尤悔
Admiration and Emulation 企羨
Crudities and Slips of the Tongue
紕漏
Grieving for the Departed 傷逝
Blind Infatuations 惑溺
Living in Retirement 棲逸
Hostility and Alienation 仇隙
There is a marked swerve away from Liu Xiang of the Han and his
sober-minded categories of behavior beneficial in government; in-
stead, we confront a wide range of categories encompassing all sorts
of personal interaction, and characterized by a strong verbal com-
ponent. Topical Tales was the forerunner of the host of anecdotal collections in the Tang that claimed no other purpose for themselves than the simple joy of relating stories about people.
As was demonstrated in the previous chapter, the common
thread running through many of the anecdotes in Topical Tales is the verbal manifestation of talent, whether in conversation, scholarship,
or raillery. Topical Tales collects striking examples of this discourse across a broad range of circumstances. In doing so, it shows that
poetic utterance had become a facet of daily interactions between
members of a certain class of people. It also shows that instances of
poetic production are objects worthy of collection, regardless of
their motivations.
Other collections that may have influenced Meng Qi in his
compilation of Storied Poems are Han Ying’s Supplementary Commentary on the Han School Poems of the Han dynasty and Wu Jing’s 吳兢 (670–749) Explanations of Ancient Topics in Yuefu Poetry 樂府
古題要解of the early Tang. The former collection demonstrates
how to cite the Poems effectively during argumentation, recounting anecdotes in which various interlocutors freely adapt lines from the
Poems to drive home their points. It treats the Poems as received texts and does not concern itself with explanations of their origin,
and is innovative in showing that the Poems could be cited in humorous or frivolous situations in addition to the more solemn oc-
casions prevalent in works such as the Zuo Tradition. Wu Jing’s
Explanations does concern itself with the origins and subsequent development of yuefu topics from Han and Wei times, but it does so in an expository rather than a narrative format, often providing
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Gleaning the Heart
nothing more than a list of attributions for a particular yuefu passage.
Meng Qi’s innovation in shaping the content and form of Storied
Poems was to produce the earliest surviving collection that exclusively records narratives about poetic production and reception.
Storied Poems is often cited as a precursor to the shihua 詩 話
(“remarks on poetry”) genre that became so popular in the Song
dynasty, and, while those later collections often collected more
expository or descriptive remarks on poetry rather than narra-
tives depicting its practice, some measure of the credit is due to
Meng Qi.
While
Storied Poems may be indebted to Topical Tales and other anecdotal collections for its categorical scheme, the actual headings
themselves seem to be derived from elsewhere. The headings used
by Liu Xiang and Liu Yiqing focus on the conduct of the people
portrayed in their collections, while Meng’s headings focus on the
nature of poetic utterance. The contents of each section can be
summarized as follows:
Moved by Feelings 情感
Affective poems (in production
and reception)
Moved by Events 事感
Poems to mark an event
Highly Unconventional 高逸
Eccentric poets Li Bai and Du Mu
Resentment and Frustration
Expressions of dissatisfaction
怨憤
Signs of the Strange 徵異
Poems of supernatural origin
Signs of Ill Omens 徵咎
Poems portending the author’s
death
Mocking and Jesting 嘲戲
Mockery and banter with and
about
poetry
The first two headings are reminiscent of phrases that often appear
in the titles of poems and poem cycles: phrases such as “expressing
my heart” 詠懷, “moved by encounters” 感遇, “moved by events”
事感. The third heading covers behavior similar to that of the ec-
centrics in Topical Tales. The fourth heading is derived from the doctrine of resentment in poetry that I discussed above. The last
heading is reflected in the “Taunting and Teasing” heading of Topical Tales, but the terms “mocking” 嘲 and “jesting” 戲 also appear in titles of Tang poems. The sixth and seventh headings are derived re-
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189
motely from astrological terminology and more immediately from
the types of narratives that Meng used as source material.
With the possible exception of the “Highly Unconventional”
category, Storied Poems is less concerned with the individuals who utter poetry than with the poems themselves. By contrast, the much
larger Recorded Stories of Tang Poetry 唐詩紀事, compiled in the
Song by Ji Yougong 計有功 ( jinshi 1121), organizes its material
(which overlaps somewhat with Storied Poems) by individual poet.
Meng Qi’s emphasis on types of poetry may help explain why his
collection was ultimately classified as a work of literary criticism.
His poetic types are not predicated solely on content, but are often a
function of the circumstances of production and reception of a
given poem. How he conveys those circumstances is the point he
takes up next.
