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Additional Notes A Pentasyllabic Poem Presented to the Cultivated Talent 五言贈秀 才詩 (also titled “Thoughts of the Ancients in Pentasyllabic Verse” 五言古意) Unlike most modern editors (e.g. Lu Xun, Lu Qinli), Dai Mingyang treats this poem as the first of the group of poems presented to Xi Xi upon his entering the army, making a series of nineteen poems in total. The Wu Manuscript separates this poem from the eighteen that follow and assigns it the title, “An Ancient Air in Pentasyllabic Verse, One Poem” 五言古風一首. The black ink corrections to the Wu Manuscript emend the title to “Thoughts of the Ancients in Pentasyllabic Verse, One Poem” 五言古意一首. The first six lines of this poem are quoted in Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚 under the simple title, “Xi Shuye’s Poem Presented to the Cultivated Talent” 嵇叔夜贈秀才詩, without any mention of the occasion being Xi Xi’s entering the army. See Yiwen leiju (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1999), 90.1560. It is quite likely that Xi Kang wrote two separate sets of poems to his brother, one group in tetrasyl­ labic and this one in pentasyllabic meter. This poem and the eighteen that follow are clearly related as they develop the same set of themes, tropes, and sentiments; however, they need not be taken as a single set. I am treating this poem as separate from the set of eighteen poems addressed to Xi Xi. 4 Yuyi, literally “feathers [used as] a model,” appears in the Top Yang of Yijing hexagram 53, “Jian” (Gradual Advance). 10 I have adopted the Wu Manuscript variant wei 維 in place of yi 疑. 13 The phrase “the situation is unfavorable” is borrowed from a pas­ sage in Zhuangzi 20, “Shan mu” 山木 (Mountain Tree), about how monkeys that formerly swung highly and freely among trees, evad­ ing even the best archers, must move with fear and caution as they maneuver through prickly plants. This is not because they suddenly lost their dexterity and suppleness but because they have encoun­ tered “a situation that is unfavorable, in which they cannot fully dis­ play their abilities.” Zhuangzi jishi (hereafter cited as ZZJS ), ed. Guo Qingfan (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1961), 2:688. DOI 10.1515/9781501503870­010, © 2017 Stephen Owen and Wendy Swartz, pub­ lished by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution­NonCommercial­ NoDerivs 3.0 License. Additional Notes 397 22 I have adopted the Wu Manuscript variant bi 必 in place of xin 心. 26 The phrase “harbor the jade” (huai yu 懷玉) appears in a synony­ mous formulation in Laozi 70: “If those who understand me are few, then someone like me is precious. Thus it is so that the sage dons coarse woolen cloth but harbors jade in his chest.” Wang Bi ji jiaoshi (hereafter cited as WBJJS ), ed. Lou Yulie (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1999), 1:176. The commentary by Wang Bi 王弼, which Xi Kang must have known, explains that he who finds few who can under­ stand him has no companion (wu pi 無匹). The jade represents, according to Wang Bi, one’s genuineness (zhen 真). In the context of Xi Kang’s line, jade also implies one’s talent. Poems Presented to My Elder Brother the Cultivated Talent on His Entry into the Army, Eighteen Poems 四言贈兄秀才入軍詩十八首 I.1 A verbatim quote from Shijing 216, in which a pair of ducks is netted and captured. I.2 A verbatim quote from Shijing 181, in which the birds function as affective imagery for men who toil away on distant expeditions. III.3 A verbatim quote from Shijing 3, a poem about someone who, yearning for a loved one, climbs the highest earth and exhausts horses and coachmen in search for that person. III.4 A verbatim quote from Shijing 9, a poem about a bride­to­be’s exemplary observance of ritual propriety and the proper separation of the sexes that is symbolized by the river flowing between the girls and the boys. III.6 A verbatim quote from Shijing 119, a poem about a solitary traveler, who wishes for the company of brothers and kinsmen but finds none among his fellow travelers. The refrain “a man has no brothers” in that poem has particular resonance here. III.8 A verbatim quote from Shijing 28, in which the image of flying swallows parallels the scene of a lady taking leave of her natal home for her new home in marriage, leaving behind her kin “shedding tears like rain.” V.6 The Wu Manuscript reads 遐/佳. Although xia (“distant”) makes good sense in this parting poem, jiaren (“the fair one”) is more fitting given the poems’ various borrowings from Chuci. In the Chuci tra­ dition, “the fair one” and its synonym, “the beautiful one” (meiren 美 ­人 ), have been interpreted by many scholars to be symbols for the 398 Additional Notes ruler (or the mate the poet longs for). The term jiaren appears again in Poem XV. VIII.3 A verbatim quote from Shijing 61, a poem about the great dis­ tance between two people and the undaunted will of the longing one to reach the other by whatever means. X.7 I have adopted the variant tian 田 in the Wu Manuscript and Wen xuan in place of tian 畋. XI.4 The Wu Manuscript reads 室/邈. XII.5 A verbatim quote from Shijing 35, a poem that highlights the precariousness of marriage and, by extension, any other type of alliance. XII.7 A verbatim quote from Shijing 131, a poem lamenting the deaths of three men who had to follow their lord, Duke Mu of Qin 秦穆公, to his grave as death companions. The warning here seems to be the ill fate of officials who pledge loyalty to the wrong master. XII.9 I have adopted the variant wu 悟 in Wen xuan in place of wu 寤. These two characters were interchangeable. XV.7 I have adopted the variant mingqin 鳴琴 in Wen xuan in place of seqin 瑟琴 because the latter suggests a category that is too general for such a specific reference to the object the poet keeps at his side. XVIII.16 In Zhuangzi 31, “Yu fu” 漁夫 (Old Fisherman), an old fish­ erman mocks Confucius for toiling to set the world right, sneering: “To weary one’s mind and wear out one’s body is to imperil one’s true [or genuine] nature. Alas! How far he is separated from the Dao!” ZZJS, 3:1025. XVIII.17 In Laozi 44, the following question is posed: “Reputation or one’s person, which is dear” 名與身孰親? Yet in Laozi 13, we are cautioned against the consequences of valuing one’s person (i.e. put­ ting too great of an emphasis on life): “The reason why I have met with great calamity is because I am bound by my own person. When I am no longer bound by my own person, then what calamity could I have?” Wang Bi explains that “no longer being bound by one’s own person” means “to return to the natural.” WBJJS, 1:29. A Poem on My Indignation in Confinement 幽憤詩 Dai Mingyang notes a probable reference in the title to a description of Sima Qian in his Han shu biography: “When he was sentenced to extreme punishment, he was confined and thus expressed his indigna­ Additional Notes 399 tion ( you er fa fen 幽而發憤).” You fen could also mean “innermost frustrations.” 2 Xi Kang rewrites a line from Shijing 286: “I met with a house unachieved” 遭家不造, meaning a child meets the situation of a house without the patriarch. 7 One re­transcribed version of the Wu Manuscript reads 妲/姐. Jie 姐 was a substitute for ju 㜘, glossed in Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 as jiao 嬌 (coddle, spoil), which matches Xi Kang’s description of his upbringing in other writings. 20 The two lines from Shijing 206 read: “Do not push forward the great carriage; / The dust will blind [literally, “darken”] you.” Some modern scholars have interpreted Xi Kang’s line to mean advancing the busi­ ness of state by taking a post will result in soiling oneself with filthy politics. Commentators have drawn parallels between Ziwen’s poor placement of trust in Ziyu with either Sima Zhao’s or Xi Kang’s trust in Lü Xun. 23–24 With reference to the verbatim quote from Shijing 254, Dai Mingyang suggests that Xi Kang may have had in mind the Qi Ying 祁盈 episode in Zuo zhuan 左傳 (Duke Zhao, 28th year). When Ying found out that a member of his clan, Qi Sheng 祁勝, had exchanged wives with another man, he wanted to arrest them. His friend Sima Shuyou 司馬叔游 advised against it, quoting two lines from Shijing 254: “When the people have many depravities,/ Do not yourself set forth depravities before others.” He added that since those without any principles were in power, he feared that Ying would not escape harm. Ying replied that private punishment within the family did not concern the state. However, he was soon proven wrong as Sheng bribed someone to slander Ying before the marquis, who consequently ordered his execution. This episode would have resonated with Xi Kang, as he pondered his own imprisonment. 55 A verbatim quote from Shijing 34. 58 The Wu Manuscript reads 無/忘. 66 A near verbatim quote from the opening passage in Zhuangzi 3, “Yang sheng zhu” 養生主 (The Essentials of Nurturing Life). Telling of My Intent, Two Poems 述志詩二首 I.2 The Wu Manuscript reads 躍/濯. I.5 The Wu Manuscript reads 降/景.
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