The Matrix of Lyric Transformation The Matrix of Lyric Transformation Poetic Modes and Self-Presentation in Early Chinese Pentasyllabic Poetry Zong-qi Cai CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. MICHIGAN MONOGRAPHS IN CHINESE STUDIES ISSN 1081-9053 SERIES ESTABLISHED 1968 VOLUME 75 Published by Center for Chinese Studies The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1290 First Edition 1996 © 1996 Center for Chinese Studies The University of Michigan Printed and made in the United States of America © The paper used in this publication conforms to the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives ANSI/NISO/Z39.48— 1992. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cai, Zong-qi, date. The matrix of lyric transformation : poetic modes and self-presentation in early Chinese pentasyllabic poetry / Zong-qi Cai. p. cm. — (Michigan monographs in Chinese studies ; 75) ISBN 0-89264-111-8 (alk. paper) 1. Chinese poetry— Ch'in and Han dynasties— History and criticism. 2. Yueh fu (Chinese poetry)— History and criticism. 3. Ts'ao, Chih, 192-232— Criticism and interpretation. 4. Juan, Chi, 210-263— Criticism and interpretation. 5. Poetic. I. Title. II. Series PL2314.C35 1996 895.1'2209—dc20 96-9730 CIP ISBN 978-0-89264-111-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-472-03805-3 (paper) ISBN 978-0-472-12749-8 (ebook) ISBN 978-0-472-90144-9 (open access) The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ For my mother WeiRenqiufStJf^ and in memory of my father Cai Wenxian H>C II Contents ix Acknowledgments xii List of Abbreviations 1 Introduction 7 Chapter 1 An Overview: Pentasyllabic Poetry from the First to the Third Century 22 Chapter 2 Han Yiieh-fu: Dramatic and Narrative Modes 62 Chapter 3 Han Ku-shih: The Emergence of the Lyrical Mode 95 Chapter 4 Ts'ao Chih: The Development of the Lyrical Mode vn U7 Chapter 5 Juan Chi: The Formation of the Symbolic Mode 189 Chapter 6 Synthesis: Poetic Modes and Changing Forms of Self-Presentation 197 Notes 227 Glossary 233 Bibliography 253 Index vm Acknowledgments Along with the growth of this study from a dissertation to its present form, my contacts with the academic world have widened, and my debts of gratitude to other scholars have accrued accordingly. It gives me great pleasure to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have helped me along the way. I must first thank Professors Yu-kung Kao, Willard J. Peterson, and Andrew H. Plaks, who supervised my dissertation at Princeton and have ever since remained a source of scholarly guidance and encouragement in the preparation of this book. My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to Professor Kao, under whom I studied classical Chinese poetry. I have constantly drawn from his tremendous scope of knowledge and benefited from his advice and criticism through conversations and correspondence. I am immensely grateful to Professor Shuen-fu Lin, who guided my postdoctoral work at Michigan, to Professor Dore J. Levy, who offered constructive comments on the substance and style of my manuscript, and to Professor David L. Rolston, the Director of Publications of the Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, who oversaw the review process in a thoroughly professional manner and yet never ceased to be thoughtful and supportive. Other scholars, friends, and colleagues have also read my manuscript, either in part or in its entirety, at different stages of its preparation. Professors Eugene C. Eoyang, Donald Holzman, Victor H. Mair, and Donald Munro read different parts of the manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions and criticisms. Professor Jonathan Chaves and my colleagues William L. MacDonald and Chuan-kang Shih recommended various useful works on Chinese oral traditions. My colleague Patricia Ebrey first read the introductory and concluding chapters and suggested ways to improve their form and content. Later she read through the entire manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. My friend Xiaobing Ji gave generously of his time to read the entire manuscript and suggested stylistic improvements. I am deeply IX indebted to all of them for saving me from many errors of content and style. Despite the guidance and help I received from all quarters, there must still be inaccuracies and mistakes of varying gravity, for which I assume full responsibility. I would like to acknowledge financial support from various institutions. A postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies in 1991-92 gave me much-needed time to transform my dissertation into a book. A William and Flora Hewlett Summer International Research Grant from the University of Illinois, and a research grant from the East Asian Studies Department of Princeton University