Words Well Put
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biographies, enjoyed reputations for erudition and literary skill.
When these influential individuals are associated with Zuo Si’s
work, collective opinion is forced to change. This anecdote is surely
meant as a condemnation of “popular” taste as opposed to the
superior judgment of individuals competent enough to appreciate
the true value of a work. It also admits the more troubling possi-
bility, however, that a literary reputation may be built on an un-
deserving work simply through the recommendation of influential
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people, who may or may not be competent to render aesthetic
judgments. 46
Zuo
Si’s
Poetic Expositions on the Three Capitals was eventually
established in the canon alongside Ban Gu’s Poetic Expositions on the Two Capitals 兩都賦. This can be seen already in an anecdote in
Topical Tales that relates the reception of yet another poetic exposition on a capital:
When Yu Chan had finished composing his Poetic Exposition on the Yang Capital, he presented it to Yu Liang. Considering their family ties, Yu Liang did much for estimation of the work by saying, “It may be a third
along with the Two Capitals and a fourth with the Three Capitals.” After this, everyone vied with one another to write out their own copies until paper in the capital became very dear as a result. Grand Mentor Xie An was reported to have said, “It is a failure. It is just a case of ‘constructing a house under an existing house’; every element is a matter of imitation through study, so it cannot avoid being base and narrow.” (4.79)
庾仲初作揚都賦成。以呈庾亮。亮以親族之懷。大為其名價云。可三二
京。四三都。於此人人競寫。都下紙為之貴。謝太傅云。不得爾。此是
屋下架屋耳。事事擬學。而不免儉狹。
The key relative clause in this passage is “considering their family
ties” 以親族之懷, which identifies an ulterior motive for Yu Liang’s
high praise of his relative’s literary work. He is not basing his
judgment upon aesthetic or even moral criteria, but upon the obli-
gations of kinship. Yu Liang is often depicted in Topical Tales as being the foil or “straight man” who allows others to display their
cultural competence. 47 He did not enjoy the reputation for scholarly erudition that Zhang Hua and Huangfu Mi did. The influence
of his opinion stems from his political power. He was the brother of
Empress Mu and rose to become president of the Central Secretariat
at court, and then General Chastizing the West and governor of a
—————
46. There is also the possibility that such judgments could be fabricated. Liu Jun quotes the Unofficial Biography of Zuo Si 左思別傳, which claims, “All the comments and annotations were actually fashioned by Zuo Si himself. Out of a desire to amplify his own writings, he availed himself of the names of his contemporaries”
凡諸注解。皆思自為。欲重其文。故假時人名姓也 (4.68).
47. See 2.30, 49, 50, 52; 4.75, 77. It was Yu Liang who challenged Sun Fang on a hunt and was put in his place by the precocious boy (2.49).
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region comprising three provinces. Everyone in the capital heeds his
opinion because he is a powerful person, not because he is emi-
nently suited to make aesthetic judgments. The narrative notes that
people were so eager to copy Yu Chan’s poetic exposition that
“paper in the capital became very dear as a result,” measuring the
influence of Yu Liang’s opinion in the crass monetary terms of an
economic market. By contrast, when Huangfu Mi praises Zuo Si’s
poetic expositions, the narrative says that people “drew their lapels
together to salute them,” measuring the influence of his opinion in
gestures of deference and sympathetic response rather than material
consumption.
At this point in the narrative, the voice of an exasperated Xie An
suddenly intrudes (without any physical context) to provide a cor-
rective opinion. The narrator uses the term yun 云, which explicitly marks an indirect quotation and is rendered as “was reported to have
said” in my translation. The term suggests that everything narrated
up to this point was simply to fill in the background for Xie’s re-
marks. Unlike Yu Liang’s opinion, which is based on “considera-
tion of family ties,” Xie’s is based on a carefully articulated aesthetic principle denigrating a literary work that is simply a pastiche of
former works: “constructing a house under an existing house.” Xie’s
judgment is the kernel of the anecdote and so it is given pride of
place at the point of closure in the narrative; his is the final word.
The narrative does not state whether Xie’s characterization of Yu
Chan’s poetic exposition as “base and narrow” deflated the price of
paper in the capital. Neither he nor the compilers of Topical Tales
seem to place much stock in the uninformed opinion of an
ephemeral and undifferentiated readership made up of “everyone”
in the capital. It is more telling that, despite its contemporary
popularity, hardly any of Yu Chan’s literary output survives; Zuo
Si’s works, on the other hand, are firmly entrenched in the canon.