________________________
亦有獨掇其要。不全篇者。咸為
小序以引之。貽諸好事。
In some cases, I have just selected the important part and
not the whole poem. For each one I have fashioned a
“Lesser Preface” to introduce it. I offer them to all fellow
enthusiasts.
________________________
Until this point in his preface, Meng Qi has been dealing exclu-
sively with the topic of poetry: what it is, how it comes about,
which poems are worthy of notice, and how he has gathered and
categorized them. Now he returns to his methods of composition to
inform us of two important points. First, in some cases, he quotes
only a few lines from a given poem. Second, he provides an intro-
duction for each selection. Taken together, these two points provide
great insight into the nature of Storied Poems as a collection.
In saying that he often “selected the important part and not the
whole poem,” Meng Qi signals to us that his primary purpose was
not to compile an anthology of poems in their entirety. Nor was it
simply to amass a collection of striking poem fragments—a practice
known as “plucking lines” 摘句. His use of the term “important” 要
suggests that he is after something else. Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824), in
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ms
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Gleaning the Heart
his essay entitled An Explication of Advancing in Studies 進學解,
states, “Those who would record events must bring out what is
important in them, while those who would collect words must draw
out what is profound in them” 記事者必提其要。纂言者必鉤
其玄. 50 If we compare this maxim with Meng’s stated goal of
“manifesting” instances of “being moved to chant a poem by en-
countering events,” then what he considers “important” becomes
clear: it is how the poem (or a portion of the poem) relates to
the circumstances that surround it. In order to manifest this im-
portance, he must provide us with a narration of the events.
In claiming, “For each one [poem] I have fashioned a ‘Lesser
Preface’ to introduce it,” Meng Qi is likely just being modest in
denigrating his own compositions with the adjective “lesser,” but
the label itself—regardless of Meng Qi’s intentions in using it—
returns us to the region of canon. The “Lesser Prefaces” provided
the orthodox interpretation of each entry in the Classic of Poetry for two millennia, although they did meet with a healthy amount of
skepticism, especially from Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) in the Song.
The role of the “Lesser Prefaces” as miniature narratives purporting
to give the “originative events” behind the poems of the Classic of
Poetry must be understood, for they cast a very large shadow over Meng Qi’s own work.
First, consider an example of a “Lesser Preface.” Following is the
first stanza of “I pray you, Zhongzi” 將仲子:
I pray you, Zhongzi,
do not leap into my hamlet;
do not break our planted willows;
it is not that I dare regret them,
but I fear my father and mother;
you, Zhong, are worth loving,
but the words of father and mother
are also worth fearing. 51
A “naïve” reading of this poem would see it as a love song, gently
(and perhaps disingenuously) admonishing a lover not to attempt a
—————
50. Han Yu, Han Changli wenji, p. 26.
51. Mao #76. After Karlgren, Book of Odes, p. 51.
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Gleaning the Heart
191
clandestine visit for fear of discovery. Here is the “Lesser Preface”
for this piece, which interprets it as a critique of the Zheng ruler,
Duke Zhuang (r. 743–701 b.c.e.):
“Jiang Zhongzi” is a criticism of Duke Zhuang.
He was unable to control his mother and so caused harm to his younger
brother. His younger brother strayed from the right path, but the duke did not constrain him. Zhai Zhong remonstrated, but the duke would not
listen to him. Thus, he brought about a great calamity because he would
not suppress it when it was still insignificant.
將仲子。刺莊公也。不勝其母以害其弟。弟叔失道。而公弗制。祭仲諫。
而公弗聽。小不忍以致大亂焉。52
This preface refers to a famous story recounted in the entry for
Duke Yin 1st Year in the Zuo Tradition. Zhai Zhong is a minister who advised Duke Zhuang of Zheng to act quickly against his up-start younger brother, who was relying on his mother’s favoritism
to make gradual incursions on the duke’s sovereignty. Because of his
dilatoriness, the duke was ultimately forced to suppress his brother
through military means and drive him out of the state.
