willfully misattributing a line from Bai’s “Song of Everlasting Sor-
row” 長恨歌 to his “Song of Mulian,” taking a description of the
emperor’s longing for his absent beloved and “rereading” it as a
description of Mulian’s search for his mother in the underworld.
There may be more subtle overtones to the exchange, but it is clear
that these playful misattributions produce an instant rapport be-
tween the two men, who “drank joyfully the whole day through.”
Zhang Hu and Bai Juyi already knew one another through poetry
even though they had never met in person. The intimacy of their
virtual relationship is concretized when each demonstrates an easy
familiarity with the poems of the other. Their playful demonstra-
tions of poetic competence identify the two “players” as being two
of a kind: educated officials with a sophisticated attitude toward
poetic production and appreciation.
The two previous anecdotes depict talking about poetry as a
pastime. This practice is depicted repeatedly in Storied Poems as an activity closely related to poetic production itself, and the two activities inevitably converge in the production of poetry on the
production of poetry. The three anecdotes about Li Bai mentioned
above include a narrative about an encounter he supposedly had
with Du Fu.
Li Bai’s talent was superior and his bearing aloof; his reputation rivaled that of Reminder Chen Ziang [661–702], and the two of them coincided in
their aims. In his discussion of poetry, Li said: “Ever since the Liang and Chen dynasties [502–589] poetry has been sensual and frivolous in the extreme; moreover, Shen Yue [441–513] even regulated it on the basis of
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Placing the Poem
249
tones! 56 Who is there but me to revive the ancient style?” Therefore, there is very little regulated poetry in the collections of Li and Chen. Once, Li said: “To lodge one’s initial impulse in something profoundly subtle, the five-character line is not as good as the four-character line, and the
seven-character line is even worse; let alone getting bogged down by tonal antics!” Therefore, Li made fun of Du Fu by saying,
I came across Du Fu on top of Fanke hill, 57
He wore a bamboo hat in the noonday sun.
Why has he grown so thin since last we parted?
It must be how hard he has struggled with his poems.
In fact, this mocks Du Fu for being constrained by tonal regulations. (3.1b) 白才逸氣高。與陳拾遺齊名。先後合德。其論詩云。梁陳以來。艷薄斯
極。沈休文又尚以聲律。將復古道。非我而誰與。故陳李二集。律詩
殊少。嘗言興寄深微。五言不如四言。七言又其靡也。況使束於聲調
俳優哉。故戲杜曰。
飯顆山頭逢杜甫
頭戴笠子日卓午
借問別來太瘦生
總為從前作詩苦
蓋譏其拘束也。
The anecdote opens by establishing Li Bai’s poetic credentials,
comparing his reputation to a poet of the previous generation who
would eventually be surpassed by Li Bai in the estimation of pos-
terity. When Li “discourses on poetry” 論詩, he is portrayed as
inveighing against the poetry of the Southern Dynasties: it is ob-
sessed with surface detail, lacks substance, and is overly concerned
with tonal regulation. He sets himself up as the only poet of
his generation who can “revive the ancient style” 復古 that avoids
these pitfalls. Li Bai is also depicted as criticizing the longer lines, particularly the seven-character line that was popular in the Tang.
The entire speech is included to set up the irony of Li Bai fashioning
a tonally regulated poem in seven-character lines to mock Du Fu,
—————
56. Shen Yue was a Liang dynasty historian and literary scholar who is credited with developing explicit rules governing the euphony of poetry.
57. Fanke hill was said to be in the capital region.
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Placing the Poem
one of his contemporaries famous for his meticulously crafted
regulated poems.
The other two anecdotes in the entry on Li Bai depict him as the
poet par excellence in terms of both the texts he produces and his execution of them. This anecdote concerns his competence as a
critic. The basic features of poetic competence—being able to utter,
understand, and evaluate poems—certainly persist in the Tang, but
as is shown by this anecdote and others in Storied Poems, these basic features are complemented by increasing playfulness and sophistication. Part of that sophistication arises from an increasing tolerance
of differences of opinion with regard to what constitutes good
poetry. Poetic competence necessarily involves staking out the
parameters of what will be admitted as competence. When Li
Bai gently mocks Du Fu, it is not to point out that he is a bad
poet, but to chide him for exerting so much effort on a form of
poetry that does not lend itself to demonstrating competence.
For Li Bai, true poetic talent is best discerned in the clarity of
“old style” poetry, not in slavish adherence to complex rules of
prosody. And in making this assertion through a poem in the very
form he disdains, he demonstrates a playfully self-referential type of
poetic competence, fusing production and evaluation in one dis-
cursive instance.
