Words Well Put

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Words Well Put Page 9

by Graham Sanders


  Zuo Tradition has a wonderful account of poetic heckling when

  Qing Feng 慶封 of Qi visits the court of Lu and repeatedly fails to

  observe diplomatic protocol. 44 The members of the Lu court offer

  —————

  fully internalized, it is always easier to address the reasons for failure—which “stick out” as signals of inadequate internalization—than it is to analyze the elements of success, which necessarily efface themselves as a precondition of their efficacy.

  44. Xiang 27.

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  Performing the Tradition

  51

  him the poem “Look at the Rat” 相鼠, which reads in part, “Look at

  the rat, it has its skin; a man without manners—a man without

  manners, why does he not die?” 45 This is a doubly devastating critique for it uses the Tradition to mock a lack of facility in traditional knowledge. Qin Feng fails to understand even this pointed insult.

  Thus competence can be demonstrated in how one handles in-

  stances of incompetence in oneself or others. This is really a matter

  of nesting one level of (in)competence inside another level. In order

  to operate effectively, the highest level of competence will efface

  itself even as it makes the second level explicit, which it must do to

  establish its own authority. This is the fundamental relationship

  between the offering of poetry and the citation of poetry in

  speechmaking. The application and interpretation of the Poems that remained implicit in the ritual of offering are rendered explicit when

  a citation from them is framed in a speech. What was once a per-

  formance of poetry through ritual reenactment is “flattened out”

  into a rhetorical resource for a different type of performance:

  speechmaking.

  IV

  Cultural competence in offering a poem is very similar to the

  competence required for successful speechmaking. Indeed, the of-

  fering of a poem can be thought of as a very specialized form of

  speechmaking. In either case, the speaker takes the variables of time,

  place, and audience into account, adjusting his discourse according

  to his impressions of what his audience must be thinking. Officials

  make most of the speeches depicted in the Zuo Tradition to rulers or other officials, for these are the very class of people who must justify their existence through the skillful handling of discourse. The prime

  function of Zuo Tradition narratives is to demonstrate the competence of Traditionalists in this practice. Rulers are not required to

  make extended speeches because, as the focal point of the court, they

  naturally occupy the position of audience. In speaking at court, an

  official must impose his body upon the privileged space defined by

  the presence of the ruler and impose his speech upon the ruler’s

  —————

  45. Mao #52. Karlgren, Book of Odes, p. 33.

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  52

  Performing the Tradition

  time. Even when officials are speaking to one another at court, the

  ruler is the tacit audience for these public exchanges of discourse.

  Such impositions require a mode of performance—involving par-

  ticular postures and types of speech—that implicitly acknowledges

  and maintains the hierarchy atop which the ruler sits. Adopting this

  mode of performance allows an official to “take the floor,” but it

  does not guarantee his success. The speaker must demonstrate

  competence if he is to continue speaking, if he is to be persuasive,

  and if he is to be allowed to speak again. It should come as no sur-

  prise that in the narratives of the Zuo Tradition such competence is demonstrated by building speeches around citations of Traditional

  knowledge, the Poems being the most frequently cited rhetorical

  resource. Many of the speeches depicted in the Zuo Tradition can be read as object lessons, acting as testaments to the power of poetic

  competence in fashioning truthful and persuasive speeches. 46

  The phrase “to cite a poem” ( yinshi 引詩) suggests “drawing” or

  “intromitting” words from the Traditional body of knowledge

  called the Poems into the discourse of a speech. Because the Poems were a relatively stable and widely disseminated body of knowledge

  during the Eastern Zhou, and because they are invariably intoned in

  a tetrasyllabic meter, the provenance of their language is readily

  apparent upon utterance. Even so, a citation from the Poems is almost always explicitly marked in a speech, usually with the phrase

  “The Poems say . . .” 詩曰. This indicates that the authority of the Poems is derived just as much from their status as an explicitly labeled body of knowledge as it is from being a special form of lan-

  guage. The announcement that the speaker is about to cite a Tradi-

  tional body of knowledge prepares the listener for the archaic

  sounds of the old words, which may not even be fully understood

  by the audience unless they too are well versed in Traditional

  knowledge. The intromission of words that sound “mysterious”

  helps to elevate and legitimate the mundane sounds of ordinary

  speech just as liturgical Latin does in a Catholic mass. It is actually

  —————

  46. Schaberg ( Patterned Past, pp. 72–80), Yang Xiangshi ( Zuo zhuan fushi yinshi kao), and Zeng Qinliang ( Zuo zhuan yinshi fushi zhi shijiao yanjiu) all address poetic citation, the latter two collecting and annotating every instance of it found in the Zuo Tradition.

