WU WENYING and the ART of SOUTHERN SONG CI POETRY By
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WU WENYING AND THE ART OF SOUTHERN SONG CI POETRY by GRACE SIEUGIT FONG B.A., University Of Toronto, 1975 M.A., University Of Toronto, 1976 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department Of Asian Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA October 1984 © Grace Sieugit Fong, 1984 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Asian Studies The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date: October 15, 1984 i i Abstract The thesis studies the ci_ poetry of Wu Wenying (c.1200- c.1260) in the context of Southern Song c_i_ poetics and aims to establish its significance in contemporary developments and in the tradition of ci criticism. Chapter One explores the moral and aesthetic implications of Wu's life as a "guest-poet" patronized by officials and aristocrats, and profiles two relationships in Wu's life, the loss of which generated a unique corpus of love poetry. To define the art of Southern Song c_i, Chapter Two elucidates current stylistic trends, poetics, and aesthetics of ci, examining critical concepts in two late Song treatises, the Yuefu zhimi and Ciyuan. The Yuefu zhimi's critical canons embody Wu's poetics of indirection, which favours allusive and connotative language and produces imagistic and semantic density in the poetic structure. In opposition to Wu's poetics of density, an aspect of indirection, the Ciyuan proposes a poetics of transparency. Finally, the chapter analyzes Wu's poetics of density to illuminate the salient characteristics of his art. Chapter Three provides stylistic, thematic, and structural exegeses of Wu's poems within a literary-historical perspective. The dichotomy between verbal artifice and poetic metaphor in his yongwu ci (poems on objects) and between self and other in his occasional poems is found to rest on the fundamental differentiation between poetry as social art and poetry as self- expression. • Significantly, the metaphoric dimension of his yongwu poems illustrates evolutionary possibilities of the subgenre in c_i. Wu's love poetry originates in an idee fixe, a persistent longing for the beloved, which is translated into recurrent images and motifs embedded in his most elegant diction, representing a superb union of language and emotion. The thesis concludes with an overview of Wu Wenying criticism, which shows a dominant focus on the stylistic art of Southern Song c_i. Wu's poetry has won both critical acclaim and dispprobation for its surface elegance and verbal density. Only in the nineteenth century did the Changzhou School of c_i_ criticism, with its emphasis on interpretation of meaning as the criterion, achieve an integral appreciation of Wu Wenying's poetry. Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgement v Chapter I BIOGRAPHY 1 I . EARLY LIFE 1 II. THE SUZHOU PERIOD (C.1232-C.1244) 6 III. EMERGENCE OF VANISHED LOVE 16 IV. LATE YEARS: INTEGRITY VERSUS IMPROBITY OR A MAN WITHOUT PRINCIPLES 20 Chapter II THE ART OF SOUTHERN SONG CI 49 I. INTRODUCTION 49 II. TRENDS IN SOUTHERN SONG CI POETRY-LATE 12TH CENTURY 53 III. THE YUEFU ZHIMI AND CIYUAN-POETICS AND AESTHETICS IN THE LATE SONG STYLE OF CI POETRY (13TH CENTURY) 62 IV. THE POETICS OF DENSITY 77 Chapter III THE POETRY OF WU WENYING: MAJOR THEMES AND SUBGENRES 118 I. YONGWU CI: POEM AS ARTIFICE AND POEM AS METAPHOR ..118 II. POEMS IN REMEMBRANCE OF LOVE 147 III. SELF AND OTHER IN OCCASIONAL POETRY 177 Chapter IV CRITICAL VIEWS 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY 251 APPENDIX A - CHINESE TEXTS OF CI POEMS 271 V Acknowledgement I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Professor Chia-ying Chao Yeh, who taught me how to read and appreciate c_i poetry. Without her guidance and her tireless patience in reading through and discussing with me the entire collection of Wu Wenying's ci, this thesis would not have been possible. To Professor E. G. Pulleyblank I owe a special debt of gratitude for his guidance in my study of the history of the Song period and for his valuable comments and support throughout the writing of the thesis. My translations of the poems owe much to the invaluable discussions I had with Professor Jerry Schmidt; many also benefitted from helpful readings by Professor Hightower and by Professor Michael Bullock and fellow students in his 1982-83 Translation Workshop in the Creative Writing Department. I would also like to thank Dr. Ron Egan, Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, as well as the anonymous subeditor for their useful suggestions for improvements in the section on Yongwu ci for publication. 