As is the case in Topical Tales, playful displays of poetic competence not only take place between individuals in their meetings, but
also are very common at group gatherings, where poetic perfor-
mance provides entertainment over shared food and drink in a
pleasant natural setting. Some of these gatherings—often in the form
of outings or excursions—were led by the emperor himself in the
tradition of the literary salons at the courts of the Southern Dy-
nasties, but members of the official class would also engage in such
entertainments on their own initiative whenever they happened to
get together. Storied Poems contains several anecdotes that put unusual twists on such literary gatherings.
Minister Yuan Zhen [779–831] was going to hear cases as a censor in Zitong.
At this time, Bai Juyi was in the capital going on an outing to Cien temple with some notable associates. They stopped for a drink beneath the blossoms, and Bai composed a poem to send to Yuan, which read:
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251
When the flowers bloom, we get drunk together to
dispel cares of spring, 58
Tipsy, we break off sprigs of blossoms to use as our
wine tallies.
Suddenly I think of my old friend off to the ends of
the earth,
And reckon that he must have reached Liangzhou
by today. 59
At that time, Yuan Zhen had actually reached the city of Baocheng in
Liangzhou. He in turn had sent a poem to Bai called “Dream Journey”:
I dream of you and your br
others at the head
of Serpentine, 60
And of you heading for a stroll in the yards of Cien. 61
The stationmaster calls someone to take our horses away,
Suddenly, I am startled to find myself in old Liangzhou.
Their spirits communicated over a thousand li, joining just as two pieces of a tally fit together. Is this not the way of friendship: coinciding without planning to? (5.4)
元相公稹。為御史。鞠獄梓潼。時白尚書在京。與名輩遊慈恩。小酌花
下。為詩寄元曰。
花時同醉破新愁
醉折花枝作酒籌
忽憶故人天際去
計程今日到梁州
時元果及褒城。亦寄夢遊詩曰。
夢君兄弟曲江頭
也向慈恩院院遊
驛吏喚人排馬去
忽驚身在古梁州
千里神交。合若符契。友朋之道。不期至歟。
—————
58. Jindai, Taiping, and Lei shuo read 春 for 新.
59. Liangzhou was a region southwest of Chang’an on the way to Zitong (in modern-day Sichuan).
60. Serpentine was the river that ran by Cien temple southwest of Chang’an.
61. Jindai, Taiping, and Lei shuo read 裡 for the second 院.
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Placing the Poem
The two friends are united in their thoughts and reverie, but it is
their poems that give their feelings for each other a transmissible
concrete form, thereby allowing them to complete their connection
in the corporeal world. It is the narrative context that renders these
two poems remarkable, for without it there would be no way to
know that the poems were composed simultaneously. The poetic
competence in this case has slipped into the realm of the strange, for
it is not manifested by any purposeful deployment of poetic dis-
course. In fact, just the opposite: in their moments of poetic pro-
duction they “coincided without planning to.”
Gatherings of literary men often featured a drinking game called
“linked verses” 聯句 in which a topic and rhyme scheme would be
chosen for poetizing and each person present would have to im-
provise a couplet using the theme and rhyme or else be forced to
drink a penalty draught. 62 The importance of poetic competence is easily discernible in such a context, but there is such a thing as being too competent.
Vice Minister of Personnel Han Yu [768–824] composed “The Tale of
Xuanyuan Miming,” in which he recounts once spending a night with
several literary companions. There was an elderly Taoist priest of fantastic appearance who told them his name and asked for lodging. His conversation was quite extraordinary. Once they had started drinking, everyone
thought that he certainly would not be inclined to poetizing. They were
chanting linked verses about a stone tripod in the cooking fire when they got stuck. 63 The first verse read:
A marvelous craftsman chiseled the mountain bone,
Hollowed out its innards to simmer and boil.
When it came to Miming’s turn, he said of himself, “I am not good at
common calligraphy; when I write people rarely understand it.” Then he
told someone else to take the writing brush in hand as he intoned,
The dragon’s head recoils into a stubby nub,
The pig’s stomach swells into a fat belly.
—————
62. This game is the descendant of “word chain,” which appears frequently in Topical Tales.
63. Shihua reads 石鼎 for 石罌.
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253
All the guests sighed in amazement. The group exerted their mental fac-
ulties to the utmost, but they could not carry on, so Miming proceeded to finish it off. Someone else was chanting softly in pathetic tones, so Miming mocked him in the midst of his own chanting by saying,
While still in the earthworm’s hole,
You make the buzzing of a fly.
