Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History 981995813X, 9789819958139

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Contributors
Part I Literature in Pre-Qin Period
1 Overview
1 Chaotic State
2 A Development History Closely Related to Religious Politics
3 Rhetoric Dominated by Sincerity
2 Chinese Literature in the Pre-Zhou Period
1 The Origin of Literature and Art in Ancient Times
2 Ancient Myths and the Classic of Mountains and Seas
3 The Inception of Written Literature and the Appearance of Prose
3 The Culture of Rites and Music in the Zhou Dynasty and The Book of Poetry
1 Overview of the Development of the Culture of Rites and Music in the Zhou Dynasty
2 Nature and Classification of Works in the Book of Poetry
3 Ages and Compilation of the Text of the Book of Poetry
4 Artistic Achievements of the Book of Poetry
4 Thriving Development of Historical Prose in Pre-Qin Period
1 The Change of Social System and the Rise of Prose During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period
2 Prosperity of Historical Prose and the Literary Significance of Discourses of the States
3 Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals and Their Literary Value
4 A Historical Panorama of Wars Among States: Intrigues of the Warring States
5 Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought and Prose of Scholars
1 The Analects and Mencius
2 Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi
3 Xunzi and Hanfeizi
4 Overview of the Book of Rites, Commentaries on the Book of Changes, and Books of Other Scholars
6 Qu Yuan and Song Yu
1 Overview of the Culture in the State of Chu
2 Qu Yuan and His Works
3 Song Yu and Other Writers of the Verses of Chu
Part II Literature in the Qin and Han Dynasties
7 Overview
1 Establishment of Political Thoughts
2 Establishment of Academic Pedigree
3 Social Mobility with Folk Cultures
8 Literature in the Qin Dynasty
1 Lü Buwei and Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals
2 Li Si
9 Literature in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties
1 Literature of One Generation—Han-Fu
2 Peaks of History Books—Records of the Grand Historian and History of the Han Dynasty
3 Political Commentaries and Treatises: Literary Expression of Thinkers in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties
4 The Rise of Chanting Poems, Yuefu, and Five-Character Poems in the Late Years of the Han Dynasty
Part III Literature in Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties
10 Overview
1 Multiple Possibilities for Literary Development Over Long-Term Division of the Country
2 Substantial Development of Literary Theories and Literary Genres
3 Literary Influence of the History Development of Thoughts
4 Spread of Literature in a Script Era
11 Literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties
1 From the Jian’an Literary Style to the Voice of Zhengshi
2 The Literary Circle and Deepening of Aristocratic Literature in the Western Jin Dynasty
3 Tao Yuanming
4 Basic Features of the Literature in the Sixteen Kingdoms
12 Literature in the Southern Dynasties
1 Three Poets During the Yuanjia Period: Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi, and Bao Zhao
2 The Eight Scholars of the Jingling School and Yongming Style
3 Palace Style Poems and Poets in the Late Years of the Southern Dynasties
4 Novels in the Southern Dynasties
13 Literature in the Northern Dynasties
1 Pingcheng Period and Starting Point for Literature Development in the Northern Dynasties
2 “Assimilation by the Southern Dynasties” and Literary Pursuits of Xianbei Aristocrats and Scholars of the Han Ethnicity during the Luoyang Period
3 New Literary Trends and Three Northern Talents During the Yecheng Period
4 Cultural Ethos in Chang’an and Poets Like Yu Xin from the South
Part IV Literature in the Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties
14 Overview
1 Brilliant Literary Achievements in the Tang Dynasty
2 Political and Ideological Environment and Vitality of Literary Creation
3 Cultural Integration and Literary Prosperity
4 Trend of Being Classics for Literature in the Tang Dynasty
15 Literature in the Early Tang Dynasty
1 Court Poets in Sui and Early Tang Dynasties
2 Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty
3 Chen Zi’ang and the Vigor of Tang Poetry
4 Shen Quanqi, Song Zhiwen and Formation of Metrical Verses
5 Four Scholars in Wuzhong
16 Literature in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty
1 Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and the Landscape and Idyllic Poetry in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty
2 Gao Shi, Cen Shen and Frontier Poetry in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty
3 Li Bai: A Natural and Unconstrained Poet in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty
4 Du Fu: Historian of Poetry and Sage of Poetry
5 Parallel Prose in the Tang Dynasty: Refined Rhetoric Embellishment and Broad Vision
17 Literature in the Middle Years of the Tang Dynasty
1 The Poetic Style During the Reign of Dali
2 The Poetry School of Han Yu and Meng Jiao: Grand and Obscure
3 Yuan-Bai Poetry School: Prioritizing Daily Life Over Official Manner
4 Ancient Prose Movement
5 Curious Legends in the Tang Dynasty
18 Literature in the Late Years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties
1 Deliberate and Refreshing Poetic Styles
2 Junior Li-Du
3 Poetry During the Age of Decadence in the End of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties
4 Ci in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties
5 Preaching Texts and Bianwen
Part V Literature in the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties
19 Overview
1 Diverse and Integrated National Cultural Pattern and Literary Diversity
2 Establishment of the Imperial Examination System and Position of Scholar Officials as Main Literary Writers
3 Cultural Spaces in Cities and the Rise of Civilian Literature
4 Printing and New Changes in Literary Fashions
20 Poems in the Song Dynasty
1 Poetry Circle in the Early and Middle Years of the Northern Song Dynasty
2 Su Shi: A Representative of Song Poetry
3 Huang Tingjian and Jiangxi Poetry School
4 Four Great Poets of Resurgence Era
5 Zhu Xi and Neo-Confucian Poetry
6 Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia, Jianghu Poets, and Other Poets in the Late Years of Song Dynasty
21 Ci in the Song Dynasty
1 Liu Yong and the Ci Circle in the Early Years of the Northern Song Dynasty
2 Su Shi, Zhou Bangyan, and the Ci Circle in the Late Years of the Northern Song Dynasty
3 Li Qingzhao and the Group of Nandu Ci Writers
4 Xin Qiji and Ci Writers of the Xin School
5 Jiang Kui and Wu Wenying
6 Ci Writers in the Late Years of the Song Dynasty
22 Prose and Novels in the Song Dynasty
1 Prose in the Song Dynasty
2 Parallel Prose and Ci-Fu in the Song Dynasty
3 Storytelling Script in the Song Dynasty
4 Classical Chinese Novels in the Song Dynasty
23 Literary Classics in Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and Other Ethic Areas
1 Literature in Liao, Jin, and Western Xia
2 Yuan Haowen and Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber
3 Three Peaks in the Literature History of the Mongols
4 A Literary Classic of the Tibetans: The Life of King Gesar
5 Ethnic Literary Classics in the Turkic Languages
Part VI Literature in the Yuan Dynasty
24 Overview
1 Literary Styles Under the Rule of Mongols
2 Survival and Creative Environment of Scholars in the Yuan Dynasty
3 Diversity and Integration of Literary Forms and Thoughts
4 Division and New Changes of Refined and Popular Literature
25 Poetic Drama in the Yuan Dynasty
1 Overview of Poetic Drama in the Yuan Dynasty
2 Different Phases, Themes, and Representative Works of the Poetic Drama of the Yuan Dynasty
3 Guan Hanqing and the Circle of Authors in Dadu
4 Wang Shifu and Romance of the Western Chamber
26 The Rise of Southern Opera
1 Formation and Development of Southern Opera
2 Four Major Southern Operas “HLMK”
3 Gao Ming and A Tale of the Pipa
27 Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty
1 Origin and Formation of Sanqu
2 Representative Writers and Works
28 Poetry in the Yuan Dynasty
1 Poetry in the Early Years
2 Poetry in the Middle Years
3 Poetry in the Late Years
29 Novels and Prose in the Yuan Dynasty
1 Novels in the Yuan Dynasty
2 Prose in the Yuan Dynasty
Part VII Literature in the Ming Dynasty
30 Overview
1 Decline of Traditional Literary Genres and Rise of Multiple Literary Thoughts
2 Prosperity of Popular Novels
3 Commercial Publishing and Literary Production
31 Poetry and Prose in the Ming Dynasty
1 Taige Literature and the Literary Movement of a Return to the Ancients of Former Seven Writers
2 Scholars in Wuzhong and Writers of the Tang-Song School
3 The Literary Movement of a Return to the Ancients of Latter Seven Writers and Xingling Literature in the Late Years of the Ming Dynasty
4 Folk Songs in the Ming Dynasty
32 Opera in the Ming Dynasty
1 Opera Creation from the Early to Middle Years in the Ming Dynasty
2 Huanshaji and the Prosperity of Kun Opera
3 Tang Xianzu and the Peony Pavilion
4 The Debate Between Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing and the Wujiang School
33 Novels in the Ming Dynasty
1 Romance of the Three Kingdoms
2 Water Margin
3 Journey to the West
4 The Golden Lotus
5 Legendary Novels and Novels Based on Storytelling Scripts
Part VIII Literature in the Qing Dynasty
34 Overview
1 Literature in Full Swing
2 Boom in Feminine Literature
3 Transition from Classicism to Modernism
35 Integration and Expansion of Prose Theories
1 Prosperity of Parallel Prose
2 Tongcheng School and Prosperity of Prose in the Qing Dynasty
3 The Revolution in the Literati Circle and the Newspaper Style
36 Poetry in the Qing Dynasty
1 Elegy During the Change of Dynasties
2 From Wang Shizhen to Weng Fanggang
3 The Song Poetry Movement
4 Elegant Poetesses and Eight Banners Poets
5 The Revolution in the Circle of Poets
37 Revival of Ci in the Qing Dynasty
1 Ci Circle in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty
2 Creation of Female Ci Writers and Ci in the Late Years of the Qing Dynasty
38 Opera in the Qing Dynasty
1 Court Scrips and Performance
2 Palace of Eternal Life and the Peach Blossom Fan
3 Li Yu and the Suzhou School
4 Representative Poetic Dramas and Legends
5 The Controversy Between Local Operas and Kun Opera and Folk Operas
39 Novels in the Qing Dynasty
1 Novels in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty
2 Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and Classical Chinese Novels
3 Unofficial History of the Scholars
4 Dream of the Red Chamber
5 Other Novels in the Middle and Late Years of the Qing Dynasty
40 Prosperity of Popular Literature
1 Long-Standing Tradition of Popular Literature
2 Tanci and Muyushu
3 Cihua and Guci
4 Zidishu and Kuaishu
Part IX Modern Literature
41 A Difficult Start of Modernization
1 Politics and the Literature Circle in the Early Years of the Republic of China
2 The Prosperity of Newspaper “Argumentation” and Traditional Poetry and Prose
3 Prevalence of Popular Novels: “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School” and “Muckraking”
4 “Opera Reform” with “Mix of Tradition and Innovation”
42 “Literature Revolution” and “New Literature of May Fourth”
1 Establishment of New Youth and Beginning of “Literature Revolution”
2 Societies, Schools, and Genres of “New Literature”
43 “National Revolution” and the Rise of Left-Wing Literature
1 The Debate on “Revolutionary Literature” and the Commencement of Proletarian Literature
2 “CLLW” and Literary Creations Under Its Influence
3 “A Tale of Two Cities” in Literature: Confrontation Between the “Beijing School” and the “Shanghai School”
3.1 Literary Landscape in Former Capital Beiping
3.2 “Modern” Literature in Shanghai
4 The Expansion of Subject Matter and the Perfection of Form: The Wave of Literary “Classics” in the 1930s
44 Literary Forms During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
1 Establishment of “the Association” and the Turning of New Literature
2 Chongqing as the Provisional Capital and Literature in the Vast Rear Areas
3 Southwest Associated University and Modern Literary and Artistic Trend in China
4 Family Stories and National Spirit: “Epic-Style” Full-Length Novels About War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
5 Special Perspective of Female Writers
45 New Direction: Brief Discussion on Literature in Liberated Areas
1 The Cultural Strategy of the Chinese Communist Party and the Formation of Literary Production Mechanism in Yan’an
2 Creative Development of the Nationalistic Form
3 Main Idea and Influence of Mao Zedong’s Talks at the yan’an Forum on Literature and Art
4 New Literary Practice Under the Influence of the Talks

Citation preview

Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History Edited by Yuejin Liu

Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History

Yuejin Liu Editor

Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History

Editor Yuejin Liu Institute of Literature Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Beijing, China Translated by Min Xie Beijing, China ISBN 978-981-99-5813-9 ISBN 978-981-99-5814-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6 Jointly published with China Social Sciences Press The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from: China Social Sciences Press. ISBN of the China (Mainland) edition: 978-7-5203-4167-7 Translation from the Chinese language edition: “简明中国文学史读本” by Yuejin Liu, © China Social Sciences Press 2019. Published by China Social Sciences Press. All Rights Reserved. Published with financial support of the Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. © China Social Sciences Press 2024 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Paper in this product is recyclable.

Contents

Part I Literature in Pre-Qin Period 3

1

Overview Ma Yinqin

2

Chinese Literature in the Pre-Zhou Period Ma Yinqin

3

The Culture of Rites and Music in the Zhou Dynasty and The Book of Poetry Ma Yinqin

21

Thriving Development of Historical Prose in Pre-Qin Period Ma Yinqin

33

Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought and Prose of Scholars Ma Yinqin

43

4

5

6

Qu Yuan and Song Yu Ma Yinqin

11

57

Part II Literature in the Qin and Han Dynasties 7

Overview Cai Danjun

69

v

vi

CONTENTS

8

Literature in the Qin Dynasty Cai Danjun

79

9

Literature in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties Cai Danjun

85

Part III Literature in Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties 10

Overview Cai Danjun

117

11

Literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties Cai Danjun

131

12

Literature in the Southern Dynasties Cai Danjun

147

13

Literature in the Northern Dynasties Cai Danjun

163

Part IV Literature in the Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties 14

Overview Liu Ning

177

15

Literature in the Early Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

189

16

Literature in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

203

17

Literature in the Middle Years of the Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

221

18

Literature in the Late Years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties Liu Ning

237

Part V Literature in the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties 19

Overview Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

263

CONTENTS

vii

20

Poems in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

275

21

Ci in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

291

22

Prose and Novels in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

309

23

Literary Classics in Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and Other Ethic Areas Zhang Jian, Zhou Jianzhi, and Urgumal

Part VI

325

Literature in the Yuan Dynasty

24

Overview Wang Damin

339

25

Poetic Drama in the Yuan Dynasty Li Fang

347

26

The Rise of Southern Opera Li Fang

359

27

Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty Li Fang

367

28

Poetry in the Yuan Dynasty Yu Fei

373

29

Novels and Prose in the Yuan Dynasty Yu Fei

381

Part VII

Literature in the Ming Dynasty

30

Overview Zhang Dejian

387

31

Poetry and Prose in the Ming Dynasty Zhang Dejian

393

32

Opera in the Ming Dynasty Li Fang

403

viii

CONTENTS

33

Novels in the Ming Dynasty Liu Qian

Part VIII

413

Literature in the Qing Dynasty

34

Overview Wang Damin

431

35

Integration and Expansion of Prose Theories Yang Xuhui and Guo Daoping

441

36

Poetry in the Qing Dynasty Wang Damin

455

37

Revival of Ci in the Qing Dynasty Li Fang

467

38

Opera in the Qing Dynasty Li Fang

473

39

Novels in the Qing Dynasty Liu Qian

487

40

Prosperity of Popular Literature Li Fang

509

Part IX

Modern Literature 521

41

A Difficult Start of Modernization Zhao Jinghua

42

“Literature Revolution” and “New Literature of May Fourth” Li Zhe

529

“National Revolution” and the Rise of Left-Wing Literature Li Zhe

543

Literary Forms During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Li Zhe

559

43

44

CONTENTS

45

New Direction: Brief Discussion on Literature in Liberated Areas Li Zhe

ix

573

List of Contributors

Wang Damin Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Cai Danjun School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China Zhang Dejian School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Guo Daoping Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Li Fang Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Yu Fei College of Chinese and Literature, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China Zhang Jian Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China Zhou Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Zhao Jinghua Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China Liu Ning Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China xi

xii

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Liu Qian Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Urgumal Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China Yang Xuhui School of Chinese Language and Literature, Soochow University, Suzhou, China Ma Yinqin School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Li Zhe Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China

PART I

Literature in Pre-Qin Period

Sixteenth Century BCE-247 BCE

CHAPTER 1

Overview Ma Yinqin

The Chinese literature originated in the age of myths and legends. However, due to its long history, it is difficult to determine its true origin. It is revealed by the archaeological data that, the relatively complete written history began in the Shang Dynasty, around the sixteenth century BCE. In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor of China) unified China, which might be the most recent period related to pre-Qin literature. However, the history of literary development has its own special connotation. In 247 BCE, King Zhuangxiang of Qin died, and his son Ying Zheng acceded to the throne. During the twenty-six years when he was on the throne, Ying Zheng fought north and south and annexed six kingdoms, opening a new chapter in the development of Qin and Han literature. Therefore, the time when the concept of pre-Qin literature was formed may be determined as 247 BCE, namely the year when Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, acceded to the throne. According to the oldest descriptions in China, the original meaning of writings refers to the interlaced patterns. Therefore, at the beginning when the Chinese characters were created, the writings had a certain

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_1

3

4

M. YINQIN

decorative significance. The formal writings must depend on the substantive contents to exist and produce meaning. As a result, in the historical evolution where the writings and substance complemented each other, the Chinese people were fully able to realize the importance of the proportionality between writings and substance. Inspired by this ability, the Chinese literature was conceived and produced. In the pre-Qin period, although the literature was not independent, the unique gene of Chinese literature had profoundly affected the development direction of Chinese literature under the influence of the concept “rhetoric dominated by sincerity.”

1

Chaotic State

The pre-Qin literature was in a chaotic state, which contained the meanings at two levels. First, the concept of literature was chaotic. The literature mentioned by the public mainly referred to erudition in articles or Confucianism. Confucius (a famous scholar) taught four disciplines, namely virtue, politics, speech, and literature. Ziyou and Zixia (Confucius’ disciples) were representatives of the literary discipline. As for erudition, it contains more extensive meanings and is mostly related to the institutional articles featuring “magnificence of rites and music” in the Zhou Dynasty. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when those counselors and strategists used language as a tool to compose maneuver schemes to lobby princes and dukes, the language began to show the artistic charm of phonological form itself in addition to its position as a tool. It seems that the consciousness of literature is gradually achieved together with the discovery and affirmation of the formal beauty of language itself. Starting from Qu Yuan (a poet of Chu state during the Warring States Period), when people continued to use language and writing to satirize and admonish their superiors by chanting poetry, they had begun to consciously show the beauty of phonology and form of language and writing via wording and phrasing. Thereafter, through the Han-Fu, a form of prose in the Han Dynasty that displayed literary talent and reflected ambition, the beauty of phonological form of language and writing was fully shown and developed in people’s conscious pursuit, and the pursuit of magnificence of poetry and prose has become a consensus. Under this background, the literature, once one of the four disciplines taught by Confucius, was distinguished from the chaotic state of articles

1

OVERVIEW

5

and erudition with comprehensive characteristics, and became independent of Confucianism, metaphysics, and historiography. In this sense, it justifies why people regard the Wei and Jin Dynasties as the era of literary consciousness. Although some scholars dated the era of literary consciousness further back to the Han Dynasty and even the pre-Qin period by starting with literary creation, judging from the evolution of the concept “literature”, it is still an indisputable fact that, before the Wei and Jin dynasties, especially in the pre-Qin period, the literary concepts were chaotic. Echoing the chaotic state of literature, literary works in the pre-Qin period, in the eyes of later generations, were produced and developed in the form of the combination of literature, history, philosophy, song, dance, and music in the same chaotic state. They were admonishments from the royal family, written records of official historians, songbooks of musical officers, discussions of scholars, or discourse of emperor’s counselors on politics. Purely literary works were indeed rare. The Book of Poetry (Shi Jing ) now considered as the ancestor of Chinese literature, was also a product and integral part of the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty. Both the dance accompanied by music and ballad poetry in ceremonies immersed viewers and listeners in an atmosphere of solemnity and reverence instead of aesthetic experience of art and literature. Even the family-friendly and “joyful” song and music performed at the banquet of archery ritual with clansmen and brothers who got together harmoniously and closely were most impressive for the etiquette rules that could not be overstepped or violated in the slightest behind them. In addition, the satirical poetry appearing after the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty was not considered as text to be included in The Book of Poetry until it was accepted as part of ritual due to the need for political satire. Its ritual attribute should be duly recognized. “Poetry”, the most important literary form in the development of literature in later ages, was originally composed as propriety for people. As the saying goes, “Poetry can cultivate and educate people. It can mould people’s temperament and prevent them from losing their virtue”. While the songs and music collected in The Book of Poetry were taught by blind musicians with the function and attribute as “magnificence of rites and music”, the Imperial College injected morality and propriety into The Book of Poetry through the study of music language. Jigong Moufu’s reference to “The Ode (Song) by Duke Wen of Zhou” during the rule of King Mu of Zhou indicated that ritual music and songs developed beyond rites and were circulated as speech

6

M. YINQIN

among aristocrats no later than the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Spring and Autumn Period, another form of “magnificence of rites and music”, namely poem expressing aspirations, appeared on diplomatic visit occasions. This form was prevailing among aristocrats and was different from the ballad poetry of blind musicians. Its appearance and prevalence drew unprecedented attention onto the meaning of words in The Book of Poetry. As Zhao Shuai, a minister of Duke Wen of Jin in the mid-Spring and Autumn Period put it, “The Book of Poetry and The Book (Shu) are books of propriety; rites and music are carriers of morality”. This statement suggested that The Book of Poetry, which had been part of rites and music, became a carrier of morality and propriety that was “as magnificent as rites and music”. It was also the context for Confucius’ statement, “If you don’t learn The Book of Poetry, you will not be fit to converse with; if you don’t learn the rules of propriety, your character cannot be established”. With the eventual collapse of the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty in the late Spring and Autumn Period, The Book of Poetry in the form of rites and music lost ground. Although the “magnificence of rites and music” was lost as Confucius, out of the will to “follow the rites of the Zhou Dynasty”, reformed the music and removed repeated poems from The Book of Poetry, he objectively reinforced its attribute as a carrier of morality and propriety. The departure from the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty only made it on a new path of political education. The Book of Poetry, representative of the magnificence of rites and music, carrier of morality and propriety, and now considered as the ancestor of Chinese literature, typically reflects the chaotic forms and nature of literature, history, philosophy, song, dance, and music in the pre-Qin period.

2

A Development History Closely Related to Religious Politics

Tracing the source of Chinese literature history with written literature as the mainstay always relies on the production and recording of writing. The earliest writing script that has been discovered so far is the oracle-bone inscriptions unearthed in Yinxu, ruins of the Shang Dynasty. Therefore, the literature history narrative should start from the Yin Dynasty (also known as the Shang Dynasty), when writing scrip first appeared.

1

OVERVIEW

7

Oracle-bone inscriptions are named for their writing material. Because they are basically records of the divination process and results in the Yin Dynasty, they are also known as oracle-bone divination. Due to limited writing materials, oracle-bone divination has a very limited length. The existing research findings show that the divination narrative, including four parts of a preface (the date and the diviner), a charge (the topic of the oracle-bone inscription), the prognostication (an interpretation of cracks), and verification (a record of actual events verifying the divination), had a complete narrative structure and demonstrated some narrative skills in spite of the limited length. The short divination carved on oracle bones became an integral part of the germinating Chinese written literature due to its vivid and concise language while being used to express religious and political opinions. In addition to oracle-bone divination, admonishments from the royal family, battle oath, and various government decrees written on bamboo tablets were the main topics of early proses. The Book of Documents (Shang Shu), as a representative achievement of early proses that collected these admonishments, clearly served the primary political purpose. After founding a state, people in the Zhou Dynasty, who revered propriety and advocated charity, reinforced the political function of rites and music. More than part of the religious ritual for worshiping ancestors and gods, the magnificent rites and music also play a significant role in the political system by maintaining the smooth operation of society. The Book of Poetry, considered as the first collection of poems in the history of Chinese literature, is actually an ensemble of ritual music and songs performed in various ceremonies with a history of more than 500 years from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the mid and late Spring and Autumn Period, as well as a collection of political satirical poems to persuade the monarch. It was not only a product but also an integral part of the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the prevalence of “poem expressing aspirations”, it became an important communication medium of vassals during diplomatic visits. “Though a man may be able to recite three hundred poems in The Book of Poetry, yet if, when entrusted with a governmental charge, he knows not how to act; or if, when sent to any quarter on a mission, he cannot give his replies unassisted; notwithstanding the extent of his learning, of what practical use is it?” In this statement, Confucius frankly showed his appreciation for the political abilities of those who studied The Book of Poetry. It also reflected the universal recognition of

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political abilities such as governance and eloquence in people who studied The Book of Poetry at that time. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, along with the collapse of the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty and the intensified mobility of people among all orders of society, scholars grew rapidly as a group between the ordinary people and senior officials to become a class independent from the aristocracy and the established social relations. The defining feature of this class was that “Scholars do not serve a master forever”. In this context, an increasing number of scholars realized that “Officialdom was the realistic and reliable outlet for good scholars”. Therefore, intellectuals who fell into the scholar group invented a new way of imparting knowledge and spreading culture by giving lectures to disciples. Some of them compiled history and wrote biographies to pass on heritage and good political systems from previous emperors. Discourses of the States (Guo Yu), The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu), and the relevant “three commentaries” (The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Zuo Shi Chun Qiu), The Guliang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Gu Liang Chun Qiu), and The Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Gong Yang Chun Qiu)) in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were representatives of historical proses in these periods, as well as achievements and manifestations of the cultural tradition of official historians who were an important part of dynasty culture. Others, however, wrote and propounded ideas in order to persuade vassals and cure social evils. The works of the pre-Qin scholars, represented by Tao Te Ching (Lao Zi), Zhuangzi, Mencius (Meng Zi), and Xunzi, were political proses symbolizing remarkable literary achievements while expressing the political aspirations and ideas for governing the world of the authors. Behind the ingenious rhetoric of political strategists were abundantly clear political motives in The Intrigues of the Warring States (Zhan Guo Ce), an unrestrained and flowery history book considered as the best achievement of language art in the pre-Qin period. Even in the most literary Verses of Chu (Chu Ci), ambitious political goals and profound patriotism were embedded in the account and writing of “wise men lose their aspirations”. Literature, especially the Chinese literature in the pre-Qin period, has been seamlessly interwoven with social politics since its birth.

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Rhetoric Dominated by Sincerity

Literature is a language art, and the concept of language determines the unique expression of early Chinese literature. Different from the pursuit of flowery poetry and proses in later generations, the prevalence of “rhetoric dominated by sincerity” in the pre-Qin period is more universally meaningful and influential. “Rhetoric dominated by sincerity” refers to the quality of rhetoric to express heartfelt sincerity. Although “sincerity” is the emphasized part, it actually implies “a careful choice of wording”, similar to the precept in Tao Te Ching that “A wise man never brags about his learning”. This is typically reflected on diplomatic visit occasions with verbal responses as the main skill. “Rhetoric dominated by sincerity” and “meritorious speech” restrain each other: On one hand, “careful choice of wording” is emphasized; on the other hand, the effectiveness and aesthetics of speech are often discussed in the context of the relationship between “text” and “texture” is given due attention and recognition. Literary creation with rhetoric and sincerity on both ends calls for a check and balance between “text” (rhetoric) and “texture” (sincerity). According to their different relationships, Liu Xie classified literary creation into two types in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons ・Emotion and Literary Expression (Wen Xin Diao Long ・ Qing Cai). One is “poet’s poems” which “are written to express feelings”, while the other is “rhetorician’s odes” which “create feelings for writing”. Liu Xie clearly explained which of them is superior in a subsequent discussion. In his opinion, “The works created to express feelings are literally concise and emotionally sincere, while the works created for their own sake are boring and mediocre in spite of flowery language”. Liu Xie fully affirmed the former and criticized the latter. He did invent such dichotomy, but his recognition and affirmation of writing for expressing feelings actually still originates from the profound influence of “rhetoric dominated by sincerity” on literary creation since the pre-Qin period. Early in the pre-Qin period, as stated in The Book of Documents·Canon of Shun (Shang Shu ・ Shun Dian), “Poetry is the expression of earnest thought; singing is the prolonged utterance of that expression; the notes accompany that utterance, and they are harmonized themselves by the standard tubes”. This statement succinctly summarizes the concept of poetry creation under the system of rites and music. What is “earnest thought”? It means aspirations or inner voice. When the idea of “poem

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expressing aspirations” was put forward, the fundamental attribute of poetry as the expression of “inner voice” was recognized. Later, when it was claimed that “The Book of Poetry was created to express aspirations” and “to describe what should be the aim of the mind”, the “poetry” had a different implication that the internal and external relationships between “poetry” and “aspiration” were universally recognized. As summarized in Mao Shi Xu, “Poems come from aspirations. An aspiration in heart is an aspiration; an aspiration in words is a poem”. The correspondence between “aspiration” and “poetry” and between “heart” and “word” determined at the beginning that Chinese literary creation with “poem” as a typical form must be based on the inner “aspirations” and express inner sincerity. “Rhetoric dominated by sincerity” is a generalization of this pursuit. As a concept of speech, it not only restricts and influences people’s way of speech but fundamentally determines the basic nature of Chinese literature with language as the carrier. Moreover, it shapes its essential character and charts its fundamental trend.

CHAPTER 2

Chinese Literature in the Pre-Zhou Period Ma Yinqin

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The Origin of Literature and Art in Ancient Times

A discussion on literature and art in ancient times may only start from the material remains associated with “literature”. From the art information preserved on different pottery and stone tools surviving from the primitive society, we can observe the germination of various forms of art such as painting, sculpture, and pottery sculpture. Primitive paintings are mainly colored patterns on pottery, as well as various rock paintings distributed across the country. The colored patterns on pottery show different cultural characteristics in different periods. For example, animal is the main subject of the colored pottery in the Banpo culture. Examples include deer, turtles, and birds, with fish patterns showing the highest frequency. However, a development trend from figurative natural patterns to abstract geometric patterns is demonstrated in the Majiajiao culture. The proliferation of primitive art is manifested not only in sculpture and painting, but also in music, dance, and poetry. As part of the Majiajiao culture, a colored pottery pot with dance patterns on it was unearthed

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_2

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in Shangsunjiazhai, Datong, Qinghai. There are four parallel stripes on the inner wall and near the mouth of the pottery pot. The stripe patterns depict three groups of dancers, five dancers in each group, hand in hand, facing to the right and dancing neatly. Braids appear from the back of their heads. Tailpieces float behind their hips. The belts on their clothing fly in the air. In each group, the outward-facing arms of the two dancers on the outside are drawn as two lines, as if they were swinging. The whole painting shows a clear theme, with postures being elegant, vivid, and rhythmical. This indicates a high level of dance art at that time. In addition, the pottery xun (an ancient instrument) unearthed in Hemudu, Zhejiang, and the ceramic bell found in Miaodigou, Henan indicate that both wind and percussion instruments had been invented. This implies that the ancient people had realized the close connection between the origin of art and labor production together with social life, as well as the important role of music and dance in production and social life. In addition, maybe it was the recognition of the magical power of songs and dance that gave birth to the myth that songs and dance were invented thanks to the Emperor of Heaven. Apart from the unearthed materials, documents handed down from ancient times also provide sporadic records of singing and dancing of ancestors. The Book of Rites ·The Great Border Sacrifice (Li Ji · Jiao Te Sheng) records a ceremonial address named La Ci dating back to the reign of an ancient legendary emperor. It is clearly a spell in nature and is closely connected with witchcraft. It is mostly composed of the prayers of primitive ancestors against geological, flood, animal, plant, and many other natural disasters. All of the four verses are both prayers and commands, as well as wishes and curses. In addition to these sporadic primitive ballads and dances recorded in ancient books, many statements of hexagrams and lines in The Book of Changes (Zhou Yi) also show the relatively distinct characteristics of ancient ballads. They share similar thoughts and ways of expression with The Book of Poetry.

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Ancient Myths and the Classic of Mountains and Seas

The literature in the origin period included not only ballads associated with music and dance, but also myths. When discussing ancient Greek mythology in A Contribution to the Criticism of Political Economy, Marx famously defined mythology as “natural and social phenomena

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already assimilated in an unintentionally artistic manner by the imagination of the people”. In the primitive society, men were not productive, knowledgeable, or experienced. They were not able to understand, control, or predict changeable natural phenomena, complex and changing social environments, and frequent wars caused by the competition between ethnic groups for survival dependent resources. These phenomena were definitely mysterious and intimidating to the primitive ancestors. However, human beings have the survival instinct to overcome all difficulties and enemies. They subconsciously demanded an explanation of these unpredictable natural phenomena and social problems, showing an aspiration to conquer nature and overcome all kinds of difficulties in social life. As a result, natural phenomena were deified through fantasy, and all natural forces were visualized and personified by human imagination and fantasy. Some outstanding tribal leaders were also credited with the ability to control the forces of nature. They were often described as being able to transcend natural forces and combine wisdom, experience, and power to defeat and expel all kinds of enemies. As a result, various myths and heroic legends came into being. Myths and legends had a very long history, but people had no idea or ability of recording them in writing when they appeared. It was not until the Shang and Zhou dynasties when writing was relatively developed that some episodes of ancient myths and legends were recorded in The Book of Documents, The Book of Poetry, The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing), Biography of King Mu (Mu Tian Zi Zhuan), Verses of Chu, etc. The most abundant myths can be found in The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Nüwa (mother goddess of Chinese mythology) myth is one of the oldest and inclusive myths in China. Although myths are “natural and social phenomena that have already been assimilated in an unintentionally artistic manner by the imagination of the people”, or are a product of fantasy and fiction, people often unconsciously combine their experience in social life with such fantasy and fiction. Therefore, as a product of human conscious activity, mythology reflects the basic conditions of the human living environment at that time. The myth of Nüwa patching up the sky is recorded in Huai Nan Zi·Lanmingxun (Huai Nan Zi · Lan Ming Xun). This story not only explains the reason for Nüwa to patch up the sky, but also describes how water, fire, beasts, and birds of prey can put humans under danger after the sky collapses. It is also a detailed account of Nüwa saving mankind from fire and water. Undoubtedly, this human narrative on the process of Nüwa patching up the sky is full of extremely

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bold imaginations. In addition, these bold imaginations are still based on their real life. When presented through the special expression form of myth, these imaginations from human existence experience leave a feeling that is unusually majestic. There are many stories about heroes in ancient Chinese legends, for example, those about Yellow Emperor, Yi, Yao, Shun, Gun, and Yu. Perhaps they were real people who were prominent chiefs of some clans or tribal alliances in China at that time. Their achievements were continuously mystified as they were told by word of mouth over a long period of time. Moreover, they were described to have various magical powers, the ability to expel ghosts and beasts, and the skills to create new things. As a result, these prominent tribal chiefs gradually become heroes with great powers. The first deified hero is Yellow Emperor. In ancient legends, Yellow Emperor was a very impressive figure. One of his most famous achievements was his killing of Chi You, a tribal leader. The Classic of Mountains and Seas ·The Classic of the Great Wilderness: The North (Shan Hai Jing · Da Huang Bei Jing) records an episode of the fight between Yellow Emperor and Chi You. In addition to the myth of fighting against Chi You, The Classic of the Great Wilderness: The East (Shan Hai Jing · Da Huang Dong Jing) also records the story of how Yellow Emperor taking the skin of an ancient monster named Kui to make a drum. These mythological episodes about Yellow Emperor recorded in ancient books fully reflect the complexity and variety of the myths with Yellow Emperor as the protagonist. In ancient Chinese myths and legends, Yellow Emperor is just one of the many heroes recorded. He is also joined by Yi, who shot the sun, as well as Gun and Gun’s son Yu, who tamed the flood. The myths of Gun and Yu appear in The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals (Lü Shi Chun Qiu), and Huai Nan Zi. Finally, The Classic of Mountains and Seas is particularly noteworthy. The New Text consists of eighteen volumes, including five volumes of The Classic of Mountains (Shan Jing), eight volumes of The Classic of the Seas (Hai Jing), four volumes of The Classic of the Great Wilderness (Da Huang Jing), and one volume of The Classic of the Regions within Seas (Hai Nei Jing). This book has been considered as a masterpiece since ancient times. Covering a wide range of subjects such as ancient Chinese geography, history, mythology, ethnicity, fauna and flora, minerals, medicine, and religion, it is an important material for the study

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of ancient society. The original version was believed to contain illustrations, as Guo Pu, a scholar in Jin Dynasty, said, “The illustrations [in The Classic of Mountains and Seas ] are modeled on cattle” in A Commentary on The Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing Zhuan). In Song Dynasty, based on The Classic of Mountains and Seas, “Unknown objects were recorded as mostly flying “to east” or “eastern side”, and these descriptions were believed to be based on the illustrations” (Quoted by Wang Yinglin in A Supplementary Commentary on Tribute Presentation Parties (Wang Hui Bu Zhuan) from Zhu Xi). Thus, it is credible that The Classic of Mountains and Seas was inspired by Pictures of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Tu). The collection of Pictures of Mountains and Seas gave birth to The Classic of Mountains and Seas, which served as an explanation to the pictures. Similar to history books in the pre-Qin period, The Classic of Mountains and Seas was not completed instantaneously; instead, it took a lengthy process to complete the book as it is now. Generally speaking, the earliest content of Pictures of Mountains and Seas can even be traced back to primordial times before the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Through constant collection and supplementation, they were passed down to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period when the basic components of The Classic of Mountains and Seas were established. The myths in the book are known for their bizarreness, but these bizarre stories often carry deep thought and powerful revelation. As a very precious cultural heritage, they have provided endless inspiration for many writers. For example, Tao Yuanming, a famous litterateur in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, wrote thirteen poems under the title of Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas when he browsed Pictures of Mountains and Seas. He saw and praised an unyielding spirit in Jingwei, a mystic bird that spends its time trying to fill up the ocean, and Xingtian, a Chinese deity who fights against the Supreme Divinity, not giving up even after the event of his decapitation. It can be said that he was one of the readers who could deeply understand the true meaning of the book. In later generations, the bizarre monsters and weird myths in the book have become an inspiring treasure for both Chinese and foreign artistic creations. Xiang Liu, the Chinese mythical beast in the famous film Night at the Museum (3), is a nine-headed cyan snake monster serving as the “minister of Water God Gonggong”. It is exactly Xiang Liu Shi that was recorded in The Classic of Mountains and Seas ·The Classic of Regions Beyond the Seas: The North (Shan Hai Jing · Hai Wai Bei Jing). In this light, The Classic of Mountains and Seas is indeed a cultural treasure.

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3

The Inception of Written Literature and the Appearance of Prose

Both ballads and myths and legends were orally transmitted and preserved. It was not until the writing system was well developed that they were able to be recorded and preserved to the present days. Oral literature was basically transmitted by human speech. Therefore, it was less constrained by the physical form of the transmission carrier. As long as a tribe has survivors, the basic condition for continued existence and transmission of its myths and legends and ballads can be guaranteed. In many cases, the less developed a civilization is, the more developed its orally transmitted literature will be. Although the myths of ancestors are not recorded systematically in any book in ancient China, episodes in books like The Classic of Mountains and Seas, The Book of Poetry, The Book of Documents, and Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals indicate that the Chinese nation experienced a historical period of rich and colorful mythology and created an impressive and magnificent mythical world. Simply due to the precocious civilization and the untimely advent of the writing system, the ancestors of the Chinese nation lost the early oral civilization unconsciously. Before writing became the main way of passing down civilization, men were carriers of culture. Where there were men, there was culture preserved. However, as material cultural carriers gradually replaced men to be the main carriers of civilization, men relied increasingly on external material carriers and gradually ignored their own meaning. In the writing era, oral civilizations that were not written down vanished with the death of their inheritors. Legend had it that the production of writing could be traced back to the reign period of the Yellow Emperor. However, the unearthed cultural relics show that the oracle-bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty are the earliest writing scripts that have been found in large quantities in China. The characteristics of Chinese characters developed as early in oracle-bone inscriptions. Specifically, each Chinese character has its own shape, pronunciation, and meaning. This is an important characteristic for the development of Chinese classical literature. Classical poetry mainly consists of fourcharacter, five-character, or seven-character verses. Ci, a type of lyric poetry, and qu, a type of poetry form based upon the tunes of various songs, also follow certain formats. Poetry emphasizes antithesis, and prose also stresses phrasing parallelism. These characteristics are determined by the formal features of Chinese characters. Unlike oral literature

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which depends on language, written literature developing on writing and subject to the material properties of carriers is unique in both form and content. Writing was born to meet practical needs. Therefore, the earliest written literature was born and developed on practical writing. Oraclebone inscriptions are the earliest relatively complete writing script that has been discovered so far. Depending on the content, there are five types of oracle-bone inscriptions. The first type is divination; the second type is inscriptions of divination-related events; the third type is special and general inscriptions of events irrelevant to divination; the fourth type is inscriptions of pedigree; the fifth type is practice-engraved divination records. Among them, divination is the mainstay of the oracle-bone inscriptions discovered in the Yin ruins, accounting for about 99%. Thus, oracle-bone inscriptions are used specifically for problem-solving divination. To make oraclebone divination, words are inscribed on small oracle bones. The material condition of the carrier determines the special format and grammar of oracle-bone divination. Concise words are used to express profound connotations. As a result, oracle-bone inscriptions are succinct in language and rigorous in narrative. In terms of wring style, a complete piece of divination consists of four parts, namely a preface, a charge, prognostication, and verification. The preface records the date and the diviner. The charge records the topic. The prognostication records an interpretation of cracks. The verification records the actual events verifying the divination. Grammatically, oracle-bone divination has some idiomatic vocabulary, formulaic expressions, and common grammatical structures. By using this special practical oracle-bone divination, people in the Shang Dynasty developed their writing, narrative, and description ability, as well as their thinking ability and logic. The writing and development of ancient Chinese proses were also promoted during this process. To take a step back, aesthetic rhetoric was found in the simple and concise oracle-bone divination in spite of the limited length. In addition to oracle-bone divination, inscriptions on ancient bronze objects were also important in early writing scripts. The bronze-making technology was wonderful in the Yin and Shang dynasties. Judging from the preserved bronze wares, there were few inscriptions in the early days of the Yin and Shang dynasties. It was not until the mid-period that simple inscriptions appeared. Longer inscriptions were created in the late period, but they were no more than forty characters and were therefore not comparable to those on the bronze wares in the Zhou Dynasty.

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After the progress of the late Shang Dynasty, many rhetorically excellent inscriptions appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, most of which were found in Qishan, Baoji, where the Zhou people made their fortunes. The most famous inscriptions, with 499 characters to record the great achievements of the monarch in the Zhou Dynasty and lament the current turbulence, were found on Ding of Duke Mao (Mao Gong Ding) in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition to oracle-bone inscriptions and inscriptions on ancient bronze objects, the best representative of early written literature is writings on bamboo slips. The Book (Shu), also known as The Book of History or The Book of Documents after the Han Dynasty, is an important ancient book that was first included among the rank of classics in China. It mainly records announcements about the rewards of vassals and the appointments of officials, speeches to the army sent into a battle, and imperial mandates emperors made more than 2300–3000 years ago. Due to the remote history, the birth year of The Book of Documents·Book of Emperor Shun and Book of the Xia Dynasty (Shang Shu ・ Yu Xia Shu) has been controversial among scholars. Compared with Book of Emperor Shun and Book of the Xia Dynasty, Book of the Shang Dynasty (Shang Shu) is more credible. In Book of the Shang Dynasty, Speech of Tang (Tang Shi) is a speech made before Tang, a vassal of Xia and later the ruler of Shang. Tang dispatched an expedition to fight against Jie, the ruler of Xia, in Mingtiao. Nearly two thirds of the speech tried to argue that he did not start a rebellion but enforced justice because Jie was a heinous tyrant. Thus, Speech of Tang is less rightly confident than Speech at Gan (Gan Shi), made by Qi, another ruler of Xia. This difference actually casts some light on the identity difference between the two speakers. Qi was a successor to the throne who was supported by vassals, while Tang was only a vassal subjected to the Xia Dynasty. As a vassal, Tang needed to justify his behavior when he wanted to challenge the existing social order. He claimed that his expedition was initiated under “the mandate of heaven”. In Speech at Gan, Qi was the spokesperson and executor of God’s will. However, in Speech of Tang, Tang only followed the mandate of heaven. The different thoughts behind these two speeches are interesting. Moreover, Tang, as a follower of the mandate of heaven who “overturned the ruler of Xia”, found the best reason for his rebellion that finally led to dynasty replacement and set a precedent for revolts similarly “mandated by heaven” that occurred frequently in later generations. This finally evolved to be the thought of

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“enforcing justice on behalf of heaven” that profoundly influenced the Chinese mentally. The three chapters of Pan Geng are speeches made by Pan Geng, another ruler of Shang, to address the opposition of the nobility and the “complaint” of the people about his decision to relocate the capital. Since capital relocation was related to the fate of Pan Geng and even the entire clan of Shang, Pan Geng’s speech was emotional, sharp, and powerful. Although Pan Geng is famous for its ancient rhetoric, the plain language based on life experience is often infinitely lively. It was the source of idioms in Chinese such as “有条不紊” (meaning “doing something methodically”) and “星火燎原” (meaning “a little spark makes a great fire”) that are still frequently used today. After the people of Zhou founded their country, the literary form of announcements continued to appear. Great Announcement (Da Gao) and Announcement Concerning Luo (Luo Gao) in the early Zhou Dynasty were as unintelligible as Pan Geng. This style somewhat changed when Testamentary Charge (Gu Ming) was created in the early years of the reign of King Kang of Zhou. Testamentary Charge provides a logical description of the death of King Cheng of Zhou and the enthronement ceremony of King Kang of Zhou. With well-organized narration and well-proportioned writing, it is a model of narrative writing in the Zhou Dynasty.

CHAPTER 3

The Culture of Rites and Music in the Zhou Dynasty and The Book of Poetry Ma Yinqin

1

Overview of the Development of the Culture of Rites and Music in the Zhou Dynasty

King Wu of Zhou, the founding king of the Zhou Dynasty, died of illness shortly after he overturned the Shang Dynasty. Before his death, he handed over the throne and left his son Ji Song to his younger brother Duke of Zhou. Duke of Zhou followed the last wish of his brother and succeeded to the throne at a time of crisis. Thanks to the painstaking governance of Duke of Zhou, the monarch of the Western Zhou, which had just seized the kingship, finally eliminated the remnants of the Yin people who were trying to stage a come-back. Western Zhou also solved many contradictions arising from the redistribution of interests within the power class and completed the important mission of founding a country, starting business, and bringing peace. After that, Duke of Zhou once again faithfully fulfilled his deceased brother’s last wish of “taking the eldest son to the throne”, establishing the lineal primogeniture system by returning the throne to his nephew, King Cheng of Zhou. Afterward,

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_3

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the society of the Western Zhou Dynasty maintained stable development during the reign of King Cheng of Zhou and King Kang of Zhou. However, this peaceful situation did not last long. From the late stage of King Kang’s reign, foreign invasion resurfaced and hostilities increased day by day. Ethnic groups Dong Yi, Jing Chu, and Gui Fang rebelled one after another. The history entered the era of King Zhao and King Mu of Zhou in the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, when major social and cultural changes took place and the monarch declined from its heyday. During the reign of King Zhao, the rebellion of ethnic groups in four directions intensified. King Zhao ordered a policy of power and coercion supported by military repression and fought in the north and the south. At last, he was defeated and killed in Hanshui in the south. After succeeding to the throne as well as the policy of repressing the eastern country and the tribe Huai Yi, King Mu also embraced the idea of respecting morality, learning from ancestors, valuing propriety, and bringing peace to the people. He paid attention to cultivating morality, serving the public, and rectifying the rule of the dynasty. He brought peace back to the country. After King Yi took the throne, the royal family of Zhou showed increasingly obvious signs of decline. After King Yi passed away, the lineal primogeniture system was destroyed, and the contention for power within the royal family consumed their strength. When King Li succeeded to the throne, he achieved some victories in the wars against the tribes Xian Yun and Huai Yi in the south, but his tyranny irritated the “people of the country”. In 841 BCE, the people of the country rioted, and King Li was exiled to a place nicknamed pigpen, where he died without being able to restore his throne. Later, the “resurgence of the Zhou Dynasty by King Xuan”, which was acclaimed by historians, failed to save the royal family from decline. What’s worse, the fatuity of King You led directly to the demise of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Marquis Wen of Jin killed King Xie of Zhou and escorted King Ping to relocate the capital to the east. The Chinese history then entered the Spring and Autumn Period when “vassals dominated ceremonies, music, and punitive military expeditions” and held sway over different regions. Throughout the social history of the Spring and Autumn Period, the political status change of the royal family in the Zhou Dynasty can be basically divided into three stages. The first stage is the early Spring and Autumn Period with the royal family as the political center. During this stage, the royal family of Eastern Zhou still played a leading political role as a co-lord. The second stage is the mid-Spring and Autumn Period when

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the royal family became the puppet of powerful vassals. At this time, the royal family had basically lost the power to control vassals after experiencing two rebellions initiated by Prince Dai. The royal family became the puppet of powerful vassals while gaining the respect of other vassals. The third stage is the late Spring and Autumn Period when the States of Wu and Yue flaunted their superiority. Moreover, vassals were no long dutiful to the throne and refused to save the country from danger. After that, the States of Wu and Yue flourished, and Chinese vassals fell into civil strife. The social order maintained by the rites of Zhou completely collapsed, and the Chinese history entered the Warring States Period characterized by a melee among vassals. In line with the social development of the Zhou Dynasty, the rise and fall of the rites can also be divided into different clear stages. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Duke of Zhou formed state rituals and ritual music, which was a prelude to the gradual establishment of the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty. The ritual and musical achievements in this period were compiled and edited under the order of King Kang. During the reign of King Zhao and King Mu in the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, on the one hand, with the development and changes of social life, the ritual and musical achievements passed down from the early Western Zhou Dynasty could no longer meet the social needs at that time; on the other hand, with the maturity of various rituals, the system of rites and music in the real sense got perfected and established as various ritual activities became increasingly specific, procedural, and institutional. The “formation of state rituals and ritual music” started at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty was truly completed during the reign of King Mu after a long process of more than 100 years. After King Ping of Zhou relocated the capital eastward, just as the fate of the royal family, the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty also experienced a process of being destroyed, repaired, and re-destroyed. Although rites were still valued thanks to the continuity of the cultural system, acting purely on personal will and violations of propriety were common in social life from the king to vassals. Some significant changes occurred after Duke Huan of Qi was appointed by King Hui of Zhou in 667 BCE under the advocacy of Duke Huan of Qi and his minister Guan Zhong, the rites of Zhou once again became important means for coordinating complex social relations and played a positive role in real life. Although the vassals living after Duke Huan of Qi no longer showed “respect” for the king, the social order established by Duke Huan of Qi

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and his minister was objectively maintained by his successors. Reference to rites became an effective way for small states to protect themselves from the melee among big states. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, civil strife occurred frequently in the states on the Central Plain, and violations of propriety and political riots occurred from time to time. After the chief of the State of Wu became the Lord, gatherings of vassals were no longer held according to the rites of Zhou. By then, the rites of Zhou had been completely destroyed and were no longer powerful enough to unite the people.

