Homer’s Helen and Bai Juyi’s Yuhuan: Beauty, Subjectivity, and Ethics

By

Suiyun Pan (David)

Honors Thesis Department of English and Comparative Literature University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 2020

Approved:

______

Abstract

A beautiful woman, in the history and literature of ancient Greece and ancient China, is often presented as a controversial figure who can initiate dramatic events. On the one hand, people enjoy and praise her beauty. On the other hand, these same appreciators may blame the beautiful woman for morally corrupting them and generating chaos—even when such chaos is the product of the decisions and conduct of men. The mysterious Greek composer Homer and the renowned Chinese poet Bai Juyi are not ignorant of the unfair treatment of women in their societies. Throughout his Iliad and Odyssey, Homer reconsiders the reputation of his beautiful yet infamous heroine, Helen. As the poet shows a great interest in Helen’s morality and sociality, criticism of this “war-causing” beauty is called into question. Likewise, in “Song of Everlasting

Regret,” Bai Juyi demonstrates the goodness of Yang Yuhuan, a “troublemaking” royal concubine in Tang China. Going even further than Homer, Bai is concerned with Yuhuan’s self- awareness and subjectivity. Nevertheless, neither Homer’s epics nor Bai’s poem should be interpreted as a feminist corrective to legend and history. Both poets redefine their beauties in ways that ultimately canonize the literary exploitation of women.

Introduction

When introduced to the western world, Yang Yuhuan 楊玉環 (719-756 CE), also known as Yang Guifei, Precious Concubine Yang, or Imperial Consort Yang, is often referred to as

“the Chinese Helen of Troy.” We compare Yuhuan to Helen not only for the similarities of their beautiful appearance and romantic experiences, but also for the similar role they played in each of the empires that immortalized them—ancient China and ancient Greece, respectively. The fact that a systematic comparison of these two figures has not been attempted before is partly due to the disparity in the availability of historical documentation between the two. While abundant historical sources such as Old Book of Tang (945 CE), New Book of Tang (1060 CE), and The Complete Anthology of Essays of Tang Dynasty (1819 CE) provide us with reliable (at least officially certified) records of Yuhuan from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), we lack sufficient evidence to confirm that Helen is a historical, rather than purely legendary, person.

Academics trace Helen’s birth date back to the Mycenaean Bronze Age (1600-1100 BCE), or even more accurately, to about the 12th century BCE, when the Trojan war is supposed to have occurred. But this assumption relies only on later literary works. Among these are Homer’s epics, the Iliad (ca. 8th century BCE) and the Odyssey (ca. 8th century BCE). Since these ancient poems combine historical fact with fictional myths, we tend to read Helen not so much as a historical figure, but rather as a literary character, who debuted in the Homeric epics.

On the other hand, Yuhuan has also been written about not merely in the history books, but also reimagined, and recreated in various poems, novels, theatrical scripts, and other genres of art and literature. Among these creative works about Yuhuan, the most famous and influential one is Bai Juyi’s 白居易 Chang Hen Ge 《長恨歌》 (806 CE), usually translated as “Song of Everlasting Regret.” In this narrative poem, Bai creates the literary prototype of Yuhuan, which is inspired by history but is not necessarily consistent with the historical truth. In this sense, both Yuhuan in Bai’s poem and Helen in Homer’s epics are essentially fictional characters, in the former case, grafted onto a certain historical person, and in the latter, a relatively uncertain legendary figure.

As is the case with “Helen,” the historical existence of “Homer” is also open to doubt. Although Homer has been credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, little is known about him beyond legends attached to his name in far later manuscripts of, and commentaries on, his poems. Seven contenders have competed for the honor of being Homer’s birthplace

(Symrna, Chios, Colophon, Slamis, Rhodos, Argos, and Athenai), yet none of their claims can be verified. Given that the Homeric epics are predominantly in Ionian dialect, the conjecture that Homer was a native of Ionia seems probable. As the earliest references to Homer date from the 7th century BCE (by Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus), Homer’s birth date can be no later than that. And as Herodotus speculated, Homer could have lived no more than 400 years before the 5th century BCE—no earlier than the 9th century. So, Homer is assumed by ancient Greeks to have composed the epics during 9th-7th centuries BCE. Because the allegedly Homeric “Hymn to Apollo of Delos” (ca. 7th century) introduced its inventor as “a blind man,” Homer traditionally became a blind man. The philosopher Heraclitus also contributed to the legend of Homer, ascribing the poet’s death to his incapability of solving a riddle about catching lice. Thanks to the Homeric scholar Milman Parry, the oral nature of

Homeric composition has been clarified. As Homer affirms in the epics themselves, a Greek epic poet is more a singer or bard, aoidos (ἀοιδός), improvising on inherited material, than a solitary writer working in isolation to craft “original” works.

In contrast to the Greek poet, there is a relative wealth of documentation for the life and career of Bai Juyi. Born to a poor yet scholarly family in Taiyuan, Shanxi, Bai showed great concern for the lower classes since childhood. After passing the civil examinations in 800 CE,

Bai secured a minor post in the palace library at the capital Chang’an. In the autumn of 806, just before “Song of Everlasting Regret” was composed, the poet was appointed a local government official at Zhouzhi county. It was not until 807 that Bai began to rise steadily in officialdom. Since that year, he was made a scholarly member of the Hanlin Academy (翰林

學士) and Major Left Counselor (advisor of the emperor) (左拾遺), until his banishment in

815. Slandered by his rivals, Bai was exiled from the court to Xunyang, a sub-prefecture in the southeast of Jiangxi Province far away from the capital. Fortunately, he was subsequently promoted to important posts as the governor (刺史) of the cities of Zhongzhou (818 CE),

Hangzhou (822 CE), and Suzhou (825 CE). In 828, Bai became Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice (刑部侍郎) and retired as its Minister (刑部尚書) in 842. In spite of his political eminence, it is primarily for his literary achievements that Bai has won the accolades of later generations. As the most prolific poet in the Tang dynasty, Bai Juyi wrote almost 3,000 poems in his life. Aiming at poetic simplicity, Bai Juyi, also a pioneer of the literary movement at his time, extensively utilized the form of free verse inspired by old folk ballads. Thus, his poems are accessible and attractive to the masses. In this regard, Bai is similar to the Greek aoidos

Homer. Meanwhile, many of Bai’s works show his interests in depicting social problems, as the poet deplored corrupt officials and sympathized with the poor. He believed that “the basic function of poetry was didactic—to inform the ruling class of the state of the people's lives.”1

And since Bai is most famous for his long narrative poems, we find another similarity between him and Homer: while Homer laid a foundation for the narrative tradition in Greek or even

Western literature, Bai Juyi promoted the development of Chinese narrative poetry, which had not flourished before.

A brief overview of Yang Yuhuan’s life and her time can help us better understand and

1 Rewi Alley. Bai Juyi: 200 Selected Poems. New World Press, 1983, pp. 6. examine the poetic refashioning of her. At the age of seventeen, Yuhuan was married to Prince

Li Mao (720-775 CE), the son of the emperor Li Longji (685-762 CE), the latter also known as Emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712-756 CE). After Longji’s then-favorite concubine Consort

Wu (699-737 CE), who was also Li Mao’s mother, died in 737, the grieving emperor gradually became fascinated with Yuhuan’s beauty. In order to make his fair daughter-in-law a legal concubine for himself, in 740 Longji arranged for Yuhuan to become a Taoist nun, forcing his son to divorce her.2 Five years later, Yuhuan became a member of Longji’s court and was then granted the title of “Imperial Consort”—the emperor’s most favorite concubine—one month after Li Mao’s remarriage to a new wife.3

Since the emperor doted on his new consort, their marriage enabled Yuhuan’s families not only to enjoy a life of luxury,4 but also to take part in the government and national affairs, regardless of their sometimes-questionable qualifications and morality.5 Her cousin, Yang

Guozhong (ca. 710s-756 CE), was appointed as the Chancellor of the empire. But Guozhong’s incompetence in politics and military operations, and his (and the other Yangs’) greed and corruption, triggered resentment among people, exacerbating class conflicts. While the emperor devoted himself only to Yuhuan, his empire, army, and people grew disordered. In

755, An Lushan (703-757 CE), an adopted son and a rumored lover of Yuhuan, also a political rival of Guozhong, together with his comrade Shi Siming (703-761 CE) launched a mutiny subsequently known as the An-Shi Rebellion (755-763 CE). With the excuse of “killing

2 Cf. Li Longji’s 李隆基 “The Imperial Order to Appoint Prince Mao’s Concubine Yuhuan a Taoist Nun” 《度壽王妃為女道士敕》 in The Whole Collection of Tang 《全唐文》 edited by Dong Hao, Chapter 35. 3 Cf. Sima Guang’s 司馬光 Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government 《資治通鑒》, Chapter 215. 4 Cf. Liu Xu’s 劉昫 Old Book of Tang 《舊唐書》, Chapter 51. 5 Cf. Ouyang Xiu’s 歐陽修 New Book of Tang 《新唐書》, Chapter 76. Guozhong and ridding the emperor of evil ministers” (誅國忠、清君側),6 the leaders of the revolt actually tried to usurp the throne.7 Having neglected his duties for a long time due to his obsession with Yuhuan, unable to defend against the rebels, Emperor Xuanzong fled from his capital. During flight, the royal guards refused to protect him unless Guozhong and Yuhuan were executed—the latter being deemed the bane of the empire. 8 For purposes of self- preservation, the emperor was forced to order the execution of both.

If Homer ever had an opportunity to put the events described above into song, the Greek poet would probably center his work on the violent rebellion and the struggle between the monarch and his guards. But Bai Juyi mostly ignores such dramatic turmoil as epic battles, and turns his focus to presenting an original and memorable image of Yuhuan. His goal is not set on preserving a faithful memory of historical events. Instead, he selects and arranges events in a way that would help him reimagine the reviled beauty who was blamed in history for plunging the empire into civil war. “Song of Everlasting Regret” begins with Longji’s selection of

Yuhuan as his consort, followed by a detailed depiction of Yuhuan’s beautiful appearance and the couple’s pleasurable life in the palace. With a brief note on the rebellion, Bai then ends the first half of the poem9 with Yuhuan’s death and Longji’s helpless reaction to it. In the second half of the poem, the emperor returns to his palace safely, missing the executed consort. Moved

6 Ibid, Chapter 76 and Chapter 225 (1). Also see Liu Xu’s 劉昫 Old Book of Tang 《舊唐書》, Chapter 200 (1). 7 See Gao Mingshi’s 高明士 The History of Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties 《隋唐五代史》, Le Jin BKS, 2006, pp. 228. 8 Cf. Liu Xu’s 劉昫 Old Book of Tang 《舊唐書》, Chapter 51, where Yuhuan is described as the ultimate traitor (賊本); and Ouyang Xiu’s 歐陽修 New Book of Tang 《新唐書》, Chapter 76, where she is called a cause of diaster (禍本). 9 In this thesis, the first half of “Song of Everlasting Regret” is defined as the portion through the first line “The beauty-loving monarch longed year after year” (漢皇重色思傾國) to “Turning his head, he saw her blood mix with his tear” (回看血淚相和流). And the rest of the poem, through “The yellow dust spread wide, the wind blew desolate” (黃埃散漫風蕭索) to the final line “But this vow unfulfilled will be regretted for aye” (此恨綿 綿無絕期), is the second half of the poem. by his yearning for her, a Taoist sorcerer starts to seek for Yuhuan’s soul or spirit everywhere.

Fortunately, she is found in a fairyland, reborn as a (possibly immortal) fairy. During her meeting with the Taoist, Yuhuan asks him to convey her gratitude and unchanged deep love to the living emperor. The poem concludes with Yuhuan’s restatement of a lover’s vow she once made with Longji.

Bai reshapes some significant historical facts in his poem. 10 For example, he omits

Yuhuan’s previous marriage to the emperor’s son but claims that she is bred in the inner chamber of her parents’ home, unknown to the public before being selected by the emperor.

Similarly omitted are Yuhuan’s affair with An Lushan and her family’s notorious influence on politics. The rebellion, in which Yuhuan is said by historians to be a casus belli, receives only perfunctory treatment in the poem. That suggests, at the expense of historical verisimilitude,

Bai Juyi models a new, beatified, idealized Yuhuan, who seems less harmful and more lovable than her historical image.

Similarly, although Helen of Troy has been condemned as a cause of disorder at least since

Homer’s time, the poet’s own attitude toward her is somewhat ambivalent. On the one hand, he does not deny that it is for the sake of Helen that the Trojan war has been waged, in spite of the possibility claimed by other poets and historians such as Stesichorus, Euripides, and

Herodotus, that she never arrived in Troy.11 On the other, Homer characterizes Helen as a

10 For a more thorough discussion on Bai Juyi’s betrayal and distortion of history in this poem, consult Zhang Guoguang’s “The Artistic Image of Yang Yuhuan and the Historical Facts of Her: on the Beautification of Yang Yuhuan in Chang Hen Ge” in Jianghan Tribune (1991). 11 In Stesichorus’ poem “Palinode” and Euripides’ play Helen, Helen stays in Egypt, instead of Priam’s citadel, during the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. With the help of his field trips and interviews, the historian Herodotus confirms in his Histories that the real Helen was whisked away to Egypt when Paris attempted to abduct her, and the Trojan prince came home indeed without a new bride. For a synthetic discussion of these accounts, see Guy Smoot’s “Did the Helen of the Homeric Odyssey ever go to Troy?” in Donum natalicium digitaliter confectum Gregorio Nagy septuagenario a discipulis collegis familiaribus oblatum, 2012, https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4643#n.18. victim, instead of a culprit or eloper—the image of her with which many modern people are more familiar. We encounter Helen mostly in Books Three, Six, and Twenty-Four of the Iliad and briefly in Books Four and Fifteen of the Odyssey. Through these episodes, she plays different roles: a lonely, silent weaver (Il, 3.121-45), an informative daughter-in-law of the

Trojan king Priam (3.161-242), a brave defier of the goddess Aphrodite (3.380-420), a righteous scoffer of her illegal husband Paris (3.421-47), a help-seeker coming to Hektor

(6.343-68), a public speaker at Hektor’s funeral (24.761-76), a well-conducted hostess of

Telemachus and a decent wife of Menelaos (Od., 4.120-46, 219-64), and a witty interpreter of an omen for her departing guest (15.171-8).

Homer and Bai Juyi not only provide us with narratives about Helen and Yuhuan, but also develop comprehensive, nuanced portraits of the two beauties. The complexity of such portraits allows us to catch a glimpse of their appearance, behaviors, mental activities, and personalities.

Often blamed for moral corruption and war instigation, the beautiful Helen and Yuhuan are redefined in the poems as moral agents acting under morally precarious circumstances.

Simultaneously, their morality demonstrates a kind of gendered subjectivity defined by the systemic economic and political marginalization of women, and a related sexual double- standard that is all-too-familiar even today. In the first chapter of this thesis, we will investigate how the poets illustrate the relation between carnal beauty and moral goodness as they elevate their heroines from femme fatales into moral subjects. Then, in Chapter 2, our focus will switch to how each poet renders his respective heroine’s subjectivity in relation to the possibility, or impossibility, of exercising ethical agency as a woman in the fictional worlds that they inhabit.

In the final chapter, we will consider the extent to which each poet’s characterizations are the result of an interest in women’s situations for women’s own sake, and to what extent their explorations of their heroines’ conundrums is a means for reflecting on broader social and artistic concerns, within—and beyond—the pages of their works.

Throughout, supporting evidence of arguments will mostly come from textual analysis, accompanied by investigations into the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the poems.

Also, the writings of both authors will be viewed through the prism of Confucian and Taoist philosophy. Such a method will do justice to the Chinese masterpiece (which, as we will see, is defined by its negotiation of these two philosophical schools), and shed new light on the far more intensively studied Greek epics, and answer the question, “What can Chinese literature offer to our understanding of world literature?”

Chapter 1: From a Seductress to a Beauty

Yang Yuhuan (719-756 CE), alongside Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, and Diaochan, has been deemed one of the Four Beauties in Chinese culture since the late Yuan dynasty (1271-1368

CE). Nevertheless, Bai Juyi (772-846 CE), writing during the Tang dynasty, refuses the use of the word mei (beautiful) when he introduces Yuhuan in his narrative poem Chang Hen Ge,

“Song of Everlasting Regret” (806 CE). Instead, the poet characterizes her as se (the immorally connoted feminine charm) from the very beginning of this magnum opus. Conventionally, feminine charm (se), with its implication of physical allure and carnality, not only differs from, but is also antithetical to, true beauty (mei). That such a linguistic distinction exists reflects the extent to which aesthetics is associated with ethics in Confucian philosophy. Yuhuan, who is supposed to have kindled the An-Shi Rebellion (755-763 CE) and the decline of the empire, can understandably be classified as se. Nevertheless, not bogged down in the stereotypical view of the day, Bai Juyi, with his subsequent exploration of Yuhuan’s morality, eventually elevates his heroine into a Confucian beauty whose external beauty is ultimately shown to be congruent with her good moral character, which is increasingly foregrounded over the course of the poem.

Sharing a similar fate with Yang Yuhuan, the Helen of Troy found in Homer’s Iliad (ca.

8th century BCE) is blamed by characters within the poem for corrupting the Trojan prince

Alexandros (Paris) and thereby causing the Trojan War. But just like the Chinese poet, Homer exhibits Helen’s morality in a way that calls into question the public’s censure of her. Examined in light of Confucian aesthetics, Homer’s Helen likewise seems genuinely beautiful (mei) rather than merely seductive (se). Based on the ethical Confucian model of aesthetics, this chapter will first analyze how each poet presents the se aspects of his heroine. Then, it will probe how the poets, by means of moral beautification, rescue the women from their infamy, transforming their traditional image as a prototypical “femme fatale.” These discussions will allow further investigation of the relation between beauty and morality reflected in both poems.

The Chinese Dichotomy between Se and Mei

The Chinese character se 色 evolves from an Oracle hieroglyph (Figure 1). But the

interpretation of this term varies among etymologists. Chinese linguists

present at least three different explanations of the

Figure 1 etymology of the character. Scholars such as Tang

Lan explain this Oracle character as a knife on the Figure 2 left with a person kneeling on the right (Figure 2) and therefore speculate that se originally denoted breaking off a relationship with someone.12 This theory seems plausible, yet it fails to explain how the character relates to the meanings we encounter in most Classical literary works.

Some scholars, on the other hand, believe that this associative compound displays a picture in which a person is carrying another on his or her back. The carrier, possibly a slave or a servant, must behave according to the expression exhibited on the face of the one being carried, who commands as a master. Thus, they argue that since its creation, se has been related to appearance, especially facial expression and the gesture of the wink.13 Another popular theory sees two persons having sex in the hieroglyph, where one stands or half squats on the left and another kneels down on the right . Facing the same direction in tandem, the person on

12 Cf. Tang Lan’s 唐蘭 Oracle Characters from Ruins of Yin 《殷墟文字記》, Zhonghua Book Company, 1981, pp. 103-4. 13 Cf. the definition of se in Xu Shen’s 許慎 Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters 《說文解字》, Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1981, pp.283. the left lies upon the thighs of the person on the right.14 The latter two theories indicate that se is basically about the human countenance and sexuality. So, when it extends to the aesthetic field, se can only denote the physical beauty that appeals to people in a sensual way.

