Ouyang were employed in the household of the heir apparent to
Emperor Taizong, where Zhangsun occupied the superior position
of grand preceptor of the heir apparent and Ouyang an inferior
—————
5. Taiping and Shihua zonggui qianji 詩話總龜前集 (hereafter Shihua) read 縮
for 索.
6. Taiping reads a character consisting of the 衣 radical and 完 for 漫, and 當 for 襠. Wang Meng’ou suspects that the 衣 radical was transposed from the second character to the first and that it should read 完襠.
7. Taiping reads 豈不畏皇后邪. Zhangsun Wuji was the older brother of the principal imperial consort, who was known as Empress Wende.
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208
Placing the Poem
custodial position supervising the water clocks and ritual duties of
the household. Even though the poetic exchange is not set at the
main court, it still finds its way to the ears of the emperor, who
would certainly be privy to the circulation of gossip among mem-
bers of royalty and the official class. The emperor thus becomes the
ultimate audience and arbiter of the exchange between Zhangsun
and Ouyang even though it was not originally uttered in his pres-
ence. His smile in response to hearing the poem is a tacit approval of
Ouyang’s rebuttal, but his question regarding the “empress” (Zhang-
sun’s younger sister was the principal imperial consort at the time) is
an acknowledgment that while Ouyang may have scored a verbal
victory with his poetic competence, it could have dangerous rami-
fications in the nonpoetic arena of political and family factions.
Zhangsun’s relationship through marriage to the emperor, the trust
he enjoys from the emperor, and his superior position in the
household of the heir apparent (a result of his family connections)
are the source of his arrogance. Ouyang may have been foolhardy in
retaliating against such a powerful man, but he seems to have been
saved from the ire of Zhangsun by the smile of Emperor Taizong;
the narrative does not mention that he suffered any retribution for
his poem. It made its own way to the only source of power that
could trump that behind Zhangsun: the emperor himself.
Behind this brief story of an insulting poetic exchange lies the
anxiety surely felt by all meritorious officials, who rose through the
ranks on the basis of their performance in service, when faced with
arrogant officials in positions of power because of their family
connections. Zhangsun was not only a brother-in-law of the em-
peror but also a scion of a Northern Wei noble family and a lauded
military hero. Ouyang, an academician and compiler of literary
anthologies, was a scholar through and through. Their encounter is
a classic confrontation between the “martial” ( wu 武) and the “civil”
( wen 文). Poetic discourse provides an arena that is easily mis-
recognized in these stories as transcending political, military, mon-
etary, or familial influence, an arena in which literary talent is
appreciated and rewarded, a place where the man of culture can get
his own back against the crassly powerful. Even this story tacitly
acknowledges, however, that such an arena has its limits, that
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Placing the Poem
209
whoever hears a poem shapes the ramifications of what is said
through it. It is nice to think that poetry can be an effective weapon
in the hands of the cultured against the oppression of the coarsely
powerful. That desire is discernible even in the most playful of po-
etic exchanges found in Storied Poems, but it is always tempered by a cognizance of the importance of the variables of poetic performance. True competence lies not just in fashioning the words of a
poem, but also in how, when, and where one places those words in
the world. In this case, it seems that Ouyang Xun was competent
more by accident than by design, for his words found their way of
their own accord to a sympathetic and powerful audience.
As was the case in the Zuo Tradition and Topical Tales, the competence of one’s audience to fully appreciate poetic discourse
cannot always be assumed. It is no accident that Empress Wu Zetian
武則天 (r. 690–705), reviled by scholar-officials as a female usurper
of the Tang throne, is portrayed in the following anecdote as lacking
in the most basic skills of comprehension.
In the court of Empress Wu Zetian, Bureau Director of the Left Office
Zhang Yuanyi was a comical sort good at making jokes. At this time, the
barbarians to the west were menacing the borders. 8 Zetian intended to grant fiefs and titles to all officers of military distinction, so she ordered her nephew Wu Yizong to marshal forces in order to protect the borders.
Before the invaders had even breached the frontier defenses, Yizong, who had only just crossed the outskirts of Bin, 9 grew cowardly and retreated.
Yizong was short and ugly, so Yuanyi mocked him by saying,
He may have a long bow, but his arrow is too short,
He barely reaches the lofty knees of his tiny Shu horse. 10
Seven hundred leagues away from the enemy,
He hid in a corner and fought with himself.
Suddenly a tumbleweed became the enemy,
And southward he fled, riding a pig.