enabled me to concentrate on the final revision of my manuscript in the summer of 1994. An Arnold O. Beckman Award from the Research Board of the University of Illinois provided me with the resources to enlist the help of Ms. Yao Ping, a graduate assistant, in typing the Chinese and Japanese characters in the aftermatter of this book. I am grateful for the courtesies shown by the staffs of the Gest Library of Princeton University, the Asian Library of the University of Michigan, and the Asian Library of University of Illinois. A special note of thanks is due to Ms. S. W. Kim at Princeton and Ms. Mamiko Nakamura and Ms. Kazuko Sakaguchi at the University of Illinois, who helped romanize the titles of Japanese books and articles, to Ms. Margaret Mirabelli who copy-edited the manuscript meticulously, and to Norman Mangouni, publications editor at the University of Michigan7 s Center for Chinese Studies. Finally, my thanks go to my wife, Jing Liao, whose love, caring, and encouragement ensured the steady progress of this study toward this final moment of completion. The Matrix of Lyric Transformation List of Abbreviations CKLT Kuo Shao-yii $[$#gi{, ed. Chung-kuo li-tai wen-lun hsiian 4* gf {X ~$C M S- Rev. Ed. 4 vols. Shanghai: Ku-chi ch' u-pan-she, 1979-80. HCHW Lu Ch' in-li %&&, ed. Hsien-Ch' in Han Wei-Chin Nan-Pei- Ch! ao shih 5fe*tllSI#lt^tl9^- Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1983. JCCC Juan Chi |5c£|. Juan Chi chi chiao-chu RlttS- Ed. Ch' en Po-chiin |5^fg g. Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1987. KSSC Ku-shih shih-chiu shou chi-shih •£ f# -f- ^ "i* * M- Ed. Sui Shu- sen pf #^. Peking: Chung-hua shu-chii, 1955. SPPY Ssu-pu pei-yao SPTK Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an H g|5 ^ f ij. STTL San Ts' ao tzu-liao hui-pien Zff^ti. Ed. Department of Chinese, Hupei Normal Institute. Peking: Chung-hua shu- chii, 1980. TCCC Ts' ao Chih ^ ti- Ts' ao Chih chi chiao-chu # ft * f£ S- Ed. Chao Yu-wen J|4&>t. Peking: Jen-min wen-hsiieh ch' u-pan- she, 1984. Introduction he aim of this book is to undertake a systematic study of the Tevolution of pentasyllabic poetry through Han yiieh-fu (Music Bureau poems), Han ku-shih (ancient-style poems), Ts' ao Chih (192-232), and Juan Chi (210-263). It has two main thrusts. The first is to set forth thematic, formal, and generic transformations in these four groups of works and to examine these transformations in the larger framework of the development of four distinct poetic modes in early pentasyllabic poetry. The second is to understand the inner dynamics of this poetic evolution in terms of the poets' continual endeavors to broaden and deepen their self-presentations by adapting and transforming existent poetic modes, and to consider to what extent these endeavors for self- presentation are impacted by the poets' changing relationships with their sociopolitical worlds, their audiences, and their poetic traditions. Critical studies of pentasyllabic poetry date back to the earliest systematic works of Chinese literary criticism by Liu Hsieh (ca. 465 to ca. 532) and Chung Hung (468 to ca. 518), two of the greatest Chinese critics. When Liu Hsieh discusses poetic evolution after the Han in Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (Wen hsin tiao lung), he almost completely ignores tetrasyllabic poetry and makes pentasyllabic poetry his sole subject of study.1 In elevating the status of pentasyllabic poetry, Chung Hung went one step further than Liu Hsieh. In Grading of Poets (Shih- p' in), he declares that he "limits himself to a discussion of pentasyllabic poetry" and excludes all other poetic types.2 Throughout the subsequent dynasties, traditional Chinese critics continued to examine pentasyllabic poetry as a leading poetic type in their writings, and to compile various comprehensive anthologies of it. In Anthology of Literature (Wen hsiian), Hsiao T' ung (501-531) collects a preponderance of pentasyllabic poems, more than all other poetic types in his twelve chapters on shih poetry.3 Hsu Ling (507-583) makes his anthology, New Songs from a Jade Terrace (Yu-f ai hsin yung), almost exclusively a collection of pentasyllabic poetry.4 Later, Shen Te-ch' ien (1673-1769) devoted more than half of his anthology Source Book of Ancient-Style Poems (Ku-shih yuan) to it. Wang Shih-chen (1634-1711), another leading Ch' ing critic, gives it 2 / Introduction equally extensive coverage in his anthology Commentaries on Ancient-Style Poems (Ku-shih chien). When traditional Chinese critics discuss pentasyllabic poetry, they usually give allegorical interpretations of individual works, make general observations about social backgrounds and the lives of poets, or offer impressionistic comments on the aesthetic qualities of the works of given poets.