2 Nature and Classification of Works in the Book of Poetry Considered as “a carrier of morality and and propriety” just as The Book of Documents, The Book of Poetry is more typical of the cultural characteristic of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty that fully demonstrates “complete and elegant regulations”. As an integral part of the system of rites and music of the Zhou Dynasty, the creation, circulation, and collection of The Book of Poetry are more directly associated with the system and share the same fate with it. Its four-start structure is a direct manifestation of a similar musical concept in the system. Specifically, “Feng” in The Book of Poetry refers to voices or tunes. Voices and tunes can be pure or turbid and vary with geographic regions. In The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Zuo Zhuan), Feng is often prefixed by characters like “qing”, “tu”, and “wei”. Different from Ya (odes and epics) and Song (hymns), Feng means folk music and local songs in different regions. In The Book of Poetry, “Feng” refers to ballads echoing the fifteen folk music, namely Odes of Zhou and the South (Zhou Nan), Odes of Shao and the South (Zhao Nan), Odes of Bei (Bei Feng), Odes of Yong (Yong Feng), Odes of Wei (Wei Feng), Odes of Wang (Wang Feng), Odes of Zheng (Zheng Feng), Odes of Qi (Qi Feng), Odes of Wei (Wei Feng), Odes of Tang (Tang Feng), Odes of Qin (Qin Feng), Odes of Chen (Chen Feng), Odes of Gui (Gui Feng), Odes of Cao (Cao Feng), and Odes of Bin (Bin Feng). These fifteen Lessons from the States (Guo Feng) were processed by royal musical officers unified via lyrics and melody, but the strong local characteristics still overflew from the music and singing. In The Book of Poetry·Lessons from the States (Shi Jing · Guo Feng), the “two south” (Odes of Zhou and the South and Odes of Shao and the South) had a unique ethical status in “folk music”. They

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were originally folk music works from the fiefs of Duke of Zhou and Duke of Zhao in Qinan during the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and “nan” (meaning south in Chinese) was the main musical instrument. When Duke of Zhou formed state rituals and ritual music, they were performed in imperial harems or during idly homebound time, so they were also known as “the sound of yin” (“yin sheng”). In the early years of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, when King Ping of Zhou reformed the system of rites and music, the “two south” was elevated as the royal music and thus had a different status from other lessons from the states. When the system of rites and music in the Zhou Dynasty completely collapsed, poetry and music were separated. The status of “nan” as a kind of folk music became much more obscure, while its status as royal music became increasingly significant. The name “Ya” was originally related to a drum instrument named “Ya”. In addition, the people of Zhou always claimed to be descendants of Xia. “Ya” was phonologically connected with “Xia”. Therefore, “Ya” was derived to be more than the name of a musical instrument. It began to carry the cultural significance of royal music on the Central Plain. Anything that could be referred to as Ya was official. “Ya” thus became an alternative name for court music on the basis of the royal music on the Central Plain. Minor Odes and Greater Odes (Er Ya) in The Book of Poetry were songs that accompanied the royal music at the banquets of kings and vassals. “Ya” in The Book of Poetry is divided into Greater Odes of the Kingdom (Da Ya) and Minor Odes of the Kingdom (Xiao Ya). In terms of performance method, the former was performed by musicians accompanied by dance, while the latter was performed by musicians with sheng (a reed pipe wind instrument) and interim songs. The differences in performance and nature of music might be the fundamental reason for the division of these two kinds of odes. The name “Song” was closely related to a large bell named “yong ”. “Yong ” was a musical instrument of special significance in the Shang Dynasty. Words like “making yong ” (“zuo yong”) and “performing yong ” (“zou yong”) were frequently found on the oracle bones in the Yin ruins, and even the route for the transportation of Yong was subjected to divination. “Song” in Chinese originally meant “rong” (meaning “appearance”), and it was phonologically connected with “yong”. The combination of the appearance of singers and dancers performing in sacrificial ceremonies with the “playing of yong ” that symbolized the king’s power and success constantly reinforced the meaning of “Song, virtue,

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and accomplishment”. After the people of Zhou founded the country, the meaning of “Song” was changed from appearance to “announcement of success”, which was the meaning of “yong”. As this meaning of “yong” faded slowly with the disappearance of the musical instrument with the same name, the meaning of “Song” was also gradually changed from “appearance” to a special name for the sacrificial music of emperors who “reported their success to gods” at the ceremonies.

3 Ages and Compilation of the Text of the Book of Poetry The Book of Poetry has 305 poems preserved. They were born about five hundred years ago, between the early Western Zhou Dynasty and the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. Judging from the eras of the existing works, there were five peak historical stages for poetry creation in the Zhou Dynasty. The first peak appeared in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty from the conquest of the Shang Dynasty by King Wu of Zhou to the formation of state rituals and ritual music by Duke of Zhou. After King Wu died, Duke of Zhou assumed the regency for the young King Cheng. Guan Shu, Cai Shu, and Huo Shu, who were King Wu’s brothers, were dissatisfied and colluded with Wu Geng, son of King Zhou of Shang, in a rebellion, known as the Rebellion of Three Guards (San Jian Zhi Luan). It took three years for Duke of Zhou to pacify the rebellion and later fundamentally cracked down the remnants of the Yin people since the conquest by “establishing the system of enfeoffment” and finally eliminated the contradictions arising from the redistribution of interests within the power class. Therefore, the people of Zhou completely defeated the people of Shang not only militarily but politically. It is stated in The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, “Sacrificial rituals and wars are affairs of state”. When the royal family of Zhou won military victories under the leadership of Duke of Zhou, they needed most urgently to establish a system of rites and music that was compatible with the social life and ruling order of the people. It explains why Duke of Zhou “formed state rituals and ritual music” widely acclaimed by historians. Although Duke of Zhou was not credited with the rites of Zhou, his “formation of state rituals and ritual music” made the spiritual principles of “authority (zunzun) and kinship (qinqin)” take root. It developed the basic characteristic of the Chinese culture that

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rites and music must mutually reinforce and complement each other and ushered in a new age of Chinese civilization history. At the same time, it also directly created the cultural breeding ground for the production of ritual songs in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty and drove the first peak of ritual song creation in the cultural history of the Zhou Dynasty during this period. Depending on the content, purpose, and classification of the songs in The Book of Poetry, they can be divided into two types: songs of ancestor worship and exploits and of ancestral temple sacrifices. Examples of the former include Greater Odes of the Kingdom·Wen Wang (Da Ya ・ Wen Wang), Da Ming, and Mian, while examples of the latter include Sacrificial Odes of Zhou·Qing Miao (Zhou Song ・ Qing Miao), Wei Tian Zhi Ming, Wei Qing, Wu, Huan, and Si Wen. These two types of poems cooperated with each other in appropriate sacrificial ceremonies such as Greater Odes of the Kingdom·Wen Wang and Sacrificial Odes of Zhou·Qing Miao, Wei Tian Zhi Ming and Wei Qing for offering sacrifice to King Wen, Greater Odes of the Kingdom·Mian (Da Ya ・ Mian) and Sacrificial Odes of Zhou·Tian Zuo (Zhou Song ・ Tian Zuo) for ceremonies to offer sacrifices to the founder of the Zhou Dynasty and King Wen. The second peak of poetry creation occurred during the reign of King Mu of Zhou, when the system of rites and music became complete. The reign of King Mu of Zhou witnessed the true maturity and completeness of the system of rites and music. It was a period when more songs were needed to coordinate with such rites and music. As a result, a number of ritual and eulogistic songs appeared for various sacrificial ceremonies. An important contribution from song creation during this period was the emergence of banquet songs performed specially for banquet rituals. Xing Wei, Ji Zui, and Fu Yi in Greater Odes of the Kingdom were representatives. The appearance of banquet songs was the product and manifestation of maturing banquet rituals and started a precedent for the Chinese banquet culture. After the death of King Mu, the royal family of Zhou began to decline. The fierce contention for power within the royal family seriously damaged the authority of the emperor of Zhou. The system that “the emperor does not go down the court to welcome vassals” became history starting from the era of King Yi of Zhou. After that, everyone was deterred and had no means to live under the tyranny of King Li. At that time, some ministers faithfully performed their duties as admonishing officials who wrote some poems that satirized the court and bemoaned social chaos. In The Book of Poetry, Greater Odes of the

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Kingdom・Min Lao (Da Ya ・ Min Lao), Ban, Dang, Yi, and Sang Rou all contained verses that blamed heaven, in contrast to the respect and reverence toward God in early and mid-Western Zhou Dynasty. Nevertheless, the authority of “heaven” was not completely ignored, and people still retained a respectful and prudent attitude while complaining about Heaven. Musical officers in the Zhou Dynasty had the duty to remonstrate the monarch through songs and poems. After the rebellion against King Li, these remonstrating poems against him became historical lessons and experience to draw on. After King Xuan ascended the throne, these poems were used for ceremonial remonstration and were later incorporated into poetry texts that included ritual songs. This is what later generations call “the incorporation of satirical poems into The Book of Poetry”. The strategy of King Xuan of Zhou to reinvigorate the country through military conquest brought a series of victories in conquest wars, along with two achievements of the civilization of rites and music. Firstly, a group of poems praising the victory of wars and rewarding generals who rendered meritorious services were produced, for example, Song Gao, Zheng Min, Han Yi, Jiang Han, and Chang Wu in Greater Odes of the Kingdom, as well as Chu Che, Liu Yue, and Cai Qi in Minor Odes of the Kingdom. Secondly, the military victories provided a realistic condition and foundation for the revival of ritual and musical activities, which further became an opportunity for the prosperity of songs accompanied by music. The poems in this period were inclusive. Some were songs of appointment and rewarding of generals who rendered meritorious service; some were songs of farmers performed at farming ceremonies; some were songs performed at imperial banquets; and others were songs with thoughts on taxation and corvee, which was a new phenomenon in the history of poetry in the Zhou Dynasty. The inclusion of such poetry into The Book of Poetry and their survival to this day was closely related to the production method of a new type of ritual songs that appeared during the reign of King Xuan. In the early and mid-Western Zhou Dynasty, composing songs for rituals was the most fundamental way of ritual song creation. During the reign of King Xuan, “collecting and incorporating poems into music” became another important way of ritual song creation in addition to direct composition. The overwhelming miserable and ironic subjects of these poems broke the monopoly of hymns among ritual songs. Under the same background, some poems in Lessons from the States collected from different regions also entered the musical institution of

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the royal family through the endeavors of “poem collection” and “poem contribution” in the name of “observing folk customs, knowing gains and losses, and making self-examination and self-correction”. The texts of the poems included as ritual songs were preserved and became what Zheng Xuan said as “creation of folk songs and satirical poems” in Preface to Notes of the Book of Poetry (Shi Pu Xu). The compilation of songs carried out during the reformation of rites and music by King Xuan was the last attempt of song editing for the purpose of ritual song performance in the cultural history of the Zhou Dynasty. This collection of songs was particularly significant because it included “satirical poems” (bian ya) and “folk songs” (bian feng). It not only enriched The Book of Poetry and promoted the confluence of odes and satire but more importantly had a strong impact on the music education tradition of making songs for ritual purposes only and engaging blind musicians as teachers in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Poetry education began to be separated from music education and became independent toward a development stage centered on moral education. The far-reaching tradition of praise and satire in the Chinese poetry history began to take root, and the Chinese political and moral literature entered a new era of comprehensive development. The temporary resurgence brought by King Xuan was followed by more than two decades of chaos of war during the reign of King You and King Ping. One of the most important themes of poetry creation during this period was satirizing current affairs, lamenting the times, bemoaning the world, and expressing the anxiety and despair of living in a dark and chaotic society. This was the era when satirical poetry in the pre-Qin period flourished and “poems expressing aspirations”, a concept that had a profound impact on the poetics of later generations, was roughly developed. Certainly, not all of the works created then were full of grudges. For example, the “two south” in Lessons from the States was an exception. After King Ping of Zhou relocated the capital eastward, the ethical status of the “two south” was elevated to be royal music and had new lyrics. Due to historical reasons, these two groups of poems considered to be related to “virtue of concubines” and “virtue of madams” mainly addressed courtship, marriage, childbirth, etc. For example, Guan Ju was about “seeking the modest, retiring, virtuous and young lady”; Tao Yao and Que Chao addressed the topic of marriage; Fu Yi and Zhong Si were prayers for fertility. In addition to the “two south”, the vassals who had sent troops to assist King Ping in seizing the throne and moving eastward

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to Luoyi also had the opportunity to have their folk songs included in the musical system of Zhou. Although the collection of Lessons from the States was carried out in the name of “observing customs”, most of the works appearing in this period were considered as odes to praise the reigning monarch of vassal states. The fifth and the last peak of poetry creation in The Book of Poetry occurred in the early and mid-Spring and Autumn Period. Mencius said, “When those poems ceased to be made, then The Spring and Autumn Annals were produced”. These “poems” refer in particular to the sarcastic poems of the nobility, ministers, and literati. Along with the “death” of satirical poetry, poetry that focused on expressing personal emotions and feelings flourished in different states. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, when the system of rites and music collapsed and the rulers were unaware and unable of restoring the statecraft of Zhou and reforming the rites and music, Confucius, who took the fate of the country as his responsibility, actively assumed the historical responsibility of restoring and carrying forward the ritual and music culture of Zhou. As he roamed various states to ask for a position from more than 70 lords in vain, to systematically compile The Book of Poetry and The Book of Documents, revise The Book of Rites (Li) and The Book of Music (Yue), and teach his disciples to pass on the statecraft of King Cheng and King Kang and to narrate the teachings of Duke of Zhou became the only choice for Confucius. Confucius’ removal of repeated poems from The Book of Poetry was the last attempt to edit and adjust the content and structure of the poems in The Book of Poetry throughout its history. What he did was not selecting 305 poems from many scattered poems and editing them into an “anthology” of The Book of Poetry. Instead, he compiled and collated an ancient book from various versions. During this compilation process, Confucius mainly completed three tasks, that is, adding and deleting poems, adjusting their order, and refining the language. The final version of The Book of Poetry was thus formed.

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Artistic Achievements of the Book of Poetry

The Book of Poetry influences the literature of later generations in many ways. Such influence is, first of all, comes from the Fu, Bi, and Xing artistic techniques. Fu means plain and direct narration and elaboration. Bi means making an analogy or comparison between two things, a major rhetorical device equivalent to metaphor and symbolism which is still in use today. Xing foretells other things and then leads to the things, thoughts, and feelings that the poet wants to express through association. Secondly, the narration is concise and vivid, complemented by euphemisms and complicated plotting. For example, Greater Odes of the Kingdom·Mian and Sheng Min describe the history of people in the Zhou Dynasty with a clear focus and detailed, vivid, and lively account rather than dull chronology. Both the account of the successive abandonment of Hou Ji in Sheng Min and the story of the founder of Zhou leading the people to construct Qixia in Mian are lengthy with parallel sentences and onomatopoeia to make the poems vivid and linguistically magnificent. In Odes of Qin·Jian Jia (Qin Feng ・ Jian Jia), narration becomes the vector for expressing emotions. Despite the obscure narration, the emotion is extremely deep and touching. It is easy to deduce the gist of the poem. On a clear autumn morning, before the dew on reeds gets dry, the poet goes up the stream in quest of “a lady” (“yi ren”). The lady is surrounded by flowing water, as if she were on an island, within sight but beyond reach and only hoped for. This is exactly the artistic viewpoint of the whole poem. Thirdly, the image of the romantic protagonists is depicted in a variety of ways. The protagonist in Odes of Bei·Gu Feng (Bei Feng ・ Gu Feng) has a meek and gentle temperament. After being abandoned, she simply recalls how her husband is mean to her and sighs that he does “not think of the former days”, without showing blunt abhorrence. In contrast, the protagonist in Mang expresses intensely remorseful and decisive emotions. “That it [engagement] would be broken I did not think, and now it must be all over!” Odes of Wang·Shu Li (Wang Feng ・ Shu Li) depicts a worried protagonist, wandering in the wilderness where there are millets with their drooping heads in sight, feels so agitated at heart and cannot control his emotions. The poet expresses not only the grief of

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parting but also an indescribable gloomy mood. It is a state or an experience hard to describe clearly. Every reader may feel it and understand it based on his or her own experience. Finally, the characteristics of language forms in The Book of Poetry are influential. To begin with, the repetition of chapters or arias leaves a deep impression of circuity on readers (listeners). Next, the language forms are varied. The sentences in The Book of Poetry come in many styles ranging from one-character to eight-character structures. Standing on the level of language development at that time, it made many useful attempts for poetry development.

CHAPTER 4

Thriving Development of Historical Prose in Pre-Qin Period Ma Yinqin

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The Change of Social System and the Rise of Prose During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period witnessed drastic changes in the Chinese history, as well as leapfrog development of ideas and cultures. After King Ping of Zhou relocated the capital eastward, the royal family gradually declined. However, there wasn’t a vassal state strong enough to command other vassals. Therefore, as the attention of the world was cast to the competition between the State of Jin and the State of Chu for the upper hand and the successive prosperity of the Five Hegemons (Duke Huan of Qi, Duke Wen of Jin, Duke Mu of Qin, Duke Xiang of Song, and King Zhuang of Chu), the first golden period for the prosperity and development of the Chinese culture arrived. To summarize the characteristics of the Spring and Autumn Period, it was a gentle and elegant society that followed the rites of Zhou, after

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_4

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long-term indoctrination and influence of the system of rites and music. First of all, people at that time communicated with each other elegantly. The most noteworthy way of communication was a poem expressing aspirations popular in the mid and late Spring and Autumn Period. “Poem expressing aspirations” was chapters or verses in The Book of Poetry recited on diplomatic occasions to express the reciter’s position, view, and feeling. This activity was “out of context”. Usually, the reciter would choose appropriate poems to convey his thoughts and feelings accurately. The listeners could interpret the intention and even the fate of the reciter from his poem. This reciting behavior was not only an indicator of diplomatic success or failure but also a benchmark for personal virtue and national prosperity and decline. In addition, the boundaries among different social classes established by the aristocratic hierarchy in the Western Zhou Dynasty were gradually abandoned by disobedience in different forms. The story of a prince degraded to servant in a single day due to struggles for power happened all the time within vassal states. In a sharply divided stratified society, knowledge and academics were confined to a privileged minority. Under the rigidly stratified system of rites and music, only sons of aristocrats had access to education. However, with the collapse of this system and the accelerated mobility of people among all social classes, knowledge and academics that were once monopolized sank to lower social classes. It occurred that aristocrats who were well educated fell into a low stratum of society due to family decline. In the social hierarchy of the Zhou Dynasty, scholars were at the bottom of the aristocratic class. As a class between commoners and high officials, the scholar class was the intersection of declining aristocrats and rising commoners. Receiving rewards for military exploits opened up the way for commoners to rise to the scholar class. Such rise and fall brought about demographic changes in the scholar class. From servants who were hired by aristocrats to fulfill specific duties before the Spring and Autumn Period, they jumped to become scholars or commoners unconstrained by any social relations during the Warring States Period. During this period, the royal family of Zhou was reduced to a third-class vassal. The Warring States Period characterized by a melee among vassals arrived when the State of Jin was split by the states of Han, Zhao, and Wei and the State of Tian Qi changed its master to the prince of the State of Chen. In this age, when “both high-ranking kings and lower-ranking vassals sought to win by devoting themselves to military exploits”, scholars had great autonomy in thinking and behavior. As

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a saying goes, “Scholars do not serve a master forever”. As a result, “A wise bird chooses the tree it will nest on, and a wise vassal the lord he will serve”. They could rely on their own martial arts to establish their merits, lobby marquises with their eloquence, and teach classics and art to students. They could also simply pack and leave from a foolish monarch or when their theory was not adopted. It was an era of mental and cultural liberation when theorists of different classes spoke up their own standpoints and advocated their ideas of governing the world. This was the origin of letting “a hundred schools of thought contend” in what we now know as the “Two Hundred Policy” (i.e., “Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend”). Driven by the contention of a hundred schools of thought, an unprecedented golden age of prosperity arrived in the field of philosophy and culture. Giving lectures to disciples was also a huge change coming along with knowledge spread to lower classes. On the one hand, it was the means of livelihood for the declining aristocrats who had lost their means of production. On the other hand, it reflected a social need. There is a saying that knowledge reshapes destiny. In fact, from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period, the importance of learning was fully recognized. In such an age when “scholars do not serve a master forever”, realizing that “officialdom was the realistic and reliable outlet for good scholars”, an increasing number of people chose to learn from a master in order to ascend to a higher class. Hence, a group of intellectuals based on the “scholar” class emerged. In the relatively free and liberal environment resulting from the collapse of rites and music, some of them compiled history and wrote biographies to publicize doctrines of the ancient sages, while others wrote books to expound ideas. The prose-based written literature therefore ushered in a stage of prosperous development. Generally speaking, the development of prose during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period went through three stages: The first stage was from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period. From the late Spring and Autumn Period, “When an official loses his job in the court, his expertise will be spread to different places”. Authorship became a career for scholars affiliated to vassals. By the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period, The Analects (Lun Yu) and Tao Te Ching, to name just a few, appeared from scholars. Historical masterpieces like The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Discourses of the States

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were produced at that time. The prose in these periods showed significant progress compared with those collected in The Book of Documents before the Spring and Autumn Period. Both the prose of scholars and historical books were written in nearly vernacular language that was completely different from the “obscure” speech and royal announcements in the Western Zhou Dynasty. They were mostly easy to understand and clear. The most representative work might be The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, one of the three Spring and Autumn Annals. It is the first chronicle historical record with detailed narrative in the history of China. This beautifully rhymed and excellently written work is also the first masterpiece of historical biography. The second stage was the mid-Warring States Period. During this period, the states ran into more fierce annexing wars. The “scholar” class became greatly active after the seed sown in the previous periods began to germinate, and the contention of a hundred schools of thought reached its heyday. As recorded in anthologies such as Records of the Grand Historian·Biography of Mencius and Xun Qing (Shi Ji · Meng Zi Xun Qing Lie Zhuan), Jixia Academy in the State of Qi was the cultural center at that time. Many of the books written by scholars that were recorded in History of the Han Dynasty·Record of Literature and Arts (Han Shu · Yi Wen Zhi) appeared during this period. Different from the briefly stagnant historical prose after The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, the prose of scholars made great progress. Outstanding works such as Mencius and Zhuangzi showed remarkable literary value. The third stage was the late Warring States Period. After a period of annexing wars, six states became weaker, while the State of Qin grew stronger enough to annex the other states one by one. At this time, philosophers such as Han Fei were working hard to prepare for unification by the new dynasty. Philosophers aligned their ideas to the reality of the time, with representative works including Xunzi and Hanfeizi. The prose of scholars in this period made further progress from Mencius and Zhuangzi in terms of abstract reasoning. Their arguments centered around clear themes and were supported by more cohesive and complete structures. However, they lacked the vivid narrative and romantic feelings that penetrated through Zhuangzi and Mencius. In the field of historical prose, most of the historical stories described in Intrigues of the Warring States (Zhan Guo Ce) compiled and named by Liu Xiang occurred in this historical stage.

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Prosperity of Historical Prose and the Literary Significance of Discourses of the States

In addition to The Book of Documents and The Spring and Autumn Annals, as well as the relevant sections in Shi Ben and Bamboo Annals (Zhu Shu Ji Nian) unearthed from the Ji tomb, other historical classics before the Warring States Period that left their names in historical records include San Fen, Wu Dian, Ba Suo, and Jiu Qiu mentioned in The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, “Cheng in the State of Jin, Tao Wu in the State of Chu, and The Spring and Autumn Annals in the State of Lu” mentioned in Mencius, and The Spring and Autumn Annals of a hundred states read by Mozi. However, after the melee among vassals that lasted hundreds of years during the Warring States Period, the burning of books and lost freedom of speech after the establishment of the Qin empire, and the destructive war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, among “The Spring and Autumn Annals of a hundred states”, only The Spring and Autumn Annals in the State of Lu revised by Confucius and passed down by the disciples of Confucianism was preserved. Other historical classics were all annihilated in history during the chaotic period, and later generations did not have the access to them. However, their existence helps accumulate and provide a rich experience in the historical narrative of the time and later. They were preserved as part of the historical tradition that survives to this day. The historical experience accumulated and provided by these historical classics that once existed gave birth to historical books characterized by detailed descriptions of historical events, vivid characters, and lively language. Discourses of the States, The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Annals of Master Yan (Yan Zi Chun Qiu) are examples. They are not only important historical classics in the pre-Qin period but important achievements in the history of pre-Qin literature, setting examples for the development of literature of later generations. The Discourses of the States was considered first by Sima Qian as a book “assiduously” written by Zuo Qiuming. However, judging from its content, it was more like a collection of historical materials. Zuo Qiuming, who was considered as the author of the book first by Sima Qian, should be the editor of this collection. His family background as official historians in the State of Lu provided the necessary historical materials for him to compile the book. Discourses of the States consists of 21

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volumes that cover eight states of Zhou, Lu, Qi, Jin, Zheng, Chu, Wu, and Yue. The events of each state that occurred in about five hundred years are arranged and recorded chronologically. The earliest of these is Discourse of Zhou・Zhaigong’s Advice for King Mu on the Conquest of Quanrong (Zhou Yu ・ Ji Gong Jian Mu Wang Zheng Quan Rong), which tells the story of Zhaigong Moufu, a minister, remonstrating King Mu of Zhou in the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty. The latest one is Discourse of Jin・The Siege of Jinyang (Jin Yu ・ Jin Yang Zhi Wei), which occurred between 455 and 453 BCE. It is about Zhi Bo, a minister of the State of Jin, uniting with the states of Han and Wei to destroy the State of Zhao but being destroyed by the alliance of the states of Han, Zhao, and Wei. On the whole, Discourses of the States is not a systematic record but simply focuses on a number of historical events. It is informative with detailed records of ancient and contemporary political programs, ritual systems, sacrificial ceremonies, legacy systems of former emperors, myths and legends, and even divination. It is worth noting that Discourses of the States also records many myths and legends of literary value. The Discourses of the States also conveys complex thoughts. It not only reflects Confucianism, but also allows for Mohism, Legalism, Taoism, and other schools of thought. The social and cultural awareness at the time of its writing and in the age of myths and legends, for example, people foremost, physiocracy, reverence for rites, fearing the mandate of heaven, and being cautious about sacrifices, is reflected in the book to varying degrees. This encyclopedic content is also one of the reasons for its readability. In particular, it is the profound and extraordinary language that makes future generations addicted to it. The Discourses of the States is mainly records of remarks, so excellent skills in recording remarks are also the main representation of its literary value. Citing classics and making good use of parallel sentences are its important linguistic feature. The use of parallel sentences, especially the parallelism of more than ten sentences or historical allusions, not only supports detailed exposition and thorough analysis but makes the articles more magnificent and the language more appealing.

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3 Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals and Their Literary Value According to the record of Mozi reading “The Spring and Autumn Annals of a hundred states”, “The Spring and Autumn Annals” was not an exclusive name for the history of the State of Lu at first. It changed from a generic name to an exclusive name simply because The Spring and Autumn Annals of other states all were lost except those of the State of Lu. The Spring and Autumn Annals records the major events occurring between the royal family of Zhou and the vassal states over a period of two hundred years from the first year of the reign of Duke Yin of Lu (722 BCE) to the fourteenth year of the reign of Duke Ai (480 BCE). The most influential view is that The Spring and Autumn Annals was written by Confucius. It is preserved instead of going extinct like “The Spring and Autumn Annals of a hundred states” thanks much to Confucius’s revision and the efforts of the disciples of Confucianism to pass it down. “The sublime words with deep meaning”, as “a writing style of The Spring and Autumn Annals ”, inevitably led to “independent” interpretations and inheritance by different Confucian disciples. Under this circumstance, the famous “three commentaries on The Spring and Autumn Annals” emerged, namely The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu Zuo Shi Zhuan), The Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu Gong Yang Zhuan), and The Guliang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu Gu Liang Zhuan). They were shorted as The Zuo Commentary, The Gongyang Commentary, and The Guliang Commentary, respectively. Among them, The Gongyang Commentary and The Guliang Commentary are specialized annotations to The Spring and Autumn Annals, explaining “the sublime words with deep meaning” in the form of FAQs. Legend has it that The Gongyang Commentary was written by Gongyang Gao, a native of the State of Qi during the Warring States Period. It was at first transmitted orally and later recorded on bamboo slips in the early days of the Han Dynasty. In The Gongyang Commentary, free rein is often allowed in interpreting The Spring and Autumn Annals. However, the FAQs are written in a language that is accessible and easy to understand. For the purpose of interpretation, The Gongyang Commentary and The Guliang Commentary describe some short historical stories and provide vivid and lifelike details of the characters. The Zuo

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Commentary is completely different from the brief and concise records of events in the other interpreting commentaries. The Gongyang Commentary and The Guliang Commentary establish ideas based on the classics and are orally transmitted by teachers, while The Zuo Commentary serves a different purpose made clear from the start. Its most defining feature is providing evidence-based historical facts for The Spring and Autumn Annals recorded on bamboo slips through a clearly tendentious historical narrative. The narrative of wars is most representative in The Zuo Commentary. It records wars, with particular attention to their nature and causes. Most of the descriptions of the specific process of wars center around these two narrative perspectives, which give profound and intriguing meaning to the descriptions. The recording of events in The Zuo Commentary excels in showing the personality traits of the characters through their language and actions. Moreover, it blends changes in these personality traits with the development of history, leaving a deep and vivid impression on readers. Remarkable in the description of details, the book is very adept at describing the words, deeds, and mental worlds of the characters in a few strokes to show their entire mental attitudes vividly. The recording of diplomatic parlance is another merit of the book. The frequent and close exchanges between the vassal states during the Spring and Autumn Period offered great opportunities for officials in charge of diplomatic visits to create impressive expressions. Correspondingly, many impeccable expressions of diplomatic parlance that blend euphemisms with complimentary remarks and criticism were left. The concept of “careful choice of wording” popular during the Spring and Autumn Period brought the language art represented by diplomatic parlance to an unprecedented height. It offered a historical reason why The Zuo Commentary surpassed its predecessors in language art and made amazing literary achievements. The Zuo Commentary is the first historical book with detailed and complete narratives in China. It develops and improves the chronicle style of The Spring and Autumn Annals. While preserving rich historical materials and becoming a model of historiography, it methodologically provides extensive writing experience in historical narrative. Its approach to expressing clearly tendentious historical concepts and positions through remarkable historical narratives is inherited by historians of later generations and becomes a distinctive feature of the Chinese historiography tradition. At the same time, The Zuo Commentary is also a classic

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literary work that lays a solid foundation for the development of narrative literature in later generations.

4

A Historical Panorama of Wars Among States: Intrigues of the Warring States

The Intrigues of the Warring States is a book edited during the late Warring States Period and the Qin and Han dynasties. Ban Gu said, “When writing Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji), Sima Qian referred to The Zuo Commentary, Discourses of the States, Shi Ben and Intrigues of the Warring States ”. In fact, “Intrigues of the Warring States” did not exist during the years when Sima Qian lived, and there were only famous books named, for example, “Intrigues of States” and “Duan Chang” (meaning “weaknesses and strengths”). The name “Intrigues of the Warring States” was given by Liu Xiang, a scholar in the late Western Han Dynasty, when collecting and arranging the stories. The Intrigues of the Warring States is not “an academic work of an independent thought which has formed a school of its own” but a collection of stratagems from diplomatists during the Warring States Period. Faced with dynamic changes caused by the melee of vassals, the diplomatists, called by Liu Xiang as “high-caliber scholars”, were good at reading the minds of marquises and coming up with strategies to save the day and meet urgent needs at wartime. These eloquent and capable figures and personages had a fundamental influence on the development and changes of the relations between the vassal states at that time. These strategists raised eloquent arguments that sowed discord through deception and trickery for the fundamental purpose of impressing marquises. In the special historical context of the Warring States Period, the clear political goals of the diplomatists and the possible political influence of their rhetoric gave them another identity as mouthpieces of the times. Their rhetoric and behavior, to some extent, also reflected the pulse of the times and the social value orientation at that time. Different from the widely criticized thoughts, the language art in the Intrigues of the Warring States reached the possible highest level at that time and best manifested the diplomatists’ manner of speech in lobbying marquises. In contrast to the composed and elegant language style of The Zuo Commentary, the language in Intrigues of the Warring States is unrestrained and convincing. The Intrigues of the Warring States is not

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inspired by a single person or a single record. In addition to the unrestrained and convincing arguments and the widely criticized deception and trickery of diplomatists, quite a few historical stories are recorded. “Zou Ji Remonstrates King Wei of Qi” in Intrigues of the State of Qi (Qi Ce) is one of them. It tells a story about how Zhou Ji, a high minister of the State of Qi during the Warring States period, remonstrated King Wei of Qi to encourage the free airing of views after he found his wife, his concubine, and his guests unfairly believed that he was more handsome than a well-known good-looking man named Mister Xu from the north. The narration of the story is skillful and delicate. “The Return of Prince Dan of the State of Yan from the State of Qin as a Hostage” in Intrigues of the State of Yan (Yan Ce) is another example. The description of Jin Ke, a soldier who assassinated the Emperor of Qin, is solemn and stirring. Sima Qian almost copied it word for word in Records of the Grand Historian. Prince Dan of the State of Yan fled home from the State of Qin. The State of Qin was about to destroy the State of Yan, and its troop was approaching Yishui. Dan wanted to have someone assassinate the Emperor of Qin, and he asked a scholar named Tian Guang for advice. Tian Guang recommended Jing Ke and stimulated him to take the mission by committing suicide. Jing Ke wanted to take advantage of the head of General Fan, who fled to the State of Yan from the State of Qin, as a gift for the Emperor of Qin. General Fan beheaded himself emotionally. The narrative takes the vehemency and tragedy of “a gentleman who is ready to die for his bosom friend” to the extreme. “Farewell to the hero with a lonely quest”—this predictable and inevitable ending reinforces the vehement and tragic sentiment of the participants and the narrator. The whole passage is imbued with passionate and strong feelings, with well-depicted characters that are almost brought to life.

CHAPTER 5

Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought and Prose of Scholars Ma Yinqin

In an era when historical proses represented by Discourses of the States, The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Intrigues of the Warring States made great progress, the field of philosophy and culture witnessed contention of a hundred schools of thought embraced by intellectuals who formed a “scholar” class to give lectures to disciples or write books to expound ideas. In History of the Han Dynasty·Record of Literature and Arts, these scholars who represented the interests of different classes and strata are classified into ten categories, namely Confucianism, Taoism, the Yin-Yang School, Legalism, the School of Names, Mohism, diplomatists, Miscellaneous Schools, agriculturists, and novelists. Considered as “writers of anecdotes in unofficial language” without academic value and significance, the novelists are excluded from the academic field. “Among the ten schools of thought, only nine are worthy studying”. It has been thus believed that “Nine of the ten schools of thought are high-end, while only one of them is low-end”. Among the nine high-end schools, those able to gain a foothold in the literature history include

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_5

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Confucian classics such as The Analects, Mencius, Xunzi, Commentaries on the Book of Changes (Yi Zhuan), and The Book of Rites, as well as the Taoist classics such as Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi. In addition, Hanfeizi of Legalism and Mozi of Mohism are also often referred to. These classics are called by later generations as “prose of scholars”.

1

The Analects and Mencius

The Analects and Mencius are representatives of basic Confucian writings in the early and mid-Warring States Period, respectively. The Analects, edited by Confucius’ disciples, is a collection of quotations from the master and his disciples. It mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and alludes extensively to The Book of Poetry, The Book of Documents, rites, and music. Therefore, The Analects was studied and imparted by scholars as “biography” and “records” that assisted in explaining the “Five Classics” (The Book of Changes, The Book of Documents, The Book of Poetry, The Book of Rites, and The Spring and Autumn Annals ) during the Western Han Dynasty. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to the “Five Classics”, The Analects, The Classic of Filial Piety (Xiao Jing), and Er Ya (meaning “approach to correct expressions”) were a list of books required for literacy and research and were “additional readings” included into Confucian classics. After the Song Dynasty, the status of The Analects, as one of the “Four Books”, became incomparable. According to The Analects, Confucius was a great philosopher and great educator with deep thoughts and dignified manners. Confucius lived in an era when the system of rites and music of the Zhou Dynasty completely collapsed. The royal family of Zhou existed in name only, and the families of princes declined with frequent regicides and patricides to contend for power in the vassal states. In the State of Lu, where Confucius lived, Mengsun, Shusun, and Jisun, descendants of three aristocratic clans, jointly expelled Duke Zhao of Lu, who finally died in another state. The feeling of “the end of an era” prevailed in society at that time. In this context, negative and pessimistic hermits like Chang Ju and Jie Ni did not believe that anyone could change the situation, including Confucius and his disciples going about different states in their quest for salvation. In addition, they were unwilling to go along with the filthy society, so they chose to withdraw from “the whole society” instead of reaching “people”

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and live in solitude. In contrast, Confucius took the world as his responsibility. He once said, “If right principles prevailed through the empire, it would be no use for me to change its state”. Having been passed down with cultural heritage for thousands of years, his care for the fate of his nation which urged him to be positively devoted to society improvements and mankind’s wellbeing has become the most striking factor in the cultural psychology of the Chinese nation, which inspires generations of intellectuals to go forward for the revitalization of the nation. Fan Zhongyan, a Chinese poet and politician, wrote the lines that “One should be the first to worry for the future of the state and the last to claim his share of happiness”, which can be considered as the best annotation to Confucius’s quote above. As a thinker and practitioner who was positively devoted to society improvements and mankind wellbeing, Confucius also put forward his own salvation proposition. The fundamental of his proposition is condensed into one word, that is, “benevolence”. “Benevolence” is a repeatedly questioned and expounded concept in The Analects. The highest level of “benevolence” is “extensively conferring benefits on the people and being able to assist all”. The fundamental of “benevolence” is “filial piety and fraternity” (Xue Er). In the ancient Chinese patriarchal society, the emperor took the whole country as his own property and passed the throne from generation to generation, while senior officials ruled over their enfeoffed land. The monarch-subject relationship and the father–son relationship were completely homogeneous. Therefore, filial piety and fraternity, the fundamental principle for family relations, was also applicable to the governance of the country. When applied at the country level, it was equivalent to the hierarchical principles of authority and kinship. In this sense, the “doctrine of benevolence” proposed by Confucius was a doctrine of salvation. However, after his political ideal of “restoring rites” shattered, “benevolence” was elevated to a moral code and became the highest personality ideal which was frequently mentioned and praised in The Analects. For example, “Benevolent men are sure to be bold”, and “A benevolent man is free from anxiety”. Zeng Shen, a Chinese philosopher and disciple of Confucius, summarized the personality ideal of Confucius, which is also the core of the benevolence thought. According to the summary, “The doctrine of Confucius is loyalty and tolerance, nothing more”. Zhu Xi, a Neo-Confucianist scholar in the Song Dynasty explained, “To do one’s best is loyalty, and to live and let live is tolerance”. In other words, loyalty means the mind and act of

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sparing no effort to help others. As Confucius put it, “Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others”. Tolerance means the mind and act to live and let live. As Confucius put it, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others”. This is actually the most basic moral principle for building interpersonal relationships in life. The Analects preserves the firsthand materials for studying the thoughts of Confucius and his disciples. It vividly recreates the images and personality traits of Confucius and his disciples with lively language and detailed descriptions. Mencius is a book composed by Mencius and his disciples. Meng Ke, a native of Zou (now Zou County, Shandong Province) in the mid-Warring States Period, was mentioned in Records of the Grand Historian to be the disciple of Confucius’ grandson Zi Si. Having inheriting the Confucian theory of benevolence, Mencius put forward the idea of “benevolent government”. This proposition was raised for the sake of the ruler. However, in order to achieve some political goals, for example, “If you will put in practice a benevolent government, this people will love you and all above them”, and “When a man’s action is correct, the whole kingdom will turn to him with recognition and submission”, Mencius again argued that “The people are more important than the sovereign”. “The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest. Therefore, to gain the peasantry is the way to become sovereign; to gain the sovereign is the way to become a prince of a State; to gain the prince of a State is the way to become a great officer” (Jin Xin II ). This thought inherited and developed the thought of “respecting the mandate of heaven and protecting the people” passed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty. The deep understanding of the rules of governance behind the thought has a profound influence on the ruling thoughts of later generations and plays an objective historical role. Meng Ke strongly desired to be granted an important role by the ruler to realize his ambitions. However, during the war-torn Warring States Period, his thought of “benevolent government” was unlikely to be recognized and adopted by any ruler. Mencius, who was good at cultivating “vast, flowing passion-nature” that was “exceedingly great and exceedingly strong”, was unwilling to change himself for the sake of power. Therefore, settling down in the State of Qi was the last resort for him. Sharing the same experience with Confucius in traveling around

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different states, Mencius wrote books to advance his ideas after trying to offer counsel to different rulers without gaining respect. Compared with The Analects, Mencius makes clear progress in language skills. Abandoning simplicity and subtlety and providing elaborate descriptions of the characters, it includes some lengthy and eloquent essays and makes good use of metaphors and fables to illustrate profound truths. Mencius also contends that the meaning of reading The Book of Poetry and The Book of Documents is “knowing the men of antiquity and considering their history” (Wan Zhang II ) and “interpreting a writing from one’s own perspective” (Wan Zhang I ), which is an important idea in the literature history. “Interpreting a writing from one’s own perspective” means that readers should try to infer the sentiments that poets try to convey through their work. This idea is fully reflected in Mencius’ interpretation of the poem Bei Shan in The Book of Poetry. In this sense, “interpreting a writing from one’s own perspective”, to some extent, embodies the combination of the subject and the object and thus partially reveals the basic rule of interpreting a work. This idea includes poets as a long-neglected group in the vision of researchers.1 The “appearance” of poets as the object of literary criticism marks the establishment of the main position of poems. As the object of literary criticism comes into the vision of researchers, the poets, on the one hand, awaken their self-consciousness through the eyes of critics. On the other hand, their awakened self-consciousness further promotes conscious writing in turn.

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Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi

Tao Te Ching is said to be written by Laozi in the late Spring and Autumn Period. The life story of Laozi has been very controversial since Records of the Grand Historian・The Combined Biography of Laozi, Zhuangzi, Shenzi and Hanfeizi (Shi Ji ・ Lao Zhuang Shen Han Lie Zhuan) written by 1 The poem interpretations in Poetic Criticism by Confucius (Kong Zi Shi Lun) inscribed on bamboo slips of Chu during the Warring States Period, now collected in Shanghai Museum, mentioned “poets” lightly. For example, “In Di Du, the poet suggests that the ruler should take delight in the visit of sage”, “The poet sighs that the hare in Tu Yuan was born at the wrong time”, and “In Huang Niao, the poet criticizes the exclusion of outsiders from a clan”. This preliminary attempt to explore the meaning of poets in Poetic Criticism by Confucius was clearly affirmed in Mencius’ poetic interpretation theory of “knowing the men of antiquity and considering their history” and “interpreting a writing from one’s own perspective”.

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Sima Qian. It is universally believed that Laozi, family name “Li”, given name “Er”, courtesy name “Dan”, was born in Kuxian County in the State of Chu (now Luyi County in Henan Province) during the Spring and Autumn Period and once served as “a keeper of archival records” at the court of the Zhou Dynasty. The present edition of Tao Te Ching consists of 81 chapters in two sections: the first section of Tao Ching (meaning “the book of the way”) and the second section of Te Ching (meaning “the book of the virtue”), hence the name Tao Te Ching by later generations. As the foundation of Taoism in the pre-Qin period, Tao Te Ching focuses on the core of “Tao” (meaning “the way”) to establish a philosophical system that includes everything in the universe. The breadth and depth of this philosophical system are reflected not only in its cosmogony theory that “The Dao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things” but also in the naive dialectics that “existence and non-existence give birth the one to the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one of the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another”. Comparatively speaking, Tao Te Ching and The Analects are two masterpieces that have a profound influence on the basic character of the Chinese culture in addition to the “Six Classics” taught in official schools during the pre-Qin period. Compared with The Analects, Tao Te Ching is not only succinct but also concise and implicit. The Analects are mostly Confucius’ answers to the questions of his disciples and thus are close to daily life. However, Tao Te Ching is mostly maxims and aphorisms, excelling in abstracting profound philosophies from concrete phenomena. Fourcharacter sentence is the most common sentence pattern in Tao Te Ching. In addition, metaphors are well used to make subtle and profound philosophy visible, audible, and sensible. For example, in Chapter 5, “Heaven and earth do not act from any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from any wish to be benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with”. The deep meaning of “non-benevolence” is illustrated through metaphors between “heaven and earth and sages” and between “all things and the people” and “dogs of grass”. Each chapter serves a clear central theme and thus can be regarded as a small

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but complete philosophical essay. Therefore, Tao Te Ching is technically conscious of structure and organization. This consciousness was built up and developed to become fairly mature in Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi is a collection of works written by Zhuang Zhou and his disciples. Zhuang Zhou, a native of Mengcheng in the State of Song (now in the northeast of Shangqiu County, Henan Province) during the mid-Warring States Period, was a contemporary of King Hui of Liang and King Xuan of Qi. According to Records of the Grand Historian, Zhuangzi once served as an official in Qiyuan, but he did not like this role. King Wei of Chu offered a large sum of money to invite him to his state, promising to make him chief minister, but Zhuangzi turned down the offer, saying that “I’d rather play in filthy little ditches and find happiness than be tied down by people who own a country”. Erudite and well-informed, Zhuangzi dabbled in theories of different schools and finally rested in Taoism. He wrote books to attack Confucianism and Mohism and clarify the Taoist theory. That’s how he earned the name Zhuangzi and developed the Lao-Zhuang philosophy that has a profound influence on the development orientation of the Chinese civilization. Zhuangzi now includes 33 chapters, divided into “Inner Chapters”, “Outer Chapters”, and “Miscellaneous Chapters”. “Inner Chapters” were written by Zhuang Zhou himself, while “Outer Chapters” and “Miscellaneous Chapters” were compiled by his disciples. Thus, they are somewhat different from “Inner Chapters” except the basically unified thoughts and artistic styles. Zhuangzi carries forward the contempt for sages and rituals in Tao Te Ching. Zhuangzi advocated a living state of freedom and peace. As a literary work, Zhuangzi is most famous for its metaphorical language. Zhuang Zhou believed that men were “sunk in stupidity” and could not be talked to “in dignified style”, so he expressed his “wayward ideas” through “metaphorical language”, “illustrations”, and “impromptu words”. “Metaphorical language” means words with something to commit; “illustrations” are important quotations to substantiate the truth; and “impromptu words” refer to echoing others without personal judgment. These “strange and mystical expressions, wild and extravagant words, and phrases to which no definite meaning could be assigned” are unrestrained, magnificent, ingenious, and rich in imagination. They show a strong poetic and romantic conceit. Zhuangzi features meticulous and vivid descriptions of the actions and moods of characters, especially in “Outer Chapters” and “Miscellaneous Chapters”. Its unrestrained, ingenious, and peculiar imaginations and descriptions, together

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with the unbridled and eloquent speeches of diplomatists in the Warring States Period, have an extremely important and far-reaching influence on the development of literature of later generations.

3

Xunzi and Hanfeizi

Xunzi, also known as Xun Kuang, was born in Xun (now Linyi County, Shanxi Province) in the State of Zhao in the late Warring States Period. He was called respectfully as Xun Qin or Sun Qin when he was alive. His precise dates are unknown. He was probably born sometime around the late fourth century and died after the State of Qin destroyed the other six states. Xunzi once studied in the State of Qi and was recommended as “headmaster” of a school by the Jixia Academy. Later, he was slandered and lost his position. He moved from the State of Qi to the State of Chu, where Lord Chunshen of the state appointed him as prefect of Lanling (now Cangshan County, Shandong Province). After Lord Chunshen was assassinated by Li Yuan, he lost his official position again and settled down in Lanling. It was a society where vassals attacked each other. Many states were destroyed. Slanderous talks and heretical ideas caused confusion in the philosophical field. Under such a circumstance, Xunzi “analyzed and studied the success and failure of Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism, as well as their influence on the rise and fall of dynasties”. After writing tens of thousands of words, he passed away. His works were passed down to the late Western Han Dynasty, when they were organized into a book of thirty-two chapters by Liu Xiang. This is Xunzi that we read today. Centering around the ethical political view of exalting ritual and maintaining the right order of the world, Xunzi builds a complete system of academics and knowledge that includes views on nature, history, and human nature around the core of Confucian classics. The conscious respect for the classics and building of authority contributed to the credit of Xunzi for passing down Confucian classics, which is praised by later generations. Applying correct political principles to govern a country and offering counseling for the later “great unification and founding of a country” are the focus of Xunzi’s doctrine. Most of the articles in Xunzi have a clear theme and a revealing title. Each chapter is structurally neat, systematically grand, and analytically detailed. This indicates that monograph prose finally took shape in the era when Xunzi lived. Discourse on Heaven (Tian Lun), Discourse on Rituals (Li Lun), and Discourse on Music (Yue Lun), which clearly included the word “discourse” in the title

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to elaborate on the topics of “heaven”, “ritual”, and “music”, created a new style of “discourse” writing, as the names suggest. The articles in Xunzi are known for stability, practicality, comprehensiveness, and meticulousness. Moreover, Xunzi did not hide his strong dissatisfaction with the governance in the chaotic times and his anger and contempt for the slanderous talks and heretical ideas that caused confusion in his argumentative writing. Linguistically, Xunzi used metaphors extensively as well as parallel and balanced sentences frequently to express his inner passion. For example, he employed a series of metaphors Encouraging Learning (Quan Xue) to illustrate abstract and unintelligible truths vividly and convincingly. The use of metaphors greatly enhanced the expressiveness and appeal of the language. Also, the use of parallel and balanced sentences in Discourse on Heaven adds to the overwhelming magnificence of the whole argumentation. In addition to argumentation, Xun Qing also wrote two verses named “Cheng Xiang” and “Fu”. “Cheng Xiang” is a political lyric poem about the statecraft of the monarch. “Xiang”, also known as bo fu, is an ancient percussion instrument made of leather filled with grain chaff and used for festival music. “Cheng Xiang” is an art form of talking and singing with “xiang” being used to play musical sections.2 “Fu” is a collection of Xun Qing’s works written in the style of fu. It consists of five chapters, namely “Li”, “Zhi”, “Yun”, “Can”, and “Zhen”, as well as a poem named “Gui Shi”. Each of these five chapters describes a thing. It starts with a general description of the state of the thing in four-character sentences and then explains it in rhetorical questions and direct statements. The name of the thing is not identified until the end of the chapter. Liu Xie described this riddle-like roundabout and indirect writing style that “Xun Qing often employs enigmatic language and rhetoric questions when describing a thing” (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons·Elucidation of Fu Rhapsodies (Wen Xin Diao Long · Quan Fu)). Xunzi’s 2 Cheng means playing. Xiang is an ancient musical instrument. According to The Book of Rites·Record of Music, “When music is played, the drum comes first. After a dance, cymbal is played when the dancer retreats in chaos. To mend the chaos, xiang is played”. Zheng Xuan added a note, “Xiang refers to the musical instrument of fu and is used for festival music. Fu is made of leather filled with grain chaff. Grain chaff is also called xiang, hence the name of the musical instruction”. The lyrics of cheng xiang are divided into five-sentence sections, each consisting of three-character, three-character, seven-character, four-character, and seven-character sentences, except for four-character sentence (the fourth sentence). All of the other sentences have the same rhyme.

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works written in the form of fu are original in both form and style, and he influences the object chanting works of later generations. It is exactly the source of “fu” as the name of a literary style. Xunzi is reputed as “an ancestor of ci and fu” together with Qu Yuan because he used “fu” in the title of writing. Han Fei (about 295–233 BCE) was a member of the royal family of the State of Han in the late Warring States Period. According to records, he was a stammerer who was not talkative, but he was very good at writing books. He and Li Si were Xun Qing’s students, but Li Si thought that Han Fei learned better than him. Worried about the political corruption and decline of the State of Han, Han Fei submitted his advice in writing to the King, but his advice was not heeded. With worry and anger, he wrote Solitary Indignation (Gu Fen), Five Vermin (Wu Du), and On the Difficulties of Persuasion (Shuo Nan). His excellent writings were brought to the State of Qin and were greatly admired by the King of Qin. In order to get him, the State of Qin made war on the State of Han. Han Fei was dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to Qin. Later, Li Si, who envied Han Fei’s intellect, recommended that he be accused of some offenses and be sentenced to prison. As a result, Han Fei was imprisoned and committed suicide. His writings were later compiled into a collection called Hanzi. When it came to the Tang Dynasty, because the poet Han Yu was also called “Hanzi”, the work Hanzi was renamed Hanfeizi to avoid confusion. Han Fei was the last philosopher among the scholars in the preQin period. As a master of Legalist thought, he advocated the legalist thought that pays equal attention to “law”, “technique”, and “power of authority”. He also emphasized the understanding of laws, the power of authority, and the use of techniques as the fundamental way to maintain monarchy, rule over ministers, and govern the country based on laws. His legalist thought is most criticized for various “governing techniques” that are closely related to political conspiracy and trickery. Seen from the current perspective through the historical lens, his emphasis and attention on “technique” is a faithful representation of the political jungle filled with intrigue between states and between rulers and ministers during the Warring States Period. That special era offered him the chance to gain a profound and sober insight into politics and power, which was also the reason for his tragic end. Hanfeizi is a collection of monographs, except some stories and legends such as Collection of Persuasions (Shuo Lin) and Treasuries of Illustrations (Chu Shuo). In these monographs,

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Han Fei expressed his hatred of the rulers for “not being obliged to revise their legal system” and his sorrow to “the alienation of the upright and honest ministers by wicked ministers”. Hanfeizi has an important feature different from the works of scholars during the pre-Qin period that Han Fei not only used fables and legends for deduction and reasoning but collected, organized, processed, created, and classified many fables. He played an important role in making fable an independent literature genre.

