacobean period. Thus, many of the Elegies were written when England was controlled by a female monarch who required faithful service and devotion from ambitious men. Elizabeth was an anomaly in a strongly patriarchal, hierarchical culture in which women were considered subordinate to men (Davis 147-90). It is difficult to ascertain the effect that rule by a female monarch had on the position of women. Though she may have provided an encouraging example for women, it is likely that, as the exception, she actually confirmed the rule of patriarchy in English society (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 27-28). There is a similar case in Chinese history. During the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zhao, or Wu Zetian (624-705), became the unique empress in Chinese history in 690. It is interesting that her enthronement is closely related with Buddhism. Pretending to be a reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Buddhist saviour, she became a woman ruler in China. However, women in this period didn’t enjoy the same respect or honor in social activities as men; instead they still lived under male domination. Since male rule was deeply rooted in Chinese minds, Wu Zhao was finally forced to give up the throne despite her great achievements in her reign. Her son returned to the front stage. During the Elizabethan reign, the attack on female rule never stopped. As a poet, Donne transforms the attack on female rule in the public world into one in amatory relations in his Elegies (Guibbory, “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 28). In order to win Queen Elizabeth’s favor, many poets contemporary with Donne created superior women with faithful male suitors in their poetic works, which gradually became a convention in the courtly love poetry of that time. However, in Donne’s Elegies, women are not idealized or chaste but low, impure and sometimes revolting. The traditional image of perfect women is usually ruined in these poems and women are no longer worth worshipping. “Elegy II: The Anagram” is a good example to illustrate this point. Since it was published, this poem won a lot of approval. “Much admired by William Drummond of

74 Hawthornden (1585-1649), the poem led him to call Donne ‘the best Epigrammatist in English” (Patrides 137). In a sense, this remark indicates that Donne’s “stanzas against beauty” (Torquato Tasso, 1544-1595, ‘Sopra la bellezza’, in Rime, No. 37) present Drummond’s own contempt for women. By subverting the conventions of female beauty, the speaker describes how Flavia has “all things, whereby others beauteous bee” (2), but in the wrong order, proportion, places, or forms (Mousley 29). In “Elegy XVIII: Loves Progress,” the “progress” of love is a journey of a male’s progressive mastery, in which the goal or “the right true end of love” (2) (the female genitals) is stressed from beginning till end. Throughout the poem, the speaker denies the virtuous qualities in the woman, but centers on her genitals:

But if we Make love to woman; virtue is not she: As beauty’s not, nor wealth: He that strays thus From her to hers is more adulterous Than if he took her maid. Search every sphere And firmament, our Cupid is not there: He’s an infernal god and under ground, With Pluto dwells, where gold and fire abound: Men to such Gods, their sacrificing coals Did not in altars lay, but pits and holes. Although we see celestial bodies move Above the earth, the earth we till and love: So we her airs contemplate, words and heart And virtues; but we love the centric part. Nor is the soul more worthy, or more fit For love, than this, as infinite as it. But in attaining this desired place

75 How much they err that set out at the face? (23-40)

In these lines, “under ground” (29), “pits and holes” (32), “the centric part” (36) and “this desired place” (39) all refer to the female genitals that men (“we”) love. Especially the rhetorical question in Line 40 directly presents the speaker’s idea that if the purpose of love is sex, it is no use admiring a woman’s face at the beginning of love. Next, the speaker continues to tell readers that it is futile to appreciate other parts of a female body except “the centric part” because her hair is a forest of ambushes of traps, snares, fetters and manacles; her brow shipwrecks men when it is wrinkled; her nose runs “Not ’twixt an East and West, but ’twixt two suns; / It leaves a cheek, a rosy hemisphere / On either side” (48-50); her lips give off “Sirens’ songs” (55); her tongue is a “remora” (58); her navel may be mistaken as a port; even her pubic hair is “another forest set, / Where many shipwreck, and no further get” (69-70). It takes a long way for men to get to the destination if they set out at the face. Thus, men should pay no attention to the face and the higher parts of the female body, which are fruitless, misleading and even hazardous. It seems that the female body attempts to thwart the speaker and the progress of seduction is like a journey full of dangerous traps. By focusing directly on the female genitals and mocking the traditional way of love, Donne refuses to idealize women and attempts to reset male control in love. Since courtly love was approved and encouraged by Queen Elizabeth as articulating for and confirming her power, Donne’s rejection and subversions of such love conventions might be expected to have political implications (Mousley 31). The image of women contrary to the conventional standard and the bitter language in Donne’s poems isolate him from the contemporary literary trend as well as from the Elizabethan court. With degradation of women, Donne’s poems were sure to be turned down by publishers. This may be one of the reasons why his poems were only read among his friends and relatives during his lifetime. Apart from sonnets and lyrics, Donne wrote many elegies and satires to demand male sovereignty and control. It is

76 certain that Donne attempted to express his political intention by means of love poetry and his final target was the subversion of the ruling Queen Elizabeth. Donne’s political inclination was clearly seen in his close relation with the Essex circle. In 1596 and 1597, following the Earl of Essex, Donne took part in two expeditions against Cadiz, a port in southwestern Spain, and the Portuguese Azores out in the Atlantic. Throughout the 1590s Essex was engaged in a prolonged struggle for power with the queen that set him against the court establishment and that ended only in 1601 with his trial and execution for treason. Disdaining the subservience that characterized his stepfather Earl of Leicester’s (1532-1588) relation with the queen, Essex found it difficult to subject himself to Elizabeth’s will, repeatedly betraying in his actions and letters a particular and growing dislike of serving a woman (qtd. in Guibbory: “The Politics of Love in Donne’s Elegies” 32). In Donne’s Elegies, this sentiment is presented apparently by his debasement of women. Donne lays great emphasis on masculine dominance. The amatory relations between men and women continue to end in men’s conquest of women, which reflects his genuine intention in the public world. Different from “The Anagram,” “Elegy XIX: Going to Bed” doesn’t involve any lines against beauty. The poem gives a full exposition of Donne’s desire to restore male mastery. The woman here seems to be superior but with the development of the poem, she loses her superiority gradually till she is finally controlled by the speaker, a man of course. The poem opens with a man’s cajoling voice to a woman: “Come, madam, come” (1). It seems that the man is pleading with the woman for something. However, Lines 3 and 4 immediately give away his real attitude, that is in the man’s mind, the process of seduction is not an erotic relation between men and women but a real war to defeat each other: “The foe oft-times having the foe in sight, / Is tir’d with standing though he never fight” (3-4). With clothes on, the woman seems to be superior and the man fawns on her by comparing her to “a far fairer world” (6), a “beauteous state” (13) and “flow’ry meads” (14). He attempts to use a series of beautiful conceits to hoodwink

77 her. She is even like a queen with a “diadem” (16). The man, her subject, beseeches a “license” (25). On the other hand, the man uses such imperative sentences as “Unpin that spangled breastplate which you wear” (7) and “Unlace yourself” (9) to command her to undress. It is clear that what the man really wants to do is to possess her. In the man’s eyes, she has become his “America”, his “new-found-land” (27), his “kingdom” (28), his “mine of precious stones” and his “empery” (29). As her conqueror, the man sets his seal on his property the woman’s body: “Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be” (32). In order to persuade the woman to be fully naked, the man continues to compare women to “mystic books” (41). It is evident that the man has put the woman under control because the mystic books must be exposed to men all women “themselves are mystic books, which only we / (Whom their imputed grace will dignify) / Must see revealed” (41-43). At that moment, the woman should display herself liberally to the man as she displays herself before “a midwife” (44). In the last two lines, male mastery is once again confirmed by raising the man on top of the woman: “To teach thee, I am naked first; why then, / What needst thou have more covering than a man” (47-48). Under Queen Elizabeth’s rule, this poem mirrors Donne’s political expectation in the public world. In “Elegy VI,” a sense of impropriety is associated with the mistress from the very beginning. Different from a conventional image, the mistress is active, aggressive; instead the speaker is passive and vulnerable. She attempts to destroy the man as “the taper’s beamy eye / Amorously twinkling, beckons the giddy fly, / Yet burns his wings” (17-19). Here, the mistress is compared to the tapers with flames while the speaker is just a small fly. Next, the sense of impropriety is stressed again by the words like “violently” (29), “brave” and “gallant” (31) connected with the woman. By inverting conventional relations between men and women, the mistress appears far from natural. However, once the woman’s abnormality is exposed, the speaker begins to regain the “proper” masculine authority and supremacy as he warns her:

78 Yet let not thy deep bitterness beget Careless despair in me, for that will whet My mind to scorn; and oh, love dull’d with pain Was ne’er so wise, nor well arm’d as disdain. Then with new eyes I shall survey thee, and spy Death in thy cheeks, and darkness in thine eye. Though hope bred faith and love; thus taught, I shall As nations do from Rome, from thy love fall. My hate shall outgrow thine, and utterly I will renounce thy dalliance: and when I Am the recusant, in that resolute state, What hurts it me to be excommunicate? (35-46)

According to the speaker, the woman’s beauty and sovereignty relies on him and she is totally under his control. The man can do anything as he likes on the woman. It is the same case in the real public world. Although Queen Elizabeth reigned England, her authority basically depended on the men under her. Historical facts also prove that it was a number of capable men not women who helped Queen Elizabeth I. Similarly, Empress Wu Zetian also depended on capable menfolk to make the country rich and stable. “Elegy XVII: Variety” is another poem reflecting Donne’s political implication:

I love her well, and would, if need were, die To do her service. But follows it that I Must serve her only, when I may have choice Of other beauties, and in change rejoice?” (21-24).

Obviously, the speaker was tired of serving Queen Elizabeth I and he expected

79 other sovereignty, a male one. Generally speaking, Donne’s Elegies are characterized by his longing for the restoration of male authority. Contrary to the traditional Petrarchan image of beautiful, gentle and chaste women, Donne debased them by exaggerating their ugliness, abnormality and changeability. Masculine superiority always takes the lead in the erotic relations between men and women. By doing so, Donne expresses his political ideal under a female monarch. English expansionism also left some traces in Donne’s love poems. In 1492, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) “sailed the oceans through” and reached America. Six years later Vasco da Gama (1460?-1524) came to anchor at Calicut after his voyage round the Cape of Good Hope. Then, following the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England won a decisive power on the seas. These events are reflected in Donne’s poetry. In 1596 and 1597, Donne himself joined in two expeditions and went as far as to Spain and the Azores. “Elegy XIX” is about an exploration of a woman’s body. But the process of erotic discovery is to precede a new kind of covering that is also and explicitly both a sexual and a social mastery (Belsey 63). More specifically, a sense of expansionism exists between the lines. So, when the poet imagines the woman’s naked body, he compares her to “my America” (27), “my new-found-land” (27), “My kingdom” (28), “My mine of precious stones” (29) and “my empery” (29). Notice the possessive pronoun “my” before “America,” “new-found-land,” “kingdom,” “mine of precious stones” and “empery,” which suggests ownership. In these comparisons, Donne addresses “the mistress in the specific role of an explorer who is requesting a royal patent (‘license’) which will permit him to discover a new land, explore its unknown riches, conquer it, and having established himself as its autocratic monarch, bring it under the firm mastery of his civil authority” (Hunt, Donne's Poetry 20).1

1 I owe this quotation to Dr. Ron Strickland’s The Cultural Politics of John Donne: A Bibliographic Essay from http://www.english.ilstu.edu/strickland/215/sample/webb.html on 12 Oct. 2002. 80 “Thus, the sexual conquest of the mistress becomes a praising of colonialism and when juxtaposed with this colonialism, the act of seduction assumes grand proportions and importance” (Strickland, par. 15). Donne was clearly in favor of English expansionism and sang praises of it in his poems. In “The Sun Rising,” readers can meet “She is all States, and all Prices, I, / Nothing else is” (21-22). The possession of a woman’s body is transformed to the possession of a state or country. In addition, these lines also smack of inequality between men and women. Among the large number of poems about women’s inconstancy and fickleness, “Confined Love” looks very different. Put into the mouth of a woman, it argues for women’s equal sexual liberty with men. In this poem, he seems to be sympathetic for the fetters imposed on females by spiteful laws. The poem begins with a criticism of those men who try to lessen their pain and shame by wreaking their anger on women. Furthermore, in order to keep this privilege, these false or weak men lay down a law to confine a woman to one man. On the surface, the poem seems to show Donne’s deep concern about women’s sexual liberty. But on second reading, we become fully aware of the satirical tone. First we should make clear what Donne intends to do. This point is apparently stated in the second stanza:

Are sun, moon, or stars by law forbidden To smile where they list, or lend away their light? Are birds divorc’d, or are they chidden If they leave their mate, or lie abroad a-night? Beasts do no jointures lose Though they new lovers choose, But we are made worse than those. (8-14)

81 Donne uses a series of images such as the sun, the moon, stars, birds, beasts, fair ships, fair houses and gardens to set off the bad conditions of a woman. The sun, the moon and stars can lend away their light freely; even birds and beasts are free to choose or change lovers. However, a woman is deprived of the right of choosing and changing new lovers. Reading this, we come to realize the poet’s intention. What he wants to preach here is female promiscuity. Pretending to be a woman, the poet believes he has brought women’s inner thinking to full exposure. In his opinion, what women desire is to have sexual intercourse freely with any men “Good is not good, unless / A thousand it possess, / But doth waste with greediness” (19-21). Donne judges women with much irony. However, in his mockery at women, inequality between men and women is made clear. “Confined Love” helps to prove that women are much inferior to men, which is part of the basic message conveyed in many of Donne’s poems. Last but not least, some of Donne’s poems also reflect the religious conflicts of his times. In the 16th and 17th centuries, an intense struggle between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism took place in England. The imperial court broke away from the control of the Roman Catholic Church and made harsh religious policy to curb Catholics in England. Donne was born into a Roman Catholic family. The religious conflicts must have left bitter marks on his mind. Which was the true Church? He had to make his own decision. “Satire III,” written between 1593 and 1595, recorded Donne’s skepticism with regard to the identity of true religion:

[ ] though truth and falsehood be Near twins, yet truth a little elder is; Be busy to seek her, believe me this, He’s not of none, nor worst, that seeks the best. To adore, or scorn an image, or protest, May all be bad; doubt wisely; in strange way

82 To stand inquiring right, is not to stray; To sleep, or run wrong, is. On a huge hill, Cragged, and steep, Truth stands, and he that will Reach her, about must, and about must go; And what the hill’s suddenness resists, win so; Yet strive so, that before age, death’s twilight, Thy soul rest, for none can work in that night. (72-84)

The emphasis is on searching, on process. Discovery is difficult, yet necessary, and the skeptical mind plays an important part. “Truth” is the goal, and life should be a journey toward it (Guibbory, “John Donne” 128). However, if the true religion is finally found, we should “Keep the truth which thou hast found” (89). Donne’s later behavior confirms this. After he converted to the Church of England, he immersed himself completely in God’s grace.

2.2.2 Politics in Wang Wei’s Poetry

In 712, Emperor Xuan Zong ascended the throne, which marked the beginning of the prime period (called high Tang 713-763) of the Tang Dynasty. Once in power, Xuan Zong carried forward the cause pioneered by his ancestors and brought it to a new height. He readily accepted correct opinions or advice and conducted a series of reforms in almost every field. As a result, China came to the most prosperous period in history. Much as he was in the supreme position, Xuan Zong was extraordinarily open-minded and good-mannered, showing due respect to the wise and scholarly. His treating Li Bai with great courtesy is a typical example. On hearing of a commoner named Li Bai who had great talent for poetry, Xuan Zong sent for him and after putting him to test, highly appreciated him and appointed him member of the Imperial Academy, a position coveted by many scholars but given only to few. The story soon was heard on the lips of almost everybody. Under such favorable conditions, many scholars aspired to serve in 83 the court and bring their talent to full display before the public. Wang Wei was no exception. He was as active and high-spirited as others and hoped to build his future to fulfill his ambition. The passionate frontier poems he wrote reflect not only his political enthusiasm but also the exhilarating atmosphere in society. When the Tang Dynasty was founded, national strength was relatively weak as a result of years of wars, and new wars against foreign invasions were frequent. After Emperor Tai Zong (599-649, Rn 627-649) was enthroned, he took resolute measures, drove back most intruding enemies, and strengthened frontier defence. When Emperor Xuan Zong came to power, however, frontier wars rose again and numerous soldiers and officials went to the borders to defend the country and win honor for their ancestors. On the other hand, Xuan Zong reformed the imperial examination system to allow more scholars to succeed. Many scholars went to the frontiers to experience life and war. As a result, myriads of frontier poems were composed. Wang Wei didn’t join the army like other frontier poets, but he was once appointed imperial envoy to extend the emperor’s regards to the military forces in the frontiers. Touched by what he saw and heard along his way, he wrote many well-known frontier poems. Among them, the most famous one is “To the Frontier as an Envoy”:

En route to the border, my lone carriage Passes through the vassal state of Juyan A wisp of thatching blown beyond the Han frontier, A wild goose returning through barbarian skies. Straight is the lonely line of smoke above the desert vast, And round, the sun that sets upon the long river. Meeting horsemen patrolling the Xiao Pass, I learn that the governor general is at Yanran.1

1 单车欲问边 属国过居延 征蓬出汉塞 归雁入胡天 大漠孤烟直 长河落日圆 萧关逢侯骑 都护 在燕然 王维 使至塞上 84 (Trans. Zhang Ting-chen & Bruce M. Wilson 43)

In 737, General Cui Xiyi won a big victory against the enemy. Xuan Zong was extremely delighted and assigned Wang Wei to pass his regards to the army. When Wang Wei came to the frontiers, he was deeply struck by the military forces and the exotic landscape. Here, Juyan, the Xiao Pass and Yanran are all place names in the frontier, which provide an atmosphere of war in the poem. Different from the elegant beauty in his later nature poems, the landscape in this poem is grand and majestic, which well conveys the poet’s cheerful mood. Additionally, from the last line in the poem, we know the general governor has just won another victory. 1 The jolly news and the magnificent frontier landscape are woven together in this poem to express the aspiring atmosphere at the zenith of the Tang Dynasty. In “Watching the Hunt,” a general’s valiant and heroic bearing is successfully portrayed:

Above a howling wind, the bows of horn resound: The general has been hunting near Wei. Keen are the falcon’s eyes above the withered grasses, And light the horses’ hoofbeats in the melted snow. Passing quickly through Xinfeng, Returning to the Xiliu camp, He glances backward to where he killed the game: For a thousand li, the evening clouds are still.2 (Trans. Zhang Ting-chen & Bruce M. Wilson 39)

1 The place name, Yanran, is usually associated with victory. In the Han Dynasty, General Huo Qubing (140-117 BC) defeated the Huns and took Yanran from the enemy force. In this poem, Yanran is used as a symbol to suggest another victory won by the governor general. 2 风劲角弓鸣 将军猎渭城 草枯鹰眼疾 雪尽马蹄轻 忽过新丰市 还归细柳营 回看射雕处 千里 暮云平 王维 观猎 85

Instead of describing the general’s performance in a frontier war, the poet depicts how the general behaves in hunting and leaves space for the reader to imagine how gallant and triumphant he is on the battlefield. Thus, though no words are related to wars throughout the poem, the reader can still sense the heroic spirit of the time. While Wang Wei was in his teens, Xuan Zong had already begun vigorous efforts to make the country more prosperous. The high morale shown in many of Wang Wei’s frontier poems is in accordance with the aspiring spirit of the age. In the four poems entitled “Songs of the Young,” Wang Wei gives a vivid description of this optimistic, pioneering spirit. Generally speaking, these four poems are closely connected in a systematic order. Wang Wei chose four aspects in the lifestyle of chivalrous young persons and dealt with one in each poem. Read together, these poems present a complete set of pictures of the chivalrous young at the time:

1. The Xinfeng wine’s ten thousand cash renown Makes the wandering brave, most young, in the royal town, When met, all quaff upstairs for brotherhood, Their horses tied where willow leaves reach down.

2. My dad in Imperial Guards was once a head, And I with the general ’cross the borders sped. Aware ’tis hard there though, would like the world To see what a hero’s like, alive or dead!

3.

86 I can draw two bows at once, it’s joyful try. The cavalry foes, though in thousands, are naught in my eye. When I sidelong turn on horseback, arrows whiz, And one by one five Hun Chiefs fall and die.

