In my powder box some makeup remains,
Keep it to give to the one who follows me.
I have no use for it in the Yellow Springs,
How I hate being dust in a grave.
With love I cherish my boys and girls,
But I charge you with being heartless.
If you wish to know where my heart breaks,
The bright moon shines upon my lonely tomb.
The children took the poem and showed it to their father. Their father
lamented in grief and reported it to the aggregate commander, who then
submitted it to the emperor. He decreed that the Li woman receive one
hundred floggings24 and be banished to Lingnan. 25 Zhang was suspended from his official duties. (5.1)
開元中。有幽州衙將姓張者。妻孔氏。生五子。不幸去世。復娶妻李
氏。悍怒狼戾。虐遇五子。日鞭箠之。五子不堪其苦。哭於其葬。母忽
於冢中出。撫其子。悲慟久之。因以白布巾題詩贈張。曰。
不忿成故人
掩涕每盈巾
死生今有隔
相見永無因
匣裡殘妝粉
留將與後人
黃泉無用處
恨作冢中塵
有意懷男女
無情亦任君
—————
22. Taiping reads 其母墓前.
23. Taiping and Shihua read 分 for 忿. I suspect it is a corruption of 忍 and have taken it as such here.
24. Jindai mishu 津逮秘書 (hereafter Jindai ) reads 杖 for 決.
25. Lingnan is modern-day Guangzhou.
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222
Placing the Poem
欲知腸斷處
明月照孤墳
五子得詩。以呈其父。其父慟哭訴於連帥。帥上聞。敕李氏決一百。流
嶺南。張停所職。
In this story, an emotional chain reaction is formed. It begins with
the fierce stepmother who mistreats the distraught children, who
move their mother to write a poem, which in turn moves the father,
then the commander, and, finally, the emperor, who ultimately acts
to rectify the situation that initially produced the emotions in the
children. The poem is both a result of disequilibrium and a catalyst
for regaining equilibrium—it recalls Han Yu’s maxim that “all
things cry out when they cannot maintain tranquility” 凡物不得其
平則鳴. The poem is a symptom that has the power to command a
cure, but only if it falls into the right hands. Knowledge of the
children’s suffering would never have reached the emperor without
the vehicle of their mother’s poem. The anecdote shows the literal
extension of a maxim attributed to Confucius in the Zuo Tradition
(Xiang 25): “If one does not speak, then who will know the intent in
one’s mind? But if one speaks of it without patterned language, it
will not travel far” 不言。誰知其志。言之無文。行而不遠. In this
case, the patterned language of the poem is able to traverse the
boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead,
to traverse the social distance between the wife of a general and the
emperor, and to traverse the physical distance between Youzhou
(modern Beijing) and Chang’an (modern Xi’an). The poem also lives
up to the promise made in the “Great Preface” that “those below
may criticize those above,” as the ghost of the children’s mother
(who dwells in the underworld below) calls her husband to task for
not protecting her children. There is an interesting inversion in this
anecdote of another statement made in the “Great Preface”: that
there is nothing better than poetry for “moving ghosts and spirits”
感鬼神. In this instance, a ghost is moved to poetry rather than by poetry. “When emotions are stirred within, they will find outward
form in spoken words” is a principle that holds true in the spirit
world as well as the human one.
There is a small but telling discrepancy in the anecdote. The
mother’s poem does not mention the abuse of the children at the
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Placing the Poem
223
hands of their stepmother (who is only referred to indirectly, as “the
one who follows me”). It only blames the father in general terms for
heartlessness. Yet the emperor demotes the father and subjects the
stepmother to the severe punishment of one hundred floggings and
banishment. We might assume that the commander made a full re-
port of the details of the case when submitting the poem to the em-
peror, but this is not mentioned in the anecdote. As it stands, the
narrative creates the impression that the poem itself is sufficient
evidence for the emperor to act to rectify the situation. As a good
reader, he is able to “use his thoughts to get back to the intent” 以意
逆志 ( Mencius 9A) in order to uncover the situation that produced
the poem’s emotional content and to see that justice is done.