In contrast to se, mei 美 signals a beauty that is both external and internal. The classical

Chinese dictionary Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (121 CE) written by Xu Shen

(ca. 30-124 CE) states that mei is interchangeable with shan (goodness).15 Duan Yucai (1735-

1815 CE), a later commentator on the dictionary, points out that mei is also a synonym for yi

(righteousness).16 In these senses, aesthetics is affiliated with ethics. And such affiliation is rooted in Confucianism. When Confucius (551-479 BCE) founded his school, Confucianism, in the Spring and Autumn period, the most prevalent definitions of mei are: (1) beauty that is perceived by sight (close to the meaning of se); (2) a synonym for benevolence (close to mei’s later well-known meaning as mentioned by Xu and Duan); and (3) the harmony between form and content.17 Towards each type of mei, Confucius provides his own theory that has not only shaped Confucian aesthetics, but also influenced later writers and scholars, including the poet

Bai Juyi.

Confucius rejects the definitions of mei that associate the term with only appearance or formalism, and thus differentiates mei and se in moral terms. For example, according to the

Analects (6th century BCE), the Chinese philosopher believes that “if a person is not eloquent as Zhu Tuo, but only has a beautiful face (mei) like Song Chao’s, he can never avoid disasters

14 Cf. the etymological interpretation of the character se on vividict.com. 15 Xu. Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters 《說文解字》, pp. 283. 16 Ibid. 17 Yu Min 於民. History of Chinese Aesthetic Thoughts 《中國美學思想史》, Fudan University Press, 2010, pp. 108-12. throughout his life.”18 In other words, physical beauty (a beautiful face) is inferior to various talents or inner qualities (in this case, eloquence). Likewise, when discussing se (in this context, a potentially misleading countenance), Confucius points out, “Artful words and flattering countenance (se) have little to do with human goodness.”19 Here the philosopher sets beautiful looks and moral truth in opposition, demonstrating how deceptive a person’s appearance can be, when he also “[denounces] the fawning hypocrites.”20

Nevertheless, Confucius allows for cases in which physical beauty exists harmoniously with high moral character. He praises Yu the Great (ca. 2132-2025), a legendary ruler in ancient

China, for “[wearing] nice-looking (mei) official robes and hats [at ceremonies].”21 That means, as long as the outward appearance of beauty is supported by morality (e.g. piety in ceremonial events), such beauty then achieves a higher form of mei—an equivalent to goodness—and becomes worthy of appreciation and praise. Similarly, se, when referring to looks, is not always a negative concept in the context of Confucian tradition. As Confucius claims in response to Zi Xia’s question about filial piety (xiao), “it is difficult to always show

[your parents] your complaisant countenance (se).”22 He adds, “When necessary, the young may labor to wait on the elderly, and supply them with food and drink. But can that alone be counted as real filial piety?”23 This discourse underscores the significance of the “pleasant countenance” as a part of filial piety because it presents the youth’s sincere willingness to serve his parents, even when such care of elders is inwardly burdensome. In this case, a good-looking

18 Confucius 孔子. The Analects of Confucius 《論語》. Translated by Song Deli 宋德利, 6.16. 19 Confucius 孔子. A New Annotated English Version of “The Analects of Confucius” 《<論語>最新英文全 譯全註本》, translated and annotated by Wu Guozhen 吳國珍, 1.3. 20 Ibid, pp. 54. 21 Ibid, 8.21 (see Wu’s notes to the original on pp. 226). 22 Ibid, 2.8. 23 Ibid. face (se) embodies morality and self-sacrifice, and is thus not simply beyond reproach, but also ethically necessary and praiseworthy. Therefore, once it is connected to morality, even se is converted from an outward and potentially deceptive form into an external manifestation of goodness, and is granted a positive connotation.

So, when his student Zi Xia asks Confucius the meaning of a verse from Classic of Poetry

(ca. 11th-7th century BCE) concerning a woman’s beautiful face and makeup, Confucius answers him with a metaphor, “Painting comes after a plain canvas.”24 The plain canvas symbolizes morality, while painting refers to the beautiful outward manifestation of it. 25

Confucius demands that a person’s beautiful appearance must accord with his or her morality, which leads to the conclusion that the ultimate level of mei, i.e., the ideal or the ultimate term in Confucian aesthetics, is the congruence between the beautiful façade (beauty or mei in form) and its corresponding moral connotation (goodness or shan in content). When a beautiful form—either of a person or an artistic work— lacks a moral foundation, or the inside does not match the outside, the form is reduced to se, regardless of how beautiful it is. An example of se in the Analects is the music of Zheng (Zheng Sheng), which Confucius denounces for being yin 淫 (decadent and lascivious).26 By yin the philosopher means the excessively resplendent form (of the music in this case) without a moral core, which can cause listeners’ deviation from morality (li).27 After Confucius, se would increasingly have a dubious connotation, regardless

24 Ibid, 3.8. 25 Immediately after Confucius’ response, Zi Xia relates painting to li, the rules of propriety, and thus suggests that li comes after something else (morality). 26 When asked about how to govern a state by his student Yan Yuan, Confucius says, “Ban the music of the State of Zheng…[because] the music of Zheng is lascivious.” Cf. Ibid, 15.11. 27 Cf. the footnote in Yu Kailiang’s 余開亮 “Confucius’ Discussion on Aesthetics and the Clarification of Relevant Aesthetic Problems” 《孔子論“美”及相關美學問題的澄清》 in Confucius Studies 《孔子研究》, no.5, 2012, pp. 49. of the context in which it was used.

Yuhuan as Se

Steeped in the Confucian atmosphere,28 Bai Juyi unsurprisingly examines his objects from a Confucian perspective. The choice of se, rather than mei, in the opening sentence, “The emperor of China, desirous of se, longs for an extremely beautiful woman” (漢皇重色思傾

國),29 reflects, at least, Bai’s awareness of Yang Yuhuan’s reputation as a morally questionable, dangerous beauty. This implicitly derogatory word choice alerts us that the portrayal of

Yuhuan’s beauty in the poem will not necessarily be laudatory. Indeed, in the verses that depict her while Yuhuan is still alive, Bai spares no effort to depict her physical charms, yet conspicuously omits any mention of her moral qualities. Bai portrays Yuhuan’s uncommon beauty in a hyperbolic and highly stylized way: her natural beauty is “too hard to hide” (天生

麗質難自棄), her smile is “full of grace” (百媚生), her skin is “creamy” (凝脂), her hair is cloudlike, her face flowerlike (雲鬢花顏). Meanwhile, comparison is utilized to highlight her extraordinary gaze: her enchanting smile makes even the fairest faces in the royal palaces pall

(六宮粉黛無顏色), so that the love and care that the emperor should have shared with three thousand fair ladies in his inner palace (後宮佳麗三千人) is lavished on her alone (在一身).

Yuhuan’s physical attractiveness is also manifested by her fascinating deportment. She lets the

28 Born in a Confucian family, Bai Juyi is impacted by Confucianism from his childhood. Both his grandfather Bai Huang and his father Bai Jigeng are proficient in the Confucian classics, and it is not a surprise that his given name Juyi (居易) is drawn from a Confucian text, “The Doctrine of the Mean” in the Book of Rites: “the Noble Man abides in change and awaits his destiny” (君子居易以俟命). In 800 AD, he gained Jinshi, the highest degree in Confucianism-based imperial examinations—not to mention the general impact of Confucianism on Chinese culture and literature that had been overwhelming since the second century BC. 29 Unless otherwise noted, the English translation and the original Chinese text of “Song of Everlasting Regret” in this thesis are obtained from the anthology 300 Tang Poems 《唐詩三百首》 compiled and translated by Xu Yuanchong 許淵沖, Higher Education Press, 2000, pp. 196-203. warm fountain “lave and smooth” her body (溫泉水滑洗凝脂), and afterwards rises so faint

(嬌無力) that she needs the attendants’ assistance; she sweetly serves the emperor during the night (嬌侍夜), and is sometimes “drunk with wine and spring” (醉和春). Besides, the extravagant settings in which she appears not only echo but also enhance the gorgeousness of her appearance: she sleeps in a warm “lotus-flower curtain” (芙蓉帳暖), and accompanies the emperor in a “Golden Bower” (金屋) and “Jade Tower” (玉樓), with geishas singing gently

(緩歌), dancers dancing slowly (慢舞), and stringed and woodwind instruments performing in harmony (凝絲竹).

Meanwhile, we see the corrupting and destructive power of Yuhuan’s physical beauty on the emperor. Lingering with the concubine, Emperor Xuanzong finds “the blessed night” so short (春宵苦短) and cancels the morning court (不早朝) to extend the time spent with her in bed. Yuhuan’s families are granted “rank,” positions, and a “fief” by the emperor (姊妹弟兄皆

列士), whether they are qualified or not in regard to morality, wisdom, or capability. Moreover, after Yuhuan is selected for the imperial palace, the emperor tirelessly immerses himself in courtly amusements, such as song and dance performances, while neglecting his obligations and responsibilities as ruler. The first half of the poem offers us good reasons to blame Yuhuan for the moral corruption that eventually subverts the empire (qing guo 傾國). But the second half of the poem, in which Yuhuan is dead and her spirit is found living on a utopian island, reshapes her as a moral beauty who is divorced from se and achieves mei.

Yuhuan as Mei

After Yuhuan is killed on Mawei Slope at the helpless emperor’s command, a Taoist sorcerer locates the spirit (魂魄) of the emperor’s former consort among the fairy mountains

(仙山) on the sea (海上), where “[dwell] so many fairies as graceful as flowers” (綽約多仙

子). The mortal heroine has transformed into an immortal fairy after her death, living on a mountainous island traditionally reserved for benign spirits, and not in the infernal underworld that awaits evil, immoral, or unjust spirits. Hence, even without any further depiction of the heroine, the setting would already be adequate to imply a switch of the poetic motifs used to characterize Yuhuan. In a reversal of his previous poetic tendencies, Bai demonstrates

Yuhuan’s morality as it is reflected in her constant loyalty to the emperor, before and after her death. Hearing the monarch’s embassy arrive, a sleeping Yuhuan (in fact, her spirit) immediately rushes down to the hall, “not fully awake at all” (新睡覺), not caring about the public perception of her appearance, “her cloudlike hair awry” (雲鬢半偏) and “her flowery cap slanted” (花冠不整). She has neither sought for new joy in the fairyland nor complains about her lord, who commanded her execution and left her dead. For her, the heavenly utopia is only a lonely world without the emperor, as evidenced by the tears that “crisscross” on her face (玉容寂寞淚闌幹).

During this mortal-immortal meeting, Yuhuan first shows gratitude to Emperor Xuanzong, bidding the ambassador to pass on her thanks to the emperor. Next, she asks the messenger to carry back her keepsakes to Emperor Xuanzong, which convey her “deep love” (深情). She hopes both her heart and the emperor’s remain “as firm as the gold” (心似金鈿堅) so that they will meet again “in heaven or on earth” (天上人間會相見). At the embassy’s departure, she confides to him “a secret vow” known only to the couple. All her interactions with the messenger manifest how badly she misses, loves, and yearns for her lord even after her death and thus demonstrate how faithful she is: no matter what (seas, mountains, life and death, etc.) has separated them from each other, Yuhuan’s love for and loyalty to Longji would never change. And such loyalty is demanded in Confucian ethics. As Confucius says, “A monarch should employ his servants according to the rules of propriety, and the servants should serve their [monarch] with faithfulness.”30

What is more, Bai shifts the significance of Yuhuan’s beauty in a serial description that presents her appearance as a sign of her faithfulness. When awakened, Yuhuan comes down from her bedchamber. “The wind [blows] up her fairy sleeves and [makes] them float / as if she [dances] the ‘Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat’ [once again]” (風吹仙袂飄飄舉，猶似

霓裳羽衣舞). When she weeps, tears on her “jade-white face” seem like “a spray of pear blossoms in spring rain” (梨花一枝春帶雨). Thus, while praising her inner beauty, Bai conflates it with her physical beauty. If we appreciate the description of her external beauty in the first half of the poem as a gongbi (meticulous and realistic) painting, we may view that in the last part of the poem as a xieyi (freely expressive or sketch-styled) painting. The former emphasizes Yuhuan’s gorgeous appearance with exquisite and extravagant detail, in a way that naturalizes her dangerous, all-consuming allure for the emperor. The latter passage finds beauty in the flowing garment and the untidy appearance, focusing on Yuhuan’s isolation and emotional expressions. This xieyi style of presenting her physical beauty traffics in simple yet etherealized images, which point to Yuhuan’s morality, elevating her to the status of “perfectly beautiful [mei in form]” and “perfectly good [shan in content].”31 Therefore, the combination

30 Confucius 孔子. The Analects of Confucius 《論語》, 3.19. 31 Confucius 孔子. A New Annotated English Version of “The Analects of Confucius” 《<論語>最新英文全 譯全註本》. Translated and annotated by Wu Guozhen 吳國珍, 3.25. of Yuhuan’s external beauty with her internal beauty transforms her from a charming femme fatale, characterized by se, into a laudable Confucian beauty, a lady of mei.

But we may question, how and why does Yuhuan become moral only after her death? If she is dangerously se before death, how could she enter the utopian island as a beautiful faery?

Does the poet force her to be a Confucian beauty at the cost of logical consistency? All these doubts lead to the question whether Yuhuan actually experiences a transformation or conversion over the course of the poem, or whether the poet is seeing the same person from a radically different perspective? This question will remain unanswered until the next chapter.

Helen as Se

Unlike Bai Juyi, Homer does not offer an extensive and detailed portrayal of Helen’s physical beauty (se). Nevertheless, Homer does depict Helen’s fair countenance and body in an implicit way. Whereas “Song of Everlasting Regret” presents a variety of verbal paintings of Yuhuan so that we observe her as if she emerged in front of us, most of the time in the

Homeric epic we do not “see” Helen’s body clearly but instead hear about her beauty from others’ comments and watch their reactions when they encounter her, allowing us to construct her portrait in our imagination. In Book 3 of the Iliad, when Helen, summoned by Iris, approaches the tower to watch the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans (which turns out to be a duel between her two husbands), a group of Trojan veterans sees her passing before them. These old people, shocked by her physical allure, parallel Helen’s presence to the appearance of a deity:

αἰνῶς ἀθανάτῃσι θεῇς εἰς ὦπα ἔοικεν.

Terrible is the likeness of her face to immortal goddess.32

Nevertheless, the poet is vague about the details of her actual image. Even in the scene where

Helen is compelled by Aphrodite to seduce Paris, we are not given any specified delineation of her looks, but rather hear about her beauty from Paris. Homer does present us with Helen’s epithets, which are associated with her attributes, such as “Helen of the white arms”

(λευκώλενος), “the shining among women” (δῖα γυναικῶν), and “lovely-haired Helen”

(εὔκομος), but similar epithets are also applied to other female characters like Laodike and

Kassandra. Such generic formulas thus fail to represent the idiosyncratic traits of the most beautiful mortal woman in the world.

Given that most archaic Greek poems tend to accumulate physical details of beautiful women,33 readers of Homer seeking a thorough presentation of Helen’s appearance may be disappointed. Homer’s reticence about Helen’s physical features, however, draws our attention to the effect of her charming body—namely, her power to qing guo (傾國), a phrase used in the opening line of Bai Juyi’s poem which literally means “to topple the empire with female charm.” Like Yuhuan of Tang China, Helen’s sublime exterior triggers her companions’ desire and violence between two peoples. Helen’s beauteous body (se) appears to encompass a notion of immorality, even evil. When she is set by Aphrodite on an armchair before Paris in his high- vaulted bedchamber, the Trojan prince admits that Helen’s presence lets “passion [enmesh] [his] senses” (ἔρως φρένας ἀμφεκάλυψεν), and causes “desire [to seize] [him]” (με γλυκὺς ἵμερος

32 Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. The University of Chicago Press, 2011, 3.158. “αἰνῶς ἀθανάτῃσι θεῇς εἰς ὦπα ἔοικεν.” Unless otherwise noted, the Greek text of the Iliad in this thesis is obtained from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133. The edition used is Homer’s Homeri Opera in five volumes published by Oxford University Press, 1920. 33 Ruby Blondell. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 76. αἱρεῖ), even though Helen has scorned him harshly just a few moments ago.34 Paris’ response to Helen not only reveals the attractiveness of her body, but also implies that Helen’s extraordinary appearance inevitably degrades him morally so that he cannot resist her at all.

Helen’s erotic power is as devasting as Yuhuan’s power that diminishes Emperor Xuanzong’s volition to rule his empire and perform his duty.

Indeed, throughout the epic, Helen is accused several times by different people of causing the troubles that plague Troy. The Trojan elders, who are astonished by Helen’s charm, think it worthwhile to suffer long-term hardship fighting for “a woman like this one”

(τοιῇδ᾽…γυναικὶ).35 As Hanna Roisman claims: “If Helen had not generally been viewed as culpable, there would have been no need or incentive for these men to make clear that they themselves did not hold her responsible.”36 The same idea can be inferred from Priam’s defense of Helen: “I am not blaming you[.]”37 Moreover, the Greek hero Achilleus calls her the “accursed” (ῥιγεδανῆς, literally shudder-making) one, for the sake of (ἕνεκα) whom the war has been waged.38 Such opinion exactly matches the post-An-Shi-Rebellion-period viewpoint on Yuhuan, who, according to several Tang poems, is executed to avoid the total “downfall”

(衰) of the nation,39 who is depicted as “evil” (妖)40 and responsible for “people lying frozen to death by roadside” (路有凍死骨),41 for “weapons and violence” (幹戈),42 and for “soldiers

34 Ibid, 3.442-6. 35 Homer. The Iliad, 3.157. 36 Hanna M Roisman. “Helen in the Iliad; Causa Belli and Victim of War: From Silent Weaver to Public Speaker.” The American Journal of Philology, vol. 127, no. 1, 2006, pp. 7. 37 Homer. The Iliad, 3.164. 38 Ibid, 19.325. 39 Cf. Du Fu’s 杜甫 “Journey North”《北征》. 40 Cf. Liu Yuxi’s 劉禹錫 “A Poem of Mawei”《馬嵬行》. 41 Cf. Du Fu’s 杜甫 “Venting Feelings with 500 Words in Going from Capital to County Fengxian” 《自京赴 奉先縣詠懷五百字》. 42 Cf. Li Yi’s 李益 “Passing Mawei” 《過馬嵬》. [fighting] everywhere” (四海兵)43 in other Tang poems. Thus, the portrait of Helen in the Iliad would seem to align with the basic definition of se, a charming, yet morally perilous, beauty.

Helen as Mei

As we have seen, the qualities of Yuhuan’s inner character that allow her to emerge as mei stem from her proper actions after death, which express her unqualified faithfulness and love. In contrast, Homer presents Helen’s moral sense mainly through scenes of introspection, which dramatize her self-condemnation, aesthetic taste, nostalgia, and attitudes toward xenia.

