trial of the Northern Song saw Su Shi’s poems entered in evidence against him as proof of his seditious thoughts.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Placing the Poem
235
light, the closing couplet marks the rise of the ephemeral peach
blossoms along the timeline of Liu’s life.
The second scenario, from the mouth of the author himself,
corrects the misinterpretation forced upon Liu’s poem by the
slanderous intent of his foe. Liu’s enemy cleverly tapped into the
tradition of protest poetry to support his charge. By including both
anecdotes, Storied Poems implicitly acknowledges the danger of a poem being misunderstood without proper contextualization—a
concern that goes back to the Mao prefaces of the Poems. By using his absence from the capital to set the time frame in which the peach
trees flourished, Liu is drawing attention to his demotion. The
question lies in whether he intended this as a form of protest, as a
simple means of marking the passage of time, or as a combination of
the two; resolving this question requires knowing Liu’s state of
mind at the time of composition. According to canonical precepts,
state of mind is precisely what a poem articulates. For the state of
mind to be intelligible, however, a context is required; by providing
two contexts—one of production and one of reception—the narra-
tive renders Liu’s state of mind ambiguous. The Chinese tradition
provides a way of resolving the ambiguity: since the poem, by
definition, is an expression of Liu’s state of mind, then Liu’s inter-
pretation is naturally more reliable than that of any outsider, par-
ticularly one with a political ax to grind. In the end, however, it is
the reception of the poem, regardless of the state of mind that
produced it, that has the power to affect Liu Yuxi’s life. He lan-
guished for another fourteen years in the south as a result of his
poem, regardless of whether he meant it to be a form of protest.
In all of these “political” anecdotes, poetic discourse is used as an
attempt to achieve an end: defense against verbal attack, criticism of
incompetent authority figures, pursuit of material reward, elevation
of status at court, restoration of justice for the wronged, release
from military duty, exemption from examination, exposure of
abuse of power, or promotion of peace. And, as was the case with
Liu Yuxi, a poem can be taken as attempting to achieve a political
end even when the author disavows that intention. What emerges as
a common theme in all of these narratives is that the efficacy of
poetic discourse in achieving its end is contingent upon how well it
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
236
Placing the Poem
is deployed in its social and political context. This is a bound form
of discourse, bound to its world—bound to succeed, or bound to fail,
depending on how it negotiates those worldly binds.
III
There is more than one way of measuring status. All of the anec-
dotes discussed above concern poetry’s impact in sociopolitical
realms: determining positions at court or in the civil bureaucracy,
establishing the parameters of military and religious service, even
influencing the treatment of children. And while the power of po-
etry often extends to these realms, it has its immediate impact in the
realm of poetry itself. As the anecdotes of Topical Tales so clearly show for a previous era, competence in poetry can be demonstrated
simply to enhance one’s reputation for poetic competence.
The express admiration of the emperor is held up as the ultimate
recognition of poetic competence. This attitude can already be dis-
cerned in the Zuo Tradition, it underlies the performance of poetic expositions ( fu 賦) at the Han courts, and it continues right into the Tang. The anecdotes in Storied Poems that demonstrate this principle stretch back to the Six Dynasties.
Emperor Xiao Wu [r. 454–464] of the Liu Song dynasty [420–79] once
intoned Xie Zhuang’s [421–466] “Poetic Exposition on the Moon” and
sighed in admiration for a long while. He declared to Yan Yanzhi [384–
456], “Now that Xie Zhuang has composed this, I can say that I will no
longer hold much regard for the ancients nor those who are to come in the future. Is old Prince of Chen worthy of veneration any longer?” 39 Yanzhi replied, “It truly is as your majesty thinks. But, when he says,
My beauty is far off and news of her is scarce, 40
She may be a thousand leagues distant but we share
the bright moonlight.
—————
39. This is a reference to Cao Zhi 曹植 (192–232), who was enfeoffed as Prince of Chen. He wrote one of the most famous fu in Chinese literature, “Poetic Exposition on the Spirit of the Luo River” 洛神賦, and was widely acclaimed as a “literary genius.”
40. Jindai reads 邁兮 for 兮邁.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Placing the Poem
237
Is it not a little late in the day to be realizing this?” The emperor truly thought this to be so. He granted an audience to Xie Zhuang, who responded by saying, “Yanzhi has a poem that goes something like:
If you live, we always yearn for one another,
If you die, you shall never return.
