Words Well Put
Page 40
love poetry.
The very first entry of Storied Poems provides the template for
the “stolen love” story.
During the Chen dynasty [557–589], the wife of Xu Deyan, secretary to the heir apparent, was the younger sister of the last ruler, Shubao [r. 583–589], and was enfeoffed as Princess of Lechang. Her talent and beauty were
unparalleled. At this time, the Chen government was in disarray, and
Deyan knew that they would not be able to preserve themselves. He told
his wife, “Because of your talent and beauty you will certainly end up in the household of some tyrant when the dynasty collapses, and we will be
separated forever. If our ties of love are to remain unbroken and we hope to see each other again, we should have some proof of it.” Then he broke a mirror75 in two, and each of them76 took half. He pledged, “In the days to come you must offer your half for sale in the marketplace of the capital on the full moon of the first month. If I am still living, I will be looking for it on that day.” When the Chen dynasty collapsed, Deyan’s wife indeed
ended up in the household of Yang Su, Duke of Yue, where she was fa-
vored very highly. 77 Deyan drifted about in dire straits and was barely able to make it to the capital. Then, on the full moon of the first month, he visited the marketplace. There was an old servant asking a greatly inflated price for half a mirror at whom everyone was laughing. Deyan led him
directly back to his lodgings where he set out a meal for him and explained
—————
75. Taiping, Shihua, and Lei shuo all read 鏡 for 照 throughout this entry.
76. Taiping reads 各 for 人.
77. During the Chen dynasty, Yue was the name of a region in modern-day
Guangxi province. Yang Su 楊素 (d. 606) was a ruthless general instrumental in the founding of the Sui dynasty (581–618). He served as head of the Censorate under the first Sui ruler, Emperor Wendi (r. 581–604), who rewarded him for his success in defeating the Chen dynasty with women from its royal household.
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Placing the Poem
263
everything. He brought out the other half of the mirror, fit them together then inscribed a poem upon it that read:
The mirror and she both departed together,
The mirror has returned, but she has not.
No more does it reflect Chang’e’s image, 78
All that remains is the bright moonlight.
When Princess Chen received the poem, she wept and refused to eat. When
Yang Su found out, he was anguished, and there was a change in his
countenance. He summoned Deyan at once, returned his wife to him and
presented them with generous gifts. Everyone that heard about it was
moved to sigh. Then he drank together with Deyan and Princess Chen and
bid her compose a poem. It read:
How bewildered I am today, 79
When my new and old master come face to face.
I dare neither laugh nor cry,
For now I feel the pain of being human.
Thereupon she returned with Deyan to the Southlands where they lived
out their old age together. (1.1)
陳。太子舍人徐德言之妻。後主叔寶之妹。封樂昌公主。才色冠絕。時。
陳政方亂。德言知不相保。謂其妻曰。以君之才容。國亡必入權豪之
家。斯永絕矣。儻情緣未斷。猶冀相見。宜有以信之。乃破一照。人執
其半。約曰。他日必以正月望日。賣於都市。我當在。即以是日訪之。
及陳亡。其妻果入越公楊素之家。寵嬖殊厚。德言流離辛苦。僅能至
京。遂以正月望日。訪於都市。有蒼頭賣半照者。大高其價。人皆笑之。
德言直引至其居。設食。具言其故。出半照以合之。仍題詩曰。
照與人俱去
照歸人不歸
無復嫦娥影
空留明月輝
陳氏得詩。涕泣不食。素知之。愴然改容。即召德言。還其妻。仍厚遺
之。聞者無不感歎。仍與德言陳氏偕飲。令陳氏為詩。曰。
—————
78. Legend has it that the Queen Mother of the West 西王母 gave an elixir of immortality to the great archer, Hou Yi 后羿. When Hou Yi’s wife, Chang’e, stole the elixir and consumed it, she flew up to the moon where she was transformed into a goddess whose silhouette is said to be visible on the moon’s surface.
79. Lei shuo reads 造 for 遷.
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Placing the Poem
今日何遷次
新官對舊官
笑啼俱不敢
方驗作人難
遂與德言歸江南。竟以終老。
The key to the reunification of the separated couple is, of course, the
poem. Though Princess Chen herself may have been touched by the
return of the mirror with its missing piece restored, the ruthless
Yang Su would surely not have been moved by the mute object.
By inscribing the mirror with a poem, Xu allows it to speak his
interior. The imagery in the closing couplet—“No more does it re-
flect Chang’e’s image, / All that remains is the bright moonlight”—
imbues the emptiness of the mirror’s reflection with the pain of the
goddess/wife’s absence, made more acute by the traces of moon-
beam left behind. The concrete object is thus given a voice to com-
municate the void that Xu Deyan feels in his heart. Yang Su, while
he may be ruthless, is sensitive to the feelings expressed in the poem
and moves to correct the “loss of equilibrium” felt by Xu by re-
storing his wife to him. Yang Su’s behavior in this anecdote is
supported by accounts of traditional historians who invariably note
his “barbarian” background but concede that he was accomplished
in his literary studies—an indication that he was capable of inter-
preting and appreciating a poem. The events of this narrative
may never have taken place in this form, but they are plausible
nonetheless.