4. When liege and men enjoyed the Victory feast, Upon the Grand Stand chose they who’d done best. Right then he gave new titles with new seals; The general walked in Honor brightly dressed.1

The first poem is mainly about the chivalrous spirit of these young men. They meet in the street, enjoy each other’s company, saunter to a nearby pub, drink and become intimate friends. The wine is the best kind of wine (“ten thousand cash renown”) suggesting generosity, a popular virtue of the wandering brave. The persons in the poem are energetic and jovial, and the poem is buoyant. The high spirits reflected in the poem characterize the golden age of the Tang Dynasty. The second poem describes how the young yearn to establish themselves by fighting in the frontier wars and dedicating themselves to the service of the country. Though they might lose their lives, they feel proud and honored. The third poem presents a picture of a young man fulfilling his ambition on the battlefield. The meritorious deeds of many young men like this one formed the powerful

1 The Chinese original of the four poems goes as follows:

少年行 王维 新丰美酒斗十千 咸阳游侠多少年 相逢意气为君饮 系马高楼垂柳边

出身仕汉羽林郎 初随骠骑战渔阳 孰知不向边庭苦 纵死犹闻侠骨香

一身能臂两雕弧 虏骑千重只似无 偏坐金鞍调白羽 纷纷射杀五单于

汉家君臣欢宴终 高议云台论战功 天子临轩赐侯印 将军佩出明光宫 87 prop of the prosperous Tang. Therefore, in the fourth poem we see the emperor greatly rewarding them and promoting them to nobility. Meanwhile, Wang Wei’s seeing eye saw the other side of the coin. Under the guise of heroism and patriotic fervor was injustice. In “A Song of Longtou,” a sharp contrast between young people’s ambition and old soldiers’ depression reveals unequal treatment to the soldiers in the frontiers:

A young wanderer from the Chang’an town Climbed up the watchtower to view the Star of War. The moon shone bright high up above the pass, From somewhere came a soldier’s piping lore. And how it made the frontier veteran sigh, Who stopped his steed with tears that laved his eye! Through countless battles, even those once he’d led Had got their marquisates as nobles high. But Su Wu too was given a petty post In vain was yak’s hair on his tally lost!1

The young wanderer, the soldier blowing the pipe and the veteran in this poem symbolize the three stages of a man. The young man was full of aspiration for great achievements. The soldier had stayed in the frontiers for years and the plaintive piping expressed his years’ bitterness and melancholy. The old soldier heard the sad music, thought of his sweat and blood shed for the country and his unjust treatment, and could not hold back his tears. In the latter part of the poem, Wang Wei uses an allusion of Su Wu ostensibly to console the old soldier. Su Wu (?-60 BC) was sent as a Han envoy to the hordes of Huns in 100 BC, but was detained there for 19 years, during which time

1 长安少年游侠客 夜上戍楼看太白 陇头明月迥临关 陇上行人夜吹笛 关西老将不胜愁 驻马听之 双泪流 身经大小百余战 麾下偏裨万户侯 苏武才为典属国 节旄空尽海西头 王维 陇头吟 88 he refused to yield and caressed his tally credentials every day until the yaktail decoration fell leaving it totally bare. When he finally returned, however, his loyalty only won him a low official position. By comparing the old soldier to Su Wu, Wang Wei shows that unfair treatment to meritorious men is a common phenomenon in society. In Chinese literary tradition, poets often use the image of beauties to symbolize their lofty spirit. In “A Song of Xi Shi,” Wang Wei compares himself to a beautiful woman in revealing his complicated state of mind:

As all the world thinks highly of Beauty, Could Xi Shi live long in obscurity? The morn saw her by Ruoye Stream a lass; A concubine in the night in Wu’s palace. Any different from others when one’s low staying? Rarities are noted when outstanding! She beckoned maids to deck her face and tress, And never by herself donned a silk dress. She became pamper’d more, being doted on, And the King himself knew not right from wrong. Lasses washing gauze with her in days of yore Could not come now in the same coach with her. To her plain vicinage it must be known� Not try to imitate her charming frown!1 (Trans. Wu Juntao137)

Just as Xi Shi’s honor and glory didn’t depend on her beauty but on the king’s favor, so a scholar’s success didn’t lie in his virtues or talent but in the emperor’s attention. This

1 艳色天下重 西施宁久微 朝为越溪女 暮作吴宫妃 贱日岂殊众 贵来方悟稀 邀人傅脂粉 不 自著罗衣 君宠益娇态 君怜无是非 当时浣纱伴 莫得同车归 持谢邻家子 效颦安可希 王维 西施 咏 89 was really a big tragedy for most scholars because they had only slim chances to be noticed by the emperor. Many had talent but no opportunity to use it. It was therefore common for Chinese scholars to sigh over their talent wasted. Alongside Wang Wei, numerous talented poets like Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin (812-858), Su Shi sighed. These poets were disillusioned with reality and became politically passive in their later years. They were depressed but had no way to solve the problem. All they could do was to express their concern and indignation in poetry. Angry about treacherous court officials’ meddling in politics, Li Bai sighed in “Ascending the Phoenix Terrace of Jinling City,” “It’s all because the floating clouds could cover the sun; / The Imperial City hid from sight doth one dismay” (7-8).1 Irritated at the nobility’s arrogance, Li Bai left the imperial city and declared, “How could I wrinkle up my forehead and bend my waist to wait on those in power, / Making myself crest-fallen for nought?” (44-45). 2 Under such social and political situation, poets were heavyhearted and they often compared themselves to beauties to demonstrate their innocent personality. Like Wang Wei, Du Fu also expressed his noble nature through his poem, “The Beauty.”3 Wang Wei expressed his true feelings in “A Song of A Young Lady in Luoyang.” In this poem, he describes in detail how the noble young lady and her husband live in luxury and extravagance. In the end, he says in indignation, “But who would care a southern girl so fair / Beside a stream, for a living, washing yarn?” (19-20).4 The young lady in Luoyang was born in a noble family, so she could live a rich and comfortable life. However, beautiful as the southern girl was, she could only do heavy chores

1 The Chinese version is, “总为浮云能蔽日 长安不见使人愁”. Here the translation was done by Professor Sun Dayu. “The floating clouds” signify libels against the poet to Emperor Xuan Zong. “The Imperial City hid from sight doth one dismay” means that Li Bai was prevented from the sight of the Imperial City, which made him sad (Sun Dayu 557). 2 These two lines are taken from Li Bai’s “A Song for Some Friends, on a Dream Trip to Mount Tianmu”: “安 能摧眉折腰事权贵 使我不得开心颜 ” (Trans. Sun Dayu 219). 3 Since Qu Yuan (345?-286 BC), it has been a tradition for Chinese poets to express their pure personality by means of fragrant grass and flowers as well as beauties. 4 These two lines refer to Xi Shi, the Chinese original being “谁怜越女颜如玉 贫贱江头自浣纱.” 王维 洛 阳女儿行 90 because she was poor and lowly. In the same way, those from noble families were easily noticed and promoted while poor scholars scarcely had any opportunity to display their talent. Wang Wei compared himself and other deserving scholars to the poor southern girl, through whom he expressed his resentment. That explains, in part, his decision to live a secluded life in his later years. Gradually, Wang Wei’s optimism and high spirit fell. This can be seen clearly in his famous farewell poem “A Song at Weicheng”:

A morning rain has settled the dust in Weicheng; Willows are green again in the tavern dooryard Wait till we empty one more cup West of Yang Gate there’ll be no old friends.1 (Trans. Bynner, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang: The English Translation of 100 Tang Quatrains 15)

The Yang Gate Pass, to the south of Jade Gate Pass, was near Dunhuang, in today’s Gansu province. Standing on the eastern edge of the great desert, the Yang Gate Pass was the gateway to faraway Central Asia. What a place for farewell! In Chinese poetry, the willow braches that often droop down in a seemingly lingering manner are often used to symbolize people’s reluctance at parting, and a tavern is a temporary stop in a long journey. Different from the heroic spirit in “Songs of the Young,” Wang Wei is low-spirited. In his opinion, his friend’s future in the frontiers is more bleak than bright.

Both Donne and Wang Wei were passionate and greatly involved in political affairs; both used poetry as a tool to express their political concerns. Lingering among women and theatres, Donne produced a great number of love poems which betray his strong political stand at the same time. With regard to Wang Wei, his politics are seen

1 “渭城朝雨浥轻尘 客舍青青柳色新 劝君更尽一杯酒 西出阳关无故人 ” 王维 渭城曲 91 both in his frontier poems faithfully conveying the optimistic and heroic spirit in the high Tang period, and in some other pieces which expose social injustice and show the poet’s deep sympathy for the poor and the low. Because in their respective times it was inconvenient to speak out their ideas directly, so they turned to poetry to express their political concerns.

2.3 Grief of Parting in Donne and Wang Wei’s Poetry

Alongside love poems concerning politics and the pursuit of true love, both Donne and Wang Wei wrote about parting in their first period. With Donne, his poems like “Sweetest Love, I do not go,” the four valedictions and “The Expiration” are all extremely touching. Love is pleasing or annoying but death is certainly terrifying. In “A Fever,” “A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day” and “The Dissolution,” Donne depicts the awful threat of illness or the grimness of actual death. Grief of parting is really an important theme in his poetry. Donne’s poems of parting stand next to his poems of happy love in general popularity and are often extremely affecting (Lewis 155). As to Wang Wei, he wrote more than one hundred poems about the grief of parting from friends and family members, which make up more than one fourth of all his poems. However, large differences exist between the two poets. Since Donne’s poetry in the first period was mainly about love, the majority of his poems on the sorrow of parting are consequently connected with separation between lovers (including death). On the other hand, Wang Wei described strong nostalgia and the grief of separation between friends.

2.3.1 Donne’s Poetry on Parting

In all of Donne’s love poems concerning the grief of separation, “A Valediction: Of Weeping” is characterized by its most emotional intensity. The lovers’ tears flood

92 throughout the poem. An experience of loss and absence is displayed through the poet’s clever skill with conceits and metaphors. From a globe to tears, from tears to a deluge, the poet extends the images as far as ingenuity can carry them:

On a round ball A workman that hath copies by, can lay An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, All; So doth each tear, Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, Till thy tears mix’d with mine do overflow This world, by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolvèd so. (10-18)

When a flat map is pasted on a round globe, East and West may be joined. The globe seems to suggest a reunion. However, North and South are still on each farthest end and can never meet. Then, the globe seems more like a zero than a reunited circle. Thus, the globe contains two implications: nothing and all. So are the lovers’ tears. In the poet’s tears of separation is the reflection of the mistress’s image. It seems that the poet and his mistress meet each other in his teardrop. However, all becomes empty when the mistress’s tears join the poet’s. The two lovers’ tears are so abundant that a deluge is formed which dissolves the world, or the poet’s tear. Everything perishes. The poet and his mistress are still separated from each other. It is so depressing that the poet and his beloved melt in endless tears and sighs: “Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath, / Whoe’er sighs most, is cruelest, and hastes the other’s death” (26-27). On the other hand, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” is probably the most famous, which shows Donne’s strong belief in truth and loyalty. In 1611, Donne was going to France with his patron Sir Robert Drury, but he was unwilling to leave because

93 his wife, who was then pregnant, “professed an unwillingness to allow him any absence from her saying ‘her divining soul boded her some ill in his absence’” (Walton 335). This poem was written by Donne for his wife on the eve of his departure. At the beginning of the poem, a comparison of the parting of the two lovers to the dying moment of virtuous men indicates Donne’s comprehension of true love. As virtuous men die, their bodies may decay, but their souls will be uplifted to heaven and achieve immortality. The same is true when two lovers depart. The long distance between them only separates their bodies but it will elevate their spiritual love. Next, the speaker compares their love with that of the laity. Since the laity’s love is mainly based on sensual organs, they can not endure a departure from each other,

Dull sublunary lovers’ love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. (13-16)

However, the love between the poet and his lover is far beyond physical limitation,

But we by a love, so much refin’d, That ourselves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. (17-20)

They have melted their love into their souls which are one. No matter how far away they are separated, their love will always extend. They have reached a state where their souls cannot be separated, even though they are physically far apart. Like a pair of compasses, whose two feet can never abandon each other, the two lovers will forever be loyal to each other.

94 In order to indicate the profound love between himself and his wife, Donne used images from astronomy and mathematics in this poem. For example, “the earth” and “the sphere” in Stanza 3 share the same physical feature, that is, both are round in form, which symbolizes reunion of lovers:

Moving of the earth brings harms and fears, Men reckon what it did and meant, But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent. (9-12)

In these images, the comparison of two lovers to a pair of “compasses” in the last three stanzas has long been considered a classic conceit not only in Donne’s poetry but also in metaphysical poetry as a genre or type:

If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two: Thy soul the fix’d foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the other do.

And though it in the center sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans, and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must Like the other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun. (25-36)

95

The image of the compass, a mathematical instrument whose feet are linked at one point yet separate at another, suggests that the separation of the lovers is rooted in a higher spiritual union. The husband leaves for France just as the working foot does roam. The wife stays at home but is always concerned about her husband just as the fixed foot makes no show to move but “leans and hearkens after it (the working foot), / And grows erect, as that comes home” (31-32). The two feet match so well that what the compasses draw is always a circle, which suggests reunion and endless love. Through the comparison of his wife to the fixed foot, Donne puts emphasis on his wife’s faithfulness, “Thy firmness” (35), which is totally different from other women’s unfaithfulness or betrayal in many of his other love poems. In response to his wife’s loyalty, the poet also shows his devotion to love “Thy firmness makes my circle just,/ And makes me end where I begun” (35-36). Just as the compasses stop at the same spot where they start, the love between the poet and his wife remains the same from beginning to end. At first, it might seem improper to link up a mathematical tool with love, but it soon becomes reasonable and appropriate on second thought. Thus, by means of images such as these, the genuine love between the two lovers is illustrated successfully. In “Song: Sweetest love, I do not go,” the poet loves his mistress so deeply that he is withering in the excessive sorrow of parting from her:

When thou sigh’st, thou sigh’st not wind, But sigh’st my soul away; When thou weep’st, unkindly kind, My life’s blood doth decay. (25-28)

If parting from his mistress is as painful as death, how does a lover feel when facing his mistress’s actual death? “A Fever” depicts the poet’s experience in such a situation. At the beginning of the poem, the poet’s lover has already been seriously ill

96 and is threatened by death. Out of extreme anxiety, the poet pleads with his mistress not to die because she is the only woman he loves in the world:

Oh do not die, for I shall hate All women so, when thou art gone, That thee I shall not celebrate, When I remember, thou wast one. (1-4)

More than that, his mistress is the whole world for him. If she dies, his world will be totally destroyed: “[ ] when thou from this world wilt go, / The whole world vapours with thy breath” (7-8). For him, the woman is “the world’s soul” (9). When she dies, the most beautiful woman will be her ghost and the most excellent men are nothing but corrupt worms.

2.3.2 Wang Wei’s Poetry on Parting

Most of Wang Wei’s poems concerning grief of separation are about friendship, not love. Many among them were written to show sorrow in seeing friends off. There are also a number of nostalgic poems. Wang Wei’s difference from Donne was largely caused by the different cultural and social backgrounds. In feudal China, “virtuous women” stayed at home. The feudal ethics required them to follow the so-called “three obediences and four virtues.”1 Accordingly, free love between males and females was very rare and so was separation between free lovers. As a result, the males went out to seek wealth and fame for the family. In the process, they were likely to make acquaintances and cement friendships. Departure was sad, particularly when you think of the poor transportation and the vast territory, where most people used donkeys, oxen,

1 三从四德 未嫁从父 既嫁从夫 夫死从子 妇德 妇言 妇容 妇功 (Obeying her father before marriage, her husband after marriage, her son after her husband’s death; virtues of morality, proper speech, modest manner and good needlework.) 97 and rowboats. Horses were faster, but the poor couldn’t afford them. Therefore, in most cases departure meant separation for ever, and meeting a friend or relative again was like crying for the moon, or in the words of Du Fu (712-770), “How rarely in life we do meet together, / Morning and Evening stars too, miss each other” (“To the Eighth Wei Brother, the Anchorite” 1-2).1 Under such circumstances, travelers, banished officials, and frontiersmen were bitterly nostalgic. All these were commonly seen in poems of the day. In Wang Wei’s poetry, more than 100 poems are about the grief of parting friends and family members. Of these, “A Song at Weicheng” is most famous. It was written when Wang Wei was seeing a friend off to the west frontiers more than twelve centuries ago, but the mood and melody are so moving that it is still very popular nowadays. “Wait till we empty one more cup / West of Yang Gate there’ll be no old friends” (3-4). Through these lines, the poet’s sincere feelings and deep concern for his friend tug at our heartstrings. Images of willows and taverns are quite common in poems of separation and, while they are connected with lost love in English,2 they serve to set off the lingering love or fondness in Chinese. In another poem, “Seeing Shen Zifu off Down the Yangtze,” Wang Wei introduced a fresh image to represent his deep thinking of his friend:

The willows droop to the travelers growing few. The boatman rows, the boat is eastward due. As north and south the scenes of spring unroll,

1 “人生不相见 动如参与商 ” 杜甫 赠卫八处士 , Tran. Wu Juntao 317 2 Some of the examples kindly provided by Professor Shirley Wood read,

There is a tavern in the town, And there my true love sits him down, And drinks his wine as merry as can be, And never, never thinks of me [ ] and I’ll hang my heart on a weeping willow tree [ ] 98 My heart is all along escorting you.1

Alongside the ordinary image of “willow” in the first line, “scenes of spring” in the third line are used to refer to the poet’s lingering thought of his friend. This image is a novelty. When the friend’s boat left the ferry, the poet still attempted to catch sight of the boat. However, he saw nothing except the endless spring scenery along both sides of the river, just as endless as his missing of the friend. On the surface, nothing similar exists between natural scenery and human emotion. But Wang Wei found something common in the two, that is, they both seemed omnipresent. Some time later, Li Yu (937-978) used the image of spring grass to express the grief of separation.2 However, compared with the image of spring scenery, Li’s spring grass seems less appealing or profound. Sometimes it is possible to know a person’s personality through that of his friends’. Here let us cite Wang Wei’s “Bidding Adieu to a Friend” for example:

As thou alight from thy horse, I greet thee with a stoup of wine, And ask thee whither thou wouldst tend. Thy answer thou givest disheartened Saying thou wouldst go to retire As a recluse by the South Mount. Go but thither without a query; White clouds are there at all times.3 (Tran. Sun Dayu 139)

1 “杨柳渡头行客稀 罟师荡桨向临圻 唯有相思似春色 江南江北送君归 ” 王维 送沈子福归江东 2 In “Grief of Separation Tune: ‘Pure, Serene Music’”, Li Yu says, “The grief of separation is like spring grass, / Growing each day you’re farther away, alas!” (7-8). This translation is available on page 71 in Xu Yuanzhong’s Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics. The Chinese original lines are, “离恨恰如春草 更行更远还生” (李煜 清平 乐 ). 3 下马饮君酒 问君何所之 君言不得意 归卧南山陲 但去莫复问 白云无尽时 王维 送别 99

These lines were written by Wang Wei to his poet friend Meng Haoran (689-740) (Sun Dayu 139). Both are famous for their lofty personalities in Chinese history. From the poem, we can see Wang Wei was not only sympathetic with his friend’s frustration, but he highly admired his decision. Like Meng, he, too, lived something like a recluse in his later years. Along with deep feelings for friends, Wang Wei cherished his kith and kin and valued family bliss. He wrote the famous quatrain “On Double Ninth Day Thinking of My Brothers Home” at the age of 17, in his visit to Chang’an alone:

A lonely stranger in a strange land I’m cast, Sore sick for my dears on every festive day. By now my brothers must some heights have passed, But a cornel wearer missing’ll damp the play.1

Double ninth Day falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, when chrysanthemums are in bloom and the sun shines in a clear blue autumnal sky. People on this day had the tradition of climbing heights, viewing chrysanthemums and drinking a chrysanthemum brew, which was believed to be good for longevity. Cornel leaves were worn in the belief that they could dispel evil spirits. On this typically Chinese holiday, family members liked to get together, but our poet could not. This made him feel particularly lonely and nostalgic. Wang Wei expressed his grief at being away from his family and friends very vividly, but few of his poems are linked with the sorrow of parting from a lover, which is very different from Donne’s poems. However, no one can deny the fact that poetry was the best way for the two poets to demonstrate their most genuine feelings.

1 独在异乡为异客 每逢佳节倍思亲 遥知兄弟登高处 遍插茱萸少一人 (王维 九月九日忆山东兄 弟 ) 100 It is true that John Donne and Wang Wei chose different subject matter to express their ideas on love, politics, grief of separation and other things in poems of their first period. However, their search for truth and beauty was the same. In their poems, Donne explored various aspects of love and finally discovered the true implication of love, while Wang Wei embodied his idea of true love in his sympathy for those abandoned women. When the two poets expressed their political concern, they were also open and honest. Dissatisfied with the English female monarch, Donne didn’t attempt to hide his real intention but revealed it directly in his love poems. That is one of the reasons why his poems could not be published in his day. As regards Wang Wei, he was always sympathetic to those who suffered from injustice and poverty. He took pity on the weak and low in feudal society, revealed the unequal condition of old soldiers and poor scholars and denounced the privileges enjoyed by the noble families. Moreover, their poems of deep sorrow over separation also demonstrate to the greatest extent Donne and Wang Wei’s brave and innocent heart for truth and justice.