While we hear sporadic criticisms of Helen from characters like Achilleus and Eumaeus,

Helen’s self-reproaches are far more frequent—and damning. Such words or phrases as dog- eyed (κυνώπης),44 loathed (στυγερήν),45 dishonor (κύων), baneful (κακομήχανος) and horrible

(ὀκρυόεις)46 are used by Helen when she talks about herself. Such opinions contrast with

Nestor’s, Priam’s and the poet’s defense of her, where she is said not to be culpable for the traumatic war. But the derogatory terms with which Helen upbraids herself do not actually demean her. Instead, they elevate her as an ethical subject. Helen’s consciousness of shame is shown throughout her conversation with Priam:

ὡς ὄφελεν θάνατός μοι ἁδεῖν κακὸς ὁππότε δεῦρο υἱέϊ σῷ ἑπόμην θάλαμον γνωτούς τε λιποῦσα παῖδά τε τηλυγέτην καὶ ὁμηλικίην ἐρατεινήν.

I wish bitter death had been what I wanted, when I came hither following your son, forsaking my chamber, my kinsmen, my grown child, and the loveliness of girls my own age.47

43 Cf. Li Yue’s 李約 “Passing Huaqing Palace” 《過華清宮》. 44 Homer. The Iliad, 3.180. 45 Ibid, 3.404. 46 Ibid, 6.344. 47 Homer. The Iliad, 3.173-5.

And a similar utterance is delivered when Helen seeks help from Hektor:

ὥς μ᾽ ὄφελ᾽ ἤματι τῷ ὅτε με πρῶτον τέκε μήτηρ οἴχεσθαι προφέρουσα κακὴ ἀνέμοιο θύελλα εἰς ὄρος ἢ εἰς κῦμα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης, ἔνθά με κῦμ᾽ ἀπόερσε πάρος τάδε ἔργα γενέσθαι.

how I wish that on that day when my mother first bore me the foul whirlwind of the storm had caught me away and swept me to the mountain, or into the wash of the sea deep-thundering where the waves would have swept me away before all these things had happened.48

Helen’s speeches match what she says to herself when alone, and therefore cannot be seen as rhetorical calculation on her part. Since she can no longer endure such mental torment, she is averse to maintaining the relationship with Paris.

Helen wishes to break up with Paris not only because that relationship renders her dishonored, but also because she cares particularly about her partner’s moral character. In

Helen’s opinion, Alexandros has no sense of shame:

ἀνδρὸς ἔπειτ᾽ ὤφελλον ἀμείνονος εἶναι ἄκοιτις, ὃς ᾔδη νέμεσίν τε καὶ αἴσχεα πόλλ᾽ ἀνθρώπων. τούτῳ δ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἂρ νῦν φρένες ἔμπεδοι οὔτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὀπίσσω ἔσσονται: τὼ καί μιν ἐπαυρήσεσθαι ὀΐω.

I wish I had been the wife of a better man than this is, one who knew [nemesis] and all things of shame that men say. But this man’s heart is no steadfast thing, nor yet will it be so ever hereafter; for that I think he shall take the consequence.49

On the basis of morality, she despises her Trojan husband. So, even if Helen once did

48 Ibid, 6.345-8. 49 Ibid, 6.351-2. happily follow Paris from Sparta to Troy—as she herself “confesses” in the Odyssey,50 she now declares in the Iliad, because of his shamelessness, Paris is not the one she loves anymore, notwithstanding his most beautiful shape (εἶδος ἄριστε)51 and godlike (θεοειδής) body.52 In this sense, Paris seems to Helen a figure of se (formal beauty) that has immoral content, who lacks her capacity to feel regret and shame. This suggests that her aesthetic taste happens to accord with Confucian aesthetics—morality is the ultimate consideration when assessing physical beauty. Thus, when Aphrodite tries to entice Helen into the bed of Alexandros with a sensual depiction of him, who is “in the bed with its circled pattern, / shining in his raiment and his own beauty” like a dancer, 53 Helen finds the depiction unattractive and even bothersome. Since she places morality over sexuality, Helen misses better-minded Menelaos intensely. Indeed, she yearns for not only her ex-husband, but also her family and home. When the duel between Menelaos and Paris is about to start, she is immediately tearful, thinking about her own city (ἄστεος) and parents (τοκήων) .54 Atop the Trojan watch tower with Priam, she looks among the Greek forces for her brothers, Kastor and Polydeukes.55 Helen regrets that she has forsaken her chamber, her kinsmen, her grown child, and lovely attendants.56 Her remorse and concern for home once again show us her conscience.

The possibility of Helen’s moral growth is suggested in a different way in the Odyssey, in

50 Homer has left us a significant inconsistency between the Iliad and Odyssey. In the former, the poet seems to agree that Helen is forced by Paris to come with him—namely, she is abducted by him unwillingly. This version is told both through characters’ voice and the narrator’s. But in the latter, the poet lets Helen admit that she follows Paris of her own free will. Such inconsistency, among others, has aroused the suspicion that the two epics are actually composed by different poets. 51 Homer. The Iliad, 3.39. 52 Ibid, 24.763. 53 Ibid, 3.391-4. 54 Ibid, 3.139-40. 55 Ibid, 3.236-7. 56 Ibid, 3.174-5. which she comes to represent that virtues of xenia, “a central institution of Greek society and morality,”57 that she had once undermined in eloping with Paris. Similar to the Confucian code of conduct li, which aims at the harmony between interpersonal relations, xenia contains rules that regulate behaviors of people to establish, promote, or consolidate friendship and “to create mutual obligations between host and guest.”58 Hosts are expected to show hospitality to guests and “provide free accommodations in a private home;”59 in return, guests are expected to be courteous rather than threatening or rude, as Telemachus demonstrates at the Spartan palace of

Menelaos and Helen in Book 4 of the Odyssey. Given that “xenia relationships are sealed with gift exchange,” 60 Helen is a paradigmatic conformist of this guest-friendship. When

Telemachus is about to depart, Helen selects a robe made by herself, which is “the loveliest in design and the largest and shone like a star.”61 Then, presenting the robe to her young guest, she says, after Menelaos’ gift has been bestowed,

δῶρόν τοι καὶ ἐγώ, τέκνον φίλε, τοῦτο δίδωμι, μνῆμ᾽ Ἑλένης χειρῶν, πολυηράτου ἐς γάμου ὥρην, σῇ ἀλόχῳ φορέειν: τῆος δὲ φίλῃ παρὰ μητρὶ κείσθω ἐνὶ μεγάρῳ. σὺ δέ μοι χαίρων ἀφίκοιο οἶκον ἐϋκτίμενον καὶ σὴν ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.

I too give you this gift, dear child: something to remember from Helen's hands, for your wife to wear at the lovely occasion of your marriage. Until that time let it lie away in your palace, in your dear mother's keeping; and I hope you come back rejoicing

57 Blondell, 2013, pp. 302. 58 Ibid, p.55. 59 Graydon W. Regenos. “Guest-Friendship in Greek Tragedy”. The Classical Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 5, 1955, pp. 49. 60 Erwin Cook. “Homeric Reciprocities”. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 29, no. 1, 2016, pp. 99. 61 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Richmond Lattimore, Harper Collins e-Books, 2009, 15.105-8. Unless otherwise noted, the original text of the Odyssey in this thesis is acquired from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0135. The edition used is Homer’s The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes published by Harvard University Press and William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919. to your own strong-founded house and to the land of your fathers.62

Helen’s giving a carefully picked present to the guest, with a kind blessing, is, in fact, a repetition or extension of her husband’s same action. That suggests, Helen is no less active than

Menelaos in terms of the practice of xenia. Moreover, Helen’s antipathy for her Trojan husband may also stem from her persistence in Greek courtesy, xenia. Paris, who has abducted the wife of his host, is, as Blondell claims, “an archetypical violator” of both marriage (gamos) and xenia.63 Thus, Helen’s condemnation of Paris in the Iliad can be interpreted, retroactively and in part, as her disgust toward their violation of xenia. Throughout Homer’s epics, Helen never attempts to deny or excuse herself for her complicity in this violation. Instead, her confession and penitence through constant self-reproach reflect her willingness to obey and to preserve xenia.

Helen also demonstrates filial piety in her interactions with her Trojan father-in-law.

During her conversation with Priam, Helen’s attentiveness as well as her respect and awe presented to Priam match what “women [in the Homeric world] are expected to show to men.”64

She not simply identifies in a good manner some Greek figures Priam asks about, but also picks up on and reinforces Priam’s comments on them. For example, after Priam has likened

Odysseus to some ram,65 Helen replies, “This one is Laertes’ son, resourceful Odysseus, / who grew up in the country, rough though it be, of Ithaka, / to know every manner of shiftiness and crafty counsels.” 66 Her response artfully confirms the accuracy of Priam’s observation, indirectly compliments his insight, and provides more specific information that he may be of

62 Ibid, 15.125-9. 63 Blondell, 2013, pp. 302. 64 Hanna M Roisman, 2006, pp. 12. 65 Homer. The Iliad, 3.196. 66 Ibid, 3.200-1. interest. Similarly, following Priam’s praise of Aias’ “broad shoulders,”67 Helen calls Aias

“gigantic” and the “wall of the Achaians.”68 That again shows her skill of “adapting her responses to [Priam’s] observations.”69 If we take into consideration Helen’s identity in the city of Troy as Paris’ unlawful wife abducted from a foreign state, she is more of a guest from

Sparta than a member of the Trojan royal family—otherwise, Priam might not have needed to

“include her” and “make her feel welcome.” 70 Hence, we can interpret Helen’s detailed introduction of Greek warriors to Priam as her doing the duty of a guest, and her lamentation over Hektor’s body in the final book as “a sincere tribute to the kind and generous treatment” she has received from Hektor, the host.71 Helen’s participation in xenia is also reflected in the

Odyssey, where the composer grants her a happy ending, the reunion with Menelaos and her child in Sparta. Now as a hostess, Helen courteously leads the conversation with her guest

Telemachus. Hearing the story brought by the guest about his homeless father Odysseus, the hostess weeps to express her sorrow for the Ithacan king,72 casts a medicine of heartsease into the wine people are drinking at the banquet to “make [them] forget all sorrows,”73 and shares what she knows about Odysseus while delivering an encomium of him. 74 At her guest’s departure, Helen offers him a lovely robe that shines like a star with a heartfelt blessing for

Telemachus and his family and land.75 All these acts demonstrate her “mastery of the social art” and allow Helen to transfer from a blameful seductress and a generally known casus belli

67 Ibid, 3.227. 68 Ibid, 3.229. 69 Hanna M Roisman, 2006, pp. 12. 70 Ibid. 71 F.J Groten. “Homer's Helen.” Greece and Rome, 1968, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 38. 72 Homer. The Odyssey of Homer, 4.184. 73 Ibid, 4.220-226. 74 Ibid, 4.235-258. 75 Ibid, 15.125-129. into a “pattern of all great ladies, the model of social elegance”76—in Greek terms, from kalon kakon (evil beauty) to kalos (moral beauty), and in Chinese terms, from se to mei.

Conclusion

The Greek concept kalon kakon, a characterization of the first woman, Pandora, in

Hesiod’s Theogony (ca.700 BCE),77 not only refers to a beautiful yet evil woman, but indeed suggests that a beautiful woman is evil simply because she is beautiful and, as Helen King indicates, because she is a woman.78 Although Confucius does not hold such an extreme, misogynous opinion,79 his integration of aesthetics and ethics renders an unalloyed, beautiful form se or “natural beauty” (天生麗質) that Yuhuan possesses not only worthless but also harmful, as it can morally corrupt its appreciators. From this idea stems the Chinese idiom, hong yan huo shui 紅顏禍水, “the beautiful woman is trouble,” an Eastern near-equivalent of kalon kakon. Through the investigations of Helen and Yang Yuhuan, we can conclude that

Homer and Bai Juyi reimagine morality as an access to real, ultimate beauty. Each poet avoids directly arguing against the generally believed troublesome nature of a beautiful woman.

76 Werner Jaeger. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. Translated by Gilbert Highet, Oxford University Press, vol. 1, 1945, pp. 23. 77 Through lines 591-594 in Hesiod’s Theogony, the author talks about Pandora and women: “For from her [Pandora] is descended the female sex, a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands…” See Hesiod’s Theogony; Works and Days translated by M. L. West, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 20. 78 On page 110 of her “Bound to Bleed: Artemis and Greek Women” in Images of Women in Antiquity edited by Averil Cameron and Amelie Kuhrt, Wayne State University Press, 1983, Helen King explains, “For the Greeks, woman is a necessary evil, a kalon kakon; an evil because she is undisciplined and licentious, lacking the self- control of which men are capable, yet necessary to society as constructed by men, in order to reproduce it.” 79 On Confucius’ attitude towards women, scholars have debated for a long time, with a focus on different interpretations of his saying, “Women and inferior men are difficult to get along with. Shown intimacy, they will lose humility. Kept aloof, they will complain.” (Confucius, 17.25: 唯女子與小人為難養也，近之則不孫，遠 之則怨) While most readers and scholars believe that the saying conveys sexism that has shaped Chinese tradition, scholars and commentators such as Nan Huaijin, Fu Peirong, Du Hongbo, Gao Hong, and Zhang Yuqing suggest that sexism rooted in traditional Chinese culture is either a view that had already grown popular before Confucius or a later purposeful, magnified misunderstanding of Confucius, rather than his true intention. However the debate goes on, at least Confucius seldom explicitly advocates a theory of female original sin. Instead, both of them present the moral aspects of their fair ladies to claim: even if the pretty ladies’ charming appearance (se) is as “intrinsically” evil or immoral as cultural conventions may suggest, beautiful women are not unaware of morality or ethics, nor are they necessarily responsible for the actions of others. Their “acquired” inner goodness, which can cleanse the

“inborn sin,” proves that outward beauty and inside morality do not have to exist in conflict with each other.

Chapter 2: From Passivity to Subjectivity

In the first chapter, we have discussed charming women’s transformation into genuine beauties through poetic exhibitions of their morality. For these two poets, morality not only refers to a coercive ideological force that regulates people in ways understood by Kant,80 but is also extended to a kind of authority or prestige, by which, as Kang-I Chang suggests, women in adversity are granted a sort of “self-sublimation.” 81 In this sense, morality empowers women to define themselves as something other than the effects of their appearance on others.

That is, moral power both generates from and transforms the subject. In contrast, erotic power is a product of the desire of the Other, not of the beauty herself. Therefore, the transformation of Helen and Yuhuan from se into mei reflects a transition from objecthood to subjectivity.

In both the Iliad and Chang Hen Ge, similar techniques emphasize the beauty’s passivity or objectivization, implying a structural oppression common to patriarchal societies. But when

Helen starts to show her moral sense or when Yuhuan expresses her love and loyalty, the possibility for a new subjectivity suddenly emerges. Throughout the Homeric epic, Helen is repressed both by societal forces and divine power. Yet, she bravely challenges, and even rebels against, her repression, supported by her morality. On the other hand, we see no signs of revolt from Yuhuan, and she seems extremely submissive to her lord, even when she is free of societal regulations. Does this contrast between the Greek beauty and the Chinese beauty actually

80 For a thorough discussion on morality and a modern philosophical understanding of its regulation, see Immanuel Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, translated by James W. Ellington, Hackett Publishing Company, 1993. 81 Although Chang only talks about traditional Chinese women when she mentions “moral power,” this concept can also be applied to Helen of Troy according to our previous discussion. For more details of her analysis of moral power, see Kang-I Sun Chang’s “Rethinking Moral Power of Traditional Women” 《傳統女性道德力量 的反思》 in Modern Perspectives on Classical Chinese Literature 《古典文學的現代觀》, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2013, pp. 61-72. suggest that Helen has stronger self-awareness than Yuhuan does? Through an analysis of the contradiction between Chinese Taoism and Confucianism as it is staged in Bai’s poem, this chapter will decisively reach the opposite conclusion.

Helen’s Passivity and the Prince’s Subjectivity

There is discrepancy in accounts of how Helen comes to Troy between the two Homeric epics.82 In the Iliad, Helen is more a passive abductee; in the Odyssey, she appears as a voluntary seducer or eloper. When the old Gerenian horseman Nestor is delivering a speech to guide Agamemnon to enhance the morale of their troops, he encourages the Argives to avenge

Helen’s being robbed violently (ὁρμήματά) as well as her lamentations (στοναχή).83 His words indicate that Helen is compelled against her own will by Paris. This opinion is later repeated by the poet himself.84 Besides, as Hektor points out, it is Paris’ deed of carrying off a fair woman (γυναῖκ᾽ εὐειδέ᾽ ἀνῆγες), rather than the woman he carries as an object, that brings much misery (μέγα πῆμα) to their father, city, and people.85 These assertions suggest that Paris, as a free man with self-determination, must be responsible for his actions, and that Helen is exculpated due to her comparative lack of autonomy. Such exculpation, unfortunately, highlights her inability to be master of her own life, and forecloses the moral complexity of her plight (evident in her self-reproaches).

Homer further molds Helen into a captive and a property via the generic environment of the epic, in which “women are possessions, to be bartered, fought over,” “taken” and “quarreled

82 See footnote numbered 50 in the first chapter. 83 Homer. The Iliad, 2.356. 84 Ibid, 2.590. 85 Ibid, 3.48-50. over.”86 Kenneth J. Reckford construes Helen being abducted and raped as a mirror image of

Briseis being snatched away from Achilleus by Agamemnon.87 Iris tells Helen before the duel between Menelaos and Paris, “You shall be called beloved wife of the man who wins you.”88

And the herald Idaios similarly states that they will let the woman with all the possessions

(κτῆμα) go to the winner.89 These utterances corroborate that Helen, without the right to choose, “is clearly viewed as an object…who will become the lawful possession of the winner.” 90 Not only that, but Homer also puts Helen “in close conjunction with other possessions” at various points in the poem.91 She is brought to Troy with “elaborately wrought robes” (πέπλοι παμποίκιλα ἔργα).92 She must be returned to Menelaos with all the possessions

(κτήμαθ) at the same time (ἅμ).93 Through such details, the poet gives us the impression that it does not really matter who or what Helen is. She can be either a Helen, a Briseis, a Khryseis, or a robe, a treasure, a territory, a throne—anything valuable to possess.