His lines on the shape of the tripod already seemed sharp, but when his
mockery of the soft chanter also kept to the topic and rhyme everyone was shocked into submission. After a short while he leaned up against a wall and fell fast asleep. From his nose emerged a great snoring that sounded like thunder. The guests were amazed and fearful of him; so they all scur-ried off to bed. In the morning he was missing, and no one knew where he was. (5.3)
韓吏部作軒轅彌明傳。言嘗與文友數人會宿。有老道士形貌瑰異。自通
姓名求宿。言論甚奇。既及飲酒。眾度其必不留情於詩。因聯句詠爐中
石罌。將已困之。其首唱曰。
妙匠琢山骨
刳中事調烹
至彌明。自云。不善俗書。書則人多不識。遣人執筆。吟曰。
龍頭縮菌蠢
豕腹漲膨脝
座客無不歎異。會人思竭。不能復續。彌明連足成之。有微吟者。其聲
淒苦。彌明詠中譏侮之曰。
仍於蚯蚓竅
更作蒼蠅聲
狀罌之聲既已酷似。譏微吟者亦復著題。皆大驚伏。須臾。倚壁而
睡。鼻中大鼾。其聲如雷。座人異且畏之。咸避就寢。既明。失之。莫
知所在。
The monk is so exceptional in his appearance and conversation that
none of the “literary companions” think he would be interested in
the frivolous drinking game of composing linked verses. Even his
calligraphy is beyond the ken of ordinary people. It is only fitting
then that the monk comes up with a couplet so wonderful that it
renders the ordinary men unable to even continue the game. As the
monk finishes off the poem, one of the lesser talents mumbles to
himself in the corner. This provides a striking juxtaposition between
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Placing the Poem
the incompetent and the supremely competent, as the monk is
able to lampoon the mumbler without departing from the topic
or rhyme scheme. Such a forceful display of competence “shocks
everyone into submission”; the monk then removes himself from
the realm of social intercourse altogether by falling into a deep sleep, his massive snores filling the silence left by his decisive demonstration of talent. The literary companions, their talents quashed, sim-
ply leave.
The monk can be read as a figure for Han Yu, who thought his
own style of writing to surpass the normal writing of his age—not in
degree, but in kind. This is not a contest of evenly matched oppo-
nents. When faced with such extraordinary poetic competence,
mundane talents are forced to flee the arena altogether. It is not that
the monk seeks to scare off his partners in the exchange; he cannot
help being so talented. He is not displaying his competence in a
calculated manner; it simply shows itself forth.
An unconventional poetic competence could also be deliberately
fashioned and displayed. The Later Tang poetic figure Du Mu 杜牧
(803–852) is a prime example of a man who would re
present himself
as an extraordinary poet in spite of occupying the mundane job of
government official.
Du Mu was a censor stationed in Luoyang. At this time, Minister of
Education Li Yuan had quit his post of Defense Command and was living
in leisure. Li’s singing girls were gorgeous, paragons of their time. All the notable gentlemen of Luoyang paid him visits to see them. Li held a grand banquet, and all of the most prominent officials of the day attended. Because of Du’s authority, Li did not dare to invite him to the banquet. Du sent a guest to make it known that he wished to be included in the party. Li had no choice but to rush him an invitation. Du was drinking alone before the flowers and was already quite tipsy when he heard the request and
hurried to attend. Meanwhile, they had already begun drinking at the party and were being waited on by more than a hundred slave girls, all of them superbly skilled and extremely beautiful. Du sat down alone in the
southern row and stared with wide open eyes, helping himself to three full drafts. “I have heard that you have one called Purple Cloud,” he said to Li.
“Which one is she?” Li pointed her out and Du fixed his gaze upon her for a long time before saying, “She deserves her reputation. I should think it fitting if she were to receive special favor.” Li looked down and laughed.
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Placing the Poem
255
All of the slave girls turned their heads and broke into smiles. Du drank another three goblets, 64 rose to his feet and intoned in a clear voice: In the radiant hall today the elegant mats
are unfurled,
Who asked that Head Censor to come?
Suddenly he blurts out something crazy to
shock all the guests,
Two rows of red powdered cheeks turn at once.
Du Mu had a very relaxed demeanor and acted as if there were no one else around. (3.3a)
杜為御史。分務洛陽。時李司徒罷鎮閒居。聲伎豪華。為當時第一。洛
中名士。咸謁見之。李乃大開筵席。當時朝客高流。無不臻赴。以杜
持憲。不敢邀置。杜遣坐客達意。願與斯會。李不得已馳書。方對花獨
酌。亦已酣暢。聞命遽來。時會中已飲酒。女奴百餘人。皆絕藝殊色。
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