101 Chapter Three John Donne and Wang Wei Each in His Second Period: Religious Poetry

In their later period, Donne and Wang Wei were both greatly frustrated. They took the same action and switched their interest from mundane affairs to religion. Consequently, religion became their main subject both in life and in work, and it was religion that led their poetry to an unprecedented height. When Donne abandoned his Catholic faith and converted to Anglicanism, his immersion in religion began. Before his secret marriage, his prospects in political life appeared very bright, but he was finally pushed to the altar. Donne took holy orders and became a clergyman of the Church of England on January 23, 1615. On the surface, King James I did the pushing directly because he refused to give Donne any secular post except a sacred position. However, the real reason for Donne’s giving up his secular dream to accept ordination dwells in his total disillusionment with the mundane world. Moreover, his wife’s death in 1617 deepened his religious interest. He sought in religion for the sense of security and completeness that his wife had at one time given him (Bennett 26). The Divine Poems faithfully recorded his profound meditation. As concerns Wang Wei, a succession of setbacks in politics gradually dampened his fervid enthusiasm for official promotion. Above all, the humiliating experience during and immediately after the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion totally disillusioned him in the pursuit of political honor. In his later years, he remained detached from fame and wealth and sought spiritual satisfaction in Chan. The great bulk of Chan poetry was composed in such a state of mind. Meanwhile, his introduction of Chan into poetry largely enhanced the artistic level in his later works.

3.1 Donne’s Divine Poetry

102 Including the English translation of his “To Mr. George Herbert” written originally in Latin, Donne’s Divine Poems number 38. Of these, the 19 Holy Sonnets are undoubtedly the largest group. La Corona, a set of 7 sonnets, is probably Donne’s earliest cluster of religious poems. In addition, “A Litany,” a poem of 28 stanzas each containing 9 lines, and several hymns are also quite famous. The majority of the Divine Poems were the product of Donne’s years of uncertainty and ill-health, when his pride and ambition for a court place had been humbled (Partridge 127). These religious poems virtually revealed his state of mind before and after his entry into the Church. In his later period, Donne transformed his concern from the secular world to the sacred. He plunged himself into theology and examined his thought and soul closely. During his quest for religious truth, he gave up his Catholic belief and embraced Anglicanism. In his divine poems, Donne conjured up a picture of both Christ and his own struggling soul and through words links himself to that picture (McNees 194). He wrote a lot about Christ, recalling his mysterious life, commemorating his crucifixion and praising his salvation with his blood. On the other hand, Donne deeply regretted having wasted his passion on his profane mistresses in the past. Meanwhile, his clear awareness of his sins deepened his terror of death and hell. He was extremely worried about the Last Judgement. Accordingly, most of his divine poems are concerned with his confession, repentance for his sins and pleading with God for mercy and salvation. In short, what the Divine Poems demonstrate is Donne’s private internal struggle for religious truth.

3.1.1 Influence of Christianity

As has been said earlier (See p28), the Reformation in England was started by King Henry VIII and by the time of his daughter Queen Elizabeth I, Protestantism had become largely dominant. The Anglican Church which had been made the national Church in 1534 was consolidated, and other faiths were made illegal. Following the

103 Queen’s order, anyone who refused to attend Anglican services had to pay a monthly fine of £20, and a lot of people who remained Catholic were put into prison (Ma Chaoqun 185). “Offenders who found themselves unable to pay were to have all their goods and two-thirds of their land confiscated” (Carey 15-16). Catholics could not play any part in public life, and were even debarred from taking a university degree without subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles (Carey 15). King James I from Scotland ascended the throne after Queen Elizabeth I died. He kept Elizabeth’s religious policy and maintained Anglicanism as state religion in order to stabilize his power in England. His opposition to Catholics was not theological, but political (Morton 225). Like Elizabeth, King James I used the bishops to keep the clergy from gaining power independent of the Crown (Gardiner 482). He attempted to lessen the religious tension by remitting the recusancy fines, only to see many former Catholics quitting the Church of England. Infuriated, James banished the Catholic priests from London, which triggered the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 resulting in worsening persecution of the Catholics (Gardiner 483). John Donne was born to Catholic parents. In his youth, his mother employed Catholic tutors for him. In Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Donne was an excellent student but he couldn’t take a degree in either university due to his Catholic belief. For the same reason, his chance in society was very slight. As has been stated earlier in this dissertation (See 1.2.2 p26ff), it was quite likely that Donne’s frustration in politics drove him to his change of faith. Through his poems, we can see how he obviously experienced intense mental struggles while exploring religious truth. Donne persisted in searching for God among the wrangling theologians, and refrained from coming to any decision until he had “surveyed and digested the whole body of Divinity, controverted between ours and the Roman Church” according to Walton (Carey 30, 26). In 1610, Donne finished Pseudo-Martyr, in which he calls the Catholics remaining true to their faith “pseudo-martyrs.” “When the King had read and considered that book, he persuaded Mr. Donne to enter into the ministry” (Walton 340).

104 In 1611, another book of Donne’s, Ignatius His Conclave, came out to attack Catholic extremism. Though Donne still wanted a political promotion, King James insisted on giving him a holy post because of his great learning in religion. Having lost hope for political success, Donne accepted ordination and was made a clergyman in the Church of England in 1615. Since then he put all his energy into the pursuit of religious truth, immersing himself in religion and concentrating on divine meditation. He became a royal chaplain, and in 1621 Dean of St Paul’s and a famous preacher.

3.1.2 Religious Meditation in Donne’s Poetry

The Divine Poems, full of passionate and emotional intensity, anatomize Donne’s inner world. Touched by Christ’s mercy, Donne praises Christ from the bottom of his heart. However, Donne was fully aware of his sins, especially his change in faith and his excessive indulgence in profane love. In “Holy Sonnet XIX,” he confesses, “I change in vows, and in devotion. / As humorous is my contrition / As my profane love [ ]” (4-6). Baffled among sin, death, judgement, and resurrection, he was extremely scared by the desperate situation of the Day of Judgement. Tortured by terror and agony, he realized that the only way to walk out of the shadow of death was to trust mighty God. In order to win his salvation, he petitioned God for mercy by repenting of his sins. In the Divine Poems, Donne’s desire for God’s love, the desire to be purged of sinfulness and his longing to defeat mortality are demonstrated in three aspects: praise of Christ, meditation on death and repentance for his sins. Throughout the Divine Poems, the language is usually forceful and even harsh. In his later years, Donne pondered deeply over religion. On the one hand, tormented by his religious identity, he struggled to find out which was the true Church. On the other hand, with deep regret at his past seeking of worldly pleasure, he was eager to win God’s forgiveness through his sincere repentance. Naturally, his later poems are preoccupied with profound meditations marked with such emotions as regret, hate, fear, desire and

105 repentance. According to Christianity, everyone was born with original sin, which degenerates human souls and prevents men from returning to God after death. In order to save human beings, God sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to the earthly world. Later, Jesus Christ was crucified, but he used his blood to wash men’s sins. In La Corona, Donne sang highly of Christ’s self-sacrifice: “Now thou art lifted up, draw me to Thee, / And at Thy death giving such liberal dole, / Moist, with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul” (“Crucifying” 12-14). In Donne’s Divine Poems, the praise of Christ is an important subject. There are a large group of poems concerning Donne’s profound meditation on events in Christ’s life or on some religious symbols related to Christ. La Corona, including 7 sonnets all addressed to Christ, centers on the Incarnation and takes materials from the life of Christ. The title, La Corona, contains two implications. Literally, it refers to a crown or wreath, but structurally since the first and last lines of each sonnet are the same, the seven sonnets are held together through repetition of lines to form one whole poem. More important, the first and last lines of the poem, being identical, make the whole poem appear like a corona or circle. If we look into the content, the seven sonnets present a sequence of events in Christ’s life. Except Sonnet 1, which serves as an introductory prayer to God, each of the other six sonnets centers on an event in the life of Christ under the title of “Annunciation,” “Nativity,” “Temple,” “Crucifying,” “Resurrection,” and “Ascension” respectively. Thus, the whole poem is a “crown of prayer and praise” (“La Corona” 1, “Ascension” 14). In order to save man from sins, God sent Jesus Christ down to the world. This is said to be the beginning of the mysterious life of Christ, which was associated with human beings’ redemption and the “Salvation to all that will is nigh” (“La Corona” 14). The next two sonnets, mainly about the birth of Christ, are devoted to the Virgin Mary. According to the Holy Scriptures, human beings were born with original sin which

106 came from Adam and Eve. In “Annunciation,” though Jesus Christ is in the Virgin Mary’s womb, he “Can take no sin” (7). For the Virgin Mary, Christ is both her “Son and Brother” (10) whom she “conceiv’st, conceived” (11). Meanwhile, for Christ, she is “Thy Maker’s maker, and thy Father’s mother” (12). Sonnet 3, “Nativity,” is about Christ’s birth: “Yet lay him in this stall, and from the Orient, / Stars, and wisemen will travel to prevent / The effect of Herod’s jealous general doom” (6-8). Sonnet 4, “Temple,” is devoted to Joseph’s finding of Christ in the temple. From Joseph’s eyes, Christ’s miraculous power began to show:

Joseph, turn back; see where your child doth sit, Blowing, yea blowing out those sparks of wit, Which Himself on the Doctors did bestow; The Word but lately could not speak, and lo, It suddenly speaks wonders; whence comes it, That all which was, and all which should be writ, A shallow seeming child, should deeply know? His Godhead was not soul to His manhood, Nor had time mellowed Him to this ripeness, But as for one which hath a long task, ‘tis good, With the Sun to begin his business, He in his age’s morning thus began By miracles exceeding power of man. (2-14)

In Sonnet 5, “Crucifying,” Donne depicts a series of events, the sentencing of Christ, his pain, the bearing of the cross and finally his death. With his blood, man, including the poet, got salvation: “And at Thy death giving such liberal dole, / Moist, with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul” (13-14). In short, these four sonnets, “Annunciation,” “Nativity,” “Temple” and “Crucifying” are actually in the mode of praise, though praise

107 here does not mean hymnal praise but rather meditative wonder and admiration over the mysteries of redemption (Lewalski, “John Donne” 167). In Sonnet 6, “Resurrection,” however, Christ used his blood to save men from sins. At the same time, his resurrection symbolized the conquest over death, which largely freed the poet from the fear of death and the Last Day of Judgement:

Moist with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul Shall (though she now be in extreme degree Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly) be Freed by that drop, from being starv’d, hard, or foul, And life, by this death abled, shall control Death, whom Thy death slew; [ ] (1-6)

Finally, Sonnet 7, “Ascension,” ends the poem with Christ’s return to God. Jesus Christ, “this Sun, and Son” (2) “treads upon” (6) the clouds, “uprising” (2) and “ascending” (7) to heaven. In this way, the life circle of Christ is perfectly presented through the circular structure of the poem. In sum, through his meditation on the life of Christ in La Corona, Donne praises Christ’s sacrificing himself to save mankind and prays for his own resurrection.” Besides La Corona, Donne wrote about Christ in other religious poems. In “Holy Sonnet XI” and “Holy Sonnet XIII,” Donne presented Christ’s crucifixion in his imagination. In “Sonnet XI,” he assumed he was crucified as Christ and undertook Christ’s suffering. According to the Bible, the Jews put Christ on the cross. The poet confesses his “ sins, which pass the Jews’ impiety” (6) so he asks the Jews to “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side, / Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me, / For I have sinn’d, and sinn’d” (1-3). He knew he really deserved the humiliation and punishment because of his great sins. However, Christ “who could do no iniquity, hath died” (4) because he was willing to use his blood to wash men’s sins, just as the Holy

108 Bible says, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). In striking contrast with the poet’s culpability of punishment, Christ’s infinite mercy appears more brilliant. In “Holy Sonnet XIII,” Donne conjures up a vivid picture of Christ’s crucifixion:

Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell, The picture of Christ crucified, and tell Whether that countenance can thee affright, Tears in His eyes quench the amazing light, Blood fills His frowns, which from His pierc’d head fell. (2-6)

Meditating upon Christ’s suffering, the poet’s faith became stronger and stronger. In the past, he used to admire his profane mistresses. Now he has changed his position and attributed Beauty to Christ instead:

but as in my idolatry I said to all my profane mistresses, Beauty, of pity, foulness only is A sign of rigor: so I say to thee, To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assign’d, This beauteous form assures a piteous mind. (9-14)

Alongside some mysterious events in Christ’s life, Donne also meditates on some religious symbols associated with Christ. “The Cross” is an early religious poem written by Donne. It mainly discusses and justifies the significance of an emblem, the cross, on which Christ was crucified. According to Lewalski, “The poem relates to the controversy in the early seventeenth century over Puritan pressures to abolish the cross in the churches and the sign of the

109 cross in baptism, as relics of Popish superstition” (“John Donne” 165). The poem opens with the poet’s condemnation on those who intend to dispose of the cross:

Since Christ embrac’d the Cross itself, dare I His image, the image of his Cross deny? Would I have profit by the sacrifice, And dare the chosen altar to despise? It bore all other sins, but is it fit That it should bear the sin of scorning it? Who from the picture would avert his eye, How would he fly his pains, who there did die? (1-8)

On the Cross, Christ was put to death. With his blood, Christ saved humanity from sins. The Cross is not merely an instrument of Christ but has turned into a significant symbolic figure, which represents Christ’s mercy and generosity. Thus, “no pulpit, nor misgrounded law, / Nor scandal taken, shall this Cross withdraw” (9-10). King James I actually rejected the demands to cancel the cross at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604 (Lewalski, “John Donne” 165). The cross can not be abandoned because it is omnipresent not only in our material world but also in our spiritual realm. In “The Cross,” Donne tells us natural crosses exist everywhere in our life:

Who can deny me power, and liberty To stretch mine arms, and mine own Cross to be? Swim, and at every stroke, thou art thy Cross; The mast and yard make one, where seas do toss; Look down, thou spiest out Crosses in small things; Look up, thou seest birds rais’d on crossed wings;

110 All the globe’s frame, and spheres, is nothing else But the meridians crossing parallels. (17-24)

When we stretch our arms and swim with arms extended, we have crosses. Additionally, the mast of a ship, numerous crosses in small things on the ground and the bird’s flying in the sky all contain cross forms. However, these are merely material crosses that are secondary to spiritual ones: “Material Crosses then, good physic be, / But yet spiritual have chief dignity” (25-26). Next, the poet continues to explain how the cross penetrates our spirit:

For ’tis no child, but monster; therefore Cross Your joy in crosses, else, ’tis double loss. And cross thy senses, else, both they, and thou Must perish soon, and to destruction bow. For if the eye seek good objects, and will take No cross from bad, we cannot scape a snake. So with harsh, hard, sour, stinking, cross the rest, Make them indifferent all; call nothing best. But most the eye needs crossing, that can roam, And move; to the others the objects must come home. And cross thy heart: for that in man alone Points downwards, and hath palpitation. Cross those dejections, when it downward tends, And when it to forbidden heights pretends. And as thy brain through bony walls doth vent By sutures, which a cross’s form present, So when thy brain works, ere thou utter it, Cross and correct concupiscence of wit.

111 Be covetous of crosses, let none fall. Cross no man else, but cross thyself in all. (41-60)

In these lines, Donne uses “cross” as noun and verb in several senses to suggest that in the spiritual order we should supply for ourselves spiritual crosses everywhere, on the analogy of their omnipresence in the material world. We should bear our crosses of tribulation and become other Christs crucified; we should cross our very joy in crosses lest it breed pride; we should cross all our senses in their craving for pleasure; we should cross our hearts in their undue defections and exaltations; and we should cross our brain in its “concupiscence of wit” (Lewalski “John Donne” 166). With such serious significance of the cross for us, it is impossible to get rid of it. Instead, we ought to be grateful for “the Cross of Christ” (61) because it does “work fruitfully / Within our hearts” (61-62). Therefore, in this poem, Donne’s determination to search for religious truth is fully demonstrated in his defense of the sanctification of the Cross. Christ was crucified, but his death might redeem mankind. He came from God and finally returned to God. His resurrection proved his immortality or conquest over death. For Donne, nevertheless, death was a total nightmare. In his Divine Poems, Donne meditated upon death and demonstrated his struggle with it. At the beginning, he was always extremely scared by death. “He was uncertain of what death would bring and feared it deeply. An eternity of Hell terrified him but the path to Heaven was unsure to him” (Zee, “An Analysis of Holy Sonnet XIV,” par. 7). But gradually, his fear of death was reduced in his continuous petition for God’s mercy. In the end, he appeared entirely emancipated from the terror of death by his confidence in God’s grace. In some respect, he finally defeated death and won spiritual immortality. The first eight lines of “Holy Sonnet I” reveal Donne’s pitiful state of mind when he is facing death:

Thou hast made me, and shall Thy work decay?

112 Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste, I run to death, and death meets me as fast, And all my pleasures are like yesterday; I dare not move my dim eyes any way, Despair behind, and death before doth cast Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh. (1-8)

In the first line, the poet asks God why He allows his creation to decay, which suggests that the poet is dying physically. He is terrified and asks God to prevent his end by repairing him. However, death is coming so fast that all his pleasures seem meaningless and out of date before it. The pleasures only represent the past joys while death lies in the poet’s near future. Then he is facing “despair behind, and death before” (6). Here “behind” and “before” form a sharp contrast and indicate the poet’s strong fear in the present situation. The poet is in a real dilemma. He cannot live in his pleasures because they belong to the past and he is afraid to go forward because death is just before him. Furthermore, thinking of his sins which are certain to draw him toward hell, he is excessively desperate. At that critical moment, the poet believes that the only one who can save him is God. Naturally, the poet tries to seek salvation from God earnestly. In “Holy Sonnet I,” we find the poet is pleading with God to accept him:

Only Thou art above, and when towards Thee By Thy leave I can look, I rise again; But our old subtle foe so tempteth me That not one hour myself I can sustain; Thy Grace may wing me to prevent his art, And Thou like adamant draw mine iron heart. (9-14)

113

By looking towards God he can “rise again” (10). However, he is so tempted by sin or the devil that he can not stop himself from falling into hell on his own just as he states, “That not one hour myself I can sustain” (12). He asks for God's grace to “prevent” (13) him from succumbing to sin once more (Zee, ‘An Analysis of Holy Sonnet XIV,” par. 2). In the last line, the poet makes use of a simile to indicate the relation between him and God. As adamant (the magnetic loadstone) draws iron, God draws his heart. Thus, God always takes control of man, which is exactly what the poet asks in this sonnet. Only in God’s grace will his fear of death disappear and will he evade falling into hell in future. Though death is terrifying, Donne is still most keen on it in his poems. A great number of his love poems are connected with death or contain some elements of it. However:

Death preponderates in Donne’s religious poems even more markedly than in his love poems. For Donne to think of God is to think of death: that alone will bring him to God. [ ] His God lives in death’s kingdom, and his worship of God entails worship of Death. One reason for his death-craving is that death will put an end to suspense. Dead, he will at last know whether or not he is saved. Though terrified by the Last Judgement, he is also impatient for it. (Carey 202)

Nevertheless, under God’s mercy and grace, death will look more like the end of a play, a pilgrimage or a race than a terrible thing to Donne. In “Holy Sonnet VI,” the poet compares life in this way and considers death relatively calmly:

This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint My pilgrimage’s last mile; and my race Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace,

114 My span’s last inch, my minute’s latest point, And gluttonous death, will instantly unjoint My body and soul, and I shall sleep a space. (1-6)

Under the surface of peacefulness, his fear still lingers however with decreasing intensity: “But my ever-waking part shall see that face, / Whose fear already shakes my every joint” (7-8). Yet no matter how ghastly death looks, it will finally yield to Donne’s strong confidence in God’s infinite mercy. A mighty shout of defiance in “Holy Sonnet VII” proclaims the possibility of a heroic triumph over death:

At the round earth’s imagined corners, blow Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise From death, you numberless infinities Of souls, and to your scatter’d bodies go. (1-4)

In “Holy Sonnet X,” “Death be not Proud,” Donne belittles and even negates death by removing its deathliness: “Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so” (1-2). The essence of death is disclosed by the poet: “From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, / Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow” (5-6). Obviously, Christ’s conquest over death has largely improved the poet’s will and spirit to confront death. Instead of being defeated, Donne is able to face down the fear of death now in this poem. For him, death has lost its threat completely. It is only an instrument for “Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men” (9) and has been reduced to the same place as “poison, war, and sickness” (10). Moreover, the poet has realized that death is the very beginning of a person’s spiritual eternity so he declares to death confidently: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die” (13-14). Thus, “Holy Sonnet X” displays the