In addition, Helen’s relationship with Aphrodite underscores the sense of her passivity and helplessness. The Homeric theology of the Iliad allows the mortals to act according to their own wills. Achilleus can choose between a long life without much fame and a short one with glory. Alexandros can decide whether to return Helen or not. Agamemnon can either persist in holding Briseis or apologize to Achilleus. Gods do not govern every human action, nor are most of the mortals constrained or oppressed by divine will.94 Even if the immortals intervene

86 Roisman, 2006, pp. 2. 87 Reckford, 2002, pp.10-11. 88 Homer. The Iliad, 3.138. 89 Ibid, 3.225. 90 Roisman, 2006, pp. 4. 91 Ibid. 92 Homer. The Iliad, 6.289. 93 Ibid, 7.350. 94 Roisman, 2006, pp. 6. in human decision making, they do so through persuasion (e.g. Athene persuades Achilleus not to attack Agamemnon), trickery (e.g. Zeus cajoles Agamemnon by a dream), and inspiration

(e.g. Athena encourages Pandaros to shoot an arrow at Menelaos), rather than through direct displays of power. That is, human characters, in most cases, happily follow divine instructions, which are generally not incongruent with human wishes. But Helen is an exception, as

Aphrodite directly commands her against her own intentions. When the goddess in the form of an aged wool-dresser tries to persuade Helen to serve the recently defeated Paris,95 Helen wrathfully refuses her guidance, even though she has already discerned the true identity of the woman speaking to her.96 However, her resolute rejection and acerbic sarcasm, along with the fearless candor of the words thrown at Aphrodite, are followed by the goddess’ strident order and horrible menace, and Helen’s helpless and unwilling subjugation.97 That Helen resists the overwhelming force in vain and is at last forced to submit characterizes her as a pawn of the goddess.98 Aphrodite does not trick, guide, or persuade Helen by any means. In this mortal- immortal relationship, only order and obedience exist. The oppressive divine edict backs up

Priam’s complaint about the gods (θεός), who he believes play a primary part in driving

(ἐφορμάω) upon the Trojans the sorrowful war (πόλεμον πολύδακρυν) against the Greeks.99

Contrary to Helen’s extreme passivity is Paris’ subjectivity, which is reflected from the events that occur even before the events of the Homeric poems. When Zeus is unwilling to determine which goddess is the fairest one (κάλλιστος) perhaps because he does not want to draw any trouble to himself, the father of gods directs the three competing goddesses to Paris,

95 Homer. The Iliad, 3.384-94. 96 Ibid, 3.395-412. 97 Ibid, 3.413-20. 98 Reckford, 2002, pp. 17-8. 99 Homer. The Iliad, 3.164-5. who then judges according to his own will and need, and as a result, he awards the Golden

Apple to Aphrodite. Even though Paris passively receives this mission from Zeus, his judgement is not influenced by any external forces or commands. His choice is an authentic reflection of his mind—so is his abduction of Helen. That explains why Hektor rebukes Paris with merciless words such as “evil” (Δύσπαρις), “woman-crazy” (γυναιμανής), and “cajoling”

(ἠπεροπευτής).100 He even opines that his brother deserves to be stoned (λάινος) for the wrong he has done (κακῶν ἕνεχ᾽ ὅσσα ἔοργας).101

Furthermore, as Homer implies, Paris’ selection of Helen, the gift provided by Aphrodite, is not just due to his love for a beauty. It also represents his propensity for “lust” (μαχλοσύνη), which brings pain (ἀλεγεινός),102 over the power and wisdom provided by Hera and Athene, and over morality and the social contract. And these things he disdains are all pathways to glory

(κλέος). The poet’s use of “lust” (μαχλοσύνη) enlightens us about the nature of Helen’s erotic power. A beautiful body is not intrinsically destructive or harmful, but a lustful soul is inevitably obsessed with such a body. To avoid responsibility, the lustful soul blames the object of desire for his own moral failings. Thus, the potential censure of Helen and more broadly, of beautiful women, is only based on a false pretext. Since Paris values “lust” over everything else, it is not Helen who corrupts him. However, his lustful nature submits to primitive desire

(or the “appetitive element” in Platonic words103 ) and it is Paris’s own voluntary will that permits love (eros) to dominate his psyche.

The Trojan prince is capable of recognizing only external beauty. The interactions between

100 Ibid, 3.38-9. 101 Ibid, 3.57. 102 Ibid, 24.30. 103 For a systematic Platonic discussion of appetitive elements in the human psyche, see Books 4 and 9 of Plato’s Republic. Helen and Alexandros in the Iliad suggest a relationship trapped at the sensual level. Even when Helen blames her lord with derision for his cowardice in battle,104 the prince responses to her nine-line censure in only three perfunctory lines. He first asks Helen to stop and then ascribes his own defeat to Athene’s assistance of Menelaos:

μή με γύναι χαλεποῖσιν ὀνείδεσι θυμὸν ἔνιπτε: νῦν μὲν γὰρ Μενέλαος ἐνίκησεν σὺν Ἀθήνῃ, κεῖνον δ᾽ αὖτις ἐγώ: πάρα γὰρ θεοί εἰσι καὶ ἡμῖν.

Lady, censure my heart no more in bitter reprovals. This time Menelaos with Athene’s help has beaten me; another time I shall beat him. We have gods on our side also.105

Afterwards, he swiftly changes the topic of conversation to his sexual desire. Aroused by Helen he demands coitus, recollecting their sexual scenes in the past:

ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε δὴ φιλότητι τραπείομεν εὐνηθέντε: οὐ γάρ πώ ποτέ μ᾽ ὧδέ γ᾽ ἔρως φρένας ἀμφεκάλυψεν, οὐδ᾽ ὅτε σε πρῶτον Λακεδαίμονος ἐξ ἐρατεινῆς ἔπλεον ἁρπάξας ἐν ποντοπόροισι νέεσσι, νήσῳ δ᾽ ἐν Κραναῇ ἐμίγην φιλότητι καὶ εὐνῇ, ὥς σεο νῦν ἔραμαι καί με γλυκὺς ἵμερος αἱρεῖ.

Come, then, rather let us go to bed and turn to lovemaking. Never before as now has passion enmeshed my senses, not when I took you the first time from Lakedaimon the lovely and caught you up and carried you away in seafaring vessels, and lay with you in the bed of love on the island Kranae, not even then, as now did I love you and sweet desire seize me.106

We find that Paris, as an appreciator of Helen, only sees her nice shape (se) and ignores engaging with her as an ethical subject. In doing so, Paris is no different than other characters

104 Homer. The Iliad, 3.428-36. 105 Ibid, 3.438-40. 106 Ibid, 3.441-6. in the poem: her detractors, who recoil from her erotic power; her patron goddess, who manipulates and commands her; and her allies, who, in exonerating her reflexively, treat her as a voiceless, passive object rather than an active, self-aware individual.

Yuhuan’s Passivity and the Emperor’s Subjectivity

Although female characters in Bai Juyi’s poems are, in general, more expressive and independent than those in Homer’s, the Chinese poet tends to objectify his heroine in the first half of “Song of Everlasting Regret,” where passive voice is extensively used to portray the living Yuhuan. She is bred (養) inside her family chambers, “[is] selected for the monarch’s side” (選在君王側), is endowed with a bath (賜浴) in the Huaqing Hot Springs by the emperor, is helped up by the retinue (侍兒扶起), is desired (思), favored and beloved (寵愛) as well as appreciated (看) by her lord. Even when active voice is applied, the verbs that Bai chooses are hardly adequate to manifest Yuhuan’s subjectivity. She accompanies (從) the monarch on his spring trips and serves (侍) him nightly. These actions only show that she is performing her duty as a mistress subjected to the emperor—just like Helen obeying the goddess. Whether she acts according to her free will remains vague. In fact, until we encounter Yuhuan’s spirit on the island, her image is characterless, as the poet otherwise avoids exposing any of her personal feelings, thoughts, and individuality.

Bai Juyi also attempts to obscure Yuhuan’s subjectivity by emphasizing her innate qualities. Her beautiful look (麗質) is unconcealable (難自棄) and inborn (天生), rather than dependent on makeup or other ornaments. So, she attracts the emperor without really seducing or teasing him consciously. Some scholars, including Yu Chen, may disagree with this view as they think that Yuhuan in the poem misses no opportunity to flirt with the emperor. It is on purpose, in their opinion, that she “[smiles] so sweet and full of grace” (回眸一笑百媚生), that

“upborne by her attendants, [she is too weak to rise]” (侍兒扶起嬌無力), that she “[serves him at] night when dressed [up inside the] Golden Bower” (金屋妝成嬌侍夜), and that she

“[becomes drunken] with wine and spring at the banquet in Jade Tower” (玉樓宴罷醉和春).

Based on such passages, these critics argue that Yuhuan pretends to be a charming and delicate lady to seduce Emperor Xuanzong and win his favor (邀寵).107 Such an interpretation accords with the traditional view of the historical figure Yang Yuhuan, and the documentary records of her, but may not conform to Bai Juyi’s poetic image of her. To test their argument, let us turn back to the opening line of the poem:

漢 皇 重 色 思 傾 國

Han huang zhong se si qing guo

The emperor of Han (China), desirous of fair-bodied ladies, longs for a beauty who could topple the empire. (My translation)

Like a proem in Greek poetry, the opening line foreshadows main characters and events that will occur in at least the first half of the poem. In this sentence, both se (fair-bodied lady) and qing guo (a beauty who could topple the empire) refer to Yuhuan, who will soon emerge in the poem. However, while se conjures a superficial identity for Yuhuan, qing guo represents the destructiveness of her erotic power. Qing guo, as a verb-noun phrase, originally means to topple (qing) the empire (guo). This phrase has obtained its extended meaning, “a devastatingly

107 Yu Chen 雨辰. “An Example of Images Being Greater Than Thoughts: on the Themes of Chang Hen Ge” 《形象大於思想的適例——也談<長恨歌>的主題思想》. Journal of Zhengzhou University, no.2, 1986, pp. 84-91. beautiful lady,” from a short poem composed in 111 BCE by a Han-Dynasty musician, Li

Yannian (150-82 BCE):

北 方 有 佳 人， 絕 世 而 獨 立。 一 顧 傾 人 城， 再 顧 傾 人 國。 寧 不 知 傾 城 與 傾 國？ 佳 人 難 再 得。

Bei fang you jia ren, Jue shi er du li. Yi gu qing ren cheng, Zai gu qing ren guo. Ning bu zhi qing cheng yu qing guo? Jia ren nan zai de.

In the northern lands, there is a beauty, Unequaled, she stands high above the earthly world. At her first glance, soldiers would lose their city, At her second glance, a monarch would lose his empire. They all know that city would be sacked and the empire would fall, don’t they? But such a beauty is rare, so they couldn’t let this chance of a lifetime pass by.108 (My Translation)

The poet Li Yannian, for his political purposes, wrote this tactful poem in order to recommend his own sister Lady Li, the beauty depicted in the poem, to Emperor Wu of Han, who afterwards married her first as his concubine and then as his queen.109 In this historical story about Li’s and Emperor Wu, Lady Li, whose beauty is claimed to contain lethality or destructive power, is utilized by her own brother as a political tool. So, when Bai Juyi quotes

Li’s words, he is not only foreshadowing that Emperor Xuanzong’s empire will truly be

108 Li Yannian 李延年. “A Song by Li Yannian” 《李延年歌》. Collection of Yue Fu Poetry edited by Guo Maoqian, Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 2017, pp. 1293. 109 For historical readings of Emperor Wu of Han, Lady Li and Li Yannian, see Ban Gu 班固’s Book of Han 《漢書》, vol. 97, Part 1, and Sima Qian 司馬遷’s Records of the Grand Historian 《史記》, vol. 49. overturned when “rebels beat their war drums, making the earth quake,” but also reminding us of the passive position of the beauty, who is traditionally treated as a possession and/or a political chip. Whether the beauty is harmful or not depends on nothing other than how the poet and the public evaluate her.

Moreover, it is noteworthy that in the proem of “Song of Everlasting Regret,” both se and qing guo are grammatical objects rather than subjects. Han huang (the Chinese emperor, i.e. Li

Longji), on the other hand, is the subject that performs zhong, i.e. to value, and si, i.e. to desire, actions of which the beauty (se and qing guo) is the object. Zhong, followed by se, reflects the emperor’s character: lustful and lewd. As a Chinese Paris, the emperor cherishes lust,110 driven by his carnal desires. Even worse than the Trojan prince, Emperor Xuanzong, as Bai alludes, intends (si) to abandon and topple (qing) his empire (guo) for a beauty like Yannian’s Lady

Li—if we take the original, literal meaning of qing guo (which is a verb-noun phrase). Thus, in Bai’s opinion, the person who makes the empire decline is the one who intends to do so (the emperor) rather than the one who is traditionally thought to have the power to do so (Yuhuan).

Yuhuan’s reputation as se and qing guo, which supposedly connotes her destructive erotic power, therefore, is merely a scapegoat for Emperor Xuanzong’s self-indulgence, which demonstrates Yuhuan’s complete passivity.

The emperor’s attitude towards the beautiful female body (se) is also manifested by the interactions of the couple throughout the poem. In fact, their communication, just like that of

Paris and Helen, involves only bodily, never spiritual, intercourse. The poet uses the word kan

(看), i.e., to simply look at, instead of other verbs that connote mental activities, to describe the

110 One of the meanings of se is lust or sexual desire. See the interpretation of se in the first chapter. emperor’s appreciation of Yuhuan. Also, after she dies, the emperor misses only her “brows”

(眉) and “face” (面) as well as her company on the bed, mentioning neither his immaterial love for her nor hers for him. The emperor’s licentious obsession with Yuhuan’s beautiful body restricts his capacity for appreciating the qualities of mind associated with mei. This suggests that the poet characterizes Yuhuan as se in the first half of the poem not necessarily because she lacks morality. But her master, the dominator in this relationship who is in the position to value (zhong) and desire (si), is capable of appreciating only outward appearance. We can conjecture, in other words, that the objectified image of Yuhuan is a rendering of Emperor

Xuanzong’s subjective point of view, rather than constituting the narrator’s own perspective.

As some scholars propose,111 Yuhuan may intentionally flirt with the emperor. But since the portrait of Yuhuan in the first half of the poem is focalized exclusively from the emperor’s perspective, it is just as likely that Emperor Xuanzong merely thinks or supposes that Yuhuan is artfully tempting him.

Therefore, we have gradually solved a problem left unsettled in the first chapter: is there actually a transformation of Yuhuan, especially of her inner quality, over the course of the poem?112 The answer is, in all probability, no, because the “superficial” transition of Yuhuan from se to mei that we perceive results from the change of narratological perspective. Since

Longji cannot see her inner qualities, from his perspective, we are also unable to see them. As objectified and passive as Helen, as a possession, a scapegoat, a plaything, Longji’s concubine is not given a chance to show us her interiority. But this does not mean she lacks a moral

111 See the second paragraph of this section started with “Bai Juyi also attempts to weaken Yuhuan’s subjectivity by…” 112 See the final part of section “Yuhuan as Mei” in the first chapter. sensibility while alive, and only gains one after her reincarnation in the utopian realm.

Yuhuan’s Subjectivity in a Taoist Context

The revelation of Yuhuan’s moral power is at the same time the poem’s first overt presentation of her subjectivity. When the Taoist sorcerer, after searching “in heaven” and “on earth,” finally finds Yuhuan on the fairy mountain-island, Yuhuan is addressed by her actual art name (Taoist nun name) Tai-zhen 太真 (literally translated as “Ever True” by Xu Yuanchong).

Throughout the poem, Bai Juyi refers to Yuhuan by name twice, once by her family name

“Yang” at the beginning, once by her Taoist art name, after she has been “reborn” as one of the fairies. Her family name is associated with her passivity and objectivity. As the poet writes,

“[There is] a maiden of the Yangs” (楊家有女), emphasizing her affiliation to the family, followed by a series of passive-voice patterns such as “[is] bred” and “[is] selected.” The family name defines the heroine as a disposable commodity within a kinship system of political alliance, rather than an autonomous individual. On the other hand, Yuhuan’s art name, historically, was granted by Emperor Xuanzong in 740, when he arranged for her to become a

Taoist nun on the pretense of praying for the Dowager Empress,113 so that he could stage a divorce between Yuhuan and her then-husband Prince Li Mao and avoid blame for stealing the wife of his own son. Thus, the art name Tai-zhen is essentially connected to an inglorious history in which Yuhuan plays the role of stolen property.

Nevertheless, the poet breaks this connection between the name and its infamous origins.

113 For historical records, consult Li Longji 李隆基’s “The Imperial Order to Appoint Prince Mao’s Concubine Yuhuan a Taoist Nun” in Chapter 35 of The Whole Collection of Tang 《全唐文》 edited by Dong Hao 董誥, Volume 51 of Old Book of Tang 《舊唐書》 compiled by Liu Xu 劉昫, and Volume 76 of New Book of Tang 《新唐書》 written by Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修, Song Qi 宋祁, et al. He not only avoids the reference to the history of Yuhuan’s conversion as a nun, but also takes care that her art name emerges only after she is dead—as if it were coined in her afterlife instead of during her lifetime. It is not by her art name Tai-zhen that the sorcerer looks for Yuhuan.

Instead, as Bai narrates, he encounters on the island a spirit called Tai-zhen (中有一人字太

真), whose “snow-white skin and sweet face might afford a clue” (雪膚花貌參差是), and recognizes her as “Yuhuan” by virtue of her physical appearance. So, we can speculate that in the poem, the name Tai-zhen is her name in the fairyland of the immortals but not in the mundane world of the mortals.

Besides, regardless of historical facts, Bai refashions the art name (hao 號) “Tai-zhen”, into Yuhuan’s “courtesy name” (zi 字). He deliberately plays with the subtle differences between these two types of Chinese names. While the art name may often be given by others

(e.g. Tai-zhen as Yuhuan’s nun name is endowed by the emperor), the courtesy name is the name that one gives oneself as a sign of maturity114 to “exhibit the moral integrity” (字以表

德).115 In this sense, to “misidentify” her art name as her courtesy name suggests that the figure of Yuhuan has matured or humanized from a passive object into a more independent, self- expressive individual. It is thus essential to investigate the meanings behind the name “Tai- zhen” itself.

Zhen (真), often translated as “truthfulness,” “sincerity,” and “genuineness,” is not a popular term in Confucian doctrines. Gu Yanwu (1613-1682 CE) points out: “There is no use

114 Ancient people chose their courtesy names at initiation or puberty rites. See Chapter 1 (“Summary of the Rules of Propriety Part 1” 曲禮上), Chapter 3 (“Tangong Part 1” 檀弓上) and Chapter 43 (“Meaning of the Ceremony of Capping” 冠義) of Confucius’ Book of Rites 《禮記》. 115 Yan Zhitui 顏之推. Admonitions for the Yan Clan 《顏氏家訓》. Annotated by Cheng Xiaoming 程小銘, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 1993, pp. 64-65. of the word ‘zhen’ in the Five Classics” (五經無真字).116 Wang Fuzhi (1619-1692 CE) also summarizes, “There is no use of the word ‘zhen’ in the Six Classics, the Analects of Confucius, and the Works of Mencius” (六經、語、孟無真字).117 Yet it is in Chuang Tzu composed by

Zhuangzi (ca.369-286 BCE) and his followers that zhen starts to be frequently mentioned. We can understand this word as a weapon used by Zhuangzi, the influential Taoist philosopher, to revolt against Confucianism.

Confucius places the harmonious relationship between people above all else. An ideal society, in his opinion, should be one in which “the state ruler acts like a state ruler, a minister acts like a minister, a father acts like a father, and a son acts like a son” (君君、臣臣、父父、

子子).118 In other words, people’s identity depends on the roles they play in the community.

Zhuangzi’s philosophy aims to refashion human civilization in opposition to Confucius’ social philosophy. Zhuangzi believes that civilization harms individual beings because ren (charity), yi (duty), li (etiquette) and the social and political system advocated by Confucianism are artificial enforcements that constrain and change (or twist) the true (zhen) identity or the nature of man (真性),119 “[wearying] the mind and [wearing] out the body.”120 Human beings are similar to horses, who by nature “eat grass,” “drink water,” and “fling up their tails and

116 The Five Classics (五經) that include Classic of Poetry 《詩經》, Book of Documents 《尚書》, Book of Rites 《礼记》, Book of Changes 《周易》, Spring and Autumn Annals 《春秋》, along with the Four Books (四書), are the authoritative books of Confucianism in China written before 300 BC. For this quotation of Gu Yanwu 顧炎武, see his Record of Daily Study 《日知錄》, Shanghai Classic Publishing House, 2006, pp.1056. 117 The Six Classics include all the works of the Five Classics plus Record of Music. Both the Analects 《論 語》 and the Works of Mencius 《孟子》 are representative works of Confucian orthodox. For this quotation of Wang Fuzhi 王夫之, see his Encyclopedia of Chuanshan 《船山全書》, Yuelu Publishing House, 2011, pp.329. 118 Confucius. The Analects of Confucius, 12.11. 119 Wang Xiaoning 王小寧. “Patterning Heaven and Prizing the Truth: the ‘True’ Aesthetics in Zhuangzi” 《法 天貴真——<莊子>中的“真”美之境》. Masterpieces Review, no.34, 2016, pp. 37. 120 Zhuangzi 莊子. Chuang Tzu 《莊子》. Translated by Lin Yutang 林語堂, independently published, 2020, Chapter 31, pp. 219. gallop.”121 But when Polo 伯樂 (ca. 680-610 BCE), a famous and successful horse trainer, tames them, he “[burns] their hair, [clips] them, and [pares] their hooves and [brands] them.