Before Yang allows Princess Chen to go home with her husband,
he drinks to the health of the couple and commands her to compose
one last poem. In doing this, he is treating her as though she were
still one of his concubines, whose duties include singing for their
master’s enjoyment. Yet, even as he exerts his power over her, Yang
creates an opportunity for Princess Chen to give expression to her
interior. The princess finds herself in the difficult position of
“playing” to an audience that includes her old husband and her new
master, both of whom have been on intimate terms with her. Her
poem reflects the turmoil that this situation must create inside her;
she has suffered a double loss of equilibrium in leaving her old and
new husbands. Her closing couplet, “I dare neither laugh nor cry, /
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265
For now I feel the pain of being human,” captures the ambivalent
feelings produced by her situation. In taking up her new role as
Yang Su’s concubine, she violated her role as a faithful wife to Xu
Deyan, which required
her to commit suicide or at least to refuse to
speak to her new master. In fact, the narrative states that she was
“favored very highly” in Yang Su’s household. When her husband
returns, she is forced to face the difficult knowledge that she can no
longer comfortably occupy the role of concubine or wife. Instead,
she must “feel the pain of being human,” of being a fallible person
who is more than a role to be played. In her poem, she is a speaking
subject emerging from the point of tension between the two roles
that would objectify her.
The events of this story are narrated in order to confirm the
canonical model of poetry. Care is taken to show that Xu Deyan’s
utterance is a heartfelt and spontaneous reaction to external events,
and that Yang Su’s reception is equally genuine (“there was a change
in his countenance”). The story reflects the desire for poetry to have
an inherent power to make things right in this world, that it be a cry
born of disequilibrium that can work to restore the lost balance. It is
perhaps no coincidence that this story is set before the beginning of
the Tang dynasty. One sign of its pre-Tang context is that the true
lovers are man and wife rather than man and singing girl or concu-
bine. Once the “stolen love” story enters the Tang, the naïve power
of the poem seen here mutates into something more complicated
and conditional.
During the Zaichu era [689–690] of Empress Wu’s reign in the Tang dy-
nasty, Bureau Director of the Left Office Qiao Zhizhi had a servant girl named Yaoniang, who was unparalleled in skill and beauty in her time.
Zhizhi doted on her and remained unmarried for her sake. Wu Chengsi80
heard about her and sought to bring her for an audience. His power could not be resisted, and once he saw Yaoniang, he held onto her with no intention of ever returning her. Zhizhi suffered from such vexation that he fell ill. He then composed a poem, wrote it out onto white silk, and got it
—————
80. Lei shuo and Tangshi read 武承嗣 in this and ensuing instances. I have followed this variant since there is no record of 武延嗣. Wu Chengsi was the eldest nephew of Empress Wu and bore the title Emperor Expectant 皇嗣.
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through to Yaoniang81 by bribing the gatekeeper handsomely. Yaoniang was sorely grieved upon receiving the poem. She tied it to her sash and
threw herself into a well, where she perished. When Chengsi saw the poem he dispatched a cruel henchman to slander Zhizhi and destroy his household. The poem read:
The Shi house liked the latest songs in its “Golden Valley,” 82
Ten bushels of shining pearls went to buy graceful elegance.
In former days you took pity and promised yourself to me,
At that time my singing and dancing captured your heart.
The boudoirs of your household were never locked up, 83
For you loved to let others watch my singing and dancing.
A rich and highborn tyrant overstepped his bounds,
Haughty with power he took a perverse interest in me.
To be apart from you, to leave you, this I could never bear,
Vainly struggling to hide behind my sleeve, I mar my makeup.
Parting for life occurs here on this tower,
For you my rouged cheeks are suddenly no more.
This occurred in the third month of the Zaichu era’s first year [689]. In the fourth month, Zhizhi was imprisoned. By the eighth month, he had died.
(1.2)
唐武后載初中。左司郎中喬知之。有婢名窈娘。藝色為當時第一。知之
寵待。為之不婚。武延嗣聞之。求一見。勢不可抑。既見。即留無復
還理。知之痛憤成疾。因為詩。寫以縑素。厚賂閽守以達。窈娘得詩悲
惋。結於裙帶。赴井而死。延嗣見詩。遣酷吏誣陷知之。破其家。詩曰。
石家金谷重新聲
明珠十斛買娉婷
昔日可憐君自許
此時歌舞得人情
君家閨閣不曾難
—————
81. Shihua and Taiping both add 窈娘 here.
82. Topical Tales (36.1) relates the story of a certain wealthy man of the Jin dynasty named Shi Chong 石崇 who enjoyed entertaining his friends in his “Golden Valley” garden. He had a favorite singing girl, named Green Pearl 綠珠, who was coveted by a corrupt and powerful official named Sun Xiu 孫秀. Sun Xiu had Shi Chong arrested on trumped-up charges when he refused to give up his singing girl.