At first when Zetian heard this she did not understand. “Did Yizong not
have a horse?” she asked. “Why did he have to ride a pig?” Yuanyi ex-
—————
8. Historically, it was the Khitan 契丹 to the north who were threatening the empire at this time.
9. Bin lay northwest of the capital.
10. Shu horses were known for their diminutive stature.
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210
Placing the Poem
plained it for her by saying, “‘Pig riding’ is to run away while squeezing
‘hog’ between the legs.” 11 Zetian laughed heartily, but Yizong was furious.
“Yuanyi had this all planned out,” he said. “He relishes humiliating me.”
Zetian bid Yizong compose a poem in return and he asked to do so using
the word “tousled” for his rhyme. Immediately, Yuanyi mocked him by
saying,
He keeps his hair in an awful mess, 12
But he combs his sideburns so they are not tousled.
Before you can notice his peach blossom complexion,
He first makes his eyes like dainty apricots. 13
Zetian was so delighted with this that Yizong was unable to make any move to harm Yuanyi. (7.3)
則天朝。左司郎中張元一。滑稽善謔。時西戎犯邊。則天欲諸武立
功。因行封爵。命武懿宗統兵以禦之。寇未入塞。懿宗始逾豳郊。畏懦
而遁。懿宗短陋。元一嘲之曰。
長弓短度箭
蜀馬臨高蹁
去賊七百里
隈牆獨自戰
忽然蓬著賊
騎豬向南竄
則天聞之。初未悟。曰。懿宗無�
�邪。何故騎豬。元一解之曰。騎豬
者。是夾豕走也。則天乃大笑。懿宗怒曰。元一夙搆。貴欲辱臣。則天
命賦詩與之。懿宗請賦菶字。元一立嘲曰。
裡頭極草草
掠鬢不菶菶
未見桃花面皮
先作杏子眼孔
則天大歡。故懿宗不能侵傷。
—————
11. The word shi 豕 “hog” is a homophone for shi 屎 “shit.” The pun evokes the comical image of Yizong fleeing in a state of extreme distress. It could also refer to the region of Bin 豳 since its graph looks like two shi 豕 characters squeezed together.
12. I read li 理 for li 裡 in this line.
13. Both apricot-shaped eyes and a peach blossom complexion are clichés of female beauty.
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Placing the Poem
211
In this story, Zhang Yuanyi, who is known as a “comical sort good
at making jokes,” takes advantage of a correspondence between Wu
Yizong’s lack of courage and lack of impressive stature in fashioning
his insulting poem. Unlike Zhangsun in the previous anecdote, who
simply attacked Ouyang’s looks gratuitously, Zhang Yuanyi paints
a hilarious picture of a little man with a little arrow, dwarfed by his
tiny pony, making a show of bravery in a mock fight until he is
scared off by a passing tumbleweed. It is the last line about fleeing
on a pig that poses a problem for Empress Wu. Zhang must assume
the role of exegete in explaining to the empress (and ultimately to us
as readers) what turns out to be a rather crude pun. The scene be-
comes a sort of parody of the familiar tableau found in the Zuo
Tradition, where an erudite Traditionalist solemnly expounds to his ruler on the meaning of the Poems. All three personages in the anecdote are actually parodies: Zhang Yuanyi is a debased scholar, Wu
Yizong a debased general, and Empress Wu a debased ruler. The
anecdote is calculated to show how the rule of Empress Wu vitiated
the solemnity of the Tang court. Instead of attending to important
matters of the empire, she and her attendants engage in off-color
insults that she has trouble grasping.
It is the nature of parody to carefully reproduce the fundamental
form of that which it mocks, even as it subverts the expected con-
tent. In this case, the variables of poetic competence are maintained.
Zhang’s poem does not hit its mark until it has been fully explained
to the empress. As the audience at the center of power, her appre-
ciative guffaw once she “gets” the poem affords Zhang protection in
the dangerous game of mocking the empress’s own nephew, and is
surely what enrages Wu Yizong himself. Wu Yizong’s claim that
Zhang “had this all planned out” is an attempt to question his poetic
talent by suggesting his performance was calculated rather than
improvised. By ascribing ulterior motives to Zhang’s performance,
Wu Yizong recasts this demonstration of poetic skill as a malicious
bid to humiliate him. If the empress were not blinded by the humor
of the poem, and could see it for the attack that it is, she might be
indignant instead of amused. Unfortunately for Wu Yizong, his
actions have proven that he is craven in addition to being short and ugly. Zhang’s poem is not only funny; it is accurate. Empress Wu,
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212
Placing the Poem
in a somewhat disingenuous effort to be gracious, gives Wu Yizong
the floor so that he may improvise a poetic retort to Zhang’s insults.