1 I. BIOGRAPHY I . EARLY LIFE province.1 During the Song, the Southeast circuits were steadily becoming the leading economic and cultural nexus in the empire. When the north was captured by the Jurchens in 1126, the subsequent political turmoil forced the Southern Song court to eventually relocate the capital to Hangzhou in 1138. Ironically, the shameful loss of half an empire and the resultant geographical dislocation only consolidated an on-going fundamental southward shift that began several centuries ago.2 In the triennial civil service examinations that furnished the state bureaucracy with potential new recruits, the Southeast, in particular the two most populous and urbanized circuits-Zhedong and Fujian, came to supply most of the candidates for the competition.3 In Wu Wenying's own time, a significant share of successful j inshi graduates came from his native district Yin County." Not surprisingly his elder brother was on the list of graduates for the year 1217.5 Although Wu Wenying himself never attained this distinction, whether due to lack of participation or to failure in the examinations, the very locale in which he grew up bespeaks a cultured and sophisticated milieu. Of Wu Wenying's relations, only two brothers bearing the different surname Weng 33 are known. No recorded source 2 accounts for the disparity in the surnames, the most plausible explanation being that Wu Wenying, ne Weng, was adopted into a Wu family.6 Wu's elder brother Weng Fenglong ^jg i[^,i|lt (2. Jike "5j , h. Shigui /Q ) attained his j inshi degree in 1217, and is known to have held the position of Vice-administrator of Pingjiang ~Y j^L^F (present day Suzhou) for a period between 1237 and 1240.7 Not only did Weng Fenglong distinguish himself by passing the civil service examination and thereby entering a career in officialdom, he also acquired some recognition as a shi |^ poet.8 He was mentioned by Dai Fugu ^ (1167- after 1246), an important poet of the "Rivers and Lakes" School of the Southern Song,9 in a poem entitled "On reading the manuscripts of the four poets Weng Jike, Xue Yishu, Sun Jifan and Gao Jiuwan."10 There are two extant poems addressed to Weng Fenglong in Wu Wenying's collection. Judging from their tone and content, it appears that the brothers had a rather' congenial relationship with some contact maintained throughout their lives. One poem, to the tune pattern Liushao qing (Quan Song ci [hereafter QSC] 2928/5),11 dated post 1243 from the preface, was composed on the occasion of viewing snow with Weng Fenglong from a tower named Yanyi #fj ^ . 12 The other poem (QSC 2928/4), written at a later date and poignantly subtitled, "Ascending Yanyi after Guiweng (Weng Fenglong) had passed away," reminisces with sadness about the irretrievable times when they had been together, revealing through the imagery and allusions a measure of brotherly intimacy that had existed between them. The younger brother, Weng Yuanlong ^ j{j ^ (z. Shike 3 »j , h. Chujing /|.|ff ), seems to have followed in Wu Wenying's footsteps. Not having passed the examination and entered officialdom,_he also made a name among his contemporaries as a ci =?) poet, though one whose reputation, to judge by the late Song poet and writer Zhou Mi's (1232- 1308) observation, may have been somewhat eclipsed by Wu's own.13 Nevertheless to all appearances he lived by his talent as a c_i poet and enjoyed the patronage of certain high officials. A metaphorically phrased, highly complimentary postscript to his ci poetry is preserved in the collected writings of the chief councillor Du Fan ^-i, (d. 1 245), who is known to have been Wehg Yuanlong's patron.1" There are also two extant poems by Wu to his younger brother (QSC 2881/3, 2931/6). In spite of the paucity of information, the few details we have of the brothers suggest a literati family background and an education that perhaps cultivated in them a love of literature and helped shape their shared poetic talent. Very little is known about Wu Wenying's early life. When Weng Fenglong became a j inshi holder in 1217, Wu was in his late adolescence. It is possible that Wu was brought into contact with a broader literary society that had connections with the government bureaucracy around this time as a consequence of his brother's success and subsequent debut in official life. From references made in some late poems, it can be inferred that as a youth Wu Wenying had made some travels away from his native district and had also sojourned in the capital Hangzhou periodically for a period of ten years, where he had his first 4 love affair with a singing girl.15 Wu's earliest poem is dated to 1224.16 It was composed in Deqing County i^^f^in Zhexi circuit (northern Zhejiang) which, according to lines 11-15, he evidently had already visited sometime prior to this date.