When Green Pearl found out, she threw herself to her death from atop a tower in the garden to prevent Sun from having her.
83. Shihua and Tangshi read 關 for 難.
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267
好將歌舞借人看
富貴雄豪非分理
驕奢勢力橫相干
別君去君終不忍
徒勞掩袂傷紅粉
百年離別在高樓
一旦紅顏為君盡
時載初元年三月也。四月下獄。八月死。
The circumstances of this story are very similar to those recounted
in the story of Xu Deyan and his stolen wife, yet the poem in this
case results in the destruction of the lovers rather than their reuni-
fication. The contrast in the events of the stories is due at least in
part to the type of poem that Qiao sends to Yaoniang. Xu Deyan
composes a short, lyrical poem expressing his longing for his absent
wife through the figure of their troth mirror. He inscribes the poem
on the mirror itself, a token of their undying love. Qiao Zhizhi, in
the voice of a servant girl named Green Pearl 綠珠, writes a longer,
narrative poem recounting her famous story, told in Topical Tales, of being snatched away from her loving master and choosing to
throw herself to her death from atop a tower rather than be pos-
sessed by a tyrant “haughty with power.” Qiao inscribes the poem
on the white silk of a funeral scarf (similar to the ghost-mother’s
scarf in entry 5.1), a concrete reminder of the duty to which he
alludes in the poem. Qiao’s poem—an unsubtle yet powerful sug-
gestion that his servant girl play the role of the faithful lover in
committing suicide—is cruel by any standard. In appropriating
Yaoniang’s own voice, he attempts to convert his singing girl into a
“literary” object, a thing that will be governed by patterns of be-
havior set down in received narratives. He is grimly successful:
the body fished from the well is just as much an object as the poem
tied to its sash. Yaoniang’s wearing of this poem to her death in-
scribes her act of suicide with significance; it is a move calculated to ensure that the meaning of her final performance is not lost on her
audience. There is some “poetic justice” in Qiao’s lethal poem sur-
viving to double back on him and bring about his own death. Thus
his poem reaches a primary audience in Yaoniang and a secondary
one in Wu Chengsi, resulting in violence in both cases. The power
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of a poem to change the course of events—its directional aspect—is
framed in deeply negative terms in this narrative, a stark contrast to
the happy ending that Xu Deyan and his wife enjoy. In both cases,
the audiences must take the poems seriously, as heartfelt expressions
of sorrow, for them to have an effect. But even this sacred notion is
subject to compromise in the Tang.
A gathering of “literary men” in the mansion of a prince provides
a natural setting for the game of “intoning poems on objects” 詠物.
The object at this particular gathering, however, is not the usual
incense burner or stone tripod.
Prince Xian of Ning, 84 who was highborn and wealthy, kept several tens of singing girls of the utmost skill and beauty. To the left of his mansion there was a cake seller whose wife was delicate and pale with glowing features.
Once the prince laid eyes upon her, he bestowed lavish gifts upon her
husband and seized her for himself. He doted on her excessively. After a full year he asked her, “Do you still think of your cake seller?” She remained silent and would not answer. The prince summoned the cake seller
and brought him to see her. His wife gazed at him fixedly with tears
streaming down her cheeks and seemed overcome with emotion. Just then,
the prince had about a dozen guests with him who were all literary men of the time; every one of them was struck with sorrow and amazement. He
commanded them to offer poems on this topic and Right Aide Wang Wei
completed his first:
Never for the favor she receives now,
Would she forget her former love.
See the blossom with eyes full of tears,
She will not speak with the King of Chu. 85 (1.3)
寧王曼貴盛。寵妓數十人。皆絕藝上色。宅左有賣餅者。妻纖白明媚。
王一見屬目。厚遺其夫。取之。寵惜逾等。環歲。因問之。汝復憶餅師
否。默然不對。王召餅師。使見之。其妻注視。雙淚垂頰。若不勝情。
—————
84. Shihua and Tangshi both read 寧王憲. This refers to Li Xian 李憲, who was enfeoffed as prince of Ning (northwest of Chang’an, in modern-day Gansu province).
85. The Zuo Tradition relates the story of Xi Gui 息媯 (the wife of the Marquis of Xi), who was abducted by the King of Chu. She bore her new husband two children but refused to speak for years. She eventually broke her silence to inform him that her refusal to speak was out of loyalty to her former husband.