4 Overview of the Book of Rites, Commentaries on the Book of Changes, and Books of Other Scholars Among the proses of different scholars during the Warring States Period, in addition to the works listed above, Commentaries on the Book of Changes, The Book of Rites, Mozi, and The Art of War (Sun Zi Bing Fa) are of literary value as well. Commentaries on the Book of Changes is part of The Book of Changes which also includes Yi Jing. Yi Jing includes not only names and manifestations of divination but also records and topics of divination. It is believed to be record of ancient divination activities, which were compiled into a book during the Yin (Shang) and Zhou dynasties. Commentaries on the Book of Changes was called by Sima Qian in Records of the Grand Historian·Preface of the Official Historian (Shi Ji · Tai Shi Gong Zi Xu) as Great Commentaries on the Book of Changes (Yi Da Zhuan) which included ten chapters, namely Tuan I and Tuan II, Xiang I and Xiang II, Xi Ci I and Xi Ci II, Wen Yan, Xu Gua, Shuo Gua, and Za Gua. They were collectively called Ten Wings (Shi Yi). According to Records of the Grand Historian, Commentaries on the Book of Changes was written by Confucius. However, most modern scholars believe that it was written by Confucian scholars in the late Warring States Period. The Commentaries on the Book of Changes is characterized by clear and fluent language, frequent use of balanced and parallel sentences, and alternation between verses and proses. This catchy work is clearly for oral recitation. The Book of Rites is a collection of articles written by Confucian scholars explaining the book Yi Li from the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties. It is also known as Xiao Dai Li Ji or Xiao Dai

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Ji.3 The Book of Rites was written by more than one author in different time periods, but most of the chapters were probably written by Confucius’ 72 disciples and their students. It mainly records and discusses the ritual system and meanings of etiquette in the pre-Qin period, explains etiquette, records the questions and answers of Confucius and his disciples, and describes the principles of self-development and life. The topics cover such fields as politics, law, morality, philosophy, history, sacrifice, literature and art, daily life, calendar study, and geography. It embodies the political, philosophical, and ethical thinking of Confucianism in the pre-Qin period, and is an important source for studying the society at that time. Its literary value is reflected not only in the succinct and accurate expressions but also in the interesting illustration of abstract truths in concrete and appropriate images through analogy and comparison. Mozi is a record of the words and deeds of Mo Di, the founder of the Mohist school, by his disciples and later scholars of the Mohist school. Mo Di was a native of the State of Song in the late Spring and Autumn Period and early Warring States Period. He was also believed to be born in Luyang. He once served as a minister in the State of Song. Calling himself “a humble man”, Mozi worked as a carriage maker. He studied Confucianism as a child and later founded his own school of thought because he thought that Confucianism focused too much on extensive celebrations, funerals, and rituals detrimental to the livelihood of people.4 The key words of his philosophy were universal love, condemnation of offensive wars, economy of expenditures, and earnest practice. Mohism and Confucianism were known as “two famous schools” after the mid-Warring States Period. Although Mozi takes literary skills lightly and generally “conveys clear meanings in plain language”, each chapter is complete from beginning to end, methodical, and well logical in a dialogue structure. Moreover, when describing historical stories with plots and characters, it

3 According to History of the Han Dynasty·Ru Lin Zhuan (Biographies of the Forest of Literati Scholars), The Book of Rites was divided into the school of Da Dai and the school of Xiao Dai. Dai De, uncle of Dai Sheng, editor of The Book of Rites, edited eighty-five chapters (now thirty-nine chapters preserved), which are called Da Dai Li Ji or Da Dai Ji. 4 According to Huai Nan Zi·Yao Lue, “Mozi once studied Confucianism. However, he felt that Confucianism advocated cumbersome etiquette and money-consuming elaborate funerals, which resulted in the poverty of the common people. Therefore, he turned from the doctrine of the Zhou Dynasty to that of the Xia Dynasty”.

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provides dramatic narratives of the plots and the actions and dialogues of the characters. The Art of War, also known as Sun Zi, The Art of War by Master Sun from the State of Wu (Wu Sun Zi Bing Fa), and The Art of War by Sun Wu (Sun Wu Bing Fa), was written by the military strategist Su Wu and his disciples in the late Spring and Autumn Period. According to History of the Han Dynasty·Record of Literature and Arts, The Art of War by Master Sun from the State of Wu consists of eighty-two chapters, of which thirteen chapters are preserved. Sun Wu, a native of the State of Qi, met King Helü of Wu with his exposition on the art of war, who appointed him as a general. He once led the army of Wu to defeat the strong State of Chu in the west and the states of Qi and Jin in the north. He put forward the famous point that “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles” (Attack by Stratagem [Mou Gong]), and emphasized the strategic and tactical principle of “the interdependence of maneuvers direct and indirect”. His thought embraces materialist and dialectic elements. Although Suzi is a practical military book, the prose art inside is equally noticeable. This book is concise, with many parallel sentences used for detailed narratives. Vivid and popular metaphors are created to explain the use of military forces. The descriptions have complete structures and are easy to understand.

CHAPTER 6

Qu Yuan and Song Yu Ma Yinqin

1

Overview of the Culture in the State of Chu

The origin of Chu culture can be traced back to the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Yu Xiong, the ancestor of the Chu people, was a minister of King Wen of Zhou. When the King acceded to the throne, he appointed Xiong Yi, the great-grandson of Yu Xiong, as a duke in Chu. In the mid and late Western Zhou Dynasty, the royal family declined and vassals invaded. Xiong Qu, then the Duke of Chu, regarded himself as a tribe leader, and named his three sons as kings. The eldest son Kang was named the King of Judan, the second eldest son Hong named the King of E, and the youngest son Zhici named the King of Yuezhang. They were the source of the “three clans of Chu” (“Chu san hu”). After King Li of Zhou ascended to the throne, he launched troops to attack the vassals that were not loyal to the royal family. Afraid of being attacked, Xiong Qu removed the title of king. During the transition between the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, not only did two kings coexist in the royal family, but there was also chaos within the vassal states. In the state of Chu, Xiong Tong killed his brother’s son to take over the throne, and the State of Chu began to rise. In the 35th year of the reign of

M. Yinqin (B) School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_6

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Xiong Tong, backed by strong military strength, the State of Chu forced the State of Sui to ask the royal family of Zhou to raise the rank of its duke. After being rejected by the royal family, Xiong Tong established himself as king, namely King Wu of Chu. He was the first vassal to call himself “king” among his peers in the Zhou Dynasty. Afterward, after the development from King Wen of Chu to King Cheng of Chu, an order finally came from the royal family that “You shall govern Yiyue in the south and shall not disturb the Central Plains”. The thousands of miles of land that the State of Chu had exploited and conquered over the years were finally recognized by the royal family of Zhou. During the reign of King Zhuang of Chu, the State of Chu was so powerful that it wanted to “find for the nine tripods of the Zhou Dynasty that represented the throne in the Central Plains”. Wang Sunman, a minister of the Zhou Dynasty, replied, “Although the monarch of Zhou is morally corrupt, its rule is still the mandate of heaven. The nine tripods cannot be coveted”. Different from the previous “tribal” culture, the culture of Chu in this period was closely aligned with the ritual and music culture. According to the record in “Shen Shushi’s Comment on the Governing Method of King Gong of Chu” in Discourse of the States·Chu (Guo Yu · Chu Yu), the education of the royal family of Chu at that time was based on the ritual and music culture of the royal family of Zhou. This indicated that the cultural choice of the aristocrats left a deep imprint of the ritual and music culture of Zhou on the culture of Chu as it took shape during the Spring and Autumn Period. Although the State of Chu absorbed a lot of tribal cultural attributes during the expansion process, compared with the culture of Qin that eventually resided in the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the culture of Chu was more homogeneous to the culture of Zhou. The reasons why the State of Chu was able to become a cultural center where talents gathered during the Warring States Period and why batches of informative bamboo slips are now unearthed in the land where the State of Chu used to occupy are that the culture of Chu actually began to build up from the Spring and Autumn Period. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Shengzi of the State of Chu lamented the brain drain from the state that “Although talents are trained in the State of Chu, they actually serve the State of Jin”. From another point of view, this just demonstrated the cultural strength. The emergence of great poets like Qu Yuan and Song Yu and the rise of literary genres like the verses of Chu and the songs of Chu were closely related to the acceptance

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of the profound ritual and music civilization in the State of Chu when its own culture began to take shape.

2

Qu Yuan and His Works

Qu Yuan (340 BCE?–278 BCE?), originally named Ping, was born to a noble family in the State of Chu. He lived in a period when the State of Chu declined from a power. In the early days of the reign of King Huai of Chu, the State of Chu became the largest vassal state after capturing eight cities in the State of Wei in the battle of Xiangling. It was militarily comparable to the powerful State of Qin. “If Chu is able to unite the other weak countries to fight with Qin, Chu will unify the world. If Qin is able to alienate Chu from the other weak countries, Qin will become the ruler”. Su Qin made a proper comment on the situation at that time. However, in the sixteenth year of the reign of King Huai of Chu, the coming of Zhang Yi changed the fate of the king and his state. King Huai of Chu mistrusted Zhang Yi and was deceived by Qin several times. The fortune of the state took a sudden turn. After King Qingxiang of Chu succeeded to the throne, the territory of Chu was increasingly invaded until it was completely annexed by the people of Qin in 223 BCE. According to Records of the Grand Historian, Qu Yuan served under King Huai of Chu as Zuo Tu, whose duty was to examine and discuss policy with the king and make decisions. He was deeply trusted and held in high esteem by the king. Later, he was slandered by the minister Shangguan Dafu and was exiled by the king. After suffering successive military and diplomatic defeats, King Huai of Chu “regretted not adopting Qu Yuan’s strategy”, so he asked Qu Yuan back and sent him as an envoy to the State of Qi to rebuild the alliance. Worried that Qi and Chu would resume diplomatic relations, the State of Qin sent Zhang Yi as an envoy to Chu. King Huai of Chu took Zhang Yi’s advice to give up Qi and join hands with Qin. Qu Yuan strongly opposed to the decision, but his counseling was not heeded and resulted in his exile to Hanbei, where he wrote Chou Si, Si Mei Ren, and Li Sao. In 299 BCE, Qin attacked Chu and captured its eight cities. Qin invited King Huai of Chu to meet at Wuguan. Qu Yuan, who had returned to Yingdu, capital of Chu, suggested King Huai not trusting Qin, but King Huai still visited Qin under the instigation of his son Zilan and died there. The death of the king filled Qu Yuan with grief and fury. Zilan, then a minister, was angry about him and slandered him in front of King Qingxiang. Qu Yuan

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was exiled to Jiangnan again. He described this exile journey in poems Ai Ying and She Jiang. Huai Sha and Jiu Ge were also written during this period. Huai Sha was probably the last poem written by him. Soon after it was done, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River. Li Sao (literally meaning “Encountering Sorrow”) is Qu Yuan’s masterpiece written during his exile in Hanbei. Lamenting and furious about the weakening of the state, the helplessness and fickleness of King Huai of Chu, and his exile, Qu Yuan wrote this immortal long lyrical poem with the title “Li Sao”. The poem has about 2,456 words in 375 lines, divided into 8 sections. It begins with the poet’s introduction to his family background, his ancestry, and his ambition since childhood. The second section describes his political experience. The third section expresses his feelings after being slandered, lamenting the poet’s desire to stay true to his ideal until death. The fourth section gives an account of how his elder sister advises him not to be “out-spoken and self-disciplined” and how he approaches the legendary ancient emperor Chonghua to directly state his political ideal. The fifth section recounts his fantastical trip across the landscapes of ancient China to seek someone who understands him when he is depressed and has no listeners. The sixth section pours out his contradictory inner world. He asks a wizard and the shaman Wu Xian for guidance. The former advises him to leave the State of Chu. The latter gives him the opposite suggestion, but he is disappointed about the political landscape in his homeland. The seventh section narrates his fantasy about leaving the State of Chu to travel far and wide, but he is finally reluctant to leave his native land. The eighth section contains some “ridiculous statements” about the poet’s determination to die for his ideal. The poem Li Sao employs the literary techniques of “Bi (comparison or contrast) and Xing (association)” extensively, but in completely different ways from The Book of Poetry. The fragrant herbs that commonly appeared in the poem, for example, “fragrant plants”, “angelic herbs”, “autumn orchid”, “caltrop and lotus”, and “hibiscus”, are not only images for comparison and association but also the symbols of the poet’s noble character. The use of these images creates a wonderful and romantic fantasy. In addition, a large number of myths and legends, the sun, the moon, and the clouds form a colorful and illusory world through the poet’s imagination. Taking a spiritual journey in this fantastic world is a metaphor for the poet’s endeavor to pursue his ideal. Li Sao is a very dramatic poem. It intertwines the narrative of facts, solitary lyricism, and description of fantasy in a magnificent and perfect structure. Every section is beautiful

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and impressive. When all of the sections are combined, they become a magnificent and harmonious whole. Metaphor and symbolism are two defining features of this poem. A profound political theme and realities are illustrated through specific and vivid artistic images of “fragrant herbs and beauty”, making the poem full of artistic appeal and a positive romantic spirit. It has a far-reaching influence on the development of literature in later generations. In addition to Li Sao, Qu Yuan also wrote other excellent works that have been passed down through the ages such as Nine Pieces (Jiu Zhang), Nine Songs (Jiu Ge), Questions to Heaven (Tian Wen), and Summon of Soul (Zhao Hun). Jiu Zhang includes nine works, namely Grieving I Make My Plaint (Xi Song), Crossing the River (She Jiang), A Lament for Ying (Ai Ying), The Outpouring of Sad Thoughts (Chou Si), Embracing Sand (Huai Sha), Thinking of a Fair One (Si Mei Ren), Alas for the Days Gone By (Xi Wang Ri), In Praise of the Orange-Tree (Ju Song), and Grieving at the Eddying Wind (Bei Hui Feng). They were not completed all at once but compiled by later generations. There are nine pieces of works, hence the name Nine Pieces (Jiu Zhang). Among them, The Outpouring of Sad Thoughts, Crossing the River, A Lament for Ying, and Embracing Sand are very beautiful short lyrical poems. The Outpouring of Sad Thoughts was probably written when Qu Yuan was first exiled to Hanbei. The rest were written probably in his later years. Most of these poems are free expressions of the poet’s homesickness. Different from the unrestrained and colorful Li Sao, they are stylistically plain and less romantic. However, they are equally informative in expressing the poet’s ideal while exposing and criticizing the dark politics of Chu. Nine Songs is a group of unique lyric poems completed on the basis of the folk sacrificial songs of Chu people. It still retains the characteristics of integrated sacrificial songs, dances, and music. Its name can be dated back to very early times. Legend has it that it was created in the Xia Dynasty. The Classic of Mountains and Seas the Classic of the Great Wilderness: The West (Shan Hai Jing · Da Huang Xi Jing) contains a record of “Jiu Ge” from Qi, king of the Xia Dynasty. According to The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals Seventh Year of Duke Wen (Zuo Zhuan · Wen Gong Qi Nian), “All of the nine virtues can be sung, and they can be hence called nine songs”. The number “Nine” is not exact and is possibly symbolic. Nine Songs means songs composed of many musical movements. This name was frequently seen in ancient books dated back to the

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pre-Qin period. Qu Yuan borrowed the name from ancient music, and his Nine Songs was composed of eleven songs. According to Chu Ci Zhang Ju written by Wang Yi, these songs might be written when Qu Yuan was exiled to Jiangnan. Nine Songs is addressed to deities including the God of the Eastern Sky (Dong Huang Tai Yi), the Lord of the East (Dong Jun), the Lord of the Clouds (Yun Zhong Jun), the Greater Master of Fate (Da Si Ming), the Lesser Master of Fate (Shao Si Ming), the Lord of Yellow River (He Bo), the God and Goddess of the River Xiang (Xiang Jun, Xiang Fu Ren), the Mountain Spirit (Shan Gui), and the Hymn to the Fallen (Guo Shang). The last poem, named Li Hun (Honoring the Dead), is a divine song after the end of the sacrifice. The whole work is structurally complete and generally reproduces the basic folk customs of the Chu people in God-worshiping. Jiu Ge is a collection of lyrical poems that are fresh, poignant, subtle, and touching. It is written based on the myths and stories circulated among the people of Chu. Folk songs and the sentiments within them are drawn to make these poems artistically unique and different from other works of Qu Yuan. Different from the passionate trip to the heaven and earth in Li Sao, the romantic account of the vicissitudes of life in these poems compares deities to humans. For example, Xiang Jun and Xiang Fu Ren are verses addressed to the God and Goddess of the River Xiang. The former, written from the perspective of Xiang Fu Ren, expresses her melancholy for waiting and missing Xiang Jun without reuniting with him. The latter, written from the perspective of Xiang Jun, expresses his sadness for being separated from Xiang Fu Ren. Scenery is an essential element in the expression of feelings in poems. It is depicted to pave the way for expression of feelings, while feelings are stimulated by the scenery. While focusing on the deities, Nine Songs also depicts desolate scenery in lakes and mountains. Questions to Heaven is a magic poem written by Qu Yuan, in terms of both content and form. When interpreting the title, Wang Yi said in Chu Ci Zhang Ju that “The Heaven is not questionable, so ‘Questions to the Heaven’ is better”. This poem adopts the basic format of four-character sentences, with two or four sentences grouped together, characterized by more than 170 questions concerning aspects of natural phenomena, myths and legends, historical stories, destiny, and human affairs. These allencompassing questions preserve a wealth of philosophical, mythological, historical, and folklore materials. They not only demonstrate Qu Yuan’s “broad knowledge, strong will, and understanding of the principles for

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pacifying a country”, but also fully reflect his progressive spirit to raise doubts boldly to seek truth and to challenge traditional thinking. The poem Summon of Soul (Zhao Hun) is believed to be written by Qu Yuan or Song Yu. When Sima Qian wrote a biography for Qu Yuan, he said, “When I read Li Sao, Questions to Heaven, Summon of Soul, and A Lament for Ying, I feel sorry for his ambition”. However, Wang Yi contended in Chu Ci Zhang Ju that the poem was written by Song Yu about the summon of Qu Yuan’s soul. Later generations of readers of Verses of Chu mostly accepted Wang Yi’s opinion. Since modern times, Sima Qian’s opinion has been taken seriously, which suggested that Summon of Soul was written by Qu Yuan. However, the theme of this poem is controversial as well. Some believe that Qu Yuan wrote it to summon his own soul, while others believe that he wrote the poem to summon the soul of King Huai of Chu. It seems that the beautiful palace, the lavish food, the vigorous female musicians, and the joy of singing and dancing depicted in the poem speak more for the soul of a monarch. Moreover, at the end of the poem, the poet wrote, “When the soul returns, it shall mourn Jiangnan”. The State of Chu was located in Jiangnan, and Jingnan was mentioned in the poem obviously for the soul who died elsewhere. Therefore, the poem should be written by Qu Yuan to mourn King Huai of Chu, who died in the State of Qin. Technically, Summon of Soul is good at detailed description. When “elaborating the evils in the four directions”, it draws on rich imagination and describes the dangers in the east, south, west, and north and the horrors of heaven and the secluded capital. These sinister sights, probably based on folk myths and legends, are shockingly strange and novel. When “expressing admiration for the beauty of Chu”, it exaggerates the beauty and luxury of the court of Chu incisively and vividly by using flowery language and various literary techniques. It is the pioneer of elaborate description of physical objects with the aim to expressing sentiments in Han-fu. Qu Yuan’s works profoundly influence the history of Chinese literature. Accomplished writers in different times, ranging from Jia Yi and Sima Qian in the Han Dynasty to Li Bai and Du Fu in the Tang Dynasty and Lu Xun and Guo Moruo in the modern times, were influenced by Qu Yuan. Li Bai once compared Qu Yuan’s works to the sun and the moon that “Qu Yuan’s poems continue to shine as the sun and the moon, while not the least trace of the splendor of pavilions during King Chu’s reign was found”. Du Fu also felt encouraged by Qu Yuan’s achievements. “To be equally famous as Qu Yu and Song Yu, you have to own equally noble

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spirit and talent, otherwise you may not be as good as the literati in the Qi and Liang dynasties” (Make Six Light Four-Line Poems (Xi Wei Liu Jue Ju)). Su Shi said in the Letter in Reply to Xie Minshi (Da Xie Min Shi Shu), “Qu Yuan’s Li Sao Jing is the further development of Feng and Ya, and it is as shining as the sun and the moon”. Qu Yuan’s works mark another peak in the history of Chinese literature after The Book of Poetry. The latter becomes a model for later generations thanks to its realism of “observing customs”, while the former are romantic gorgeous verses written by “a poet of clothes and quilt” (meaning providing warmth and benefits). “Sao” is considered as a match to “Feng” as the two highest standards of poetry creation set by the ancients for later generations, and it is of special significance to the development of ancient Chinese poetry.

3 Song Yu and Other Writers of the Verses of Chu According to Records of the Grand Historian Biography of Qu Yuan and Jia Sheng (Shi Ji · Qu Yuan Jia Sheng Lie Zhuan), Qu Yuan was followed by important writers of the verses of Chu including Song Yu, Tang Le, and Jing Cuo. History of the Han Dynasty Record of Literature and Arts records “four proses of fu by Tang Le”. Unfortunately, all four works have been lost. The prose of fu written by Jing Cuo was not recorded. Only Song Yu had influential works passed down to later generations. Song Yu drew the attention of the king of Chu because of his musical and writing talent. According to History of the Han Dynasty Record of Literature and Arts, he left 16 works. His works that have been preserved include not only Nine Phrases (Jiu Bian)1 included in Verses of Chu but also Gao Tang Fu, Shen Nü Fu, Feng Fu, Deng Tu Zi Hao Se Fu, and Dui Chu Wang Wen recorded in Selections of Refined Literature (Wen Xuan), as well as Da Yan Fu, Xiao Yan Fu, Diao Fu, Di Fu, Wu Fu, and Feng Fu recorded in Gu Wen Yuan. There is serious controversy over Di Fu,

1 According to the record in Verses of Chu, Song Yu wrote Nine Phrases and Summon of Soul, but the latter is believed to be written by Qu Yuan. See above.

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Wu Fu, and Feng Fu.2 “Wu Fu” was considered to be written by Fu Yi in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Nine Phrases is the only uncontroversial work that is believed to be written by Song Yu. Qu Yuan wrote in Li Sao, “King Xia Qi stole two songs Nine Phrases and Nine Songs from Heaven. He indulged himself in pleasure”. It seems that Nine Phrases and Nine Songs were both names of ancient songs. Concerning the theme of Nine Phrases, Wang Yi argued in Chu Ci Zhang Ju that this poem was written to mourn Qu Yuan because it contained obvious traces of imitation and copied some sentences from Qu Yuan. Artistically, it also inherited Qu Yuan’s technique of reaching profound artistic conception in extremely concise language. Song Yu applied the technique of description in his other several works. For example, he described “the sumptuous life of the king” and “the miserable sufferings of the people” in Feng Fu; he depicted the mountains, waters, and forest trees in an exaggerated way in Gao Tang Fu; he portrayed the beauty of Shen Nü in Shen Nü Fu and Dong Jia Zhi Zi in Deng Tu Zi Hao Se Fu in flowery language. These works slightly feature elaborate descriptions of physical objects with the aim to expressing sentiments in Han-fu. They have a far-reaching influence on the development of literature in later generations as they are passed down. In the history of literature, Song Yu and Qu Yuan are often juxtaposed to be acclaimed as “Qu Song”. Other than Song Yu, neither Tang Le nor Jing Cuo left any work behind. Among the bamboo slips unearthed in 1972 in a tomb dated back to the Western Han Dynasty in Yinqueshan, Linyi, Shandong Province, 26 were considered by scholars as residual bamboo slips recording “Tang Le Fu”. According to scholarly research, this work shares many similarities with a paragraph in Huai Nan Zi Lanmingxun. Huai Nan Zi was compiled in the early years of the Han Dynasty, so “Tang Le Fu” unearthed in the tomb in Yinqueshan could only be born earlier. Therefore, most scholars believe that this work was written by Tang Le, who is “famous for the writing of Fu”. They also infer that it is structurally similar to Song Yu’s

2 The Di Fu tells a story of “Song Yi seeing Jin Ke off on the Yishui River” in the late

Warring States Period; moreover, Ma Rong said in Chang Di Fu Preface, “I admire the odes to xiao, qin and bu (which are ancient musical instruments) from Wang Ziyuan, Mei Cheng, Liu Bokang, and Fu Wuzhong, but no one has written fu for di (flute). To fill the gap, I write this Chang Di Fu”. It made no mention of Song Yu’s Di Fu. Legend has it that Feng Fu was actually Mei Ren Fu written by Sima Xiangru in the Han Dynasty.

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Da Yan Fu and Xiao Yan Fu. This inference helps clarify the authenticity of Song Yu’s works and touches upon some important issues in the development history of Ci and Fu as two writing styles. In addition to Tang Le Fu recorded in the residual bamboo slips unearthed in Yinqueshan, Chu Ci Zhang Ju of Wang Yi also recorded a work named Da Zhao. Wang Yi was not sure whether it was written by Qu Yuan or Jing Cuo, saying that “It is doubtful and unidentified”. It was not until the Song Dynasty that Zhu Xi thought it was written by Jing Cuo. In spite of the lack of evidence, Da Zhao is artistically far inferior to Summon of Soul, so there is no doubt that it was not written by Qu Yuan. Judging from their own characteristics, Yuan You, Bu Ju, and Yu Fu as verses of Chu are more likely to be written by the people of Chu to mourn Qu Yuan after he died, although they have been regarded as being written by Qu Yuan himself since the Han Dynasty. The emergence of these works, on the one hand, proves the huge influence of Qu Yuan in his times. On the other hand, it also shows that the people of Chu had a more comprehensive and profound understanding of Qu Yuan in the late Warring States period. The question-and-answer style of Bu Ju and Yu Fu also has a profound influence on the literature of later generations.

PART II

Literature in the Qin and Han Dynasties

247 BCE-220 A.D. In 221 BCE, i.e., the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Ying Zheng, the king of Qin, the Qin Empire founded a unified, centralized feudal autarchy, and Yingzheng called himself the First Emperor. Twelve years later, the First Emperor of Qin died during a tour. The whole country was thrown into chaos after his death, and the Qin Dynasty collapsed during the reign of the second emperor. As a representative of the literature of a generation, the literature in the Qin Dynasty should begin in 247 BCE when Ying Zheng succeeded to the throne. The literature in the Han Dynasty has a clear upper limit in the first year of the reign of Liu Bang (206 BCE), Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and the lower limit should end in 220 A.D., when the last emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Emperor Xian of Han, abdicated. However, the literature history of the Han Dynasty was more complicated. The Yellow Turbans Uprising that occurred in the first year of the reign of Emperor Ling of Han (184 A.D.) threw the country into chaos. Cao Cao seized the opportunity to grow strong. Soon, he forced Emperor Xian of Han to relocate to Xuchang and controlled the emperor in order to command the vassals. In 196 A.D., Emperor Xian of Han changed the title of his reign to Jian’an. During this period, Cao Cao was the real person in power. It should also be a new period for literature, which was known as Jian’an literature. In the 25th year of Jian’an (220 A.D.), when Cao Cao died, his son Cao Pi immediately proclaimed the title of emperor, calling his

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LITERATURE IN THE QIN AND HAN DYNASTIES

father Emperor Wu of Wei posthumously and himself Emperor Wen of Wei. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the “great unification” of the country last long enough for the centralized power to define and guide the development direction of culture, and literature developed along the same direction. From a macro perspective, ancient Chinese political thoughts and the system of academic thoughts initially took shape, with the popularization of culture during this period.

CHAPTER 7

Overview Cai Danjun

1

Establishment of Political Thoughts

The Qin and Han Dynasties ruled the country for more than 400 years, during which literature developed in parallel with politics. Politically, before the First Emperor of Qin unified China, the Chinese society went through long-term changes and fluctuations during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. As a result of the political reforms introduced by Shang Yang, the State of Qin revised the law, rewarded farming and warfare, advocated violence, imposed strict punishment, and strengthened social organization. Relying on these reforms, the State of Qin became increasingly prosperous and strong enough to finally enable the First Emperor of Qin to unify China. It replaced the enfeoffment system that had been implemented since the Western Zhou Dynasty with the system of prefectures and counties governed by the central government nationwide and established an autocratic centralized state system. The Qin Dynasty advocated cultural despotism, opposed the discussion of politics, especially opposed to people’s attack on the present with the past, and required “a clear distinction between black and white and respect for supreme imperial power”.

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_7

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The folk literature was relatively withered. The political essays of Li Si, the favorite minister of the First Emperor of Qin, and other ministers were the main forms of literature. These essays eulogized the rule of the Qin Dynasty. When the First Emperor of Qin traveled around the country, the eulogistic works written by Li Si and others were engraved on the rocks in various places and became part of the literature in the Qin Dynasty. In order to extend his power, the First Emperor of Qin turned to alchemy for elixir. Liu Xie said, “Although literature was not well developed in the Qin Dynasty, there were some miscellaneous works of fu” (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons Elucidation of Fu Rhapsodies ), and “Although the First Emperor of Qin burned a lot of classics, he also ordered his erudite to compose Xian Shi” (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons An Exegis of Poetry [Wen Xin Diao Long · Ming Shi]). Although some miscellaneous works of Fu and Xian Shi (Xian Zhen Ren Shi) were created, they have been lost. Although the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, it established the supremacy of the monarch as the most fundamental political concept of Chinese feudal society. Arguably, all of the literary works born in this period revolved around and served this concept. In the early days of the Han Dynasty, the rulers learned the lessons of the short-lived Qin Dynasty. Politically, they restored the enfeoffment system of benefiting vassals and princes who shared the same family name with the ruler, so as to consolidate the ruling foundation. Economically, a series of policies and measures to reduce the burden on farmers were adopted to restore and develop agricultural production. Ideologically and culturally, “governing by non-interference” proposed by the Huang-Lao school became the dominant thought. Emperor Hui abolished the “Statutes Forbidding the Possession of Books” implemented by the Qin Dynasty, and instead “collected and encouraged the contribution of books” (History of the Han Dynasty·Record of Literature and Arts ). Influenced by the hundred schools of thought since the Warring States Period, the vassals and princes in various places learned from the lords and officials in that period to attract various types of talents. The active and free philosophical and social thoughts in the early years of the Han Dynasty promoted academic and cultural development. Literary achievements in the early Han Dynasty were mainly manifested in the creation of political essays, ci and fu. In the early days of the Han Dynasty, men of letters still retained had the style of roaming scholars in the Warring States Period who liked to move around vassals

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and powerful people. They were concerned about the problems of the country and society and had the courage to express their own opinions, which promoted the development of political essays. During this period, Jia Yi was the most famous political essay writer. He paid attention to summarizing the experience and lessons of the Qin Dynasty as it grew from a weak state to a great power that lost the regime after having got it. He expressed his political views on how to consolidate the rule of the Han Dynasty and improve the centralized political system. These political essays are expansive, rational, emotional, and literally graceful in argumentation, and they had a significant influence on the prose creation after the Tang and Song Dynasties. The surviving Zhao Yin Shi was comparable to the works of Qu Yuan and Song Yu in terms of spirit and style, and it is considered an outstanding work by Jia Yi. He wrote Elegy about Qu Yuan (Diao Qu Yuan Fu) and Rhapsody of the Owl (Fu Niao Fu) to sigh his life experience and express his political ambition when he was banished to Changsha. In particular, Rhapsody of the Owl showed traces of the transition from Chu Ci (the verses of Chu) to Han-Fu (the prose in the Han Dynasty) in terms of system and writing style. Mei Cheng was an important writer during the reign of Emperors Wen and Jing of Han. He was famous for submitting a petition to the King of Wu Kingdom, remonstrating the king to abandon a rebellion plan. He wrote Qi Fa, which was characterized by a magnificent structure, diversified diction, and a unique writing style and pattern. This marked the formal appearance of prose-style fu in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the feudal dynasty of the Western Han Dynasty entered its heyday. After sixty or seventy years of recuperation since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the economy now recovered and developed. With rare gifts and bold strategy, Emperor Wu of Han managed both inside and outside the court well enough to further strengthen the feudal centralized system of the Han Dynasty. Accordingly, in terms of ideology and culture, the ruler paid supreme tribute to Confucianism while rejecting all other schools of thought. The development of literature during this period was also influenced. As an obvious change, the creation of ci and fu ushered in the peak of da fu. This genre of fu, often in a question-and-answer form, was intended as a subtle satire on the extravagance of emperors and aristocrats by describing their life. Such works were structurally magnificent to reflect the unparalleled spirit and prestige of the Han Empire. Influenced by Mei Cheng’s Qi Fa, representative writers of da fu in the Han Dynasty appeared, including Sima

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Xiangru, Yang Xiong, Ban Gu, and Zhang Heng. They were particularly good at detailed descriptions, “depicted the flourishing age”, and promoted the idea of great unification. Sima Xiangru was the most accomplished representative writer in the creation of Han-Fu. His Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous (Zi Xu Fu) and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park (Shang Lin Fu), with grand structures, excellent literary skills, and exaggerated descriptions, rendered the gorgeous Shanglin Imperial Park and the grand hunting events of the emperor of the Han Dynasty. These works attracted the attention of Emperor Wu of Han because they echoed his crave for greatness and success, and they also showed the characteristics of Han-Fu as a genre of court literature. Emperor Wu of Han was surrounded by Yang Xiong, Mei Gao, and others known as “servants of words”, in addition to Sima Xiangru. These people “thought about and discussed issues with the emperor and offer advice to him every day”. Aristocrats and ministers such as Ni Kuan and Dong Zhongshu also “wrote compositions occasionally”. Literature reached an unprecedented prosperous era. Yang Xiong was a famous writer of ci and fu in the late Western Han Dynasty. His Gan Quan, He Dong, Yu Lie, and Chang Yang were fu writings that imitated the works of Sima Xiangru and lacked creativity. Because he was talented and knowledgeable, some of his Fu works were smooth and imposing. In his later years, Yang Xiong recognized the fundamental weakness of Han-Fu that it was not helpful to remonstrating. He stopped writing Fu and put forward his own literary propositions in Fa Yan and his other writings, emphasizing the social role of literature and the unity of literary content and form. These views were progressive at that time. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu’s Rhapsody of the Two Capitals (Liang Du Fu) and other fu compositions were still shrouded by the political thought of great unification. In the mid and late Eastern Han Dynasty, important changes occurred in the creation of ci and fu. Firstly, lyrical fu became a new creation at that time. Secondly, works that satirized the times and the country increasingly appeared.

2

Establishment of Academic Pedigree

The establishment of academic pedigrees during the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties influenced the ideological expression and concrete representation of the literature in the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, academic pedigrees were in a primary stage of integration, among which

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Taoism in the pre-Qin period was especially favored during the Qin and Han Dynasties. Just right before the unification of the Qin Dynasty, Lü Buwei gathered his retainers to compile Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, which was considered as a comprehensive summary of the pre-Qin scholars’ theories in the Qin Dynasty. In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, lessons from the demise of the Qin Dynasty and the national recuperating policy brought the Huang-Lao school of thought back to life. To some extent, the active literary creations in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty showed a tendency to return to the pre-Qin period. Huai Nan Zi was the most representative work in this period. It was a philosophical work compiled by Liu An, the king of Huainan State, who was of imperial lineage in the Western Han Dynasty, and his retainers. The original book contained twentyone volumes of internal chapters, eight volumes of middle chapters, and thirty-three volumes of external chapters. So far, only the internal chapters have survived, and the Taoist thought is also the purpose and center of these works. The most important academic contribution of the Qin Dynasty was the unification of writing. In the Qin Dynasty, xiaozhuan was the unified style of writing. It was the standard writing for Li Si’s Cang Jie Pian, Zhao Gao’s Yuan Li Pian, and Hu Wujing’s Bao Xue Pian. Xiaozhuan played a vital role in the unification of the culture at that time and the development of the culture in the Han Dynasty. These three works were quite popular among scholars in the Han Dynasty and became important enlightening writing textbooks. Some people even combined them as one for the convenience of reading. It was on this basis that Yang Xiong compiled Xun Zuan, a reading primer, in the late Western Han Dynasty. According to legend, lishu, an official script, was invented by Cheng Miao also in the Qin Dynasty. Characters facilitated writing, and culture was an easy means of popularization. The unification of writing in the Qin Dynasty was an undeniable academic contribution. Emperor Wu of Han paid supreme tribute to Confucianism while rejecting all other schools of thought and strengthened centralization and political discourse power. The academic development revolved closely around this need, and various factions interpreting Confucianism began to develop in depth and breadth. This gave rise to the dispute between the new text Confucianism and the old text Confucianism. New text Confucians contended that the Six Classics (Liu Jing) were all written by Confucius, while old text Confucians believed that they were ancient historical subjects. New text Confucians contended that the Five Classics

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in the Han Dynasty were all complete versions, while old text Confucians believed that they were remnants left from the Qin Dynasty and contained mostly unreliable narrations. In the early days of the Western Han Dynasty, new text Confucians were dominant. Old text Confucians began to rise in the late years of the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Ai of Han (6 BCE), after the new text Confucianism was recognized as the standard text and an official position of chamberlain for ceremonial erudite was set up for it, Liu Xin wrote A Letter to Chamberlain for Ceremonial Erudite (Yi Rang Tai Chang Bo Shi Shu), arguing for a position of the old text Confucianism as standard text. Because not only the chamberlains for ceremonial erudite taking the teaching position in the court of the Western Han Dynasty were new text Confucians, but also dignitaries got official positions by learning the new text Confucianism. Therefore, Liu Xin’s request was opposed by the chamberlains for ceremonial erudite and failed. When Liu Xin later assisted Wang Mang in implementing ancient laws, the status of the old text Confucianism was improved. After Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty made those who studied The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals as chamberlains for ceremonial erudite, and Emperor Zhang of Han promulgated Bai Hu Tong Yi, a Confucian feudal code, the old text Confucianism gradually entered the rank of famous schools. The development of the history discipline system in the Han Dynasty was equally impressive. The birth of Records of the Grand Historian and History of the Han Dynasty (Han Shu) were the main achievements of the history discipline system in the Han Dynasty. Centering around biographies, Records of the Grand Historian not only created the “biographical” historiography, but also created history. Ban Biao, the father, and Ban Gu, the son, of the Eastern Han Dynasty spent more than two decades completing the first book of dynastic history, History of the Han Dynasty, in China. It recorded historical events spanning 230 years from the first year of the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE) to the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Wang Mang of the new dynasty (23 A.D.). The most commendable contribution of this book to the construction of historiography pedigree was the addition of Annals on Criminal Law (Xing Fa Zhi), Annals on Five Elements (Wu Xing Zhi), Annals on Geography (Di Li Zhi), and Record of Literature and Arts (Yi Wen Zhi). The prevalence of the prophecy theory in the Qin and Han Dynasties was also a special phenomenon at that time. Because the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han longed for

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elixir, the Yin-Yang School and necromancers were at one time favored from the Qin to Han Dynasties. This thought was reflected in the “false and deceitful statements” in the works of da fu in the Han Dynasty and the poems about wandering immortals in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, a great prophecy theoretical system was developed, and many related works appeared. Of course, this kind of falsehood was opposed by many people. Wang Chong completely denied this false theory from the perspective of academic principles. The tenet of his theory was the Taoist thought of natural inaction, and “Qi” was its core, including “vitality”, “energy”, and “harmony” in nature that constituted a huge model of formation of universe in opposition to the heaven– human induction theory. He advocated natural life and death, supported a simple burial ceremony, and opposed the deification of Confucianism. He verified his remarks with facts, made up for the defect of Taoist empty theory, and enriched the Taoist universe epistemology. He was an important inheritor and developer of Taoism in the Han Dynasty. His thoughts were mainly reflected in Discussive Weighing (Lun Heng), a classic book that criticized the problems of the times.

3

Social Mobility with Folk Cultures

From the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the literary development of the upper class yielded great achievements and folk cultures became increasingly popular and made their way to the upper class through specific channels. The establishment of Yuefu, a government office for collecting folk songs and ballads, and the creation of poems by middleclass and lower-class literati were very noteworthy. The debate between elegance and vulgarity ran through the development of ritual and music in the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, his uncle Shu Suntong established court ceremonies that let the emperor feel “the nobleness of being the emperor” and also realize the important role of the formation of state rituals and ritual music in establishing the order of a feudal dynasty. In the early Han Dynasty, Yuefu was established primarily to manage the music of suburban temples and court meetings. Emperor Wu of Han expanded the scale and function of Yuefu to collect folk songs extensively from all over the country to enrich the music of the court. Yuefu was originally an official office in charge of music that was established during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. It not only composed music for

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eulogistic poems written by literati, but also assumed the task of collecting folk songs of the Han nationality. The collected music and lyrics were later collectively called “Yuefu poems” or “Yuefu”. There are only more than 40 folk songs of the Han nationality surviving from Yuefu in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. Most of them came from people of the lower classes and had great reference value because they reflected some social contradictions at that time. Besides, the poems were simple, straightforward, unpolished, and aesthetically unique. The music played by Yuefu in the Western Han Dynasty included not only Songs to Pacify the World (An Shi Fang Zhong Ge) created by Tangshan Furen, a concubine of Emperor Gaozu of Han on the basis of the “Chu music” and Songs of Outskirts Sacrifice (Jiao Si Ge) created during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, but also fifty-five folk songs from all over the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, according to History of the Han Dynasty · Record of Literature and Arts. Most of them did not survive except Nao Ge Shi Ba Qu. Nao Ge was a military music, and its lyrics were difficult to comprehend, probably because of excessive errors in the text. Among them, there were also a few romances and chapters about tragic scenes on battlefields. They were understandable, recitable, and of some practical significance. Most of the existing folk songs from Yuefu in the Han Dynasty were works created during the Eastern Han Dynasty. In varied forms, these folk songs reflected the sufferings, thoughts, and feelings of ordinary people, and they were great achievements in the literature field during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Under the influence of folk songs and ballads from Yuefu, fivecharacter poems composed by literati emerged. The anonymous nineteen ancient poems were a mature collection of five-character poems created by literati in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It not only retained the simple, natural, and smooth style of folk songs from Yuefu, but also drew on the artistic techniques from The Book of Poetry and Verses of Chu. They tried to be neat under a simple and natural style. Plainness and smoothness were combined with pureness and elegance. Profound implications were hidden deeply under shallow appearance, and lasting affection was conveyed through short expressions. These characteristics made the poems much more expressive and lyrical, and they had a great influence on the development and emergence of the five-character poems in the later Wei and Jin dynasties.

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In the Eastern Han Dynasty, a new chapter was opened for the poetry creation of literati. Five-character poems replaced the traditional fourcharacter poems as a new style of poetry, and complete seven-character poems also began to take shape. Most of the literati poems in the Eastern Han Dynasty were written as independent chapters, with some attached to the end of fu and preserved to the present day as part of the fu. Attaching poems to the end of fu was a practice first seen in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was imitated by many later generations. Some of the five-character poems written by literati in the Eastern Han Dynasty had identifiable authors, while quite a few of them were anonymous or highly doubtful although the name of the author was marked. In particular, Nineteen Ancient Poems (Gu Shi Shi Jiu Shou) was a significant symbol for literati authorship of ancient poems from Yuefu. First recorded in Selections of Refined Literature, it included nineteen works selected by Xiao Tong in the Southern Liang Dynasty from the anonymous Ancient Poems (Gu Shi) handed down from ancient times. The editor put together these five-character poems whose authors could no longer be verified and named them Nineteen Ancient Poems, which was ranked at the top of the “miscellaneous poems” category and was regarded by later generations as a group of poems. Nineteen Ancient Poems was a collection of five-character poems developed from folk songs of the Han nationality in the Han Dynasty. The most common themes were a grief of parting, hesitation, and frustration, and the verses were full of negative thoughts and low mood. The book made great artistic achievements, reflected in a great expression of emotions, arrangement of contrast, conveying emotions through scenery description, and combination of emotions with scenery. The poems, with their contents and artistic techniques, mirrored the popularization of folk cultures and social mobility at that time.

CHAPTER 8

Literature in the Qin Dynasty Cai Danjun

The people of the Qin Dynasty were highly utilitarian and exclusive after Shang Yang introduced the political reform. They attached importance to practical functions and placed interests over righteousness. These traits were reflected in the literature of the Qin Dynasty as all for a purpose. After the First Emperor of Qin was enthroned, he implemented brutal cultural despotism of “burning the Confucian books and burying alive the scholars”. He destroyed almost all the books and records surviving from the pre-Qin period, blocked the academic development process, and banned channels of speech for all social classes. Therefore, it had been long acknowledged that literature was not well developed by the people of the Qin Dynasty. Nonetheless, in the literature development history of the Qin Dynasty, there was still something commendable. One was Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, completed right before the First Emperor of Qin unified the other six states. Guided by the Taoist thought, this book was rejected and attacked by the people of the Qin Dynasty after it came out, and Lü Buwei died in a foreign land. Besides, the political essays and stone inscriptions written by Li Si mainly for making suggestions to and praising the ruler of the Qin Dynasty

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_8

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and bamboo slips of the Qin Dynasty with literary qualities found in unearthed documents were also commendable.

1

¨ ’s ¨ Buwei and Master Lu Lu Spring and Autumn Annals

Lü Buwei was a famous minister of the State of Qin who served in the late years of the Warring States Period. He recruited retainers to write a book. He asked all his retainers to write down what they saw, heard, and thought as long as they were able to write. As a result, he received various contributions that touched upon almost all aspects of the academic field at that time. Lü Buwei believed that these materials could be used after Qin unified the other six states, so he organized talented men of letters to make some modifications and deletions to make it book and finally named it Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals. He hung this book at the gate of Xianyang City, announcing that anyone who could add or delete a word would be rewarded with a thousand pieces of gold. His action caused a huge sensational effect. Both Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals and Lü Buwei thus enjoyed a reputation that was spread far and wide to the eastern states, and the stereotype that “literature was not well developed by the people of the Qin Dynasty” was appropriately changed. This grand book was divided into twelve almanacs, eight examinations, and six discourses. Each of the twelve almanacs consisted of five chapters, and there were sixty chapters in total. Each of the eight examinations consisted of eight chapters (except You Shi Lan, which consisted of seven chapters), and there were sixty-three chapters in total. Each of the six discourses consisted of six chapters, and there were thirty-six chapters in total. There was also a chapter called Preface (Xu Yi). The whole book consisted of one hundred and sixty chapters. The twelve almanacs were written in the monthly order, and the articles were arranged logically according to natural changes: production in spring, growth in summer, harvest in autumn, and storage in winter. This was a worldly arrangement that respected the natural order and embodied the Taoist ideas about heaven as nature and social governance. The eight examinations were people-centered and basically included works that examined human feelings, covering topics such as people’s values, interpersonal relationships, and personal cultivation. The six discourses were based on human behaviors and affairs, including such aspects as behavior code, life principles, situational conditions, and geographical advantages. Obviously, instead

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of being a casual work, Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals was carefully planned, with arguments unfolded at the three interdependent levels of heaven, earth, and people to reflect the Taoist idea of following nature. On this basis, the authors attempted to summarize the historical experience of peace, chaos, survival, and demise, developed a deep understanding of the reasons for longevity, premature death, good luck, and ill luck, explained and verified all the phenomena in heaven, on earth, and among human beings, so as to present the truth of right and wrong, what was possible and what was not to people. Because it embraced the doctrines of various schools into a practical combination of literature about academic theories in the pre-Qin period, Liang Qichao called it “the ancestor of reference books”. Lü Buwei emphasized observance of the way of nature and sought right and legitimate ways of governance from the way of nature. According to the Preface, he took the example of the Yellow Emperor teaching Zhuanxu, a legendary monarch in ancient China, that there was heaven above and earth below, and they were the rules. As long as the country was governed according to the principles of heaven and earth, it would be prosperous and the people would be safe. Therefore, starting from Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, general principles became the standard for demonstration about the legitimacy of governance, and the value orientation of governance should be determined by the laws of heaven, earth, and nature. This was almost opposite to the political vision of the First Emperor of Qin to implement a centralized system in the whole country and give the emperor supreme power. Lü Buwei’s political motive to compile Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals was also reflected in the chapter Cha Jin Pian, in which it was argued that the formulation of policies must include an analysis of the situations. “When things change, it’s time to make a reform”. Some famous fables were also cited in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals to illustrate this idea of encouraging changes with the times. In October of the tenth year of Emperor Qin’s reign (237 BCE), Lü Buwei was dismissed and driven out of the capital. In the following year, he was demoted to the region of Shu. Worried and afraid, he killed himself with poisoned wine. It could be found that his action deeply offended the noble class of the Qin Dynasty. Comments on the thoughts in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals varied greatly after the Han Dynasty. In Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian showed his appreciation for Lü Lan, another name of the book, by listing it in parallel with The Book of Changes, The Spring and

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Autumn Annals, and Li Sao. Gao You in the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote a commentary on it, saying that this book “far excelled the achievements of scholars of different schools”. In History of the Han Dynasty Record of Literature and Arts, it was categorized as a miscellaneous book. Since then, it has not attracted the attention of Confucian scholars. It is hardly classified in the modern education system due to its complicated contents.

2

Li Si

Li Si (about 284 BCE–208 BCE), courtesy name Tonggu, hailed from Shangcai in the State of Chu. Li Si was a county official in his early years and was a disciple of Xunzi, with whom he studied the art of rulership. After finishing his study, he traveled to the State of Qin. He was very familiar with the academy institution and happened to be Han Fei’s fellow student. As a native of Chu who traveled westward to the State of Qin, he became famous for his article named A Letter to Remonstrate on the Expelling of Foreign Advisers (Jian Zhu Ke Shu). The article started with a description of the history about how the State of Qin became strong thank to foreign advisers since the reign of Duke Mu of Qin, and it tried to demonstrate that the state could not have been strong without the assistance of foreign advisers; the article then went on to draw an analogy with exotic female musicians and jewels that were loved in Qin, in order to persuade the King of Qin from valuing materials more than human resources. The article was well intended and always centered on the goal of “great unification”. It put forward the proposition from the perspective of the King of Qin’s unification of the country, proposed both positive and negative arguments, and pointed out advantages and disadvantages to illustrate the importance of foreign advisers to strengthening the country. This article impressed the King of Qin, Yingzheng, with its reasoning, wording, and eloquence, so he canceled the order of expelling foreign advisers and restored Li Si’s official position. Since then, Li Si’s status had been improved, and he replaced Lü Buwei as a core figure in the political think tank of the State of Qin. After Qin unified the country, Li Si discussed with Wang Wan and Feng Jie and decided to honor Yingzheng as the emperor. He was appointed as Counsellor-in-chief and participated in making laws and unifying the length of the axles of carts and the script. He opposed the enfeoffment system and advocated the system of prefectures and counties. He also insisted on dismantling walls in prefectures and counties and destroying

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civilian weapons. He suggested burning The Book of Poetry, The Book of Documents, and other works by the scholars of different schools and prohibiting private schools in order to strengthen centralized rule. During the Qin Dynasty, Li Si personally composed some eulogistic writings, and they were made into stone inscriptions in the famous mountains visited by the First Emperor of Qin on his inspection tours. Stone Inscriptions in Mount Tai (Tai Shan Ke Shi) recorded in Biographic Sketch of the First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang Ben Ji), which was Volume VI in Records of the Grand Historian were named by Li Si. Liu Xie commented that these inscriptions were “not magnificent and mellow enough”. This comment was made on the basis of a comparison with Feng Shan Wen in the Han Dynasty and may not be fair. In fact, the inscriptions, composed with particular choice of words and neat rhythm, could be deemed as a model for eulogistic articles in the Qin Dynasty. Other stone inscriptions on Langya Terrace, Zhifu, Dongguan, Jieshi, and Kuaiji were also mentioned in Records of the Grand Historian. As a whole, they were magnificent works. Stone Inscriptions in Mount Yi (Yi Shan Ke Shi) discovered in the fourth year (993) of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song shared the same theme with the stone inscriptions mentioned above: memorizing the feats of conquering the other six states and unifying the country. Both of them were spread far and wide. The implementation of Li Si’s political propositions had a profound influence on China and even the world, and it laid the basic foundation for China’s political system that lasted for more than two thousand years. After the First Emperor of Qin died, he made a secret plot with the chief eunuch Zhao Gao. They faked an imperial decree ordering the oldest son of the deceased emperor, Fusu, to kill himself, and his younger brother Huhai was made the Second Emperor. Slandered by Zhao Gao, Li Si was cut in two at the waist on the market place in the capital of Xianyang, and three generations of his family were extinguished in the second year of the reign of the Second Emperor of Qin (208 BCE). His recollection of a yellow dog in the eastern gate of his hometown became a common allusion in the literary works of later generations. Before he was executed, he said to his son, “How I wish I could go out with you and our yellow dog from the eastern gate of our hometown Shangcai to hunt rabbits, but unfortunately we will never have the chance to do so!” “A yellow dog in the eastern gate” was later used as an allusion for being too late to regret about misfortune brought by taking an official position.

CHAPTER 9

Literature in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties Cai Danjun

A total of 29 emperors ruled the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, which lasted for 405 years. They together made a very powerful unified dynasty in the Chinese history. It had a vast territory that extended to North Korea in the east, Vietnam in the south, Congling in the west, and Yinshan in the north, with a population about one-third of the world total. During such a period of great unification, literature developed splendidly, and many literary masters were born. Various literary styles such as Han-Fu, history books, Yuefu songs and poems, political essays, and literati poems all shined in the literary world and occupied an important position in the history of Chinese literature.

