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Worldly Frustration and Literary Composition

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Worldly Frustration and Literary Composition WORLDLY FRUSTRATION AND LITERARY COMPOSITION For example, when Zuo Qiuming lost his sight and Sunzi had his feet chopped off, so that they could no longer serve in the world, they withdrew and edited their writings and stratagems to express their fi:ustration, or they transmitted empty words to display their character to the world. Although I could not hope to follow their lead, •.. -Sima Qian (ca. r45-85 B.c., author of Records of the Grand Historian), Letter to Ren An Earlier in his letter, in a series of examples of writings composed to express frustration, Sima Qian had already referred to Zuo Qiuming's composition of The Speeches of the Kingdoms after he lost his sight and Sunzi's writing of The Art of War after his feet were amputated. Here, he cites those two again, not both­ ering. this time, to mention the other writers cited earlier (Qu Yuan, Han Feizi, etc.). This is because the calamities that befell Zuo Qiuming and Suru;i, re­ moval from office and physical mutilation, were like Sima Qian' s own experi­ ence. Naturally, Sima Qian's sympathy for them ran particularly deep. The theme of actions inspired by frustration had been amply treated much earlier in Mencius: "It is often through adversity and suffering that men acquire virtue, wisdom, skill and cleverness. The estranged subject or the son of a con­ cubine, because he conducts himself with the greatest of caution and is con­ stantly on guard against disaster, succeeds where others fail."1 And again, "By giving him hardship, Heaven shakes a man from his mental lassitude and toughens his nature to make good his deficiencies ..•. It is only when a man is frustrated in his mind and in his deliberations that he can do things. Hence it is that we survive in adversity and perish in ease and comfort."2 The com­ mentator Zhao Qi (d. zor) explains, "It is only under such circumstances that a 36 0.3" WORLDLY FRUSTRATION AND LITERARY COMPOSITION man devises bold plans and unusual strategies, or develops passionate argu­ ments .... So it is that we survive in adversity."3 Xunzi likewise records that when ConfUcius was in adversity between Chen and Cai, his disciple Zilu was beset by doubts. ConfUcius responded by reminding him of Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen ofJin, and King Goujian of Yue, each of whom owed development of his "mind of a hegemon" to periods of hardship and deprivation. ConfUcius adds, "Therefore, if a man never lives in hardship, his thoughts will not be far­ reaching; and if he never goes into hiding, his ambition will not be expansive. How do you know I won't find my salvation under that bare mulberry over theret4 Xunzi's references to "expansive" ambitions and "far-reaching" thoughts have the same import as the observations in Mencius about men who "succeed" and "do things." These passages in Mencius and Xunzi are general statements on the cultiva­ tion of virtue, wisdom, ambition, and character. Sima Qian was the first to take the same idea and apply it exclusively to the development ofliterary talent. After Sima Qian, this particular conception of writing became widespread. The no­ tion that writing in general is regularly a consequence of frustration and hard­ ship and that this is particularly true oflyric poetry, in which the writer conveys his emotions and heart-felt desires, has been a commonplace ever since Han times. For example, Huan Tan's (ca. 40 B.c.-A.D. 32) New judgments says, "IfJia Yi had not been demoted and disappointed, his literary brilliance would never have shown itsel£ ... If Yang Xiong had not been impoverished, he never could have composed his Great Mystery.'' 5 Zhao Qi's preface to his commentary on Mencius says, "In my hardship and deprivation, my spirit drifted far away from me and I could not bring it back to rest. I decided to tether my mind to brush and ink, so that I might thus employ my confUsed thoughts to make me oblivi­ ous of the approach of old age."6 In his Ranking of Poets, Zhong Hong (ca. 465- 5!8) says this about the Han figure Li Ling: "His life and fate were at odds with each other, so that eventually his fame crumbled and his body was lost to for­ eign lands. If Li Ling had not encountered such suffering, how could his writing ever have attained to this levelt7 In the Tang dynasty, Han Yu and Bo Juyi repeated the idea, stating it sev­ eral different ways. Han Yu's well-known farewell to Meng Jiao says, "It is when things are disturbed that they cry out," and so on.8 His grave inscription for Liu Zongyuan says, "Nevertheless, if Zongyuan had not been cast aside for a long time and impoverished to the extreme, although he would still have stood above others, he never would have exerted himself so in scholarship ;nd literary composition, reaching the point where his writings are certain to be transmitted to posterity."9 Han Yu's grave inscription for Meng Jiao says, "To the end he had no chance to accomplish great deeds in the world. This en­ hanced his achievement in poetry."10 His letter to Li Xun says, "By nature I .
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