adept at quoting old poetry, quoting contemporary poetry, and
improvising new poetry. This more sophisticated notion of poetic
competence plays itself out on a much smaller stage. The conflicts
between individuals depicted in Topical Tales concern stakes of far less moment than entire states or imperial rule, as is the case in the
Zuo Tradition and the Han History. The goal of the participants in the cultural milieu depicted in Topical Tales is to build and maintain one’s reputation for being a cultured man (or woman, or even child).
The physical violence inherent in the struggle for kingdom or em-
pire recedes into the background of these narratives (with occasional
eruptions) and is replaced by a contest of wits, a significant part of
which is a facility in quoting and composing poetry in an im-
promptu manner. Poetic competence is portrayed as a polite art, the
goal of which is often nothing more than to decisively demonstrate
one’s competence.
Chapter
4, “Gleaning the Heart,” departs in approach from the
previous three chapters by examining the preface to a Tang dynasty
compilation of anecdotes about poetry, known as Storied Poems
(literally “poems based in events” 本事詩) by Meng Qi 孟棨 (fl. 841–
886). The preface is dated 886, placing the compilation near the end
of the Tang era, but it includes anecdotes that not only stretch back
across the entire history of the dynasty but in some cases even
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:23 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Introduction
13
predate it. As a paratext for the entire work, the preface explicitly
discusses Meng Qi’s motivations and methodology for compiling a
collection of anecdotes exclusively about poetic production and
reception, the first such collection of its kind. In his brief essay,
Meng Qi constructs a model of poetic production and reception
heavily indebted to the theory of passionate outburst and response
outlined in the “Great Preface” 大序 to the Poetry Classic 詩經, a
model demonstrated in the biographical narratives of the Han His-
tory. Meng Qi states that texts depicting poetic expression abound,
“but instances in them of being moved to intone a poem by encoun-
tering events are what really cause one’s emotions to well up. If
these instances are not manifested, then who will comprehend their
significance?” Meng Qi claims to be gleaning those very examples of
poetic expression that show poetry in its purest form.
The preface as a genre lends itself to certain rhetorical gestures
establishing a legitimate position for its accompanying text in the
web of discourse that it engages. The contents of Meng Qi’s collec-
tion often deviate in fascinating ways from the position of legiti-
macy he stakes out in his preface. A close reading of the preface
teases out the influences on Meng Qi’s constructed ideal of poetry
and sets the stage for the more complex picture of poetic compe-
tence that emerges from the poetic practices depicted in the stories
themselves.
Chapter
5, “Placing the Poem,” addresses the more than 40 brief
anecdotes of Storied Poems, which run from the fall of the Chen
dynasty in the late sixth century to the late ninth century (near the
end of the Tang dynasty). The collection provides an invaluable
cross-section of poetic practice as it is portrayed by and among
educated, literate people of the Tang—men and women, famous and
obscure, in the capital and in the regions, under conditions both
mundane and supernatural. The chapter comprises a translation of
the bulk of this short work, with an ongoing commentary on the
multivalent concept of poetic competence that emerges from its
individual entries. The analysis divides the entries among three
broad overlapping fields: politics, literature, and love. What results
is a nuanced model of poetic competence that shows the protago-
nists of these narratives taking into account such variables as place,
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:23 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
14
Introduction
time, audience, and mode of performance in order to maximize the
effect of oral and written poetic utterances. These stories indicate an
explicit awareness of the affective power of heartfelt poetry as out-
lined in Meng Qi’s preface to the collection, but they also evince an
implicit awareness that the power of a poem to effect change in the
world is contingent upon its deployment as a socially engaged form of discourse. Poetic competence means not merely that one’s words
be well put in a text, but that one must also put one’s words well
into the world of discourse that subsumes them. One must master
both the utterance and the uttering to lend a poem power.