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_9

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1

Literature of One Generation---Han-Fu

Although fu as a literary genre originated in the Warring States Period, it was truly expanded and developed to make great ideological and artistic achievements in the Han Dynasty. Therefore, it was named “Han-Fu” in the history of literature. Fu was the first and foremost literary genre in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties and represented the highest achievement in the development of literature during this period. In The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons·Elucidation of Fu Rhapsodies, Liu Xie listed the following “masters of ci and fu” in the history of Qin and Han Dynasties: Xun Kuang, Song Yu, Mei Cheng, Sima Xiangru, Jia Yi, Wang Bao, Ban Gu, Zhang Heng, Yang Xiong, and Wang Yanshou. Of these ten masters, only Xun Kuang and Song Yu were from the Warring States, while the other eight masters were writers of fu from the Han Dynasty. Their works were also listed in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons·Elucidation of Fu Rhapsodies, including Mei Cheng’s Tu Yuan Fu, Sima Xiangru’s Zi Xu and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park, Jia Yi’s Rhapsody of the Owl, Wang Bao’s Dong Xiao Fu, Yang Xiong’s Gan Quan Fu, Ban Gu’s Rhapsody of the Two Capitals, Zhang Heng’s Rhapsody of the Two Metropolises (Liang Jing Fu), and Wang Yanshou’s Lu Ling Guang Dian Fu. These writers were called “masters of ci and fu”. At first, the creation of ci and fu in the Han Dynasty was most prosperous in the vassal states. Jia Yi, who was demoted to Changsha during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han wrote many articles of sao-style fu using the artistic technique of the verses of Chu. During the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, Mei Cheng, Zou Yang, and Yan Ji, who were retainers of Prince Xiao of Liang, were very famous. Mei Cheng’s Qi Fa was an early form of da fu in the Han Dynasty and had a profound influence on ci and fu in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. Yan Ji, originally known as Zhuang Ji, was said to “have written twenty-four pieces of fu” in History of the Han Dynasty · Record of Literature and Arts, but unfortunately, they did not survive. Another genre named xiao fu was also popular among men of letters in the vassal states. For example, the works of xiao fu written by Mei Cheng, Lu Qiaoru, Gongsun Gui, Zou Yang, Gongsun Cheng, and Yang Sheng which were recorded in Volume IV of Xi Jing Za Ji were short in length and mainly expressed gratitude

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for receiving help from seignior without showing too much sentiments or pursuit of artistic improvements. The local political power was dispersed, which also led to the diversified forms and styles of fu in the early days of the Han Dynasty. During this period, Jia Yi and Mei Cheng were the best writers of ci and fu, and they represented two different trends in the later development of Han-Fu. Jia Yi (200 BCE–168 BCE) hailed from Luoyang. He was gifted and famous when he was young, but he lived an eventful life. He was first appreciated by Emperor Wen of Han, but later he was elbowed out by other ministers and banished from court to Changsha. Sympathetic about Qu Yuan and Jia Yi, Sima Qian put them in a common biographic chapter, and thus both of them are often jointly called by later generations with the term “Qu-Jia”. Sima Qian put them in the same chapter probably also because two of Jia Yi’s works in the genre of sao-style fu were direct imitations of the verses of Chu to memorize Qu Yuan. These two works, namely Elegy about Qu Yuan and Rhapsody of the Owl were written by Jia Yi when he was demoted to Changsha. During the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Wen of Han (176 BCE), on his way to Changsha when he crossed the River Xiang, where Qu Yuan was exiled, Jia Yi wrote Elegy about Qu Yuan to mourn the sage. His deep sympathy about Qu Yuan was evident in the sorrowful tone throughout the rhapsody, and his criticism of the world that confounded black and white as well as right and wrong was bitter. Jia Yi also expressed his different view on Qu Yuan’s choice to commit suicide in this work, saying that Qu Yuan should have been “isolated and hidden from the chaotic times” and made himself safe by being worldly wise. This fu writing created a precedent of reminiscing Qu Yuan in Han-Fu. Since then, mourning Qu Yuan and imitating the verses of Chu became a trend in Han-Fu. For example, Nine Stanzas of Fond Reminiscence (Jiu Huai) was written by Wang Bao, a writer of ci and fu in the mid and late years of the Western Han Dynasty, to memorize Qu Yuan and was a close imitation of Li Sao. Rhapsody of the Owl was written slightly later. After living in Changsha for three years, Jia Yi caught an owl that flew into his house and expressed his sorrow and indignation through a question-and-answer dialogue with that ominous bird. He also tried to seek self-liberation from Zhuangzi’s thoughts on the equality between life and death and between weal and woe, and proposed a sensible outlook on life. This work reflected the profound influence of Huang-Lao school of thought prevailing in the early days of the Han Dynasty on Jia Yi.

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Mei Cheng (?–140 BCE), born in Huaiyin, served as an attendant of the instructor for Prince of Wu named Liu Pi and Prince Xiao of Liang named Liu Wu. He opposed to disruption and submitted written documents to urge the two princes to give up uprising, but in vain. Emperor Jing of Han appointed him Commander-in-chief of the commandery of Hongli. Later, he resigned due to illness. After Emperor Wu of Han was enthroned, he invited Mei Cheng to take over a post again. Mei Cheng, at an advanced age, died on the way in “an imperial low-vibration coach” that the emperor sent to pick him up. His most important work was Qi Fa, which was selected in Selections of Refined Literature as a model of ci and fu in the Han Dynasty. This rhapsody discussed seven matters in a pattern of questions and answers between the host and the guest, and this structure was inherited by later generations and became “the sub-genre of seven” in fu. It was considered as marking the start of da fu in the Han Dynasty and was also strongly influenced by the Huang-Lao school of thought. After Emperor Wu of Han promulgated “Tui En Ling”, a policy to weaken the power of feudal lords and to strengthen state power, the vassal states gradually declined and the power of political discourse returned to the central government. The soil that nurtured the prosperity of Han-Fu also moved from vassal states to the imperial palace. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, great masters of Han-Fu like Sima Xiangru appeared. Sima Xiangru (about 179 BCE–118 BCE), courtesy name Changqing, hailed from Chengdu of Prefecture Shu. During the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, he was appointed mounted attendant-inordinary. He was later removed from this post due to illness. In order to seek shelter from Prince Xiao of Liang named Liu Wu, whom he had made acquaintance with before, he traveled to the princedom of Liang, where he became friends with the prince’s attendant clerks Zou Yang, Mei Cheng, and Zhuang Ji. During this period, Sima Xiangru completed his first most work named Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous in the genre of fu. It did not receive much attention during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han, and it mainly embodied the Taoist thought of emptiness and tranquility, which shared the same ideological background with other fu writings in the vassal states at that time. After Emperor Wu of Han was

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enthroned, he happened to read Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and appreciated it very much. He thought that it was written by an ancient writer who was lamentably not his contemporary. Yang Deyi, who was taking care of the emperor’s hounds, was present and seized the opportunity to recommend his fellow townsman Sima Xiangru, who was the writer of the work. After Sima Xiangru was invited to the capital, he wrote Rhapsody on the Imperial Park, which was an account of a hunting event of Emperor Wu of Han. After this rhapsody was completed, Sima Xiangru was appointed as gentleman attendant. After taking this post, he was sent to Bashu to govern the local people’s livelihood. During this period, he wrote the text Yu Ba Shu Xi. Several years later, he was sent on a mission to southwestern China to make arrangements with the native tribes of that region. On that occasion, he wrote Nan Shu Fu Lao. Emperor Wu of Han was obsessed with pursuing immortal in his late years, and the outskirt Ganquan became a venue for sacrifice. To satirize this place, Sima Xiangru wrote Da Ren Fu. During this period, he might also participate in the production of outskirt sacrifice songs such as Nineteen Chapters of the Songs (Shi Jiu Zhang Zhi Ge). In the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (118 BCE), he was removed from the post due to illness and lived in Maoling afterward. Before he died, Emperor Wu of Han sent someone to fetch books from his house and found Feng Shan Wen. This article described the attributes of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) and strongly encouraged Emperor Wu of Han to offer sacrifices to heaven. “He reiterated this encourage three times in the article”. Selections of Refined Literature classified it with Yang Xiong’s Ju Qin Mei Xin and Ban Gu’s Dian Yin as a literary form of “fu ming” (meaning “omen foreshadowing a prince’s accession to the throne”). Throughout his life, the major works of Sima Xiangru served the great unification regime of Emperor Wu of Han. Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park laid the foundation for the prose-style fu in the Han Dynasty. Both of them took on the form of question-and-answer to describe the magnificence of a kingdom and an empire and praise the supreme power and supreme status of the emperor. In Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous, a man called Master Zixu of the State of Chu was sent on a diplomatic mission to the State of Qi. When the King of Qi asked about the State of Chu, Zixu tried his best to exaggerate the vastness and abundance of Chu and claimed that Yunmeng Lakes were only a small corner of its back garden. Another man called Master Wuyou was unconvinced and tried to triumph by introducing

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the famous seas and mountains, different places, and diverse species of Qi. The main implication of this work was to praise the imposing and magnificent Han Dynasty through such exaggerated descriptions. Rhapsody on the Imperial Park depicted the grandness of the Shanglin Imperial Garden and a hunting event of the emperor with his ministers in Shanglin, in order to show the prosperity of the Han empire. These two rhapsodies had a far-reaching influence as they established the basic system of da fu in the Han Dynasty from many aspects. First of all, in the choice of subject matter, they introduced description themes such as palaces, gardens, and hunting events for the prose-style fu in the Han Dynasty. Secondly, in terms of structure, the rhapsody structure that included the main body of praising the great unification and the central authority followed by satire on the supreme ruler became a major structural strategy of writing for later generations. Both of two rhapsodies unfolded through questions and answers between two imaginary figures instead of the common firstperson perspective in the verses of Chu, which allowed for richer depths of structure. Thirdly, their languages were completely independent of the influence of Verses of Chu and were unique with well-conceived structures, grand rhetoric, and varied sentence patterns. These linguistic qualities, when coupled with the extensive use of balanced and parallel sentences, constituted a magnificent composition with an exaggerated style. With varied sentence patterns and diversified rhythms, this linguistic style was a sharp contrast with the composed and lingering verses of Chu. After Sima Xiangru died, learning ci and fu became a tradition in his hometown, the region of Shu. Wang Bao and Yang Xiong both became men of letters who wrote fu in the region of Shu. Wang Bao, courtesy name Ziyuan, whose dates of birth and death are unknown, completed his literary works mainly during the reign of Emperor Xuan of Han (ruling from 73 to 49 BCE). His works included sixteen pieces of fu, including Dong Xiao Fu. He was as famous as Yang Xiong (courtesy name Ziyun), and they were collectively called “Yuan-Yun”. Wang Bao was most admired by later generations for his Dong Xiao Fu. This rhapsody established the basic system of object chanting rhapsody in the Han Dynasty. Dong Xiao, also known as panpipe, was a musical instrument that sounded clear and peaceful and that was used widely in palaces and civil society. Dong Xiao Fu not only described the origin of panpipe in the bamboo grove and its scenery, but also explained the engaging sound of this musical instrument through extreme depiction and exaggeration. With the tone of verses of Chu running through the whole text, the write

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described the sound, shape, vocal quality, and function of dong xiao at great length. The tone was harmonious, the description was meticulous, the image was clear, and the style was fresh. This rhapsody was selected in Selections of Refined Literature and became a model of object chanting rhapsody for later generations. Yang Xiong (53 BCE–18 C.E.), courtesy name Ziyun, hailed from Chengdu, Shujun. Though stuttering, Yang Xiong was studious, wellread, and good at writing ci and fu. At the age of forty, he began to travel to the capital Chang’an and was retained by the military officer Wang Yin as his subordinate, who also recommended him as a candidate official waiting for order to serve at the court. Later, he was recommended by Yang Zhuang, a native of Shu, and had the chance to be invited to the court by Emperor Cheng of Han, who loved ci and fu. He became an attendant to the emperor during sacrificial and hunting events and was appointed as gentleman attendant at the palace gate. Yang Xiong was one of the most important fu writers after Sima Xiangru. After having the chance to be a retinue of the emperor, Yang Xiong, who had been familiar with the fu writings of Sima Xiangru since young, began to write Gan Quan Fu, Yu Lie Fu, Chang Yang Fu, and He Dong Fu that imitated Sima Xiangru’s Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park. He wrote these works to praise the power, peace, and prosperity of the Han Empire. However, at this point, since the Han Empire was already beset by internal and external troubles, these fu writings that avoided reality and accomplished the very opposite simply presented a false appearance of peace and prosperity. In his late years, Yang Xiong maintained that “The fu writings of poets meet the standard although they are flowery, while the fu writings of ci and fu writers are too embellished to serve for the purpose of remonstrance”. He pointed out that “the fu writings of ci and fu writers” had the drawback of “being false and deceitful statements that accomplished the very opposite”. He rejected them as “insignificant skills” that “persons of exceptional ability should spurn”. These reflective views served as guidance for the fu writers in the Eastern Han Dynasty to correct the shortcomings of the prose-style fu in the Western Han Dynasty. Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty recommended Yang Xiong’s view on ci and fu creation proposed in his late years and shifted the function of

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Han-Fu from being “false and deceitful statements” to the correct track of “narrating the virtues of Han”. Ban Gu (32 A.D.–92 A.D.), courtesy name Mengjian, hailed from Anling, Fufeng. He was smart since childhood and studied history under the influence of his father. At the same time, he was good at literature. “He was able to write prose and recite poems and fu when he was nine”; later, he was admitted into the Imperial College in Luoyang, where he read extensively and went into the theories of various schools seriously. During the reign of Emperor Ming of Han, he served as an imperial secretariat. Ban Gu occupied an important position in the development of clues of Han-Fu. His Rhapsody of the Two Capitals introduced the theme of capital into fu writings and had a farreaching influence on later generations, as reflected in its direct influence on Zhang Heng’s Rhapsody of the Two Metropolises and Zuo Si’s Rhapsody of the Three Capitals (San Du Fu) in the Western Jin Dynasty. Rhapsody of the Two Capitals consisted of Rhapsody of the Western Capital (Xi Du Fu) and Rhapsody of the Eastern Capital (Dong Du Fu). Rhapsody of the Western Capital implied the superiority of the capital Chang’an from a perspective of an imaginary figure called Xi Dubin who described the strategic location, material affluence, and gorgeous palaces in Chang’an. Rhapsody of the Eastern Capital beautified and praised the various political measures taken after Luoyang was established as the capital in the Eastern Han Dynasty from the perspective of another imaginary figure called Master Dongdu, in order to prove that Luoyang was far more prosperous than Chang’an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty. Ban Gu’s Rhapsody of the Two Capitals drew structurally on Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park by combining two independent chapters as one. Rhapsody of the Two Capitals imitated Sima Xiangru’s Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous structurally and technically. Though from the perspective of two imaginary figures, the two chapters in Rhapsody of the Two Capitals were realistic descriptions and different from the false and deceitful statements mainly about a royal garden and a hunting event of the emperor against a fictitious setting in Sima Xiangru’s da fu writings. Rhapsody of the Two Capitals drew on Yang Xiong’s Rhapsody of the Capital of Shu (Shu Du Fu), but it creatively extended to the strategic mountains and rivers, internal layout, and magnificence of the capital. Because this rhapsody was created to express individual political views and even to participate in a debate, it was more evidence-based rather than as exaggerated and aggressive as Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and Rhapsody on the Imperial Park. It was aimed to express a thought and a view instead of a feeling or a spirit.

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It emphasized the ritual system and Confucianism. The elegant and beautiful language used to praise high moral behavior and demeanor of court ceremony fully manifested the aesthetic pursuit in that era. Ban Gu’s You Tong Fu was a masterpiece among the lyrical rhapsodies of the Han Dynasty. It expressed Ban Gu’s thoughts on universe, history, life, and other issues when misfortune suddenly befell his family. It was a self-statement of his thought and a vow to begin a writing career that he made when he was a young man. Ban Gu valued this sentimental work very much. He included this You Tong Fu in History of the Han Dynasty·Biography (Han Shu · Xu Zhuan) as an important part of his family history. The account about the vicissitudes of his family in this writing was particularly sincere and touching. Zhang Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty epitomized the thoughts of different schools. Zhang Heng (78–139), courtesy name Pingzi, hailed from Xi’e, Nanyang. He was an encyclopedic figure with outstanding achievements in astronomy, mathematics, geography, cartography, and literature. His ci and fu writings fully inherited the implication and expression techniques of fu writers in previous dynasties. His Rhapsody of the Two Metropolises (Er Jing Fu) imitated Sima Xiangru’s Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous and Ban Gu’s Rhapsody of the Two Capitals; Contemplating the Mystery (Si Xuan Fu) learned from Qu Yuan’s Li Sao and Ban Gu’s You Tong; Qi Bian emulated Mei Cheng’s Qi Fa and Fu Yi’s Qi Ji; Ying Jian modeled on Dongfang Shuo’s Da Ke Nan and Ban Gu’s Da Bin Xi. In addition, Rhapsody of the Southern Capital (Nan Du Fu) was influenced by Yang Xiong’s Rhapsody of the Capital of Shu, and Rhapsody of Dance (Wu Fu) was similar to one of Fu Yi’s works of the same name. Although these works were imitations and achievements at different levels, they truly showed Zhang Heng’s artistic creativity to varying degrees. Returning to the Fields (Gui Tian Fu) was a particularly creative work that marked the transition of Han-Fu from the detailed description, elaborate rhetoric, and priority of objects over emotions to freshness, conciseness, and mutual promotion of feelings and scenery, and it also opened the era of lyrical xiao fu. Zhang Heng’s recognized representative fu writings were Rhapsody of the Two Metropolises, Contemplating the Mystery, and Returning to the Fields. Rhapsody of the Two Metropolises was a complete imitation of Rhapsody of the Two Capitals in terms of writing structure and consisted of Rhapsody of the Western Region and Rhapsody of the Eastern Region. These two rhapsodies were systematically more grand, more detailed, and more

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special than those of Ban Gu. It not only described objects in four directions, palaces, animals, and plants like previous similar fu writings, but also introduced many folk customers. Contemplating the Mystery was written by Zhang Heng to express his sentiment. He lived in an age when the country was declining, and he was frustrated in his political career. Therefore, he “contemplated the doctrine of the mystery and wrote a rhapsody to express his aspiration”. Returning to the Fields was the first work in history to describe the joy of pastoral seclusion. It was not only the first complete lyrical xiao fu that survived from the Eastern Han Dynasty, but also the first existing relatively mature rhythmical prose-style fu. This marked a great change that Zhang Heng introduced to the genre of fu. Returning to the Fields included slowly rhymed sentences that depicted a leisurely lifestyle to express the writer’s determination to return to the fields after waking up to the reality.

2

Peaks of History Books---Records of the Grand Historian and History of the Han Dynasty

In the universe of literature during the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties, there were two shining star historians: Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty and Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The former created Records of the Grand Historian, the first general history of China by chronology, while the latter completed the History of the Han Dynasty, the first dynastic history in China. These two history books were of epoch-making and pioneering significance. They were often put together collectively, but each with their own characteristics. Sima Qian (about 145 BCE–90 BCE), courtesy name Zizhang, hailed from Longmen, Xiayang. Sima Qian lived in a time when the Han Dynasty was politically powerful and economically and culturally prosperous. His father was Sima Tan, an imperial astronomer under Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Tan was a very outstanding scholar at that time. His article Lun Liu Jia Yao Zhi systematically summarized the advantages and disadvantages of the schools of Yin-Yang, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, Names, and Taoism from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the early Han Dynasty, and spoke highly of the Taoist thought. From about 135 BCE to 110 BCE during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Sima Tan served as an imperial astronomer. Sima Qian received good education since he was a child, and he could recite ancient prose at the age of ten. At the age of

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nineteen, he began to travel from Chang’an to the Jianghuai Basin and the Central Plains, investigating customs and collecting legends wherever he went. During the first year of Emperor Wu of Han under the reign title of Yuanfeng (110 BCE), Sima Tan passed away. Three years later, Sima Qian inherited his father’s position to be an imperial astronomer. Due to this position, he had access to the official collection of books in the Han Dynasty and developed “Taichu Calendar” with the imperial officials Tang Du and Luo Xiahong. At the same time, he decided to inherit his father’s legacy and prepared to write a general history. Unfortunately, when Commander Li Ling was charged because he had submitted to the Huns, Sima Qian defended him and was put into jail and was even sentenced to death. In order to survive to finish Records of the Grand Historian, he suffered the punishment of castration instead. Records of the Grand Historian, originally known as “The Book of the Master Grand Scribe” (Tai Shi Gong Shu) or “Records of the Grand Scribe” (Tai Shi Gong Ji), covered a long time period of more than three thousand years, ranging from the age of the mythological Yellow Emperor to even the first four years of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. The whole book consisted of twelve imperial annals-biographies (records of the achievements of emperors of the past dynasties), thirty biographies of the houses of regional rulers (records of the rise and fall of vassal states, vassals and aristocrats in the Han Dynasty), seventy normal and collective biographies (records of the words and deeds of important figures, mainly ministers, including the last chapter of an autobiography), ten tables (chronological tables), and eight treatises (records of all kinds of laws and regulations, rituals, music, rhythms, calendar, astronomy, sacrificial offerings, water conservancy, and finance). There were 130 chapters and more than 526,500 characters in total. This history book was not only the top of the “Twenty-Four History books”, but also a very important literary work that strengthened a very important narrative tradition in the history of Chinese literature. The Records of the Grand Historian drew materials quite extensively. On one hand, the author inherited the account of history books from the pre-Qin period subjects and screened materials from works and national documents such as Shi Ben, Discourses of the States, A Record of the Qin Dynasty (Qin Ji), Spring and Autumn Between the Kingdoms of Chu and Han (Chu Han Chun Qiu), and works of scholars of various schools. On the other hand, Sima Qian also conducted field investigations to collect

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materials. Concerning incomprehensible issues, he adopted a skeptical attitude or recorded various opinions. The Records of the Grand Historian was a narrative classic that focused on a deeper exploration of the causal relationship of events and developed an independent school of its own by synthesizing various historical books of previous dynasties. This book had a criss-cross and mutually complementary structure. Longitudinally, the twelve imperial annals-biographies and the ten tables recorded different historical times before the middle period of the Western Han Dynasty. Laterally, the eight treatises, the thirty biographies of the houses of regional rulers, and the seventy normal and collective biographies covered all classes, nationalities, fields, and industries. The biographies of figures were guided by the principle of “exploring the interdependence between natural phenomena and human society and understanding the development and evolution of society from ancient times to the present”. Sima Qian often started the biographies from trivial details of life and then unfolded the life of the protagonists in a grand and magnificent setting intersected by a series of major events in the history. The subjects he chose were mostly significant. Instead of simply describing the historical process and the life stories of the characters in general, Sima Qian deeply contemplated on the historical laws and the fate of the characters, explored through the appearance to perceive the essence, and grasped the inevitable laws through contingency. As a result, the biographies in Records of the Grand Historian had both magnificent appearance and profound implications and showed a solemn and elegant style. Its most commendable narrative technique was “co-reference” that it invented. In Records of the Grand Historian, biographies at various levels were arranged in a chronological order while allowing for their internal connections and following the principle of categorization by similarities. When several characters were involved in the same event, the event was narrated in detail in the biography of one of the characters and was omitted in the biographies of the other characters. Sometimes it was marked with words like “refer to **”. This “co-reference” approach not only avoided repetition, but also helped highlight the main personal traits of the characters. For example, Xiang Yu was highlighted as a militant warrior unmatched in history in the Biography of Xiang Yu, and any anecdotes contradictory to this personal trait were mentioned in the other related biographies. This approach could focus on a dominant personal trait while completing the whole picture of a figure by mentioning his or her other characteristics somewhere else in the book. Records of the Grand

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Historian included numerous characters with distinctive personal traits. Not only characters of different types were depicted to have different personalities, but even those of the same type were rarely the same. Of the four lords who appreciated the value of scholars, Lord Xinling was depicted as standing out with his charisma, while the other three lords, namely Lord Mengchang, Lord Pingyuan, and Lord Chunshen were unique in their own way. Both Su Qin and Zhang Yi were strategists during the Warring States Period, but the former was portrayed as a hardworking man, while the latter was depicted as a cunning and tricky man. Both Zhang Liang and Chen Ping were important advisers to Liu Bang, but Zhang Liang was portrayed by Sima Qian as an elusive and somewhat mysterious man, while Chen Ping, as a brain truster, was more of human touch and not as sage-like as Zhang Liang. Even similar characters were so different from each other, characters of different types were even more contrasting in Records of the Grand Historian. The personalities of the characters were fully manifested in sharp differences and contrast. The Records of the Grand Historian was a book of grief and indignation, and it was penetrated by a thick tragic aura from a series of characters that carried a sense of tragedy. For example, political reformers Wu Qi and Shang Yang, and princedom regime opponents Jia Yi and Chao Cuo were all historical pioneers who sacrificed their lives for their own ideas; Tian Heng, an uprising leader who refused to surrender to the Han Dynasty, as well as his comrades and five hundred followers who sacrificed with him in the East China Sea, formed a tragic group that got lost and struggled desperately in a new society haunted by an old system. Chivalrous men Gongsun Chujiu and Cheng Ying, who made great sacrifices for the only child of the Zhao Family whose whole clan is massacred at the hands of a nefarious minister in The House of Zhao (Zhao Shi Jia) and the characters in The Assassins (Ci Ke Lie Zhuan) and Wandering Knights (You Xia Lie Zhuan) were all heroes of noble character and dedication spirit. Sima Qian praised Wu Zixu, who sacrificed personal interests, wiped out a grave disgrace, and went down in history as a honor. He also appreciated Yu Qing, Fan Ju, Cai Ze, Wei Bao, Peng Yue, etc., for their perseverance in writing and propounding ideas in spite of poverty, or for their growth to be stronger men against all odds, or for their aspiration to bring their potential into use even under punishment. These painful experiences were all tragic and implied personal feelings about life. When Sima Qian explored the cause of such tragedies, he showed doubts about God’s will and the elusiveness and uncertainty of fate.

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The Records of the Grand Historian was also a book of novelty. It included many legendary historical accounts because Sima Qian properly included adapted folk stories. For example, the stories about how King You of Zhou teased the dukes with a beacon and about the meeting between Zhang Liang and Yixia Laoren were legendary. The account about the whereabouts of the First Emperor of Qin in his late years included many weird anecdotes and traces of spirits to herald the end of the Qin Dynasty. The story about the rise of Emperor Gaozu of Han to the throne depicted his supernatural power by recounting how his mother Liu Ao gave birth to him after mating with a dragon and how he killed a giant snake when he was drunk. The Records of the Grand Historian had an extensive and far-reaching influence on ancient novels, plays, biographical literature, and prose. As the first masterwork focused on characterization of people in China, it provided an important foundation and many possibilities for the development of literature of later generations. Although it recorded the stories of real historic figures, the author showed different aspects of each character in many biographies from many perspectives and actually categorized the characters through a comparison of different characters and fictitious details. Such account allowed Records of the Grand Historian to shape a group of important archetypal character for the Chinese literature. Many of the various characters including emperors, heroes, knights, and officials in later novels and plays developed from those in Records of the Grand Historian. Many novels of later generations were inspired by Records of the Grand Historian, including typically Feng Menglong’s Records of the States in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (Dong Zhou Lie Guo Zhi). The Records of the Grand Historian was rated very highly by later generations. Liu Xiang said, “Erudite praised Sima Qian for his excellent quality as a historiographer and admired him for his outstanding reasoning ability. His arguments were prudential, and his language was not flowery. His style was plain but not vulgar. His articles were evidence-based. He recorded historical without hypocritical compliment and refused to cover up ugliness. Therefore, his records were truthful”. Records of the Grand Historian was praised by Mr. Lu Xun as “a masterpiece of historians and the rhymeless Li Sao”, and it was ranked at the

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top of the “Primary Four Historical Books”. Together with Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance (Zi Zhi Tong Jian), they were called “two stars of historiography”. Therefore, Sima Qian was honored by later generations as “Shi Qian” and “sage of history”. He and Sima Guang were called “two Sima in the field of history”, and he and Sima Xiangru were called “two writers of Sima in the Western Han Dynasty”. The History of the Han Dynasty was the first biographic-thematic style dynastic history book in China, covering historical events for 230 years from the first year of the reign of Emperor Gaozu of Han to the fourth year of the reign of Wang Mang and mainly around the Western Han Dynasty. It completed inherited the structure of Records of the Grand Historian, except changing “books” into “treatises” and incorporating “biographies of hereditary houses” into “individual and collective biographies”. The whole book consisted of twelve “imperial annalsbiographies”, eight “tables”, ten “treatises”, and seventy “individual and collective biographies”. There were one hundred chapters and more than eight hundred thousand characters in total. In Tang Dynasty, considering that History of the Han Dynasty was too voluminous, the historian Yan Shigu divided some lengthy volumes into two parts or three parts. As a result, the current version of History of the Han Dynasty consists of one hundred and twenty volumes. Built on the glorious success of Records of the Grand Historian, History of the Han Dynasty further developed in terms of style and content. It provided very informative historical facts and overlapped Records of the Grand Historian. The history of the Western Han Dynasty before Emperor Wu of Han was recorded in both books. In History of the Han Dynasty, this part of history mostly copied Records of the Grand Historian, but there were also additions, deletions, and modifications due to the different thinking and criteria of the author for material selection. For the historical events after Emperor Wu of Han, History of the Han Dynasty not only absorbed the writings of Ban Biao, the father of the author, and sequels of more than a dozen schools of thought, but also referred extensively to imperial edicts, official documents, poems and fu writings, and Han Zhu Ji (similar to records of emperors’ daily activities), astronomy and calendar books, and “hearsay” known to Ban Gu and his father Ban Biao. Many historical raw materials were included word for

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word by Ban Gu into the book, which made the book more of historical reference value than Records of the Grand Historian. Structurally, History of the Han Dynasty added Annals on Criminal Law, Annals on Five Elements, Annals on Geography, and Record of Literature and Arts. Annals on Criminal Law systematically described the evolution of the legal system and some specific laws and regulations for the first time. The Annals on Geography recorded the administrative divisions, historical evolution, and household registration numbers of the prefectures and states at that time, and the records about local products, economic development, and folk customs were relatively more noteworthy. Record of Literature and Arts examined and verified the origins of various academic schools and recorded surviving books—it is the earliest catalogue of books that has survived to this date in China. Annals on Food and Commodities (Shi Huo Zhi), which developed from Ping Zhun Shu, was more informative. It consisted of two volumes: one was about “food”, or agricultural economy, while the other was about “commodities”, or business and currency, and was an economic monograph at that time. Annals on Five Elements was a special account of the mysterious theories about catastrophes associated with the five elements, and a biography called Mu Xi Xia Hou Jing Yi Li Zhuan was specially included to record the life experiences of some masters of the five elements. The eight tables in History of the Han Dynasty included Table of Important Persons of Past and Present (Gun Jin Ren Biao), which was satirized and criticized by later generations for recording only “ancient” persons from the era of Emperor Taihao to Wu Guang while neglecting “present” persons. History of the Han Dynasty · The State Offices (Han Shu · Bai Guan Gong Qing Biao) was a very important table that explained the setting, limits of authority, and salaries of official positions in Qin and Han Dynasties, and it recorded the promotion, demotion, transfer, and dismissal of aristocrats and ministers in the Han Dynasty in a simplified table divided into fourteen grades and thirty-four official levels. The records of scholars in the individual and collective biographies in History of the Han Dynasty were mostly about their academic and political careers. For example, The Biography of Jia Yi (Jia Yi Zhuan) mentioned the “Policy of Public Security”; The Biography of Gongsun Hong (Gongsun Hong Zhuan) mentioned the “Policy of the Sages”. These were not included in Records of the Grand Historian. There were three biographies of the four barbarian tribes on the borders: The Biography of the Huns (Xiong Nu Zhuan), The Biography of the Southwestern Yi, Southern Yue, Min-Yue, and Koreans (Xi Nan Yi

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Liang Yue Chao Xian Zhuan), and The Biography of the City States of the Western Territories (Xi Yu Zhuan). However, Sima Qian and Ban Gu had different views and even disagreements when commenting on many specific persons and events, and Ban Gu even considered that Sima Qian was “absurd in judging the right and wrong of saints”. This change from Sima Qian to Ban Gu showed that Confucianism, as a feudal orthodoxy, had a profound influence on the field of history during the Eastern Han Dynasty. The History of the Han Dynasty recorded the people, objects, and events of different social classes under the spirit of “truthfulness” and in plain but vivid language, serving as a model for later biographical works, such as The Biography of Huo Guang (Huo Guang Zhuan), The Biography of Su Wu (Su Wu Zhuan), The Biography of Empresses (Wai Qi Zhuan), and The Biography of Zhu Maichen (Zhu Maichen Zhuan).

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Political Commentaries and Treatises: Literary Expression of Thinkers in the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties During the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, different thoughts developed vigorously, and a large number of political commentators and thinkers appeared. From the beginning to the end of the Han Dynasty, although these political commentators and thinkers stayed in different historical stages, they always cared about the political issues of the country and the suffering of the people. They had a broad social vision and all harbored the spiritual quality that linked themselves as intellectuals in the Han Dynasty closely with the fate of the country during their times. Their political essays and systematic philosophical treatises took on diverse literary forms and used extensive literary devices. These works were of high literary value and had a profound influence on the literature of later generations. New Talks (Xin Yu) was a collection of political essays written by Lu Jia, a thinker in the early Han Dynasty, and contained a total of twelve essays. Lu Jia (about 240 BCE–170 BCE) hailed from the region of Chu. When he was a young man, he became a follower of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, and he was often sent as an envoy to vassal states due to his eloquence. During the reign of Liu Bang and Emperor Wen of Han, he served as an envoy to Nanyue twice. He persuaded Zhao

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Tuo to accept the rule of the Han dynasty and contributed to the pacification of the country in the early days of the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Empress Dowager Lü, he suggested that Counsellor-in-chief Chen Ping might unite his wits with Commander-in-chief Zhou Bo in order to get rid of the Empress Dowager. Lu Jia’s New Talks was named by Liu Bang himself after the essays were collected as a book. It mainly discussed the causes of Qin’s demise and Han’s prosperity and the gains and losses in the world. These essays were intended to search a spiritual foundation for the rising Han Empire and to demonstrate its legitimacy from the cultural perspective. Lu Jia suggested summarizing the lessons from the collapse of Qin and advocated that the Han Dynasty should “support benevolence and righteousness and mitigate punishment, cut off the channels to seek personal interests and uphold morality and righteousness, eliminate adulatory courtiers and seek virtuous saints”. He criticized Qin for its excessive emphasis on “rule of law”, and he advocated “the combination of force and nonviolence and the mutual complement of morality and punishment”. He suggested that the government should reduce or exempt the people from taxes and corvee, bring them benefits, let them rest, avoid offend or interfere with them, and refrain from adding taxes. “The country should not implement unnecessary construction projects, and nor should families keep useless utensils. In this way, the labor of the people could be reduced and their taxes could be saved”. These theories became the theoretical basis for the recuperation policy implemented in the early years of the Han Dynasty. Lu Jia’s writing style was plain but not vulgar, and he did not pretend to be profound when presenting his arguments. He was a representative of the transition from the writings of the strategists in the warring states to the political prose in the Western Han Dynasty. New Writings (Xin Shu) was a political treatise written by Jia Yi, a thinker living in the early years of the Han Dynasty. It consisted of 58 articles, compiled by Liu Xiang. Jia Yi is introduced above in the section of Han-Fu. His political essays were best in the Western Han Dynasty and were in fact far exceeded his Han-Fu writings. His political essays basically summed up the lessons from the demise of the Qin Dynasty, developed the people-oriented thought in the pre-Qin period, and made important contributions to the consolidation of political power and improvement of the feudal system in the early years of the Han Dynasty. His propositions such as withdrawing power from vassals, limiting tyrannical powers, strengthening centralization, valuing agriculture, and belittling commerce

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were aimed to maintain social stability and develop agricultural economy, and they were valued by the ruler and were implemented for the governance of the country. In this treatise, the most famous essays were Lun Ji Zhu Shu, Chen Zheng Shi Shu, and Guo Qin Lun. The Lun Ji Zhu Shu was a memorial that Jia Yi wrote at the age of 23 to Emperor Wen of Han. In this memorial, he suggested that the emperor should attach importance to agricultural production in order to increase the storage of grain. This memorial was a direct expression of political views and included clear opinions, sharp arguments, rigorous demonstration, good use of contrast, smooth writing style, and strong persuasion. It was a representation of the legacy of diplomatists in the warring states and had far-reaching influence on the formulation of economic policies in later dynasties and the development of political essays of later generations. This memorial was included in History of the Han Dynasty·Annals on Food and Commodities. The Chen Zheng Shi Shu, also known as Policy of Public Security, was a memorial in which Jia Yi analyzed the political situation and put forward countermeasures for the emperor. His most famous political essay was for his Guo Qin Lun, in which he summarized the lessons from the demise of the Qin Dynasty, and this essay was rated by Lu Xun as “a masterpiece in the Western Han Dynasty”. The Guo Qin Lun discussed the faults of the Qin Dynasty. Consisting of three chapters, it was included in Volume I of New Writings, Volume 51 of Selections of Refined Literature, and Records of the Grand Historian·Imperial Annals—Biography of the Qin Dynasty (Shi Ji · Qin Ben Ji), Records of the Grand Historian·Biography of the House of Chen She (Shi Ji · Chen She Shi Jia), and History of the Han Dynasty. This essay recounted historical facts, made comments, elaborated argument, and provided thorough insight. Rich Dew of the Spring and Autumn Classic (Chun Qiu Fan Lu) was a political and philosophical treatise written by Dong Zhongshu. In this treatise, Dong Zhongshu talked about the success and failure of The Spring and Autumn Annals, and wrote dozens of essays including Wen Ju, Yu Bei, and Fan Lu. Fan Lu was one of his several essays about the series of The Spring and Autumn Annals. “Fan” in Chinese means “rich”. In The Rites of Zhou · Chun Guan Da Si Yue, Jia Gongyan added annotations to this treatise, saying that Rich Dew of the Spring and Autumn Classic was an extension and implementation of the great principles in The Spring and Autumn Annals. Under the framework of Yin-Yang and the five elements and with the heaven–human induction theory as its core,

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this treatise advocated “the three grades of human nature”, “the origin of the three principles of feudal moral conduct from heaven”, and the circulation and change of history according to the orders of Black, White, and Red systems. These ideas laid a theoretical foundation for the centralized feudal ruling system of the Han Dynasty. “The three grades of human nature” meant that saints were born good, villains were born evil, and those in the middle could be good or evil. This theory further claimed that good saints were born rulers, those in the middle could improve through education, while villains were “narrow-minded” and had to be subjected to the rule of saints. In short, this treatise reflected the author’s whole philosophical system centered on the Confucian and patriarchal thoughts and mixed with the theories of Yin-Yang and five elements. It had a significant effect and influence on the development of the feudal society in China. The Huai Nan Zi was a collection of essays compiled by Liu An, the lord of Huainan, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. It was also known as Huai Nan Hong Lie and Liu An Zi. Huai Nan Zi consisted of twenty-one inner chapters about Taoism and thirty-three outer chapters about miscellaneous theories. So far, only the twenty-one inner chapters have survived. On the basis of inheriting the Taoist thought in the pre-Qin period, this book synthesized the essential theories of different schools of thought. Under the superficial appearance as a Taoist book about seeking instructions from immortals and drawing on the thought of the Huang-Lao school was, in fact, Liu An’s understanding of the politics at that time: he cited the Huang-Lao thought in the early Han Dynasty to counteract the rising Confucianism and even believed that the emperor alone, even with all his wisdom, could not govern the country well. Specifically, Huai Nan Zi was an all-encompassing and inclusive book of both historical and literary value. The inner chapters were about Taoism, and the outer chapters were about miscellaneous theories. On the basis of inheriting the Taoist thought in the pre-Qin period, this book synthesized the essential theories of different schools of thought. It was a combination of inaction and action and emphasized practical applications of theories. Huai Nan Zi played an irreplaceable role in helping later generations study the culture of the Qin and Han Dynasties. For example, it explained a well-known philosophical thought that “misfortune might be a blessing in disguise”.

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Discussions on Salt and Iron (Yan Tie Lun) was compiled by Huan Kuan and consisted of ten volumes and sixty chapters. It was a collection of political prose based on the reports of salt and iron meetings convened in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Zhao of Han (81 BCE), and it was a collective reflection of the social problems in the middle years of the Han Dynasty. It vividly recorded the debate between Censor-in-chief Sang Hongyang and “sages” and “scholars” summoned from all over the country. It preserved many historical materials about the economic thoughts and customs in the middle years of the Western Han Dynasty and exposed some social problems and contradictions at that time. In terms of writing style, it generalized and summarized several characters with distinctive personality traits. Some of the characters were described in vivid language and with strong emotion. The book took on the form of dialogue, and the chapters were interdependent, which was a technique rarely seen in prose works. On the whole, the writing was a little rigid. This book provided rich historical materials for the study on the social contradictions at that time and on Sang Hongyang’s thought. When commenting on this book, Wang Chong acclaimed, “When you cut something with two knives, you will know which one is sharp and which one is not; when two different viewpoints are confronted, the right and wrong will be evident naturally”. New Discussions (Xin Lun) was written by Huan Tan and consisted of twenty-nine chapters. Likewise, it focused on “current affairs”, namely the current political and social situation. It “cited ancient examples to illustrate current affairs” and was interested in “promoting governance”. The core of “promoting governance” proposed by Huan Tan was a way of governance that “combined Confucianism with Legalism”. According to this idea, the government should remove evils, bring prosperity to the people, education the people rite and morality, strengthen imperial power, unify laws, set strict discipline to all officials, urge enforcement of orders, put people’s livelihood first, and prevent political corruption. Huan Tan strongly opposed prophecy. In Xin Lun·Qian Fei, he cited an example of Wang Mang, who believed in prophecy, to discuss that his regime was destroyed because of poor governance against the country, not God’s will. Therefore, as far as Huan Tan was concerned, winning popular support and being reasonable were the only beneficial ways of governance. In terms of literary criticism, New Discussions expressed many views on creation and the literary genres of ci and fu. Taking Yang Xiong’s fu writing as an example, it discussed the hardship of authorship and

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indicated that it was painstaking to compose “magnificent works” as the authors had to “contemplate carefully” and “overtax their nerves”. In terms of creation techniques, Huan Tan proposed the theory of “fu xi xiang shen”, meaning that it was important for authors to be concentrated on creation and to imitate unremittingly to be “skillful” and “remarkable” through repeated creative practice. New Discussions also discussed the importance of creative environment and cited the examples of Jia Yi, Sima Qian, Liu An, and Yang Xiong to illustrate how authors could write energetically when times got rough. New Discussions mentioned repeatedly that authors needed “bosom friends” for their literary creation, which was actually an early literary acceptance theory. Wang Chong, a thinker in the Eastern Han Dynasty, spoke highly of New Discussions, thinking that this book “commented on social problems, distinguished right from wrong, and disproved all false remarks and statements”. In History of the Later Han Dynasty (Hou Han Shu), Fan Ye recommended Huan Tan as well as Du Lin, Zheng Xing, and Chen Yuan as “masters of scholars”. Discussive Weighing was written by Wang Chong (27 A.D.–about 97 A.D.), courtesy name Zhongren, a native of Shangyu, Kuaiji. Discussive Weighing consisted of 85 surviving essays, of which the core idea was “explaining the doubts in the world and distinguishing right from wrong”. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the mixture with the prophecy theory gradually turned the Confucian thought into the highly mysterious “Confucianism”. Wang Chong opposed the ideological foundation of the founding of the Han Dynasty, namely, Dong Zhongshu’s “heaven– human induction” theory, as well as the mystical interpretations and views on everything else based on this. The gist of “heaven–human induction” was “the emperor of heaven” consciously created man and grew “five grains and all creatures” for human beings; he also consciously gave birth to emperors to rule the people and establish an “order” of rule. Discussive Weighing appeared during the period of great unification when Confucianism and prophecy theology were combined to become the orthodox thought of the ruling class. It dared to challenge the authority of Confucius and Mencius, denied the existence of ghosts and gods, and established a relatively complete ancient materialism system. It was of great significance the philosophy history and had a profound influence on the philosopher Yang Quan in the Wei and Jin dynasties, the thinker He Chengtian in the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, the atheist Fan Zhen in the Qi and Liang dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty, and the thinker Wang Fuzhi

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in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Many parts of Discussive Weighing were associated with literary criticism. For example, it maintained that literature should encourage and admonish people to be virtuous while eliminating and punishing evil, oppose falsehood, advocate “heartfelt sincerity”, and oppose exaggeration and excessive embellishment in articles. It criticized Han-Fu for allowing “the flowery and magnificent rhetoric to overwhelm the allegorical meaning” and denied unofficial histories and miscellaneous theories. Wang Chong believed that since ancient and present languages were different, writers should not over-emphasize quaintness or abstruseness. He argued that essays should be practical, easy to understand, and consistent with its language. He especially emphasized that the value of an essay lies in its originality. He rejected excessive imitation and inheritance and advocated “unique insight”. According to Discussive Weighing, the value of a work should not be measured by the differences of the times but should be recognized for its own sake. “The society tends to prefer the ancient times to the contemporary times, thinking that contemporary books are not as good as ancient books. In fact, they are the same. It’s just that some of the writers are talented, while others are not; some of their opinions are right, while others are wrong”. Thus, “writers, be them ancient or contemporary, are different only in talent; essays, be them old or new, are different only between truthfulness and falsehood”. Wang Chong was a realist writer and advocated writing about contemporary people and affairs. The clear standpoint of this treatise reinforced the strong emotions and the unrestrained style often found in it. The author expressed his own opinions, suppressed falsehood, and promoted truthfulness through sharp criticism. In terms of material selection, the problems discussed in Discussive Weighing were all about the survival, thinking, talent, and self-cultivation of the people living in a big era, and the book showed a deep concern for the people themselves. Because Discussive Weighing focused on refutation, its argumentation was often logical and provided good analysis with clear reasoning and discussion. Moreover, it demonstrated remarkable literary grace and demeanor.

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4 The Rise of Chanting Poems, Yuefu, and Five-Character Poems in the Late Years of the Han Dynasty The regime of the Western Han Dynasty had a deep relationship with the culture of Chu. The chanting poems in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty were mostly songs of Chu. Songs of Chu covered two subjects: one was political lyric poetry, while the other was assistance to the ruler and eulogy of the country. Examples of the former included The Last Song (Gai Xia Ge) by Xiang Yu, A Great Wind (Da Feng Ge) and Song of Swan (Hong Hu Ge) by Liu Bang, Song of Pestle (Chong Ge) by Concubine Qi, etc. Examples of the latter included Songs to Pacify the World by Tangshan Furen, etc. Songs of Chu sounded sorrowful and desolate. During his reign, the chanting poems written by Emperor Wu of Han retained the characteristics of songs of Chu. During the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, under the title of Yuanding (113 BCE), the emperor visited Fenyang County, Hedong Prefecture, with a group of his ministers to offer sacrifices to the God of the Earth. It was a bleak windy day in autumn, and swan geese were flying back to the south. On a towered ship floating on Fenhe River, Emperor Wu of Han, in the middle of a banquet, was stirred by the sight and felt sentimental. So, he wrote Autumn Wind Rhyme (Qiu Feng Ci). This chanting poem has always been considered as a masterpiece about a sad mood for autumn. It read: “Autumn wind rises, white clouds fly. Grass and trees wither, geese go south. Orchids all in bloom, chrysanthemums smell sweet. I think of my lovely lady, I never can forget. Floating-pagoda boat crosses Fen River. Across the mid-stream white waves rise. Flute and drum keep time to sound of rowers’ song. Amidst revel and feasting, sad thoughts come. Youth’s years how few! Age how sure!” The poem began with a description of the sight, followed by the lively singing and dancing feast on the towered ship, and finally ended with a lament for the destruction of extreme happiness, aging, and the passing of time. Bailiang poems that appeared during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han were word games between the emperor and his ministers, but they were important and developed into a poetry genre called Bailiang style. During the third year of the reign under the title of Yuanfeng (108 BCE), Bailiangtai, a palace, was built, and Emperor Wu of Han threw a banquet in this building to entertain his ministers. Each of them was invited to make up a sentence, and all of the sentences were combined into a couplet

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of twenty-six rhyme sentences. This was call “Bailiangtai couplet” in the poetry history, and the poem was Bailiang style. The restoration of Yuefu by Emperor Wu of Han greatly promoted the development of chanting poems in the Han Dynasty. Before the reign of Emperor Ai of the Western Han Dynasty, Yuefu was a permanent music bureau of the imperial court. Its chief executive was the music officer who was subject to the Chamberlain for the Palace Revenues and was one of its sixteen subordinate assistant officers. In the Western Han court, the Grand Director of the Music Bureau was also responsible for music management and was subject to the Chamberlain for Ceremonials. Yuefu and the Music Bureau were two different administrative systems and assumed generally clear separate functions at first. The Music Bureau was in charge of the music of suburban temples which was ancient music handed down from previous generations. Yuefu was in charge of the music played for the emperor and the court. It was not traditional ancient music, but popular melodies based on Chu music. The first Yuefu poem sung with Chu music was the 17 chapters of Songs to Pacify the World. In addition, the chanting poem A Great Wind written by Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han, was sung with Chu music during the sacrificial ceremony in the Prime Temple in Peixian County and was also managed by Yuefu. Yuefu poems in the Han Dynasty touched upon a wide range of themes, and the writers were distributed in all social classes. Some of them were written by the emperor, while others were written by ordinary people. Some of them were written in temples, while others were collected from the civil society. About 40 Yuefu poems have survived today, and they are treasures of chanting poems dating back to the Han Dynasty. They cover various themes and different styles, truthfully reflecting the social realities and thoughts in the Han Dynasty from multiple perspectives. One of the themes was the wailing of the bottom class. For example, Out of the East Gate (Dong Men Xing), A Wife Was Sick (Fu Bing Xing), and The Orphan (Gu Er Xing) in Xiang He Ge Ci depicted the sufferings of ordinary people and the groaning cry from the bottom of society. In Out of the East Gate, “There was no rice in the clay basin, neither was their cloths hanging on the shelf”. The man who lived in this poor family drew his sword and took the road of resistance. A Wife Was Sick told the story of a housewife who had been ill for years finally had to leave her child to her husband when she was dying. After she died, her husband had to beg along the street, and the orphan cried for his mother

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at home. In An Orphan, there was an orphan who was abused by his brother and sister-in-law and tasted all the bitterness of life. These works straightforwardly revealed not only the economic difficulty and hard work of ordinary people but also their spiritual pain and emotional torment through their dialogues, actions, and inner monologues. These chanting poems showed deep sympathy for the poor people who struggled on the brink of death, and they compassionately complained about the misfortune of the poor people. Another theme was the joy of the upper class. Also, in Xiang He Ge Ci, Ji Ming, Xiang Feng Xing, and Chang’an You Xia Xie Xing told different stories of prosperity. The Xiang Feng Xing depicted a gorgeous mansion of an assistant minister. The Ji Ming and Chang’an You Xia Xie Xing provided more thorough descriptions of the prominent positions of the characters. The paragraphs about three women making cotton cloth and playing a string instrument in these chanting poems were taken out to be a new poem called “San Fu Yan”. The images of the three women appeared frequently in ancient Yuefu poems and became an epitome of a wealthy family and a symbol with a specific meaning. There were many other Yuefu poems in the Han Dynasty that portrayed the daily customs and life at that time. For example, The Rising Sun from Southeast Nooks (Ri Chu Dong Nan Yu), also known as Mulberry Trees on the Waterside (Mo Shang Sang), a poem collected in New Songs from a Jade Terrace (Yu Tai Xin Yong ), was mainly about a mulberry harvester named Luo Fu sternly refuting the harassment of a prefecture chief. When being molested by a man of power, Luo Fu responded tactfully and rejected his unreasonable demand by praising her husband’s talent and appearance. Qin Luofu embodied the faithfulness and wisdom of traditional women and established the image of a brave and faithful woman. This poem provided a complete narrative and well-arranged characterization in elaborate details or with a brief sketch. Love and marriage were common themes in Yuefu poems in the Han Dynasty. Heaven, Alas (Shang Xie) was one of the eighteen cymbal songs collected under the type of drum-and-pipe melodies, and it was a vow of a woman. Another cymbal song called There is someone I think of (You Suo Si) reflected the psychological change from love to hatred and response of an unmarried woman to her unfaithful suitor. The most important

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Yuefu poem in the Han Dynasty was An Old Poem Composed for the Wife of Jiao Zhongqing (Gu Shi Wei Jiao Zhong Qing Qi Zuo). Because the first verses of the poem were “Peacocks fly to the southeast, at each five miles they look back from the sky”, the poem was also known as Peacocks Fly to the Southeast (Kong Que Dong Nan Fei). It was the first long narrative poem in ancient China and represented the pinnacle of the development of Yuefu poems in the Han Dynasty. Later generations call it and Mulan Poem (Mu Lan Shi) in the Northern Dynasty as “two stars of Yuefu”. It told a story of how a couple Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi were forced to separate and committed suicide. It praised the true love and resistance spirit of the couple and criticized the ruthlessness of Jiao’s mother and Liu’s brother as oppressors. The story was appropriately complicated, and the characters were portrayed vividly. Not only Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi were depicted as a couple with mutual affinity and unyielding integrity, but also the stubbornness of Jiao’s mother and the rudeness of Liu’s brother were well shown. The poem ended with a myth of the couple turning into a pair of peacocks after their death. This ending expressed infinite sadness for this marriage tragedy and good wishes for the couple to live a happy life after death. Similar to the mature and widely used five-character folk songs, the five-character poems of literati in the late years of the Han Dynasty also ushered in a prosperous stage and made fruitful achievements. Cai Yong was a typical poet of five-character poems in the late years of the Han Dynasty. Cai Yong (132–192), courtesy name Bojie, hailed from Chenliuyu (now Chenliu Town, Kaifeng City, Henan Province). In the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when minister Dong Zhuo was in power, Cai Yong served as the Deputy General of Left Brave Guard and was hence called “Deputy General Cai”. During the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, Cai Yong was one of those who publicized the correct wording of the six classics of Confucianism, and they composed Stone Classics from the Xiping Reign (Xi Ping Shi Jing ), a work that made important contributions to the development of Chinese ancient culture. Cai Yong was familiar with classical works and history and was a good ci and fu writer. He was particularly good at writing five-character poems. His most famous poem was Yin Ma Chang Cheng Ku Xing included in New Songs from a Jade Terrace, and the poem was about the sorrow, bitterness, and solicitude of a man serving as an official away from home. “A traveller comes from faraway, and brings me two fine carps. I call the boy to cook them, and find in them a message on white

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silk. I kneel to real—What does his letter say? ‘Take good care of your health,’ he starts, and ends, ‘You are every moment in my thoughts’”. These verses truthfully revealed a wanderer’s sad sentiment of missing and fermented longing for a letter from home. The most artistically accomplished five-character poem by literati in the late years of the Han Dynasty was Nineteen Ancient Poems selected in Selections of Refined Literature. It was an important symbol of the authorship of ancient Yuefu poems changed to literati. Usually, the title of each poem in Nineteen Ancient Poems was their first verse, respectively: Marching on and on (Xing Xing Chong Xing Xing), Green, Green Grass on the Riverbank (Qing Qing He Pan Cao), Green, Green Cypress on the Mound (Qing Qing Ling Shang Bai), Today We Hold a Splendid Feast (Jin Ri Liang Yan Hui), A Tall Tower in the Northwest (Xi Bei You Gao Lou), Crossing the River to Pick Hibiscus (She Jiang Cai Fu Rong), The Clear Moon Shines Brightly by Night (Ming Yue Jiao Ye Guang), Frail Bamboo Growing Alone (Ran Ran Gu Sheng Zhu), In the Courtyard there is a Strange Tree (Ting Zhong You Qi Shu), So Remote, the Draught Ox Star ( Tiao Tiao Qian Niu Xing), I Turn the Carriage, Pull the Reins and Set Off (Hui Che Jia Yan Mai), The Eastern Wall is High and Long (Dong Cheng Gao Qie Chang), I Ride My Chariot from the Upper East Gate (Qu Che Shang Dong Men), The Departed Are More Distant Daily (Qu Zhe Ri Yi Shu), The Years of Life Reach Not One Hundred (Sheng Nian Bu Man Bai), Bitterly Cold, the Year Ends (Lin Lin Sui Yun Mu), In the First Month of Winter, Cold Air Arrives (Meng Dong Han Qi Zhi), A Traveler Came from Faraway (Ke Cong Yuan Fang Lai), and Bright Moon So White (Ming Yue He Jiao Jiao). The concern for the value of individual survival allowed the literati in the late years of the Han Dynasty to build wider and deeper emotional connections with the social and natural environments in which they lived. In the past, everything associated with external achievements such as temple sacrifices of emperors and vassals, political and military achievements, hunting and amusement events, and even capitals and palaces were prevailing themes of literary works. In the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, these themes were taken less and less seriously, while real life, the advance and retreat of literati, friendship, and love, and even

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streets and fields, phenology, and solar terms gradually became the mainstream themes. Relevantly, great changes occurred in style and technique. Nineteen Ancient Poems expressed nostalgia about hometown and relatives in Crossing the River to Pick Hibiscus and The Departed Are More Distant Daily, the deep longing and affection of a lovesick wife to her wandering beloved one in Bitterly Cold, the Year Ends, A Traveller Came from Faraway and So Remote, the Draught Ox Star, and the feeling of wanderers about their survival status and their life philosophy in I Turn the Carriage, Pull the Reins and Set Off, and The Clear Moon Shines Brightly by Night. In short, these nineteen poems expressed the most basic and common emotions and thoughts in life, so readers of different generations can often gain new insights every time they read them.