115 poet’s total victory over death. The joyous conquest over death in “Sonnet X” leads to a profound meditation upon the mysterious relationship between death and eternity in “Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness.” According to Izaak Walton (1593-1683), Donne’s biographer, Donne wrote this poem during a serious illness in December 1623 to reveal his psychological condition near his death. The poem begins with his imagination in “that holy room” which refers to heaven. The imagery of music in the first stanza plays two roles. On the one hand, it is in accordance with the title of this poem, “Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness.” On the other hand, it serves as a link between the poet and God. From the first two lines: “Since I am coming to that holy room / Where, with Thy Choir of Saints for evermore” (1-2), we know the poet is coming to heaven to take part in God’s Choir. Furthermore, the poet will not only tune the instrument to make music but also join God’s music to be part of it, namely, he has won God’s salvation and achieved eternity. The geographic images in the next two stanzas also hint the same thing. For instance, in Stanza 3, the poet imagines himself lying on his deathbed as a flat map: “As west and east / In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, / So death doth touch the resurrection” (13-15). West is where the sun goes down, which signifies death, while east is where the sun at the same time rises again, which signifies resurrection. Here in this poem, “west (death) and east (resurrection) act to double presence by retaining both their directional signification and their spiritual symbolism. The initial directional paradox is resolved by the deeper spiritual symbols of death and resurrection” (McNees 200). Just as the farthest west and east meet each other in all flat maps, death does touch the resurrection in the end. His illness brings him both death and a new life at the same time. No longer scared by death, he takes death as a necessary step to spiritual immortality. Death is not fearful any more because what ceases to be is only his physical body, whereas his spirit or his soul will forever last. Death and immortality are always linked together closely. According to the Bible, Adam, the first man made by God, brought death to his descendants while Jesus Christ,

116 God’s son, gives salvation to humanity with his blood. In the fifth stanza of “Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness,” the poet explains the union of death and resurrection in detail:

We think that Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross, and Adam’s tree, stood in one place; Look Lord, and find both Adams met in me; As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face, May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace. (21-25)

Here “Paradise” is the Holy land where Adam committed the original sin and brought death to the mortal world and “Calvary” is the hill where Jesus Christ was crucified on a Friday, but he was resurrected on Sunday. However, the poet tells us these two are exactly the same spot. That is to say, death and resurrection exist in the same place. “The first Adam” in the poem refers to the first man created by God, and “the last Adam” refers to Jesus Christ, God’s son. The first Adam dies while the last Adam comes back to life. “Both Adams met in me” (23) means the poet is experiencing physical death and spiritual resurrection at the same time. The last line in Stanza 2, “Per fretum febris (through fever’s raging heat), by these straits to die,” indicates that Donne had a high fever. “Sweat” from the fever is identical to the first Adam’s sweat from hard work. Due to his sin, Adam was driven out of Paradise and deprived of immortality. He had to toil “by the sweat of his brow” to make a living, until death. As for Donne, the sweat from fever which was the main reason for his near death echoes Adam’s sweat, but the poet’s soul may still embrace the last Adam’s blood from the Cross because though Christ was crucified and bled, he rose up again from death. Furthermore, the poet knows Christ’s blood will wash away his sins and give him a new life. Nevertheless, “the poet is always fearfully aware that we cannot command such triumphs for ourselves, and that we may have part in them at all only by submitting

117 ourselves to a course of repentance that will open us to God’s grace at last” (Smith, “John Donne” 88). Moreover, “Death of sin can only be achieved by repentance and self-sacrifice, an emptying out of bodily evil” (McNees 194). Thus, genuine repentance for his sins is a prerequisite if Donne desires God’s grace and final unification with God. In Christianity, anything against God’s will is regarded to be sinful. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit without God’s permission. Then they came to realize it was shameful to be naked. Since then, the sin committed by Adam and Eve has been inherited by human beings from generation to generation. Everyone is born to such original sin. Even a newly born baby is attached to it and needs to be redeemed by Jesus Christ. In order to atone for their sin, human beings must be pious to God and Jesus Christ, restrain their lust, stand all the sufferings in the world, be meek to God and petition for God’s blessing and forgiveness. Only in this way can they redeem their sins and go to heaven after death. Like La Corona, A Litany is also a whole sequence of poems containing 28 small pieces or stanzas. Besides 13 poems with definite titles, another 15 poems are numbered but titleless. The central theme of A Litany is Donne’s pleading with God to deliver him from his sins. With similar schemes in rhyme and meter, it demonstrates Donne’s torment and sobriety. “The Father” apparently reveals such a state of Donne’s mind: “From this red earth, O Father, purge away / All vicious tinctures, that new fashioned / I may rise up from death, before I’m dead” (7-9).1 “This red earth” refers to the first man God made, Adam. Donne hopes for all his sins to be cleared away by God so that he will be re-created and regain a new life. Donne’s meditation in the following 27 small poems also focuses on this theme. In order to be free from his sins, the poet is willing to undertake Christ’s crucifixion within himself: “O be thou nail’d unto my heart, / And crucified againe” (14-15). Apart from the original sin, what are the other specific sins the poet repents of? In “The Holy Ghost,” Donne exposes them clearly:

1 C. A. Patrides, ed. The Complete English Poems of John Donne. London: J.M. Dent, 1985, p457. 118

O Holy Ghost, whose temple I Am, but of mudde walls, and condensed dust, And being sacrilegiously Halfe wasted with youths fires, of pride and lust, Must with new stormes be weatherbeat; Double in my heart thy flame, Which let devout sad teares intend; and let (Though this glasse lanthorne, flesh, do suffer maime) Fire, Sacrifice, Priest, Altar be the same. (19-27)

In this part, Donne expresses his regret at wasting his youthful passion on erotic lust. He prays for God’s forgiveness and is determined to devote the rest of his life to Him though he is extremely weak and frail because at the time this poem was written, Donne was seriously ill and was confined in bed.1 He implores the Holy Ghost to purge and purify his heart of sins with flame. And he asks the entire Trinity to make him a new man through its united power, love and knowledge: “Of these let all me elemented be, / Of power, to love, to know, you unnumbered three” (35-36). In the following small poems on the Virgin Mary, the angels, and other various saints, the poet prays God to let them play an important and often precisely appropriate role in his spiritual life (Lewalski, “John Donne” 168). The Holy Sonnets also abound with the sense of repentance. For example, in “Holy Sonnet III, IV” and “V,” the poet’s grief for sin and efforts to repent are well revealed. In “Holy Sonnet III,” Donne expresses repentance for his past worldly pleasure and makes a strong plea for God’s forgiveness. In the past, the poet wasted seas of sighs

1 “ ‘Since my imprisonment in my bed’, Donne wrote to his friend Henry Goodyer in 1609 or 1610, ‘I have made a meditation in verse which I call a Litany; the word you know imports no other than supplication’ ”(qtd. in Patrides: 457). 119 and tears on profane love but no matter how many tears the poet offered and no matter how heart-broken he was during the pursuit of erotic love, he mourned in vain and acquired nothing. The grief and misery in the past were fruitless. Now he is deeply regretful:

O might those sighs and tears return again Into my breast and eyes, which I have spent, That I might in this holy discontent Mourn with some fruit, as I have mourned in vain; In my idolatry what showers of rain Mine eyes did waste? What griefs my heart did rent? (1-6)

The poet now comes to realize that all the suffering was his sin and he must repent of this: “That sufferance was my sin; now I repent” (7). He is determined to give up worldly desires and devote himself completely to God. He hopes that he may “mourn with some fruit”1 (4) in his piety to God. Then, even those people like “The hydroptic drunkard and night-scouting thief, / The itchy lecher and self-tickling proud” (9-10) get relieved. Yet, the poet is still not forgiven by God: “To poor me is allowed / No ease” (12-13). In the end, he is left in “long, yet vehement grief” (13), which he believes to be “The effect and cause, the punishment and sin” (14), which are caused by his sins. After reading the poem, we can strongly feel the poet’s great agonies when his efforts to repent seem futile. The first eight lines of “Holy Sonnet IV” give another depiction of the poet’s dreadful despair when he is facing his sinful soul:

Oh my black soul! now thou art summonèd

1 Donne desires the “fruit” of repentance promised in Psalm 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtlesse come again with rejoicing; bringing his sheaves with him” (qtd. in Lewalski: “John Donne” 168). 120 By sickness, death’s herald, and champion; Thou art like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled, Or like a thief, which till death’s doom be read, Wisheth himself deliverèd from prison; But damn’d and hal’d to execution, Wisheth that still he might be imprisonèd. (1-8)

The word, “black” connotes sin and evil. The poet finds his soul soaked in sins and summoned by sickness. It is like a traitor or a thief under the sentence of death. These similes show that the poet is fully aware how serious his sins in the past have been, so he desires to be cleansed. Then, in the following sestet, he finds a suitable way to free himself from his sins, and that is to repent:

Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack; But who shall give thee that grace to begin? Oh make thyself with holy mourning black, And red with blushing, as thou art with sin; Or wash thee in Christ’s blood, which hath this might That being red, it dyes red souls to white. (9-14)

In his sincere repentance, he seems to be bathed in God’s grace. The black color which represents his previous sins now turns to holy mourning black. Then, his struggling soul which has been red in shame is washed in Christ’s blood and becomes white or pure in the end (McNees 202). Tortured by his sins, the poet envisions some appropriate manners of repentance so as to be emancipated from the sins and acquire his salvation. In “Sonnet III,” he wishes the sighs and tears spent on profane love returned to his breast and eyes so he

121 could mourn with some fruit, but in vain. In “Sonnet V”, he once again prays God for the same thing: “Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might / Drown my world with my weeping earnestly” (7-8). But he soon realizes that his petition is doomed to be ineffective because the world “must be drown’d no more” (9). However, with the growth of his faith in God, the poet realizes that nothing is impossible to God (Lewalski, “John Donne” 170). The best way to repent is to be sincere with God so as to get God’s forgiveness. Only in God’s infinite mercy can one attain a final unification with Him. With entire confidence in God, the poet gives his own true repentance in “Holy Sonnet VIII.” Though some people also present their love to God, they are merely idolatrous and pharisaical:

They see idolatrous lovers weep and mourn, And vile blasphemous conjurers to call On Jesus’ name, and pharisaical Dissemblers feign devotion. [ ] (9-12)

Compared with their superficial grief and false devotion, the poet has “white truth” (8) in his mind and dares to turn his soul to God directly, and he is sure that God can understand his sincerity: “for He knows best / Thy true grief, for He put it in my breast” (13-14). Thus, after a Christian confesses his sins to God, his evil soul will be purged by God’s mercy granted. Meanwhile, man created by God may finally return to Him through humility, penitence and grace, irrespective of the rational direction his life has taken (Partridge 145). “A Hymn to God the Father” in particular provides insight into this point. Here the poet exposes his repentance for his sins step by step. The first stanza is concerned with the original sin: “[ ] that sin where I begun, / Which was my sin, though it were done before?” (1-2) and with the sin he has at present, “that sin through which I run” (3). However, Donne knows his confession of these sins can not win him God’s forgiveness 122 because he has more sins. In the second stanza, he continues to repent:

Wilt Thou forgive that sin by which I won Others to sin? and, made my sin their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun A year or two: but wallow’d in a score? (7-10)

Until now, things are still far from over. With so many sins mentioned above, Donne has the last sin: “I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun / My last thread, I shall perish on the shore” (13-14) in the last stanza. However, the divine poems of Donne are poems of faith, not of vision (Gardner, John Donne 222). Therefore, his fear disappears and the poem ends in assurance:

But swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son Shall shine as He shines now, and heretofore; And, having done that, Thou hast done, I have no more. (15-18).

The mercy of God seems always greater than the poet’s sins, so finally he believes he is unified with God. Thus, if only he can repent, he is sure to secure grace and be saved: “grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack” (“Holy Sonnet IV” 9). Furthermore, “the verbs in the last two lines are in the present or present perfect, not the conditional or future perfect. Donne has persuaded himself that indeed God has Donne” (Reid 85).

3.1.3 Secular Feature in Donne’s Divine Poetry

In his later years, Donne abandoned many of the secular subjects he had been busy with, and put almost all his attention to sacred affairs. However, he could not be totally divorced from reality though he had entered the Church. Like all thinking men of the

123 time, Donne was aware of the new learning in his day and we can easily find traces of it in his poetry from both periods, first and second. In his love poetry, profane love is portrayed in terms of geography, medicine, botany, war and law, thereby widely extending ways of expression. In his Divine Poems, similar imageries and expressions add a secular flavor to divinity. Concerning elements of new knowledge in Donne’s holy poems, those in geography are most conspicuous. In Donne’s lifetime, increasing knowledge of the world’s surface was causing as much excitement as increasing knowledge of the Cosmos so that he frequently made use of geographical images in his poetry (Bennett 35). Typical examples can be found in “Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness”:

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown That this is my south-west discovery Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,

I joy that in these straits I see my West; For, though their currents yield return to none, What shall my West hurt me? As West and East In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, So death doth touch the Resurrection.

Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are The Eastern riches? Is Jerusalem? Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar, All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them, Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Sem. (6-20)

124 When this poem was written, Donne was seriously ill (Grierson, Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems 263). Throughout the six stanzas of the poem, the images in geography dominate. The physicians around the poet are compared to “cosmographers,” (those who study the structure of the universe, including the science of map-making); his body to their flat map and his dying experience is just a “south-west discovery” by the “straits.” In his The Starry Heavens: English Renaissance Poetry and Traditional Cosmology, Hu Jialuan gives a detailed explanation to this “south-west discovery.” Here “south-west” has double meanings. Geographically, it refers to the route of the great discovery of the Strait of Magellan by Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) in 1520. Just as Magellan was killed (eaten!) by the natives after he left the Strait and arrived in the Philippine Islands, Donne knew he had the same fate due to his serious sickness, here referred to as the “straits” (54) (“Straits” here is actually a pun meaning not only a “narrow passage of water connecting two seas” but also “an extremely difficult situation, such as illness or lack of money”). Figuratively, “south” implies heat while “north” gives a hint of cold just as “Without sharp North, without declining West?” (18) in “The Good-morrow.” “Declining West” suggests a condition of deterioration, or “death.” “Per fretum febris” (through fever’s raging heat) in the last line of the second stanza indicates what kind of sickness Donne had. It suggests that his experience to death is similar to Magellan’s south-west voyage through tropical regions. In the third stanza, the poet uses “West” as a metaphor of death directly in “I joy that in these straits I see my West; / For though their currents yield return to none, / What shall my West hurt me?” (11-13). Next, the poet relates “West” with “East” which is associated with Christ, the rising sun and resurrecting Son. Death and life mix into one just “as West and East / In all flat maps (and I am one) are one, / So death doth touch the resurrection” (13-15).1 Thus, death and life form a circle and death is only a link in it. In Stanza 4, Donne goes on listing some places like “the Pacific Sea,” “The Eastern riches,” “Jerusalem” and

1 “The flat map in which the farthest west and east meet” is a favorite geographical image for Donne. In “Upon the Annunciation and Passion Falling upon One Day. 1608,” it also appears: “(As in plain maps, the furthest west is east) / Of the Angels Ave, and Consummatum est” (21-22). 125 straits like “Anyan,” “Magellan” and “”Gibraltar.” “The Pacific Sea,” “The Eastern riches,” “Jerusalem” are supposed to be homes of the poet. “ ‘The Pacific Sea’ not only refers to the largest ocean on earth, but the word ‘Pacific’ also means “peaceful”; “The Eastern riches” certainly refers to East India which is covered with gold in European traditional belief; and “Jerusalem” is a celestial city so all the three places are marked with a paradisiac feature” (Hu Jialuan, The Starry Heavens 55). However, such straits (Notice the pun on this word) as “Anyan,” “Magellan” and “Gibraltar” must be passed through before the poet can arrive at any paradisiac haven. Thus it is clear that in this poem, Donne makes use of the literal meaning and the connotation of geographical images successfully and presents a true account of his meditation on death. Meanwhile, Donne must have been interested in other subjects such as medicine and war. In his poetry, he used medical terms to describe his feelings. In “Holy Sonnet XVII,” he compares his desire for God to a dropsy: “But though I have found Thee, and Thou my thirst hast fed, / A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet” (7-8). Similarly, in “Holy Sonnet XIX,” his enthusiasm for religion comes and goes away as an ague does: “So my devout fits come and go away / Like a fantastic ague: save that here / Those are my best days, when I shake with fear” (12-14). In order to display the violent struggles in his mind, Donne employs a series of words and images concerning war in “Holy Sonnet XIV”:

I, like an usurp’d town, to another due, Labor to admit You, but Oh, to no end; Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love You, and would be lovèd fain, But am betrothed unto Your enemy. (5-10)

Here, “usurp’d”, “defend”, “captiv’d” and “Your enemy” are all related to war affairs. By using these words and expressions, the poet seems to launch a war between his 126 heavy sins and God’s grace. The poet himself is the object the two sides desire to obtain. In this way, Donne hints that his sins are so great that only through violent force can he be saved by God. In addition to the various images connected with the mundane world, the sensual language also helps to highlight the secular feature in Donne’s divine poems. For Donne, love and religion are the two main topics throughout his life. In his early years, though his interest was mainly concentrated on love poetry, religion can still be sensed in many of his poems. In “The Relic,” by putting a lover’s body in the place of idolatry, Donne actually attacks the use of relics in the Roman Catholic Church.1 In his religious poems, Donne turns his attention from profane love to divinity. However, erotic elements sometimes still linger and they add a sense of secularity to the sacred topic. For example, “Holy Sonnet XIV” reveals Donne’s anxiety to attain unification with God. In this sonnet a theme associated with violence and sexual conquest is present. The poet is asking God to ravish him (What blasphemy!). God is in the role of the male aggressor while the speaker is in the traditional subordinate female role (Zee, “An Analysis of Holy Sonnet XIV,” par. 1) The poem opens by asking God to “batter my heart” (1). According to Craig Payne, the word “heart” “also being Elizabethan slang for the vagina” had a sexual connotation in Donne's time (qtd. in Zee: “An Analysis of Holy Sonnet XIV,” par. 2). Besides this image, there are other expressions related to erotic love in the following lines to suggest an inseparable relationship Donne expects to have with God. Like a town that is being held at siege, he hopes God will win over the defense and take him. Surely, he loves God and hopes God loves him too. Unfortunately, the poet is “betrothed unto Your enemy” (10), which refers to the devil and his sins. Like someone trapped in a bad marriage he must be “divorced” (11) or “untied” (11). He cannot break away alone and he must have God’s help. He asks God to “take,” “imprison” (12), “enthrall” (13) him so as to be completely free from his past sins. “In the most shocking request of all the speaker asks God to

1 In the Reformed Church, the use of relics had been abandoned. 127 ravish him so that he can be ‘free’ (13) and ‘chaste’ (14). It is the act of being ravished or raped that will free the poet from his sin” (Zee, “An Analysis of Holy Sonnet XIV,” par. 3, 4). Thus, Donne expresses his love and hope to God just as a lustful woman does to her lover. In “Holy Sonnet XVIII,” Donne attempts to search for the true Church in a fairly bold sexual paradox (Smith, “John Donne” 90), which attaches something secular to the holy subject. By comparing Christ to a husband and the Church to his spouse, the poet endeavors to find out the true identity of Christ’s wife: “What! is it She, which on the other shore / Goes richly painted? or which robbed and tore / Laments and mourns in Germany and here?” (2-4). Here the former refers to the Roman Catholic Church and the latter refers to the Reformed Church. However, it is very difficult to identify which Church is the real one because a sea of paradoxes exists:

Sleeps she a thousand, then peeps up one year? Is she self truth and errs? now new, now outwore? Doth she, and did she, and shall she evermore On one, on seven, or on no hill appear? Dwells she with us, or like adventuring knights First travel we to seek and then make love? (5-10)

Thus, the only way to make sure of the true Church is to beg Christ to be a “kind husband” to betray “Thy spouse to our sights, / And let mine amorous soul court Thy mild dove, / Who is most true, and pleasing to Thee, then / When she is embrac’d and open to most men” (11-14). In this way, Donne has compared the Church to a prostitute, which virtually associates the holy world with the secular world. I. A. Richards once defined a poet in his Principles of Literary Criticism, “The greatest difference between the poet and the ordinary person is found, as has often been pointed out, in the range, delicacy, and freedom of the connections he is able to make between different elements of his experience” (qtd. in Bennett: 13). Donne is a perfect 128 example to illustrate this point. In his Divine Poems, he explores divinity in the same way as he explores his profane love in his secular poetry.