IV
What emerges in the following pages is a larger story of the devel-
opment of the concept of poetic competence. It is not possible to
draw a straight line of development from one source to the next. It is
better to think of them as stops along the way. Poetic competence
starts out as calculated performance of inherited words in the
Eastern Zhou, shifts to sincere passionate outburst in the Han, then,
during the Southern Dynasties, takes on the more complex form of
playful facility in verbal wit, combining calculation with the appearance of spontaneity. All of these streams—calculation, passion, wit—
converge in the Tang to produce a multivalent concept of poetic
competence that designates the skill of an individual to pitch his or
her poetic utterances at the right time, in the right place, and to the
right person to achieve a desired outcome. By the Tang, there is no
single notion of competence, but a repertoire of competencies upon
which to draw as the occasion demands. The goal of this book is not
to provide a stable definition of poetic competence for the entire
history of pre-Tang and Tang literature, but to tell the story of the
concept’s evolution, to uncover its complexity, and to identify the
sources and exemplars of that complexity.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:23 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Z one Y
Performing the Tradition
I
The royal courts of Eastern Zhou (770–256 b.c.e.) China—as with all
sites of human interaction—emerged out of and were shaped by the
daily practice of individuals, each with an awareness of his or her
own position derived from membership in a certain group. This
awareness of position led to a sense of the appropriate means of
expression at a given time before a given person. Such things as
“awareness” and “sense” are not easily committed to writing, how-
ever, and what we are left with in texts such as the Zuo Tradition
左傳 are traces of how a particular group, in this case, that which we
may call the Traditionalists 儒家, represented its practices to its
own
members and to the members of other groups. 1 The Traditionalists,
—————
1. The label “Traditionalists” emerged during the period of time covered by the Zuo Tradition (722–468 b.c.e.) and gained a distinctly pejorative connotation of being excessively “bookish” and out of touch with pragmatic concerns. But the role filled by the Traditionalists—advisors at court who drew on their knowledge of the Tradition to guide their rulers and debate with one another—long preceded the label. The emergence of the explicit label seems to coincide with the increasing systematization and transcription of the orally transmitted bodies of knowledge and lore that constituted the cultural capital of the Traditionalists. Confucius 孔子
(ca. 551–479 b.c.e.) is the best known of these Traditionalists. Most of the advisors This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
16
Performing the Tradition
as the self-designated custodians of the Western Zhou (1066–771
b.c.e.) cultural legacy, were particularly well positioned to fashion a
representative account of their practices and to introduce that ac-
count into the orthodox canon of Tradition. Such an account—
partial, biased, full of significant silences—can never be taken for the whole truth, even though it seeks to represent itself as such. The
truth of practice can only be experienced; it cannot be represented.
However, a textual account may attempt to describe, as the Zuo
Tradition does, the various situations in which certain types of practice were carried out. This is the value of the Zuo Tradition in establishing the nature of poetic competence in the Chinese tradition.
In it is inscribed its compilers’ desire that properly deployed poetic
utterances would provoke certain affects in those who heard them,
with concomitant effects on their behavior. Whether these utter-
ances really had such efficacy in any given case is beside the point.
From its lofty vantage point in the canon, the Zuo Tradition wielded a powerful and enduring influence on later poetic practice and its
representation in writing.
The power of the Zuo Tradition as a representative text was not
originally or solely derived from its position among a growing
corpus of orthodox Traditionalist texts. It was entrenched in the
canon only after it was broken up and appended as a commentary to
the Spring and Autumn Annals 春秋 traditionally attributed to
Confucius. In its earliest forms, the Zuo Tradition seems to have emerged from a large body of orally circulated lore about the
Springs and Autumns period, lore which consisted mainly of re-
ports of speeches and rituals performed at the royal courts of various
states. As such, it is in a direct line of descent from the earliest forms of historiography, such as the Documents, bronze inscriptions, and even oracle bone writings, which take the recording of speech in a
ritual context as their main purpose. 2 The difference between the Zuo Tradition and these earlier texts, however, resides in its exten-
—————
mentioned in the Zuo Tradition long preceded Confucius, and statements attributed to him would, of course, be unknown to them. However, his respect for traditional knowledge certainly reflects a wider attitude among the Traditionalists that was centuries in the making.