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  Performing the Tradition

  53

  desirable to the Traditionalist advisor that his citation from the

  Poems not be immediately transparent, for he displays his compe-

  tence in applying and interpreting the citation with regard to the

  matter at hand in his speech.

  A citation from the Poems may be integrated into a speech in a

  variety of ways, but it always involves application and interpreta-

  tion. 47 In offering a poem as a form of ritual reenactment, application is a matter of choosing the appropriate poem for the given time,

  place, and audience; interpretation is a matter of construing

  the relationship between the poem and the current situation, an

  activity that occurs tacitly on both sides of the exchange. The

  competence required to interpret an offered poem is assumed for

  both parties—its absence is a remarkable occasion. It is desirable

  that the applicability of the offered poem (and hence its intended

  interpretation) be self-evident, for the necessity of further comment

  would signal the exchange’s failure. In the context of poetic offer-

  ing, the human participants are to some extent subordinated to

  the poem, the vehicle to which they entrust their sentiments.

  However, as was evident in the exchange between Prince Chong’er

  and Duke Mu, there is always “wiggle room,” an exploitable dif-

  ference in commonality.

  With

  poetic

  citation, however, the human being reasserts his

  dominance over di
scourse. It is he who fashions his speech, and the

  poem is put in service of it. Application is no longer a matter of

  —————

  47. Yang Xiangshi ( Zuo zhuan fushi yinshi kao, pp. 65–67) establishes eight classifications of poetic citation in speeches. The first and last items in the list below are more general principles of citation rather than specific usages.

  斷章取義 breaking off a stanza to seize upon a meaning (at odds with the one suggested by the original context)

  摭句證言 choosing a line to prove what one is saying (often treated as historical evidence)

  先引以發其下 opening the argument with a citation (often through applica-

  tion)

  後引以承其上 closing the argument with a citation (often as a general case)

  意解以申其義 explaining the meaning (of a citation) to extend its meaning (to

  the argument)

  合引以貫其義 combining two citations to link their meanings

  分句釋旨 explaining/applying the parts of a stanza separately

  同文異事 the same text is applied to different situations

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  Performing the Tradition

  choosing the appropriate poem for the time, place, and audience

  (consideration of these variables has shifted to the speech as a whole), but is a matter of selecting the right lines from a poem and inserting them at the appropriate time and place in the speech for maximum

  effect. Interpretation is no longer a matter of tacit construing, but of articulated explication. The poem is no longer revivified through

  ritual reenactment as a performative utterance forming a self-evident

  “organic” link to the world. It is now a rhetorical resource, a group

  of words, a form of discourse that links to another form of discourse

  (the speech), which in turn links to the world.

  The speech belongs to the speaker and thus the interpretation of

  the poem cited in his speech belongs to him as well. In fashioning a

  speech, the competent Traditionalist builds a frame in which he can

  capture only those lines from the Poems of immediate use to him,

  “flatten” them out by stripping them of the multiple dimensions

  derived from a ritual context, and put them in service of his larger

  argument. This is a powerful move, for it places him in the role of

  dominant exegete, dictating meaning within the hermeneutically

  sealed environment of his speech. Such a move is predicated on a

  certain measure of ignorance in the audience, which requires the

  guidance of a competent Traditionalist to properly understand the

  relevance of Traditional knowledge. The Traditionalists can only

  consolidate their role as transmitters of the Tradition in a context of

  decline, for they count upon the incompetence of others to define

  their own competence. They usher in a world in which it is no

  longer sufficient to manifest the relevance of old instances of dis-

  course by reenacting them; one must explain their relevance by

  subsuming them into a mode of discourse that is created anew on

  each occasion: the speech.

  The most common type of speech contained in Zuo Tradition

  narratives is the remonstration ( jian 諫). The act of remonstrating with his “king” (or duke, or marquis) provides the Traditionalist

  with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the continuing rele-

  vance of the Tradition, thereby providing the justification for its

  (and his) preservation. The king, by virtue of occupying the position

  of King, has the right to demand certain forms of action and dis-

  course from his inferiors. However, the position makes certain de-

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  Performing the Tradition

  55

  mands of those who would fill it, and it seems that very few people,

  once the Golden Age of the Western Zhou had passed, could meet

  those demands without constant advice and aid from their subordi-

  nates. Indeed, acknowledging one’s own limits and being open to

  remonstration were the signs of a good king, of one that was striving

  to live up to the Kingly ideal. Thus, when a Traditionalist attempts

  to hold the ear and win the mind of the king, he does so by appealing

  to a Tradition of knowledge derived from an age of Kings (notably

  King Wen). Remonstrating with citations of traditional knowledge

  is a powerful strategy because the king himself occupies a position

  defined by the Tradition. Thus, the remonstrating official is quoting

  the Body of Kingly Knowledge before the body of the king, fash-

  ioning a collision of essence and corporeality.

