Homer's Helen and Bai Juyi's Yuhuan: Beauty, Subjectivity, And

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).

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