3.2 Wang Wei’s Chan Poetry

In his later period, Buddhism played an important part in Wang Wei’s life and works. Weary of the plots and wrangles of officialdom, he withdrew into his country house in Wangchuan to live a half-official-half-recluse life. Placing himself amid beautiful surroundings in nature, he meditated a lot upon Chan Buddhism and wrote down his thoughts and feelings in poetry. Since from experience he felt that nature was inseparable from Chan and fresh ideas and inspiration often came from practising Chan, Wang Wei chose to be part of nature living with the mountains, rivers, woods and fields in perfect contentment. Consequently he produced a great bulk of Chan poetry, especially nature poetry with Chan conception. Xu Zeng (1612-1671), a noted poetry critic in the Qing Dynasty, thus commented on Wang Wei’s poetry in his From Er’an on Poetry, “Wang Wei is well versed in Buddhism; all his words and lines of poetry follow this saintly religion.”1

3.2.1 Influence of Buddhism

Wang Wei’s devotion to Chan has long been acknowledged as an important fact in Chinese literature, and sufficient authentic evidence can be found not only from historical records but also in his own as well as his contemporaries’ poems. According to the biographical accounts in the Book of Tang2 and Lives of Tang Talents, Wang Wei and his brother Wang Jin followed Buddhism. Both were strict vegetarians abstaining from eating any meat. Generally speaking, three factors are responsible for Wang Wei’s

1 The Chinese version of Xu Zeng’s remarks are, 摩诘精大雄氏之学 篇章字句皆合圣教 徐增 而庵 诗话 2 旧唐书 129 piety towards Buddhism: social surroundings, home environment, and political setbacks. First, in the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism was unprecedentedly widespread; Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism influenced one another and were all permitted by the imperial court. During the reign of Emperor Tai Zong (599-649, Rn 626-649), Master Xuan Zang (602-664)1 returned to China (AD 645) after a 17-year study tour of Buddhism in India, cradle of this great religion. Xuan Zang brought with him large quantities of Buddhist scriptures. The emperor highly valued Xuan Zang and his incomparable achievements and helped him to organize thousands of monks and learned scholars to translate the scriptures into Chinese. The famous novel Pilgrimage to the West by Wu Cheng’en (1500?-1582) was based on the author’s inspiration from this historical event. Never in any era in China had Buddhism had such a large following. Under such favorable conditions Chan, a Chinese sect of Buddhism, developed rapidly. Distinguished Chan masters were treated with great respect and honour by people in the upper class. Shen Xiu (606-706),2 well-known master of the northern school of Chan, met with warm welcome in the capital city Chang’an. According to the Book of Tang, when one of Shen Xiu’s disciples went to Luoyang, the eastern capital, in 723, he was enthusiastically received by the nobility and the local officials on his way. In 734, Shen Hui (668-760),3 a disciple of Hui Neng (638-713)4 the sixth master of Chan, as well as head of the southern school, had a hot debate with the northern school and preached “sudden enlightenment” as opposed to the northern theory of “gradual enlightenment.” Shen Hui went to Luoyang the following year and won back dominance over the northern school. The influence thus became so strong that numerous scholars and officials followed Chan. It was said that some scholars were so devoted that they even gave up their ambition to rise in officialdom and completely

1 玄奘 2 神秀 3 神会 4 慧能 130 changed into Chan practisers. Wang Wei never left officialdom totally behind, though his attainments in Chan were above those of most other scholars, even the monks, of his time. Especially in his remaining years, in spite of his official post, he lived a recluse life and maintained a peaceful heart in the vanity fair of the day. Different from the monks who usually practised one school of Chan, Wang Wei got in touch with monks from various schools and learned from them all. He wrote memorial inscriptions both for Shen Xiu and Hui Neng, the two masters of opposing Chan schools. Apart from learning from the masters, Wang Wei read Buddhist scriptures extensively, and was therefore well versed in them. In addition to favorable religious policy and social environment, Wang Wei’s mother exercised a great influence on him. Back in AD 708 or 709 when Wang Wei was merely 8 or 9 years old, his mother formally became a pupil of a famous Chan master. For more than 30 years, she lived a simple life as a pious Buddhist strict in every way. Under her influence, Wang Wei and his brother Wang Jin were close to Buddhism from childhood. Partially for his mother’s sake, Wang Wei even contributed his villa to the state, which was converted to a Buddhist temple in his later years. Nevertheless, the most important reason for Wang Wei’s devotion to Buddhism was his misfortune in life and political career. In his early years, Wang Wei was quite ambitious for success in politics. He won a position in the imperial court and gained great honor through his poetry. However, heavy blows befell him one after another. For one thing, his wife died when he was barely more than 30 years old. We don’t know much about his wife, but we know he felt deeply grieved over the loss and remained a widower for the rest of his life. In this his case was similar to that of John Donne who also never married again after the death of his wife Ann More. In the official arena, the manipulation of power by court minister Li Linfu for personal ends and the An Lushan-Shi Siming Rebellion almost ruined his hopes in politics. After edging Zhang Jiuling, chief minister and poet, out of the imperial court, Li Linfu grasped all power in his own hands. As Prime Minister, he was 131 neither just nor fair but insidious, sinister and treacherous. Everyone, except the emperor and the crown prince, feared and hated him. Wang Wei was no exception. Under Li’s powerful control, many officials became his followers. Honest and upright, Wang Wei was reluctant to heap praises or eulogies on Li in order to get promoted. Struggling amid the various conflicts, he was greatly pained. In order to relieve his spiritual agony, Wang Wei immersed himself in Buddhism for consolation. The corrupt politics soon led to a catastrophe for the state. In 755, An Lushan and Shi Siming rebelled against the imperial court. Wang Wei was late in following others to catch up with the emperor fleeing southwest to Sichuan, and was caught. He was forced to serve the rebel force for a time, and after the rebellion was put down, he was put in prison. His imprisonment would have gone on but the new emperor Su Zong (711-762, Rn 756-761) was shown a poem Wang Wei had written in captivity,1 felt how Wang Wei had longed for the return of the imperial rule, took pity, and reappointed him. All these unfortunate events totally disappointed Wang Wei and deepened his faith in Buddhism. Depressed and disillusioned, he was filled with resentment and anger, which certainly helped to make his poetry different from his first period. Instead of expressing his bitterness directly, Wang Wei chose to fade away into poetry and Buddhism. Withdrawing into his Wangchuan Villa, he dissolved gladly into the mountains and rivers and wrote a lot of successful nature poems which at the same time are typical Chan poems. Before the Rebellion, Wang Wei did a lot of work on Buddhist scriptures and doctrines. Having experienced so many misfortunes in life, he began to abandon luxury and take comfort to live a simple life like a real Buddhist. As was recorded in the Book of Tang, Wang Wei became a strict vegan and relinquished flowery clothing in his remaining years. Though he was later appointed Deputy Minister, his simple way of life remained unchanged. In addition, he offered food for quite a number of monks in the capital city every day. Every time after an audience given by the emperor, Wang Wei

1 “Composed by the Dark Blue Pool,” q.v. pp30-31. 132 would bury himself in meditation. He depicts this kind of life in a poem:

When Age comes on I’m not in the mood to compose, Wherever I saunter sure Old Age there goes. Throughout this life I’am wrongly styled a poet; But prior to this I was a painter, I know it! This prelife’s habit can’t be dropped entire, By chance it was known to men of the world and, why er My names both tell the story from its source1 Though slow for my mind to understand the course.2

This poem tells us Wang Wei’s great reputation as poet and painter. However, when he got older, what he preferred was Buddhism. Wang Wei had another name, Mojie, and his two names put together, Weimojie, was a shortened form of the Sanskrit transliteration Vimalakirti (Unsullied Name), one of the assistants to Sakyamuni (ca. 565-485 BC), founder of Buddhism. Therefore, Wang Wei felt naturally attached to Buddhism, and this can be seen in his poems of the later period. As a great poet and learned scholar in the study of Buddhist scriptures, Wang Wei reflected his personal life experience as Buddhist and revealed his understanding in poetry. Some of his Chan poems simply expounded and propagated Buddhist doctrines, and have been considered dull and dry. However, most of his Chan poems were mature productions of poetic skill and Buddhist thought. Buddhist influence led Wang Wei’s poetry to a new stage and helped him to write the few best Chan poems in Chinese literature. Having gone through so many ups and downs, Wang Wei had gained rich experience in life, which brought about plentiful themes for poetry. Young and active,

1 Wang Wei has two given names, Wei and Mojie, both from Buddhist scriptures believed to help followers see through life and its many forms. Something like, or perhaps even more mysterious than, the Pierian Spring. 2 This is the last of six poems bearing the general title Casual Lines, which originally reads: “老来懒赋诗 惟有 老相随 宿世谬词客 前生应画师 不能舍余习 偶被世人知 名字本皆是 此心还不知 ” 王维 偶然作 其六 133 he had paid more attention to worldly affairs and expressed his love and hatred directly in poetry. But in his later period, Wang Wei already had a deep understanding of life and career. Having been nourished in Buddhism for years, he started a brand-new school of nature poetry, which is an ideal admixture of poetry and Chan. Before Wang Wei, nature poets like Xie Lingyun (385-433) and Tao Qian had never employed Chan theories in their poetry consciously. Since the founding master of Chan, Bodhidharma (?-530?), came from India to China in 520, Wang Wei was among the first poets to merge his composition in Chan. His endeavor helped open a new page in Chinese nature poetry. In his composition, Wang Wei borrows a lot from Chan. The southern school of Chan emphasizes sudden illumination or revelation, seeing all lives as equal with a sense of liveliness and attaching great importance to the role of self. In applying these principles in his works, Wang Wei greatly enhanced the artistic conception of his poetry. In addition, Chan’s indifference to fame and wealth is fully shown in Wang Wei’s poetry and his practical life. Superficially, poetry and Chan are two different things. Poetry expresses beauty in nature and in life while Chan focuses on nothingness in spirit. However, if we go further into the essence of poetry and Chan, we can find that insight or spiritual dawning is the central point of both. In this respect, so to speak, poetry and Chan are identical to each other. Wang Wei has been honored as a “poet-Buddha” in Chinese literature, which recognizes his great achievement in merging Chan into poetry. In this he opened a new era in Chinese poetry.

3.2.2 Chan Spirit in Wang Wei’s Poetry

Chinese poetry along with Chinese Buddhism reached their highest point in the Tang Dynasty. The two came together and brought forth Chan poetry, a special kind of poetry in Chinese literature. A situation of nothingness, peacefulness, lightness and stillness is the main feature of Chan as well as Chan poetry in which the poets’ 134 intelligence and inspiration are fully displayed. Wang Wei, who was best at poetry as well as at Chan, was the greatest Chan poet ever produced. Generally speaking, Wang Wei’s Chan poems may be classified into two types: poetry in Chan terms and poetry in Chan spirit.

3.2.2.1 Poetry in Chan Terms

Of the first, poetry in Chan terms is mainly didactic, written to expound Buddhist doctrines. Since they are full of special terms and recondite words from Buddhist scriptures, such poems are lacking in poetic beauty and cannot be regarded as real poetry in the true sense of the word. “A Visit to Master Cao at Blue Dragon Temple on a Summer Day” is one example:

A senile doddered to the height In hopes that Chan would throw him light On meaning at the meaning’s core Was told, “It’s naught, nor nothing more. All hills and streams are in Heaven’s sight, The cosmos in dharma’s self outright.” No wonder heat was not so strong— He summoned winds to blow along.1

Buddha essence is the major topic in this poem. Old as he was, the poet went to the Blue Dragon Temple to ask Master Cao about Buddha essence. The Chan master told him the essence was just naught. However, it is totally wrong when one persists in emptiness rigidly. Buddha is everywhere and everywhere is Buddha. When one is free from

1 In Chinese, the Chan terms seem to be shown more clearly: “龙钟一老翁 徐步谒禅宫 欲问义心义 遥知 空病空 山河天眼里 世界法身中 莫怪销炎热 能生大地风.” 王维 夏日过青龙寺谒操禅师 135 worldly desires, he will surely acquire quietude as well as sobriety just as outer heat can be driven away by inner coolness. Wang Wei was not the only one illuminating Buddhism in verse form in the Tang Dynasty. Earlier than Wang Wei, Wang Fanzhi (590?-660?) was noted for his poetry preaching Buddhist doctrines among common people. For example, in “Beside the Town Are Pies of Clay,” he expressed an idea that everyone is mortal regardless of poor or rich, humble or noble:

Beside the town are pies of clay, Their fillings in the city stay. There’s one for each. Just help yourself. About the taste you’ll nothing say.1

Han Shan (fl. from the late 7th century to the early 8th century) was famous for this kind of poetry, too. Like Wang Fanzhi, he also talked about death in one of his poems:

How does life relate to death? Let’s see. It’s just like water turning to ice, you know. When water freezes ice is formed full free; When ice melts up it back to water will go. And so when death comes sure will follow life; When a life is born thither will death repair. As ice and water never are seen in strife, Both life and death will make up what is fair.2

Both of them concentrate on advocating preordained fate and karma in their poetry.

1 城外土馒头 馅草在城里 一人吃一个 莫嫌没滋味 王梵志 城外土馒头 2 欲识生死譬 且将冰水比 水结即成冰 冰消返成水 已死必应生 出生还复死 冰水不相伤 生 死还双美 寒山 欲识生死譬 136 Reading such poems, one seems to listen to sermons. The esthetic value is always broken into pieces when a Chan term emerges. In “Passing Fragrant Temple,” the appearance of a stiff Chan term in the last couple of lines damages the artistic situation of the whole poem:

But where’s this Fragrant Temple, where’s it, though? I’ve soon been plunged in the maze of cloudy peaks. No trails are left in the ancient forest, no. Still, where’s this tolling from, that hither sneaks? The gurgle of springs seems choked by perilous rocks, Above the pines the sun looks pale and cold. It’s dusk. There curls the pool. But where’s the dragon? By now it must have been in Dhyana’s hold!1

Fragrant (or Xiangji) Temple in the poem was originally located in today’s Shaanxi Province. In the first six lines of the poem, the beautiful landscape on the way to the temple is carefully described. Against the spring’s running and the temple bell’s chiming, the forest appears extremely still. However, the use of Chan terms in the last two lines spoils the elegant atmosphere. According to Buddhist scriptures, “evil dragon” refers to worldly desires, but it is almost unintelligible how it is held by Dhyana. Apart from the poem cited above, a few other Buddhist poems written by Wang Wei, like “A Visit to Monk Xuan,”2 “Sending Rice to Hermit Hu in His Illness,”3 are of this nature. Objectively speaking, those poems in Chan terms by Wang Wei have much in common with nature poems in their early stage, chiefly of the Jin Dynasty (265-420). For instance, Xie Lingyun, the first nature poet in China, used to add some lines about

1 不知香积寺 数里入云峰 古木无人径 深山何处钟 泉声咽危石 日色冷青松 薄暮空潭曲 安 禅制毒龙 王维 过香积寺 2 谒 上人 3 胡居士卧病遗米因赠 137 Chinese metaphysics at the end of his landscape poems. Xie’s tedious ending has long been viewed as a defect in his nature poetry. Like Xie, Wang Wei has made a similar blunder in his poetry in Chan terms. Though these poems are different in moral statements, yet they are the same in principle. It is certainly wrong to clear all Buddhist language out of poetry; however, only when Buddhist doctrines and allusions permeate through poetry hypostatically can Chan poetry be fully successful. Consequently, in spite of detailed explanation of Buddhist doctrines, Wang Wei’s poetry in Chan terms has rarely won great popularity. There are two reasons for that. On the one hand, although those poems tend to illustrate the principles and doctrines of Chan, they only convey a superficial understanding but lack a real revelation. No rigidity in words, mind or action is emphasized in Chan. Back in Bodhidharma’s time, one important principle was to dismiss words, and Chan doctrines were transmitted from mind to mind through spiritual enlightenment. That was the so-called “establish no written principles, and pass down by other means than preaching,”1 a practice tersely expressed by Sakyamuni when he passed down his thoughts to Mahakasyapa, the first Chan master in Buddhism. On the other hand, lack of poetic imagination also contributes to the unpopularity of poetry in Chan terms. “Poetry is imaginative literature written in verse” (Barber 5). “Poetry is imaginative metrical discourse” (Alden 1). Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be the “expression of the imagination” (Shelley, A Defence of Poetry). “Poetry is imaginative literature. Its profound emotions set the imagination in motion, and in its turn the language of the imagination stirs the emotions. Poetry does not altogether reject reason, but reason in poetry only plays a secondary part. Its function is to assist in developing an appeal to the emotion”(Alden 17). Without imagination, the poetic conception of a poem is greatly lessened. With a large stock of Buddhist terms and phrases, the poem can hardly be regarded as suggestive or elegant, qualities highly

1 “不立文字 教外别传 138 valued in Chinese poetic tradition. But Wang Wei doesn’t stop there. He goes much further than Wang Fanzhi, Han Shan and Xie Lingyun and writes his unique Chan poetry, which is nature poetry with Chan conception.

3.2.2.2 Poetry in Chan Spirit

In his second type of Chan poetry, poetry in Chan spirit, Wang Wei holds Chan as more than a faith. In fact, it has become a style of life with special attention to nature, peacefulness and indifference to fame and gain. Such poetry is simple and elegant. According to Comments on Selected Tang Poems by Shen Deqian, a renowned poetry critic of the 18th century, Wang Wei inherits the quality of simplicity and elegance from Tao Qian’s nature poetry. However, Wang Wei goes beyond Tao and scales a new height by involving Chan concepts in nature poetry. Different from the previous nature poems written by Xie Lingyun and Tao Qian and also different from his own poetry in Chan terms as mentioned above, the majority of Wang Wei’s second type of Chan poetry is a perfect fusion of nature and Chan. In “My South Mountain Villa,” we find a good illustration of this characteristic feature:

This mind after youth for the holy has grown. Still later, up here, there’s my house so fine. Where’er there’s the mood, I’ll wander alone With pleasures sublime— be sure, all are mine. Perchance I come near where a rill’d disappear, Then I’ll sit and watch clouds rise in that clime. An old wight may be here, and then, full of cheer, We’ll chat and laugh with no thought of time!1

1 中岁颇好道 晚家南山陲 兴来每独往 胜事空自知 行到水穷处 坐看云起时 偶然值林叟 谈笑 无还期 王维 终南别业 139

In this poem, the poet’s appreciation of nature along with his aloofness from the material world, which is one of the key points of Chan, is thoroughly demonstrated. Living in the mountains as a hermit, Wang Wei seems to be totally free from any worldly bonds. He wanders in the woods but doesn’t have any destination. When he comes to where the river vanishes, he will sit there idly to watch the clouds rise. Here nature and man are in perfect harmony. Even the old woodcutter the poet comes upon seems detached from the outside world. The poet chats with him and forgets to go home. All is simple and natural. The poet is entirely carefree like a running river, or flying clouds. In fact, rivers and clouds are two traditional images of freedom in Chinese literature. In “For Vice-Magistrate Zhang” (See p31) a similar situation of “naturalness” can be found. Spiritually free, Wang Wei lives in the woods and gets away from the corrupt officialdom and troublesome society. “To Pei Di During My Retirement in Wangchuan” reveals the poet’s detachment vividly in such lines as “I, on my staff, beside my hut in the breeze, / Enjoy hearing cicadas’ evening trills” (3-4).1 The poet cares little about the bustling world but listens leisurely to the “cicadas’ evening trills.” With this activity, the poet’s aloofness from worldly desires is well revealed. His friend Pei Di seems very different in appearance, but though he sings and dances drunkenly before the poet, the two friends share one heart. Both are free from care, which is actually in accordance with Chan spirit. In Wang Wei’s Chan poems, Chan is not apparently stressed, but it can

1 The poem rendered in English goes:

The green is darkening in the autumn hills. From dawn to dusk are gently flowing rills. I, on my staff, beside my hut in the breeze, Enjoy hearing cicadas’ evening trills. A setting sun is heavy on the ferry, A cooking smoke from above the village flees. And then our tipsy hermit comes, wild merry, A-rolling, chanting by my willow trees.