He puts halters around their necks and shackles around their legs…Then he [keeps] them hungry and thirsty…[teaches] them to run in formations.”122 All such compulsive practices violate the nature of horses, just as the social norms go against the nature of man. In this sense, the Taoist philosopher perceives society as a stable for domestication and (in Foucault’s sense of the term) discipline. Thus, Zhuangzi’s discussion of zhen is grounded in the sense of falseness or hypocrisy that he believes is characteristic of a Confucian-dominated society.123

For Zhuangzi, zhen is the core of a human subjectivity that resists the external dictates of socially prescribed roles. If falseness is understood as the distortion of nature, then zhen refers to harmony with nature, which in Chuang Tzu is often referred to tian (天), Heaven. As

“Heaven abides within,”124 tian represents a necessity of the subject, rather than of the external, objective world,125 for if such necessity abided without, then individuals would be dragged in every direction by the outside, losing themselves. So, to comply with Heaven—man’s fundamental nature, source, and home to return126—is to preserve zhen inside the subject.

According to Zhuangzi, a zhen ren (真人) or a true man, the ideal person preserving zhen, is one who “[enters] water without becoming wet, and [goes] through fire without feeling hot”

(入水不濡，入火不熱).127 This seemingly “divine achievement” indeed demonstrates the

121 Ibid, Chapter 9, pp. 70. 122 Ibid. 123 Xu Keqian 徐克謙. “On ‘Zhen’ in the Philosophy of Zhuangzi” 《論莊子哲學中的“真”》. Journal of Nanjing University (Philosophy, Humanities, and Social Sciences), vol. 39, no. 2, 2014, pp. 95. 124 Zhuangzi 莊子. Chuang Tzu 《莊子》, 2020, Chapter 17, pp. 127. 125 Liu Dai 劉黛, and Wang Xiaochao 王小超. “Two Dimensions of ‘Zhen’ in Chuang Tzu” 《<莊子>言“真” 的兩個維度》. History of Chinese Philosophy, no.1, 2014, pp.25. 126 Ibid, pp. 26. 127 Zhuangzi 莊子. Chuang Tzu 《莊子》, 2020, Chapter 6, pp. 48. ultimate state in which internal zhen is not alienated by external forces.128 The harmony between subjects and Heaven, therefore, means not to drift with the current but to remain unimpaired and unchanged by the environment. Hence, while Confucius defines an individual by his duty and his relationship with the Other, i.e., by outcomes of social discipline, Zhuangzi seeks individual identity through subjectivity that preserves zhen.

What we have provided here so far is a brief overview of zhen in Zhuangzi’s philosophy, with its metaphysical and transcendental Taoist core unexplored. But this analysis is enough for us to contemplate Yuhuan. Mentioning her “courtesy name” Tai-zhen and setting her in a

Taoist utopia to which a Taoist sorcerer journeys, Bai Juyi signals that Taoism is involved and will dominate the ethical perspective of the rest of the poem. Although, as discussed, Yuhuan’s loyal behaviors in her afterlife conform to Confucian li, her intention does not lie in submission to Confucian ethics and social norms, but in her spontaneous true love, which represents zhen.

Yuhuan now lives in the halls at Mount Penglai (蓬萊宮), a traditional mythological mountain on the sea. In Lie Yukou’s Liezi (ca. 5th century BCE), a Taoist classic, Mount

Penglai features palaces made of gold and jade, as well as flowers and fruits that immortalize and preserve the youth of its supernatural denizens.129 It is a place detached from worldliness and annoyance. Since there is no social regulation, everyone in this naturally anti-Confucian realm is unfettered. But the change of environment does not influence or fray Yuhuan’s subjectivity. She still persists in her love for the emperor, even though the latter has abandoned her, even though she is not obligated to keep that love, even though she will not have a chance to meet him again. Such “irrational” love relies not on her lover or her circumstances but only

128 Liu Dai 劉黛, and Wang Xiaochao 王小超, 2014, pp. 25-26. 129 Lie Yukou 列禦寇. “The Questions of Tang” 《湯問》 in Liezi 《列子》, Chapter 5. on herself. As an immortal, Yuhuan can simply choose to be assimilated into the new world filled with eternal joy, yet she chooses everlasting sorrow because she esteems her own subjectivity, trying to preserve zhen, as Zhuangzi advocates.

We must also discern that her love has bypassed primitive or carnal desires. In fact, the indulgent, relentless emperor has become, in Yuhuan’s mind, a fantasy image, from whom she looks for spiritual love instead of physical interactions. Free of Longji’s lewdness and cruelty, this beautified image merely comprises the emperor’s spiritual exchanges with her. For what she keeps in mind is the scene when he vows together with her (even if the lustful emperor may have already forgotten the oath he has casually made): “On high, we’d be two lovebirds flying wing to wing; / On earth, two trees with branches twined from spring to spring” (在天願作比

翼鳥，在地願為連理枝). Thus, Yuhuan is in love not so much with Longji as with her vision of him, which is not physical but metaphysical. Admittedly, Yuhuan’s love for the emperor is not the ideal Taoist love, in which, as Zhuangzi suggests, the lovers “forget each other” (相

忘)130 to attain absolute freedom and the state of zhen. And she is by no means a Taoist zhen ren (the ultimate true person) either. Nevertheless, we cannot overlook her attempt (no matter how elementary it is) to maintain who she really is and to approach zhen (no matter how far she is away from it).

Since Yuhuan is in a circumstance of detachment, her tendency towards attachment to (an image of) her remote lord, along with her practice of li, may possibly be comprehended as a residual product of Confucian alienation and social discipline. However, Bai Juyi does not shape her as a Confucian consort who is expected to “submit to the lord” (臣妾受命於君).131

130 Zhuangzi 莊子. Chuang Tzu 《莊子》. Chapter 6. 131 Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒. “Following orders” 《順命》. Rich dew of the “Spring and Autumn Classic”《春 Indeed, never twisted by external forces, Yuhuan seeks autonomy and equality in her immaterial romantic relationship with (the vision of) Longji. She likens the emperor and herself to two sides of a decorated case (鈿合), two halves of a golden hairpin (金釵), two lovebirds flying wing to wing (比翼鳥), and two trees with branches twined together (連理枝). These metaphors underline the equal relation between the two, who are interdependent yet inseparable—we cannot tell which one is predominant and which one is passive or obedient.

Through this technique, Yuhuan (or the poet) tactfully dilutes the conventional master-servant relationship and the consort’s required affiliation to the emperor. Therefore, drawn in a sea of patriarchal, Confucian regulations as a passive object throughout her lifetime, Yang Yuhuan, in her afterlife, and with the help of Taoist transcendental power that liberates her in front of us, chooses love, chooses zhen, chooses herself, regardless of consequences. Sticking alone to an unobtainable, visionary love, she is, to some extent, married to herself, as “zi Tai-zhen” 字

太真 (where zi can also mean “to marry”) may suggest.

Helen’s “Subjectivity” and Loss of Zhen

At first glance, Helen’s subjectivity is displayed more apparently than Yuhuan’s. As analyzed in the previous chapter, her strong moral sense is expressed in her aesthetic taste, her self-reproach and regret, her longing for her family, and her practice of xenia. Together, these traits do not allow us to interpret her simply as a passive object. In addition, she dares to reject and confront her patron goddess, Aphrodite, in her attempt to rescue herself from repression and objectification. During this confrontation, the oppressed Spartan beauty first ironically

秋繁露》, The Commercial Press of Taiwan, 1984, pp. 384. suggests that the respected goddess is indeed a corrupt “playgirl,” who may have some other mortal men that are “also dear to [her].”132 Then she bravely censures the treacherous nature

(δολοφρονέων) of Aphrodite’s plan.133 More surprisingly, Helen, with acrimony, asks the goddess to take over her role, to “sit beside” Paris and “abandon the gods’ way,” to “stay with him,” “suffer for him,” and “look after him,” and to be “his wedded wife” or “his slave girl.”134

Finally, she ends the speech with a resolute rejection, reiterating that she will not “serve his bed.”135 Such resistance to divine power shows us Helen’s rebellious spirit and thus reflects a kind of subjectivity. She is unwilling to be defined as se or kalon kakon, a property, a pawn, a puppet and a plaything—either of divinity or of the mortals. So, she tries to redefine herself through the power of her moral stance.

While Yuhuan’s subjectivity is based on her love for the monarch, it is the use of reason that backs up Helen’s subjectivity. And Helen’s use of reason is, in fact, a careful calculation of honor, disgrace, as well as the Other’s evaluation of her. When she does not see her brothers among the soldiers, she becomes nervous and explains their absence right away:

ἢ δεύρω μὲν ἕποντο νέεσσ᾽ ἔνι ποντοπόροισι, νῦν αὖτ᾽ οὐκ ἐθέλουσι μάχην καταδύμεναι ἀνδρῶν αἴσχεα δειδιότες καὶ ὀνείδεα πόλλ᾽ ἅ μοί ἐστιν.

Or else they did come here in their sea-wandering ships, yet now they are reluctant to go with the men into battle dreading the words of shame and all the reproach that is on me.136

In the context of speculation, what she assumes they fear is what she herself fears. And her fear

132 Homer. The Iliad, 3.400-2. 133 Ibid, 3.403-5. 134 Ibid, 3.406-9. 135 Ibid, 3.410-2. 136 Ibid, 3.242. of reproach indicates her great care for what others think of her and her actions. Likewise, one of Helen’s reasons for the refusal to sleep with Alexandros is that all the Trojan women would criticize (μωμάομαι) her.137 Aphrodite, then, exploiting Helen’s concern about her reputation, threatens her with “hard hate” from both sides.138 The threat is effective as Helen becomes frightened (δείδω) and eventually surrenders.139 In order to prevent other people blaming her,

Helen challenges and defies her patron goddess without hesitation. For the same reason, she ultimately obeys the command of the goddess with her own volition sacrificed. It seems that

Helen would protect her reputation at any cost. Each time she makes a decision, she seems to ask consequentialist questions like “if I do so, will I look ashamed?” and “how will people think of me?” In this sense, Helen is a typical figure in a shame or an honor-shame culture, in which people aim to preserve honor so as not to be publicly disgraced. Thus, we can regard

Helen’s initial resistance and ultimate subjugation—both due to her fear of being shamed—as having the same socially conformist motivation, even though they are diametrically opposed moral choices.

Indeed, from Helen’s first appearance to the end of the Iliad, Homer keeps implying that she is a social creature—not to mention her appearance as a paradigmatic wife in the Odyssey.

We first encounter Helen in the Iliad when she is weaving a great web (μέγαν ἱστὸν ὕφαινε), a purple and double-folding robe (δίπλακα πορφυρέην).140 In Homeric epics, weaving is the typical and proper occupation of a chaste wife.141 By the design that Helen weaves silently in

137 Ibid, 3.412. 138 Ibid, 3.416. 139 Ibid, 3.418-20. 140 Ibid, 3.125-6. 141 See both George A. Kennedy’s “Helen's Web Unraveled” in Arethusa, vol. 19, no. 1, 1986, pp. 8, and Mark W Edwards’s Homer: Poet of the “Iliad” published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, pp. 192. the house, Homer suggests that she meets the criteria of a wife as devoted as Andromake.142

During the conversation with Priam, Helen’s seemly manner is reflected in politeness, attentiveness, humility, respect, and even flattery, which demonstrate her social competence and intelligence, which are also evident in her public speech at Hektor’s funeral.143 As an outsider, she seeks social acceptance in Troy and strives to be included and inevitably assimilated into her new home. So, Helen behaves properly, in the way that a good wife and sometimes a good guest—her social identities—are supposed to do. Meanwhile, as the legal wife of Menelaos, she expresses her loyalty to him out of her obedience to social norms, not necessarily out of true love. For Homer never uses any words related to love to describe Helen’s relationship with Menelaos, and Helen herself, when she tries to refuse Paris’ demand of sex in Book 3 of the Iliad, could have claimed her true love for another man (Menelaos) to easily upset and disappoint the lewd prince, yet she does not do so. Thus, just like warriors pursuing glory and honor, Helen is an unconsciously repressed participant of the shame-culture ideology.

Even if in her innermost heart she desires to stay with Paris and away from Menelaos, she must be seen as a repentant, reluctant, and innocent victim of Paris and a faithful wife to Menelaos.

Even her aesthetic standards can be interpreted as a social requirement instead of true belief.

Therefore, Helen does not really possess spiritual independence as it is conceived in the Taoist tradition. As her body is controlled by Aphrodite, her mind is enslaved to social regulations.

Even if she is rid of the deity’s manipulation, social norms would still conquer her. The core of her alleged “subjectivity” is tragic subjugation.

In response to Helen’s doings and her rationale, Zhuangzi would think that her nature is

142 Roisman, 2006, pp. 9. 143 Homer. The Iliad, 24.762-75. contaminated and distorted in the pursuit of something external, which is totally unworthy, just as he criticizes common men for devotion to gain, scholars for devotion to fame, rulers for devotion to ancestral honors, and sages for devotion to the world.144 In the Taoist philosopher’s opinion, to subjugate the self to social regulations always comes at the expense of authenticity, for the Tao, i.e., the essence of zhen and true self, “cannot be made by constraint.”145 And constraint is only a means created by men to pursue external things in the name of the Tao:

失道而後德，失德而後仁，失仁而後義，失義而後禮。禮者，道之華 而亂之首也。

When the Tao was lost, its Characteristics (de: morality) appeared. When its Characteristics were lost, Benevolence appeared. When Benevolence was lost, Righteousness appeared. When Righteousness was lost, Ceremonies (li: regulations) appeared. Ceremonies are but (the unsubstantial) flowers of the Tao, and the commencement of disorder [of individuals].146

Unwittingly tamed by social norms (as horses termed by the trainer Polo) and willingly pursuing the false, man-made things, Helen loses zhen; caring too much about the Other, she also loses herself.

Conclusion

While the first chapter emphasizes the poets’ harmonization of external beauty and morality, this chapter has explored the driving forces of the two beauties’ moral activities.

Against unfair public judgement of them, Yang Yuhuan and Helen redefine themselves, respectively, as the idealistic lover and the exemplary wife. Through the lens of Zhuangzi’s

144 Zhuangzi 莊子. Chuang Tzu 《莊子》, 2020, Chapter 6, pp. 68. 145 Ibid, pp. 158. 146 Ibid. Taoism, we conclude that the identity of “wife” demonstrates Helen’s compromise with dominant morality and her involuntary subjugation to Confucian-like social regulations. The identity of “lover,” however, illustrates not only Yuhuan’s rebellion against Confucian manipulative forces but also the cultivation of a true self, in a preliminary quest of zhen

(ultimate authenticity).

Chapter 3: From Characters to Poems

The previous chapters have allowed us to discern that the Homeric Helen, from the Iliad to the Odyssey, is, over the course of both poems, “canonized” as a perfect wife and that Bai

Juyi’s Yang Yuhuan is idealized as a lofty, independent lover. While the Spartan beauty is left to her compulsive yet silent manipulation by both the divine and society, the seemingly feminist poet from the Tang dynasty rescues Yuhuan from capture by social norms. Hence, we might conclude that Bai’s poem rethinks in a more optimistic way women’s role in patriarchal society and is more interested in staging the awakening of their subjectivity than Homer. The differences of time, culture, and artistic temperament can all explain the poets’ disparate attitudes toward women. More important, we should also keep in mind that the modeling of a character is not necessarily an end in itself and, indeed, often serves the themes of the work as a whole, sometimes at the expense of psychological realism. Thus, the two poets shape their respective beauties dissimilarly in ways that suggest broader disparities in their intellectual and artistic preoccupations, and not just their views on women and patriarchy.

One often cited theme of the Iliad is the warrior’s pursuit of honor (τῑμή) and glory (κλέος).

Although the war provides the individual soldiers with opportunities to earn honor and fame, the collective goal of their violence is Helen. In order to manifest the necessity for war, Homer has to establish her unique value to Menelaos, who would retrieve her at any cost. Hence, it must be his lovable wife, rather than a truly “dog-eyed, baneful bitch,” that the Spartan king fights for and tries to rescue. Moreover, the epic presents us with a transition from chaos to order, highlighting personal humanization and communal civilization. So, Helen’s transition from adulteress to dutiful wife is a smaller version of this grand thematic construction. “Song of Everlasting Regret,” on the other hand, centers primarily on a single woman rather than a group of men. Yuhuan, around whom the story unfolds, serves as the main thread of the poem. Hence, despite a variety of theories on its themes, Bai’s work can be read as an epic written to exculpate and liberate its female protagonist. Meanwhile, as far as the Chinese literary tradition of the beautiful woman (mei ren) is concerned, to write a poem for or about a beauty is seldom free of selfish motives on the part of the poet. In the case of this poem, Yuhuan is arguably utilized as a literary technique, a rhetorical device or a mouthpiece to convey the male ambitions of Bai Juyi. That is, under the mask of “feminist” writing may hide the poet’s exploitation and distortion of the woman. Therefore, neither of the poems actually treats women as fully realized individuals for the sake of doing so, but rather as a means of exploring the contradictions that plague male existence.

The Necessity of the Trojan War

Although Helen seldom contributes directly to the plot development in the Iliad itself, she plays a more significant role in the broader Greek mythology about the Trojan war, a small portion of which Homer focuses on. In Homer’s opinion, even if the passive beauty is not really responsible for the war, soldiers and warriors on both sides deem her the purpose of the war.

Without Helen’s eloping with Alexandros or being abducted by him, the Trojan war would become a war of bare aggression on the part of Greek invaders. So, the presence of Helen provides a just motivation for the violent siege and invasion, whether or not the Achaeans have any unstated intentions or ulterior motives (e.g. to plunder the wealth and women of Troy) at the outset of the campaign. Certainly, Helen’s being trapped within the Trojan citadel is not the sole premise for the inevitability of the war, because if she did not deserve the rescue, the war would seem trivial.