Here, poetic discourse operates as it should. The one who pro-
duces the poem is moved by passionate, sincere feeling; the poem
itself is passed along the chain of command until it is received by its
proper audience; the audience appreciates and responds to the poem in a meaningful fashion. The account is not completely naïve,
however. Rather than simply singing her poem in an outburst of
grief, the ghost of the mother chooses to inscribe the poem on her
burial scarf and to explicitly address it to her husband, thus pro-
viding her children with physical evidence of the supernatural en-
counter. The poem does not serve simply to vent her emotion; she
certainly intends to put her poem out into the world as an enduring
physical artifact that will continue to speak for her from beyond the
grave. The poem eventually ends up before the emperor not because
of what it says—for abuse of stepchildren is not a singular occur-
rence—but because of the extraordinary circumstances of its pro-
duction. Even under the reign of an “enlightened emperor” 明皇
such as Xuanzong, the anecdote that best exemplifies the ideal op-
eration of poetic discourse turns out to be a ghost story.
When one’s audience is not a wise emperor but a chief minister
who rules as virtual dictator and is suspicious of everyone, the ef-
ficacy of poetic discourse is severely compromised. Two entries in
Storied Poems concern officials making complaints against the notoriously ruthless Li Linfu 李林甫 (d. 752).
Near the end of the Kaiyuan era [713–741], Grand Councilor Li Shizhi
[d. 747] was a carefree and serene man who enjoyed a wonderful reputa-
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224
Placing the Poem
tion. Li Linfu despised him and arranged to have him slandered and dis-
missed. A court official arrived and interrogated Shizhi very intensely
despite knowing that he was without fa
ult. Shizhi felt indignant and took to freely drinking strong wine every day. Then he composed a poem that
read:
When the Yielding Worthy first gave up his grand
councilor post,
The Happy Sage took to drinking from his cup.
I ask about the guests at my door,
How many have come this morning?
Li Linfu grew even more furious, and, in the end, Shizhi was unable to
escape his wrath. (4.3)
開元末。宰相李適之。疏直坦夷。時譽甚美。李林甫惡之。排誣罷
免。朝客來。雖知無罪。謁問甚稀。適之意憤。日飲醇酣。且為詩曰。
避賢初罷相
樂聖且啣盃
為問門前客
今朝幾個來
李林甫愈怒。終遂不免。
Li Shizhi, a worthy man who has been unjustly maligned, responds
to Li Linfu’s attack in a time-honored manner: he withdraws from
office and takes up drinking. In the first line of his poem, he casts
himself as the “Yielding Worthy” who willingly gives up his post to
a superior man for the good of the state. The locus classicus for this
figure is mythical sage-king Yao’s 堯 abdication of the throne to
Shun 舜 in ancient times. In the context of a worthy man ousted
from his post by a tyrant, the reference becomes bitterly ironic. The
rest of the poem slips into the voice of the famous poet of reclusion
Tao Qian 陶潛 (365–427), with Shizhi drinking at home and won-
dering if anyone has come to visit him. While Tao Qian would have
us believe that he was able to cut himself off from officialdom
completely, Li Shizhi is actually less successful. Though the narra-
tive does not explain how, the poem inevitably gravitates toward
the center of authority and is received by the object of its derision,
who responds to it with lethal wrath.
This poem is a classic example of the “outburst poem,” in which
the poem is a means of “venting frustration” 發憤, to use Sima
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Placing the Poem
225
Qian’s phrase regarding the production of the Poems. This is an attitude that can be traced back to Confucius’s statement in the Ana-
lects that the Poems can be used to “express resentment” 可以怨.
Li Shizhi was careful enough to veil his frustrations in allusive lan-
guage, but obviously not careful enough to prevent his poem from
reaching Li Linfu. If Shizhi deliberately put his poem on a path to
Linfu, it may be that he misjudged the fury of the paranoid chief
minister, or it may be that he simply felt he had to make his feelings
known regardless of the consequences.
Another official who raises the ire of Li Linfu tries to use poetry
to preempt an attack.
Zhang Jiuling [673–740] was ranked equal with Li Linfu at court. Because Jiuling had a keen knowledge of letters, Emperor Xuanzong had great
confidence in his abilities. Linfu begrudged him this as though he were his mortal enemy. Jiuling considered Li’s guile and worried that ultimately he could not escape it. He composed a poem called “Ocean Swallow” to convey his feelings. It read:
The ocean swallows are so very small,
They arrive with spring for a short while.
How can they know of the meanness of dirt and filth,
When they only behold jade halls open wide?
Now and then they swoop in pairs through filigreed shutters,
Day by day a few return to the painted balconies.
They do not have a mind to struggle with other creatures,
Let the falcon not be suspicious of them.