PART III

Literature in Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties

220 A.D.-589 A.D.

CHAPTER 10

Overview Cai Danjun

Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties included four historical periods of 370 years: the Three Kingdoms (220–280), the Western Jin Dynasty (265–316), the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317–420), and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420–589). The incessant fighting between warlords in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty finally resulted in the formation of Three Kingdoms: Wei, Shu, and Wu. Shortly after the Western Jin Dynasty unified China, the rebellion of eight princes occurred, followed by the emergence of Sixteen Kingdoms of the Wu Hu ethnicity in the Central Plains and its surrounding areas. The Eastern Jin regime jointly established by the northern and southern aristocrats retreated to the left side of the Yangtze River and prevented the cavalrymen of the Hu people from going south. Liu Yu established the Liu Song Dynasty. After the following Qi, Liang, and Chen Dynasties, the society was relatively stable, and Jiangnan was developed on an unprecedented scale. In 439, the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the north. Afterward, Emperor Xiaowen strongly promoted the reform of assimilation by the Han nationality, and the reform was very effective. The capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty was relocated to Luoyang, and the country was flourishing. After riots broke out in six

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_10

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towns in the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was split into the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty, which were later replaced by the Northern Qi Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, respectively. As a result, there had been a long-term confrontation between the eastern and western regimes in the north. Later, the Northern Zhou Dynasty annihilated the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the Sui Dynasty replaced the Northern Zhou Dynasty. In 589, Emperor Wen of Sui destroyed the Chen Dynasty and unifying the north and the south, marking the end of the period of the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During this historical period full of turbulence, collision, and fusion, the land of China returned to unity after long-term division; various ethnic groups moved from confrontation and disputes to great fusion; decrees, regulations, thoughts; and cultures changed from “the chaotic mixture of the Hu style and national customs” to the fusion between Hu and Han nationalities and between the south and the north, which laid the philosophical and cultural foundation for the great prosperity of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. During this period, the compilation of books such as literary collections, collections of individual writers, and reference books was highly developed, and the various genres of poetry such as five-character and seven-character pre-Tang and modern-style poetry continued maturing. At the same time, people reflected deeply on the nature, status, function and creation of literature. Such reflection was named “literary consciousness” in the past. In a word, the literature history in the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties was an important period when the Chinese literary tradition was formed and strengthened, and it clearly served as a juncture between the past and future.

1 Multiple Possibilities for Literary Development Over Long-Term Division of the Country As a whole, the country was long divided into the south and the north during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the long-term division, there were many regional centers for literature development. Since the Western Han Dynasty, cities had been the main social venues for literature development, especially in the north. Many literati gathered in Chang’an, which was also the birthplace of description

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object of important literary works. By the Three Kingdoms period, after the Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu established their capitals, each of them absorbed a group of literary scholars, and they were most concentrated in Yexia. During the Western Jin Dynasty, the capital Luoyang became the place where many literati got famous. However, “the Rebellion of Eight Princes” (Ba Wang Zhi Luan) that lasted for sixteen years and the immediately following “turmoil caused by Wu Hu (five nomadic tribes of from the north) in Central China” put an end to the development of literature in northern cities. As the collapse of the Western Jin Dynasty, the residual literature scholars of the dynasty in the center of Luoyang and its surroundings gradually dispersed and disappeared. After the southern migration of the Han people during the reign under the title of Yongjia, great changes occurred to the literary scholars in the south and the north. The upper class in the south was the imperial family of Jin and officials as well as ministers and scholar officials in Luoyang. Many members of this class were cultural elites. After they reached the south, they settled in important cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The capital Jiankang was the most stable regional center for the development of literature. Cities such as Yongzhou and Jiangling along the Yangtze River also became new centers for the development of literature in the middle and late years of the Liang Dynasty, second only to Jiankang. The palace style poems were born in Yongzhou when it was ruled by Emperor Jianwen of Liang. In the north, migrants in the late years of the Western Jin Dynasty also moved in eastern and western directions. After long-term development during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, many literary centers were formed successively in the north. A large number of literary scholars were once concentrated in Guzang in the Liangzhou region, Dunhuang, and Jiuquan, as well as in Heshuo, the seat of political regimes like Former Yan and Later Yan. During the periods of Former Qin and Later Qin, Chang’an was the cultural center in the north. After the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang, Emperor Xiaowen was committed to learning from the south. After the Northern Wei Dynasty was split into the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty, the cultural center in the north was split into Yecheng in the east and Chang’an in the west. At the same time, the seven prefectures along the Yellow River as the intersections of the north and the south also retained strong regional characteristics throughout the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This era witnessed the flourishing of gentry. However, due to divided policies from various sources and changes in power, social classes changed

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relatively frequently. At that time, family status and ethical relations of a clan were emphasized in both the north and the south, and this was constantly manifested in daily literary activities, facilitating the formation of literary groups. While some clans fell in the war, others rose as political upstarts. These clans often boasted of considerable literary achievements. For example, Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Rui, the father Liu Yuan and the son Liu Cong of the Huns in Former Zhao, the father and son of the Xiao family of the Liang Dynasty, the father Xiao Yan and his sons Xiao Tong, Xiao Gang, and Xiao Yi of the Liang Dynasty, as well as other nobles such as the clan of Xie, the clan of Wang, and some high-level literary attendants were also familial. For example, the father Yu Jianwu and the son Yu Xin, and the father Xu Chi and the son Xu Ling, were famous literary clans. An important feature of the literature development during this period was that aristocrats and members of the same clans became literary writers. During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, more than a dozen ethnic minorities established political regimes. That was a well-deserved period of great ethnic integration. Moreover, the literary exchanges between ethnic minorities and the Han people were unprecedentedly prosperous. Both in the north and in the south, the cultures of ethnic minorities permeated the mainstream literature development and left a deep ethnic imprint. The martial northern nomads added many vigorous and powerful folk songs to the literature in the northern region. They valued the “quality” of literature and emphasized the expression of feelings and ambitions. The local ethnic minorities in the south inhabited in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and were closely related to the formation of southern folk songs. The development of palace style poems also drew greatly on the nutrients of these folk songs.

2

Substantial Development of Literary Theories and Literary Genres

The literary criticism and literary theories during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties period started from the critical reviews of figures in the late years of the Han Dynasty. At first, such reviews valued the virtue and capabilities of the figures, but later they focused on aesthetics. Many interesting anecdotes of the reviewed figures were recorded in Insight and Judgement (Shi Jian), Appreciation and Praise

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(Shang Yu), Classification according to Excellence (Pin Zao), and Appearance and Behavior (Rong Zhi) in Liu Yiqing’s New Account of Tales of the World (Shi Shuo Xin Yu). Secondly, there was a dialectical relationship between the concept of literary genre established during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties period and literary theories as they promoted and complemented each other. The distinction between literary genres became more and more detailed, and parallelism and rhyme became the general trends. The formal beauty of literary genres themselves received unprecedented attention. Some theoretical compositions such as On the Standards of Literature · Discussing Literature (Dian Lun · Lun Wen) by Cao Pi, Essay on Literature (Wen Fu) by Lu Ji, On Different Genres of Essays (Wen Zhang Liu Bie Lun) by Zhi Yu, and The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons by Liu Xie made a thorough analysis on the various genres appearing at that time and offered a lot of practical guidance for composition. On the Standards of Literature·Discussing Literature written by Cao Pi was considered as the first literary monograph in the history of Chinese literary criticism. Most of the more than twenty essays collected in On the Standards of Literature were lost, and only Discussing Literature was intact because it was selected in Zhao Ming Wen Xuan. On the Standards of Literature·Discussing Literature first recognized the value of essays, contending that essays were “important materials for the governance of a country and great events that would not die”. Secondly, the author proposed a theory of “manner of writing”. The “manner” meant the natural endowment and personal temperament of the writer as reflected in his works, and it was further argued that such manner was unique and it “was not necessarily inheritable even if a parent or brother owned it”. At the same time, the author divided literary genre into “four disciplines” and explained all of the eight genres: “Memorials and refutations should be graceful; letters and expositions should be persuasive; inscriptions and eulogies should be factual; poems and rhapsodies should be rhetorical”. This was the first relatively detailed theory of literary genre. Essay on Literature written by Lu Ji in the Western Jin Dynasty was the first complete and systematic monograph in the history of ancient literary criticism. It provided creative insights into important issues such as artistic imagination and inspiration in the process of literary creation and also conducted extensive and in-depth research on literary genres. It was considered as a theoretical product based on prolific creative practices after literature was no longer an appendage of Confucian classics

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and developed independently. Many contents of Essay on Literature were summarized creative experience of the author himself. Zhi Yu in the Western Jin Dynasty compiled A Collection of Different Genres of Essays, which consisted of thirty volumes containing essays and reviews. This book is appreciated by later generations. The reviews of essays in different genres were later extracted from this book to become a monograph called On Different Genres of Essays (Wen Zhang Liu Bie Lun). The original text of this monograph has been lost, except that some fragments are found in reference books like Bei Tang Shu Chao, Classified Anthology of Literary Works (Yi Wen Lei Ju), and Taiping Imperial Encyclopedia (Tai Ping Yu Lan). Eleven literary genres were mentioned, namely ode, rhapsody, poetry, sevens, exhortation, inscription, eulogy, lament, elegy, response text, and epigraph. In Autograph in Han Wei Liu Chao Bai San Jia Ji·Zhi Tai Chang Ji, Zhang Pu in the Ming Dynasty contended that this book had an important influence on the study of literary theories in the Southern Dynasties. Liu Xie completed The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons roughly between the first and second years of Emperor He of Qi in the Southern Dynasties (501 A.D.–502 A.D.), and it was a “voluminous and considerate” literary theory monograph. The whole book consisted of 10 volumes and 50 chapters (originally with 25 chapters in two parts), based on the Confucian aesthetic thought and absorbing others. Liu Xie believed that dao (way) was the source of literature, sages were models for literati to learn from, and “Confucian classics” were models of essays. He summarized the creative characteristics of writers as “talent”, “temperament”, “learned”, and “acquired”. The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons further developed the ideas of “the way of nature”, “classics as prototype”, and “saints of antiquity” since Xunzi and especially Yang Xiong. However, instead of focusing on abstract preaching like Confucian classics, it had a more conscious understanding of the artistic nature and characteristics of literature and set a precedent for the study of imaginal thinking in literature. This great work comprehensively summarized the aesthetic achievements before the Qi and Liang Dynasties, and carefully explored and discussed the aesthetic nature of language and literature and the aesthetic laws of their creation and appreciation. The book itself was written in parallel prose, which reflected the aesthetic literary characteristics of that era. Classification of Poetry (Shi Pin) written by Zhong Rong in the Southern Qi Dynasty mainly discussed five-character poems and addressed the “mediocre and mixed poems written by different

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poets with their own style” in the poetry circle. The whole book critically reviewed one hundred and twenty-two poets from the Western and Eastern Han dynasties to the Liang Dynasty, including eleven top-grade poets, thirty-nine middle-grade poets, and seventy-two low-grade poets. Classification of Poetry not only provided critical reviews of poets, but also showed interest in contemporary poetry commentary, opposed the theory of “four tones and eight weaknesses”, and attached importance to the discussion of the origins of characters. When reviewing the poets, Shi Pin often regarded wording as the first and primary criterion. In this book, Lu Ji, who “was superbly talented and used rich rhetoric to create a luxuriant style throughout his compositions”, was referred to as “elite of Taikang”; Xie Lingyun, who “was outstandingly talented and incomparable with his gorgeous and diverse wording” was referred to as “master of Yuanjia”.

3

Literary Influence of the History Development of Thoughts

During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern dynasties, thoughts like metaphysics, Taoism, Buddhism, prophecy, and the arts of necromancy, astrology, and medicine developed rapidly. They changed into new social thoughts that nourished people’s spiritual world during the long-term division period. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, with the decline of Confucianism, the trend of metaphysics rose day by day. The Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, and Book of Changes became the “three metaphysical classics” that fascinated the scholars in the Wei and Jin dynasties. The development of metaphysics was mainly divided into three stages, which were named by the research community as Zhengshi metaphysics, metaphysics of bamboo groves, and Zhongchao metaphysics. There were several important topics in metaphysics: taking being or non-being as noumenon, humanism and naturalism, discrimination between word and idea, discrimination between form and spirit, and discrimination between names and principles. Literature and art were under the direct influence of the school of respecting nature, the school of meaning not fully expressible in words, and the school of mastering the meaning without relying on the speech. Ji Kang and Ruan Ji were metaphysicians themselves, and they had good discussions on “nature” in their poems; Tao Yuanming’s thoughts were also deeply related to metaphysics. Later generations highly praised Tao Yuanming and regarded the nature and

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truth in his poems as the pinnacle of literature. During the Yonghe era of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the metaphysical poems of Sun Chuo and Xu Xun reached a peak, which mainly highlighted Taoism, Zhuangzi’s thoughts, and Buddhist philosophy. Wen Qiao’s Hui Wen Xu Yan Shi was a typical metaphysical poem. Metaphysics was spread in the society mainly through impractical discussions. Lanting Poems (Lan Ting Shi) composed by Wang Xizhi et al. was considered as poems influenced by the metaphysical impractical discussion culture. They were more persuasive and less literary and artistic. Therefore, metaphysical poems were rated by Zhong Rong as “being as plain and simple as moral essays”. Weathered by time, few metaphysical poems have survived to this date. Confucianism, Taoist philosophy, and Taoism developed under their influence, together with the spread of Buddhism, were the three major trends of thoughts in ancient China and had a significant influence on the development of Chinese culture. According to conventional wisdom, Indian Buddhism was introduced to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty. As some monks from the Western Regions came to China to translate Buddhist scriptures and spread moral principles, the Buddhist thought became popular among the upper class of society. During the Western Jin Dynasty, the Buddhist classic Prajnaparamita Sutra was very influential. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, some famous monks from the Central Plains crossed the Yangtze River in order to take refugee and actively spread Buddhism in the south. A Buddhist group with Huiyuan as the leader appeared in Mount. Lu. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the rulers of the ethnic minority regimes mostly supported Buddhism. Buddhism developed rapidly in the north, and famous monks such as Fotucheng, Dao An, Kumarajiva, and Fa-hien appeared. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, Buddha Zen masters who settled in the Shaolin Temple and Bodhidharma, founder of Zen, appeared in the north. Under the influence of Buddhist thought, literature changed. The Buddhist canon literature based on Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures became a new genre of literature at that time. The Buddhist canon literature is generally divided into the following categories: the Buddhist biographical literature based on the biography of Buddha and Bodhisattva, the Jataka literature mainly about the good deeds of the Buddha as Bodhisattva, the metaphorical literature with metaphors as a tool for interpretation of Buddhist principles, and the karma literature for educating karma through the teachings of the Buddha. This chanting art first led to the emergence of many chanting

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literary works mainly focusing on the preaching of Buddhism. Bianwen (Buddhist song-tales) and Baojuan (Buddhist “treasure scroll” stories) in the Dunhuang posthumous writings, as well as the secular styles such as Zhugongdiao (a form of storytelling and singing literature), Pinghua (monologue storytelling), and Tanci (storytelling to the accompaniment of stringed instruments), were all influenced by Changdao (guidance to enlightenment by singing) and sutra chanting. Moreover, the appearance of the voice of Fanbai (Buddhist monastic chants) was also considered as a key reason for the maturity of the rhythm theory and the formation of the “Yongming style” dominated by the theory of “four tones and eight weaknesses” in the Southern Qi Dynasty. Buddhism ideologically influenced the literature during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it also expanded the artistic techniques and subject matters of the literature at that time. The mountain and river literature in the Jin and Song Dynasties and the palace style literature in the Liang and Chen Dynasties were both influenced by Buddhism. The former mainly conveyed the aesthetics of mountains and rivers, which was penetrated by the prajna thought of the unity of divine principles with mountains and rivers and by the Buddha-nature treatise that “all things have Buddhanature and obey Buddhist principles in their own way” (Bian Zong Lun by Xie Lingyun). People were treated the same as mountains and rivers. The palace style poems in the Liang and Chen Dynasties depicted the appearance of women in detail, which might be related to the Buddhist concept of form and nonexistence and the understanding of “being and consciousness”. During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Taoism also developed rapidly. In the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism was affected by the failure of “the Yellow Turbans Uprising” Zhang Jiao and gradually faded with scattered principles amid political turmoil. In the region of Jiangnan, varieties of witchcraft and miscellaneous doctrines emerged, and excessive religious activities prevailed. Therefore, during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, some Taoist reformers rose, including the representatives Ge Hong, Lu Xiujing, and Tao Hongjing. Ge Hong (284–364), style Baopuzi, hailed from Jurong, Danyang Prefecture. He was the grandnephew of Ge Xuan, a necromancer in the Three Kingdoms period. He was appointed as marquis and later retreated to Mount. Luofu to practice alchemy. His book Master Embracing Simplicity (Bao Pu Zi) consisted of the Inner Chapters (Nei Pian) and the Outer Chapters (Wai Pian).

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The Inner Chapters summarized the theory and magic of immortals, while the Outer Chapters mainly discussed current affairs, were dissatisfied with the impractical discussions in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and advocated equal emphasis on essays and virtues, the writing of books for educational purposes, and rule of the country by law. Lu Xiujing (406– 477), courtesy name Yuande, hailed from Dongqian, Wuxing (now the east of Wuxing, Zhejiang), was celestial-master Taoism celestial-master Taoism. He was the editor of the early Collected Taoist Scriptures (Dao Cang) and founder of Taoist fasting and rituals in the Southern Dynasties. Tao Hongjing (456–536), courtesy name Tongming, called himself Gentleman Hermit or Huayang Hermit. He was given the posthumous title of “Pure and Faithful Gentleman”. He was a native of Moling, Danyang. His family went through the three dynasties of Song, Qi, and Liang, and was particularly favored by Emperor Wu of Liang. In The History of Southern Dynasties (Nan Shi), he was reputed as “The Prime Minister in the Mountains”. However, in the Southern Liang Dynasty, when Buddhism was worshiped in the whole country, Tao Hongjing, as a representative of the Taoist Maoshan sect, was forced to travel far under pressure. Finally, as a master of the Highest Clarity sect, he went on pilgrimage to the Asoka Pagoda in Maoxian, swore to ordination, and practiced both Buddhism and Taoism. For this reason, he escaped the fate of seeing the new celestial-master Taoism as reformed by Kou Qianzhi die without being passed down. The development of Taoism in the Southern Dynasties had a profound influence on the literature. The Taoist classics themselves were deeply literary. Biographies of Immortals (Shen Xian Zhuan) written by Ge Hong consisted of ten volumes. The book contained the stories of ninety-two immortals in ancient Chinese legends. It was written with rich imagination and vivid narrative. In the book, some characters who were not immortals were also been immortalized.

4

Spread of Literature in a Script Era

During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, literature developed with the prevailing of script, of which paper and pens were the main media. Paper became popular mainly from the late years of the Han Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The popularity of paper, probably during the Jin Dynasty in the third and fourth centuries, replaced bamboo slips and some silk. Books were therefore widely spread, and

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handwritten copies became popular. Literature was spread at an unprecedented rate. The most famous example was the legend that “paper became expensive in Luoyang” after Zuo Si’s Rhapsody of Three Capitals (San Du Fu) was published. During the reign of Huan Xuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he ordered the complete elimination of bamboo slips, which was replaced by “yellow paper”. As a high-quality carrier of cultural transmission, paper was praised by famous poets at that time. Fu Xian (239–294), a scholar in the Western Jin Dynasty, wrote Rhapsody of Paper (Zhi Fu) to praise the convenience of paper. After the southward migration during the reign under the title of Yongjia, the region of Jiangnan was developed and paper-making became more developed. Today, kudzu vines stretch for hundreds of miles on both banks of Shanxi River from Zhejiang to Jiangxi, and they are the main raw material for paper-making in the south. This kind of paper has been prevalent in this region for thousands of years. Due to the invention of the paper-making screen, the paper-making technology in the south became increasingly large scale. The ancient paper dating back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the third or fourth century discovered by Stein in Xinjiang was a mixture of raw fibers and rags. In his Important Methods to Condition the People’s Living (Qi Min Yao Shu), Jia Sixie in the Northern Qi Dynasty also mentioned a very mature moth-proof paper-making technology called “yellow dyeing”. It was probably about soaking paper into a kind of moth-resistant yellow liquid during the paper-making process. The paper scrolls which date back to the fifth to tenth centuries and are now collected in Dunhuang prove the effectiveness of such moth-proof method in preserving paper. The popularity of paper after the Eastern Jin Dynasty greatly accelerated the spread of literature and also made literary creation popular on a wider scale. The compilation of contemporary literary works increased constantly in both speed and quantity. During this period, there were numerous poets in the region of Jiangnan, and Jiang Zuo Wen Zhang Lu was compiled with selected works. In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang under the title of Tianjian (505), Jiang Yan compiled his works into two collections, as well as ten annals of The Book of Southern Qi (Qi Shu). Shen Yue compiled an anthology called Song Shi Wen Zhang Zhi, which was recorded in Volume II of The Annals of Sui (Sui Zhi) and Volume 30 of the biography of The Book of Southern Qi (Nan Qi Shu). Due to the developed music and literature creation in the Southern Dynasties, in the second year of the reign of the dethroned emperor of the Chen Dynasty under the title of Guangda (568), Shi

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Zhijiang wrote the thirteen-volume A Record of Ancient and Modern Music (Gu Jin Yue Lu) spanning from the Han Dynasty to the Chen Dynasty. This collection has been lost. It used to scatter in Collected Songs of the Music Bureau Style (Yue Fu Shi Ji) and contained rich records of Yuefu poems and events in the Southern Dynasties. The rapid compilation of contemporary works was undoubtedly spawned in the cultural environment where handwriting copies were prevailing. In the south, copying activities commissioned by vassal palaces began to scale up and become regular during the second year of the reign under the title of Yongming (484), when King Jingling, Xiao Ziliang, garrisoned Xizhou. According to the record in Lü Cheng Shi Lun Ji, Xiao Ziliang gathered more than five hundred monks to copy Satyasiddhi Shastra (Proof of Reality), which consisted of about nine volumes. This copying activity was large scale, with an outcome of a hundred manuscripts to spread around the country. The copyists were keen on singing about the copying activity itself or something in the copying environment. Lord of Jin’an, Xiao Gang, inherited Xiao Ziliang’s copying model and practice of composing responsorial poems in his official residence of Xidi, and he developed a position specializing in copying: copying scholar. When Xiao Gang garrisoned in Yongzhou, the “Ten Scholars of Gaozhai” had developed on a scale. After he came to the capital, he still organized copying activities. According to the record of Fa Yuan Zhu Lin, Fa Bao Lian Bi consisted of two hundred volumes and was copied under the organization of Xiao Gang when he was appointed as crown prince. In his residence, his retainers were frequently engaged in the composition of responsorial poems, and he joined these activities much more frequently than King Jingling, Xiao Ziliang. Palace style poems just rose in this cultural atmosphere. As Lord of Jin’an became crown prince, Xu Ling and Yu Xin became “copying scholars” in the East Palace. Their fathers Xu Chi and Yu Jianwu, respectively, were all literati affiliated with Lord of Jin’an, Xiao Gang. They joined him very early and followed him for decades. Although Xu Ling and Yu Xin claimed to be “copying scholars”, they were still essentially retainers in vassal palaces. Book copying was also prevalent in the Northern Dynasties. Likewise, the official copying mechanism in the north was also rooted in the civil society. “Copying books” became an industry in the northern society at that time, and poor scholars lived in this business. Jiang Shaoyou, Liu Fang, Cui Liang, and Fang Jingbo, who were famous scholars in the Northern Wei Dynasty, all had the experience of “supporting themselves

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by copying books”. At the same time, the spread of southern copying groups to the north made it possible to copy some of the collections of books during the civil war. People of the Northern Qi Dynasty fully imitated the copying experience of official books in the Southern Dynasties. In the third year of the reign under the title of Wuping in the Northern Qi Dynasty (572), Zu Ting, after adopting the suggestions of Yang Xiuzhi and Yan Zhitui, submitted memorials to the throne to establish the cultural institution Wenlinguan and to compose Xiu Wen Dian Yu Lan and Xu Wen Zhang Liu Bie. The emergence of these reference books provided more convenient conditions for the development of poetry and prose, and it became easier to learn and create. Two literary collections in the Southern and Northern Dynasties that had a great influence on later generations were Selections of Refined Literature and New Songs from a Jade Terrace. The Selections of Refined Literature, also known as Zhao Ming Wen Xuan, was the earliest collection of poetry and prose of the Han nationality in China that has been preserved to this date. It was compiled by the literati organized by Xiao Tong, the eldest son of Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasties. Xiao Tong was given the posthumous title of “Zhao Ming”, so this collection edited under his organization was called Zhao Ming Wen Xuan. It originally consisted of 30 volumes, divided into rhapsody, poetry, sao, sevens, imperial edicts, patents of nobility, commands, instructions, texts, memorials, letters of submission, communications, accusations, memoranda, notes of presentation, letters, military proclamations, response texts, hypothetical discourses, ci, prefaces, odes, encomia, mandates through prophetic signs, treatises from the histories, evaluations from the histories, treatises, linked pearls (rhymed verse-prose), exhortation, inscriptions, eulogies, laments, epigraphs, grave memoirs, conduct descriptions, condolences, and sacrificial texts. The authors selected in Selections of Refined Literature originated from the pre-Qin period to the early years of the Liang Dynasty (authors who were alive when the collection was compiled were not selected under the principle of “excluding existing authors”), and the selected works were supposed to be written by the authors after “thinking over and over again before writing and pursuing literary grace”, and classics, history books, and works of ancient philosophers were excluded. He was a figure with the highest political status in the literary community at that time, and the splendid literary style of the Six Dynasties had a considerable influence on him. Selections of Refined Literature did not ignore the contents so much when selecting works to include. The selected

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works included not only eight poems written by Tao Yuanming, but also Nineteen Ancient Poems and eighteen works by Bao Zhao. At the same time, it rejected the plain and unadorned metaphysical poems and the empty and meaningless erotic poems and chanting poems. Scholars of later generations had many disagreements on whether the selected works were worthy and whether there were any omissions. Different scholars had different opinions. New Songs from a Jade Terrace was a collection of poems from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Qi and Liang Dynasties. It contained more than 700 poems and was compiled by Xu Ling after he joined the Chen Dynasty. The purpose of this book was to “write and record erotic songs”, which meant that it mainly included romantic works. All of the selected works were written in a simple language, and those abstruse and solemn works were excluded. The recorded nursery rhymes created during the Han Dynasty and the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin were under this category. It also paid attention to folk literature. For example, Peacocks Fly to the Southeast, an ancient Chinese long narrative poem, was included. It attached importance to the five-character and foursentence short songs that were popular in the Southern Dynasties and had more than one volume of such works, which somewhat promoted the development of the five-character quatrain poetry in the Tang Dynasty.

CHAPTER 11

Literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties Cai Danjun

The literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties started from the first year of the reign of Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty under the title of Jian’an (196) to the second year of Emperor Gong of Eastern Jin Dynasty under the title of Yuanxi (420). During the Jian’an period in the late years of the Han Dynasty, “the Jian’an Literary Style” (“Jian An Feng Gu”) was developed in the literary community with the Cao family (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Zhi) as the center and litterateurs such as Wang Can and Liu Zhen as the mainstream. Zhengshi was the title of reign of Prince of Qi, Cao Fang (240–248), and “Zhengshi Literature” (“Zheng Shi Wen Xue”) often referred to the literature in the late years of the Wei Dynasty in general. “Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove” (“Zhu Lin Qi Xian”) were representatives of the literature development during this period. Around the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty under the title of Taikang (280–289), literature was prosperous. There were prominent writers like Zhang Hua, Zhang Xie, and Zhang Zai; Lu Ji and Lu Yun; Pan An and Pan Ni; and Zuo Si. This period witnessed the so-called “resurgence of essays”. During this Taikang period, elaborate poetry was popular and the vigor and grievance of Jiang’an poetry were lost, but many useful explorations were made in the use of language.

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_11

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During the transition from metaphysical poetry to landscape poetry in the early years of the Song Dynasty, Xie Lingyun was the first prominent landscape poet. The appearance of landscape poetry expanded the subject matter and enriched the expressive skills of poetry, and it marked a great progress in the history of Chinese poetry. During the transition from Jin to Song Dynasty, a great poet named Tao Yuanming appeared. He was inspired to write poems in daily life and created Fields and Gardens poetry.

1 From the Jian’an Literary Style to the Voice of Zhengshi During the Jian’an period in the late years of the Han Dynasty, the “Three Cao” (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and Cao Zhi), the “Seven Litterateurs” (Kong Rong, Chen Lin, Wang Can, Xu Gan, Ruan Yu, Ying Chang, and Liu Zhen), and the poetess Cai Yan inherited the realist tradition of Yuefu folk songs in the Han Dynasty and generally adopted the form of five characters. Their poems were known for a vigorous character and an impassioned and grieving style that was known as “the Jian’an style” in the literature history and respected by later generations as models. Cao Cao was one of the most important politicians in the late years of the Han Dynasty and the founder of the Wei regime. He unified the north where warlords had been fighting for years since the Yellow Turbans Uprising. He deeply cherished talents and culture. In the melee to unify the north, he paid attention to preserving culture and attracting talents. He also recovered the lost ceremonial music from the war. In the Han Dynasty, Du Kui, a ceremonial musician official, escaped to Jingzhou to escape chaos. After the son of Liu Biao, governor of Jingzhou, surrendered to Cao Cao, Cao Cao appointed Du Kui as libationer, who also participated in the Imperial Music Bureau and produced ceremonial music. His four old ceremonial music, namely Lu Ming, Zou Yu, Fa Tan, and Wen Wang, survived to the Jin Dynasty. Cao Cao was proficient in the rhythm of Yuefu. Many of his poems were written under the title of Yuefu, but they surpassed the old style of Yuefu in content because he wrote about current affairs in the name of Yuefu. He was the first poet to expand the function of Yuefu poetry and introduced literati to the authorship of Yuefu poetry. Most of his Yuefu poems were fourcharacter poems, but they were innovations based on the old style. Poems created in the Jian’an period were “forceful and impassioned”, as best

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represented by Cao Cao’s poems. They were plain, forceful, bold, and unconstrained. Due to years of military life, he was aware of the hardships of military service. His famous poem Short Song Ballad (Duan Ge Xing) was a good combination of the traditions of The Book of Poetry and Verses of Chu. This poem expressed the admiration for eternity and sighed the uncertainty of life. These were conflicts that remained unsolved in Verses of Chu. However, “Scholars, scholars, where are you? Years I have chanted the song of yearning. But would you ever come over to me? Deer is calling from the field, grazing. On the tender marsilea. Let my house be graced with a learned visitor, I will have music played in his honour”—these verses were a stylistic extension of Lessons from the States. “Although the stabled steed is old, he dreams to run for mile and mile. A hero advanced in his years of decline, great aspirations burning to this day”—these verses demonstrated the optimism of the poet. In a word, the whole poem embodied a magnificent heroic feeling and represented a new cry for liberation and pursuit of ideals during the Jian’an period. The whole life of Cao Zhi, who was Cao Cao’s son, was a tragedy. He was talented in literature and was almost made crown prince by Cao Cao. However, Cao Cao finally gave up the idea because he was disappointed by his son’s unrestrained personality and addiction to drinking. In the battle for the position of crown prince, he stirred deep jealousy in his elder brother Cao Pi. After Cao Pi ascended the throne, he never gave Cao Zhi any chance to participate in politics and monitored him in disguise. After Cao Pi died, Cao Rui ascended the throne. Cao Zhi thought he could turn things around, but it turned out that his situation was not fundamentally improved and he finally died of depression. In his early years, Cao Zhi harbored political ideal and hope. He was a writer who was ferment about five-character poems and established the status of this poetry genre. Cao Pi was mostly interested in four-character Yuefu poems that were gentle and aristocratic. Most of his themes were the grievance and sorrow of wanderers who missed their wives. The title of “Seven Litterateurs” came from Cao Pi’s On the Standards of Literature‧Discussing Literature. In spite of their different experiences, all of the “Seven Litterateurs” joined Cao Cao and changed their suffering from dislocation and chaos into a peaceful and affluent life, except Kong Rong, who did not share the political views of Cao Cao. Most of them regarded Cao Cao as a confidant and wanted to rely on him to make a difference. Therefore, their poems had much in common with those of the Cao family. Because the “Seven Litterateurs” of Jian’an

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once lived together in Ye, the capital of Wei (now the west of Linzhang County, Hebei), they were also known as “Seven Litterateurs of Yezhong” (“Ye Zhong Qi Zi”). Among them, Wang Can had the highest artistic achievement. Cai Wenji, also known as Cai Yan, was very famous for her Poem of Sorrow and Anger (Bei Fen Shi), which was later derived as Eighteen Beats of Hujia (hujia is a Chinese Zither) (Hu Jia Shi Ba Pai) widely known in society. This work was spread and loved by the general public because she told her real experience. She described how she was captured by the Huns and forced to marry and have children until Cao Cao paid a huge sum for her to be released to the Han Dynasty and leave her husband and children. Her description was true and sentimental. During the Zhengshi period, the power struggle between the Cao family and the Sima family was extremely cruel. Few litterateurs were assured safe. In such a precarious environment, people lost their ideals and hope of life. They simply drank, sang, talked for nothing, and wrote poems. On the surface, they appeared to believe in the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi and lived an unrestrained life, but deep within they were exhausted because of fear, depression, and decadence. Seven litterateurs, namely Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, Shan Tao, Xiang Xiu, Ruan Xian, Wang Rong, and Liu Ling, often gathered in the bamboo grove to drink and discussed about metaphysical theories. They were called “Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove”. Among them, Ruan Ji and Ji Kang were most talented in literature. Ruan Ji had the ambition to save the world when he was young. He once climbed the Guangwu Mountain to watch the ancient battlefield between Chu and Han. Concerning Liu Bang’s accession to the throne, he lamented that “There are no heroes in the world, so even an ordinary man can succeed”. Although Ruan Ji was superficially unrestrained and indulged himself in drinking all day long without being concerned with human life, he was mentally painful for being caught between two incompatible political groups. He often traveled alone in a bullock cart without a destination. When he reached the end of the road and could not go any further, he would have a good cry and return. He vented his sullen anger about the dark reality into a collection of eighty-two poems called Yong Huai. Ji Kang was good at prose, and his famous Breakup Letter to Shan Juyuan (Yu Shan Ju Yuan Jue Jiao Shu) well demonstrated his staunchly and proud character through ironic, invective, and free writing. Most of his poems were four-character poems, the most famous of which was Eighteen Poems Presented to Hsi Hsi on his Joining the Army (Zeng

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Xiong Xiu Cai Ru Jun). These poems were graceful and free, fully reflects his attainment in the learning of the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. In the fourteenth poem, he wrote, “Seeing off home-returning birds, a recluse plays zither. Contented and happy, his wandering heart understands the mysteries of nature”. With concise language, he depicted the leisurely contentment and aloofness of the mountain recluse from the mortal life. This poem was highly appreciated by the great painter Gu Kaizhi.

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The Literary Circle and Deepening of Aristocratic Literature in the Western Jin Dynasty

The Western Jin Dynasty ruled the country peacefully for only more than fifty years after unification. During this period, there was brief stability, and a group of talented writers emerged. The most famous writers were, as Zhong Rong put it, three brothers Zhang Hua, Zhang Xie, and Zhang Zai, Lu Ji and his brother Lu Yun, Pan An and his brother Pan Ni, and Zuo Si. In addition to these combined names were important writers such as Guo Pu, Liu Kun, Fu Xuan, and Shu Xi. There was a large assembly of men of talent in the literary circle in the Western Jin Dynasty, but profound thoughts were scarce. The compositions of these writers emphasized fancy and elegant wording and more exquisite art forms, but the thoughts of literature were neglected. They represented a path of aristocratic literature that emphasized forms. Zhang Hua pursued a literary style with gorgeous wording and extravagance. In Shi Pin, Zhong Rong commented that most of his works were “concerned more with romance and less with a big picture”. He was not only good at poetry, but also well versed in fu writing. His Rhapsody of Wren (Jiao Liao Fu) was profound. He compiled the first natural history book in China called Natural History (Bo Wu Zhi). This book consisted of ten volumes which were classified into landscape and geography, birds and beasts, biographies, ancient mythology, alchemy, etc. In terms of power, Zhang Hua, a person of high status, was a worthy leader in the literary circle in the Western Jin Dynasty. He was closely related to the formation of a literary style that emphasized forms in the Western Jin Dynasty. Pan An and his brother Pan Ni, Lu Ji and his brother Lu Yun, and Zuo Si benefited from his help and support.

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Lu Ji (261–303), courtesy name Shiheng, hailed from Huating, Wu Prefecture (now Songjiang County, Shanghai). Lu Ji was born in an aristocratic family in the Kingdom of Wu. His grandfather Lu Xun was the councilor-in-chief and his father Lu Kang was the Commander-in-chief of Wu. When Lu Ji was 20 years old, the Kingdom of Wu perished, so he retreated to an old house and studied hard behind closed doors. Nine years later, he and his younger brother Lu Yun went north to Luoyang, and they were appreciated by Zhang Hua for their talent. He wrote Essay on Literature to discuss his experience in writing poetry and provided many incisive insights. Lu Ji was one of the most typical representative writers of imitation poetry in the Western Jin Dynasty. He tried various themes and formats of Yuefu and ancient poems. About forty of his imitation poems have survived to this date, more than half of the total number of such poems preserved. Among them, the twelve Imitated Ancient Poems (Ni Gu Shi) that modeled on Nineteen Ancient Poems were the most famous. His poems were characterized by gorgeous wording and parallel sentences. The gorgeous wording further reinforced the aristocratic hue of his poems, while the excessive pursuit of parallelism added to the rigidness and reduced the variation and dexterity of the works. Defects in political character inevitably led to superficial thoughts. The superficial content and thought and the emotional void in Lu Ji’s poems were related to his personality and character. Pan Yue (247–300), courtesy name Anren, hailed from Zhongmou, Xingyang (now near Kaifeng, Henan). When he was young, he was called a child prodigy in the village due to his talent and keen mind. When he became an adult, he embarked on an official career and worked as an aide to Jia Chong, a high-ranking official. He was envied by people for his talent and lived in seclusion for ten years. Later, he served in a series of official positions including the magistrate of Heyang and finally became secretary of the Yellow Gate (a symbol of the imperial palace). So, his collection of works was called Collection of Yellow Gate Secretary Pan (Pan Huang Men Ji). Pan Yue was as famous as Lu Ji. Later generations praised them, “Lu Ji’s talent was as wide as sea, and Pan Yue’s talent was as broad as river”. Pan Yue’s poems were known for their beauty and simplicity. His three poems to mourn his wife were his best-known works. These three Mourning Poems (Dao Wang Shi) were immensely sad. Due to his influence, “mourning” became an exclusive theme for later poets to remember their deceased wives. In fact, Pan Yue remarried shortly after his wife’s death. His lyrical poems were also very distinctive, such as Poetic Essay on the Idle Life (Xian Ju Fu)

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and Poetic Essay on Autumn Meditations (Qiu Xing Fu), which expressed the feeling of tranquility, as well as Rhapsody of Widow (Gua Fu Fu) and Rhapsody of Nostalgia (Huai Jiu Fu), which were poignant. In addition, he was also good at writing eulogy, which was a mourning essay. More than 20 of Pan Yue’s ci and fu writings have survived to this date. Most of them, among various themes, were laments. Zuo Si (about 250–305), courtesy name Taichong, hailed from Zibo in the State of Qi (now Zibo, Shandong). He was born in a poor family as a very talented child. The whole family moved to Luoyang because his younger sister Zuo Fen was selected as a concubine of the emperor. Zuo Si also began to work hard to get closer to the gentry class, hoping to get some official position in his career. However, because Zuo Fen was not favored by the emperor due to her unattractive appearance, Zuo Si was often ridiculed by nobles no matter how hard he worked. His representative works were the eight poems of Singing of History (Yong Shi Shi). He used past deeds of historical characters to express what’s in his own heart. He sneered at the mediocre aristocrats and praised noble figures such as Yang Xiong, who was concentrated on writing books in spite of loneliness, and Lu Zhonglian, who was not rewarded for his success. His poems were powerful, desolate, and vigorous, and his writing style was named by later generations as “Zuo Si’ style” (“Zuo Si Feng Li”). Liu Kun (270–317), courtesy name Yueshi, hailed from Weichang, Zhongshan (now near Wuji, Hebei). He was born in a great aristocratic family as a descendant of Liu Sheng, Prince Jin of Zhongshan. He went through hardships in his life. Only three of his poems have survived to this date, namely the four-character poem Response to Lu Chen (Da Lu Chen) and two five-character poems Poem for Lu Chen (Chong Zeng Lu Chen), and Song of Fu Feng (Fu Feng Ge). Although his surviving works were few and far between, these works were vigorous and refined in expressing the sadness of an unappreciated hero and were unique in the poetry circle. Thus, they were praised by poetry critics of later generations. Gu Pu (276–324), courtesy name Jingchun, hailed from Wenxi, Hedong (now near Jiangxian, Shanxi). He was erudite, but not eloquent. He was not only good at interpreting Confucian classics and ancient Chinese characters, but also well versed in astronomy and divination. He wrote commentaries to Er Ya, Fang Yan, Biography of King Mu, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, Verses of Chu, etc. In his poetry creation, he focused on the theme of wandering immortals, and 19 of his wandering immortal poems have survived to this date, of which 9 were

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fragments. The poems of wandering immortals dated back to an early origin. The erudite in the Qin Dynasty wrote Xian Zhen Ren Shi, and successors were numerous. The authentic poems of wandering immortals inherited the tradition since the Qin and Han Dynasties. They focused on describing the lives of immortals who often sought seclusion or traveled afar and expressed the longing for elixir. The poems of wandering immortals that carried some implication often expressed the author’s ambitions and emotions through the medium of immortals. Guo Pu’s Wandering as an Immortal (You Xian Shi) was undoubtedly this type. After all, his poems of this type were different from those of Xu Chuo and Sun Xun. Xu and Sun preferred direct persuasiveness, while Guo Pu used immortals as a metaphor for fantasy and was fully imagery. Therefore, their poems were not simply comparable. Guo Pu’s poems of wandering immortals had a great influence on later poets, such as Li He and Li Shangyin in the Tang Dynasty, Yang Weizhen in the Yuan Dynasty, and Gong Zizhen in the Qing Dynasty.

3

Tao Yuanming

Tao Yuanming (365–427), courtesy name Yuanliang, also known as Tao Qian, courtesy name Yuanming, the posthumous title “Mr. Jingjie”, hailed from Chaisang, Xunyang. He was also called by later generations as Tao Pengze, Tao Zhengshi, etc. Tao Yuanming came from an unknown origin, but he was said to be the descendant of Tao Kan, a general of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Judging from his poetry, his father could be a declining bureaucrat. In his whole life, Tao Yuanming served as a civil servant three times, all out of poverty. He successively served as a libationer in Jiangzhou, a general of the town army, and the magistrate of Pengze. Under the command of famous figures like Huan Xuan and Liu Yu, he was more tired of the officialdom. At the age of 41, he chose to completely resign from office and return to seclusion. From then on, he worked on the farm until he died at the age of 63. Tao Yuanming was the most unique poet at the turn of the Jin and Song dynasties. When others were busy working hard for fame, he angrily scolded the assistant to prefecture chief, threw away his official seal, and refused to bow like a servant to village villains in return for five bushels of grain. When others were busy fighting for power and profits, he carried a small hoe to plant beans. “I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge. And gaze afar towards the southern mountains”. When the poems written by others

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were full of pale and empty philosophy and gorgeous embellishments, he persisted in expressing clean thoughts in the most straightforward and homely language. Such a man, of course, would not be accepted in the time he lived in. However, later generations gradually found out that he was a special man. Having been re-studied for thousands of years, he was almost implicitly regarded as the highest representative of the state of life and the most detached and natural representative poet in poetry and art. However, Tao Yuanming had many contradictions, and he was by no means a carefree recluse poet. Tao Yuanming lived in an era when metaphysics was prevalent, which he criticized. He respected nature and the laws of life. He valued this life more than the afterlife. So he wrote poems and completely put aside the idea of earning fame for himself. His poems were free of sour and dark aura, nor did they use any flamboyant or pretentious language, because they were written with an utterly kind and true attitude toward life, which directly contributed to the unique unromantic and mellow quality of his poems. However, he was inevitably influenced by the metaphysical era. Tao Yuanming also paid attention to life and took it dearly to his heart. He was known to love chrysanthemums. Indeed, chrysanthemums were known for the noble quality of resisting frost, and some scholars believed that he picked chrysanthemums for food. Easting chrysanthemum was considered as a way to prolong life by the people in that era. On the one hand, he criticized a life-cherishing attitude and transcended life and death; on the other hand, he was concerned with life and death. This was a mental contradiction in Tao Yuanming. Tao Yuanming, who was reclusive in the countryside, hoped best to build a society like the Land of Peach Blossoms, one that “was proudly self-sufficient and remained unsophisticated”. However, he was not completely ignorant of human life. There were still traces of political ideals and expectations about the establishment of a peaceful and stable social order in his poems. He wrote peaceful and beautiful Fields and Gardens poems like Drinking Wine (Yin Jiu), as well as Narrative of Wine (Shu Jiu), which ridiculed Liu Yu’s usurping the Jin Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty and showed indignation to treacherous minister who “covered the sky like heavy clouds”. While watching chickens and dogs and smoke from kitchen chimneys in the countryside, Tao Yuanming was anxious about social unrest. This was a great contradiction in him as a hermit. Gong Zizhen gave an accurate comment, “Don’t believe that the poet is really indifferent, there is satire and unyielding spirit in

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his poems”. He meant that Tao Yuanming’s poems were not completely aloof and in fact his view of the world was as profound and lamenting as Liang Fu Yin and Li Sao. His poems mainly praised pastoral life. They worshiped nature, and everything in the poems appeared as they were without embellishment. Moreover, the poet fused his rational insights and even his noble ideal with the scenery. As his famous verses read, “I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge. And gaze afar towards the southern mountains”. These verses seem to express an epiphany, a joy, and a noble personality. They meant so much that no reader could understand them incisively. Tao Yuanming’s poems were not well-known in the poetry circle where rhetoric and embellishment were valued. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that pastoral landscape poets began to discover their superb artistic charm. People in the Song Dynasty better appreciated his noble character and his ability to bring into poems that boundless and philosophical consciousness and the sentimental and joyful emotions toward life. During his relegation, Su Dongpo wrote hundreds of poems in reply to Tao Yuanming, in which he provided deep insights into life and affectionate encouragement. During the Southern Dynasties, collections of Tao Yuanming’s poems were widely circulated. According to The Biography of Tao Kan with the Biography of Tao Yuanming (Tao Kan Zhuan Fu Tao Yuan Ming Zhuan), Volume 66 of The Book of Jin (Jin Shu), “All the collections of Tao Yuanming’s works have been circulated in the world”. This statement in The Book of Jin should be based on the historical records of the Jin and Song Dynasties that were stored at that time. The handwritten and oral collections of Tao Yuanming’s works were systematically organized under the leadership of Xiao Tong, and they were the beginning of the definitive edition.