Thus, in order to justify the Trojan war further, ancient Greeks in the poem, and Homer himself, imagine Helen as a prize (γέρας) granted to Menelaos as well as to the Spartans. Amongst numerous great, aspiring suitors, it is Menelaos who at last “wins” the prize descended from

Zeus. This prize secures a pleasant posthumous life in the Elysian Field147 for the king, who is now a son-in-law of Zeus. Since an afterlife in the Elysian Field reflects “honor and glory,”148 we can say that Menelaos’ gaining Helen (the prize) is no different from obtaining honor and glory in general (in an uncommon way, though). As Alexandra Rozokoki states, because Helen,

“thanks to her paternity, [secures] power for a man…as a symbol of transferable power,” “the

Spartans [do] not in any way wish Helen (= power) to leave their lands.” 149 Helen is not only the lawful wife and a private, glorious prize of Menelaos, but also a collective present for the

Spartans. What is more, upon Helen’s selection of her husband, Tyndareus, the mortal stepfather of Helen, fears that the preference of one may set the others quarrelling. So, he hesitates to make and announce the final decision. In order to break the deadlock, the then-

Spartan king, following Odysseus’ advice, exacts an oath from all the suitors that they would defend the favored bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect to his marriage.150 Their oath is generally known as the Oath of Tyndareus. Bound by this oath, the

Hellenic heroes must keep their sacred promise, or they will be dishonored. Thus, to reclaim

147 Homer. The Odyssey, 4.561-570. 148 Hesiod. Works and Days. Translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 169b. 149 Alexandra Rozokoki also notes that “as a woman, Helen was not permitted to wield power herself era in which she lived.” See her “THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANCESTRY AND EASTERN ORIGINS OF HELEN OF SPARTA.” Quaderni Urbinati Di Cultura Classica, vol. 98, no. 2, 2011, pp. 50. 150 Apollodorus. The Library. Translated by Sir James George Frazer, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1921, 3.10.9. Helen is to get back a prize for Menelaos. For the Spartans, the war is to retrieve a shared gift.

And other suitors of Helen and their troops are fighting against the Trojans to keep dignity and seek glory. In these senses, people on the Greek side act as if they are to recapture an Argive territory151 that has been wrongly conquered by the Trojans.

Helen’s identity as a prize not only underscores her importance to the male warriors, but also echoes one of the epic themes: the pursuit of honor (τῑμή) and glory (κλέος). Homer depicts a world that is devoted to the deeds of the great men (κλέα ἀνδρῶν),152 who “eat, drink, and live for fame.”153 For example, the hero Achilleus fights in the war not “for the sake of the

Trojan spearmen,” who have done nothing to him.154 Yet, he aims to gain his own prize of honor (γέρας),155 which embodies glory. Achilleus chooses glory with a short lifetime over a long, inglorious life since this glory can bring to him “the closest thing to immortality.”156 In the Homeric world, a mortal hero could achieve immortality when he and his deeds are sung by a bard like Homer and remembered by the audience after his death. Primarily, ancient Greek heroes cherish honor or glory, and fight in the war, to achieve a sort of immortality. That is also why the prize, i.e., the physical embodiment of honor, is highly regarded.

But indeed, we cannot simply equate the Homeric Helen with a Homeric prize as we do

Briseis or Khryseis, even though these ladies are all objectified in the Homeric world. When

Agamemnon takes Briseis, Achilleus’ war prize, from the hero as compensation for giving up

151 In our discussion of Helen’s passivity in the last chapter, we argue that Helen “can be either a Helen, a Briseis, a Khryseis, or a robe, a treasure, a territory, a throne—anything valuable to possess.” 152 Homer. The Iliad, 9.524-5. 153 Smith, Steven B. “The Iliad, an Affair of Honor”. The Yale Review, vol. 104, no. 4, 2016, pp. 16. 154 Homer. The Iliad, 1.152-3. 155 Ibid, 1.161. 156 Smith, 2016, pp. 17. Khryseis—his own prize, Achilleus’ honor is deprived (ἄτιμος). 157 According to Mihoko

Suzuki, “the dispute between [Achilleus] and Agamemnon reenacts the Trojan War in miniature.”158 In turn, the combat for the sake of Helen echoes the main plot of the epic, which is triggered by the quarrel over Briseis. However, we ought not to simply view Briseis as “a second Helen”159 as Suzuki and Mabel Lang suggest, because these two female figures are incomparable especially with respect to men’s honor. Briseis is attained by Achilleus through his courage, strength, and effort in the attack against the Dardanian city Lyrnessus. Helen, on the other hand, is awarded to Menelaos out of Tyndareus’ preference or Helen’s own. The

Spartan hero (at least in the Homeric story) does nothing himself that could earn him this prize, just like Paris, who receives Helen from Aphrodite without making any effort. In contrast,

Achilleus distinguishes himself from anthropoi (the other, common men) via “acts of conspicuous bravery” to be considered aner andrea (a true hero).160 That is, the possession of

Briseis follows Achilleus’ glorious deeds, and she is indeed a reflection of his honor. But

Menelaos’ honor is earned and perpetuated, as Proteus in the Odyssey indicates, simply because of his marriage to Helen, not because of his deeds. That Helen immortalizes her husband makes her a fundamental source of Menelaos’ honor rather than a standard Homeric prize as Briseis is.

We now realize the essential difference between the two figures: Achilleus gains Briseis through honor and power, but Menelaos gains honor and power through Helen. If Helen’s

157 Homer. The Iliad, 1.171. 158 Suzuki, Mihoko. Metamorphoses of Helen: Authority, Difference, and the Epic. Cornell University Press, 1989, pp.22. 159 Cf. ibid, 21-29. Also see Mabel L. Lang’s “War Story into Wrath Story” in The Ages of Homer edited by J. B. Carter and S. P. Morris, 1995, pp. 149-62. 160 Smith, 2016, pp. 17. inborn, transferable power that gives honor to Menelaos were not concealed by the poet, we could regard Menelaos’ rescuing Helen as an attempt to reserve for himself the unassailable power that allows him to “govern over many people,”161 and to secure a pathway to “the hall of the honored heroes” (the Elysian Field) primarily through the effort of other soldiers. This would render the Spartan king, an initiator of the war, unheroic, and the war itself unlaudable.

In order to heroize Menelaos and justify the Trojan war, Homer must impair Helen’s power and equate her with a figure like Briseis. In fact, Homer avoids frequent reference to Helen’s divine origin, and highlights her lowliness in her confrontation with Aphrodite. In this way, the poet depreciates her inborn value as the man’s key to power and honor so that her value to Menelaos now lies mostly in her marital relation with him, as Briseis’ value is accrued through Achilleus’ love for her.

Because the value of a Homeric prize depends on how its owner regards it, Homer has to make Helen lovable, at the very least to Menelaos. When Achilleus explains the steadfastness of his to the mediators sent to him by Agamemnon, he argues:

ἦ μοῦνοι φιλέουσ᾽ ἀλόχους μερόπων ἀνθρώπων Ἀτρεΐδαι; ἐπεὶ ὅς τις ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς καὶ ἐχέφρων τὴν αὐτοῦ φιλέει καὶ κήδεται, ὡς καὶ ἐγὼ τὴν ἐκ θυμοῦ φίλεον δουρικτητήν περ ἐοῦσαν.

Are the sons of Atreus alone among mortal men the ones who love their wives? Since any who is a good man, and careful, loves her who is his own and cares for her, even as I now loved this one [Briseis] from my heart, though it was my spear that won her.162

According to Achilleus, love (φιλία) is the major reason why he cannot give up Briseis for the

161 Rozokoki, 2011, pp. 50. 162 Homer. The Iliad, 9.340-3. “seven, surpassingly lovely” girls and other offerings presented by Aias.163 Although these alternative prizes might compensate for his lost honor, they would not offset the loss of love.

His words demonstrate that love makes a prize uniquely valuable and worthy of struggle. Also,

Achilleus explicitly parallels his Briseis to Helen because they are equally loved by their lords.

This hints that Helen’s value, for which the war has been waged and soldiers have been injured and killed, is measured by Menelaos’ love for her. If the king were not in love with her at all, she would become worthless, and there would be nearly no necessity for the ten-year war and countless casualties. Achilleus presents Helen as a beloved wife, rather than a shameless, impenitent sinner, and in doing so, he exploits the ideological justification of the Trojan war to his own ends. If Menelaos sought honor and reputation in Helen instead of in his own acts, then the Spartan king would be unheroic. And if Menelaos loved Helen only for her superlatively beautiful (κάλλιστα) appearance164 but not for her inner qualities, he would essentially become a double of lewd Paris, and the violence initiated by him would be degraded into a war of lust. In these senses, Helen’s intangible excellence (with her extraordinary outside) indirectly enhances “the legitimacy of the heroic struggle to (re)claim her.”165 And it is through this struggle that the deeds of the great men are celebrated in the poem. So, Helen’s being a lovable wife is necessary for Menelaos, for the Trojan war, for the whole poem, and even the heroic ethos of the Trojan cycle.

This dynamic was certainly apparent to one particular perceptive early reader of Homer.

163 Ibid, 9.638-9. 164 For a fuller discussion on Menelaos’ pursuit of Helen’s absolute and superlative beauty as well as the doubts on the legitimacy of the war aroused by such a pursuit, see part I of Nicholas C. Rynearson’s “Helen, Achilles and the Psuchê: Superlative Beauty and Value in the Iliad” in Intertext, vol. 17, no. 1-2, 2013, pp. 4-13. 165 Ruby Blondell. “Third cheerleader from the left’: from Homer’s Helen to Helen of Troy”. Classical Receptions Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2009, pp. 7. In his Histories (440 BCE), Herodotus (ca. 484-452 BCE) trivializes the war by presenting it as just one phase of the enduring East-West conflict, and Helen as just one of many petty abductees in a series of violent events. According to this historical view, after some of the

Persians carried off Io and certain others from Greece, the Argos snatched Europa, the Persian princess, and Medea, the princess of Colchis, in retaliation. Since the Hellenes gave no compensation for their wrongs, Alexandros daringly and relievedly carried off Helen. But the

Hellenes did not have a convincing reason to reclaim Helen. As the historian explains:

…τοῖσι Ἕλλησι δόξαι πρῶτὸν πέμψαντας ἀγγέλους ἀπαιτέειν τε Ἑλένην καὶ δίκας τῆς ἁρπαγῆς αἰτέειν. τοὺς δέ, προϊσχομένων ταῦτα, προφέρειν σφι Μηδείης τὴν ἁρπαγήν, ὡς οὐ δόντες αὐτοὶ δίκας οὐδὲ ἐκδόντες ἀπαιτεόντων βουλοίατό σφι παρ᾽ ἄλλων δίκας γίνεσθαι.

…the Hellenes resolved to send messengers first and to demand her back with satisfaction for the rape; and when they put forth this demand, the others alleged to them the rape of Medea, saying that the Hellenes were now desiring satisfaction to be given to them by others, though they had given none themselves nor had surrendered the person when demand was made.166

As another Io, Europa, or Medea, Helen in this account does not have her own value as a unique prize. So, it does not matter even if she never arrived in Troy, as Herodotus introduces in Book

2 of Histories. The Trojan war itself is by no means a glorious event, but rather an unjust revenge and an unreasonable invasion:

μέχρι μὲν ὤν τούτου ἁρπαγάς μούνας εἶναι παρ᾽ ἀλλήλων, τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τούτου Ἕλληνας δὴ μεγάλως αἰτίους γενέσθαι: προτέρους γὰρ ἄρξαι στρατεύεσθαι ἐς τὴν Ἀσίην ἢ σφέας ἐς τὴν Εὐρώπην.

Up to this point, they [the Asians] say, nothing more happened than the carrying away of women on both sides; but after this the Hellenes were very greatly to

166 Herodotus. The History of Herodotus. Translated by G. C. Macaulay, published by MacMillan and Co., 1890, 1.3. The original Greek text is acquired from the 1920 edition of The Histories published by Harvard University Press, through https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126. blame; for they set the first example of war, making an expedition into Asia before the Barbarians made any into Europe.167

Thus, if Homer adopted Herodotus’ illustration of the role that Helen played in the Trojan war and the role that the Trojan war played in the larger conflict, the justification for the main event in the epic would be suspected, and the sublimity of the poem would be diminished.

Humanization and Civilization

In addition to the violent war and its justifications, the Iliad is also interested in conceptions of humanity and civilization. Indeed, Homer presents violence and its corresponding chaos as a sort of pathway to order. When Paris, as a guest, takes Helen away from Sparta, order is broken and xenia violated. Through violence, however, Helen is rescued and order is restored—the results of the war, as we can see from the vantage point of the

Odyssey. Thus, while violence plays the role of a means, order is the goal that Homer pursues— on a collective level. The epic starts with Achilleus’ devastating wrath (μῆνις, the first word in the Iliad) and the horrible chaos following his wrath, yet it ends up with the hero’s control of his emotions and its consequences, the relatively peaceful burial and temporary truce. So, on the level of individual characters, the poet underlines self-control as an ideal process through the way that the plot is structured.

When discussing self-control, autonomy, or emotional management in the Iliad, we cannot evade the Greek term thumos (θῡμός, derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *dʰuHmós related to “smoke” and the Proto-Hellenic word tʰūmós related to “breath” and “soul”), which is often translated as “spirit” or “the spirited part of a person.” We first encounter this word in

167 Ibid, 1.4. the epic after Agamemnon proposes to “take the fair-cheeked Briseis” from Achilleus as a compensation for his “expropriated” Khryseis. 168 At this point, Achilleus reacts with a psychological struggle:

ὣς φάτο: Πηλεΐωνι δ᾽ ἄχος γένετ᾽, ἐν δέ οἱ ἦτορ στήθεσσιν λασίοισι διάνδιχα μερμήριξεν, ἢ ὅ γε φάσγανον ὀξὺ ἐρυσσάμενος παρὰ μηροῦ τοὺς μὲν ἀναστήσειεν, ὃ δ᾽ Ἀτρεΐδην ἐναρίζοι, ἦε χόλον παύσειεν ἐρητύσειέ τε θυμόν. ἧος ὃ ταῦθ᾽ ὥρμαινε κατὰ φρένα καὶ κατὰ θυμόν, ἕλκετο δ᾽ ἐκ κολεοῖο μέγα ξίφος, ἦλθε δ᾽ Ἀθήνη οὐρανόθεν…

So he spoke. And the anger came on Peleus’ son, and within his shaggy breast the heart was divided two ways, pondering whether to draw from beside his thigh the sharp sword, driving away all those who stood between and kill the son of Atreus, or else to check the spleen [thumos] within and keep down his anger. Now as he weighed in mind and spirit [thumos] these two courses and was drawing from its scabbard the great sword, Athene descended from the sky…169

Here, two forces inside Achilleus contend against each other, seeking to dominate his thumos: one is his irrational desire to indulge the anger and kill Agamemnon with a sword, while the other is his calm, rational consideration that suppresses the anger. To better understand the relationship of desires or emotions, thumos, and reason, let us consider the Republic (ca. 375

BCE) by Plato, who often draws on Homer for philosophical demonstration.

Socrates, as represented by Plato, points out that psychê (human soul, i.e., the seat of consciousness, emotion, desire, thought, and decision-making) consists of three distinct parts: appetite (eros), spirit (thumos), and reason (logos).170 The appetitive part of us is the source of

168 Homer. The Iliad, 1.184-7. 169 Ibid, 1.188-95. 170 According to Plato, an individual’s appetite, spirit, and reason are respectively corresponding to the three desires such as hunger, thirst, and libido. It thus seeks food, drink, and sex, driving humans to satisfy desires, often at the expense of rationality. On the other hand, the rational part, often in opposition to our desires, helps psychê calculate, think, learn, and acquire knowledge. The

“rationally calculating element” is “really wise” and “exercises foresight on behalf of the whole soul.”171 While the rational part deliberates to guard the whole psychê, ideally, the spirited part thumos “carries out the things on which the [reason] has decided.”172 Hence,

[An ideal, just man] does not allow the elements in him each to do the job of some other, or the three sorts of elements in his soul to meddle with one another. Instead, he regulates well what is really his own, rules himself, puts himself in order, becomes his own friend, and harmonizes the three elements together…173

Based on these assumptions, Plato argues that we are just and in a naturally perfect, ordered, healthy state when our reason, as a ruler, is in charge of the soul, our thumos, as a guardian, supports and obeys the rational part, and our appetite, as a merchant, is under the control of reason without any rebellion. Such psychic harmony or internal health makes our life worth living,174 and brings us “the most pleasant life,” in which we attain spiritual pleasure instead of physical or primitive enjoyment.175 In contrast, those who “[are] dragged along wherever

[appetite] leads”176 are classified as unjust, unhealthy (psychically fractured and disordered) people. Therefore, Plato emphasizes a person’s self-control by reason.

In the case of Achilleus, however, his appetite initially tries to compete with reason and

social classes in a kingdom: craftsmen/moneymakers, soldiers, and ruler. See Plato’s Republic, translated by C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett Publishing Company, 2004, 434c. 171 Ibid, 441e. 172 Ibid, 442b. 173 Ibid, 443d. 174 Ibid, 445a. 175 Ibid, 583b. 176 Ibid, 589a. even to usurp it. And his thumos leans towards the appetite—his anger. Although Athene constrains his anger by telling him to hold his hand and obey the deities,177 it is the goddess, not the hero himself or his own reason, who is controlling his psychê. Without divine intervention, his appetite might keep prevailing, and his thumos would work for his desire to kill Agamemnon. In this sense, Achilleus, in the beginning of the Iliad, is not yet fully socialized.

Nevertheless, at the death of Patroklos, Achilleus begins to transform, and at the end of the poem, his reason takes the throne, with the help of his awakened compassion and empathy.

Notified of his best friend’s death, Achilleus ceases his anger against Agamemnon. As he tells his mother Thetis. in Book 18,

ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν προτετύχθαι ἐάσομεν ἀχνύμενοί περ, θυμὸν ἐνὶ στήθεσσι φίλον δαμάσαντες ἀνάγκῃ[.]

Still, we will let all this be a thing of the past, and for all our sorrow beat down by force the anger deeply within us.178

Although at this point, Achilleus only transfers his wrath against Agamemnon toward Hektor, such a transformation demonstrates his rational attempt to take charge of the emotion and refresh or redirect his spirit (θῡμός). After he kills Hektor in revenge for Patroklos in Book 22,

Achilleus drags the Trojan hero’s corpse to the Greek camp, where it is defiled and abused.179

At this point, his emotions again go beyond reason. In the final book, however, when Hektor’s father Priam comes to Achilleus in hope of ransoming his son’s body, Achilleus controls his anger, stops the irrational humiliation (which includes “[dragging the body] at random around

177 Homer. The Iliad, 1.214. 178 Ibid, 18.112-3. 179 Ibid, 22.395-404. [Patroklus’] tomb” and allowing many soldiers to drive the bronze in the body 180 ), and sympathizes with the old king:

…δ᾽ ἄρα χειρὸς ἀπώσατο ἦκα γέροντα. τὼ δὲ μνησαμένω ὃ μὲν Ἕκτορος ἀνδροφόνοιο κλαῖ᾽ ἁδινὰ προπάροιθε ποδῶν Ἀχιλῆος ἐλυσθείς, αὐτὰρ Ἀχιλλεὺς κλαῖεν ἑὸν πατέρ᾽, ἄλλοτε δ᾽ αὖτε Πάτροκλον: τῶν δὲ στοναχὴ κατὰ δώματ᾽ ὀρώρει.