In both anecdotes regarding the manufacture of literary reputa-
tion, the opinion of the many responds to the judgment of one in-
fluential man. In the first case, the unguided collective opinion is
mistaken at first but is then brought into alignment with proper
dictates of taste by Huangfu Mi’s preface, which constitutes a public
act of appreciation by a “gentleman of lofty reputation.” In the
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149
second case, the collective opinion is guided from the outset by the
judgment of Yu Liang, a man wielding great political power. But his
judgment is made in “bad faith”—it is based on “consideration of
family ties”—and so it must be corrected by Xie An, who articulates
the pertinent critical standards and renders his contrary judgment.
Both anecdotes devalue the opinion of the many as too easily
swayed either toward or away from the proper. The “many” lack
the feel for literature that can only be found in the highly educated
individual, who can wield the power to shape collective opinion. In
the first anecdote, it is Zhang Hua who alerts Zuo Si to the existence
of such power, and Huangfu Mi who exercises it on his behalf. The
depiction of these literary men, colluding in private to put the
proper “spin” on a work of literature so that it receives the public
accolades it deserves, esteems the power of the few just as it dis-
parages the passivity of the many. The “few” and the “many” in this
case are all members of the elite, of the dominant ruling class, but
the few are connoisseu
rs while the many are merely consumers.
This opposition is even more apparent in the second anecdote, with
its picture of “everyone” in the capital scurrying around to buy up
as much paper as they can. The voice of the connoisseur in this case,
Xie An, is oddly impotent. His judgments are made after Yu Chan’s
reputation has been made, and they are not given a particular con-
text, addressee, or result in the narrative. Xie An is not a party in
manufacturing (or destroying) a reputation; he simply comments on
it. In stripping Xie An’s utterance of its context and addressee, the
narrative attempts to efface Xie An’s lack of immediate efficacy by
moving his judgment into the realm of the universal. He is saying
what every good connoisseur knows, summed up in the adage
“constructing a house under an existing house.” The intended ad-
dressee for Xie An’s comment as it is narrated in this anecdote is the
implied reader of the anecdote: a person who thinks of himself or
herself as a connoisseur, or aspires to become one.
In all of these cases, the poetic works in question are no longer
being treated as modes of discourse, but as objects of discourse.
They are proof that literature has emerged as a distinct entity that
can be appreciated on its own terms without constant recourse to
political or moral didacticism. In the shift from offering to citation
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in the Zuo Tradition, the Poems are converted from modes of discourse into objects of speech discourse; such discourse still retains its didactic purpose. Here, the poems are objects of the discourse of
appreciation, which justifies itself solely on the grounds of invidi-
ously demonstrating one’s cultural competence in appreciating
these objects.
The traditional mode of appreciating a Chinese poem is to chant
it aloud to savor its euphony. Thus, the act of appreciating a poem
becomes a physical performance that can be appreciated by another.
The parameters of this sort of interaction are never more clearly
delineated than in their parodic form.
Gu Kaizhi aggrandized his own abilities shamelessly, so all of the young men would tease him by singing his praises. When he was Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, his compound adjoined that of Xie Zhan (387–421).
He was chanting poems beneath the moon one night—he said of himself
that he captured the air and control of the old worthies—when Zhan began applauding him from a distance. Kaizhi was inspired by this to exert
himself to the utmost with no thought of growing tired. Zhan was getting sleepy, so he told someone else who had been tapping his toe nearby to
take his place. Kaizhi did not detect the difference and went on almost the entire night before stopping. (4.98n)48
愷之矜伐過實。諸年少因相稱譽。以為戲弄。為散騎常侍。與謝瞻連省。
夜於月下長詠。自云得先賢風制。瞻每遙贊之。愷之得此。彌自力忘倦。
瞻將眠。語搥腳人令代。愷之不覺有異。遂幾申旦而後止。
The humor in this anecdote is derived from the inversion of proper
values. The connoisseur is meant to chant his poem out of a sincere
love for the literature and those who appreciate his appreciation are
meant to do so sincerely. Here vanity is rewarded with flippancy
and the connoisseur is hoist with his own petard.
The purest connoisseur does not seek to display his competence.
He appreciates a work for itself, not for the accolades of others.
One night while Wang Huizhi was living in Shanyin, there was a heavy
snowfall. He woke up, opened his shutters wide, and ordered some wine to be poured so that he might survey the glowing whiteness all around him.