The Chinese original follows: 寒山转苍翠 秋水日潺湲 倚杖柴门外 临风听暮蝉 渡头余落日 墟里上孤 烟 复值接舆醉 狂歌五柳前 王维 辋川闲居赠裴秀才迪 140 be read between the lines. For example, “Bidding Adieu to a Friend” (See pp99-100) expresses the poet’s tiredness of the vanity fair in the world of man, together with his admiration for a life in seclusion. “Clouds” are once again seen in this poem to refer to a wish for freedom in life and spirit. Meanwhile, the “clouds” also represent the poet’s sense of Chan. As a matter of fact, Buddhist language and Chan terms are not absolutely denied in Chan poetry. When they are used properly, they will be in perfect harmony with the whole poem. As in “Passing Fragrant Temple,” Chan terms are found in “Huazigang Ridge,” too:

So endless are the flights of birds who leave Behind the hill on hill in autumn’s chill That up and down in climbing the ridge I grieve In pains as endless to my sore heart fill.1

Here in the first line, the image of flying birds comes from Buddhist scriptures to indicate the void of all things in the universe. Just as birds leave no traces in the sky, everything on earth is destined to be empty in the end. Time is fleeting and humanity cannot escape mortality. The only permanent thing in the universe is “Emptiness.” Thus, Chan in this poem has been melted in the lines and become an inseparable part of the whole, leaving no rigid term to mar the sense or sight. The core of Buddhism is “Emptiness.” Everything in the universe is considered empty and illusory according to Buddhism. But “Emptiness” doesn’t mean nothingness. “Emptiness” is the essence of objects while “Existence” is the false appearance of objects which can be sensed and touched by the mortal. “Emptiness” and “Existence” are complementary to each other. Though “Existence” is false, it is wrong to deny it. Otherwise, “Emptiness” will be stagnant and dead (Chen Tiemin, New Comments on

1 飞鸟去不穷 连山复秋色 上下华子冈 惆怅情何极 王维 华子冈 141 Wang We i 139). In short, “Emptiness” is highly valued in Buddhism but it is incorrect to cling to it absolutely. Next to “Emptiness,” “Stillness” is another principal point in Buddhism. In the light of Buddhist concepts, being away from the material world is specially stressed. Only when they are far from secularity and retreating into a quiet state of mind can mortals obtain final happiness. Strongly influenced by Buddhism, Wang Wei writes a lot of “Emptiness” and “Stillness” in his nature poetry such as “Sitting in the Mountains in Early Autumn,”1 “To Monk Chong Fan,” 2 “The Deer Enclosure,”3 “An Autumn Evening in My Mountain Abode,”4 “Bird-Chirping Hollow.”5 Centering on emptiness and stillness, Wang Wei expresses his desire to withdraw from wealth and fame by describing peaceful natural scenery in his Chan poetry. “Flower-Vale” and “Bird-Chirping Hollow” are among the best known. Hu Yinglin (1551-1602), a distinguished poetry critic, remarked that people seemed to be captivated in stillness while reading these two marvelous poems (qtd. in Chen Tiemin, New Comments on Wang Wei: 173). Beautiful as “Flower-Vale” goes, it presents a place “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife” (Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” 73):

Like lotuses in water, the flowers are fragrant, The red petals at the end of boughs are everywhere. The vale is silent with no one present, The flowers bloom and fade in the peaceful air.6

No one is here to admire the beautiful flowers in the untrodden vale. They bloom and

1 王维 早秋山中坐 2 王维 寄崇梵僧 3 王维 鹿砦 4 王维 山居秋暝 5 王维 鸟鸣涧 6 木末芙蓉花 山中发红萼 涧户寂无声 纷纷开且落 王维 辛夷坞 142 wither away in their own natural course. All is simple and pure. There is neither joy of life nor grief of death. Overwhelming stillness separates this quiet vale from the clamor and cries in the bustling world. Facing this, the poet seems to have forgotten his existence and merge in nature. Wealth and social status keep changing just as flowers bloom and fade. All glory leads but to “Emptiness.” Superficially, the poem seems to be a description of unknown flowers in the vale, but if a reader goes deep into it, he will understand the poet’s personality between the lines. The poet is just like a fragrant flower which is away from mortals but prefers the quiet vale. Through this poem, Wang Wei expresses his wish to leave earthly honor and wealth and return to nature. In his “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray (1716-1771) has two similar lines: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen / And waste its sweetness on the desert air” (53-54). The word “waste” shows Gray’s regret at the talented being hidden, or “wasted,” in obscurity. However, on the part of Wang Wei, himself a talent, rather than feeling regret at any waste of sweetness, he longs for the wild, the “desert air,” to return to. Alongside “Flower-Vale,” “Bird-Chirping Hollow” is another short poem which conveys something more than the simple words present:

Man is free; the flowers are falling, The night is quiet, the spring mount empty, The birds flush for the moon’s up- rising, To cry now and then in the spring valley.1

Unlike Indian Buddhism, Chan lays great emphasis on liveliness and vitality. Holding rigidly to pure “Emptiness” and “Stillness” is denied in the light of Chan concepts. On the contrary, “Emptiness” is obtained through a perception of “Existence” and so is “Stillness” presented by a contrast with “Sound.” “Bird-Chirping Hollow” is a good

1 人闲桂花落 夜静春山空 月出惊山鸟 时鸣春涧中 王维 鸟鸣涧 143 illustration of this. The first two lines are used to present a silent night in an empty vale. The flushed and crying birds in the last two lines serve as a foil to set off the extreme stillness in the first part. Reading the poem, one recognizes many natural images such as “the moon,” “the night,” “the mount” and “the birds.” Bright is “the moon,” quiet “the night,” and empty “the mount.” It is so silent that even the rising of the moon stirs “the birds,” and their crying is so abrupt in the calmness of the night. It is a successful poem of natural scenery. However, after reading the poem, no one thinks it is merely a description of spring scenery. The poet doesn’t impose his feelings on the words, but the poem itself really suggests them. Throughout the poem, there is only one word related to “man,” that is “free.” Through it, the poet’s idea is completely expressed. Though the word “free” is very simple, it is crucial in the poem. The implication of the word abounds here: only a person who is spiritually “free” can catch the slight sound of the flowers’ falling down. This is essentially stressed in Chan. All is quiet and still. In order to emphasize the stillness, the poet describes a series of sounds. Besides the slight falling sound of the flowers, the rising of the moon seems to have some sound too, which even startles the birds. But the sound doesn’t destroy the peaceful atmosphere. On the contrary, against the slight sound, the night is felt particularly quiet, and with the existence of only the flowers, the moon and the birds, the valley appears much more vacant. Overwhelmed in such a state of stillness and emptiness, the poet’s real intention of getting away from such worldly stuff as fame and wealth and retreating to nature is totally clear. The scenery, the poet’s spirit and the Chan conception are successfully combined into one. Wang Wei is expert in applying a contrastive method to his poetry. Stillness is presented with sound; emptiness is set off by “beings.” “An Autumn Evening in My Mountain Abode” is a typical example. The poem goes:

Fresh rain has fallen on the vacant mountains; Autumn’s evening approaches. 144 The bright moon is shining through the pines, The clear stream flowing over the stones. Bamboos rustle, as washing maids retuRn Lotuses stir: a fishing boat descends. Let spring’s fragrance vanish, as it will; May the wanderer tarry, as he pleases.1 (Trans. Zhang Ting-chen & Bruce M. Wilson 35)

The poet is so much touched by the stillness in the vacant mountains that he even intends to return to nature. Different from the non-existence of human beings in “Flower-Vale” and “Bird-Chirping Hollow,” “An Autumn Evening in My Mountain Abode” puts some “washing maids” in. However, their emergence doesn’t produce any side effects on the whole situation. Instead, contrasted with the existence of a few people, the mountains appear even more vacant. On the other hand, the sounds from the flowing stream, the rustling bamboos and a fishing boat don’t destroy the stillness in the mountains but set off the tranquility to a higher degree. The last two lines contain an allusion from the Book of Poetry,2 which is used to urge a recluse to give up his hermitage in the wilds and return to an official life to serve his state. Here Wang Wei uses the allusion in the opposite way to serve his purpose. Though Wang Wei was a devoted Buddhist and cared little about high positions in officialdom in his old age, he never left the political circles totally behind. But in his mind, returning to nature and being a hermit was his best wish. With this allusion, he expressed his yearning for a recluse’s life and his abhorrence of the corrupt official life. In another famous poem, “The Deer Enclosure,” Wang Wei’s special way of writing is shown again:

1 空山新雨后 天气晚来秋 明月松间照 清泉石上流 竹喧归浣女 莲动下渔舟 随意春芳歇 王孙 自可留 王维 山居秋暝 2 Accurately, the allusion is from Summoning the Recluse included in The Songs of Chu in the Book of Poetry. 145 Remote the mountains, where no one is seen, Though human voices resound. At dusk, reflected sunlight enters the forest deep, Once again setting the green moss aglow.1 (Trans. Zhang Ting-chen & Bruce M. Wilson 41)

The remote mountain, the deep forest and the green moss are silent and shadowy. The only sound is human voices, and the only bright light is the sunlight at dusk. However, the voices make the mountains more remote, and the dim sunlight makes the deep forest and the green moss duskier. The inharmonious factors in the poem actually highlight the stillness by contrast. The poet stays aloof in the deep forest in the remote mountains alone. It is so quiet that he hears nothing but some distant human voices. And it is so empty that he sees nothing except a ray of sunlight. With the human voices, the dead silence there becomes lively. Although green moss is everywhere in the deep forest, it is not entirely dark there because a ray of reflected sunlight brings some warmth and brightness in the forest. This is in conformity with the liveliness in Chan. Between the lines, the poet’s heartfelt joy in this quiet place and his real intention of retreating to nature as a recluse are clearly revealed. Among Wang Wei’s nature poems with Chan conception, “Bamboo Grove Cabin” is another excellent example to show how Chan has influenced his state of mind:

Beneath the bamboo grove, alone, I seize my lute and sit and croon; No ear to hear me, save mine own; No eye to see me, save the moon.2 (Trans. Herbert A. Giles, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang:

1 空山不见人 但闻人语响 返景入深林 复照青苔上 王维 鹿砦 2 “独坐幽篁里 弹琴复长啸 深林人不知 明月来相照 ” 王维 竹里馆 146 The English Translation of 100 Tang Quatrains 7)

This poem is extraordinarily short and simple. The Chinese original only contains twenty characters in four lines. Clear and concise, no complicated or difficult word can be found in the whole poem, neither in the English translation. However, beyond the simple poetic form, the poet’s lofty style is successfully expressed. In this poem, several images such as the bamboo grove, the lute and the moon are employed to present the loftiness of the poet. In Chinese literature, bamboos traditionally symbolize uprightness and noble mind. Su Shi, a renowned poet in the Northern Song Dynasty once praised highly the spirit of the bamboo in one of his poems:

A meatless meal is nothing to rue; But a home must always have bamboo. For meatless meals will make one lean, A bambooless home will make one mean. (1-4)1

According to the Book of Jin,2 Wang Huizhi (?-388),3 influenced by his father the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi (321-379),4 had lofty taste and was particularly fond of bamboos. When he moved to a house, the first thing he did was to ask for bamboos to be planted in the yard. Since then, bamboos have been regarded as a symbol of loftiness. In “Bamboo Grove Cabin,” the poet’s noble nature is fully shown by what he does and feels in the bamboo grove. Next to bamboos, the image of “the lute” in “Bamboo Grove Cabin” also helps to build up the poet’s elegant taste. In ancient China, along with composing poetry and

1 The four lines are taken from Su Shi’s “Composed in Monk Yu Qian’s Green Bamboo Pavilion.” The Chinese original lines are: 可使食无肉 不可使居无竹 无肉使人瘦 无竹使人俗 苏轼 於潜僧绿筠轩 2 晋书 3 王徽之 4 王羲之 147 painting, playing the lute is also an essential ability for an accomplished scholar. Wang Wei had long been noted for his great talent for all three things. As a matter of fact, Wang Wei was an official in charge of music when he first entered the official circle. In addition to bamboos and the lute, the moon is another significant image to help build up the poet’s graceful temperament. In classical Chinese literature, the moon is much associated with purity, placidity and a little melancholy. Wang Wei’s contemporary Li Bai has a good example in his famous quatrain “In the Quiet Night”:

So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed Could there have been a frost already? Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight. Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.1 (Trans. Witter Bynner, qtd. in Lü Shuxiang: The English Translation of 100 Tang Quatrains 26)

Since the moon gives off clear and cold light which seems to be far away from the world of mortals, it frequently appears in most Chan poets’ diction. In short, all the images in “Bamboo Grove Cabin” center on the presentation of the poet’s loftiness. Moreover, in “Bamboo Grove Cabin,” stillness is fully described. Sitting in the bamboo grove alone, the poet plays the lute and croons. No one except the moon is aware of his existence. Except for his playing of the lute and crooning, all fretful stirrings of the world are hushed and everything is quiet and still. In such tranquility, the poet is deeply immersed in the stillness and doesn’t feel lonely at all, for he enjoys himself in his own fashion. In the feudal society in which Wang Wei lived, success in politics was every scholar’s great expectation. It was only too natural that, frustrated in the political arena,

1 This is one of the most popular Tang poems in China. It is widely known to almost every Chinese since childhood. What Li Bai wants to express in this poem is certainly a sense of nostalgia, but the quietness which is mostly produced by the moon in this poem is just the same as that in Wang Wei’s “Bamboo Grove Cabin.” Li Bai’s poem in the original goes: 床前明月光 疑是地上霜 举头望明月 低头思故乡 李白 静夜思 148 Wang Wei felt disillusioned with the mortal world. In such a gloomy mood, Chan concepts like “Emptiness” and “Stillness” particularly appealed to him. What was different in Wang Wei from other Buddhist followers of his time was that, as a celebrated creative poet, he involved himself in Chan and represented his revelation in poetry. We have reason to say that, in composing Chan poetry, Wang Wei found a haven for both his soul and body.

3.2.3 Painterly Qualities in Wang Wei’s Chan Poetry

In Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, Chan conception is not the only thing that is deeply felt. As a most distinguished painter, Wang Wei blends his painting skills perfectly into his Chan poetry. Wang Wei has long been considered the founder of the school of water-ink landscape painting in China. A story recorded in the Book of Tang tells us how Wang Wei was good at painting. Someone got an untitled painting portraying a musical band performing a piece of music, which nobody could explain. But when it was shown to Wang Wei, he said without hesitation that the name of the painting was “Tune of Nichang Yuyi Being Performed,”1 and that the musicians were playing the first beat of the third movement. A band was sent for immediately and required to perform the said piece of tune. When the musicians came to the first beat of the third movement, they were asked to stop in the middle and their postures, facial expressions and other appearances were exactly the same as those in the painting. All were amazed by Wang Wei’s great talent for painting combined with his extraordinary accomplishment in music. In his last “Casual Lines,” Wang Wei remarked with emotion, “Throughout this life I’am wrongly styled a poet; / But prior to this I was a painter, I know it!” (3-4).

1 Feather Robes, Rainbow Skirts (霓裳羽衣曲), a tune rumored to have been composed or adapted by Emperor Xuan Zong of Tang based on a piece from central Asia, extremely popular at the time. Unfortunately, it has not been handed down. 149 While writing poetry, Wang Wei applied painting methods unconsciously so that his Chan poetry is marked with painterly qualities. In Wang Wei’s poetry, his language seems simple but provokes the imagination. The painterly qualities are achieved through his skillful employment of the language. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin (?-1763) gives a wonderful comment on Wang Wei’s such qualities through Hsiang-ling’s words:

“To my mind, the beauty of poetry lies in something that can’t be put into words yet is very vivid and real when you think about it. Again, it seems illogical, yet when you think it over it makes good sense.” [ ] Well, take that couplet in the poem on the northern borderland:

In the great desert a single straight plume of smoke; By the long river at sunset a ball of flame.1

Of course the sun’s round, but how can smoke be straight? The first description seems illogical, the second trite. But when you close the book and think, the scene rises before your eyes, and you realize it would be impossible to choose any better words. Or take the couplet:

As the sun sets, rivers and lakes gleam white; The tide comes up and the horizon turns blue.2

The adjectives ‘white’ and ‘blue’ seem illogical too; but when you

1 These are the fifth and sixth lines of Wang Wei’s “To the Frontier as an Envoy.” The Chinese original reads, “大漠孤烟直 长河落日圆.” 王维 使至塞上 2 These are the fifth and sixth lines of Wang Wei’s “Seeing Off Xing Guizhou.” The Chinese original is, “日落 江湖白 潮来天地青.” 王维 送邢桂州 150 think about it no other words would be so apt, for read aloud they have all the savour of an olive weighing several thousand catties! Again, take the lines:

The setting sun still lingers by the ford, A single plume of smoke ascends from the village.1

It’s the choice of ‘lingers’ and ‘ascends’ that I admire. On our way to the capital that year, our boat moored by the bank one evening. There was nobody about, nothing but a few trees, and the smoke from some distant cottages where supper was being cooked rose up, a vivid blue, straight to the clouds. Fancy, reading those lines last night carried me back to that place.” (Trans. Yang Hsien-yi & Gladys Yang 117-118)

Wang Wei was really a shrewd observer and even such simple poems are apt to contain flashes of insight. In describing natural landscapes, Wang Wei always concentrated on the most crucial points and omitted minor aspects. Most of his Chan poetry came from most striking moments. He usually left much room for the reader’s imagination. Besides, he paid special attention to achieving good harmony of colors. In Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, nature is the most important subject matter. Meditating upon nature, Wang Wei had his soul and body both at rest. Nature is colorful and a successful description of nature is based on a good handling of colors. As a renowned painter, Wang Wei did a good job in this respect. For example, in “Amid the Mountains,” a skillful manipulation of colors can be found:

Out are the white stones in the clear stream; A few red leaves are seen in the cold.

1 These are the fifth and sixth lines of Wang Wei’s “To Scholar Pei Di While Living in Wang Chuan Villa.” The Chinese original is, “渡头余落日 墟里上孤烟.” 王维 辋川闲居赠裴秀才迪 151 It doesn’t drizzle on the mountain path, But my clothes go damp in the green depth.1

What the poet intends to write is the deep green in winter amid the mountains. However, bright colors like ‘white’ and ‘red’ in the first two lines form a sharp contrast with the cold colors of winter. With a few white pebbles and red leaves among the deep green pine trees, this poem seems more like a beautiful picture than a poem. ‘White’ and ‘red’ here not only make the poem more vivid but also help to set off the omnipresent green amid the mountains. In “The Deer Enclosure” (See p146) an accurate grasp of colors and light is well presented. Here the poet’s characteristically painterly qualities are clearly seen. The poetic picture of the poem centers on the green moss in the deep forest. Since few people ever visit, the green moss has been growing everywhere. Deep and serene, the forest must be gloomy and cold. Now, a ray of bright warm sunlight casts through the thick foliage and leaves its reflection on the green moss, probably on the ground. Against the bright warm sunlight, the wood appears extremely dark, damp and cold in the deep forest, with nothing but the thick green moss there. On the other hand, in the dark forest, the sunlight seems particularly bright. Inspired by the totally different colors and light in the poem, the reader can easily make pictures of his or her own in the mind. “An Autumn Evening in My Mountain Abode” (See pp144-145) once again explains painter-poet Wang Wei’s characteristics. The first two lines offer a background for landscape painting. In order to make the poem vivid and picturesque, Wang Wei applies various painting skills to create such contrasts as between motion and no motion, far and near, bright and dark so that the vacant mountains, the bright moon, the pines, the clear flowing stream are in great harmony with the rustling bamboos, the washing maids, the stirring lotuses and the fishing boat. It is simply a picture but it is more than a picture because a poor picture might be a mess, while the picturesque nature of a poem

1 荆溪白石出 天寒红叶稀 山路元无雨 空翠湿人衣 王维 山中 152 can see that an orderly, systematic state is achieved in a poem through skillful arrangement of the language. Just like Geoffrey Chaucer (ca.1343-1400) who could paint pictures with English words, Wang Wei could paint pictures in his poetry with the brush pen of Chinese characters, and he did an admirable job at that. Before Wang Wei, painterly qualities were not so distinct in poetry. After Wang Wei, numerous poets painstakingly attempted to imitate him. Though some of them did well, yet it was only in the high Tang period, to be more exact, it was only in Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, that poetry with such feature reached the highest level. Since poetry, music and painting are interactive and interconvertible, the best poetry with painterly qualities doubtlessly comes only from one who is at home in all three fields, like Wang Wei. A deep cultivation in Buddhism also moulds his aesthetic taste and contributes a lot to his success in his Chan poetry which brings poetry, music and painting into religion, or the other way round, and has reached an unprecedented high level.