In the end he was forced to retire. (4.4)
張曲江與李林甫同列。玄宗以文學精識。深器之。林甫嫉之若讎。曲江
度其巧譎。慮終不免。為海燕詩以致意。曰。
海燕何微眇
乘春亦暫來
豈知泥滓濺
秪見玉堂開
繡戶時雙入
華軒日幾迴
無心與物競
鷹隼莫相猜
亦終退斥。
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Placing the Poem
Zhang Jiuling uses poetry as a form of mild remonstration. His
poem may “convey his feelings” 致意, but it is also a carefully con-
structed avian argument for harmonious collegiality. He shows
some strategic sense in deciding to use a poem to defuse Linfu’s
anger, but the attempt is ultimately doomed to failure, for Linfu has
already made up his mind to “begrudge him this as though he were
his mortal enemy.” Though Linfu would not be a receptive reader
of Jiuling’s poem under any circumstances, the latter compounds
the problem by poetizing his plaint, for it is precisely his “keen
knowledge of letters” that arouses such envy in Linfu.
These two anecdotes show the complete negation of poetry as a
protected form of discourse that can shield the speaker from cul-
pability. Indeed, the poems exacerbate the mistreatment of the
protagonists at the hands of Li Linfu. This is stark evidence that
poetic talent alone is insufficient to control a situation; success is
contingent upon the sympathies of the audience. Li Linfu is an able
enough reader—his ire is raised precisely because he correctly in-
terprets Li Shizhi’s irony and Zhang Jiuling’s imagery—but he is
ignorant (perhaps willfully so) of how he should respond according
to the tradition of protest poetry. This “ignorance” is perceived only
in the context of a narrative predicated upon canonical precepts of
poetry. In reality, a petulant authority figure would have no reason
to feel constrained by literary principles. But a significant pattern
emerges in the anecdotes of Storied Poems: the “villains” (Wu Zetian, Li Linfu, and others) fail to appreciate poetic talent, while the
“heroes” (Xuanzong, the wise ministers and generals) are highly
responsive to it. Appreciation of poetry becomes a cultural litmus
test to determine an authority figure’s moral status.
Such a litmus test need not apply only to figures at court. In the
Tang, even military figures can be adept at appreciating poetry.
When Zhu Tao was conscripting soldiers, he did not except members of
elite families, but ordered all alike into the army and reviewed them himself on the polo fields. Once there was a scholar of handsome bearing who moved with a refined air. Tao summoned him and asked, “What is your
vocation?” “I am a student of composing poetry,” replied the scholar. “Do you have a wife?” asked Tao. “I do,” answered the scholar. Tao ordered
him to compose a poem to his wife right then and there. The scholar
picked up a brush and was finished at once. The words read:
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Placing the Poem
227
To hold a brush and write a poem is easy,
To shoulder a spear and march to the frontier
is hard.
I am used to pursuing the wa
rmth of our covers,
And afraid of heading for the cold of Yanmen pass. 26
You waste away, your gown and sash hang loose,
With many sobs you soak the sandalwood of
your headrest.
Try to leave some mascara to put on,
When I return, you will watch as I paint
your eyebrows. 27
Then Tao ordered the scholar to put himself in his wife’s place and com-
pose a poem in reply. It read:
Even with tangled hair and thorn pins, I am a rare
beauty in this age,
My coarse skirt is still this one I was married in.
The sesame is ready for planting, but there is no
one to do it,
Now he should be coming back, why has he
not returned?
Tao gave him a bolt of silk and sent him home. (1.5)
朱滔括兵。不擇士族。悉令赴軍。自閱於毬場。有士子。容止可觀。進
趨淹雅。滔召問之。所業者何。曰。學為詩。問。有妻否。曰。有。即
令作寄內詩。援筆立成。詞曰。
握筆題詩易
荷戈征戍難
慣從鴛被暖
怯向鴈門寒
瘦盡寬衣帶
啼多漬枕檀
試留青黛著
迴日畫眉看
又令代妻作詩答。曰。
—————
26. Yanmen pass (in modern Shanxi province) marked the passage into the
northern frontier.
27. The Han History ( juan 76) relates the story of a governor named Zhang Chang 張敞so devoted to his wife that he even painted her eyebrows for her.
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Placing the Poem
蓬鬢荊釵世所稀
布裙猶是嫁時衣
胡麻好種無人種
合是歸時底不歸
滔遺以束帛。放歸。
Zhu Tao makes a point of enlisting members of elite families into
the army, but there is something about the “handsome bearing” and
“refined air” of the anonymous scholar that catches his attention.
Thus Zhu demonstrates his ability to read a man’s character based
on his external features. He finds out, as he likely suspected, that the man is a “student of composing poetry,” and then tests him to see if
his internal assets measure up to his physical ones. Zhu Tao fashions
Words Well Put Page 34