—————
48. Liu Jun cites this from Xu Jin yangqiu 續晉陽秋.
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151
Then he got to his feet and paced about the room, chanting Zuo Si’s poem,
“Summoning the Recluse.” He suddenly thought of his friend, Dai Kui,
who was staying in Shan at the time and set out at once in a small boat to see him. He traveled the whole night through to get there, but when he
arrived at his friend’s gate he turned around and went back without going in. When someone asked his reason for doing this, Wang said, “I started out for there on an impulse, but when that impulse subsided I turned back.
What need was there to see Dai?” (23.47)
王子猷居山陰。夜大雪。眠覺。開室。命酌酒。四望皎然。因起仿偟。
詠左思招隱詩。忽憶戴安道。時戴在剡。即便夜乘小船就之。經宿方至。
造門不前而返。人問其故。王曰。吾本乘興而行。興盡而返。何必見戴。
Wang’s poetic performance, though an example of quotation rather
than production, recalls the many performances of “outburst” songs
depicted in the Han History in which the singer first takes the time to order wine, then rises to perform a song occasioned by immediate
circumstances. The differences here are that Wang’s outburst is not
occasioned by a sense of frustration and that he is alone for his per-
formance, constituting his own audience. The poem then gives rise
to an impulse ( xing 興) in him to seek out his friend, Dai Kui, a “recluse.” It is the quality of this impulse—how it is generated, trans-
ferred, preserved, and dissipated—that is at the core of this anecdote.
It is an intensely private process, but one that must inevitably be-
come public to find its way into the pages of Topical Tales.
In
the
Analects, Confucius exhorts his disciples to study the
Poems for a variety of reasons:
The Master said, “Little ones, why do you not study the Poems? Through the Poems, one may incite, one may observe, one may keep company, one may express resentment. Near at hand, one may serve one’s father. At a
farther remove, one may serve one’s lord. And there is much to be known
in them about the names of birds, beasts, plants, and trees.” (17.9)
子曰。小子。何莫學夫詩。詩。可以興。可以觀。可以群。可以怨。邇
之事父。遠之事君。多識於鳥獸草木之名。
Exactly what Confucius means by each of the items in his catalogue
of poetic utility is subject to debate. There is, however, an under-
lying common theme: the Poems are envisioned as public property
for matters of public discourse. Confucius’s list readily inventories
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many of the uses toward which the Poems are put in the narratives of the Zuo Tradition—certainly the ways in which the Poems are used to gauge the morality of individuals and states, to express sociability at banquets, to remonstrate with superiors, to serve on
diplomatic missions, and to demonstrate one’s command of Tradi-
tional knowledge. And the observation that one may use poetry to
“express resentment” covers virtually all of the outburst
songs de-
picted in the Han History. The first use listed by Confucius—that
“one may incite” or “give rise to an impulse [興]”—is the most dif-
ficult to define, but in the context of the Analects and other pre-Qin texts it can be read as referring to the ability of the Poems to provoke those who hear them to emulate proper behavior or to curb improper behavior. This concept of the morally suasive power of the
Poems underpins poetic practice as it is depicted in much of the Zuo Tradition and as it is codified in the “Great Preface.”
The
Topical Tales anecdote about Wang Huizhi 王徽之 (d. 388)
clearly depicts a different concept of poetic performance stemming
from impulses. In the first place, the initial impulse to perform the
poem does not arise from a need to praise, to blame, or to vent
frustration; it is simply generated by Wang’s aesthetic appreciation
of the snowfall. The narrative carefully sets up the parameters of
Wang’s appreciation. Wang wakes from sleep to find his villa sur-
rounded by newly fallen snow: the moment is unexpected and
ephemeral. The reason for his waking is not given; it is simply a
fortuitous gift. Wang proves himself a man of sufficient sensibility
to appreciate the gift, opening the shutters of his room to frame the
scene in his window and ordering wine to enjoy “the glowing
whiteness all around him.” The impulse generated by his apprecia-
tion animates him physically as he gets up and begins pacing back
and forth. He starts humming and finally the impulse bursts forth in
verbal form as a performance of Zuo Si’s “Summoning the Recluse”
招隱士. 49 Wang’s choice of poem is decidedly noncanonical and
—————
49. The physical aspect of Wang’s verbal performance recalls the “Great Preface”: “When the emotions are stirred within, they take on outward form in spoken words. When speaking them is not enough, then one sighs them. When sighing them is not enough, then one intones and sings them. When intoning and singing This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:35:15 UTC
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153
contemporary. He is not motivated in his choice by a received in-