…He took the old man’s hand and pushed him gently away, and the two remembered, as Priam sat huddled at the feet of Achilleus and wept close for manslaughtering Hektor and Achilleus wept now for his own father, now again for Patroklos. The sound of their mourning moved in the house.181

As Steven B. Smith states: “[H]ere Achilleus’ anger-filled thumos has been transmuted by pity, sympathy, and compassion.”182 In the voice of Apollo, Homer suggests that a complete man has the heart of endurance and tolerance as well as the ability to pity.183 Thus, through empathy,

Achilleus not only acknowledges a universal feeling shared with Priam, but also recognizes their common mortality and, on a deeper level, humanity,184 so that he becomes “a fuller and even better human being.”185 Only then does reason govern his thumos because he no longer thinks for merely himself or his own beloved but also for other people including his enemy and, in a broader sense, mankind as a whole.186 So, Achilleus himself lifts Hektor’s body to the wagon187 and afterwards proposes an extension of truce for the Trojans to hold Hektor’s

180 Ibid, 24.416-21. 181 Ibid, 24.508-12. 182 Smith, 2016, pp. 19. 183 Homer. The Iliad, 24.44-49. 184 Smith, 2016, pp. 20. 185 Ibid, pp. 19. 186 Philosophers such as Kant believe that the principle of reason and therefore of moral is based not on subjective elements, i.e., feelings, impulses, and inclinations, but only on “the relation of rational beings to each other.” Cf. Immanuel Kant. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by James W. Ellington, Hackett Publishing Company, 1993, 434. 187 Homer. The Iliad, 24.589-91. funeral.188 These actions showcase the humanized hero’s self-control of appetite by reason.

On the contrary, as discussed before, Alexandros indulges his appetite—specifically, his libido—so much that reason and his capacity for spiritual activities are overshadowed. As the epic hero, socialized Achilleus stands for psychic harmony, humanization and the humanistic part of mankind. As the epic villain, on the other hand, Alexandros represents the disordered, uncivilized state and the bestial part of humanity. The Homeric characterization of Helen as a passive yet rational, moral and civilized wife apparently parallels the depiction of Achilleus, rather than her Trojan husband. Although we have criticized Helen for submitting to patriarchal social norms, throughout the poem, Homer intends to underline order (in both soul and world) instead of freedom—after all, even almighty Zeus is subject to Fate. Rather than emphasizing

Helen’s loss of autonomy, Homer emphasizes her rational calculation of actions, calm judgement of the circumstances, and her adaptation to human civilization and society. Now, we can interpret theme-carrying Helen not only as a socialized wife but also as a preserver of reason and human dignity. Such an image echoes with Homer’s consideration of humanity and civilization—the poetic themes reflected also in the hero Achilleus.

Defense of Yuhuan

Compared with the Iliad, “Song of Everlasting Regret” seems more woman-friendly.

Instead of utilizing the heroine to embrace men and their ideology, Bai Juyi positions Yuhuan as the subject of his poem. Although Emperor Xuanzong’s perspective is evident,throughout the work, Yuhuan, rather than Paris-like Longji, plays the leading role. In the first half of the

188 Ibid, 24.656-8. poem, Yuhuan is passively defined and misunderstood, desired, sensually loved, abandoned, betrayed, and executed, whereas in the second half of the poem, she is reborn in utopia and gains the opportunity to express and redefine herself. In this sense, the poet is interested in the life and afterlife experiences of the very woman, who, just like Achilleus in the Iliad and

Odysseus in the Odyssey, undergoes hardship over the course of the story to achieve certain goals while being transformed in terms of existence.189 Thus, “Song of Everlasting Regret” is more of a female-centered epic than a love poem or a satirical poem, as it has traditionally been construed.

Since the composition of the poem, readers have disagreed about its dominant theme. The poet himself claims that this is a sentimental poem190 and conveys the expression of love.191

Such autobiographical notes lay the foundation for the love-theme theory, which interprets the main theme of “Song of Everlasting Regret” as Bai Juyi’s praise of love. Chu Binjie, Ma

Maoyuan and Wang Songling, Wang Yongzhong, Hu Kexian, and most of the relevant researchers in Japan have expressed support of the love theme theory.192 On the other hand,

189 In the cases of Greek heroes, they go through sufferings either to exact revenge and earn glory (Achilleus) or to return home (Odysseus). And Yuhuan’s goal is primarily to preserve her love. Achilleus is transformed from an irritable person to a better, sympathetic, civilized hero, Odysseus from a more impulsive and prideful man to a more patient and modest person, and Helen from a passive, objectified concubine to a self-conscious lover with subjectivity and authenticity. 190 Bai Juyi categorizes “Song of Everlasting Regret” as a sentimental poem. Cf. Bai Juyi 白居易. The Changqing Collection of Bai 《白氏長慶集》. Edited by Yuan Zhen 元稹, Jilin Publishing Group Co., Ltd., 2005. 191 The poet says, “in Chang Hen Ge, there is love between a man and a woman” (一篇長恨有風情). See Bai Juyi 白居易’s “Compiling My Poems into Fifteen Volumes for Yuan Zhen and Li Shen”《編集拙詩成一十五 卷因題卷末戲贈元九李二十》 in Zhu Jincheng’s 朱金城 The Collection of Bai Juyi’s Works with Corrections 《白居易集箋校》published by Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1988. 192 Chu believes that “although the protagonists in Chang Hen Ge are the emperor and his concubine, the poet aims not to eulogize their deeds or to varnish them as sacred authority in a feudal society; rather, he depicts the other side of them—their love story.” Cf. Chu Binjie’s “On the Themes of Chang Hen Ge and Relevant Evaluations” in Guangming Daily (1955.7.10). Ma and Wang argue together, “it is the tragic significance of the story of Li and Yang that moves Bai Juyi and arouses his sympathy [so that he creates the poem]. Thus, this is his true purpose of writing and the actual theme of ‘Song of Everlasting Regret’.” Cf. Ma Maoyuan and Wang Songling’s “On the Themes of Chang Hen Ge” in Journal of Shanghai Normal University (Philosophy & Social Sciences Edition) (1983). Wang asserts that “Song of Everlasting Regret” is about the love between Li and Yang. Chen Hong (dates of birth and death unknown), one of the poet’s friends, wrote a biographical novel titled Chang Hen Zhuan, “Everlasting Remorse” (806 CE), as a prelude of the poem

“Song of Everlasting Regret.” Chen Hong’s work points out that the poet may write the poem not only to express his emotions but also to warn his readers of beautiful women—the cause of chaos and ruin—and to give a lesson to posterity (意者不但感其事，亦欲懲尤物，窒亂

階，垂於將來者也).193 Chen’s opinion inspires the sarcasm-theme theory, which interprets

“Song of Everlasting Regret” as an ironic flipside of the love between the emperor and Yuhuan.

Scholars such as Chen Yinke, Zhou Tian, Zhao Zuopeng, and Zhang Zhongyu have supported this theory.194 Other popular theories in regard to the themes of this poem include, but are not limited to: (1) concealment of historical facts (events related to the royal family may not be told explicitly, so the poet concealed the real story with his reimagination of it in poetic language), (2) sentimentalism (the poet expressed his sadness for the wartime), (3) double-

Cf. Wang Yongzhong’s “The Tragedy of Bai Juyi’s First Love and the Creation of Chang Hen Ge” in Journal of Northwest University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) (1997). Hu thinks that “Chang Hen Ge, based on the historical facts and folk tales, praises the truehearted love of Li and Yang and the poet expresses sympathy and sadness towards their being torn apart by the circumstances of the very time.”Cf. Hu Kexian and Wen Yanrong’s “On the Love Theme of Bai Juyi’s A Song of Everlasting Regret” (2008). According to Masahiro Shimosada, most of the Japanese scholars of Bai Juyi agree that the theme of “Song of Everlasting Regret” is to praise the sincere, lingering, and loyal love between the couple. Cf. Masahiro Shimosada’s “The Overview of the Postwar-Japan Research of Bai Juyi” in Journal of Northwest Normal University (Social Science Edition) (1989). 193 Chen Hong 陳鴻. “Everlasting Remorse” 《長恨傳》. Tang Novels 《唐人小說》, edited by Wang Pijiang 汪辟疆, Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1978, pp. 119. 194 Chen proposes that the poem “Song of Everlasting Regret” (Chang Hen Ge) is inseparable with the novel or the biography “Everlasting Remorse” (Chang Hen Ge Zhuan). Having examined the writing purpose of the poem through information provided by the novel enables Chen to speculate that the poem conveys ironies. Cf. Chen Yinke’s “Annotation of Chang Hen Ge” in his Drafts of Annotation of Yuan Zhen’s and Bai Juyi’s Poems (2001). Zhou Tian demonstrates and corroborates the reliability of sarcasm-theme theory in his treatise Annotation and Explanation of Chang Hen Ge (1983). Zhao concludes that “sarcasm is the soul of Chang Hen Ge” in his “Discussing the Themes of Chang Hen Ge” published in Journal of Xinyang Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition) (1987). Zhang writes, “the theme of Chang Hen Ge is, by presenting the complex process of the tragic love story of Li and Yang, to reflect the national turmoil as well as the concubine’s bloodcurdling death, bitterness and regret caused by the monarch’s neglect of state affairs and political corruption, to mildly criticize Emperor Xuanzong’s wrongdoings that stem from his arrogance and indulgence, and to caution the later generations against similar wrongdoings.” Cf. page 175-176 of Zhang Zhongyu’s book The Study of Bai Juyi’s Chang Hen Ge (2005). theme and multifaced-theme (the poet conceived of more than one theme before his writing), and (4) no-theme (the purpose of the poem is to narrate rather than to express an idea).195

Most of these thematic theories are based on either the poet’s own notion or his peers’ accounts. However, while Bai Juyi himself mentions that the poem “contains” (有) a love story

(風情), he does not deny the possibility of any other themes that may be included. And Chen

Hong only presents his personal hypothesis, which is not really confirmed by the poet, as he uses “意者” (probably, maybe) before delivering the argument. So, instead of sticking to these two supporting sources, we would do better to focus on the poem itself to trace its possible themes.

Unlike the Homeric epics that portray a group of heroes, villains, and women, the Chinese poem concentrates only on three characters, who interact with each other: the emperor Li

Longji, the concubine Yang Yuhuan, and the unnamed Taoist sorcerer working as a messenger.

In the first half of the poem, as we have seen, it is woman-crazy Longji who is obsessed with the beautiful body even at the expense of his empire, while the beauty herself is treated as an object. But when the empire is overturned, Li Longji lets the soldiers kill his concubine to preserve his own life. As Yuhuan is being executed, he “[hides] his face in fear,” unable to save her (君王掩面救不得). Then, “turning his head, he [sees] her blood mix with his tear” (回看

血淚相和流). He does not even “pick up her hairpin” (花鈿委地無人收), which is her only relic left in the world. After Yuhuan’s death, the emperor, unmanly and weak, does nothing but cry and sigh all day in depression. Even the Taoist sorcerer, who eventually finds Yuhuan, is

195 For thorough discussions of different theories, see Zhang Zhongyu’s The Study of Bai Juyi’s Chang Hen Ge (2005), Pan Weili and Sun Yaqi’s “Reasons for Theme Diversity of Bai Juyi’s Everlasting Regret” in Journal of Eastern Liaoning University ( Social Sciences) (2015), and Zhou Xianglu’s The Study of Chang Hen Ge (2003). not designated or sent by Longji. Instead, this envoy is simply “moved by the monarch’s yearning for the departed fair [one]” (為感君王輾轉思) and voluntarily starts his journey and quest. He promised in a vow to “[fly] wing to wing” with Yuhuan on sky (在天願作比翼鳥) or “twine from spring to spring” with her on earth (在地願為連理枝). Yet when Yuhuan is away, the emperor chooses to keep living, rather than to accompany her in another world. To sum up, the criticism of the emperor in the poem is primarily reflected in (1) his indulgence of lust, (2) his neglect of his duty and the whole empire, (3) his futile reaction to his lover’s death,

(4) his incompetence and unmanliness after Yuhuan’s death, and (5) his unfaithfulness to the vow.

Since the emperor in Bai’s poem is ineffectual and even villainous, “Song of Everlasting

Regret” can be read as a satirical poem that ironizes Longji—rather than the beauty Yuhuan, as

Chen Hong presumes. Through the emphasis on the emperor’s wrongdoings as well as the passive concubine’s tragic life, innocence, and morality, the traditional public accusation of

Yuhuan is reassigned by the poet to the emperor. But we must remember that Bai does not avoid the use of the word se, which positions Yuhuan as a kind of femme fatale, and that he even uses the word in the opening sentence. The poet chooses “se” probably because he intends to remind us of the blame traditionally imposed upon her, which he seems to deem unjust, as well as to foreshadow her “transition” into a moral beauty later in the poem. So, we can construe that by remolding Yuhuan, Bai Juyi rethinks the role an individual woman can play in state affairs and men’s violence, questions the public judgement of Yuhuan, and speaks for the disadvantaged, as he often does in other of his poems, such as Guan Yi Mai or “Watching the

Reapers” 《觀乂麥》(805-806 CE), Mai Tan Weng or “The Old Charcoal Seller” 《賣炭翁》 (809 CE), and Pi Pa Xing or “Ode to a Lady’s Pipa Play” 《琵琶行》 (816 CE). In a patriarchal society, where men need a scapegoat to justify their violence, where “it is usual for a woman to plead guilty to men’s crime,”196 Bai’s defense of Yuhuan is daring.

Thus, a new interpretation of the poem’s theme is proposed: Bai Juyi writes “Song of

Everlasting Regret” to rescue, exculpate, and praise the disempowered Yuhuan. To view

Yuhuan as a disadvantaged woman is not a novel perspective. Zhang Ning’s “A Tragic Fate of

Weak Women: A Re-study of Subject of Bai Juyi’s A Song of Eternal Sorrow” asserts that “the theme of [this poem] lays in neither sarcasm nor love, but in the affections and the tragic fate of a disadvantaged woman behind the so-called love” and that “the poet tries to reveal the cruelty of such tragedy.”197 In his opinion, “Bai Juyi sees how weak and vulnerable the so- called love between ‘dominant’ men and ‘disadvantaged’ women is.”198 His essay focuses on the weak position of Yuhuan in her love relationship with Longji, who easily abandons the disadvantaged concubine and breaches the vow for his own survival. This angle leads to a statement that Yuhuan’s rebirth and her presentation of virtue in the utopia are designed to better express the poet’s regret about her death.199

However, even though Zhang examines Yuhuan as a disadvantaged figure, he fails to see

Yuhuan’s weak position beyond the love relationship. He ignores the role that the word se plays in the poem. According to what we have reached so far, Yuhuan is not simply a weak lover in her relationship with Longji but also a disempowered individual in a society which reviles her

196 Lu Xun 魯迅. Fringed Literature 《花邊文學》. Yinlin Press, 2014, pp.7. 197 Zhang Ning 張寧. “A Tragic Fate of Weak Women: A Re-study of Subject of Bai Juyi’s A Song of Eternal Sorrow” 《弱女子的命運悲歌——白居易<長恨歌>主題再探討》. Journal of Neijiang Normal University, vol.28, no.9, 2013, pp. 55. 198 Ibid, pp. 57. 199 Ibid, pp. 56. as se, in a community where her partner and her accuser are the politically and socially dominant parties. Hence, the moral beautification of Yuhuan not only serves to amplify our sorrow for her tragic life but also functions as a rebellion against her conventional identification as se, against the unwritten social contract that demands women to be blamed for men’s wrongdoings. This is also why her morality indeed goes beyond Confucian ethics in the pursuit of Taoist zhen, authenticity of being. Moreover, we should keep in mind that the poet categorizes “Song of Everlasting Regret” not as a satiric poem (諷喻詩), but as a sentimental poem (感傷詩), a poetic genre he defines as “a chanting verse inspired by internal emotions that external events have evoked.”200 Synthesizing his formula of a sentimental poem and our theory of the exculpation theme, we interpret the poem as one in which Bai shows his pity for

Yuhuan and expresses his dissatisfaction towards the patriarchal society that forces women to take responsibility for the actions of others.

The Frustrated Poet

As Chen Youbing argues, the image of a beautiful woman in classical Chinese poetry can play the role of metonymic vehicle in four ways: (1) as a gender shift of the poet—namely, the poet creates a beauty who professes her loyalty and love to her lord as a vehicle to express his own political ambition; (2) as a coded representation of the monarch; (3) as a symbol of a pursued ideal or the poet’s pursuit of that ideal; (4) as a frustrated dream—that is, through the figure of a beauty who has past her prime, the poet may express the boredom and depression

200 Bai Juyi 白居易. “A Letter to Yuan Zhen” 《與元九書》. The Changqing Collection of Bai 《白氏長慶 集》, edited by Yuan Zhen, Jilin Publishing Group Co., Ltd., 2005, pp. 263. of political frustration.201 Although readers are generally aware of Yuhuan’s beauty (both in historical reality and in Bai’s semi-fictional poem), they seem to have ignored the potential rhetorical function of this beautiful woman. The existing scholarly discussions of Bai’s Yuhuan mostly focus on her relation to the real Yuhuan, and no scholar has ever contemplated this beauty in light of Chinese literary tradition. Given that a beauty in classical Chinese poetry has been more than a mere character since the beginning of Chinese literary history, I argue that to view the beauty Yuhuan in Bai’s poem as a rhetorical device would shed some new light on our interpretation of the masterpiece.

Before writing “Song of Everlasting Regret” in December 806, Bai Juyi left his job as a collator in the imperial library to prepare for the decree examination (also called “Chinese imperial examination,” a civil service examination system for selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy). Bai passed the exam in April and was then appointed to a minor post as a county magistrate (xian wei) at Zhouzhi near the capital Chang’an,202 a post that distanced him from the imperial government and the emperor, a post that was even lower-leveled than his previous job in the imperial library. Bai had political talent that allowed him, in 800, to be the youngest among the seventeen scholars who acquired jinshi, the highest and final degree in the imperial examination.203 His ambition, as that of many other traditional scholars, was to serve the empire, to assist the monarch by his side, and ultimately “to take care of people and the whole

201 Chen Youbing 陳友冰. “Beauties and Fragrant Grass in Classical Chinese Poetry” 《中國古典詩詞中的美 人芳草》. Kao Pan Zai Jian: Aesthetics and Expressions in Classical Chinese Poetry 《考槃在澗：中國古典 詩詞的美感與表達》, The Commercial Press, 2011. 202 Zhu Jincheng 朱金城. A Chronicle of Bai Juyi’s Life 《白居易年譜》. Shanghai Classics Publishing House, 1982, pp. 35-36. 203 After passing the examination, Bai wrote a two-line verse: On the published list of the successful candidates at Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, / I am the youngest among all the seventeen nominees (慈恩寺下题名处，十七人 中最少年). world” (誌在兼濟).204 We can assume that the poet was unsatisfied with his new position, which offered few opportunities to realize his aspirations. Such aspirations, as Bai describes in a poem titled Xin Zhi Bu Qiu or “A Newly Produced Cloth Coat” 《新制布裘》 (ca. 806 or

811-3), are translated into the hope that “everyone will remain warm in peace, and there will be no more sufferers within the empire” (穩暖皆如我，天下無寒人). With a suggestive comparison between his hopeful vision (warmth in peace 穩暖) and the bitter reality (sufferers

寒人), Bai probably aimed at a state-level reformation, which a county magistrate was unable to spark. When he became less close to the central government and the emperor, his ambitions became less likely to be achieved.