3.3 Differences between Donne and Wang Wei’s Religious Poetry

With remarkable achievements in religious poetry, Donne and Wang Wei both have proved a rich poetic resource for later poets. Some prestigious devotional poets like George Herbert (1593-1633), Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) and Richard Crashaw (ca. 1613-1649) are all Donne’s followers. In Chinese literature, Wang Wei has also had profound influence on numerous poets directly or indirectly. Much as both poets owe their success mainly to their perfect fusion of wit and inner experience, their poems differ from each other owing to the different cultural backgrounds and personal inclinations. Generally speaking, their differences can be seen in three respects. First of all, the basic tones of their poetry are quite different. For Donne, the breaking up of his dream for political glory was a severe blow to his secular desires. Though he was born and bred in Catholicism, he finally had to abandon his Catholic faith and choose Anglicism instead. Intense struggles going on in his mind can be seen reflected in his poetry. Donne makes a sensational exposure of his 153 struggling soul in his Divine Poems. Wang Wei had an experience of frustration in politics similar to Donne’s. However, he chose to stay away from the worldly clamour and retreated to nature. During his meditation on Chan, he forgot his unhappy experience in life and career and attained a peaceful state of mind. The tones of Donne and Wang Wei’s religious poetry consequently are diametrically different: one is vigorous and intense, the other tranquil and serene. Throughout his Divine Poems, Donne’s ingenuity can always keep pace with his emotional development. He employs different types of rhetoric to give his verse violence and intensity. Firstly, Donne uses some specific exclamatory words in his divine poems to emphasize his strong emotion as well as religious passion. Among them, “Oh” or “O” is most frequently employed. For example, “Oh” in “Oh I shall soon despair, when I do see” (“Holy Sonnet II” 12) is a cry of despair. “Oh” in “Oh might those sighs and tears return again” (“Holy Sonnet III” 1) is a little complicated. It displays both the poet’s desire to regain what he wasted in the past and his futility. In “Oh my black soul!” (“Holy Sonnet IV” 1), this exclamatory word tells us how regretful he feels when facing his sinful soul. In the examples just referred to, “Oh” appears at the beginning of a line to indicate stress. However, from time to time, it breaks up a line suddenly in the middle to increase strong force. In “Holy Sonnet II,” “O” faithfully conveys Donne’s total trust and dependence on God: “As due by many titles I resign / Myself to Thee, O God, first I was made / By Thee [ ]” (1-3). In “And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal” (“Holy Sonnet V” 13), the poet’s pleading with God to make him new is apparently shown by the word, “O.” Besides the exclamatory words, Donne is also fond of using strings of verbs in his poems to create passion and intensity. In “Elegy XVI: On His Mistress,” Donne, about to go abroad, warns his mistress not to

fright thy nurse 154 With midnight’s startings, crying out, “Oh, oh Nurse, oh my love is slain, I saw him go O’er the white Alps alone; I saw him, I, Assail’d, fight, taken, stabb’d, bleed, fall and die.” (50-54)

With the seven verbs in the last line, the mistress’s nightmare appears extremely frightening. At the same time, her anxiety about her love’s safety is tremendously intensified. In his divine poems, Donne keeps this habit to stress his strong passion for God. In “Holy Sonnet XI,” Donne imagined himself to be Christ nailed on the cross. In the first two lines, the poet used six verbs successively to describe Christ’s crucifixion: “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side, / Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me” (1-2). Reading the six verbs in one breath, we seem to witness Christ’s suffering. Meanwhile, we can also sense how the poet was deeply touched by Christ’s self-sacrifice. In “Holy Sonnet XIV,” a violent prayer is achieved by using violent verbs in succession:

Batter my heart, three-person’d God; for, You As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new. (1-4)

The last three lines contain thirteen dynamic verbs (excluding the modal auxiliary “may”). This adds significantly to the vigorous quality of the verse, particularly in the last line in which every verb takes stress (Austin 45). Lewalski explains the difference between God’s usual way to create man and the way required by Donne to regenerate him in her “John Donne: Writing after the Copy of a Metaphorical God”:

155 God usually calls men by knocking “Behold, I stand at the doore, and knocke: if any man heare my voice, and open the doore, I will come in to him (Rev. 3:20) but the speaker insists that God must break down his door. Or, God customarily gives his spirit to men by breathing upon them at the creation to give life to Adam, in the upper room to give the Holy Spirit to the Apostles but this speaker would have God blow upon him more fiercely. Likewise, God’s people pray constantly that his face may shine upon them in blessing, but this speaker demands not shining but burning. (172)

The poet believes he has fallen into sin and expects God to release him. Since his sins are so great, the poet implores God to regenerate him in a much more forceful manner instead of the traditionally gentle way. Here, words and expressions like “break, blow, burn, and make me new” (4) are sure to be much more powerful than “knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend” (2). The change in the verbs produces much strength on his petition and displays his religious passion to a large extent. In Donne’s poetry, lines abounding in or wholly including monosyllabic words produce an effect of great speed, which is also responsible for the passionate atmosphere. Frances Austin, an English critic, is fully aware of this point: “A characteristic feature of Donne’s vocabulary, and one which offers wide possibilities for variation of stress, is the number of monosyllables” (22-23). For example, “Then, as my soul, to heaven, her first seat, takes flight” (“Holy Sonnet VI” 9). In this line, there are seven primary stresses out of the twelve syllables and the last four monosyllabic words are all stressed. With the strings of powerful monosyllables, the pace in the verse quickens considerably. Meanwhile, the quick and forceful tempos can well convey Donne’s emotional intensity. For instance, “Drown new seas in mine eyes, that so I might” (“Holy Sonnet V” 7); “Or wash it, if it must be drown’d no more” (“Holy Sonnet V” 9). From these lines, we can be acutely aware how Donne regretted he had wasted seas of tears on the profane mistresses in the past and how he desires to win God’s forgiveness with his genuine repentance. More important, when such lines appear 156 at the very opening of a poem, they usually bring about much stronger effect. Many poems have this kind of opening: “Moist with one drop of Thy blood, my dry soul” (La Corona, “Resurrection” 1); “Death be not proud, though some have called thee, / Mighty and dreadful” (“Holy Sonnet X” 1); “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side” (“Holy Sonnet XI” 1-2); “Since she whom I lov’d hath paid her last debt” (“Holy Sonnet XVII” 1); “Show me, dear Christ, Thy spouse, so bright and clear” (“Holy Sonnet XVIII” 1) and “Let man’s soul be a sphere, and then, in this” (“Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward” 1). Parallelism is another technique of Donne’s to add to the sense of urgency and intensity conveyed in the verse. In “Holy Sonnet II,” the poet reveals his obedience and faithfulness to God in the following lines:

I am Thy son, made with Thyself to shine, Thy servant, whose pains thou hast still repaid, Thy sheep, Thine image, and, till I betray’d Myself, a temple of Thy Spirit divine. (5-8)

However, the devil occupies his soul and attempts to draw him toward hell. The poet uses two paralleled rhetorical questions to express his anger at Satan: “Why doth the devil then usurp on me? / Why doth he steal, nay ravish that’s Thy right?” (9-10). Similarly, in “Holy Sonnet VII,” in which, on the Day of Judgement, the angel’s trumpets summon “All whom the flood did, and fire shall o’erthrow, / All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, / Despair, law, chance, hath slain, [ ]” (5-7) to arise. These lines gather momentum in a way that reflects the pouring forth of the dead souls (Austin 44). The parallelism in “Holy Sonnet XIX” exhibits the poet’s intense spiritual confusion and struggle accurately:

As humorous is my contrition As my profane love, and as soon forgot: 157 As riddlingly distemper’d, cold and hot, As praying, as mute; as infinite, as none. (5-8)

In general, parallelism is an effective way to express the poet’s strong emotion. Reading Donne’s poetry, no one can remain unattracted by the exaggerations in it. Hyperbole is a common figure which consists of bold expression in extreme language so as to achieve intensity (Wang Baotong, SRG 480). Donne is fond of using enormous hyperboles to increase the force in his poetry. If he weeps, there is a sea of tears:

You which beyond that heaven which was most high Have found new spheres, and of new lands can write, Pour new seas in mine eyes, that so I might Drown my world with my weeping earnestly. (“Holy Sonnet V” 5-8)

In the quatrain from the Holy Sonnet above, Donne’s repentance requires a cosmic disaster to express itself sufficiently (Reid 34). And in “Holy Sonnet XIX”, he compares his religious fervor to an ague: “So my devout fits come and go away / Like a fantastic ague” (12-13). Donne really has an extraordinary manner to increase the violence in his divine poems. To break a couplet into violent enjambment for emphasis is one of his skills:

No ease; for long yet vehement grief hath been The effect and cause, the punishment and sin. (“Holy Sonnet III” 13-14)

And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal. (“Holy Sonnet V” 13-14)

158 O pensive soul, to God, for He knows best Thy true grief, for He put it in my breast. (“Holy Sonnet VIII” 13-14)

Who is most true, and pleasing to Thee, then When she is embrac’d and open to most men. (“Holy Sonnet XVIII” 13-14)

It bore all other sins, but is it fit That it should bear the sin of scorning it? (“The Cross” 5-6)

In addition, the abruptness produced by the sudden stop in the middle of a clause is further increased when it ends at a caesura of the next line. For instance, in “Despair behind, and death before doth cast / Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste” (“Holy Sonnet I” 6-7), the run-on clause ends in “Such terror” in the next line, which gives much stress. Similar cases occur in “And burn me O Lord, with a fiery zeal / Of Thee and Thy house, which doth in eating heal” (“Holy Sonnet V” 13-14); “And as thy brain through bony walls doth vent / By sutures, which a cross’s form present” (“The Cross” 55-56). These sudden enjambments really add much vigorous quality to the verse. It is in ways such as those mentioned above that Donne created forcefulness and harshness in poetry. As far as Wang Wei’s Chan poetry is concerned, the tone is tranquil and serene, which mainly results from the influence of Chan and his employment of natural images. Buddhism values quietude particularly as a proper situation and state of mind good for meditation. An old saying goes: “Famous mountains are mostly homes of monks.”1 It is believed that “sudden revelation” can be acquired in communicating with nature. It is common for monks to withdraw into the mountains because they think their

1 “天下名山僧占多” 159 attention will not be distracted by worldly temptations in such remote, out-of-the-way places. For the same reason, with a few exceptions, Buddhist temples are usually built in the remote mountains. Even if a temple has to be erected in a city, it is most likely to be located in a less populated area, or in the suburbs. Staying away from the madding crowds of the bustling world, Buddhists feel it easier to attain detached aloofness from the world, in both body and soul. Still, with some monks, once their whereabouts are known, they will move further away into the mountains. Fa Chang (752-839),1 a famous Chan master as well a Chan poet, lived in seclusion in the distant mountains for many years, until someone came upon him, and made his acquaintance. As soon as the visitor went out of sight, he burned his hut and moved further away into the mountains. A quiet place is thus highly valued by devotional Chan masters. In practising Chan, they dissolve in nature and cultivate their character in it. Remaining indifferent to fame and gain, they try their best to keep free from vulgarity. In Fa Chang’s “Spring and Spring Again,” he reveals his intention of being detached from the earthly world:

A pool of countless lotus hides me out, A dozen pines supply me food and more. And hardly have they learned my whereabouts When I move to a thatched hut and close the door.2

Hiding behind lotus leaves and having pine flowers or the nuts in pinecones for food, he kept away from the mundane world. Here, Chan can be sensed in such natural images as “lotus leaves,” “pine flowers” and “mountains.” As a pious Chan adherent, Wang Wei attempted to imitate the monks’ life style by living a simple life in the mountains.

1 法常 2 “一池荷花衣无尽 数树松花食有余 刚被世人知住处 又移茅舍入深居 ” 法常 几度逢春 160 Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, officials had been permitted to possess lands. According to the New Book of Tang,1 most officials held their own lands. As a result, almost all the officials in the capital city owned a villa in the countryside. As was stipulated in the legal system of the Tang Dynasty, officials had a day off every ten days. Thus, it was possible for them to enjoy a life both as an official and as a recluse. Wang Wei was a typical example. In 743, he bought Wangchuan Villa as his dwelling place, which was located in the southwest of Lantian County in today’s Shaanxi Province. Mountains and rivers were beautiful there. It originally belonged to Song Zhiwen (656?-712), another famous poet of the early Tang Dynasty. Tired of officialdom, Wang Wei sometimes retreated to this place to be away from political conflicts. The fact that Wang Wei was devoted to Chan and nature explains why many natural images have been used in his poetry. The nature of Donne and Wang Wei’s imagery also accounts for the different tones of their poetry. In Donne’s Divine Poems, the images or metaphors he chose from the secular world always lend force to the context. On the contrary, in Wang Wei’s Chan poetry, his images from nature serve to heighten the tranquil tone. For instance, in “Bird-Chirping Hollow” (See p143), natural images are employed in each line. Except for the birds, all the other images like “the flower,” “the night,” “the mount,” “the moon,” and “the valley” are essentially motionless. Even the birds are supposed to be silent because the poem describes a moment at night. Through these images, the tranquil situation in the poem is successfully presented. However, the poet doesn’t allow the birds to be silent for long, for soon he lets them flush and cry. Superficially, the birds’ crying ruins the quietness in the poem, but against the startled cry of birds the tranquility of the night is largely heightened and the situation created in this way is particularly graceful and lovely. Additionally, abundant natural images also make up the painterly quality of Wang Wei’s Chan poetry. As can be clearly seen, such qualities belong only to the few

1 新唐书 161 connoisseurs like Wang Wei. In Chinese painting, special emphasis is often laid on a state of peacefulness and freedom from care, which was exactly what Wang Wei expected to attain in his poetry. From the angle of an expert in painting, Wang Wei conjured up delicate nature pictures in his poetry. “Flower-Vale” (See p142) is a good example. The whole poem is just a beautiful picture of a quiet and vacant vale. Reading between the lines, the reader not only seems to see unearthly pictures passing the mind, but also can better perceive the tranquil atmosphere in the poem. This phenomenon is commonly seen in most of Wang Wei’s poems with Chan conception. In addition to the different tones in their religious poems, the methods adopted by Donne and Wang Wei to convey their ideas also differ: Donne always tends to be straightforward in his poems, while Wang Wei appears particularly suggestive. For Donne, his straightforward manner is primarily demonstrated through direct address in his opening lines and his frankness in expressing his feelings. As regards the forms of direct address there may be three cases. Firstly, in the opening lines, the first and second personal pronouns like “me,” “I,” “thou,” “mine,” “thee,” “thy” help to make a zero distance between the addressor and the addressed. For example, “Holy Sonnet I” opens with “Thou hast made me, and shall Thy work decay? / Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste” (1-2). It seems that the poet is having a direct conversation with God, his creator. “Oh my black soul! now thou art summoned / By sickness, death’s herald, and champion” are the first two lines of “Holy Sonnet IV.” Beginning with an exclamatory word “Oh,” the poet speaks to his sinful soul directly. Secondly, words like “this,” and “here” play a similar role by narrowing the distance between speaker and listener in time and space. For instance, “Holy Sonnet IV” starts with “This is my play’s last scene, here heavens appoint / My pilgrimage’s last mile; and my race / Idly, yet quickly run, hath this last pace” (1-3). “Holy Sonnet XIII” begins “What if this present were the world’s last night?” (1). Thirdly, the imperative voice applied in the beginning lines also strengthens the 162 effect of direct address. For example, “Holy Sonnet XI” starts with an imperative sentence: “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side, / Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me” (1-2). This vigorous opening not only brings us directly to the scene where Christ was crucified but also conveys the poet’s determination to undertake Christ’s suffering in his own flesh. Similarly, in “Holy Sonnet XIV,” the poet asks God to make him new violently in a direct petition: “Batter my heart, three-person’d God” (1). The imperative mood makes the opening lines extraordinarily forceful and straightforward. In addition to direct openings, Donne’s directness is also apparently shown when he is pouring out various emotions. On most occasions, Donne gives the keynote of his feelings right in the first lines. So, when Donne intends to praise Christ in La Corona, he begins: “Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise” (1). Similarly, when a fit of regret struck him, he began his poem with:

Oh might those sighs and tears return again Into my breast and eyes, which I have spent, That I might in this holy discontent Mourn with some fruit, as I have mourn’d in vain; (“Holy Sonnet III” 1-4).

And, the development of the poem proves the continuation of this kind of emotion. As we mentioned before, Donne was tremendously worried about his religious belief for a long time. Throughout his life, he rarely stopped seeking for religious truth. Then when we meet “Show me, dear Christ, Thy spouse, [ ]” (1) at the beginning of “Holy Sonnet XVIII,” we are acutely aware of Donne’s anxiety about the identity of the real Church. Apart from the openings, Donne’s straightforwardness is also displayed elsewhere in the poem. In his religious poems, we can read a lot of lines explicitly displaying his fear, desire, hate, despair, faith and happiness. In“Holy Sonnet I,” for example, Donne 163 shows his extreme fear of death in such lines as: “I dare not move my dim eyes any way, / Despair behind, and death before doth cast / Such terror” (5-7). However, when he is sure to partake of God’s conquest of death, he is delighted declaring, “Death be not proud” (“Holy Sonnet X” 1) and “death, thou shalt die” (“Holy Sonnet X” 14). As for Wang Wei, suggestiveness is considered as a characteristically distinguishing feature of his Chan poetry. Suggestiveness means simplicity in words but particular profundity in meaning or, as the saying has it, the words come to an end, but the meaning goes on.1 Generally speaking, suggestiveness in Wang Wei’s Chan poetry can also be seen in three respects. First, introduction of Chan to poetry makes his lines extraordinarily pregnant with meaning. Suggestiveness is a main feature of Chan which always speaks of one thing to mean another, or many others. If we trace the history of Chan to its very source, we can see that use of words was even denied by the founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni. A legend has it that one day, Sakyamuni expounded his doctrines before a congregation of followers on the Mountain of Divinity, known as Lingshan in China. Holding a flower in his hand, he looked at the audience and waited. A puzzled look was on the face of many except Mahakasyapa, who smiled a hearty smile in perfect contentment. Sakyamuni was very pleased to see this, then declared that his whole sets of doctrines had been passed telepathically to Mahakasyapa who was to be the first man to carry the master’s teachings forward in this way. Such has been the start of Chan in India, and Mahakasyapa has been recognized as the first Chan master in the West (India). In China, Chan developed from Bodhidharma, who is said to have come from southern India and introduced Buddhism here since 520. Therefore Bodhidharma has been regarded as China’s first Chan master, though from Mahakasyapa’s line he should be counted as the 28th. That is to say, since the early years

1 言有尽而意无穷 164 of the 6th century, the tradition of suggestiveness has been inherited from generation to generation. When a Chan master instructs his disciples, he scarcely tells them what Chan really is. Instead, he usually offers some indirect messages to enlighten his disciples. Accordingly, there are numerous interesting stories associated with this tradition.1 Introducing Chan to poetry, Wang Wei accepts the suggestive tradition naturally. Neither Chan nor his feelings are stated explicitly in his poetry. “Flower-Vale,” “The Deer Enclosure,” “Bird-Chirping Hollow,” “Blue Runnel,” “Luanjia Rapids,” “Bamboo Grove Cabin,” “A Farm-House on the Wei River,” “Huazigang Ridge” and so on are all successful examples to prove this. In the poems just referred to, Wang Wei seeks peaceful pleasure from the stillness and tranquility in nature. Instead of speaking his mind directly, he created natural images to convey it. Wang Wei’s simple description of nature in poetry always gives birth to imagination. A good example can be found in the two lines in “Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night,” which read: “The mountain fruits are falling in the rain; / The crickets’ chirping echoes in the light” (3-4).2 Through a succession of natural images such as “mountain fruits,” “rain,” “crickets” along with the “light,” a picture of a rainy autumn night in the mountains is vividly portrayed before us. The poet sat alone by the light, which was probably candlelight or some other oil burner. It was raining outside. Except

1 “Killing of a Cat” is one of such stories. Master Pu Yuan was a follower of Hui Neng, the 6th Chan master in China. One day, some monks were quarrelling about the ownership of a cat when Master Pu Yuan, the then head of a temple, seized the cat and declared: if anyone could tell what Chan is, the cat would be kept; otherwise, it would be killed. No one could say a word about Chan and the cat was killed. After a while, Master Cong Nian (778-897) came back to the temple. Pu Yuan told him what had happened and asked what he had to say. Not saying a word, Cong Nian took off his straw sandals, put them on his head and went out. Master Pu Yuan nodded and praised, “Were you on the scene, the cat would have been saved.” What does the story tell us? It is really implicit. No definite answer has been given so far. But the story suggests something about Chan, anyway. In my opinion, Pu Yuan regarded the cat as a symbol of “Dull Persistency”, which is denied in Buddhism. By killing the cat, he helped the monks to clear “Dull Persistency” away. Master Cong Nian went out without a word. That means he was aloof from any secular ideas and had reached a state of “Emptiness.” Thus, he was a real master of Chan and won Pu Yuan’s approval. A similar case is found in the composition and appreciation of poetry. Like Chan, poetry rests its esthetical charm and value on endless imagination. 2 The original lines are, 雨中山果落 灯下草虫鸣 王维 秋夜独坐 165 the ripe fruits’ falling and the crickets’ chirping, it was thoroughly silent in the mountains. At that moment, what was the poet pondering over? Was he meditating upon Chan? Was he recalling his past sufferings? The two lines gave us no direct answer. However, while reading the two lines, one is sure to get something else apart from the fruits and crickets in the poem. Sikong Tu, a poetry critic in the 9th century, gave an excellent definition of suggestiveness in his On Poetry: no clear words are used, but no meaning is lost.1 This definition goes well with these two poetic lines in Wang Wei’s “Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night.” No Chan doctrines are preached here, but a sense of Chan is surely to be felt between the lines. The poet simply provides a picture or a situation without any distinct explanation involved. However, no one reading the poem can help spreading the imagination of wings and perceive something behind the lines. Besides the influence of Chan, the poetic pattern Wang Wei adopts also contributes a lot to the suggestiveness in his poetry. Most of Wang Wei’s Chan poems are written in five-character lines, especially in the five character “curtailed quatrain” form.2 Compared with other popular poetic patterns in Chinese like the four-character form and the seven-character form, the five-character one is the best pattern to make a poem short and simple, but potential in meaning. In the history of Chinese poetry, the appearance of the five-character line is a remarkable turning point. Before that, the four-character style was dominant in poetry. The poems in the most ancient Chinese poetry collection, the Book of Poetry, were written mostly in four-character lines. Since a four-character line doesn’t carry much information, this form usually tends to make the poem rather long. However, if one character is added to the line, the poem can be much shortened because a five-character