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Basic Features of the Literature in the Sixteen Kingdoms

The period of Sixteen Kingdoms (304 A.D.–439 A.D.) established by the Wu Hu ethnicity marked a great division of China in its history, starting from Han Zhao (later known as Qian Zhao) and Cheng Han established by Liu Yuan and Li Xiong, respectively, in 304 A.D. to the destruction of Bei Liang by Tuoba Tao in 439 A.D. The ruling area roughly covered North China, Sichuan, and Liaodong, with the farthest region reaching Mobei and Western Regions. Among the many nomadic

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tribes that invaded the Central Plains, Xiongnu, Jie, Xianbei, Qiang, and Di were the main forces and were collectively referred to as Wu Hu establishing many kingdoms within this scope. Cui Hong, a historian of the Northern Wei Dynasty, wrote The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms (Shi Liu Guo Chun Qiu) about the sixteen kingdoms (Former Liang, Later Liang, Northern Liang, Western Liang, and Southern Liang; Former Yan, Later Yan, Northern Yan, and Southern Yan; Former Qin, Later Qin, and Western Qin; Han Zhao and Later Zhao; Cheng Han and Xia), among them. For this reason, later historians called this period the “Sixteen Kingdoms established by Wu Hu”. In fact, there were much more kingdoms than sixteen. The literature development during this period was often neglected in the narrative of past literary history. The violent division and frequent wars spurred an assumption that it was less likely to seek literature development in this period. In fact, some of the founders of the Sixteen Kingdoms were literally talented. Their states also gathered some scholars with literary gifts who were engaged in good literary interactions with them. In addition, because people in Liangzhou had long inhabited in a remote land and enjoyed a relatively stable social environment, they showed literary features different from those in the Central Plains. Among the founders of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Liu Yuan and his son Liu Cong of Former Zhao were widely recognized for their literary talent and academic accomplishments. Liu Yuan, founder of Former Zhao, originally came from a tribe named Tuge, but he was actually a fellow villager of Jinyang. His educational experience was no different from that of ordinary village scholars of the local Han ethnicity. When he was a child, he studied in Shangdang under the tutelage of Cui You, a private school lecturer, and he read classics and history books extensively. Liu Cong, his fourth son, was proficient in classics and history books when he was fourteen years old and “wrote more than one hundred lyrical poems and more than fifty rhapsodies and odes”. During the wartime, people have no time for literature. Therefore, few literary works have survived from the Han and Zhao periods. Except some official writings, odes, rhapsodies, and poems were basically obscure without specific titles or contents. Although the strongly militant regime of the Liu family appointed the poor Han villagers in Bingzhou, they did not really rely on these people. Nor did they try to win over the big families in the village. Therefore, the literary tradition was not well continued. However, the appointment of fellow villagers by the regime of the Liu family started a new chapter of the

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cooperation between the Hu and Han scholars during this period. Such cooperation was built on the relationships with villagers. Shi Le was trafficked from the tribe of Jie to Bingzhou. When he founded the kingdom of Shi Zhao (also known as Later Zhao), he made this accomplishment with his personal capability, without relying on any relationship with local villagers. Having risen from an uprising with class and national hatred, Shi Le was inclined to kill princes and nobles and did not pay much attention to the few old clan scholars that he appointed. Very few literary works of these scholars have survived. The regime built by Shi Le favored poor scholars of the Han ethnicity from the middle to lower classes. For example, Xu Xian from Shangdang and Wei Xiao from Jingzhao were attracted by Shi Le from Former Zhao. Wei Xiao was good at straightforward admonishment, and his books were “all profound and brilliant”. Xu Guang was captured at the age of thirteen to feed Shi Le’s horses. “He simply focused on composing poems without taking heed to his horse keeping duty”. After his literary talent was recognized, he became known to Shi Le. Later, he was ordered to write Shang Dang Guo Zhi, Qi Ju Zhu, and Zhao Shu with Zong Li and Fu Chang. Zhao Shu was an early record of the history of Later Zhao, much earlier than Cui Hong’s The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms. After Xu Guang was imprisoned for persuading Shi Le to kill Shi Hu, he wrote “commentaries of more than one hundred thousand characters on classics and history books” in prison. After Shi Hu ascended the throne, the ministers celebrated his conquest of Qingzhou. “One hundred and seven people wrote and submitted Ode to the Emperor (Huang De Song)”. Many of them were Han scholars, but their works have been lost. In short, judging from the surviving works, the literature in the kingdom of Shi Zhao was the least developed among the kingdoms established by other tribes. However, a large number of poor scholars were selected and appointed to official positions during this period, which also contributed to the revival of literature in the north. In the late years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the large number of scholars recruited by the Murong family from the Jin Dynasty was reorganized into counties and prefectures under the reign of Murong Huang in the kingdom of Former Yan. These clans were not prone to massive dispersal during subsequent migrations. In the long run, the recovery, development, and expansion of the clan power in the north was closely related to the migrant prefectures set up by the Murong family. Influenced by the large number of exiled scholars, the Confucian

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ethos suddenly flourished in the kingdom. Murong Huang also established a bureaucratic system imitating the official system of the Central Plains. The concentration of numerous literati in the kingdom of Former Yan contributed to the expansion of literary creation. Former Qin and Later Qin among the Sixteen Kingdoms did not gain control over most or part of the northern territories until they had been assimilated by the Han ethnicity for a long time. In the history of Sixteen Kingdoms, some of the more famous nobles from the tribes of Di and Qiang were born in the northeast. The kingdoms built by Fu Jian and Yao Chang successively chose Chang’an as the capital. They appointed the scholars in Guanlong and its surrounding villages to important official positions and revitalized the local culture. With the support of scholars in the Central Shaanxi Plain, Chang’an was restored as the cultural development center during the reign of Fu Jian and Yao Chang. During the reign of Yao Xing, the kingdom of Later Qin ruled a stable society and “awed the prefectures and vassal states”, and cultural development also reached a peak. It was a period when there were tens of thousands of Confucian students in Chang’an City, compared with “one thousand and five hundred ordinary students aged from thirteen to twenty-five who were sane to be taught” in schools built in Chang’an during the reign of Liu Yao. The backbone of the kingdom built by Yaoxing were all scholars from various villages in Guanlong. Most of them were literally talented and even participated in the Confucian and Buddhist lectures hosted by tribe leaders. Yao Xing was also surrounded by a group of literati who composed fu writings for persuasion purposes. For example, Jingzhaodu Shan wrote Feng Cao Shi for exhortation, and Xiang Yun, a minister from the prefecture of Fengyi, composed De Lie Fu to express satire. After the late years of the Western Jin Dynasty (303 A.D.–317 A.D.), Liangzhou, located in the Western border, provided a cultural shelter in the late Jin Dynasty thanks to its temporarily safe social environment. The literature development in Liangzhou was driven mainly by local respected clans instead of migrants from the Central Plains. Local forces in Liangzhou were interdependent, where its cultural inheritance mechanism ensured self-sufficient cultural development. In the late years of the Jin Dynasty, local respected clans in Liangzhou were among the forces supporting the regime of Emperor Min of Jin, which had a profound influence on the people of Liangzhou and was an important reason for their sustained position as adherents of the Western Jin Dynasty. Under this influence, the literature in Liangzhou embraced the characteristics of

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the adherent, and some literary traditions survived from the Western Jin Dynasty. During the reign of Former Liang, a cultural development mechanism of mutual inheritance developed from the settlement and mutual exchanges of clans in Liangzhou. This mechanism was not broken in the chaotic times during the late years of the Jin Dynasty. Instead, it was further strengthened due to the return of some scholars from the capital. These returned scholars played an active role in promoting cultural heritage in the village society. Hexi people “are innately upright, frugal, educated to be benevolent and righteous, diligent in farm work, and mostly specialized in raising livestock”. The “benevolence and righteousness education” was probably attributed to the cultural inheritance in the village. It was under this cultural system that scholars emerged constantly in Liangzhou. They were diligent teachers with graceful bearing and upright character in private schools and made major contributions to the survival of Hexi culture. During the reign of Zhang Zhonghua, Xie Ai asked for seven thousand soldiers under his command and led them to defeat Later Zhao, shining with exploits. Though a general, Xie Ai was also good at writing. The Book of Sui·Bibliographic Treatise (Sui Shu Jing Ji Zhi) included eight volumes of Bibliography of Xie Ai (Xie Ai Ji), all of which have been lost. Xie Ai was familiar with The Spring and Autumn Annals, but unfortunately it is now impossible to analyze the characteristics of his commentary due to the incompleteness of his surviving works. There was surely a good reason for a man from the frontier like him to have enjoyed good fame in the Southern Dynasties. Li Hao, founder of Xiliang, was also “a man versed in both literature and military affairs”. Guo Nun was a famous teacher in a private school in the village at that time. Later, Li Hao started his political career until he served as the prefect of Dunhuang. He triumphed in a fight for power with Suo Si. After ascending the throne, he liked organizing literati gatherings particularly. During this period, Liu Bing, a great scholar in Hexi, was the most representative figure. He “spent day and night writing annotations” and left many works to later generations. He was appointed as “state preceptor” and was deeply favored and trusted in the kingdom built by the Juqu family. However, there are few poems left by Hexi scholars. It is now impossible to ascertain the time when Zhang Jun wrote two Yuefu poems, namely Scallion Dew (Xie Lu) and Out of the East Gate. Among the existing literary works from Hexi, fu writings accounted for a considerable share and showed a high artistic level. During the reign of Lü Guang of Later Liang Kingdom,

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Duan Ye, who was the editor of national history, composed sixteen fu writings to admonish the king, including Nine Sighs (Jiu Tan) and Seven Admonishments (Qi Feng). Li Hao, the king of Xiliang, left most fu writings to this date. His fu writings focused highly on the reflection on and affection to the era and the future of the regime. Among them, Shu Zhi Fu, consisting of nearly one thousand characters, was written when the kingdom was beset with troubles internally and externally. This composition was majestic, rhymed, and magnificent in rhetoric. Clearly, it was deeply influenced by the Hexi culture, which was “versed in both literature and military affairs”. In the late years of the “Five Liang” (Former Liang, Later Liang, Northern Liang, Western Liang, and Southern Liang), the literature development in Liangzhou evidently surpassed that in Northern Wei. Cui Hao once wrote Confer the Title of King of Liang on Juqu Mengxun (Ce Feng Ju Qu Meng Xun Wei Liang Wang) for Emperor Taiwu. By imitating predecessors, he described the ancestors of Northern Wei in a style similar to the four-character poems about the imperial ancestors in the Western Jin Dynasty. Allusions were rarely used, and there was slight antithesis for the purpose of making the work elegant and standard. Records of Picked-up Leftovers (Shi Yi Ji) was a collection of mysterious and phantastic stories compiled by the necromancer Wang Jia in Former Qin. Wang Jia, courtesy name Zinian, hailed from Anyang, Longxi. The current version was probably rearranged by the imperial clansman Xiao Qi of Liang in the Southern Dynasties. Records of Picked-up Leftovers consisted of ten volumes. The first nine volumes included historical weird anecdotes and bizarre myths from the remote ages of Pao Xi and Shen Nong to the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It also included many rumors after the Han and Wei dynasties. Particularly, those advocating elixir were mostly absurd and were rejected from official history books. The last volume included a description of eight mountains and islands where a lot of immortals were said to live, including the Kunlun Range. Records of Picked-up Leftovers mainly included miscellaneous records and stories of strange events. The book focused on advocating elixir, with its most parts being strange and absurd. However, some of its fantasies such as the stories “Guan Yue Cha” and “Lun Bo Zhou” were written based on rich imagination. With gorgeous language, the stories were full of twists and turns and written with impressive rhetoric. Moreover, they were sprinkled with seven-character poems. For example, a group of antiphonal songs in Shi Yi Ji·Shao Hao actually showed strong characteristics of folk songs

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and were written as seven-character poems. These two poems chanted the encounter between the ancient tribe leader Shaohao’s mother, Huang’e, and Dizi, as well as their sailing at sea. Judging from the language of these poems, the mysterious sea in which the immortals lived was depicted as a bizarre, gorgeous, and vague world.

CHAPTER 12

Literature in the Southern Dynasties Cai Danjun

The Southern Dynasties period started from 420 A.D. when Liu Yu overturned the Eastern Jin regime and established the Song regime. During this period, there were Qi Dynasty established by Xiao Daocheng, Liang Dynasty established by Xiao Yan, and Chen Dynasty established by Chen Baxian, until the last King of Chen lost his kingdom to the southward army of Sui in 589 A.D. Therefore, the four Southern Dynasties were short-lived, with the regime changed frequently. Among them, even the most long-lived Liang Dynasty lasted only fifty-nine years, while the most short-lived Qi Dynasty lasted for twenty-three years. From a macro point of view, in spite of the succession of the four Southern Dynasties, the social and economic continuity remained intact. At that time, the relatively stable social environment provided favorable conditions for the economic development of the Jiangnan region. A large number of people migrated from the north to the south, enriching the labor force in Jiangnan and bringing advanced production technologies. The integration of southern ethnic minorities with the Han people accelerated the development of the local economy. During the Southern Dynasties, Jiankang was the largest commercial city and a well-deserved center for literature development. There are four markets in the city, and there was

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_12

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a large market on the north bank of the Qinhuai River, as well as more than ten small markets. In addition to Jiankang, Jingkou, Shanyin (seat of Huaiji Prefecture), Shouyang, Xiangyang, Jiangling, Chengdu, and Guangzhou were also commercial cities. Among them, Xiangyang and Jiangling were the most important cities second to Jiankang for literature development. A large number of writers emerged during the Southern Dynasties. In the early years of the Song Dynasty founded by Emperor Wu of Song, Xie Lingyun from an aristocratic family, the high-ranking official Yan Yanzhi, and Bao Zhao, who rose from a poor family, were the representative poets during the Yuanjia period. During the Southern Qi Dynasty, the eight literary talents recruited by the king of Jingling, Xiao Ziliang, to his residence, created the Yongming style, a new style of literature in the Southern Qi Dynasty. They were called eight scholars of the Jingling School, namely Xiao Yan, Shen Yue, Ren Fang, Xie Tiao, Wang Rong, Xiao Chen, Fan Yun, and Lu Chui. Another famous poet in the Southern Qi Dynasty was Jiang Yan. Xiao Yan, the founder of the Liang Dynasty, was gifted in literature. His sons Xiao Tong, Xiao Gang, and Xiao Yi were also literary masters. The most outstanding poets of the Southern Dynasties were gathered under their leadership, with the most famous ones being Yu Jianwu and his son Yu Xin, as well as Xu Chi and his son Xu Ling. During the Southern Dynasties, all kinds of literary styles developed substantially. The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragon had already been able to profoundly distinguish literary styles. The Selections of Refined Literature divided literary styles into thirty-seven categories, providing much deeper discussions and more detailed classification than its predecessors. During this period, remarkable achievements were made in the style of parallel prose. The development of Yuefu poetry in the Southern Dynasties was also noteworthy. Collected Songs of the Music Bureau Style compiled by Guo Maoqian of the Song Dynasty included a large number of Yuefu poems in the Southern Dynasties. Southern folk songs represented by “Wu Sheng” and “Xi Qu” were a splendid addition to the literature in the Southern Dynasties after being transformed by literati. The Southern Dynasties also witnessed the booming of novels about recluses and supernatural power. It was a period when many classic novels were born. New Account of Tales of the World and Records of the Hidden and the Visible Worlds (You Ming Lu) were typical works.

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Three Poets During the Yuanjia Period: Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi, and Bao Zhao

Among the Southern Dynasties, the Song Dynasty founded by Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of Song, marked a turning point for poetry in the Chinese poetry history. Different from poets in the Wei and Jin dynasties who tended to sing about their own emotions and inner parts, poets in the Southern Dynasties paid more attention to external aspects and pursued the perfection and beauty of art forms. Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi, and Bao Zhao were three representative poets who were greatly influential during the Yuanjia period and later. Their poems differed from the ordinary and tasteless style of metaphysical poetry by most poets in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and presented a common trend of focusing on rhetoric and antithesis. Compared with the poems during the Qi and Liang dynasties, their poems were more ancient and vigorous. Xie Lingyun (385 A.D.–433 A.D.), hailing from Yangxia, Chenjun, came from a prominent gentry family and was the grandson of Xie Xuan. His arrogance prevented him from being popular in officialdom. He was frustrated and indignant for not being appreciated. In order to fight against the imperial court and vent his dissatisfaction, he was always indulged in the mountains and rivers and wandered recklessly, both during his tenure as the prefect of Yongjia and when in seclusion. Sometimes, he would travel for one or two months, ignoring the increasingly piled official work. Xie Lingyun was proficient in Buddhism. He once wrote Bian Zong Lun to discuss the principles of Buddhism and sought epiphany and spiritual comfort from the peaceful sound of mountains and rivers. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, explaining mysteries in poems was a fashion. Fundamentally, Xie Lingyun’s landscape poems were still interested in pursuing and exploring the joy of life and philosophic reasoning. Such philosophical orientation was represented in his insights seemingly stirred up by scenery. Most of his landscape poems were written after he became the prefect of Yongjia, which accounted for half of his total compositions. These poems vividly and meticulously described the natural scenery in Yongjia, Kuaiji, Pengli Lake, and other places with rich and exquisite workmanship and fresh language, showing the beauty of nature from different angles. The characteristics of his portrait technique in poems were commented by Zhong Rong as “being smartly similar” and by Liu Xie as “an attempt to depict what the scenery really looked like” when he talked about the poems in the early Song Dynasty.

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Yan Yanzhi (384 A.D.–456 A.D.), courtesy name Yannian, hailed from Linyi, Langxie. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Song, he was appointed as deputy minister of Central Secretariat and was later transferred as aide to the crown prince and military officer of infantry. Afterward, he served as secretary supervisor, chief of palace administration, and chamberlain for ceremonials. After Liu Shao killed his father and claimed the throne, he appointed Yan Yanzhi as imperial minister of state. After Emperor Xiaowu of Song acceded to the throne, he appointed Yan Yanzhi as imperial minister of state holding golden seal and purple seal ribbon and commander of the imperial army in Xiangdong. He was called by later generation as “Imperial Minister Yan”. He died at the age of seventy-three in the third year of the emperor’s reign under the title Xiaojian. Yan Yanzhi and Xie Lingyun were about the same age and enjoyed similar reputation in the literary world. They were collectively known as “Yan-Xie”. In fact, they differed from each other greatly in thought and artistic achievements. Both of them attached great importance to exquisitely polishing their compositions. However, Xie Lingyun was committed to capturing natural images, blending his emotions with scenery, and integrating reasoning with the expression of emotions in a way that broke through the shackles of metaphysical poetry and created a refreshing style of his own, while Yan Yanzhi focused on citing examples and polishing the structure and sentences, without allowing for vivid and natural charm, which made his compositions difficult to read. Many of Yan Yanzhi’s poems were written under the emperor’s order and thus were elegant and solemn. For example, A Composition Made after Touring Qu’ahou Lake with the Emperor on the Third of March (San Yue San Ri Shi You Qu A Hou Hu Zuo) was written in gorgeous language and well reflected the “Golden Years of Yuanjia” (Yuan Jia Zhi Zhi). Allusions were properly employed in this composition. His most famous work was five poems of On Five Worthies (Wu Jun Yong), which were about five of the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, namely Ji Kang, Xiang Xiu, Liu Ling, Ruan Ji, and Ruan Xian. The other two worthies, namely Shan Tao and Wang Rong, were not mentioned because of their powerful status. Yan Yanzhi expressed his discontent by commenting on the experiences of the five worthies. These poems showed his uprightness and unrestrained quality and were somewhat clear and bright. He wrote a narrative poem called Poem on Qiuhu (Qiu Hu Shi) in which Qiu Hu, a native of the State of Lu, soon became an official in the State of Chen after he married his wife. When he returned home five years later, he

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found a beautiful woman harvesting mulberry leaves by the roadside. He tried to flirt with her by offering to give her gold jewelry, but in vain. He arrived home, only to find that the woman was his wife. Feeling ashamed of his immorality, his wife threw herself into the river. Yan Yanzhi also made considerable achievements in prose and parallel prose. He was the first writer to propose the parallelism of “lyrical writing” and “practical writing”. His Preface for Poems Composed during a Tour in Qushui on the Third of March (San Yue San Ri Qu Shui Shi Xu), Dirge for Attendant Yang (Yang Ji Shi Lei), Dirge for Recluse Tao (Tao Zheng Shi Lei), Elegy for Empress Yuan of Emperor Wen of Song (Song Wen Huang Di Yuan Huang Hou Ai Ce Wen), and Elegy for Qu Yuan (Ji Qu Yuan Wen) were included in Selections of Refined Literature. His Family Precept (Ting Gao) and Rhapsody of Horse in Red and White (Zhe Bai Ma Fu), though not included in Selections of Refined Literature, were also very distinctive. For example, although Rhapsody of Horse in Red and White was written under an imperial edict, the sentence “At dawn, the horse was brushed in Youyan, but before sunset it arrived and was fed in Jingyue” described the speed of the galloping horse and had an influence on many later poems about horses. Yan Yanzhi and Tao Yuanming were close friends. After Tao Yuanming died, he wrote Dirge for Recluse Tao (Tao Zheng Shi Lei), which was probably his most famous work. This eulogy briefly summarized Tao Yuanming’s life experience and spoke highly of his virtue. Yan Yanzhi had many interactions with famous monks such as Huiyuan, and he was a poet who was obviously influenced by Buddhism during the Liu Song Dynasty. Bao Zhao (414 A.D.–466 A.D.), courtesy name Mingyuan, had a humble background. He once offered a poem to Liu Yiqing, the prince of Linchuan, to express his ambitions when he had a chance to meet the prince. He recommended himself and was appreciated. When Liu Zixu, the prince of Linhai, garrisoned in Jingzhou, he served as a staff officer and was called Officer Bao. He lived quite a different life from Yan Yanzhi and Xie Lingyun. Having struggled at the bottom of society for a long time, Bao Zhao mainly described his hard life and indignation at the impermanence of life in his poems. He wrote a large number of Yuefu poems, mainly in five characters, including a famous poem named Dai Chu Zi Ji Bei Men Xing about the scenery at frontier fortress, Dai Bai Tou Yin about the wickedness of the world, and Dai Pin Jian Ku Chou Xing about hard life of lower-class scholars. He was interested in extensive topics and was very concerned about social reality. He also

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wrote some imitative poems with similar contents and subject matters about the hardships and discontents of poor scholars. These poems were strongly emotional. For example, the eight pieces of Imitative Ancient Poems had traces of imitating the eight poems of Zuo Si’s Singing of History. Bao Zhao also depicted landscapes in his poems, but these poems were not about joy or delight. Instead, they were haunted by a dreary, depressing, desolate, and repressive atmosphere, showing a particularly indignant state. For this reason, Bao Zhao’s poems were not highly rated during the Southern Dynasties. They were commented as “being resentful and anxious but gorgeously embellished”. Bao Zhao’s 18 poems of Ni Xing Lu Nan expressed his desire to establish a merit, his dissatisfaction with the clan society, his pain of being unappreciated, his resentment for not having a chance to serve the country, and his sadness of disillusionment in pursuing ambitions. These poems truly reflected the living conditions of the poor scholars at that time. He also composed several poems describing wars at frontier fortress and the life on an expedition mission. These poems laid a earlier foundation for frontier fortress poetry in the Tang Dynasty. Bao Zhao’s five-character poems were well-balanced, neat and fluent, rich in content, and full of emotions. His seven-character poems rhymed every two sentences rather than sentence by sentence and changed rhyme freely, which broadened the creative path of seven-character poems. His Yuefu poems broke through the traditional Yuefu rhythm and showed great creativity. They were characterized by deep and subtle thoughts, fresh and profound artistic conception, large language capacity, highly varied rhythms, gorgeous and smooth rhetoric, vivid lyricism and elements of folk songs. In terms of poetic art, Bao Zhao mainly learned from Zhang Xie and Zhang Hua. Similar to other poets during the Yuanjia period, he excelled at imitating shapes. When talking about the poetry and prose in the Qi and Liang dynasties in The Book of the Southern Qi·Biography of Literature (Nan Qi Shu Wen Xue Zhuan Lun), Xiao Zixian pointed out three schools. One of them learned from Xie Lingyun. Another school learned from Bao Zhao. The last school, though not identified, was said to emphasize antithesis and allusions the most, which showed a clear association with Yan Yanzhi and the like. Obviously, these three poets were greatly influential during the Yuanjia period and later periods. Their poems changed the ordinary and tasteless style of metaphysical poetry by most poets in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and formed a common trend of

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focusing on rhetoric and antithesis. Compared with the poems during the Qi and Liang dynasties, their poems were more ancient and vigorous. In Poem Theory of Canglang (Cang Lang Shi Hua), Yan Yu, a poet in the Song Dynasty summarized the similarities in the poetic styles of Xie Lingyun, Yan Yanzhi and Bao Zhao and named them collectively “Yuanjia style” (Yuan Jia Ti).

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The Eight Scholars of the Jingling School and Yongming Style

The eight scholars of the Jingling School meant Xiao Yan, Shen Yue, Xie Tiao, Wang Rong, Xiao Chen, Fan Yun, Ren Fang, and Lu Chui. Their greatest contribution to literature was the introduction of the “Yongming style” (“Yong Ming Ti”), which laid the foundation for the sound pattern theory. Together with Xie Tiao, Wang Rong and Fan Yun, Shen Yue combined the distinction of four tones with the traditional knowledge of sound and rhythm in poetry to identify a set of sound pattern weaknesses to be avoided in the composition of five-character poems. They were recorded later as “eight weaknesses” (“ba bing”), namely pingtou, shangwei, fengyao, hexi, dayun, xiaoyun, pangniu, and zhengniu. There were different opinions on what exactly these eight weaknesses referred to. However, what was clear was that poets at that time had already applied the knowledge of rhythm and antithesis in poetry creation and focused on the coordination of level and oblique tones, sonorous rhythm, gorgeous wording, neat antithesis, and small length, which laid the foundation for the production of metrical verses. The poets of the “Yongming Style” restarted their political careers in the Liang Dynasty after the demise of the Qi Dynasty. Under the influence of Xiao Yan and his son Xiao Tong, they went even further to study deeper and practice more on the art forms of poetry. Xiao Gang and Xiao Yi followed the tradition, and palace style poems became a trend. Yongming style and palace style were generally called by literary historians as “Qiliang style” (“Qi Liang Ti”). These poets pursued perfect flow of sound in poetry and absorbed the simplicity, liveliness, and plainness of folk songs. Even if they employed allusions, they tried to do so naturally. These efforts marked the innovation and development of Yuanjia style. Shen Yue (441 A.D.–513 A.D.), courtesy name Xiu Wen, hailed from Wukang, Wuxing (now Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province). During the Liu Song Dynasty, he served as clerical officer

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and statistical officer in the Department of State Affairs. During the Qi Dynasty, he served as the editor of national history, senior councilor and hussar general. He was the eldest one among the “eight scholars of the Jingling School” (“Jing Ling Ba You”). Due to his long-term tenure in important positions, he wrote many important edicts and held great esteem in the literary circle of the Qi and Liang dynasties. On the whole, his poems demonstrated fresh and smooth beauty and often incorporated a touch of sentimentality in the subtle brushstrokes of chants and portrait of changes in scenery. Compared with his contemporaries like Xie Lingyun and Xie Tiao, Shen Yue was not a prolific landscape poet, but his poems were equally fresh and at the same time conveyed a sad and sentimental mood. For example, the depiction of scenery in Climbing Xuanchang Tower (Deng Xuan Chang Lou) was fresh, natural and smooth. In particular, changes in the scenery were captured and portrayed in a way that injected a dynamic momentum into the whole poem. Gazing at Sea and Missing Home Melancholy on a Journey in an Autumn Morning (Qiu Chen Ji Yuan Wang Hai Si Gui) provided a broad and vast vision in which the water and the sky merged in one color, while the mist and ripples extended into the distance. Considering the title of the poem, the water and the sky were far and wide, which contrasted the “melancholy” and “homesick” feelings. A poem like that was excellent among landscape poems composed during the Qi and Liang dynasties. Shen Yue’s farewell poems were similarly “sorrowful and bitter”. The most well-known Farewell to Fan Ancheng (Bie Fan Ancheng) compared the parting at a young age with that at an old age to imply deep and rich sentimental feelings. The employment of the allusion of Zhang Min and Gao Hui during the Warring States Period in the last two verses aggravated the sadness of the parting. His mourning and nostalgic poems were even more “sorrowful and bitter”. For example, A Mourning Poem (Dao Wang Shi) contrasted the eternity of nature to the sadness of life that was ephemeral and could be gone forever. At the same time, the sad emotion was blended with the desolate environment, which accentuated the sadness. The “sorrow and bitter” emotions also penetrated his lyrical poems such as Climbing High and Gazing at a Spring Sight (Deng Gao Wang Chun), Lessons from the Past (Gu Yi), Grieving over Spring (Shang Chun), and A Night in Autumn (Qiu Ye), as well as his Yuefu poems Looking from a High Platform (Lin Gao Tai), Contemplation (You Suo Si) and Nocturne (Ye Ye Qu).

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Xie Tiao (464 A.D.–499 A.D.), courtesy name Xuanhui, hailed from Yangxia, Chenjun (now Taikang County, Henan Province). He was born to a noble family in the same clan as Xie Lingyun and was known as “Junior Xie”. In the fifth year of the Southern Qi Dynasty under the reign title of Yongming (487 A.D.), he participated in a tour to Xidi, the residence of Xiao Ziliang who was the king of Jingling, and was initially appointed by the king as personnel officer and educational officer. He was one of the “eight scholars of the Jingling School”. Xie Tiao was the representative writer of Yongming style poems in the Southern Qi Dynasty. More than 200 of his poems have survived to this date, with his main achievements made in landscape poems. Xie Lingyun’s landscape poems were still influenced by the metaphysical poetry style. By contrast, Xie Tiao’s landscape poems, with exquisite language and coordinated rhythm, got rid of the metaphysical elements. His most classic masterpiece was Climbing Mount. Sanshan and Looking into the Scenery in the Capital in an Evening (Wan Deng San Shan Huan Wang Jing Yi). This poem with fluent language described the beautiful scenery when he turned around to look into the capital. The bright and beautiful scenery in his hometown provoked his homesickness and made him shed tears when he was about to leave. The blending of the scenery with the poet’s emotions and the subtle and graceful writing style made this composition a masterpiece landscape poem at that time. Ren Fang (460 A.D.–508 A.D.), courtesy name Yansheng, pet name Adui, hailed from Bochang, Le’an Prefecture (now Shouguang City, Shandong Province). He served as an official in the Qi and Liang dynasties. In the early years of the Yongming reign period, General of Martial Might Wang Jian recommended him as secretary-general of Danyang. After Emperor Wu of Liang acceded to the throne, he served as assistant minister of Yellow Gate and of the Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs. After being removed from the position of imperial minister, he was transferred to be secretary supervisor and later the prefecture of Yixing. During the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang under the title of Tianjian (408 A.D.), he died at forty-nine at his official position.

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Palace Style Poems and Poets in the Late Years of the Southern Dynasties

Xiao Gang, who was Emperor of Jianwen of the Liang Dynasty, was an important representative literatus in the Liang Dynasty. He was the third son of Emperor Wu of Liang and the biological younger brother of Xiao Tong, Crown Prince Zhaoming. At the age of four, Xiao Gang was appointed as Prince of Jin’an. At the age of seven, he was appointed as General Yunhui, leading the garrison in Shitoushu with the authority to appoint his local subordinates. When his brother Crown Prince Zhaoming died, he was made Crown Prince and succeeded to the throne. He was posthumously given the title Emperor Jianwen, and his dynastic title was Taizong. Xiao Gang was fond of literature since his childhood and claimed to be “addicted to poetry” at the age of seven. Due to his special status, he developed a literary group with distinct ideas around him. In his Da Zhang Zuan Xie Shi Ji Shu, Xiao Gang put forward his own literary proposition and elevated the status and characteristics of literature to an unprecedented height. During the Yongfu period, Xu Ling and Yu Xin joined Prince of Jin’an. This marked a milestone for the literary group led by Xiao Gang. The so-called “Xu-Yu style” known to later generations was often equivalent to “palace style poems”, which were the poems composed in the Eastern Palace when Xiao Gang was made Crown Prince before becoming Emperor Jianwen of Liang in the Southern Dynasties, as well as in several palaces of the last emperor of Chen, Emperor Yang of Sui and Emperor Taizong of Tang. This palace style had “come into existence” when Xiao Gang garrisoned in Jingyong with Xu Chi as his attendant. Xiao Gang wrote Yong Zhou Shi Qu Chao San Shou. Xiao Yi wrote Visit the Ancient Pavilion in Yanyuan (Deng Yan Yuan Gu Ge) and A Night Tour in Bozhai (Ye You Bai Zhai). Both Yanyuan and Bozhai were famous scenic spots in Jingzhou. Palace style poems were not initially created by Xiao Gang, which became a literary fashion starting from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They were formed and developed for reasons. As far as literature was concerned, they were new products from the trend of the literature in the Six Dynasties that shifts from elegance to vulgarity. From metaphysical poetry to landscape poems and chanting poetry, literature gradually becomes emotional and sensual, with smoother and more beautiful forms. In addition, the boom of music and dance in the Six Dynasties facilitated the wide spread of folk songs to the upper class, and scholars rushed to imitate them

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until the palace style gradually took shape. During the Liu Song Dynasty, there were many folk song composers both in the court and the civil society, for example, Liu Jun (Emperor Xiaowu) and Liu Yiqing (prince of Linchuan), as well as Bao Zhao and Tang Huixiu. Yuefu folk songs that used to be considered by the imperial court as ballads from humble streets began to attract unprecedented attention. By imitating folk songs, Xiao Yan and many others composed poems like Zi Ye Ge, Shang Sheng Ge, and Dong Fei Bo Lao Ge. All of them were very similar to folk songs in terms of melody and lyrics. The mainstream of folk songs in the Southern Dynasties was Wu Sheng songs and Xi Qu songs, most of which were romance and sung in female tones. They were characterized by monotonous contents, frivolous and gorgeous style, and bold and strong emotions. They were also mostly soft and decadent. These features were related to the long-standing literary tradition. Wu Sheng songs, the local folk songs of Chu, were often euphemistic and delicate, which also influenced the Yuefu poems created by literati. Palace style poems often avoided direct depiction of romance and set off the feelings of lovers through such descriptions as drapery and fragrance. The extreme beauty of women was embellished apparently via description of everything from romantic scenes to girly accessories. Palace style poems paid attention to extravagant and soft rhetoric, with exterior form prioritized over interior implication. The focus of description was simply on the stunning appearance and posture of a beauty, and her inner feeling was never mentioned. This style differed greatly from the works that praised women during the Jian’an period. Although Xiao Gang’s He Xiang Dong Ming Shi Yue Qing Cheng was written with beautiful diction, flowing rhythm, and mellow and flexible quality, it was indifferent and unsentimental. Buddhism believed in “dependent origination and the emptiness of nature” and advocated a transformation from “form” to “emptiness”. It taught people to be disillusioned with the mortal world and let go of everything to become a Buddha. Therefore, Buddhist scriptures included many descriptions of the secular world, including the description of women’s lust. There were even stories about how the Buddha turned into a woman to satisfy men’s lust and then turned into a skeleton or blood. These stories tried to persuade people to be disillusioned with the mortal world and embrace Buddhism. These descriptions were related to the Indian literary tradition. In addition, with the progress of translation, many texts were translated into extremely

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frivolous and gorgeous words. The progress of Buddhist scripture translation also influenced the form of palace style poems. As an immature poetic genre, palace style poems were actually the forerunner of the later lyric poetry. The perfection of metrical verses and quatrains also benefited from such transition, which imitated the development of secular themes. The technique of combining chants, depiction of scenery and eroticism finally shined in the Tang Dynasty, but its superficiality and paleness should be avoided by later generations. Palace style poems were even passed down to the Chen Dynasty, and the representative poet was the dynasty’s last emperor. Chen Shubao, the last emperor of Chen (553 A.D.–604 A.D.), courtesy name Yuanxiu and childhood name Huangnu, was the eldest son of Chen Xu, Emperor Xuan of Chen. He was the last emperor of Chen during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. He loved poetry and prose and gathered around him a group of literati poets, for example, Jiang Zong (519 A.D.–594 A.D.) and Xu Ling (507 A.D.–583 A.D.), who were all famous for their literary works. Their poems and prose were mostly frivolous and gorgeous. Chen Shubao also named more than a dozen palace maids who were as talented as fair and were proficient in poetry writing, painting, and calligraphy as “female scholars”. Those who were talented but not fair enough were named “female secretaries” to serve in positions related to writing. At each banquet, concubines were gathered together with female scholars and the emperor’s other companions. They sat and chanted together, presented each other with poems and answers, and drank wine under the moon. Most of the poems were decadent. Those who were slow to compose their poems were made to drink as a forfeit. Finally, the particularly beautiful poems were selected as lyrics to match new melody, so that the smart palace maids could learn the new compositions and sing on this basis.

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Novels in the Southern Dynasties

The Southern Dynasties witnessed the maturity of novel as a literary form, during which novels about recluses and supernatural power were fully developed. People of the Six Dynasties tagged “supernatural power” to their novels that were mainly phantastic stories. These novels were complex and could be roughly divided into three categories. One category was trivial facts commending geography and natural sciences such as Shen Yi Jing written in the name of Dongfang Shuo and Zhang Hua’s

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Natural History. Another category was historical rumors and stories other than official history such as Ban Gu’s The Story of Emperor Wu of Han (Han Wu Gu Shi) and The Internal Biography of Emperor Wu of Han (Han Wu Di Nei Zhuan). The other category was superstition stories of ghosts and gods such as Gan Bao’s Records of Enquiry about the Spirits (Sou Shen Ji) in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Cao Pi’s Lie Yi Zhuan under an old title, Ge Hong’s Biography of Immortals (Shen Xian Zhuan), and Hou Sou Shen Ji in the name of Tao Qian. Phantastic stories had a direct influence on the legends in the Tang Dynasty. This was directly related to the religious superstition and metaphysical fashion in society and the spread of Buddhism at that time. During the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern dynasties, phantastic novels were inspired by folk witchcraft, Taoism and Buddhism, and writers recorded bizarre legends as facts. However, it should also be noted that phantastic novels had relatively complex origins and real features. They varied greatly in whether the emphasis was placed on preaching divine principles or recounting bizarre anecdotes and how much pleasure of life was represented. Among the phantastic novels during the Wei and Jin dynasties, Gao Bao’s Records of Enquiry about the Spirits was the most representative. Gan Bao (?–336 A.D.), courtesy name Lingsheng, hailed from Xincai (now in Henan). He was a famous historian living between the Western Jin and Eastern Jin dynasties. He wrote A Chronicle of the Jin Dynasty (Jin Ji) and was once regarded as excellent historian. He was also interested in Yin-Yang superstition, immortals and ghosts. Records of Enquiry about the Spirits “inherited previous records”. However, instead of a pure copy, it was a work with added modifications. It also “drew on interviews about anecdotes in recent times”, with these stories mostly written by the author. Most parts of the book were brief records of different immortal, alchemy, and supernatural events. Some of the stories in the book were complete and reflected people’s real relationships, thoughts, and feelings via an illusory medium. The particularly valuable part was some excellent legends. For example, A Filial Woman in the East Sea (Dong Hai Xiao Fu) was a story about a filial woman being executed under unjust verdict. Her good faith touched the god. As she vowed that she was innocent when being executed, her neck blood climbed up instead of flowing down a flagpole. Since she died, the local prefecture had no rain for three years. The Injustice to Dou E (Dou E Yuan), a famous play written by Guan Hanqing, was based on this story. In Dong Yong, the protagonist Dong Yong came from a poor family and

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sold himself to be a slave in order to pay for his father’s funeral. The Emperor of Heaven sent a weaver girl down-to-earth to marry him. She left after weaving a hundred pieces of fabrics to pay off her husband’s debt. This story was later adapted into Fairy Couple (Tian Xian Pei). These two stories were intended to praise filial piety, but they were more than that. The former also accused officials of being ruthless and cruel, while the latter revealed the poor man’s yearning for a better life. These two themes became the cores of The Injustice to Dou E and Fairy Couple. In Han Ping and His Wife (Han Ping Fu Fu), King Kang of Song wanted to make Han Ping’s beautiful wife (whose surname was He) his concubine. The couples were unwilling to yield and committed suicide. After they died, big trees grew out from their tombs. Their roots and branches intersected, and a pair of mandarin ducks perched on the trees, lamenting sadly. The story indicted the ruler for his brutality and celebrated the couple’s loyalty in love. It ended in a poetic fantasy common in folk tales and was likely to influence the ending of a later story of “Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai”. The Young Princess of Wu (Wu Wang Xiao Nv) also told a life-and-death love story. The youngest daughter of Fu Chai, the king of Wu, fell in love with Han Zhong, but she died of anger because her father did not allow her to marry the man she loved. She became a ghost to live with Han Zhong for three days, and they became real husband and wife. The tone of the story was tragic and desolate, in which the princess, named Ziyu, was portrayed as a beautiful woman. In ancient Chinese love stories, there was a noteworthy phenomenon that women were always more enthusiastic, brave, and persistent than men. After Records of Enquiry about the Spirits, Records of the Hidden and the Visible Worlds written by Liu Yiqing was another representative novel. Liu Yiqing (403 A.D.–444 A.D.) hailed from Pengcheng (now Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province). He was a member of the ruling family of the Liu Song Dynasty and inherited the title of the prince of Linchuan. He loved literature and was a prolific writer. In addition to Records of the Hidden and the Visible Worlds, he also left an anecdotal novel called New Account of Tales of the World. Nevertheless, these works were written mainly by his retainers. Records of the Hidden and the Visible Worlds has been lost, but more than two hundred and sixty stories from this book were included in Ancient Stories Salvaged (Gu Xiao Shuo Gou Chen) edited by Lu Xun. Different from Records of Enquiry about the Spirits, Records of the Hidden and the Visible Worlds drew on little old records. Most of its stories were new from the Jin and Song dynasties, mainly recording weird anecdotes

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about ordinary people. Despite the phantastic nature, they were clear mirrors of the times and lives. This book was written more flexibly and gracefully than Records of Enquiry about the Spirits, which was consistent with the trend of literature development in the Liu Song Dynasty. It was more concerned with pleasure of life and was more literary than previous phantastic novels. Anecdotal novels were miscellanies of character sketches and anecdotes of historic figures that were popular during the Six dynasties (Wu, Eastern Jin, Liu Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen), which were also called the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern dynasties. Also known as novels about pure conversation and anecdotes, they were second only to phantastic novels in quantity and were products of the social trend of classifying people according to excellence. The name “anecdotal” (zhi ren in pinyin) was derived by Lu Xun from the name phantastic (zhi guai in pinyin), and it was created in relation to “phantastic” for Lu Xun’s The Historical Change of Chinese Novels (Zhong Guo Xiao Shuo De Li Shi De Bian Qian). Anecdotal novels were true stories about real characters. They were written as “trivial miscellanies” in short length and conveyed informative messages with a concise and simple language. They demonstrated good techniques of typical detailed descriptions and contrasts to highlight certain personality trait of a character. An earlier work of this nature was Miscellany of the Western Capital (Xi Jing Za Ji), but the identity of its author was still under debate. In Wang Qiang, the heroine had to marry the leader of the Xiongnu tribe because she refused to bribe a painter. This story inspired many poems, novels, and plays of later generations. Although Miscellany of the Western Capital focused on anecdotes, it was complexly inclusive and most of the records were overly trivial. Novels specifically about character sketches included Woods of Words (Yu Lin) written by Pei Qi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Guo Zi written by Guo Chengzhi during the transition between the Jin and Liu Song dynasties. Both of them have been lost. New Account of Tales of the World in the Southern Dynasties was a representative anecdotal novel. New Account of Tales of the World, also known as Shi Yu, was claimed to be written by Liu Yiqing. In fact, it was written by his retainers. This novel was mainly about the anecdotes and pure metaphysical conversations of famous scholars during the Wei and Jin dynasties. It could be described as a general collection of stories circulating around a dozen of literati during that period. It originally consisted of eight volumes. The version together with Liu Jun’s commentary consisted of ten volumes.

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The current version consists of three volumes, namely Volume I, Volume II, and Volume III, divided into thirty-six chapters including Virtuous Conduct, Speech and Conversation, Affairs of State, Letters and Scholarship, The Square and the Proper and Cultivated Tolerance. Each chapter included several stories, and there were more than one thousand and two hundred stories in the book. The stories varied in length, ranging from several lines to a few words. It was evident that such literary sketches were “jotted down” casually. New Account of Tales of the World provided rich historical materials, including vivid descriptions of famous scholars in the Wei and Jin dynasties, including their activities such as pure conversations and topics, their personality traits such as aloofness, willfulness, rudeness, and contempt, their life goals and their preferences. It could be regarded as a group portrait of scholars living in the Wei and Jin dynasties and functioned as a window to catch a glimpse of the fashion in the upper class at that time. New Account of Tales of the World consists of three volumes divided into thirty-six chapters. The first volume was divided into four chapters of Virtuous Conduct, Speech and Conversation, Affairs of State, and Letters and Scholarship, which were four Confucian disciplines. This arrangement showed a tendency of Confucianism worship. However, metaphysics and Buddhism were frequently discussed in the whole book. In particular, it could be found from the stories about scholars in the Wei and Jin dynasties that discussing metaphysics was a fashion at that time. The second volume was divided into nine chapters of The Square and the Proper, Cultivated Tolerance, Insight and Judgement, Appreciation and Praise, Classification according to Excellence, Admonitions and Warnings, Quick Perception, Precocious Intelligence and Virile Vigor. All of them were positive reviews. New Account of Tales of the World and Liu Xiao’s commentary mentioned a total of more than one thousand and five hundred characters of various types, including major figures in the Wei and Jin dynasties, ranging from emperors and ministers to recluses and monks. Some of the characterization focused on appearance, some on talent, and others on mental state. However, there was one similarity that personality traits were key. The unique personality traits of distinctive characters were manifested by their special manners, so that the characters were lively, lifelike, and vivid. New Account of Tales of the World was written in a refined, subtle, meaningful, and expressive language.

CHAPTER 13

Literature in the Northern Dynasties Cai Danjun

The Northern Dynasties covered a historical period starting from the recovery of Northern Liang and the unification of the north by Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei (439 A.D.) to the eve of the unification of the country in the Sui Dynasty (589 A.D.). The collective name Northern Dynasties referred to five dynasties in the north, namely Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou. After Northern Wei unified the north, the production relations were adjusted and the productive forces were significantly developed through the long-term hard work and concerted efforts of all ethnic groups. Especially after Emperor Xiaowen’s reform, the number of land-owning farmers increased significantly. Before the reign of Emperor Xiaoming under the title of Zhengguang, there had been more than five million registered households in the country, more than doubling the number during the Taikang period of the Western Jin Dynasty. Among the three kingdoms, Northern Qi was more affluent than Chen and Northern Zhou. In the Northern Dynasties, the melee in the Central Plains that had lasted for nearly one hundred and fifty years ended, which laid a foundation for the prosperity of the Sui and Tang dynasties and the great fusion of ethnic groups. Compared with the literature history with many

C. Danjun (B) School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_13

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shining writers in the Southern Dynasties, the literature in the Northern Dynasties was relatively dim. Because literati like Yu Xin, Wang Bao, and Yan Zhitui all came from the Southern Dynasties and most researchers do not classify them among writers purely in the Northern Dynasties. In fact, the literature in the Northern Dynasties followed its own development path. There were many writers, literary works, and literary phenomena worthy of attention. This period witnessed the development of Chinese literature from the late years of the Western Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties.

1 Pingcheng Period and Starting Point for Literature Development in the Northern Dynasties In the academic circle, the early years of the Northern Dynasties generally refer to the more than one hundred years from the first year of the reign of Emperor Daowu under the title of Dengguo (386 A.D.) and with Shengle and Pingcheng as capitals to the nineteenth year of the reign of Emperor Xiaowen under the title of Taihe (495 A.D.) with the capital relocated to Luoyang. From the late years of the Western Jin Dynasty to the early years of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Tuoba Xianbei mainly served as a military leader. When “Wu Hu”, which had garrisoned in the Central Plains for years, were deeply assimilated by the Han ethnicity, the Dai government of the Xianbei tribe was still barbarian. Tuoba Xianbei rapidly boosted the cultural strength of his kingdom in the process of attacking and destroying the Murong clan. The scholars who moved early to the Northern Wei were relatively proficient in Yin-Yang superstition and were capable of some divination and prophecy to provide some basic advice for the drafting of systems. Their knowledge on Confucianism “replenished the mind of the king”. Tuoba Xianbei continued the benefits of assimilation built by Murong Xianbei mainly through the scholars of the Han ethnicity who were absorbed by the Zhuyan (Former Yan, Later Yan, Southern Yan, Western Yan, and Northern Yan) regime. During the early years of the Northern Dynasties, Cui Hao (?–450 A.D.) was the most prestigious scholar of the Han ethnicity. He inherited the Confucian tradition of the Eastern Han Dynasty, firmly believed in the concept of practical applications of theories, observed laws of the village, and opposed the thought of the Laozi-Zhuangzi school. His Annotations

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to the Book of Changes was recorded in The Book of Sui·Bibliographic Treatise, proving that this book remained popular after his death. His literary achievements were also found in some written admonitions. Compared with his other essays, Confer the Title of King of Liang on Juqu Mengxun was very literally graceful. Another important scholar living in the early years of the Northern Dynasties was Gao Yun (390 A.D.–487 A.D.). His eight pieces of Poems Praising Liu, A Chaste Woman in Pengcheng (Yong Zhen Fu Peng Cheng Liu Shi Shi) were four-character poems that praised a woman of the same quality as Qin Jia’s wife, calling her “an exceptionally chaste woman and incomparably loyal wife”. Gao Yun described the appearance of Luo Fu in his Yuefu poem Luo Fu Xing. Some people think that it imitated the southern songs. Judging from the content, the description was not exaggerated and was relatively serious. In the northern patriarchal society, flirtatious love songs between men and women were not allowed, because they were likely to upset and destroy the ties of kinship. In the clan society in the northern villages where rites were paramount, folk songs like Yao Ye Ge were unlikely to appear. When praising women, they still focused on their virtues and appearance. Another group of important litterateurs in the early years of the Northern Dynasties were Hexi people moving from Northern Liang to Pingcheng. Hexi scholars brought with them a clear new literary fashion to the scholars in Hebei. However, the fleeting meeting between scholars from Hebei and Hexi did not bring a fundamental chance for the somewhat sluggish literature development in the early years of the Northern Dynasties. That was because the literary genre of four-character poems was not rooted in the social life and was so isolated from the true life of the people in the Northern Dynasties that they conveyed little true feelings. Ballads of the Xianbei tribe created during this period were said to have survived in the Tang Dynasty, but they were all lost in later years due to language barriers. The so-called Yuefu folk songs that have survived from the Northern Dynasties were mainly found in Liang Gu Jiao Heng Chui Qu recorded in Collected Songs of the Music Bureau Style. Although a few ballads of the ethnic minorities were included, most of them were produced by Di and Qiang tribes during the Sixteen Kingdoms period and were embellished by musicians in the south. The Ballad of Mulan was the most famous folk song in the literature during the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern Dynasties. This ballad and Peacocks Fly to the Southeast were considered as two star folk songs during the Six Dynasties. Instead

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of showing resentment and describing the tragedy of wars, The Ballad of Mulan revealed a sense of honor in a girl who disguised herself as a man to join the army and serve the monarch. The whole ballad was light-hearted and smooth and conveyed a clear and natural message.

2 “Assimilation by the Southern Dynasties” and Literary Pursuits of Xianbei Aristocrats and Scholars of the Han Ethnicity during the Luoyang Period During the seventeenth year of the reign under the title of Taihe (493 A.D.), Emperor Xiaowen visited Luoyang. He went to the basic relics of the old palace in Luoyang, chanted the poem Shu Li and burst into tears. Then, he decided to relocate the capital to Luoyang and ordered Mu Liang, chancellor of constructions, Li Chong, chancellor of imperial affairs, and Dong Jue, chamberlain for the palace buildings, to begin to build the capital Luojing (also known as Luoyang). After more than two years of construction, the empress, concubines, civil and military officials all moved to Luoyang in September of the nineteenth year of the reign under the title of Taihe (495 A.D.). Since then, literature in the Northern Dynasties gained new vitality under new relations between ethnic groups and between kingdoms and in the new social environment. After Tuoba Xianbei moved the capital to Luoyang, literary scholars were concentrated, which helps create a thick cultural atmosphere and makes literary activities more frequent than before. A considerable number of Xianbei aristocrats were able to create literary works of the Han style. Emperor Xiaowen himself had good literary accomplishment. After the tenth year of the reign under the title of Taihe, Emperor Xiaowen wrote all the edicts and official documents himself. He also created literary works which were even compiled into a collection. Empress Dowager Wenming also attached great importance to the culture and education of Xianbei aristocrats. During the five years of ruling in Luoyang, Emperor Xiaowen often gathered his aides to compose poems. Certainly, the poetry gatherings of the northern aristocrats were more like games because they were relatively casual, without a specific theme. Because Xianbei aristocrats advocated poetry gatherings or poetry chanting at gatherings, many empresses of the Northern Wei Dynasty-based Luoyang were literary writers. In the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, a large number

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of Han scholars were recruited to live in the residences of Xianbei aristocrats. For example, Song Shijing, Li Shenjun, Zu Ying, Xing Yan, Wang Zunye, and Zhang Shijun, living in the palace of Yu who was the Prince of Jingzhao, were the most famous cultural scholars in Luoyang at that time. Among them, Zu Ying was quite representative. Zu Ying was originally a retainer from the residence of Xie who was the Prince of Pengcheng, where he served as the judiciary chief to the king. Zu Ying was not a capable official. Instead, he was more talented in literature, so he was transferred to be the secretary of the king. He emphasized ethos and uniqueness and opposed “plagiarism”. Although these ideas were not novel, they revealed the thinking and consciousness of people about literary creation at that time. When describing the development of the literary circle during the reign of Taihe, Wen Jing Mi Fu Lun intended to commend the new stage of literature development in Northern Wei before and after Emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang. Particularly, it mentioned the gradual formation of a literati community that “There were bunches of poets in Luoyang for satire work creation”. The poems, fu writings, and parallel proses at that time were not comparable to those in the Southern Dynasties. However, Li Daoyuan’s prose, Commentary to the River Classic (Shui Jing Zhu) stood out. It was not an academic book and contained some widely read episodes such as Commentary on Rivers·The Three Gorges (Jiang Shui Zhu San Xia), inspired by Sheng Hongzhi’s Jingzhou Notes (Jin Zhou Ji) in the Song Dynasty. However, many famous pieces of prose were written by the author himself and represented the highest level of prose writing at that time. In addition, Yang Xuanzhi’s five-volume The Monasteries of Luoyang (Luo Yang Qie Lan Ji) provided important historical materials about the Northern Wei in Luoyang because it focused on famous Buddhist temples and covered related palaces, mansions, gardens, pagodas, and statues. Due to its literary structure and language, it was also of high literary value.