Is not this even worse than what I said?” The emperor clapped his hands
over this for the rest of the day. (7.1)
宋武帝嘗吟謝莊月賦。稱歎良久。謂顏延之曰。希逸此作。可謂前不
見古人。後不見來者。昔陳王何足尚邪。延之對曰。誠如聖旨。然其曰。
美人兮邁音信闊
隔千里兮共明月
知之不亦晚乎。帝深以為然。及見希逸。希逸對曰。延之詩云。
生為長相思
歿為長不歸
豈不更加於臣邪。帝拊掌竟日。
The narrative opens with the emperor himself intoning “Poetic
Exposition on Snow” by Xie Zhuang, thus granting the work pres-
tige because it has found its way into the personal repertoire of
the emperor and because he takes the time to perform and savor the
work for himself at court. With his comments to Yan Yanzhi, the
emperor moves from an appreciation expressed physically through
his chanting and subsequent sighing to an appreciation expressed in
the evaluative terms of literary genealogy. In his hyperbolic judg-
ment, the emperor claims that Xie Zhuang’s literary talent tran-
scends the temporal limits of past and future, rivaling that paragon
of literary talent, Cao Zhi. Emperor Wu has anointed Xie Zhuang’s
composition with a tripartite appreciation, consisting of a per-
formance by his own person at court, a heartfelt reaction expressed
through his sighs, and a highly favorable evaluation of Xie’s talent.
Despite its effusiveness, the emperor’s judgment is by no means
absolute. He was likely seeking confirmation of his judgment from
Yan Yanzhi, who
quickly gives it with a pat phrase—“It truly is as
your majesty thinks”—but then just as quickly proceeds to question
the royal judgment. Yan Yanzhi, who seems to be somewhat piqued
by the emperor’s hyperbole, bases his criticism of Xie’s composition
on a witty turn of phrase, suggesting that while one may realize that
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
238
Placing the Poem
one shares the moonlight with one’s lover, it does not do much
good if the lover is a thousand miles away. The emperor is swayed
by Yan’s logic and “truly thought this to be so.” The narrative then
immediately proceeds to an audience with Xie Zhuang, during
which he diffuses the criticism by pointing out a line in Yan’s po-
etry that seems even more futile than his own. The emperor,
“clapping his hands for the rest of the day,” indicates that Xie has
won out in this battle of literary wits.
While the emperor may be the ultimate arbiter in the contest
between Xie Zhuang and Yan Yanzhi, he is a curiously insubstantial
sort of judge. His original evaluation of Xie is facile and overstated,
and despite his initial fervor, he abandons his opinion after a minor
objection by his underling. He then just as quickly reverses himself
again in the face of Xie’s equally minor rebuttal. He seems to lack
any sound principle on which to base his literary judgments. In
short, the emperor is poetically incompetent. He exists merely as a
foil, enabling the true protagonists of this anecdote, the “literary”
men Xie Zhuang and Yan Yanzhi, to show forth their talents. In
fact, judging by this narrative, it would seem that the emperor has
nothing better to do than engage in witty banter with literary men
at court, thus converting what should be a site for political nego-
tiation over imperial administration into an arena for polite verbal
sparring. In fact, the entire anecdote is not about poetic perfor-
mance at all, but about debating the merits of poetic compositions.
The debate here is not about how verbal expression can demonstrate
which man’s character is of a higher quality or which man is better
suited to serve. The debate is closed off to any concern that might be
characterized as political or moral, engaging instead in fancifully
contrived analyses of a poetic discourse that is really about nothing
but itself. This was a common criticism lodged by later critics
against the literary compositions of the Six Dynasties era: that they
suffered from a morally dangerous absence of any substantive
meaning. In this anecdote, the literature’s moral vacuum seems to
have infected the very center of political power, by bending the
discourse found there toward its own pointless ends.
The figure in the Tang that embodies this principle of poetry for
poetry’s sake is, of course, Li Bai 李白 (701–762), who liked to
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Placing the Poem
239
portray himself as the quintessential, free-spirited, drunken Poet.
His efforts at self-representation were highly effective, as is attested by three different anecdotes about him collected together under one
entry in Storied Poems (3.1). The entry appears under the “Highly Unconventional” category and does not concern any type of poetry
so much as it does Li Bai’s behavior as “The Poet.” The first anec-
dote narrates Li Bai’s arrival in the capital and the early recognition
of his talent by He Zhizhang 賀知章 (659–744), who tags him with
the famous epithet, “Banished Immortal” 摘仙. The second anec-
dote establishes Li Bai’s disdain for rules of prosody when he teases
Du Fu for exerting so much effort over them: “Why has he grown
so thin since last we parted? / It must be how hard he has struggled
with his poems” 借問別來太瘦生 / 總為從前作詩苦. This sets the
stage for the third and primary anecdote.