1 The Chinese comment reads: 不着一字 尽得风流 司空图 诗品 There are a lot of well-known expressions similar to this in Chinese poetry criticism. For example, Zhong Rong (468?-518) said in his On Poetry, “Though words are within hearing and sight, the thought goes far and beyond.” The original remark in Chinese goes: 言在耳目之内 情寄八荒之表 钟嵘 诗品 2 In Chinese, it is called, “Five Character Jue Jü (五言绝句), which contains four lines of five characters each. 166 line contains more messages than a four-character line.1 Thus, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), the five-character line replaced the four-character line as the mainstream form of poetry, which marked a major breakthrough in the history of Chinese poetry. In addition to the five-character style, the seven-character style is also very popular in Chinese poetry. “Compared with the seven-character style, the five-character style contains fewer characters. Consequently, poems in five characters are usually more concise and suggestive” (Chen Tiemin, New Comments on Wang Wei 233). Therefore, with much employment of the five character “curtailed quatrain” form, Wang Wei’s Chan poetry proves extremely concise and condensed. Take “Amid the Mountains” (See pp151-152) for example. Brief as it is, abundant messages are conveyed. This poem presents an impressive picture of early winter in the mountains. Though with only four lines, the poem is really a huge storage of information. From the description of “the small river” in the first line, we can get a lot of things. Since white pebbles in the water can be seen clearly, the river must be shallow and clear. Then, it must be early winter because rivers at that time are usually shallow. Meanwhile, we seem to hear the murmuring of the river winding its way amid the pebbles. In the second line, “A few red leaves are seen in the cold,” red leaves come to our sight. Since it is cold, only a few of the leaves are left in the trees. Seeing this, we can imagine how picturesque the mountains are in early winter. Furthermore, these few leaves left also tell us the changing of seasons and the fleeting time. After depicting the specific objects in the first two lines, the poet continues to

1 Zhong Rong talks in detail about the development of the five-character poetic pattern in the preface to his On Poetry. According to him, though the four-character form was popular with the ancients, it was finally substituted by the five-character style. That is because a five-character line can convey much more meaning than a four-character line and can even carry as much meaning as two four-character lines do. In this way, the five-character style will largely cut the length of a poem and make poetry more concise and condensed. Consequently, after the Book of Poetry and Encountering Sorrow, the four-character poetic pattern declined while the five-character pattern was adopted by more and more poets, until finally it replaced the other form. The following is the original version of some key points stated by Zhong Rong in his On Poetry:

夫四言 每苦文繁而意少 故世罕习焉 五言居文词之要 是众作之有滋味者也 故云会于流俗 钟嵘 诗品序 167 show us the general condition in the mountains in the last two lines. Although it is early winter, the mountains are still green due to the evergreen trees here and there. In the cold air, the greenness seems to be so deep and thick that it almost damps the clothes. Moreover, Wang Wei’s suggestiveness is shown in his unique application of painting skills in his poetry. As we mentioned before, Wang Wei was a great master of Chinese traditional painting. When a painting is under work, it is important for the painter to leave adequate room for viewers’ imagination. Wang Wei employs a similar technique in his Chan poetry. Instead of explaining too much in a poem, he usually leaves room for his readers’ imagination. For example in “My South Mountain Villa,” the fifth and sixth lines composed of only ten characters in the Chinese version provide much food for thought: “Perchance I come near where a rill’d disappear, / Then I’ll sit and watch clouds rise in that clime” (5-6).1 The meaning implied in these two lines is really infinite. The fifth line reminds us of a similar story. In the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), a renowned poet, Ji Kang (223-262), 2 was very pessimistic. He liked wandering about in a carriage. Whenever he found a road came to an end, he would cry his eyes out and then go back. Here in “My South Mountain Villa,” Wang Wei had totally different behavior in a similar situation. When the poet found he had reached the end of a river, he would sit down leisurely and watch the white clouds flying instead of weeping and going back hopelessly. Through such common activities as “sit and watch clouds rise,” the poet’s free and natural spirit was fully revealed. Meanwhile, the artistic conception in the two lines is in perfect accordance with Chan conception, which denies persisting in one thing numbly. It is true that sometimes Donne is also very suggestive, especially when he uses clever images and metaphors to convey his intention. For example, the famous metaphor, “the stiff twin compasses” in “A Valediction: forbidding mourning” are fairly implicative. However, compared with Wang Wei’s poetry, Donne’s poetry appears more

1 The two lines in the Chinese original read: “行到水穷处 坐看云起时.” 王维 终南别业 2 嵇康 168 direct than suggestive on the whole. This is also true when we compare Su Shi’s lyrics with Li Qingzhao’s (1084-1155?). Generally speaking, Su Shi’s lyrics are forceful and full of heroic spirit while Li Qingzhao’s lyrics are delicate and sentimental. But Su Shi also wrote some delicate lyrics. His “Departing Spring Tune: ‘Butterflies Over Flowers,’”1 for example, contains very tender feelings. Li Qingzhao, on the other hand, is very famous for her “A Dream Tune: ‘Pride of Fishermen,’”2 which is extremely forceful. Nevertheless, forcefulness is still the main characteristic in Su Shi’s lyrics and delicacy is still a dominant style in Li Qingzhao’s poems. A similar case exists between John Donne and Wang Wei.

1 The lyric goes,

Red flowers fade, green apricots still small When swallows pass Over blue water which surrounds the garden wall. Most willow catkins have been blown away, alas! But there is no place where grows not the sweet green grass.

Without the wall there is a road, within a swing. A passer-by Hears a fair maiden’s laughter in the garden ring. The ringing laughter fades to silence by and by, For the enchantress the enchant’d can only sigh. (Trans. Xu Yuanzhong, Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics 229)

The Chinese original goes:

花褪残红青杏小 燕子飞时 绿水人家绕 枝上柳绵吹又少 天涯何处无芳草 墙里秋千墙外道 墙外行人 墙里佳人笑 笑渐不闻声渐悄 多情却被无情恼 苏轼 蝶恋花 2 The tone in this lyric is different from the tender tone in many other lyrics by Li Qingzhao:

Morning mist and surging clouds spread to join the sky; The Silver River fades, sails on sails dance on high. In leaflike boat my soul to God’s abode would fly. It seems that I Am kindly asked where I’m going. I reply,

“I’ll go far, far away, but the sun will decline. What is the use of my clever poetic line! The roc will soar up ninety thousand miles and nine. O whirlwind mine! Don’t stop, but carry my boat to the three isles divine! (Trans. Xu Yuanzhong, Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics 305)

The Chinese original reads:

天接云涛连晓雾 星河欲转千帆舞 彷佛梦魂归帝所 闻天语 殷勤问我归何处 我报路长嗟日暮 学诗漫有惊人句 九万里风鹏正举 风休住 蓬舟吹取三山去 李清照 渔家傲 169 Last but not least, both John Donne and Wang Wei combine poetry and religion perfectly together. The nature of religion is conveyed through poetry and poetry is composed with religious conception. However, the two poets differ from each other and both are regarded as unique and unrivalled. For Donne, his Divine Poems are marked with a sense of secularity because of his special images and metaphors. With regard to Wang Wei, his painterly quality is most noteworthy. In Donne’s poetry, his clever use of images from his latest knowledge of science, law, astronomy, medicine, military science and so on impresses his readers most. In the early 17th century, Donne was really a pioneer in introducing modern knowledge into poetry. As a result, a stiff and rigid mathematic instrument is marked with a gentle and sweet nature as in his “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” Dull and dry commercial terms are used to describe love. Later in the 20th century, numerous modern poets also introduced scientific terms into their poetry, like Donne. However, they could hardly exceed Donne. One reason is that times had changed and they were not living in the special age in which Donne had lived. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, science began to flourish and scientific knowledge was fresh. Donne grasped the opportunity and took advantage of the new knowledge in using it in his poetry from a poet’s angle. Donne’s success is mainly owing to the special age in which he lived. The scientific truth together with the poetic imagination leaves a deep impression on his readers. It is true that Donne’s understanding of new knowledge was limited, but the limitation does not harm the charm of his poetry. Although the scientific knowledge in Donne’s poetry is not new to us at all, what attracts us is his particular way of understanding and manipulating it. Only in Donne’s time, not in any other age, could metaphysical poetry be written, and Donne is the best representative of this school. The special age contributed to Donne’s success but brought his modern imitators’ to failure. Donne was a unique poet produced in his time. The much older Wang Wei was under a similar condition. He was unique in uniting poetry with religion but differed from Donne by his special feature. As a great master of painting, he presented imaginative pictures through poetry. Strongly influenced by Chan, Wang Wei avoided vulgarity and flamboyance in

170 both his painting and poetry. Although poetry was composed with words, Wang Wei broke through the limitation of words and introduced painting techniques to his poetry. With words carefully chosen to be his brush pen, he portrayed a lot of implicative pictures in his poetry. In classical Chinese literature, Wang Wei is not the only poet with painterly qualities. Many others, like Xie Lingyun, Tao Qian, Meng Haoran, Liu Zongyuan and Wei Yingwu are all well-known for their picturesque poems. Nor is Wang Wei the only poet to express Chan in poetry. Since the introduction of Buddhism to China, countless Chan poems have been produced. But Wang Wei is surely the most excellent poet in both respects because of his peerless talent in poetry and painting as well as his profound insight into Buddhism. Wang Wei is undoubtedly the greatest poet to weld Chan with painting in his work and in return, these three things work together to make his poems unearthly simple but elegant. It was Wang Wei who brought Chan poetry to an unprecedentedly great height and gave it his own features. Reading Wang Wei’s poems, one can get a variety of pleasures and edification at the same time. Wang Wei is a genius. He belongs to all times. In sum, John Donne and Wang Wei are at once similar and different. They are both great masters in combining religion with poetry, and have influenced people generation after generation. They have each some unique characteristics which distinguish them from hosts of other poets at home, and in world literature, too.

Conclusion

171

Sometimes frustrations are not totally abominable. When a situation changes, a person’s temperament and thinking pattern also change unconsciously. For a poet, ups and downs in life may have great impact on his work and deepen his emotional intensity. Had he not been under house arrest, Li Yu (937-978, Rn 961-975), the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty (937-975), would never have opened the vista of his ci lyrics from ladies’ boudoirs to larger concerns, such as philosophical and political reflections on and lamentation for the downfall of his kingdom and the brevity of life (Guo Shangxing & Sheng Xingqing 288).1 Wang Guowei (1877-1927), an eminent literary critic, praises Li Yu highly in his famous Notes and Comments on Lyrics.2 The destruction of the Southern Tang was a calamity for the state and for Li Yu, the emperor, but at the same time, the tragedy helped to produce a great poet in Chinese literature. So with poetess Li Qingzhao. After the Northern Song Dynasty fell and her husband died, she wandered about destitute in the South and wrote touching poems with profound feelings successfully emulated by few poets. Historically speaking, it is misfortune that has caused many poets to make changes in their style and produce great poems. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is another example. When his last novel, Jude the Obscure was severely attacked by critics, he found it hard to express his ideas in fiction any more. Then he returned to his old way and began to write poems again. He came out with great success. Nowadays, Hardy’s poetry has been considered to be among the classics of English literature. He is “being increasingly seen as one of the very greatest of English writers, because of his achievement in both the novel and poetry” (Gibson ix). John Donne and Wang Wei were also unfortunate in life and career. But their

1 “The Beautiful Lady Yu” is one of the best-known poems this unfortunate emperor produced in his period of captivity. In this poem, he recalled his happy bygone days as an emperor and expressed his sorrows as a prisoner. Greater pity was that, such lines as “My attic which last night in vernal wind did stand / Reminds me cruelly of the lost moonlit land” (3-4) (“小楼昨夜又东风 故国不堪回首月明中” Trans. Xu Yuanzhong, Golden Treasury of Chinese Lyrics 87) irritated Emperor Tai Zong (939-997, Rn 976-997) of the Song Dynasty, resulting in Li Yu’s execution by poison at the age of 42. Still, Li Yu’s fame for poetry mainly rests on such lyrics as “The Beautiful Lady Yu.” Li Yu’s story testified to the truth of the concept of a much younger philosopher, F. Nietzsche (1844-1900), that all literature must be written in blood. 2 王国维 人间词话 172 misfortunes resulted in their great achievements in poetry. The setbacks and difficulties forced them to have a deeper thinking on life. When they felt helpless in the public world, they turned to religion for consolation. In their later works, poetry and religion melt together and gave their poetry a higher value. Therefore, frustrations may not be looked upon as totally bad in a person’s life; they are bad luck for the poets, but good luck for poetry. Donne and Wang Wei each used poetry to record their sufferings and enjoyments. However, due to the different social and cultural backgrounds in England and in China, large differences exist in their poetry of love, politics, parting and religion. First of all, as mentioned above, the social attitudes toward love and women are greatly different in England and in China. As a result, Donne and Wang Wei both wrote poetry of love and women, but each in his own unique way. For Donne, love was a tremendously important matter in life and in his poetry of the first period. His passion and his explicit expression of sensual love are after the model of the English tradition. Conversely, Wang Wei laid special emphasis on spiritual love in his poetry. The quietude and complete absence of erotic love along with the suggestive manner in his love poetry are after the model of the Chinese tradition. Secondly, though both Donne and Wang Wei felt intense concern over politics in their early period, they focused their attention on different aspects. From the mid 16th century through the early 17th century, England was under female sovereigns.1 Donne had had great ambitions for a place in the royal court, but he was limited because of his religious belief and slips in life. Facts told him how it was impossible to ignore the female monarchs. Thus, in his poetry, a lot of satire was directed at Queen Elizabeth I by way of debasing women. As for Wang Wei, he cared more for the exposure of inequality and injustice in society with regard to women, which was a major concern for traditional Chinese scholars.

1 After King Edward VI (1537-1553, Rn 1547-1553) died in 1553, England was under the reign of Queen Mary I (1518-1558, Rn 1553-1558) and Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603, Rn 1558-1603) in succession. 173 Stylistically speaking, Donne’s intensity and directness form a sharp contrast with Wang Wei’s peacefulness and suggestiveness. There are many factors responsible for this. In addition to the different poetic skills applied, the different cultural backgrounds also played an important role. John Donne lived through the end of the 16th century and into the early 17th century in England. It was the time in which England grew steadily in strength. In 1588, the defeat of the Spanish Armada won England supremacy at sea, which sped up trade between England and other countries. It was also the time of the Renaissance, which brought new knowledge in science to England and helped to open a new scientific world for many people. Donne’s wide use of terms from his new learning indicated the great social influence on him, which to some extent gave him the energetic and explicit expressions in his poetry. In China, on the other hand, the time in which Wang Wei lived was the high Tang period, when China had reached stability after long years of war, and when Chinese economy based on agriculture reached an unprecedented high,1 and when the Chinese culture reached a confluence of Buddhism with the traditional Confucianism and Taoism, against which background much emphasis was laid on the appreciation of tranquility and implicitness, as we can see in Wang Wei’s poetry. Consequently, Donne and Wang Wei each developed his own unique writing style. Donne was particularly noted for his ingenious images and metaphors from various fields of learning, and even his religious poetry smacks of a sense of secularity. As for Wang Wei, his religious poetry usually appears unworldly and detached, and his talent for Chinese painting has given a distinctive painterly quality to his poetry. Donne’s and Wang Wei’s great achievements in poetry have been recognized in history though, as we have said earlier, they deserve to be acknowledged more. Time as the severest of critics and surest of compilers will prove this. Meanwhile, neither Donne

1 “Think of the plentiful Kaiyuan years of yore / When a village had enough to feed an army and more.” (杜甫 忆昔 忆昔开元全盛日 小邑犹藏万家食 ) 174 nor Wang Wei ever stopped pursuing truth. For Donne, love and religion not only have exercised significant influence on his life but they are also primary subjects in his poetry. Whether he was exploring the varieties and complexities of love in his Elegies, Songs and Sonnets, or meditating on sin, grace, and the question of salvation in his Divine Poems, Donne was always searching for truth. His poems show a skepticism about social conventions and institutions, a feeling that received opinions and beliefs may not fully accord with “Truth” and must be tested in practice, and his conviction that the individual must seek truth for him- or herself (Guibbory, “John Donne” 129). All these are fully revealed when Donne was searching for true love out of Platonism and sexual passion, when he showed dissatisfaction with the female monarch by attacking women and Queen Elizabeth in particular, and when he devoted himself to the pursuit of religious truth and longed for final unification with God. As concerns Wang Wei, a search for essential truth also marked his life and work. In his early years, Wang Wei demonstrated a lofty quest for guileless truth in his poetry about love, social affairs, friendship and so on. In his later years, Wang Wei immersed in Chan and began to explore an artistic situation of truth and beauty in his Chan poetry. Meanwhile, his detachment from wealth and fame highlights the sublimity of immutable truth in his poetry. Much to be regretted, however, the indwelling truth sought after in Donne and Wang Wei’s poetry is exactly what today’s new poetry is lacking. Since the May 4th Movement in 1919, dramatic changes have taken place in Chinese literature, particularly in Chinese poetry. The ancient tradition was denied and abandoned. A generation of young poets cast their eyes to the West and turned to Western poetry for nourishment. Guo Moruo (1892-1978), Xu Zhimo (1896-1945) and Hu Shi (1891-1962), among others, were pioneers who led Chinese poetry to a new phase. Most of the forerunners of China’s new poetry were well versed in Western literature, and borrowed freely from skills and patterns of Western poetry and transplanted them into Chinese soil. Some really worked and helped to enrich or diversify Chinese poetry. Xu Zhimo frequently applied some English grammar in his

175 works.1 Also learning and borrowing a great deal from Western poetry, Feng Zhi (1905-1992)2 produced many poems in the sonnet form. However, some younger or later poets have gone too far. Blindly worshiping Western poetry, they have borrowed western poetic skills unconditionally and ignored the essential poetic spirit behind them. As a result, most new poetry composed in this way appears neither fish, flesh, nor fowl.3 Blind imitation of Western poetry will not promote either culture. Poems produced in this way are usually empty and meaningless. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is prevalent in the so-called new poetry at present. In addition, with more and more advanced development of science and technology, the material world becomes more and more booming and bustling. In convenient living conditions, modern people tend to be lazier and lazier both physically and mentally. On the one hand, their spirit grows tremendously crude and shallow when a desire for richer life stimulates them to seek after more material wealth. On the other hand, such advanced technology as the internet liberates people from traditional chore but at the same time makes them indolent in thinking. In such an environment, modern poets find it hard to keep their minds sound and nimble. Consequently, the lack of spiritual essence together with a superficial imitation of Western poetry has become a problem in the development of China’s new poetry. Donne and Wang Wei are different. Throughout their life and work, they never stopped pursuing truth. In their poems, they expressed what they scorned, hated, loved and worshipped with most sincere feelings. For anyone who read their poetry, there is no doubt about it. Their poetry is consequently not only successful in form but also rich

1 For example, the beginning line in Xu Zhimo’s most famous poem, “Good-bye to Cambridge Again,” follows English grammar instead of Chinese: “轻轻地我走了” (“Quiet I leave”) (1) when in Chinese, the subject should come first, like “她在丛中笑” (“She smiles in the midst.”) (毛泽东 卜算子•咏梅 ) except for special purposes. Line 24 of the same poem by Xu is also in an inverted word order popular in English poetry: “沉默是今晚的康桥” (“Silent is Cambridge tonight!”). The copula “是,” not used in Chinese traditional poetry, is clearly copied from English grammar. 2 冯至, noted chiefly for his A Collection of Sonnets. 3 For example, some so-called new poets believe the energy of Western poetry mainly lies in the use of extraordinary punctuation like exclamatory marks and ellipses, which is absent in classical Chinese poetry. As a result, their works abound with such punctuation making the whole thing appear eccentric. 176 in spirit. However, the lack of such spirit is the fatal defect in today’s new poetry. Thus, if Chinese poets are to get out of the present predicament and revivify Chinese poetry, Donne and Wang Wei’s poetry offers them examples to follow. Efforts should be made to learn from both Western poetry and traditional Chinese poetry, and in learning Western poetry to learn from both its form and spirit. Abandoning either tradition would be wrong. If poetry is to revive, let the poets turn West, turn back and turn ahead. The universal appeal of Donne and Wang Wei remains strong.

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