The City and Its Representation in Literature
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Placing Ye: The City and its Representation in Literature by Joanne Tsao A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved June 2016 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Robert Joe Cutter, Chair Stephen R. Bokenkamp Young Kyun Oh ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY August 2016 ©2016 Joanne Tsao All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the history of the early medieval city Ye 鄴 and its place in the literary tradition. Ye was the powerbase of the warlord Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220) and the birthplace of the Jian’an 建安 literature. It was also the capital city of the Later Zhao 後趙 (319–349), the Former Yan 前燕 (337–370), the Eastern Wei 東魏 (534–550), and the Northern Qi 北齊 (550–577). Through a contextualized close reading of a variety of literary and historical texts, including poems, prose, scholar notes, and local gazetteers, this study shows how Ye, destroyed in 580, continued to live on in various forms of representation and material remains, and continued to evolve as an imagined space that held multiple interpretations. The interpretations are represented in works that treat the heroic enterprise of Cao Cao in founding the city, the double-sided poems that collapsed celebration and themes of carpé diem in the Jian'an era, and in tropes of sorrow and lamentation on the glories, or ruins, of the city that had passed its life in a brilliant flash, and then was lost to time and text. Ye’s most iconic structure, the Bronze Bird Terrace, developed a distinct terrace-scape, a nearly mythical space where poets tangled with questions of sorrow, consciousness after death, and lamentation for women forced to serve their lord long after his demise. The last material vestiges of the city, its tiles which were shaped into inkstones, created a discourse in the Song and Yuan periods of heavy censure of Cao Cao's exercise of power and his supposed eventual failure of ambition and retreat to concern over meaningless material possessions. Over the years, these representations have seen in Ye a fertile ground, either experienced or imagined, where questions about political rise and fall and about the meaning of human life could be i raised and partially answered. This dissertation looks closely at the ambivalent attitudes of writers through the ages about, and at their sometimes ambiguous representation of, the status and meaning of that ancient city. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the opportunity to complete my graduate program in the School of International Letters and Culture of Arizona State University. SILC provided a superbly competent and supportive faculty in various specialties. I would like to thank, for the valuable training I received, Professor Ling Xiaoqiao in the Ming and Qing studies, Professor Stephen H. West in the Song and Yuan studies, and Professor Hoyt Tillman in history. Also I would like to extend my deep-felt gratitude to my M.A. advisor Professor Timothy C. Wong, without whom I would never have taken the path that led to where I am today. The scholarship and discipline of these professors have greatly benefited me. I would like to individually thank Professors Stephen Bokenkamp and Oh Young Kyun. Professor Bokenkamp, from whom I have taken the most classes during my study in SILC, provided strong and important training in reading various materials from Daoist texts to the Tang rhapsody. Professor Bokenkamp has always been very supportive, particularly in allowing me to follow my interests in varying topics, for example, princesses, judgment documents, and clothing in literature. Professor Oh has shared with me his deep knowledge of philology and phonetics. The training I received from Professor Oh prepared me well for reading rhymed literature and making sensible judgments in the close reading of poetry. These two professors have contributed greatly to my academic and intellectual growth. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to Professor Robert Joe Cutter, my advisor and dissertation chair. During my study at SILC, Professor Cutter taught me how to read Jian’an poetry and early medieval texts. More importantly, he taught me what it takes to iii be a good scholar in the field of Sinology. I want to express my appreciation for his encouragement, suggestions, and steady guidance. In addition to my professors, I also want to extend much appreciation to our East Asian librarian, Liu Qian, for locating numerous materials from overseas for me. Without Liu Qian’s help, I would not have been able to complete my research of this project in a timely manner. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 2 THE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF YE ..................................... 11 Archeological Finds and Cultural Relics ............................................................... 11 The City of Ye Prior to Cao Cao ........................................................................... 17 Cao Cao's City Plan and Built Environment ......................................................... 23 The Post-Cao City of Ye ....................................................................................... 36 3 YE IN JIAN'AN LITERATURE ............................................................................. 61 The Three Terraces of Ye as an Enduring Motif ................................................... 62 Ye's Gardens as a Motif of Empherality ................................................................ 76 4 YE THE DYNASTIC CAPITAL .......................................................................... 105 The Representation of Ye by Jin Literati ............................................................. 106 The Transformation of Ye in the Southern and Northern Dynasties ................... 136 5 YE IN THE MIND OF POETS FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY AND BEYOND .............................................................................................................. 158 Continuation of the Bronze Bird Trope ............................................................... 162 v CHAPTER Page The Tiles of Ye as Material Synechdoche ........................................................... 175 6 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 203 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................ 235 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Poems on Bronze Bird Terrace in Quan Tang shi ................................................. 165 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Plan of Ye in the Wei Kingdom .................................................................................... 25 2. Ye as Constructed by Cao Cao ...................................................................................... 29 3. Wangcheng .................................................................................................................... 30 4. Plan of Ye of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi ............................................................ 54 5. The Ruins of Ye in Their Modern Setting ..................................................................... 57 viii Chapter 1: Introduction The ancient city of Ye 鄴 , located near modern day Linzhang 臨漳 county in Hebei 河北 , is best known for two things: being the birthplace of the early third century Jian’an Literature (Jian’an wenxue 建安文學 ) and the powerbase of the military strongman and political figure Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220), who could handle both brush and sword.1 Later, in the fourth century, Ye became the capital city of Shi Hu 石虎 (r. 334–349) of the Later Zhao 後趙 (319–349) and of Murong Jun 慕容儁 (349–360) of the Former Yan 前燕 (337–370). And, more than one hundred and fifty years later, Gao Huan 高歡 (496–547) placed Yuan Shanjian 元善見 (r. 534–550) on the throne in the capital city of Ye and established the Eastern Wei 東魏 (534–550). During the Eastern Wei, Ye was enlarged by a southern addition that was built against the south city wall. The larger city continued on as the capital of the Northern Qi 北齊 (550–577). The physical city met its end in 580, when the founding ruler of the Sui 隋 (581–619), Yang Jian 楊堅 (541–604), burned Ye to the ground. 1 The term Linzhang—“overlooking the Zhang”—first appeared in “Fu on Ascending the Terrace” (Dengtai fu 登台賦 ) attributed to Cao Zhi 曹植 (192–232). In it the poet says, “I overlook the Zhang River’s long course, / Gaze after at the burgeoning splendor of untold fruits” (臨漳水之長流兮，望園果之滋榮 ). See Robert Joe Cutter, “Cao Zhi’s (192–232) Symposium Poems,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 6, no. 1/2 (1984): 2. The city of Ye was once changed to be Linzhang to avoid taboo on Emperor Min’s 愍帝 name, Sima Ye 司 馬鄴 , on the guihai 癸亥 day of the eighth month in the second year of Jianxing 建興 reign [September 27, 313]. Fang Xuanling 房玄齡 (579–648) et al., Jin shu 晉書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 5.127. 1 As the birthplace of Jian’an literature and as the creation of Cao Cao, Ye has an important position in early medieval Chinese literature and history, demonstrated for instance in David Knechtges’s expansive note on Ye in his translation