  Such a collision can prove dangerous at times. The following

  passage from Duke Xuan 2nd Year (607 b.c.e.) narrates an instance

  of remonstration with a duke who verges on being a caricature of a

  ruling reprobate. The likely prospect of the remonstration failing

  makes the parameters of its performance the subject of explicit

  discussion, both by the personages within the narrative and by the narrator, making this a particularly informative illustration of the

  practice of citing poetry in remonstration.

  Duke Ling of Jin did not live up to the role of ruler. He took in heavy taxes in order to decorate the walls of his palace. He would shoot at people with a slingshot from his terrace just to watch them dodge the pellets. Once his chef boiled a bear’s paw for him, but it was underdone. The duke killed

  him and stuffed his body in a grain hamper. He then had his ladies carry the hamper out past the court. Zhao Dun and Shi Ji saw a hand [protruding from the hamper], and when they asked what had happened, they were

  horrified by it. They were about to remonstrate with the duke, when Shi Ji said, “If we both remonstrate and he does not accept it, then there will be no one left to continue in our place. Let me be first and if he does not accept what I say, then you may carry on after me.”

  Shi Ji made three advances towards the duke and only when he had

  reached the eaves over the dais did the duke turn to look at him. “I realize that I have my faults,” said the duke. “I am going to correct them.” Shi Ji touched his head to the ground and responded, “Is there anyone among us

  without faults? But to have faults and be able to correct them: there is no good greater than that! The Poems say,

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  Performing the Tradition

  There is nobody who has not a beginning,

  but few can have a normal end. 48

  This being so, there are truly few who are able to amend their faults. If your lordship is able to bring things to ‘a normal end,’ then our altars of earth and grain will be secure. How could it be the officials alone who rely upon them? The Poems also say,

  When the embroidered fabric of the royal robe has a hole,

  Zhong Shanfu alone can mend it. 49

  So one is able to amend faults. If your lordship is able to amend his faults, then the royal robe need not be thrown away.”

  But the duke still did not correct his behavior.

  Then it was Zhao Dun who remonstrated with him repeatedly until the

  duke grew sick of him and dispatched Chu Mei to destroy h
im. Chu Mei

  went at dawn but found the door to Zhao Dun’s bedroom already open

  and Zhao himself fully dressed and ready to attend court. It was early yet and he was just sitting there, dozing. Chu Mei withdrew and sighed to

  himself, “He is so mindful of his duties; this man is a mainstay of the people.

  To destroy the mainstay of the people is to be disloyal to them, but to

  ignore the command of one’s lord is to be unfaithful to him. If I must

  choose between these two, I would prefer death.” So he smashed his head

  against a locust tree in the courtyard and died. (Xuan 2.3)

  晉靈公不君。厚斂以彫牆。從臺上彈人。而觀其辟丸也。宰夫胹熊

  蹯不熟。殺之。寘諸畚。使婦人載以過朝。趙盾。士季。見其手。問

  其故。而患之。將諫。士季曰。諫而不入。則莫之繼也。會請先。不

  入。則子繼之。

  三進及溜。而後視之。曰。吾知所過矣。將改之。稽首

  而對曰。人誰無過。過而能改。善莫大焉。詩曰。

  靡不有初

  鮮克有終

  夫如是。則能補過者鮮矣。君能有終。則社稷之固也。豈惟群臣賴之。

  又曰。

  袞職有闕

  惟仲山甫補

  能補過也。君能補過。袞不廢矣。

  猶不改。

  —————

  48. Mao #255. After Karlgren, Book of Odes, p. 214.

  49. Mao #269. After Karlgren, Book of Odes, p. 240.

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  Performing the Tradition

  57

  宣子驟諫。公患之。使鉏麑賊之。晨往。寢門闢矣。盛服將朝。尚

  早。坐而假寐。麑退。歎而言曰。不忘恭敬。民之主也。賊民之主。不

  忠。棄君之命。不信。有一於此。不如死也。觸槐而死。

  The narrative begins by explicitly labeling Duke Ling as a ruler unfit

  for the role designated by that name ( jun 君). Because part of being a true ruler is heeding remonstration, the opening sentence sets up the

  narrative inevitability that the remonstration will fail (knowledge

 

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