2. For a detailed and cogently argued discussion of recorded speech in a ritual context, see Schaberg, Patterned Past, pp. 21–30.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Performing the Tradition
17
sive use of narrative to provide a framework for its represented
speech. It is narrative that makes the Zuo Tradition a powerful text, for only narrative—as a representation of events occurring over
time, emplotted with a beginning, middle, and end—can create the
illusion that it carries the whole world (and its meaning) within its
purview. A narrative frame for a particular instance of speech can
outline the events leading up to the utterance (allowing its illocu-
tionary motivations to be inferred), describe the variables of person,
time, and place surrounding the utterance (allowing its locutionary
competence to be judged), and communicate the eventual out-
come of the utterance (allowing its perlocutionary effectiveness to
be ascertained). And if the voice of the narrator is completely
self-effacing—as is the case with the Zuo Tradition, which explicitly demarcates any interpretations and judgments it makes—then a
narrative can create the powerful illusion that it is simply commu-
nicating the world as it is without any mediation. 3 It shows us the world as it is or was, rather than telling us how it should be, thus
closing off any opportunity for rebuttal. Facts, unlike opinions and
principles, are not open to disputation.
The final influential characteristic of the Zuo Tradition is its tendency to repeat a certain type of narrative, in two variations:
salutary and minatory. In the first variation, an official in an advi-
sory or diplomatic capacity makes an argument to a superior figure,
often a ruler, who is convinced by the argument and acts or refrains
from acting in such a way as to procure a positive outcome. The
outcome may be immediate or delayed. In the second variation,
which makes up the bulk of narratives in the Zuo Tradition, the
superior figure does not heed the argument and meets a bad end. It is
not hard to see that this type of narrative casts a favorable light on
the Traditionalists, who were carving out a niche for themselves as
indispensable advisors to figures of authority.
Repetition in narrative has two effects: it naturalizes the elements
that are repeated, making them seem to follow the natural order of
—————
3. A narrative’s ability to convincingly depict an alternative version of the world can constitute an ontological challenge to versions of reality conveyed by orthodox narratives. This is a potential source of danger and explains why the Chinese tradition vigorously marginalized certain types of narrative even as it preserved them.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
18
Performing the Tradition
things (in this case indicating that superiors will inevitably stray
from the proper path of morality, and that they thus require wise
counsel); at the same time, it draws attention to the elements in the
framework that do vary (in this case the utterances made by officials
to correct deficiencies in their superiors). The point at which the
official must step forward to perform continually presents itself as a
moment charged with the possibility of success or failure—not only
for his particular utterance but perhaps for an entire state. Again
and again, the Zuo Tradition shows us that the man who is compe-
tent in his knowledge and deployment of Tradition will rise to the
occasion and either save his superiors from misfortune or, if they
prove too obtuse to heed his counsel, at least win the right to say, “I
told you so.” Thus the Zuo Tradition gradually inculcates in its readers a sense of the proper operation of hierarchy at court, namely
that it behooves s
uperiors to heed wise counsel. The narrative never
has to resort to explicit descriptions of the hierarchy (other texts in
the canon, such as the Zhou Rituals, take on this task); it wields the more subtle and thus more effective power of representing the very
process—the specific set of practices—that constitutes and maintains the hierarchy.
The constant site for the performance and inculcation of hier-
archy is, of course, the court. The ruler, whether he be called king
王 or duke 公, is the source of power and the focal point of all
speech and ritual acts at court. Thus, the currency of power at court
is the ability to win the ruler’s attention and approval. The ruler
demands a certain attitude of deference in demeanor and a certain
type of language in speech if he is to let others impose themselves on
his time and space (a pattern replicated in all superior-inferior in-
teractions). It is no coincidence that the Zuo Tradition repeatedly portrays those officials with competence in Traditional knowledge
as the ones most successful in winning the ear of the ruler, who will
usually repay their efforts with an expression of appreciation such as
“Excellent!” 善 and, in the best of circumstances, an attendant
change in behavior that preserves or enhances the status of the state.
The encounter between official and ruler may be the major axis
on which the court hierarchy is organized, but the narratives of the
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:33:49 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Performing the Tradition
19
Zuo Tradition make it clear that other groups are present. The
business of court is transacted before an immediate audience con-
sisting of other members of the nobility, ministers, officials, guests,
musicians, and servants, as well as an extended audience including
the people of the state, other courts in other states, and, ultimately,
the vast readership of the narratives contained in the Zuo Tradition.
The cultural competence of the Traditionalist is demonstrated be-
fore and judged by more than a single ruler, who may not always be
Words Well Put Page 3