Wu Yizong would have done so already if he had the poetic com-
petence, but lacking this, he tips his hand by announcing the char-
acter he will use to set the rhyme of his poem. This gives Zhang the
chance to jump in and prove his verbal facility once again, as he
appropriates Wu Yizong’s own rhyme word and turns it against
him—the true display of poetic competence in this anecdote. The
empress’s resultant delight renders Zhang impervious to any further
attempts by Wu Yizong to retaliate.
The caricatures may be somewhat grotesque—the clownish
scholar, the cowardly general, the dimwitted ruler—but the con-
tours of poetic competence remain. The ancient desire that poetry
may be used to “pierce” 刺 the inflated egos of the powerful and
incompetent is still discernible in this farce of a regal court. This
time it is a parody in which a cultured man ( wen) wins out over a sham of a military one ( wu).
If the in-laws of Taizong and blood relatives of Empress Wu are
“fair game” for mockery through poetry in the preceding anecdotes,
by the time of the court of Emperor Zhongzong’s second reign
(705–10), the sovereign himself comes under attack.
In the court of Emperor Zhongzong there was a censor-in-chief named
Pei Yan who worshipped the Buddha. His wife was fiercely jealous,
and Yan feared her as he would a strict father. He once declared that
there were three things to be feared about his wife: (1) When she was
young and pretty, he saw her as a Living Bodhisattva [and who wouldn’t
be afraid of a Living Bodhisattva?]. (2) With many children about her,
he saw her as the Demon Brood Mother, and who wouldn’t be afraid
of the Demon Brood Mother? 14 (3) When she reached the age of fifty or sixty and would lightly apply her makeup—sometimes in a black shade—
he saw her as Jiupancha the Soul Eater, and who wouldn’t be afraid of
—————
14. The Demon Brood Mother is the Chinese name for the Buddhist goddess
Hariti. According to legend, she gave birth to five hundred sons and ate up all the other children in the village. After attaining enlightenment, however, she became the patron saint of child bearing.
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Placing the Poem
213
Jiupancha? 15 At this time, Commoner Wei had taken on much of the influence of the Wu clan and Zhongzong gradually came to fear her. At a
court banquet, people were singing lyrics to “Swirling Waves.” 16 The lyrics by one performer said,
In the swirling waves, there lies a basket,
It is a fine thing to fear one’s wife.
Outside court only Pei Yan does so,
But in here, no one surpasses Old Li.
Empress Wei assumed a self-satisfied expression and bestowed a bolt of silk upon the performer. (7.7)
中宗朝。御史大夫裴談。崇奉釋氏。妻悍妒。談畏如嚴君。嘗謂之妻
有可畏者三。少妙之時。視之如生菩薩。及男女滿前。視之如九子魔
母。安有人不畏九子魔母耶。及五十六十。薄施裝粉。或黑。視之如鳩
盤茶。安有人不畏鳩盤茶。時韋庶人頗襲武氏之風軌。中宗漸畏之。內
宴。唱回波詞。有優人詞曰。
回波爾時栲栳
怕婦也是大好
外邊祇有裴談
內裡無過李老
韋后意色自得以束帛賜之。
Th
e performance proper in this anecdote begins with the line, “At a
court banquet . . .”; preceding it is the background information nec-
essary to successfully understand the performance—namely that Pei
Yan is the epitome of a henpecked husband, and that the emperor
lived in fear of his own wife, later derogatorily referred to by his-
torians as “Commoner Wei” 韋庶人 because of her arrogation of
power. Such information would be assumed knowledge of both the
primary audience present at this performance and the secondary
audience of contemporaries close to the court who may have heard
about it, but the knowledge must be reconstructed for the extended
audience comprising later readers of this anecdote. What the narra-
—————
15. Jiupancha was a female demon in Buddhist folklore that sapped the vitality from human beings. According to an entry in Taiping (251), she had dark lips and blackened limbs.
16. This was a popular dancing melody during Zhongzong’s reign. The opening line of the song would always begin, “When the waves were swirling . . . .”
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Placing the Poem
tive does not mention here, but which was certainly known by all at
the court of Zhongzong, was that Pei Yan was a vehement critic of
the Wei clan’s power in general and of the appointment of Empress
Wei’s own father as chief minister in particular. Factional politics is
at the heart of this performance.
The performer is unnamed, but the Chinese term youren 優人
suggests that he or she was a member of the corps of royal per-
formers that provided music and entertainment at banquets rather
than an official in attendance. The poem is uttered as lyrics to a song
for entertainment purposes, which places it in a playful context,
providing the performer with some leeway in terms of propriety.
But this particular poem transgresses any reasonable bounds of
decorum, not only by flatly declaring that the emperor is henpecked
but also by using the overly familiar appellation “Old Li.” The
performance is a bald-faced appeal to Empress Wei in that it elevates
Words Well Put Page 32