The only textual link between this story and the poem is the
coincidence of the name “Zhong” 仲, a very common name that
simply means “second-born.” In order to reconcile the poem with
the story, the Commentary on the Mao Poems goes through some
exegetical acrobatics in asking the reader to take this poem as Duke
Zhuang’s misguided rebuttal to Zhai Zhong’s remonstrance. 53 The plea not to enter the homestead and harm the willow is interpreted
as the duke’s request that Zhai Zhong not counsel action against his
younger brother. It is not that the duke is particularly fond of his
brother, but he fears what his mother might say, and so, even
though he cherishes Zhai Zhong’s counsel, he cannot bring himself
to follow it. The “Lesser Preface” is a somewhat distorted version of
the account in the Zuo Tradition, where the duke refuses to act not out of fear of his mother (whom he actually ends up imprisoning!),
—————
52. Ruan Yuan, Shisan jing, vol. 1, p. 337a.
53. The “Lesser Preface” claims that the poem “criticizes Duke Zhuang” because, as the text of the duke’s refusal to listen to wise counsel, it functions as a minatory example.
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Gleaning the Heart
but because he believes that his brother will bring about his own
downfall through his rash actions. A portion of Zhai Zhong’s ad-
monition in the Zuo Tradition, in which he advises the duke that “it is best to deal with this matter early on” 不如早為之, is echoed in
the closing lines of the “Lesser Preface.” It is probable that the
compiler(s) of the “Lesser Prefaces” selectively drew upon the nar-
ratives of the Zuo Tradition (or a source common to both) to provide background stories for many pieces in the Classic of Poetry and used the Commentary on the Mao Poems to explicitly link the poem and story when their mutual relevance was not obvious. 54
What is the motivation for the frequently improbable interpre-
tations of the “Lesser Prefaces,” and how did they become not only
tenable, but entrenched in the tradition? Confucius proclaimed the
moral perfection of the Poems ( Analects 2.2), and Mencius expounded the importance of providing a historical context for them
in order to better understand them ( Mencius 5B.8; 5A.4). The Traditionalists of the Han dynasty sought to consolidate the Confucian
tradition as transmitted by these two exemplars; the “Lesser Pref-
aces” help achieve this goal in several ways. They demonstrate the
moral perfection of the Poems by casting them as instruments
praising normative behavior and censuring deviancy. By historically
contextualizing the poems, the “Lesser Prefaces” not only bring
them in line with Mencius’s hermeneutics, they also demonstrate
that the Confucian values purportedly embodied in the Poems are immanent in the world itself. As Haun Saussy puts it, “the tradition
reads the Odes as the description of a possible ethical world. It reads them in the performative mode, as narrating, in the form of history,
the model actions that its own reading must second in order to make
them actual.” 55 This is reinforced because, as Pauline Yu asserts,
“not only are individual poems read as historically referential, but
entire groups of songs are interpreted as miniature chronicles of the
states from which they were said to originate.” 56 Finally, by drawing on canonical texts—such as the Zuo Tradition—the “Lesser
—————
54. See Zhu Guanhua’s article on this link: Fengshi xu yu Zuo zhuan.
55. Saussy, Chinese
Aesthetic, p. 105.
56. Yu, Reading of Imagery, p. 70.
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Gleaning the Heart
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Prefaces” weave the Poems into the larger Confucian canon of classics that complement one another in embodying all that is exem-
plary in human action, experience, and thought.
The “Lesser Prefaces,” in the words of Van Zoeren, ultimately
“constructed for the Odes a kind of mythology in which each Ode
found a place in the sweep of early Chinese history.” 57 In so doing, they realize the maxims of the “Great Preface” by depicting the
circumstances under which each poem could be viewed as a mani-
festation of the author’s state of mind, occasioned by an outburst of
emotion (usually frustration), and intended to influence and/or
admonish. They also betray a deep anxiety that the poem is not
sufficient in itself to be completely understood. Narrative must be
called upon to show the reader that the poem is doing exactly what
it is supposed to do. The irony—obvious yet inescapable—is that the narrative subverts its own purpose by virtue of its necessity.
Having unpacked some of the connotations carried by the term
“Lesser Preface,” it remains to be seen how many of them Meng Qi
will pick up in his own renditions. In his preface he claims to make
many of the same “moves” made by his canonical precursors, but
with his own twists: the narrative anecdotes of Storied Poems are meant to provide a context that will manifest the “significance” of
the poems, but this significance has shifted from ethical concerns to
affective ones; the anecdotes are drawn from other source material,
but the sources are no longer canonical (as Meng acknowledges in his
preface). There has also been a shift in the scope of the narratives; the
“mythology” or “miniature chronicles” constructed by the “Lesser
Prefaces” have given way to a quotidian depiction of life among the
official classes. Finally, there is a significant departure in terms of
composition. In the Classic of Poetry, the accompanying “Lesser
Words Well Put Page 29