Our assumption of the poet’ state of mood, i.e., disappointment at the time when “Song of

Everlasting” was composed, is based on some other sentimental verses he wrote during this

“county magistrate” period. For example, the opening lines of his “Lately Planted Bamboo” or

Xin Zai Zhu 《新栽竹》 (806 CE) goes,

佐邑意不適， 閉門秋草生。

Demoted as a local official of a small town, I am in low spirits. So I shut the door of my house, letting the weeds grow in my backyard. (My translation)

So, Bai Juyi understands this period as one of the lowest moments in his political life.

Meanwhile, the poet also bemoaned the passage of time, in the poem titled Qu Jiang Zao Qiu or “The Early Autumn at Qu Jiang” 《曲江早秋》 (807 CE):

方喜炎燠銷，

204 Bai Juyi 白居易. “A Letter to Yuan Zhen” 《與元九書》. The Changqing Collection of Bai 《白氏長慶 集》, edited by Yuan Zhen, Jilin Publishing Group Co., Ltd., 2005, pp. 265. 復嗟時節換。 我年三十六， 冉冉昏復旦。 人壽七十稀， 七十新過半。

Just when I was delighted with the end of sizzling summer, In the meantime, I lamented the changing seasons. I am already thirty-six years old. A new morning would gradually replace the dusk. It is rare for a person to have a lifespan over seventy years, Now I just passed the midpoint of those seventy years. (My translation)

Even though Bai does not mention his recent experiences in this poem, through his lamentation of aging, the poet implies a deep sense of unease that has grown out of the lack of professional success that has defined the first half of his lifetime. Because at this moment, Bai deems himself an unaccomplished politician, he fears that time flies, that his prime would soon pass, and that the old would be replaced with the new—even before he would have a chance to realize his ambitions.

Since a beautiful woman, according to Chen Youbing, often served in classical Chinese poetry as a representation of unrealized aspirations, this may explain the frustrated Bai Juyi’s depiction of Yuhuan. In “Song of Everlasting Regret,” the Taoist seeks for Yuhuan “in heaven and on earth” (升天入地求之遍), but “nor above nor below could he ever find her trace” (兩

處茫茫皆不見). Even though Yuhuan’s spirit is at last found on a mountainous island, the island is somewhere that “now [appears], now [disappears] amid the cloud” (虛無縹緲間). The unattainability of the beautiful heroine in the poem corresponds to the poet’s hardship in the pursuit of his political goals in reality. Bai’s characterization of a remote Yuhuan may remind us of the poem Jian Jia or “Reeds and Rushes” 《蒹葭》 (date is unknown) collected in Classic of Poetry 《詩經》, which has laid the very foundation for Chinese poetry and literature:

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。

蒹葭萋萋，白露未晞。 所谓伊人，在水之湄。 溯洄从之，道阻且跻。 溯游从之，宛在水中坻。

蒹葭采采，白露未已。 所谓伊人，在水之涘。 溯洄从之，道阻且右。 溯游从之，宛在水中沚。

The reeds and rushes are deeply green, And the white dew is turned into hoarfrost. The beauty of whom I think Is somewhere about the water. I go up the stream in quest of her, But the way is difficult and long. I go down the stream in quest of her, And lo! She is right in the midst of the water.

The reeds and rushes are luxuriant, And the white dew is not yet dry. The beauty of whom I think Is on the margin of the water. I go up the stream in quest of her, But the way is difficult and steep. I go down the stream in quest of her, And lo! She is on the islet in the midst of the water.

The reeds and rushes are abundant, And the white dew has not yet ceased. The beauty of whom I think Is on the bank of the river. I go up the stream in quest of her, But the way is difficult and winding. I go down the stream in quest of her, And lo! She is on the island in the midst of the water.205 (James Legge’s translation, revised by me.)

This poem, on the surface, emphasizes the anonymous poet’s pursuit of a certain beauty and expresses his melancholy evoked by “the difficult way” (道阻). But in a deeper sense, as

Chen Youbing analyzes, the beauty in the poem can be a symbol of ambitions. The repetition of “I go up the stream in quest of her” (溯洄从之) and “I go down the stream in quest of her”

(溯游从之) represents the poet’s persistent quest of his ideal in life. Such depictions as “the way is difficult and long” (道阻且长), “the way is difficult and steep” (道阻且跻), and “the way is difficult and winding” (道阻且右) refer to the disruptions and obstacles in the poet’s quest of ambitions. Where the beauty is standing, throughout the poem, is vague and tricky, which indicates that not only this beautiful woman, but also the poet’s aspirations, remain beyond his reach.

So, it is reasonable to interpret Bai Juyi’s unattainable Yuhuan as a metaphor for Bai’s nearly unachievable ambitions. Similar metaphoric use of beautiful women is also seen in

Zhang Heng’s 張衡 Si Chou Shi or “Four Verses of Sadness” 《四愁詩》 (137 CE), Tao

Yuanming’s 陶淵明 Xian Qing Fu or “Ode to Leisure” 《閑情賦》 (391 CE), and Li Bai’s

李白 Chang Xiang Si or “Endless Longing” 《長相思》 (8th century CE).206 In this way,

“Song of Everlasting Regret” can be read as a work in which Bai Juyi expresses regret for himself and for his own experiences, just like some of his other sentimental poems such as Si

Gui or “Longing for Return” 《思歸》 (803 CE), Chou Li Shao Fu Cao Zhang Guan She Jian

205 Confucius 孔子. Classic of Poetry 《詩經》. Annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Zhonghua Book Company, 2002, pp. 180-1. 206 For a more detailed discussion of “Reeds and Rushes” as well as of other poems briefly mentioned in this paragraph in regard to the beautiful women and the poets’ ambitions, see Chen Youbing’s “Beauties and Fragrant Grass in Classical Chinese Poetry” (2011). Zeng or “Tribute to Officer Li” 《酬李少府曹長官舍見贈》 (806 CE), Chu Jian Bai Fa or

“First Glance at My Hair Becoming White” 《初見白發》 (807 CE), and Mu Yu or “Bathing”

《沐浴》 (812 CE).207 Moreover, if we take Yuhuan’s whole life and fate into account, we can find, in a way, the similarities between her experiences and Bai Juyi’s. Despite her beautiful countenance and internal goodness, Yuhuan is bloodily abandoned by the emperor. Likewise, although he was not executed as the concubine is, the poet, with sufficient talents, capability, and aspirations, was given a less important position in a local government than his previous post, rather than a prominent place in the central imperial government near the emperor—in other words, he was rejected or abandoned by the imperial court, and thus, his emperor, as countless frustrated traditional scholars understood their demotion. For instance, after Wang

Bo 王勃 (650-676 CE) was dismissed from the post as a military advisor of Guo Prefecture

(虢州參軍), he wrote, in his famous prose Preface to a Farewell Feast Atop the Prince Teng's

Pavilion in Autumn 《秋日登洪府滕王閣餞別序》 (675 CE), “I look into the distance, but

Chang’an, the capital of the country, is far beyond the setting sun in the west…and far away in the north is the pillar that upholds the sky, but the Polestar is still farther.” (望長安於日下…

天柱高而北辰遠。) In Chinese literary tradition, the capital and the Polestar, as two politically connoted imageries, represent the emperor. Demotion or dismissal is thus symbolized as the poet’s increasing distance from the capital and the Polestar.

Such increasing distance conveys a sense of abandonment, which is a dominant theme of some earliest Chinese poems. Qu Yuan 屈原 (ca. 343-278 BCE), one of the founding fathers

207 For more information about Bai Juyi’s sentimental poems and his disappointment reflected in them, see Zhang Jinliang’s “An Overview of Bai Juyi’s Sentimental Poetry” in Journal of Qinghai Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), no. 1, 1993, pp. 57-63. of Chinese literature, after being exiled by his emperor from his previous post as a minister, expressed his discontent in Li Sao 《離騷》 (ca. 314 BCE), in a tone of an abandoned woman:

曰黃昏以為期兮， 羌中道而改路！ 初既與余成言兮， 後悔遁而有他。

We scheduled our wedding at dusk today, but how could he change his mind halfway! It was first to me he gave his plighted word, but soon he repented, with other counsel heard.208

Qu Yuan further depicts his own sadness as that of the abandoned wife (or concubine),

余既不難夫離別兮， 傷靈修之數化。 …… 曾歔欷余郁邑兮， 哀朕時之不當。 攬茹蕙以掩涕兮， 沾余襟之浪浪。

For me departure could arouse no pain; I grieved to see his royal purpose vain. …… I despaired, my face with sad tears marred, Mourning with bitterness my years ill-starred; And melilotus leaves I took to stem The tears that streamed down to my garment's hem.209

The deserted woman, to whom Qu Yuan likens himself in the poem, is, as the poet claims, “a beautiful woman” (美人),210 whose beauty represents the talent and self-pride of him, a virtuous then-official.211 An exiled or demoted (yet talented) official is similar to an abandoned

208 Qu Yuan 屈原. “Li Sao” 《離騷》. The Chuci 《楚辭》. Annotated by Lin Jiali, Zhonghua Book Company, 2009, pp. 5. 209 Ibid, pp. 5 and 15. 210 Ibid, pp. 2 211 For readings on how Qu Yuan’s virtuosity is related to the woman’s beauty, consult Chen Hang’s “Notes on beauty in that “they are both underappreciated.” 212 As Zeng Xiaoxia argues, “While the monarch, the father, and the husband are dominant, the minister, the son, and the wife are subordinate…As ministers place the hope of realizing their aspirations in the monarch, wives entrust their lives to their husbands.”213 Since frustrated officials may not dare to express their dissatisfaction and sometimes even resentment directly, they seek help from their counterpart, the abandoned beauty, to vent their anguish.214

In this sense, the deserted Yuhuan can be construed as a female version of the demoted poet. Thus, Yuhuan’s love for Emperor Xuanzong and her loyalty to him can be perceived as the poet’s wish to dedicate himself to his emperor and country. When the beauty repeats the vow, “On high, we’d be two lovebirds flying wing to wing; / On earth, two trees with branches twined from spring to spring” (在天願作比翼鳥，在地願為連理枝), behind her words, a voice of the poet is hidden: “No matter where I am, no matter which public post I am holding, I will not stop the pursuit of my lofty political goals, and my heart will always be with His Majesty and the country.” Namely, Bai is implicitly pledging allegiance to the emperor through

Yuhuan’s love quote. So, from a macro-perspective of the poem, Yuhuan is a counterpart, a reflection, and a mouthpiece of Bai Juyi. Although no scholar has claimed Yuhuan to be the poet’s mouthpiece in Bai’s poem, our hypothesis is supported by the fact that male poets’ use of a female voice to pledge their allegiance is not uncommon in Chinese poetry. Zhang Heng

(78-139 CE), for example, transforms himself into a dutiful concubine in his Tong Sheng Ge or

Comparisons and Affective Images in Poetry” collected in Wei Yuan’s Whole Collection by Wei Yuan, Yuelu Publishing House, 2010, pp.252-3; also see Zeng Xiaoxia’s “Endorsement and Self Metaphor: Study on Deserted Wives Poems in Weijin Period” in Journal of Hunan Institute of Humanities, Science, and Technology, no.1, 2013, pp. 82-6. 212 Zeng, 2013, pp. 85. 213 Ibid. 214 Ibid. “Song of Concordant Sounds” 《同聲歌》 (100 CE), as seen in the excerpt below:

不才勉自竭， 賤妾職所當。 綢繆主中饋， 奉禮助蒸嘗。 思為苑蒻席， 在下蔽匡床。 願為羅衾幬， 在上衛風霜。

I am not very talented, but I must try my best, As it is what my duty as a concubine lies in. I tidy up my appearance to prepare dishes for our guests; Obeying propriety, I assist in ceremonies. I hope I were a bulrush-made mat, So that I can shield our comfortable bed from below. I am willing to be a silk quilt and bed-curtain, So that I can keep wind and frost away from you.215

Although the concubine in Zhang’s poem differs from Bai Juyi’s Yuhuan in situation, the former expresses the same kind of faithfulness and the same determination of devotion to the lord as the latter. As Wu Jing comments, the marriage in Zhang’s poem insinuates the relation between the subordinate (the poet himself) and his monarch (喻臣子之事君也).216 So, the concubine’s marital fidelity refers to the poet’s allegiance. Also, Zhang Ji 張籍 (766-830 CE), depicts, in the first-person perspective, a wife pursued by an extramarital suitor in his Jie Fu

Yin or “Reply of a Chaste Wife” 《節婦吟》 (date is unknown), as his own reply to a separatist warlord, after the latter has invited him to join his camp of independence movement:

君知妾有夫， 贈妾雙明珠。 ……

215 Zhang Heng 張衡. “Song of Concordant Sounds” 《同聲歌》. Collection of Yue Fu Poetry 《樂府詩 集》, edited by Guo Maoqian 郭茂倩, Zhonghua Book Company, vol. 3, 1979, pp. 1075. 216 Ibid. 知君用心如日月， 事夫誓擬同生死。

You know I love my husband best, yet send me two bright pears still. …… I know your heart as noble as the sun in the skies, but I have sworn to serve my husband all my life.217

In this poem, Zhang Ji euphemistically declines the warlord’s “embracery.” Comparing his relation with his emperor to a chaste wife’s marriage with her husband, the poet declares his resolute loyalty to his fatherland and emperor. The wife’s oath to serve her husband “throughout her lifetime and even her afterlife” (同生死) bears a close resemblance with Yuhuan’s steadfast vow: “On high, we’d be two lovebirds flying wing to wing; / On earth, two trees with branches twined from spring to spring.” Yuhuan’s voice allows Bai Juyi to indirectly state, “Even if I am abandoned by my emperor as the chaste Yuhuan was by Emperor Xuanzong, my allegiance to the empire and the emperor will always remain unchanged as Yuhuan’s love for her lord does.”

Therefore, the image and voice of Yuhuan in “Song of Everlasting Regret” suggest the poet’s performance of gender crossing. Some modern scholars regard this gender crossing as a demonstration of a sort of friendly relation between the male poets and the members of their opposite gender in general. For example, Kang-I Sun Chang terms it a “gender mask,” which is meant to transcend boundaries between the two genders and therefore reach the ideal of

“androgyny.”218 According to Chang, the female voice, on the one hand, serves as a mask in men’s self-expression, so that poets “boldly declare in public their innermost political

217 Zhang Ji 張籍. “Reply of a Chaste Wife” 《節婦吟》. Selected Poems and Paintings of the Tang Dynasty, translated by Xu Yuanchong, China Intercontinental Press, 2018, pp. 148. 218 See both Kang-I Sun Chang’s 孫康宜 Yale: Gender and Culture 《耶魯:性別與文化》, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2000, pp. 230; and her Feminist Readings: Classical and Modern Perspectives 《古典與現代的女性闡釋》, Unitas Publishing Co., 1998, pp. 74. sentiments.”219 On the other hand, such a mask allows poets to “put themselves in the mental states and positions of their female characters.”220

In spite of the attractiveness and novelty of Chang’s argument, we may not apply this female-friendly perspective in our discussion of Bai Juyi and his Yuhuan. Regardless of Bai’s personal attitude toward women,221 in the very poem, Yuhuan’s own voice and her subjectivity are weakened (if not totally deprived) when the poet uses her as a mask, a mouthpiece, or a literary device. Her love for her lord Li Longji is invented to convey Bai’s political passion for the court and the emperor of his own time, Li Chun (778-820 CE). And the subjectivity Yuhuan exhibits in her afterlife, in fact, is not her own subjectivity. Instead, it is the poet’s subjectivity that he imposes upon her, making her seem active and expressive. And the Taoist power that rescues Yuhuan is utilized, ironically, by the poet to support his Confucian spirit, which encourages him to be involved in the political, social world depicted as unauthentic by Taoism.

It becomes clearer that Yuhuan is more an alter-ego of the poet than a fictionalized individual. So, the poet is both a savior and an exploiter of Yuhuan—another party who defines her to his own ends. Behind Bai’s exculpation of the disadvantaged concubine, his concern for the poor beauty, and his identification with her is, indeed, Bai Juyi’s self-interested manipulation of the figure of Yuhuan. While the poet reaches the so-called ideal of androgyny, the female character is left passive and voiceless, trapped in a despairing position. Therefore, the “regret” the poet expresses is about the tragic life of Yuhuan, about her unfair reputation

219 Kang-I Sun Chang 孫康宜. “Crossing Boundaries between Chinese and Western Literatures” 《跨越中西 文學的邊界》. Modern Perspectives on Classical Chinese Literature 《古典文學的現代觀》, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 2013, pp. 332. 220 Ibid. 221 We are not saying that Bai’s expressing himself through a female voice is not well-intentioned. We do not deny the possibility that when writing the poem, the poet resonated or sympathized with the heroine in a sincere, decent way. Yet we intend to discuss the effect the very text produces through the gender mask. after her death, about the cruelty of society and reality, and about the poet’s own frustration

(unfulfilled ambition). Appreciating the poem, we regret the concubine’s fate in which she is possessed and abandoned by the emperor as an object is defined by people as an immoral corruptor, and is exploited by the poet as a rhetorical device, as a poetic trope to explore the unsatisfying nature of political ambitions.

Conclusion

While the Iliad utilizes Helen as a justification for men’s violence, “Song of Everlasting

Regret,” on the surface, aims to defend the heroine Yuhuan and rescue her from passivity.

However, with an exploration of the potential themes that the image of a beauty can supply for the Chinese poem, we realize that Yuhuan’s position and function in the poem do not differ a lot from Helen’s. For Helen serves as a narrative tool, and Yuhuan a rhetorical tool.

Overwhelmed by the masculine quarrels and violent combats, Helen loses to men her minded body, which is objectified as a prize and abstracted as a collective goal. Similarly, when Yuhuan is read as a spokesperson of Bai Juyi, her own voice of love is covered up by the poet’s sigh of political frustration as well as his declaration of fealty to the empire. The Spartan wife gradually fades out, becoming almost invisible, like a MacGuffin that triggers the plot and supports the narrative logic but has nothing substantial—it is “actually nothing at all.”222 And the Chinese lover is rendered voiceless, carrying the poet’s thoughts and delivering his utterance, like a puppet, a mask. As her subjectivity dissolves in the poet’s voice, Yuhuan also becomes invisible.

We cannot help but ask, “Where are they, these two beauties?”

222 François Truffaut. Hitchcock/Truffaut. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 1984, pp. 138. Conclusion

Scholars have seldom put the two great poets, Homer and Bai Juyi, into conversation with each other, nor examined in any depth the similarities and differences between their female beauties. This thesis has hopefully shed new light on the works of both poets by reading them through the lens of Chinese Confucian and Taoist philosophy. In particular, I have tried to bring

Chinese thought on ethics and aesthetic to bear on the plight of Helen of Troy, in a way that both estranges and explains, via cross-cultural detour, the internal logic of the Homeric world.

Meanwhile, in our discussion of Confucian thought, we have found close resonances with

Greek philosophical positions, many of them informed by the works of Homer. Furthermore, our inquiry into the Taoist concept of authenticity has suggested the kinship between Taoism and twentieth-century philosophers such as Sartre and Foucault, whose thought has informed certain readings of Homer. If the traditionally Eurocentric study of Classics and Comparative

Literature were to pay more attention to classical Chinese literature as well as to its context, they would be more likely to develop new lines of inquiry for discussing canonical works and appreciate ancient China’s contributions to our modern world.

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