Emperor Xuanzong heard of Li Bai and summoned him to be a member of
the Hanlin Academy. 41 Because his literary aptitude surpassed that of everyone else and his ability and experience were both superb, the emperor immediately placed him in a top position, and, as a result, he was never ordered to perform official duties. Once, the emperor was amusing himself with the palace women, when he said to Gao Lishi [his eunuch attendant],
“Faced with this lovely sight at this fine hour, should we be the only ones to take delight in these singing girls? What if we were to have a literary man of extraordinary talent make them known through his words so that we
may vaunt them to later ages?” And so the emperor ordered Li Bai to be
summoned. Meanwhile, the Prince of Ning had invited Li Bai to a drinking party at which he had already become intoxicated. 42 He arrived at court and made his obeisance respectfully. The emperor, knowing that Li Bai
disdained tonal regulations and claimed that it was not his strong point, commanded him to compose ten pentasyllabic regulated verses on the
theme of “Merrymaking in the Palace.” Li Bai kowtowed and said, “The
Prince of Ning has been offering me drink, and I am already quite intoxi-
—————
41. Li Bai was offered the post of academician in attendance 翰林供奉, a
nominal post in the Institute of Academicians 學士院, also known as the Hanlin Academy 翰林.
42. The Prince of Ning (680–741) was the eldest son of Emperor Ruizong
(r. 710–712). He was originally the crown prince but abdicated his position to the Prince of Chu, who later became Emperor Xuanzong.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
240
Placing the Poem
cated. If Your Majesty were to assure me that I have nothing to fear, then I should exert my meager talents to the utmost.” The emperor agreed to this.
He then sent two eunuchs over to hold Li Bai up by his armpits and
commanded that ink should be ground and that a brush should be mois-
tened in it and given to him. Then the emperor ordered two more people
to roll out a piece of ruled vermilion silk in front of Li Bai. Li Bai picked up the brush to pour out his thoughts and without a single pause he completed ten verses in an instant, requiring no revision whatsoever. The brushstrokes were powerful and sharp, like a phoenix rising and a dragon
clawing; the prosody was well balanced. There was not a single verse
lacking in peerless elegance. The first one read:
The hue of willow: paleness of yellow gold,
Pear blossoms: fragrance of white snow.
The jade tower nests the halcyon,
The pearl palace houses the duck and drake.
The chosen girls attend the emperor’s engraved chariot,
The summoned singers emerge from the inner chambers.
Who is the paragon of the palace?
Soaring Swallow in Zhaoyang hall. 43
All of the verses are not recorded here. Li Bai was constantly in and out of the palace and enjoyed great favor from the emperor. In the end, he was
expelled due to his carelessness, and the emperor even made a special
proclamation
dismissing him because of his lack of administrative com-
petence. (3.1c)
玄宗聞之。召入翰林。以其才藻絕人。器識兼茂。便以上位處之。故未
命以官。嘗因宮人行樂。謂高力士曰。對此良辰美景。豈可獨以聲伎為
娛。倘時得逸才詞人。詠出之。可以誇耀於後。遂命召白。時寧王邀白
飲酒。已醉。既至拜舞頹然。上知其薄聲律。謂非所長。命為宮中行樂
五言律詩十首。白頓首曰。寧王賜臣酒。今已醉。倘陛下賜臣無畏。始
可盡臣薄技。上曰。可。即遣二內臣腋扶之。命研墨濡筆以授之。又
令二人張朱絲欄於其前。白取筆抒思。晷不停綴。十篇立就。更無加
點。筆跡遒利。鳳跱龍挐。律度對屬。無不精絕。其首篇曰。
柳色黃金嫩
梨花白雪香
玉樓巢翡翠
珠殿宿鴛鴦
—————
43. Han Emperor Wu’s favorite dancer, Zhao Feiyan (Flying Swallow), lived in Zhaoyang hall, one of the eight halls of the rear palace.
This content downloaded from 130.111.46.54 on Sat, 03 Aug 2019 08:36:19 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Placing the Poem
241
選妓隨雕輦
徵歌出洞房
宮中誰第一
飛燕在昭陽
文不盡錄。常出入宮中。恩禮殊厚。竟以疏縱。乞歸。上亦以非廊廟
器。優詔罷遣之。
Li Bai’s poem has no political or moral overtones, but is simply an
appreciation of the beauty of the emperor’s palace ladies, comparing
the lead singer to the legendary Han beauty, Zhao Feiyan. The em-
phasis in the anecdote is not on the motivation for the poems (a
simple command) or any reaction to them (none is mentioned), but
on the performance of composing and inscribing the poems. Li Bai
first asks for immunity from the emperor should he fail, an ac-
knowledgment that there is something at stake in his performance.
One senses that he makes this request out of deference to the em-
peror, and perhaps to generate some suspense in his audience, know-
Words Well Put Page 36