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New Literary Trends and Three Northern Talents During the Yecheng Period

From the late years of the Northern Wei to the late years of the Eastern Wei, “Three Northern Talents”, namely Wen Zisheng, Xing Shao, and Wei Shou, appeared in the north. This title was first found probably in a summary in The Book of Sui Preface to the Biography of Literature (Sui Shu Wen Xue Zhuan Xu).

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Wen Zisheng (495 A.D.–547 A.D.), courtesy name Pengju, claimed to be from Taiyuan, but he was born in Yuanju, Jiyin, as a descendant of Wen Qiao, a general of the Jin Dynasty. His poems were close to the Han style and not similar to the southern metaphysical poetry at all. Therefore, his poems presented the artistic feature of complete and natural images and the artistic charm of permanence and broadness. These characteristics were particularly evident in his Yuefu poems or folk songs. Compared with the lengthy and obscure four-character reciprocal poems that were popular in the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Wen Zisheng’s poems were short and concise but profound and meaningful in connotations. Some of the images and scenes in his poems were borrowed directly from the Yuefu poems in the Northern Dynasties without slightest pretension. When parallel fu writing was swept the literary circle in Luoyang, Wen Zisheng was brave enough to revive the Yuefu tradition and gradually developed it into short quatrains. The classical images in his Yuefu poems or folk songs were later found extensively in poems in the Tang Dynasty when many of the writing techniques were directly adapted from Wen Zisheng’s poems. His most famous poem was Pounding Clothes (Dao Yi). Xie Huilian in the Liu Song period in the Southern Dynasties also wrote a poem with the same title decades before Wen Zisheng. Xie’s version was a five-character poem that addressed the same theme of complaints of love, but it was overly pretentious and was not fluent enough. This example proved that Wen Zisheng did not simply imitate southern poetry without originality. Xing Shao (496 A.D.–?), courtesy name Zicai, was born in Mao, Hejian. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, he was promoted to be hussar general, West Yanzhou provincial governor, and concurrently chamberlain for ceremonials and the head of the secretariat. He was later awarded Tejin, a title conferred to nobles of a high status. He died as an official and was known as “Tejin Xing”. Xing Shao was good at writing parallel prose, and it was known in history that “The imperial edicts he wrote were magnificent and gorgeous”. Most of his essays that have survived to this date are practical writings with gorgeous wording and emphasis on antithesis. According to The History of the Northern Dynasties (Bei Shi) and Family instructions of Master Yan (Yan Shi Jia Xun), he admired and imitated the style of Shen Yue in the Southern Liang Dynasty. In addition to parallel prose, he also wrote poems. Eight of his poems have survived. Among them, Double Seventh Festival (Qi Xi) and Missing a Gentleman (Si Gong Zi), for example, were imitations of poems in the Qi

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and Liang dynasties in terms of both content and form. His Reminiscence on a Winter Day (Dong Ri Shang Zhi Pian) was a special poem about dilapidation of Luoyang, a former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, after the rebellion of Erzhu Rong and the relocation of capital to Ye by the emperor of Wei under the coercion of Gao Huan. Wei Shou (506 A.D.–572 A.D.) once served as an official in the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, and Northern Qi dynasties. During the second year of the reign under the title of Tianbao in the Northern Qi Dynasty (551 A.D.), he was officially ordered to write the history of Wei. It only took him more than three years to write one hundred and thirty chapters of The Book of Wei (Wei Shu), including fourteen chapters of imperial annals-biographies, ninety-six chapters of individual and collective biographies, and twenty treatises. Among them, Treatise of Buddhism and Taoism (Shi Lao Zhi) was a creative chapter in the The Book of Wei, and it recorded the spread and transformation of Buddhism and Taoism in the Central Plains, especially the development of Buddhism. It could be regarded as a brief history of Chinese Buddhism. Wei Shou was also “an envoy” who traveled to the Southern Dynasties many times. Many of his poems were found to clearly carry the characteristics of the poems in the Southern Dynasties, for example, Beauty (Mei Nv Pian), Song on Zither (Xie Qin Ge), Looking at the Magpie on the Willow Tree (Kan Liu Shang Que Shi), Banquet in the Back Garden ( Hou Yuan Yan Yue), and A Welcome Fall of Rain (Xi Yu). Some of the sentences were quite close to palace style poems and demonstrated skillful workmanship.

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Cultural Ethos in Chang’an and Poets Like Yu Xin from the South

During the third year of the reign under the title of Yongxi (534 A.D.), a few Xianbei troops that garrisoned in six towns in the north moved westward under the leadership of Yuwen Tai and Heba Yue. They occupied Guanlong against the Gao family. The ruler of the Western Wei Dynasty was little assimilated by the Han culture. After the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the country, uprisings occurred successively in the Central Shaanxi Plain and were hardly pacified. Emperor Xiaowen sighed “It is hard to tame the people in Shaanxi”. After the Western Wei Dynasty moved to Chang’an, it went into a shortage of talents, and its rites and music development was not comparable to the reform in Yecheng which was carried out on the basis of assimilation by the Han culture

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during the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Yuwen family mainly based their cultural construction on the local forces in the Central Shaanxi Plain. Chang’an was haunted by strong conservative cultural forces following mixed and old-fashioned cultural traditions. It was hardly penetrated by new literary styles. The Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties also had some contacts with the Jiangzuo regime and the Shandong regime, but they rarely involved literary exchanges. Regional cultural exchanges in Chang’an were mainly conducted by a number of scholars who were captured by generals of the Western Wei Dynasty when they conquered Jiangling after the Hou Jing Rebellion (554 A.D.). Later, the Western Wei Dynasty pacified Yecheng and captured many scholars from the Northern Qi Dynasty. These scholars did not join the new regime smoothly. Their major resistance mainly came from the stubborn and conservative cultural ethos formed in Chang’an since the establishment of the Western Wei Dynasty. A group of scholars such as Yu Xin and Wang Bao migrated from Jiangzuo to the new regime, and they began to integrate and gradually changed the cultural ethos in Chang’an. Yu Xin (513 A.D.–581 A.D.), courtesy name Zishan, childhood name Lancheng, hailed from Xinye, Nanyang. He came from a family with “members who had passed the imperial examination at the county level for seven generations and who wrote literary works compiled into collections for five generations”. His father Yu Jianwu was head of the Secretariat of the Southern Liang Dynasty and also a famous litterateur. Since childhood, Yu Xin had often visited the palace of Xiao Gang together with his father. Later, together with Xu Ling, he served as a scholar in the Eastern Palace of Xiao Gang and became a representative writer of palace style literature. Their literary style was known as “Xu-Yu style” (“Xu Yu Ti”). It is generally believed that the Qi-Liang literary style was spread to the north along with the migration of the southern scholars. Yu Xin poured nostalgia, pain for the collapse of the kingdom and sorrow of displacement into his literary works, which indicated the prospect of the integration of northern and southern literary styles. However, his literary achievements were not gained naturally during the Northern Zhou Dynasty. In fact, he went through a period of extreme idleness and torment, which was inseparably related to the political relationships between the Northern Zhou Dynasty and other regimes at that time.

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The Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties were militarily mighty and culturally revived the traditions of the Zhou Dynasty and ancient times. It also expressly opposed the fancy writing style. Therefore, scholars from the south had to be faced with much pressure after migrating to the Central Shaanxi Plain. Southern scholars such as Yu Xin and Wang Bao did not develop well in the new place. When Yu Xin first arrived in the north, he suffered from being imprisoned in a detached palace for three years. From the fourth year of Baoding (564 A.D.) to the fourth year of Jiande (575 A.D.), Yu Xin only served in the military camps of various vassals intermittently and was so financially depressed that he mainly relied on the aid of the Northern Zhou aristocrats at that time. During the third year of Tianhe (568 A.D.), Yu Xin was idle at home and felt quite lonely. He lamented that he was nothing more than a commoner in Xianyang, so he wrote Lament for the South (Ai Jiang Nan Fu). The work showed his real intention to seek an official position from the ruler of the Northern Zhou Dynasty under the superficial nostalgia about the motherland. Later, Yu Xin began to write some eulogistic official documents in Chang’an, through which he gradually got closer to the ruler and began to have some opportunities to be his entourage. About 31 inscriptions written by Yu Xin have survived, including 12 tombstone inscriptions and 19 inscriptions on tablets inside tombs. These epitaphs were written under imperial edicts after he migrated to the north, and this number of works far exceeded that of any writer in the Northern Dynasties period. For example, Wang Bao, who was also a writer moving from the south to the north, left only 4 inscriptions, and all of them were inscriptions on tablets inside tombs, without tombstone inscriptions. Yu Xin wrote a large number of such inscriptions probably because of pressure in interpersonal relations and his poor financial conditions. However, Yu Xin lived in the north in his late years after all. He suffered from the bitterness of life specific to the times of secession. He was saddened by changes and missed his motherland. These feelings were an important cause of his “nostalgic emotion”. Yu Xin was shocked by the collapse of his motherland. Therefore, when he expressed this pain, he also pointed out the suffering of the people sympathetically and blamed it on the in-fighting and recklessness of those in power. Having lived in the north for a long time, he longed to return to

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the south and dreamed about the mountains and rivers of his motherland. Sighing and hating the sentiment of living in a strange land and lamenting his life experience was another important cause of his “nostalgic emotion”. His Twenty-seven Poems Emulating “Singing of My Cares” (Ni Yong Huai Er Shi Qi Shou) were five-character poems that expressed sorrow and resentment from various perspectives. They directly inherited the lyrical tradition of Ruan Ji’s group of poems Singing of My Cares and were considered masterpieces. For example, the seventh poem expressed the poet’s hidden hatred for being an official in the north and desire to return to the south from the perspective of a woman who had to live in the land of tribes but missed the Han Dynasty. The feelings overflowing from the poem were sincere and touching. Another example was the worry expressed in the eighteenth poem. It expressed not only the sad disappointment by an unsuccessful official career, but also the sorrow of inability to perform meritorious deeds for the country and the resulting frustration of having no chance to get distracted or detached. The four lines about “waning moon” in this poem were written in sentence patterns with mixed cleverness and clumsiness and projected the poet’s unique state of mind. They demonstrated the poet’s precise and natural writing technique. The experience of migrating from the south to the north pushed Yu Xin’s artistic attainments to the height of “epitomizing both the north and the south”, making him a representative figure in the history of Chinese literature. He absorbed literary skills from the Qi and Liang dynasties, for example, rhythm and antithetical parallelism. He also embraced the magnificent and vigorous literary style in the Northern Dynasties. Therefore, he expanded and enriched the aesthetic conception and made necessary preparations for the formation of a new poetic style in the Tang Dynasty. Wang Bao was a famous poet who moved with Yu Xin to the north across the Yangtze River. Wang Bao (513 A.D.–576 A.D.), courtesy name Ziyuan, hailed from Linyi, Langya (now Linyi, Shandong Province). He was a descendant of Wang Dao, the prime minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Liang, Wang Bao was appointed as minister of personnel and the deputy minister of the Department of State Affairs. When the Western Wei Dynasty invaded Jiangling, he was detained in the north. Yuwen Yu, who was Emperor Ming, was fond of literature and was quite close to Wang Bao. He appointed Wang Bao to many official positions. Wang Bao died probably during the Jiande period at the age of sixty-four. While staying in the Liang

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Dynasty, Wang Bao wrote poems including Yan Ge Xing, which was widely read and imitated. Yan Ge Xing mainly described the hardships of expedition missions and the bitter cold in the north of the Great Wall. After migrating to the north, Wang Bao greatly enriched the content and changed the style of his poems although they inevitably retained the characteristics of the south. He wrote many Yuefu poems about frontier fortresses and expedition missions, including the representative works Du He Bei and Guan Shan Yue.

PART IV

Literature in the Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties

589 A.D.-960 A.D.

CHAPTER 14

Overview Liu Ning

The Sui Dynasty unified the whole country and ended the North–South division that lasted for more than two hundred and seventy years since the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty, which followed the Sui Dynasty, was politically and militarily powerful and economically and culturally prosperous. Under the positive influence of an open social and cultural environment, and built on the rich literary tradition from previous generations, the literature in the Tang Dynasty was exceptionally prosperous and realized brilliant artistic achievements.

1 Brilliant Literary Achievements in the Tang Dynasty The Tang Dynasty was a golden age for literature development, which was first manifested in the flourishing of artistic creation and the emergence of famous masters. The poetry circle during the Tang Dynasty boasted of many stars and schools, including masters like Li Bai, Du Fu and Wang Wei, as well as famous pioneers with unique styles such as the Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty, Chen Zi’ang, Meng Haoran,

L. Ning (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_14

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Gao Shi, Cen Shen, Wang Changling, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Li He, Li Shangyin, and Du Mu. The number of poets famous in the poetry history in the Tang Dynasty exceeded the sum of poets from the Warring States period to the Southern and Northern Dynasties. From the perspective of schools, there were landscape and fields and gardens poetry, frontier poetry, Han-Meng poetry, and Yuan-Bai poetry. All of these schools had a profound influence on later generations. In terms of prose, the ancient prose movement headed by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan initiated a new chapter for the development of Chinese classical prose. Besides masters like Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, there were also famous writers like Pi Rixiu, Luo Yin, and Lu Guimeng. In terms of parallel prose, there were masters like Zhang Shuo and Su Ting and famous writers like Li Shangyin, Du Mu, Wen Tingyun, and Duan Chengshi. In terms of novels, many famous legends in the Tang Dynasty such as The Biography of Li Wa (Li Wa Zhuan) and The Biography of Huo Xiaoyu (Huo Xiao Yu Zhuan) were passed down to later generations. During the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, unprecedented new literary styles also appeared such as ci (lyric) and bianwen (transformation text). Li Yu, Wei Zhuang, and Wen Tingyun were all important writers with far-reaching influence in the history of ci creation. The prosperity of literature in the Tang Dynasty was also reflected in the expressive arts of various literary genres including poetry, prose, novels, and ci. Many pioneering attempts were made, which set an artistic model for later generations. In terms of five-character ancient poetry, Chen Zi’ang advocated the ancient poetry style in the Han and Wei dynasties and established a new simple and vigorous style of five-character ancient poetry that focused on the xingji technique (association and inner sustenance) in the Tang Dynasty. This style was inherited and carried forward by Zhang Jiuling and became even more prominent through further development by Li Bai and Du Fu. Du Fu made an in-depth exploration of the five-character ancient poetry. Later, Han Yu and Meng Jiao further developed it to be more similar to prose, while Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen added satire to it. Gexing (free and flowing chanting or poetic song), a style derived from the seven-character Yuefu poetry, was officially established in the early Tang Dynasty. Qigu (seven-character ancient poetry), which was not related to Yuefu poetry, was obviously different from gexing. Poets in the Tang Dynasty made great achievements in the creation of both gexing and seven-character ancient poetry. The rhythm of the metrical pattern poetry took shape in the early Tang

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Dynasty. On the basis of the Yongming style, poets in the Tang Dynasty dualized the four tones to solve the oblique tones of couplets. Rhymed sentences and couplets became a complete rhymed composition. This reform got rid of the various theories about tonal weaknesses of poetry put forward by poets of Yongming style. It created a new style of poetry called metrical verses that were constrained by the existing rules on one hand and left a broad room for creativity on the other hand. The rhythm of metrical verses and the art of antithesis were fully developed. Shen Quanqi, Song Zhiwen, Du Shenyan, Li Qiao, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Wang Changling, Li Qi, Wang Zhihuan, Wei Yingwu, Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Liu Yuxi, Du Mu, and Li Shangyin all made great achievements in the composition of metrical pattern poetry and set models for later generations to follow. Poets in the Tang Dynasty also considerably developed Yuefu poetry. Works of Yuefu style imitated by literati after the Wei and Jin dynasties were called imitating Yuefu poetry. Li Bai was a master of imitating Yuefu poetry. Du Fu’s new title Yuefu poetry and Bai Juyi’s new Yuefu were positive developments of the Yuefu poetry in the Han Dynasty and had a great influence on later generations. In terms of prose, the parallel prose written in four-character or six-character sentences officially took shape in the Tang Dynasty and developed substantially. The ancient prose composed by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in the mid-Tang Dynasty followed the tradition of odd number of sentences and single line from the pre-Qin period and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties. At the same time, it integrated some expressive elements of parallel prose from eight dynasties to become a new style with great vitality and opened up a new ancient prose tradition for the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The new literary genre of “ci” that emerged as companion for rhymed banquet music in the Tang Dynasty became a direct driver for the development of Song poems. The legends in the Tang Dynasty were fundamentally different from the phantastic and anecdotal novels in the Six Dynasties. Judging from the content, phantastic novels mainly described weird events about ghosts and gods, while legends turned to real life. From the artistic perspective, legends were characterized by twisted and complete storyline, vivid and detailed descriptions and distinctive characters. They were far superior over the phantastic novels with “rough outlines” and anecdotal novels with brief narration in the Six Dynasties. The appearance of legends in the Tang Dynasty marked the maturity of Chinese novels.

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The prosperity of literature in the Tang Dynasty was also reflected in the demographic diversity of writers. Literary writers in the Six Dynasties were mainly aristocrats, while the poets in the Tang Dynasty showed much more diverse backgrounds. Not only emperors and highranking officials but also a large number of middle-level and low-level bureaucrats and ordinary scholars were passionate about poetry creation. A keen interest in poetry swept the whole imperial court. Emperors of the Tang Dynasty such as Emperor Taizong, Emperor Gaozong, Empress Wu, Emperor Zhongzong, Emperor Xuanzong, and Emperor Dezong enjoyed poetry and rewarded poets. Poetry was a subject for the high-level imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty. Although few outstanding compositions appeared in the programmed examination, this system encouraged scholars to study poetry. The demographic diversity of writers fully linked poetry with the life of people in the Tang Dynasty. In Charm of Poems of the Tang Dynasty (Shi De Tang Chao), Wen Yiduo (Chinese poet and scholar known for his nationalistic poetry, 1899–1946) said, “People in the Tang Dynasty lived a poetic life…Wherever writing was needed in life, they always created it in the form of poem to the extent that everything could be written into poems”. People in the Tang Dynasty “lived a fully poetic life (concern about life in poetry and poetic presentation of life)”. For this reason, Mr. Wen Yiduo called the Tang Dynasty a dynasty of poetry.

2

Political and Ideological Environment and Vitality of Literary Creation

The brilliant literary achievements in the Tang Dynasty were closely related to the unique political, ideological, and cultural environment at that time. The rulers of the Sui and Tang dynasties took relatively wise political and economic measures and implemented the imperial examination system to select talents in a unified country. These initiatives greatly stimulated the vitality of all social classes and laid an important foundation for literary prosperity. In the early and flourishing ages for more than one hundred years, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty adopted a series of political and economic policies to promote the long-term stability of the country. Economically, the equal-field system and the zuyongdiao policy (a system of corvee and taxation) were implemented to appropriately relieve the burden on peasants and enable agricultural production to restore development quickly. Politically, from the Great Reign of Zhenguan to the Great

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Reign of Kaiyuan, the rulers took many positive measures to support political integrity. Emperor Taizong of Tang advocated a people-oriented rule and emphasized mutual complement of the monarch and ministers. Guided by these thoughts, he actively promoted political reforms, made good use of both clans and commoners, perfected the imperial examination system, and recruited preeminently talented people extensively. He was also keen on taking advice and attached importance to legislation and law enforcement. During the Kaiyuan period, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang discovered able people and appointed them to suitable posts. He appointed Yao Chong, Song Jing, Zhang Shuo, and Zhang Jiuling as ministers. At the same time, he valued local officials. Economically, he implemented policies of encouraging farming, reducing taxes, and allowing people to preserve their energy. He took a series of measures such as household registration, taxation, and corvée reforms, construction of water conservancy and currency reform. All of these endeavors laid the foundation for the Great Reign of Kaiyuan. The Tang Dynasty also implemented open-minded ideological and cultural policies. Confucianism was indeed the ruling thought; except when the persecution of Buddhism by Emperor Wuzong of Tang occurred during the reign under the title of Huichang, Buddhism, and Taoism could coexist legally as two religions in the Tang Dynasty. The three religions did not contradict each other. The emperors of the Tang Dynasty sometimes organized figures from the three religions to discuss their relationships. In the Tang Dynasty, not only did the three religions coexist, many foreign religions were allowed to spread in China and absorbed followers. They mainly included Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Islam. These religions also aroused considerable interests among the Chinese. At that time, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty also adopted a tolerant attitude toward the “three exotic religions” (Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, and Manichaeism) that had only a few foreign followers and few Chinese followers. National unity, political integrity, and ideological tolerance cultivated the open-minded, aggressive, cheerful, and confident scholars in the Tang Dynasty. All of these qualities were profoundly reflected in the literary works in the Tang Dynasty. Most of the people in the Tang Dynasty had the experience of roaming in famous mountains and rivers, metropolises, and even frontiers outside the Great Wall. Li Bai claimed, “No distance is spared to find immortal at Five Peaks. In life, I have a penchant to sightsee famous mountains” (Prose for Imperial Attendant Lu Xuzhou at

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Mount Lu (Lu Shan Yao Ji Lu Shi Yu Xu Zhou)). Du Fu also said that “I once roamed freely in the land of Qi and Zhao, Riding My Horse wildly without constraint” (My Brave Adventures (Zhuang You)). Gao Shi and Cen Shen traveled as far as to the frontier for military missions and became representative frontier poets. Meng Haoran also roamed the Wuyue region and wrote a lot of excellent works depicting the landscape there. Scholars in the Tang Dynasty possessed a broad vision that was unmatched by poets in previous generations. They had both positive and enterprising passion and a cheerful and confident mind. Poems composed during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty were full of optimistic and unrestrained melody and a youthful aura. Their high spirits and confidence were attributed to the relatively relaxing attitude of the rulers toward literature. Scholars in the Tang Dynasty could criticize current affairs directly or indirectly in their literary works, without being afraid to be persecuted like literary inquisition in later dynasties. Bai Juyi satirized Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in The Everlasting Regret (Chang Heng Ge). The emperor did not blame him and even praised the poem for its popularity. In Lin Han Yin Ju Shi Hua, Wei Tai in the Song Dynasty criticized this poem for “being rude to the emperor”. His attitude was in sharp contrast with that of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.

3

Cultural Integration and Literary Prosperity

The Tang Dynasty was powerful, and it was also culturally inclusive. Philosophically, people in the Tang Dynasty revered Confucianism and at the same time embraced various schools of thought. The integration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism had a particularly profound influence on literature. The rulers of the Tang Dynasty also showed an open attitude toward cultural exchanges between ethnic groups and with foreign countries. Different forms of art including calligraphy, painting, music, and dance all showed strong creativity and interacted deeply with literary creation in many aspects, laying a solid foundation for the prosperity of literature. Buddhism developed substantially in the Tang Dynasty and was strongly supported by the rulers, which had an extensive influence on politics, economy, ideology, culture, and other fields. Literati in the Tang Dynasty generally studied Buddhism. They were familiar with Buddhist scriptures and worshiped Buddhist principles. Many of them even received ordination as Buddhist disciples. Wang Wei, a great poet living in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, studied Buddhism deeply

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and was called “Buddha of Poetry” by later generations. Liang Su, an ancient prose writer in the mid years of Tang Dynasty, was a master of Buddhist doctrines of the Tendai sect. Bai Juyi became a lay Buddhist living in Xiangshan Temple in his late years. Jia Dao, a deliberated poet, was a monk when he was young. In addition, many monks in the Tang Dynasty were proficient in poetry such as Ling Che and Jiao Ran in the mid years of Tang Dynasty, and Qi Ji and Guan Xiu in the late years of Tang Dynasty. They were all highly accomplished poet monks. The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty (Quan Tang Shi) included 2,783 poems composed by 113 monks. With respect to literary themes and genres, most of the poems incorporated Zen theories. Under the influence of Buddhism, a new literary genre like bianwen emerged, and Buddhist metaphors were closely related to the development of fable literature. The translation of Buddhist scriptures enriched the vocabulary of Chinese language and had a direct influence on the language of literature. Taoism also developed substantially in the Tang Dynasty. Many Taoist priests were good at literature such as Sima Chengzhen and Wu Yun, who were very fond of literature and interacted frequently with literati. Many literati admired Taoism, and some of them even became its followers. Li Bai, Li Shangyin, Gu Kuang, and Cao Tang were all on the list. The Taoist pursuit of elixir and immortal thought conformed to the spirit of the people in transcending reality and pursuing freedom, which became a treasure that inspired literary imagination in the Tang Dynasty. The imaginary world and the stories of immortals in Taoism, for example, Ma Gu Xian Shou, Nong Yu Sheng Tian, Ling Wei Hua He, Wang Zhi Lan Ke, and Man Qian Tou Tao, became recurrent themes and images in the literary works created during the Tang Dynasty. The Sui and Tang dynasties witnessed the heyday of ethnic integration in ancient China. The Han people and other ethnic groups living in the Tang Dynasty integrated with each other, and they often changed their ethnicity. Different ethnic groups were interactive and complementary. The deepening of ethnic exchanges greatly promoted cultural integration. The cultural prosperity in the Tang Dynasty was directly related to its extensive absorption of the cultural influence of different ethnic groups. In the Tang Dynasty, the exchanges between China and foreign countries were flourishing. The Tang Empire was widely open to the astronomical calendar, medicine, music, clothing, food, and other living customs as well as cultural influence of foreign countries. Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, was an international city that best embodied the

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achievements of the Tang Dynasty in absorbing foreign civilizations. In the Tang Dynasty, cities where people from all regions congregated as in Chang’an included Guangzhou in the south, Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, and Dunhuang in the northwest. In the Tang Dynasty, Guangzhou became an international port city where Chinese and foreign merchant ships gathered and where many foreigners inhabited. With the construction of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, Yangzhou became a major transportation route connecting the mainland and the outside world. It rose as such an important transportation hub that it was acknowledged that “Yangzhou was the No.1 city, followed by Yizhou”. Dunhuang in the northwest was located at the key junction of the Central Plains and the Western Regions, where merchants and envoys gathered. Moreover, it occupied an extremely important position on the Silk Road. In 366 A.D., after monk Le Zun dug the first grotto on Mingsha Mountain opposite to Sanwei Mountain in Dunhuang, more monks and Buddhists of later generations began to dig grottoes there one after another. Now 492 grottoes are still visible. In 1900, more than forty thousand pieces of scriptures, documents, and cultural relics including various scripts from the Western Regions were discovered in caves for preserving Buddhist sutra. They fully reflected the spectacular cultural integration in Dunhuang at that time. Influence of Western art could also be found in the world-famous Dunhuang murals. The open atmosphere of the times actively promoted the exchange and development of literature and art. The music and dance in the Tang Dynasty were widely influenced by other ethnic groups and countries. For example, the nine and ten ensembles in the early Tang Dynasty included four kinds of foreign music and dance. Many famous artists and imperial musicians in the Tang Dynasty came from Central Asia. For example, famous pipa players Cao Shancai and Cao Gang came from the State of Cao located in the north of Samarkand in present-day Central Asia. The “Hu dancer” An Chili came from the State of An (in present-day Uzbekistan). The imperial music office in the Tang Dynasty absorbed some music and dance from Central Asia, India, and beyond. For example, Zhe Zhi came from the State of Shi, the present-day Tashkent in Central Asia; Brahman came from India; Fu Lin came from the Eastern Roman Empire or its oriental-dependent states. The famous Melody of White Feathers Garment (Ni Chang Yu Yi Qu) was composed by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang after absorbing the Indian Brahman and music materials from

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places like Qiu’ci (Kucina in Sanskrit) on the basis of the traditional Qingshang music of the Han ethnicity. The Sword Dance (Jian Qi Wu), which Gongsun Daniang was good at, was also known as Jian Qi Hun Tuo Wu. It was a combination of Hun Tuo Dance in the Persian “water-sprinkling dance” and the Chinese traditional sword dance. The most popular dances among the people in the Central Plains during the Tang Dynasty were Sogdian Whirl (Hu Xuan), Hu Teng, Zhe Zhi, etc. The Sogdian Whirl was fast whirling dance with strong emotions. Dancers of Zhe Zhi were dressed in narrow-sleeved thin silk robes, with purple ribbons around their waists, brocade boots on their feet, and rolled-brimmed dance hats with bells on their heads. Their movements were both graceful and robust and full of Central Asian style. In the Tang Dynasty, brilliant achievements were made in calligraphy, painting, and sculpture. In the field of calligraphy during this period, regular script was the most accomplished genre. In the early Tang Dynasty, Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Chu Suiliang, and Xue Ji, who learned from Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi, were famous for their regular script and were called “Four Calligraphers of the Early Tang Dynasty” (“Chu Tang Si Jia”). Yan Zhenqing (709 A.D.–785 A.D.) in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty and Liu Gongquan (778 A.D.–865 A.D.) in the late years of the Tang Dynasty were the most famous regular script masters and were known as “Yan-Liu”. Yan Zhenqing’s regular script was majestic and structurally dignified, creating a new pattern of calligraphy. Liu Gongquan’s regular script, with upright stippling, presented a charming and vigorous style. Running script in the Tang Dynasty was another peak of calligraphy after the Wei and Jin dynasties. The masters of regular script mentioned previously also made outstanding achievements in running script. Famous cursive calligraphers included Sun Guoting, Zhang Xu, and Huai Su. Sun Guoting mastered profound skills, with his calligraphy structurally solid and elegant. Zhang Xu’s cursive script was fantastic and changeable, creating “an excessively free cursive style”. Huai Su’s brushwork was continuous, structurally elegant, and free. The painting circle in the Tang Dynasty was full of splendid stars and presented a magnificent and changeable prospect, creating the most brilliant chapter in the history of Chinese painting. The figure paintings of Yan Liben in the early Tang Dynasty demonstrated highly sophisticated skills. Wu Daozi in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was known as the “Painting Saint of a Hundred Generations”. Zhang Xuan in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty and Zhou Fang in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty

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were good at depicting noble ladies. Landscape painting developed into an independent painting genre in this dynasty. Li Sixun and his son Li Zhaodao were famous for their landscape paintings. As Zhan Ziqian in the Sui Dynasty did, they applied blue and green colors to their landscape paintings, which were called “blue and green landscape”. Flower and bird painting also developed into an independent genre in the Tang Dynasty. Famous painters like Xue Ji were good at meticulous and gorgeous flower and bird paintings. There were also a group of painters including Cao Ba, Han Gan, and Han Hong who were famous for their paintings of animals such as cows and horses. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of religious murals in Mogao Grottoes. More than 200 grottoes have survived to this date from the Tang Dynasty. These murals mainly depicted the pure land of the Western Paradise in a magnificent and cheerful manner. The Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, Malla (men of great strength), and Feitian (Flying Apsaras) were depicted to be more secular with graceful postures and impressive expressions, and they represented an extremely high artistic level. The remarkable achievements in calligraphy and painting had a positive influence on literature. People in the Tang Dynasty created a large number of poems that sang and commented on calligraphy and painting. Their painting and calligraphy theories enhanced their poetry theories, and vice versa. The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty contained hundreds of poems that were created to sing and inscribed on paintings in the dynasty. For example, A Song of a Painting to General Cao Ba (Dan Qing Yin Zeng Cao Jiang Jun Ba) written by Du Fu praised Cao Ba for his perfect and popular painting art. Wang Wei was very talented in painting, and his poetry greatly inspired painting art. Su Shi praised him for “having poetry in his painting and painting in his poetry”.

4 Trend of Being Classics for Literature in the Tang Dynasty The Chinese nation has developed its own literary classic tradition in the long history. In particular, the literature in the Tang Dynasty had an extremely important influence on the formation of Chinese literary classics. Tang poetry was regarded as classics of poetry by later generations. On the basis of the brilliant achievements of Tang poetry, poets in the

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Song Dynasty, on the one hand, actively expanded new areas of expression and explored new artistic methods. On the other hand, they also deeply studied the art of Tang poetry and initiated the path of making Tang poetry classics. Yan Yu, a famous poet theorist in the Southern Song Dynasty, highly praised Tang poetry and advocated learning from the poetry created in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The Seven Early and Later Masters of the Ming Dynasty advocated that “The prose in the Qin and Han dynasties and the poetry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty were the best models”. The Shi Sou by Hu Yinglin, Tang Shi Pin Hui by Gao Bing, and Tang Yin Gui Qian by Hu Zhenheng made in-depth summaries of the origin and artistic characteristics of the Tang poetry system. The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty compiled by Cao Yin et al. in the Qing Dynasty under an imperial order fully proved the great importance of the classicized Tang poetry. Tang poetry was widely circulated as a literary classic, and many Tang poems were well-known and became the most important components in various poetry anthologies. The art of Tang poetry had a profound influence on later generations. Many Tang poems set models for compositions of later generations. For example, Yuan Zhen’s Mourning Poem (Dao Wang Shi) was a model for similar works by later generations. There were close origin relations between Zhang Ji’s Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night (Feng Qiao Ye Bo) and later poems about Hanshan Temple, between Li Shangyin’s Cicada (Chan) and later poems singing cicada, and between Qin Taoyu’s An Impoverished Girl (Pin Nv) and later poems about poor scholars. Classical poetics after the Song Dynasty also explored a series of important poetic issues by analyzing the art of Tang poetry. The classicizing of Du Fu’s poems was the most concentrated manifestation of the trend of being classics for Tang poetry. People in the Song Dynasty reputed Du Fu as “Sage of Poetry”, and the “commentaries made by thousands of schools on Du Fu’s poems” in the Song Dynasty were products of in-depth research and interpretation of Du Fu’s poems. The ancient prose of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in the Tang Dynasty can also be called classics. Together with other six writers in the Song Dynasty, they were collectively known as the “Eight Great Writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties” (“Tang Song Ba Da Jia”) and became models of prose writers that were highly respected in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Tang-Song School in the Ming Dynasty and the Tongcheng School in the Qing Dynasty, especially the latter, played a great role in the study and dissemination of ancient prose. Although poems in the

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Tang and Five Dynasties were not as diverse and splendid as those in the Song Dynasty, writers like Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang, and Li Yu were also regarded as models by later generations. There was a comment on Li Yu and Li Qingzhao, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, that “The male poet Li Yu, the last ruler of the Southern Tang state, and the female poet Li Yi’an (Yi’an was the art name of Li Qingzhao) were worthy apotheosis”.

CHAPTER 15

Literature in the Early Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

The period from the reign of Emperor Gaozu under the title of Wude to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong under the title of Xiantian in the Tang Dynasty, namely from 618 A.D. to 713 A.D., is usually called the early Tang Dynasty. During this period, court literati still lingered on the influence of the flowery and gorgeous poetic style from the Qi and Liang dynasties. However, a new trend of the times gradually emerged. There was a conscious opposition to the extravagant literary style from within the ruling class, and the new trend combined strengths of northern and southern literature. Among others, Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen further shaped the metrical verses and made multiple explorations in the expressive art of metrical pattern poetry. The Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty advocated a vigorous poetic style. Chen Ziang took it as his responsibility to inherit the “Han and Wei style” (“Han Wei Feng Gu”), so his poems were vigorous, simple, exciting, and broad. The “Four Scholars in Wuzhong” (“Wu Zhong Si Shi”) including He Zhizhang and Zhang Ruoxu were active in the poetry circle at the turn of the early and heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Their wild and unrestrained temperaments

L. Ning (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_15

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and literary creations shaped the bearing of literature in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

1

Court Poets in Sui and Early Tang Dynasties

The unification of China in the Sui Dynasty created favorable conditions for the integration of northern and southern literature. Literary writers in the Sui Dynasty were divided into two groups. One of the groups consisted of former officials from the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties, for example, Lu Sidao, Yang Su, and Xue Daoheng. The other group consisted of literati who moved from the Liang and Chen dynasties, for example, Jiang Zong, Xu Shanxin, Yu Shiji, Wang Zhou, and Yu Zizhi. Among them, Lu Sidao and Xue Daoheng were more accomplished writers. Lu Sidao (about 531 A.D.–582 A.D.), courtesy name Zixing, hailed from Fanyang (now Zhuozhou, Hebei Province). In the Northern Qi Dynasty, he served as assistant minister of Yellow Gate. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, he served as commander unequalled in honor and was later transferred to prefecture of Wuyang. After he moved to the Sui Dynasty, he finally served as gentleman cavalier attendant. Lu Sidao was good at seven-character poetry whose poems were characterized by neat antithesis, a good use of allusions, imposing manner, and fluent language. They heralded the seven-character gexing in the early Tang Dynasty and had a high status in the later years of the Northern Dynasties and the early Sui Dynasty. The Listening to the Cicadas (Ting Ming Chan Pian) expressed a nostalgic feeling and ridiculed the “prosperous and frivolous” life of the rich and powerful people in Chang’an. The meaning of the poem was clear and deep. The Joining the Army (Cong Jun Xing) depicted the life in the army stationed at the frontier. Its vigor and high spirit was different from the lingering lovesickness of women as often reflected in the similar poems in the Southern Dynasties, showing virtuous spirit and vigorous character. Xue Daoheng (540 A.D.–609 A.D.), courtesy name Xuanqing, hailed from Fenyin, Hedong (now Wanrong, Shanxi Province). He was once an official in the Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties. After the Sui Dynasty was established, he served as an attendant of the Central Secretariat and commander unequaled in honor of office. During the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, he was appointed as the governor of Panzhou (nowadays Panyu in Guangdong Province) and was then transferred to public security minister. He was

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later killed by Emperor Yang. Although his poems still lingered on the frivolous and extravagant literary style in the Six Dynasties, they were vigorous and fresh. His representative poem Xi Xi Yan described the lonely mood of a lovesick wife subtly and expressively. After Yang Guang came to the throne as Emperor Yang of Sui, most of the literati gathered around him were from the Southern Dynasties, including Yu Shiji, Wang Zhou, Yu Zizhi, and Zhuge Ying. Their works emphasized rhetoric and neat antithesis, but they were confined to a small structure. Emperor Yang himself also liked to write poems. He often held banquets and composed poems in the palaces. He advocated culture through his honor as an emperor and promoted the development of court literary creation. Some of his own compositions were full of emotions and thoughts, different from the Yuefu poems in the Southern Dynasties. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, the poetic circle was still dominated by court literati. The emperor worshiped culture, and the court literati around him were mainly from both the south and the north. The northern literati mainly came from Guanlong. Although they were critical of the literary style of the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties, they advocated the aesthetic ideal that “form must suit and correspond to content” and sought to combine the strengths of the northern and southern literary styles on the foundation of literary pursuits. Emperor Taizong of Tang mainly wrote poems about his past experience in wars. These works showed heroic feelings and bravery. His preference to chanting poems was influential at one time. Reference books like Bei Tang Shu Chao, Wen Si Bo Yao, and Yi Wen Lei Ju compiled by Yu Shinan et al. became tools for court poets to seek remarkable passages and cull model sentences. They were convenient aid for chanting poets to select phrases and allusions to compose beautifully written poems. This used to be a long-standing practice of literati writing poems in the Southern Dynasties, and it was represented in the compositions of writers like Yu Shinan and Xu Jingzong. Yu Shinan was the most outstanding representative of court poets during the reign of Zhenguan (the era of good government under Emperor Taizong). Yu Shinan (558 A.D.–638 A.D.), courtesy name Boshi, hailed from Yuyao, Yuezhou (now in Zhejiang Province). When he was young, he was appreciated by litterateur Xu Ling in the Chen Dynasty. After the Chen Dynasty perished, he moved to Chang’an with his elder brother Yu Shiji. They were at that time compared to the brothers Lu Ji and Lu Yun who moved to Luoyang after their homeland, the State of Wu, perished. In the Sui

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Dynasty, Yu Shinan was a literary courtier to Emperor Yang of Sui. During the Tang Dynasty, he served as an imperial secretary in Hongwenguan, the national library and was even promoted to secretary supervisor and conferred with Duke Yongxin. Gifted in calligraphy, he was mainly interested in composing lively landscapes and chanting poems. Comparable to Yu Shinan, Li Baiyao (564 A.D.–648 A.D.), courtesy name Zhonggui, hailed from Anping, Boling (now Raoyang, Hebei Province). He could write prose at the age of seven and was appointed as imperial secretary of the Eastern Palace and concurrently drafter of the crown prince during the middle years of the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui. After Emperor Yang of Sui ascended the throne, he was demoted to be chancellor of wars of Guizhou. After surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, he was demoted by Emperor Gaozu of Tang as the household registration officer of Jingzhou. After Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, he was appointed as secretariat drafter and additionally as attendant of the Ministry of Rites. He was the author of the fifty-volume Book of Northern Qi (Bei Qi Shu). Li Baiyao was good at history and literature, especially landscape and chanting poems. Shangguan Yi (about 607 A.D.–664 A.D.) was the most representative court poet during the reign of Empress Wu and Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. Good at five-character poems, he mostly composed poems under imperial orders or for antiphon purposes. His poems were written with gorgeous language and neat antithesis. They earned the name Shangguan style and were imitated by many poets at that time. Shangguan Yi also wrote Bi Zha Hua Liang which summarized the antithetical parallelism techniques of poetry since the Six Dynasties into six pairs and eight pairs. Classified relatively by naming, rhyme, syntax, and allegory, they were stereotyped by the characteristics of Chinese characters and had a positive influence on the formation of five-character metrical verses. In general, Shangguan Yi’s poems represented the top level of compositions by court poets at that time. In the development history of Tang poetry, these poems inherited the traditions of Yang Shidao, Li Baiyao, and inspired successors like “Four Literary Friends” (“Wen Zhang Si You”), Shen Quanqi, and Song Zhiwen. However, the subject matter of Shangguan Yi’s poems was still limited to chanting poem in court literature upon the emperor’s order, without passion and heroic spirit.

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Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty

The Four Great Poets all lived during the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu. They were talented and ambitious, but their political careers were bumpy. They enjoyed reputation for their prose and were historically known as “the Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty” (“Chu Tang Si Jie”). They shared the same life experience of “not enjoying a high status in spite of their great talent” and “aiming high but suffering from injustice” (Rhapsody of A Winter Pine in the Bottom of a Ravine (Jian Di Han Song Fu) by Wang Bo). Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, and Luo Binwang were known as prodigy children since they were young. After stepping into the official career, they fell into the ranks of underling who were ill-fated and died without money or offspring (Wang Bo’s and Luo Binwang’s family were exterminated, and Yang Jiong and Luo Binwang had no children). Nonetheless, their works expressed positive ideals of life, sang about the grand cause of the new dynasty, and demonstrated sturdy spirit. They embraced the development trend of poetry rhythm. The rhythms of their poems were improved from the court poets during the earlier reign of Emperor Gaozong and made a great contribution to the creation of gexing. Wang Bo (650 A.D.–676 A.D.), courtesy name Zi’an, hailed from Longmen, Jiangzhou (now Hejin, Shanxi Province). His grandfather was the Confucian philosopher Wang Tong in the Sui Dynasty. At the age of nine, he was able to write prose. At the age of seventeen, he passed the provincial civil service examination in the subject of yousu and was appointed as court gentleman for consultation. He was known to Prince Pei, who appointed him as imperial history compiler. At that time, cockfighting was popular among princes. Wang Bo wrote Xi Ying Wang Ji to ridicule this activity and was thus expelled from the palace of Prince Pei. A few years later, he was reappointed as inspector of Guozhou. Later, he broke the law for killing an official’s servant, which could have made him sentenced to death, but he was pardoned and removed from his official position. His father, Wang Fuzhi, was demoted to be magistrate of Jiaozhi due to Wang Bo’s being punished. In the third year of Shangyuan (676 A.D.), Wang Bo crossed the sea to visit his father. The boat overturned and fell into the water, and he died of fright at the age of only twenty-seven. He left sixteen volumes of The Anthology of Wang Zi’an (Wang Zi An Ji). Wang Bo was the most famous member among the Four Great Poets. His poems were unrestrained, high-spirited, and broad.

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He made particular accomplishments in wulü (an eight-line poem with five characters to a line and a strict tonal pattern and rhyme scheme). Court poets often composed wulü poems for antiphony and chanting purposes. Wang Bo greatly expanded the expression of wulü poems. The broad-mindedness and high-spirited sentiment in his poems swept away the sadness of parting. Yang Jiong (650 A.D.–693 A.D.) hailed from Huayin, Shanzhou (now in Shaanxi Province). He was a consultant attendant of Hongwenguan at the age of eleven. In the third year of Shangyuan (676 A.D.), he passed the imperial examination and was appointed as proofreader of the Imperial Library. In the first year of Guangzhai (684 A.D.), he was implicated by his elder brother’s rebellion against Empress Wu and demoted to judiciary officer of Zizhou. After his tenure ended, he returned to the capital and worked in the Imperial College. In the first year of Ruyi (692 A.D.), he was transferred to the magistrate of Yingchuan County and died in his office shortly after the appointment. Although Yang Jiong did not experience a war life, some of his poems about frontier were full of heroic spirit and very popular. Lu Zhaolin (635?-after 695 A.D.), courtesy name Shengzhi and alternative name Youyouzi, hailed from Fanyang, Youzhou (now Daxing, Beijing). In his early years, he was deeply favored by Prince Deng because of his erudition and ability to write. During the years of Longshuo, he was falsely accused and became a military officer only second to a general. A few years later, he left the place of Shu and returned to Luoyang. He suffered from cramp in his hands and feet due to rheumatoid arthritis and became disabled. In order to treat his disease, he became a disciple of Sun Simiao, a great medical scientist of China in the Tang Dynasty. Later, he moved to live on Mount Taibai to learn theurgy and became a hermit in Mount Juci. In the end, because of the unbearable pain, he drowned himself in Yingshui. Lu Zhaolin was most accomplished in the creation of gexing. His Chang’an, Thoughts on Antiquity (Chang An Gu Yi) was a masterpiece of seven-character gexing, and his poems fully manifested the expressive characteristics of elaborate narration and transition in the gexing style. Luo Binwang (619 A.D.–684? A.D.), courtesy name Wuguang, hailed from Yiwu, Wuzhou (now Yiwu, Zhejiang Province). He wrote Ode to the Goose (Yong E Shi) to a guest in his family at the age of seven and was known as a child prodigy. During the second year of Qianfeng (667 A.D.), he passed the imperial examination and was appointed as sacrificial

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attendant and concurrently rite officer of the Department of Chancellors. He once joined the army at the frontier. In the first year of Guangzhai (684 A.D.), he participated in Xu Jingye’s rebellion in Yangzhou and had never been heard of since the rebellion failed. Luo Binwang was also good at gexing. Di Jing Pian was his bestknown poetic song. The poet started with the grandeur and luxury of the imperial capital Chang’an. He first described the grandeur demeanor and magnificent palaces in the capital. Then, he went on to describe the extravagance of princes, nobles, wandering knights, and musicians. He finally discussed the past and present and expressed his emotions. He also directly expressed his strong indignation with the fact that he had served as underling “without being promoted for ten years”. This indignation strengthened the inner vehemence and high spirit of the poem. Luo Binwang’s metrical verses and quatrains were also mostly impressive and expressed the pain of a noble character not being exonerated. It was a masterpiece of xingji technique (association and inner sustenance).

3

Chen Zi’ang and the Vigor of Tang Poetry

Chen Zi’ang (659 A.D.–700 A.D.), courtesy name Boyu, hailed from Shehong, Zizhou (now Shehong, Sichuan Province). He was born in a wealthy family. His grandfather and father studied Confucianism, and his family had a chivalrous tradition. When he was young, he mended his way and studied. At the age of 21, he visited Chang’an and the imperial college. In the following year, he took the imperial examination in Luoyang and returned to the place of Shu after failing the examination. He spent some time seeking to learn from immortals. In the first year of Wenming (684 A.D.), he passed the highest level of the imperial examination and was appointed as gentleman for ceremonial service. He submitted memorials discussing political affairs twice and was appreciated by Empress Wu Zetian, the first and only woman emperor of China, who promoted him to be a proofreader of the Secretariat. This promotion greatly stimulated his political enthusiasm. For several years, he had submitted memorials successively to offer his suggestions, but they were not adopted by the ruler. In the first year of Yanzai (694 A.D.), he was promoted to be an imperial censor. He once joined the army enthusiastically, following Qiao Zhizhi in an expedition to conquer the tribes Tongluo and Pugu in the north and drawing the chariots to the south of the Gobi Desert. Later, he joined Wu Youyi’s army to attack Khitan, but

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he was demoted due to one of his remonstrance attempts. He resigned and returned to his hometown in anger. After returning to his hometown, he was falsely accused by Duan Jian, magistrate of Shehong County, and was put in prison. He died of worry and indignation in the prison at the age of forty-two during the first year of Jiushi (700 A.D.). Good at both poetry and prose, he left more than one hundred and twenty poems and more than one hundred and ten prose that have survived to this date. During the reign of Empress Wu, Chen Zi’ang entered the literary circle. He cherished antiquity, and his compositions were very different from the style of the court literati at that time. He pointed out that the literature since the Jin and Song dynasties was “beautiful and complicated, but the xingji technique was abandoned”. He supported restoration of “xingji” and “fenggu” (lucid and fresh in language while sturdy in structure) to inherit the tradition of literary pursuits. The so-called “Han-Wei literary style” referred to the style of Han and Wei poetry, especially the Jian’an poetry, featuring the spirit of meritorious deeds, sadness, and passion. However, “xingji” referred to the artistic tradition of Han and Wei poetry expressing ideals and inner aspirations through the techniques of analogy and association. This proposition completely drew a clear line with the poetic style in the Qi and Liang dynasties that simply emphasized embellishments in writing. He also put forward the aesthetic ideal of combining “beautiful language and structure, flowing rhythm and bright and refined content”. He introduced a new aesthetic realm through the fusion of “fenggu” and rhetoric. In his creations, Chen Zi’ang showed a clear retro tendency. Although his collection of thirty-eight poems, Gan Yu, were not completed at one time or in one place, they were basically written after the poet became an official and showed a strong political tendency. Many of these poems were directly related to the poet’s political activities. Artistically, these poems were inspired by Ruan Ji’s Singing of My Cares and Zuo Si’s Singing of History. They described the poet’s feelings and aspirations through a remote and deep association technique. Chen Zi’ang artistically pursued the Han-Wei literary style and paid attention to the techniques of analogy and association. Indeed, he contributed to the poetry circle in the early Tang Dynasty by clearing the tradition of Qi and Liang and creating the vigorous style of Tang poetry. It should also be noted that Chen Zi’ang’s poetry theory and practice were one-sided because they were too negative about the rhetoric in the Southern Dynasties. Comparatively speaking, Gan Yu lacked diverse artistic techniques and was not appealing enough.

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4 Shen Quanqi, Song Zhiwen and Formation of Metrical Verses During the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty, a group of famous poets in the early period of the dynasty such as Du Shenyan, Li Qiao, SuWeidao, and Cui Rong appeared at the same time with or slightly later than the “Four Great Poets”. The four were called “Four Literary Friends”. In addition, Song Zhiwen and Shen Quanqi were collectively known as “Shen-Song”. They were successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations. After they became officials in the court, they created a large number of works under imperial orders and based on their experience as officials. They pursued workmanship of metrical verses and paid attention to studying and practicing poetic techniques, which made important contributions to the formation of metrical pattern poetry. Li Qiao (645 A.D.–714 A.D.), courtesy name Jushan, hailed from Zanhuang, Zhaozhou (now in Hebei Province). He was talented and thus famous when he was young. At the age of twenty, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and passed the specialized examination of responding to the questions of the emperor. During the reign of Empress Wu and Emperor Zhongzong, he served as chancellor frequently and was appointed as Duke of the State of Zhao. During the reign of Emperor Ruizong, he was transferred to governor of Huaizhou. When Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, he was demoted to be assistant to provincial inspector of Chuzhou and was later transferred to assistant to provincial inspector of Luzhou. Li Qiao mainly composed five-character metrical verses. There were more than one hundred and twenty-five-character chanting poems in his anthology, most of which were made under the command or the emperor’s orders. However, they were mostly metrical and demonstrated a high concern for rhetorical skills. Su Weidao (648 A.D.–705 A.D.) hailed from Luancheng, Zhaozhou (now in Hebei Province). At the age of nine, he was able to write prose and was known for his talent. At the age of twenty, he passed the imperial examination. During the reign of Empress Wu, he served as minister in the third rank of official positions. After Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne, although having served as minister for years, he was demoted to be governor of Meizhou because he fawned on and echoed Zhang Yizhi. He died in his office. Su Weidao was as famous as Li Qiao, and they

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were together called “Su-Li”. Among the poets of the early Tang Dynasty, Su-Li was often compared with Shen-Song. All of them were productive writers of metrical pattern poetry and promoted the development of metrical verses in the Tang Dynasty. Su-Li were not as accomplished as Shen-Song, but the former two were greatly influential due to their high status. Du Shenyan (about 648 A.D.–708 A.D.), courtesy name Bijian, hailed from Xiangyang, Xiangzhou (now Xiangyang, Hubei Province). He became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and was appointed as assistant to magistrate of Xicheng. With talent, he was proud and insolent. However, he was appreciated by Empress Wu Zetian and was appointed as national history compiler. Later, he was transferred to assistant of the Ministry of Catering. During the early years of the reign of Shenlong, he was exiled to Lingnan because he had interpersonal relationships with Zhang Yizhi and his brother. He was soon appointed as the recorder of Directorate of Education and concurrently an imperial writer. Among the Four Literary Friends, Du Shenyan lived the most difficult life, but he made the highest artistic achievements. He was highly accomplished in wulü, qilü (eight-line Chinese poem with seven characters to a line), and pailü (extended form of eight-line metrical verses). He also composed excellent seven-character quatrains. In the process of the development and formation of the metrical verse art, Du Shenyan’s contribution could be comparable to that of Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen. He left nearly thirty-five-character metrical verses, all of which completely met the requirements of the metrical pattern poetry, except one that made a mistake in level and oblique tones. The formation of wulü could ultimately be attributed to Song Zhiwen and Shen Quanqi. While creating a large number of poems under command or the emperor’s orders, they had plenty of time to study poetry and strive for perfection. They not only required different light and heavy tones in each couplet, but also matched the level and oblique tones between the second line of the previous couplet and the first line of the next couplet. Moreover, this tonic rule permeated the whole poem so that the level and oblique tones were related to each other between couplets with harmonious rhythm permeating the whole poem. Song Zhiwen and Shen Quanqi, respectively, left 15 and 12 five-character metrical poems made under imperial orders. All of them conformed to the tonic rule of the metrical pattern poetry. Yuan Zhen wrote in Inscription Preface to the Tomb of Du Jun, Former Vice Director of the Ministry of Constructions of

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the Tang Dynasty (Tang Gu Gong Bu Yuan Wai Lang Du Jun Mu Xi Ming Xu), “After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, school education was greatly developed, and famous poets appeared during the reign of each emperor. In particular, Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen sought to refine their language and harmonize their rhythms, and their compositions were known as metrical verses”. This was the earliest record of the naming of “metrical verses”, so the name Shen-Song became the symbol of the formation of metrical verses. Shen Quanqi (about 656 A.D.–about 716 A.D.), courtesy name Yunqing, hailed from Neihuang, Xiangzhou (now in Henan Province). During the second year of the reign of Shangyuan (675 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. He was transferred from rhythm and music officer to vice director of official performance appraisal. After Emperor Zhongzong ascended the throne, he was exiled to Huanzhou (now Vietnam) for his attachment to Zhang Yizhi. In the third year of the reign of Shenlong (707 A.D.), he was appointed as recorder of emperor’s words and deeds and concurrently an imperial writer who often served in the palace. Later, he served as secretariat drafter and supervisor of crown prince’s palace. He died in the early years of the reign title of Kaiyuan. His poems were very skillful and well-conceived. Song Zhiwen (about 656 A.D.–about 712 A.D.), alternative name Shaolian and courtesy name Qanqing, hailed from Fenzhou (now Fenyang, Shanxi Province). He is also said to be from Hongnong, Guozhou (now Lingbao, Henan Province). During the second year of Shangyuan (675 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. He served as inspector of Luozhou, supervisor of imperial instruments, and attendant to the empress. He was demoted to be inspector of Longzhou because of his attachment to Zhang Yizhi and his brother. He was later appointed as assistant magistrate of Honglu and was then transferred to vice director of official performance appraisal. He also served as a flattering attendant to Princess Taiping. Because he accepted bribery when he served as an imperial examination proctor, he was demoted to be secretary general of Yuezhou. When Emperor Ruizong ascended the throne, he was exiled to Qinzhou and committed suicide by imperial order. Song Zhiwen was a representative poet for the formation of the metrical pattern poetry. Through the unremitting efforts of Du Shenyan, Li Qiao, Song Zhiwen, and Shen Quanqi from the reign of Empress Wu to the reign

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of Emperor Zhongzong under the title of Jinglong, the various rhythmic style of the metrical pattern poetry in the Tang Dynasty were formed, which played an important role in promoting the development of Tang poetry art.

5

Four Scholars in Wuzhong

At the turn of the early and heyday of the Tang Dynasty, literati He Zhizhang, Bao Rong, Zhang Xu, and Zhang Ruoxu in the place of Wuyue were “famous in Shangjing for their excellent literary works” (Biography of He Zhizhang (He Zhi Zhang Zhuan), Volume 190 of Old Book of the Tang (Jiu Tang Shu)), and they were called “Four Scholars in Wuzhong” (“Wu Zhong Si Shi”) (Biography of Bao Ji (Bao Ji Zhuan), Volume 149 of Old Book of the Tang ). They were unrestrained and literally talented whose poetry art was quite different from that of the poets of the early Tang Dynasty. They left many masterpieces that have been passed down through the ages. He Zhizhang (659 A.D.–744 A.D.), courtesy name Jizhen, hailed from Yongxing, Yuezhou (now Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province). He was an unrestrained man and was reputed as “Scholar of Literary Grace” (“Feng Liu Zhi Shi”) (Biographies of Old Book of the Tang ). In Song of Eight Drinking Immortals (Yin Zhong Ba Xian Ge), Du Fu described his wild and unrestrained characters vividly, “He Zhizhang rides his horse as if sailing on a boat after drinking. Having dim eyesight, he falls in a well and slumbers underwater”. As soon as he saw Li Bai in Ziji Palace in Chang’an, he called Li Bai “an exiled immortal” and removed his golden tortoise accessory to exchange wine to have a good drink with Li Bai. He was also a famous calligrapher. His surviving cursive script The Classic of Filial Piety was a masterpiece of calligraphy. He Zhizhang did not leave many poems. Most of his works were made under imperial orders to praise the merits and virtues of the prosperous times of the Kaiyuan reign which were magnificent. His most popular poems were two seven-character quatrains, Two Poems of Returning Home (Hui Xiang Ou Shu Er Shou). These two poems described the poet’s feelings of returning to his hometown after being away for years. The first poem was written in a humorous tone about changes in the hometown that had occurred over the long period when the poet was away. The poet expressed a complex feeling of sighing for the vicissitudes of the world and being touched by the simple and cordial fellowship in the hometown. The second poem expressed a

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sentiment about changes. However, the unchanging spring water and green waves in the Mirror Lake not only reflected the unchanging vitality of the hometown, but also lifted the poet’s sentiment from depression and decadence. These two poems well reflected He Zhizhang’s unconventional and unrestrained temperament. When quatrains in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty were praised by later generations as vivid and lifelike, these two poems by He Zhizhang were typical representatives. According to Old Book of the Tang Biography of He Zhizhang, Zhang Ruoxu (dates of birth and death unknown), hailed from Yangzhou and served as a military officer in Yanzhou (now in Shandong Province). During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong under the title of Shenlong, Zhang Ruoxu became famous in the capital with He Zhizhang and Bao Rong. Only two of his poems were recorded in The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty. One was a five-character metrical poem Dai Da Gui Meng Huan, which was nothing special. The other poem was a seven-character gexing called Spring River in the Flower Moon Night (Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye), a well-known masterpiece. Spring River in the Flower Moon Night borrowed the title from the ancient Yuefu Qing Shang Qu Wu Sheng Ge, which was a folk song in the Wu area. In Collected Songs of the Music Bureau Style, Guo Maoqian recorded two poems by Emperor Yang of Sui and one poem by Zhuge Ying in the Sui Dynasty and by Zhang Zirong, Zhang Ruoxu, and Wen Tingyun in the Tang Dynasty respectively under the same title. Zhang Ruoxu’s early imitations were short five-character poems with four or six lines, but this Spring River in the Flower Moon Night was a long gexing poem that combined the lovesickness of men and women with the perception of life in the universe to discuss a deep and broad theme. With “moon” as the center, the whole poem delicately depicted a dreamlike and misty moonlit night. It shifted naturally from the vast sight of the merging of river and the sky to the exploration of the universe and the understanding of life. It depicted the melancholy and helpless lovesickness in the misty moonlight and reflected on the overwhelming universe. In this context, the lingering sadness of parting became more persistent and sincere. The open and sincere feelings for the universe, nature, and life embodied in this poem reflected the unique spirit of the people in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, Wen Yiduo called it “poetry in poetry and pinnacle of pinnacles” (Miscellaneous Commentaries on Tang Poetry The Self-Redemption of Palace Style Poems (Tang Shi Za Lun · Gong Ti Shi De Zi Shu)).

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Zhang Xu (dates of birth and death unknown), courtesy name Bogao, hailed from Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). He probably lived during the periods of Kaiyuan and Tianbao. In his whole life, he was frustrated by his political career and only served as assistant to magistrate of Changshu and secretary general of Jinwu. Among the “Four Scholars”, he was most unrestrained and was a master of cursive script in the Tang Dynasty. According to historical records, he was addicted to alcohol. He would scream and walk madly every time he was drunk, using his brush pen and even his hair to write. He was called “Mad Man Zhang” and was reputed as “Sage of Cursive Script”. Only five of his poems were recorded in The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty, and two seven-character quatrains of them were famous, namely Tao Hua Xi and Shang Xing Liu Ke. Both poems were ethereal and unrestrained and were written with light brushwork. Both the peach blossom garden and the diverse mountains and forests depicted in the poems were ethereal, fantastic, and quite charming. Bao Rong (dates of birth and death unknown), hailed from Yanling, Runzhou (now Danyang, Jiangsu Province) and was well-known in the capital with He Zhizhang and other poets during the reign of Emperor Zhongzong under the title of Shenlong. Only eight of his poems were recorded in The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty, of which the seven-character quatrain Wu Ling Tao Yuan Song Ren was a poem of tranquil charm. In general, the “Four Scholars in Wuzhong” formed a very distinctive group of poets. The four scholars were all unrestrained in character and artistically talented. They well reflected the spirit and artistic characteristics of the literati in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

CHAPTER 16

Literature in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

The period from the reign of Emperor Xuanzong under the title of Kaiyuan to the beginning of the reign of Emperor Daizong under the title of Dali (713 A.D.–766 A.D.) was the so-called heyday of the Tang Dynasty. During this period, the Tang Dynasty enjoyed political stability and social prosperity. It was recognized by later generations as a prosperous age. It was also a golden age for poetry creation. Yan Yu, a poetry theorist in the Song Dynasty, said, “The poems in the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty are different from each other in terms of styles and features rather than workmanship”. Lin Geng, a contemporary Tang poetry expert, summarized the aesthetic style and spiritual temperament of the poems in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty as “the style of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty”. Poets living in this period were active and enterprising. They were fully confident in the times and visionary about the future. They were mentally healthy, cheerful, confident, and calm. Poems in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, with their broad spiritual outlook, absorbed all the beneficial artistic achievements of poetry in the past,

L. Ning (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_16

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pursued a magnificent, natural, and fresh artistic style, and made particularly outstanding achievements in the creation of artistic conception. They formed aesthetic features manifested in inspiring imagery, deep and broad artistic conception and deep feelings. With their great artistic talents, Li Bai, Du Fu, and Wang Wei greatly expanded the field of poetry expression and became the first-class poets in the history of Chinese poetry. Important achievements were also made in parallel prose in the early and heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

1 Wang Wei, Meng Haoran and the Landscape and Idyllic Poetry in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty Wang Wei and Meng Haoran were representative landscape and idyllic poets during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The school of landscape and idyllic poetry sought to observe nature with a unique artistic interest and showed the beauty of the landscape as well as fields and gardens. From the Eastern Jin and Southern dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, a number of artistic models such as Xie Lingyun, Tao Yuanming, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Wei Yingwu, and Liu Zongyuan emerged. The compositions of Wang Wei and Meng Haoran represented the highest artistic levels of this poetic school in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. On the basis of inheriting the traditional aesthetic consideration of clearing the mind to approach Taoism and forgetting all earthly desires in deep silence, the landscape and idyllic poetry during this period embraced the healthy, positive, and enterprising mood of the times to usher poetry into a wider and more refreshing realm. The poets could consciously integrate subjective emotions with the observation of natural landscape to create more charming poems. Wang Wei (701 A.D.–762 A.D.), courtesy name Mojie, hailed from Qi, Taiyuan (now Qixian County, Shanxi Province). Later, he moved to Pu (now Yongji, Shanxi). In the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and was appointed as chancellor of music bureau. Later, he was convicted and demoted to be warehouse inspector in Jizhou. Wang Wei had comprehensive artistic attainments and was very talented. His paintings were vivid, lifelike, and highly accomplished in art. In the heyday of the Tang

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Dynasty, he was not the only scholar who excelled in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and music but a member of such a group of talents. This became an important symbol of the artistic prosperity in that period. As an outstanding representative in that period, Wang Wei won the heartfelt praise of the public. Wang Wei’s landscape poems inherited the tradition and expanded to a new poetic realm. He depicted the majesty of Huashan Mountain and the vastness of Zhongnan Mountain. He showed the colorful landscape in the north and portrayed the vastness of seas in the watery south, the deep and lush mountains and forests in the middle of Shu, and the broadness and brightness of desert scenery. Wang Wei was deeply influenced by Buddhism. He devoted himself to Buddhism when he was still young and studied Buddhist principles deeply. He was greatly influenced by the popular Northern Zen Buddhism at that time. However, in his late years, he was ideologically close to the Southern Zen Buddhism, during which he wrote Neng Chan Shi Bei. Together with Meng Haoran, Pei Di, Chu Guangxi, Liu Shenxu, and Chang Jian, he also had close contacts with Zen monks. Therefore, his poems were influenced by Zen thought from the way of viewing objects to emotions and styles. His depiction of quiet scenery had an ethereal appeal. Meng Haoran was a representative landscape and idyllic poet as famous as Wang Wei in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Meng Haoran (689 A.D.–740 A.D.), hailed from Xiangyang. Before forty years, he lived in seclusion in the south of Han River, not far from Lumen Mountain. He used to travel to the Yangtze River and Xiangjiang River in the south and visited Youzhou in the north. He once lived in Luoyang and traveled to Yuezhong. In the sixteenth year of Kaiyuan (728 A.D.), he went to Chang’an to take the imperial examination and made friends with Wang Wei, Zhang Jiuling, etc. He wrote a poem for the Imperial Library. His fame swept the capital due to his verses “There are slight clouds floating between the Milky Way, and a few drops of rain on the parasol trees”. Unfortunately, he did not pass the imperial examination. Afterward, he went south to Wuyue and indulged himself in the scenery of mountains and rivers. In the twenty-fifth year of Kaiyuan (737 A.D.), he joined Zhang Jiuling in Jingzhou and composed many responsorial poems. He died of depression three years later for not living up to his ambitions. Meng Haoran was not a hermit who paid no attention to affairs of human life. In fact, like many scholars in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, he had

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positive ambitions and ideals for society and life, which explained why he traveled far to the capital Luoyang and roamed in Wuyue. Meng Haoran was born to be a solitary and honest man, and his poems featured a clear and transcendent realm. He developed his own artistic characteristics in the creation of landscape and idyllic poetry. Wang Wei was good at integrating a variety of artistic techniques in his poems and depicted landscape directly and deeply. However, Meng Haoran was good at adding shading around the landscape to make it stand out and conveying the spirit of the landscape in a simplistic manner. Without a single word, he captured and transmitted all the meaning of the landscape. Wang Wei’s poems well integrated the Buddhist principles, depicted the meaning of “emptiness” and “quietness” and conveyed a profound artistic conception. Meng Haoran’s poems focused more on expressing subtle emotions. Inheriting the artistic tradition of Tao Yuanming’s idyllic poems, Meng Haoran was very good at expressing the tranquility and joy of rural life. This ability was represented in his popular poem To A Friend’s Manor (Guo Gu Ren Zhuang). The ten gifted scholars in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty under the reign title of Dali influenced all of the landscape and idyllic poets of later generations. Wang Wei and Meng Haoran enjoyed high reputations and were greatly influential in the poetry circle during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. They were surrounded by a group of similar poets such as Pei Di, Chu Guangxi, Liu Shenxu, Zhang Zirong, and Chang Jian.

2 Gao Shi, Cen Shen and Frontier Poetry in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty During the over one hundred years from Zhenguan to Kaiyuan periods in the Tang Dynasty, the country was powerful and kept expanding its territory. Defense in the frontier was strengthened, and the morale of soldiers was stirred. People were enthusiastic about joining the army. During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods, a large number of frontier poems emerged. These poems showed the heroic spirit of killing the enemy and making contributions and depicted the magnificent frontier scenery. They also reflected some contradictions in the army and expressed the sorrow and grievances of garrison soldiers and their lovesick wives. A vigorous, broad, and passionate poetry style was developed. Gao Shi and Cen Shen were the most outstanding representatives of the frontier poetry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

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Gao Shi (700 A.D.–765 A.D.), courtesy name Dafu, hailed from Bohaitiao, a place famous for noble clans (now in Jingxian County, Hebei Province). He lived a difficult life in his early years and moved to Lingnan with his father. During the middle Kaiyuan period, he came to Chang’an to seek an official position. From the eighteenth year (730 A.D.) to the twenty-first year of Kaiyuan (733 A.D.), he went north to Jimen and roamed Yanzhao, hoping to join the army and render meritorious service in the frontier, but in vain. Afterward, he lived in Songzhong for nearly ten years and was impoverished. After the An Shi Rebellion (An Shi Zhi Luan) occurred, he followed Emperor Xuanzong to the place of Shu and was appointed as imperial censor. Since then, his political career had been smooth. He served as military commander of Huainan and governor of Shu and Peng Prefectures. After Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, he entered the court as an assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice and was later transferred to attendant of emperor. He was also appointed as Marquis of Bohai County. Gao Shi’s life experiences changed dramatically. In his early years, he lived in difficulties and wandered for a long time. In the last ten years of his life, his political career was smooth. Gao Shi had a strong will to serve the world and had an unrestrained temperament. Most of his early poems expressed his sorrow of not being appreciated. He went north to Jimen twice, so he had rich life experience at the frontier. He composed many poems about the frontier life. These poems not only depicted the frontier life at wars, but also expressed lofty sentiments of hoping to render meritorious service. He wrote Seeing Off Supervisory Censor Li to Anxi (Song Li Shi Yu Fu An Xi), “The fame is ten thousand miles away, but now we drown our worries in a glass of wine. The barrier against the enemy is located in the north of Yanzhi Mountain, and your hometown is in the east of Taibai Mountain in Chang’an. Don’t be sad about the parting. You will become a hero when you come back with exploits”. In the twenty-sixth year of Kaiyuan, he returned from Jimen and wrote the famous frontier poem A Song of the Yan Country. This poem incorporated complex connotations. At that time, Khitan betrayed the Tang Dynasty and invaded the borders of Youzhou and Jizhou for years. Instead of describing a specific battle, the poem summarized the hardships and cruelties of wars at the frontier, including long-term garrison, desolation outside the Great Wall, disparate bitterness and happiness of the army, ferocity of the enemy, and little hope of returning home due to prolonged battles. The poet not only praised the warriors’ will to resist the enemy and their heroic spirit of not

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being thwarted by hardships and dangers, but also truly expressed their changing inner feelings as they went to the frontier, resisted the enemy, and devoted themselves to long-term garrison. Cen Shen (about 715 A.D.–770 A.D.), whose ancestral home was Nanyang, was born in Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei Province). He lost his father when he was young. In the third year of Tianbao (744 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and was appointed as secretary general of the Right Palace Gate Guard. In the eighth year of Tianbao (749 A.D.), he gave up his official position to join the army. He first came out to the frontier in Guizi (now Kuche, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) and joined the military commander Gao Xianzhi who was in charge of four towns in Anxi. Two years later, he returned to Chang’an and made friends with Gao Shi, Du Fu, and others to compose responsorial poems. In the thirteenth year of Tianbao (754 A.D.), he came out to the frontier again and arrived in Tingzhou (now Jimusar County, Xinjiang). He served for about three years in the army of Feng Changqing in Beiting Protectorate. Later, he went to Lingwu and was recommended by Du Fu and others to serve as an imperial assistant consultant. He also worked as a drafter of the emperor’s words and deeds and as secretary general of Guozhou. In the first year of Yongtai (765 A.D.), he was appointed as governor of Jiazhou. Two years later, he took office in Shu to pacify the chaos there. In the following year, he was dismissed from office after his tenure ended. After this, he lived in Chengdu and died in a guest house. Cen Shen also had a strong desire for fame and hoped to take a shortcut to his career by rendering meritorious service at the frontier. He traveled to the northwest frontier twice and wrote a lot of frontier poems in the first trip such as Wu Wei Song Liu Pan Guan Fu Qi Xi Xing Jun Zhong Zuo, Zao Fa Yan Qi Huai Zhong Nan Bie Ye, Dun Huang Tai Shou Hou Ting Ge, Qi Zhong Zuo, and Wu Wei Song Liu Dan Pan Guan Fu An Xi Xing Ying Bian Cheng Gao Kai Fu. However, these poems did not attract public attention. Yin Fan’s He Yue Ying Ling Ji selected and recorded works of representative poets in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty down to the twelfth year of Tianbao (753 A.D.). It selected some of Gao Shi’s poems about the frontier, including A Song of the Yan Country, A Song of Yingzhou (Ying Zhou Ge), and Flute Melody in the Borderlands (Sai Shang Wen Di). It selected seven of Cen Shen’s poems, but none of them were frontier poems. When Cen Shen came out to the frontier with Feng Changqing the second time, they got along well with each other in

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spite of the harsh conditions at the frontier because Feng Changqing was his close aide on their first expedition mission. The poems he composed during this period were also more optimistic and cheerful, fully showing his unique artistic personality. Cen Shen’s seven-character quatrains about frontier life were mostly excellent. For example, he wrote Running into Capital-Bound Diplomat (Feng Ru Jing Shi), “I look eastward at road leading to distant home, broken down, tears soak sleeves that won’t dry. Cross path on horseback but nothing to write on, I count on you to deliver an all-is-well message”. While the scene at the frontier was written as if it were part of normal daily life, the poet expressed the thoughts of frontier soldiers and demonstrated his profound and delicate emotions and poetic style. Among the poets famous for frontier poems during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, Cen Shen left most works. He wrote more than 70 frontier poems before and after his two expeditions. In particular, some of his poems composed during the second expedition even surpassed those of Gao Shi in some artistic respects. Poets similar to Gao Shi and Cen Shen included Wang Zhihuan, Tao Han, etc.

3 Li Bai: A Natural and Unconstrained Poet in the Heyday of the Tang Dynasty Han Yu, a famous litterateur in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, fully expressed his reverence for Li Bai and Du Fu, saying, “The poems of Li Bai and Du Fu exist as if a million rays of light shine in the poetry world” (Diao Zhang Ji). Li Bai and Du Fu not only best embodied the poetic achievements in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, but also occupied high positions and had a far-reaching influence in the poetry circle since then. Li Bai is known as “God of Poetry” and Du Fu as “Sage of Poetry”. Their poems vividly reflected the poetic style in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai (701 A.D.–762 A.D.), courtesy name Taibai, remained controversial in terms of his background, birthplace, whereabouts, and family. Based on the existing historical materials, we can roughly outline his life history. His ancestral home was in Chengji in Longxi (now Qin’an, Gansu Province), and he was born in Suyab (now in Kyrgyzstan) in the Western Regions of Central Asia. In his early years, he had a talent for poetry and liked swordsmanship and wandering knights. In the autumn of the twelfth year of Kaiyuan (724 A.D.), he wrote, “I left my homeland and

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my family with my sword and traveled to another place” (Shang An Zhou Pei Zhang Shi Shu). He set off from the Emei Mountain and left Sichuan along the river. He arrived in Jingmen and traveled in Dongting. He also visited Jinling, Guangling, and Kuaiji. Soon, he returned by boat to the west and lived in Yuncheng (now Anlu, Hubei Province). In the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan (730 A.D.), Li Bai set off from Nanyang to Chang’an. After staying in Chang’an for about three years without getting a chance to take office, he left unhappily. In the summer of the twentieth year of Kaiyuan (732 A.D.), Li Bai went east along the Yellow River and roamed in Jiangxia, Luoyang, and Taiyuan. In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan, his family moved eastward again, “to learn swordsmanship in Shandong” (Wu Yue Dong Lu Xing Da Wen Shang Weng ). Later, he roamed in Henan, Huainan, Hunan, and Hubei. He climbed Mount. Tai in the north and visited Hangzhou and Kuaiji in the south. In the autumn of the first year of Tianbao, under the recommendation of Princess Yuzhen, he was summoned by Emperor Xuanzong to work in the Imperial Academy in the capital. Li Bai was determined to realize his great ambitions and repay the emperor’s encouragement. However, he was estranged by Emperor Xuanzong after serving in the court for just over a year, and he was dismissed to return to his hometown with some reward of gold. Throughout his life, his life choices and trajectory mirrored the positive and aggressive ideal of life that was commonly found in ancient Chinese scholars. He was not afraid of power and showed contempt for the powerful. He learned from immortals and Taoism faithfully, and collected herbal medicines and practiced alchemy. He even received Taoist rites and went through the ceremony to officially become a Taoist. Nevertheless, he did not ignore reality or became blindly aloof. In fact, he was deeply influenced by Confucianism and took “saving the common people” and “safeguarding the country” as his own responsibility. He expected to “review the theories of Guanzi and Yan Ying about dominating the world, leverage my wisdom and ability to be an aide to the ruler and help pacify the world and unify the country” (Dai Shou Shan Da Meng Shao Fu Yi Wen Shu). He was ambitious when he was summoned to the capital by an imperial edict. He joined the Prince of Yong when the An Shi Rebellion occurred. He also wanted to join Li Guangbi’s counterinsurgency army after being pardoned. All of these actions supported his sense of responsibility for his country. However, he preferred to take a more convenient shortcut and dreamed to make a great coup and soar

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with one start. He did not bother to take the imperial examinations to become an official as others did. At the same time, he was often influenced by diplomatists. He liked to talk about bold strategies for dominating the world, and longed for the reconciliation between the monarch and ministers. As he had a better understanding of the ugliness of those in power, he developed stronger critical spirit. He cried hard for distinguished men who died without being appreciated and expressed his contempt for the imperial court. When he worked in the Imperial College in Chang’an, he had a better understanding of the dark reality. In Farewell Ode on Visiting Mount Heaven-Grandmother in Dream (Meng You Tian Mu Yin Liu Bie) which he composed after being estranged by Emperor Xuanzong and having to leave Chang’an, he cried, “I can’t condescend to serve celebrities. That makes me lose my hearty smile!” His defiance and contempt of the powerful class touched countless readers of later generations. These verses most vividly demonstrated the spirit of the scholars in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty to pursue their ideals, respect their self-worth and worship freedom. The spirit of Li Bai was a concentrated representation of the spirit in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. His extraordinary demeanor made him a model admired by the scholars, and his poems were also the most concentrated embodiment of the artistic pursuit of poetry during that period. He depicted the landscape, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River with a spectacular vision. The mountains, rivers, and land depicted in his works were not only vast and magnificent in scenery but full of majestic and unrestrained spirit. The Yellow River, which rushed into the sea from the vast sky, was the symbol of utmost boldness and vigor. In Perilous Journey to the Land of Shu (Shu Dao Nan), the road to Shu was described as “being steeper than heaven” with “peculiar sights”. The poem was filled with rich peculiar imaginations and extreme exaggerations. The poet’s peculiar imagination was reflected in his vision of the ancient state of Shu, his fantasy about five strong men opening the mountain, and his description of the height and steepness of the mountain as “the six-dragon chariot of the Sun finding no way round”. When depicting the strange and dangerous road to Shu, the poet employed exaggeration extensively to exert a highly expressive effect. From the perspective of lyrical characteristics, the poet wrote this poem with strong passion, and the verses were full of thrilling emotional power. The magnificent momentum of five strong men opening the mountain and the turbulent waterfalls and thundering sound from numerous ravines encountered by travelers on

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this road were shocking to readers. This plentiful passion, complemented by peculiar imagination and extreme exaggeration, created an art world full of “peculiar sights”. Indeed, this majestic and wild artistic realm was also a portrayal of Li Bai’s inherent uniqueness. The majestic landscape was perfectly combined with his proud and unique personality. Li Bai was also good at using bizarre imagination to convey the state of majesty and wildness. At the same time, his poems were also natural. “They are like a lotus rising out of clear water, natural and without embellishment”. In terms of genre, he was mainly interested in pre-Tang poems, ancient Yuefu poems, and gexing poems. He was particularly outstanding in ancient Yuefu poems. He wrote relatively less metrical pattern poems, but he made remarkable achievements in quatrains. In terms of content, he inherited the expression techniques of various genres but injected stronger emotions. He brought an unprecedented style to those previous themes. As a poet, he won widespread respect from later generations.

4

Du Fu: Historian of Poetry and Sage of Poetry

Du Fu (712 A.D.–770 A.D.), courtesy name Zimei, hailed Gongxian (now in Henan Province). His family had been officials for generations and respected the spirit of Confucianism. His ancestor of thirteenth generation, Du Yu, was admired greatly by Du Fu as he made remarkable military exploits and wrote The Annotations to the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan Zhu). His grandfather, Du Shenyan, was a famous poet in the early Tang Dynasty. His mother’s family was the Cui family Qinghe which had the highest status as a scholarly clan in the Tang Dynasty and was related by marriage to the royal family of the Li Tang Dynasty. Although Du Fu’s father, Du Xian, only took a minor post as the magistrate of Fengtian, the family tradition of “observing Confucianism and keeping official duties without falling into ordinary occupations” (Rhapsody to Vulture (Jin Diao Fu Biao) by Du Fu) strongly influenced Du Fu. Although he endured hardships throughout his life, he never gave up officialdom and rarely thought of retreat to seclusion. He always expected to make a difference in the world and took serving the world as his responsibility. He was encouraged by his grandfather Du Shenyan’s poetic achievements to carry forward the glory of his family, saying that “Poetry is our family tradition” (Zongwu’s Birthday (Zong Wu Sheng Ri)).

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Du Fu was able to write poems at the age of seven and “first began to read his poems in public” (My Brave Adventures ) at the age of 14 or 15. He traveled around the country for more than ten years after he turned twenty. At the age of twenty-four, he visited Luoyang to take the imperial examinations but failed. Then, he traveled to the land of Qi and Zhao. When Du Fu was thirty-three, he met Li Bai in Luoyang who was already famous at that time and was admired by Du Fu for talent. In the subsequent eventful dislocation after the An Shi Rebellion occurred, Du Fu composed many poems showing his sincere and touching nostalgia about his friendship with Li Bai. At the age of thirty-five or so, Du Fu came to Chang’an to seek an official position. He expected to be “positioned at a key ferryboat route” and achieve the ideal of “assisting an emperor like Yao or Shun and making folk customs honest and simple again” (Twenty-Two Rhymes to Left-Prime-Minister Wei (Feng Zeng Wei Zuo Cheng Zhang Er Shi Er Yun)). However, the reality was cruel. He spent ten years running around those in power, “knocking on the door of the rich in the morning and walking in the dust by fat horses in the evening”. He was helpless and in vain. In addition, he also composed many rhapsodies to Emperor Xuanzong such as Rhapsody to Vulture (Diao Fu) and Rhapsody to Three Big Ceremonies (San Da Li Fu), hoping to win his favor. It was not until the fourteenth year of Tianbao that he got a minor post of Registrar of the Right Commandant’s office. When the An Shi Rebellion broke out, Du Fu was trapped in Chang’an. He managed to escape from Chang’an alone and joined Emperor Suzong in Fengxiang. He was appointed as imperial censor, an eighth-grade official position. Shortly after, he caused trouble for himself by protesting the removal of his friend and patron Fang Guan on a petty charge to Emperor. He was demoted to a post as military staff officer in Huazhou in the early years of Qianyuan. Amid the chaos of war and frustrated by his political career, he resigned and took refuge in Qinzhou at the turn of summer and autumn in the second year of Qianyuan (759 A.D.), where he composed twenty Miscellaneous Poems in Qinzhou (Qin Zhou Za Shi). In the end of the year, he came to the region of Shu. In Chengdu, he built a thatched cottage in the west of the city. Yan Wu, a former friend who was appointed military commander in the east and west areas of Jiannan, helped him a lot. He recommended Du Fu to serve as military adviser and assistant inspector of the Ministry of Constructions (he was thus called by later generations as “Du Gongbu”, with Gongbu meaning the Ministry of Constructions). Du Fu lived a relatively stable

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and leisurely life in his thatched cottage. In the first year of Yongtai (765 A.D.), Yan Wu died and chaos was stirred in the place of Shu. Du Fu lost his patron and had no choice but to wander and flee. He had planned to go east along the Yangtze River to leave Sichuan, but he traveled slowly, held up by his ill-health and chaos of war. He lived in Yun’an for a while and then stayed in Kuizhou for almost two years. At the age of 57, he sailed out of the Three Gorges and roved over waters around Hubei and Hunan. In the fifth year of Dali, he died on a boat near Leiyang, ending his difficult and wandering life at the age of 59. Du Fu’s difficult life experiences enabled him to deeply appreciate the social conflicts that preceded the An Shi Rebellion and how devastating this event was to the country and the people. His poems profoundly reflected the complexities of this particular historical period, which earned him the name “Historian of Poetry” among later generations. During his ten-year stay in Chang’an, Du Fu wrote many poems reflecting the social crisis in the late years of Tianbao such as Song of the Conscripts (Bing Che Xing), On the Frontier I (Qian Chu Sai), On the Frontier II (Hou Chu Sai), Satire on Fair Ladies (Li Ren Xing), and The Chant of Going to Fengxian County from Chang’an with 500 Characters (Zi Jing Fu Feng Xian Xian Yong Huai Wu Bai Zi). After the An Shi Rebellion broke out, Du Fu wrote Lament on the Defeat at Chentao (Bei Chen Tao), Saddened over Qingban (Bei Qing Ban), Washing the Weapons and Horses (Xi Bing Ma), and the famous poems of “Three Petty Officials” (“San Li”) and “Three Separations” (“San Bie”). In his poems about history, Du Fu did not simply make records. Instead, he revealed important social conflicts with keen observation and with true empathy. Song of the Conscripts revealed the suffering of the people due to the ruler’s indulgence in aggressive wars. The poem started with the loud grief cries of family members seeing off their beloved ones to war. The complaint of soldiers who were “sent to the frontier though their hair’s gray” accused “the emperor’s greed for land” of throwing the common people into endless sufferings. Nine Poems on the Border (Qian Chu Sai Jiu Shou) meticulously described the pain and humiliation of an enlisted soldier during a brutal war career, and the deep feeling of grief was penetrating. In The Chant of Going to Fengxian County from Chang’an with 500 Characters, Du Fu keenly observed the social reality before the An Shi Rebellion as he wrote “While meat and wine go to waste behind the vermilion gates of the rich, the poor is frozen to death on an empty stomach by the roadside”. He deeply exposed the indulgence of Emperor

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Xuanzong and his courtiers in sensual pleasures and expressed his vigilance and concern about the great social crisis. After the An Shi Rebellion, he composed Lament along the Winding River (Ai Jiang Tou) when he was trapped in Chang’an, depicting the desolation of the capital occupied by the rebels. He wrote Journey North (Bei Zheng) on the way back from Fengxiang to Fuzhou. This long poem fully described the uprooted life in the chaos of war. The mapping of social history in Du Fu’s poems was incomparable in both breadth and depth. For this reason, the title “Historian of Poetry” is always associated with Du Fu in people’s minds. Du Fu is also known as “Sage of Poetry” to later generations. The title “Sage of Poetry” has two meanings. Spiritually, Du Fu’s poems carried a deep Confucian spirit and served as an example of Confucian poetry education. His loyalty to the emperor and his love for the country remained unchanged throughout his difficult and displaced life. Artistically, Du Fu’s poems were legalistic and more than that. He paid great attention to studying the expressive systems of his predecessors’ poetry and drew upon the strengths of others. That’s why he was hailed as “a great epitome” of predecessors. On this basis, Du Fu also made great progress in various forms and artistic techniques of poetry. His five-character ancient poems blended narrative, depiction of scenery, argument, and lyricism in a long and informative whole. Journey North was with seven hundred characters to show a broad historical picture. Inheriting the tradition of Yuefu in the Han Dynasty, he wrote “realistic and unrestrained” poems using “new Yuefu titles” such as “Three Petty Officials” and “Three Separations”. While carrying on the satirical spirit of Yuefu in the Han Dynasty, these poems also captured its soul and showed variations in expression. Song of the Conscripts and Satire on Fair Ladies, however, inherited the tradition of gexing and highlighted the satire on current affairs. Du Fu was particularly steeped in metrical verses. His metrical verses covered a wide range of topics, including social history, human interaction, tour and feast, and personal feelings. All of these topics were included in his poems in a refined and detailed way. For example, in Mooring a Night (Lv Ye Shu Huai), “Riverside grass caressed by wind so light, a lonely mast seems to pierce lonely night. The boundless plain fringed with stars hanging low, the moon surges with the river on the flow. Will fame ever come to a man of letters, old, ill, retired, no official life betters? What do I look like, drifting on so free? A wild gull seeking shelter on the sea”. “The boundless plain fringed with stars hanging low,

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the moon surges with the river on the flow”. These verses well proved the poet’s technique. The words “hanging” and “surge” accentuated the scene where a lonely boat was surrounded by the river and the wilderness, strengthening the isolated and unrest feeling of wandering. They naturally drew forth the next couplet associated with the poet’s life experience. Du Fu’s achievement in the composition of qilü was most praiseworthy. Previously, qilü poems were mostly composed under imperial orders for antiphony, but Du Fu strongly expanded the artistic expressive effect of this genre. For example, his Five Poems of Thoughts on a Historic Site (Yong Huai Gu Ji Wu Shou) and Five Poems of Generals (Zhu Jiang Wu Shou) have been read through all ages. In particular, Eight Odes to Autumn (Qiu Xing Ba Shou) expressed his nostalgia about his hometown and the capital, his worries about current affairs, and his lament for his wandering life. The poem was a profound retrospect of his life story. Du Fu’s qilü poems were characterized by precise rhythm, steady antithesis and an excellent technique of creating a smooth and coherent momentum. Du Fu’s poems covered diverse styles, mostly a melancholy style with a special aesthetic appreciation of melody. Melancholy meant that the sentiment expressed was deep with profound message. Melody meant that structure, rhythm, and tones were meticulously crafted to express the sentiment. These styles were products of Du Fu’s artistic deliberation. In addition, the poems he composed during his time in the thatched cottage in Chengdu conveyed a leisurely and unrestrained feeling. Of course, Du Fu spent most of his life in moving around and chaos, and the leisurely life in the thatched cottage was a rare period of peace and tranquility. Therefore, a melancholy style with a special aesthetic appreciation of melody was the mainstream in his poems. In the poetry history, Du Fu was a poet who learned from predecessors and set a model for successors. He had a profound influence on later generations. After the Song Dynasty, Du Fu was elevated to an extremely high position and was regarded as an unparalleled model.

5

Parallel Prose in the Tang Dynasty: Refined Rhetoric Embellishment and Broad Vision

The Tang Dynasty marked an important period for parallel prose development. On the basis of the parallel prose in the Southern and Northern dynasties, more new progress was made in the Tang Dynasty. The parallel

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prose in this period mainly featured alternating four-character and sixcharacter sentences and neat antithesis. Therefore, it was also called four-six prose (si liu wen) and became an important writing style at that time. It was widely used in military and national official documents, court decrees, memorials of ministers to the throne, private letters, prefaces, and postscripts. An important subject of the imperial examinations was poetry. The testing prose poems were rhythmic poems which were typical four-six prose. In this context, the creation of parallel prose was flourishing. Similar to poetry development, parallel prose development in the Tang Dynasty could be divided into four stages, namely the early, heyday, middle years, and late years of the dynasty. Still influenced by the literary style of Qi and Liang, parallel prose in the early Tang Dynasty emphasized a beautiful and flamboyant form, but it also showed new features in the new era. The Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty were the most accomplished parallel prose writers in the literary circle in the early stage. They inherited the artistic tradition of parallel prose in the Qi and Liang dynasties and made further progress in the neatness of antithetical couplet and the harmony of level and oblique tones to complete the four-six prose. Wang Bo was the most representative one during this stage. His parallel prose was composed primarily as preface, followed by inscription and letter. Preface to a Farewell Feast Atop the Prince Teng’s Pavilion in Autumn (Qiu Ri Deng Hong Fu Teng Wang Ge Jian Bie Xu) was his most well-known work. Yang Jiong’s parallel prose was profound and magnificent. For example, Qun Guan Xun Yang Yin Ju Shi Xu was about a visit to a recluse, which was a broad and magnificent ode to the noble character of the recluse. Luo Binwang’s parallel prose was natural, elegant, and vigorous. His representative prose was Dai Li Jing Ye Yi Wu Hou Lin Chao Yi Zhu Jun Xian Xi. It was a call to arms that he composed in the army when he followed Xu Jingye to rebel against Wu Zetian. In this prose, he listed the empress’s sins and called on all the people to respond to Xu Jingye and support him together. Lu Zhaolin was also well versed in parallel prose. His famous prose Preface to Yuefu Miscellaneous Poems (Yue Fu Za Shi Xu) was known for gorgeous rhetoric and precise allusion. The society in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was flourishing and prosperous. The parallel prose at that time was broad-minded and elegant. Its elegant and poised style effectively got rid of the influence of the Qi and Liang style. During this period, the most outstanding parallel prose writers were Zhang Shuo and Su Ting. Both of them led the literary circle

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during the reign of Kaiyuan. They also wrote many inscriptions, annals, and prefaces and were good at practical writing in the form of four-six prose. Zhang Shuo’s parallel prose abandoned complicated allusions and flamboyant wording. Instead, his compositions were seamless, natural, and elegant. His Qi Huang Men Shi Lang Lu Si Dao Bei, Song Gong Yi Ai Bei, Gu Kai Fu Yi Tong San Si Shang Zhu Guo Zeng Yang Zhou Ci Shi Da Du Du Liang Guo Gong Yao Wen Zhen Gong Shen Dao Bei, Da Tang Xi Yu Ji Xu, Luo Zhou Zhang Si Ma Ji Xu, and Tang Zhao Rong Shang Guan Wen Ji Xu were popular compositions. Su Ting became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination during the reign of Empress Wu Zetian and was appointed as Duke of Xu. He was an agile writer quick in writing. He drafted imperial decrees, edicts, inscriptions, and annals. His famous compositions included Shou Zhang Shuo Zhong Shu Ling Zhi, Li Bu Shang Shu Chu Wu Liang Bei, Tai Qing Guan Zhong Ming, Xing Xin Feng Ji Tong Zhou Chi, etc. He emphasized elegant wording, direct charm, and subtle meaning over rhetoric embellishment. During the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, as Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan advocated ancient prose, a debate between parallel prose and ancient prose was officially started. The parallel prose created in this period was closer to the prose style. The most outstanding writers during this stage were Lu Zhi and Liu Zongyuan. Lu Zhi (754 A.D.–805 A.D.), courtesy name Jingyu, hailed from Jiaxing, Suzhou (now in Zhejiang Province). In the eighth year of Dali, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and passed the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent. He was appointed as assistant to magistrate of Zhengxian and later served as deputy governor of Weinan and investigating censor. Afterward, he was transferred to erudite of the Imperial Academy. His parallel prose was mostly imperial orders drafted on behalf of the emperor and memorials to the throne, which included thoughtful argument and euphemistic rhetoric, with barely any allusions. According to the biographies of Old Book of the Tang, when he followed the emperor to visit Fengtian, with incredible explosion of ideas, he drafted imperial orders that were allinclusive. His famous prose included, for example, Feng Tian Gai Yuan Da She Zhi, Feng Tian Qian Shi Xuan Wei Zhu Dao Zhi, Feng Tian Qing Ba Qiong Lin Da Ying Er Ku Zhuang, Shou He Zhong Hou Qing Ba Bing Zhuang, and Jun Jie Fu Shui Xu Bai Xing Liu Tiao. Feng Tian Gai Yuan Da She Zhi was an imperial decree on amnesty when the reign title of the

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fifth year of Jianzhong was changed to the first year of Xingyuan after the Zhuci Mutiny was pacified. Liu Zongyuan was a representative writer of the ancient prose movement in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty and was highly accomplished in ancient prose. However, he was also an expert in parallel prose. He concentrated on writing four-six prose in his early years before turning to ancient prose. He was good at combining parallel sentences with free sentences, and his ancient prose was distinctive in rhythm and antithesis. His achievements in parallel prose were worthy of attention. In the late years of the Tang Dynasty, parallel prose flourished again. Previously, parallel prose was called in the Tang Dynasty as “modern prose” (“jin ti”) and “current prose” (“shi wen”), without a specific designation. During the middle years, it was clearly named as “four-six prose”. Li Shangyin summarized his parallel prose creations in Fan Nan’s Four-Six Prose (Fan Nan Si Liu). In the late years of the Tang Dynasty, parallel prose emphasized wording choices and took on the strict four-six form. The prose inclination that had appeared during the heyday and the middle years of the Tang Dynasty faded during this period. Linghu Chu and Li Shangyin were the most accomplished parallel prose writers in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Ling Huchu (766 A.D.–837 A.D.), courtesy name Keshi, hailed from Dunhuang (now in Gansu Province). During the seventh year of Zhenyuan, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. During the reign of Emperor Xianzong, he served as an imperial decree drafter and an erudite of the Imperial Academy. He was later appointed as chancellor. He was a representative who wrote memorials to the throne in the form of four-six prose in the Tang Dynasty. His parallel prose, characterized by skillful antithesis, relevant allusions, thick charm, and strong emotional strength, reached a high level. Li Shangyin was good at both poems and prose. He studied ancient prose in his early years and later switched to modern prose. He made remarkable achievements in both ancient prose and parallel prose compositions. His parallel prose was smooth in stroke, profound in allusion, diverse in style, and touching in emotion. In general, although parallel prose was once impacted by the ancient prose movement in the Tang Dynasty, it was still the most valued literary genre. There were many famous parallel prose writers who inherited the refined rhetoric tradition of predecessors and actively expanded the style and realm of their writing to compose more broad-minded works. At the

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same time, the parallel prose in the Tang Dynasty approached a style free from parallelism, which had an important influence on the development of parallel prose and the formation of the unique four-six prose in the Song Dynasty.

CHAPTER 17

Literature in the Middle Years of the Tang Dynasty Liu Ning

The middle years of the Tang Dynasty spanned from the reign of Emperor Daizong under the title of Dali to the end of the reign of Emperor Xianzong under the title of Yuanhe (766 A.D.–820 A.D.). This period was divided into two stages. The first stage was forty years from the outbreak of the An Shi Rebellion to the early years of the reign of Emperor Dezong under the title of Zhengyuan, which marked a transition from the Great Reign of Kaiyuan to the Yuanhe Resurgence. During this period, most of the scholars experienced wars and lost the vigorous and optimistic spirit found in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. A depressing and sorrowful mood swept the poems composed during this period, accompanied by a quiet and sentimental poetic style. The Tang Dynasty experienced a transient period of resurgence with relatively stable society from the late years of the reign of Emperor Dezong under the title of Zhengyuan to the reign of Emperor Xianzong under the title of Yuanhe. A large number of scholars called strongly for a political reform, advocated the revival of Confucianism, and showed a strong concern for reality. Many new

L. Ning (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_17

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changes occurred to poetry creation, and progress was made in various aspects such as language, genre, and expressive techniques. In terms of aesthetic taste, the poetry creation featured either popular language and straightforwardness, or oddity and isolation, which profoundly changed the naivety, naturalness, and elegance typically found in the poems during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

1

The Poetic Style During the Reign of Dali

Most of the poets who lived between the outbreak of the An Shi Rebellion and the reign of Emperor Dezong under the title of Zhengyuan spent their juvenile years in the Great Reign of Kaiyuan. They experienced the turbulence of the An Shi Rebellion and felt deeply confused and upset about the transition of the Tang Empire from prosperity to decline. Their poems gradually lost the high spirit specific to the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, and their poetic style was also shifted to a leisurely mood and a quiet sentiment. Wei Yinwu and Liu Changqing were the most accomplished poets during this period, and the “Ten Gifted Scholars of Dali” (“Da Li Shi Cai Zi”), who were active during the reign of Emperor Daizong under the title of Dali, best represented the style of the times. Wei Yingwu (737 A.D.–791 A.D.) hailed from Wannian, Jingzhao (now Xi’an, Shaanxi Province). At the age of fifteen, he became a close attendant of Three Guards to Emperor Xuanzong via the merits of his ancestors. He led an unrestrained life. After the outbreak of the An Shi Rebellion, he mended his way and began to study. He became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and was appointed as assistant to the magistrate of Luoyang in the first year of Guangde (763 A.D.). Around the tenth year of Dali, he served as deputy governor of the capital prefecture, inspector of Chuzhou during the period of Jianzhong and Xingyuan (780 A.D.–784 A.D.), governor of Jiangzhou in the early years of Zhenyuan, deputy minister of the Department of Imperial Affairs, and governor of Suzhou. Therefore, he was called by later generations as “Wei Suzhou”. Wei Yingwu’s landscape poems well versed in applying gentle and refined language to create transcendent conception were a great success. These works written in quatrains and qilü have been read through ages. Wei Yingwu’s poems “have their own elegant and leisurely style” (Yu Yuan Jiu Shu by Bai Juyi). His official seclusion life and experience, as well as his unique emotions in an era when the heyday was gone, were more universal among the ancient scholars living

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in the second half of feudal China. He himself was thus called a model of landscape and idyllic poetry by later generations, together with Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, and Liu Zongyuan. Liu Changqing (726? A.D.–?), courtesy name Wenfang, traced his ancestry to Xuancheng in Hubei Province, and he was born in Luoyang. Liu Changqing had a difficult life and a decadent and low-spirited state of mind. His poems focused on the themes of nostalgia, expedition for military service, seclusion and leisure, and lament for remaining humble at an advanced age. His poems were permeated with sentiments for the country’s decay and rough personal life. He boasted himself as “The Great Wall in Five-character Poems”. His writing language was succinct and charmingly lofty. “Ten Gifted Scholars of Dali” referred to a group of poets who had been active in the literary circle in court since the reign of Emperor Daizong. Their poetic art creations were the most typical representatives of the poetic style during the period of Dali. According to Ji Xuan Ji written by Yao He, “Ten Gifted Scholars” included Qian Qi, Lu Lun, Han Hong, Li Duan, Geng Wei, Cui Dong, Sikong Shu, Miao Fa, Xiahou Shen, and Ji Zhongfu. All of them had excellent artistic attainments and were good at metrical pattern poetry. Their poems were lucid, leisurely, and elegant, with harmonious and fluent rhythm. Among them, Qian Qi, Lu Lun, Han Hong, Li Duan, and Sikong Shu were the most accomplished. Qian Qi (720? A.D.–783? A.D.), courtesy name Zhongwen, hailed from Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang Province). He was good at different poetry genres and was reputed as the top of the Ten Gifted Scholars. Lu Lun (737? A.D.–798 A.D. or 799 A.D.), courtesy name Yunyan, hailed from Puzhou, Hezhong (now Yongji, Shanxi Province). Han Hong, courtesy name Junping, hailed from Nanyang (now in Henan Province). Li Duan (?–785? A.D.), courtesy name Zhengji, hailed from Zhaojun (now Zhaoxian, Hebei Province). Sikong Shu, courtesy name Wenchu, also known as Wenming, hailed from Guangping (now in Hebei Province). Although these ten scholars had different creative preferences, their poetic styles were generally quite similar. Mr. Wen Yiduo once astutely pointed out that they were actually a unity. Their works were narrower in vision and mostly about triviality. They repeatedly chanted their inner grievances and delicate feelings, but they lacked forcefulness and emotional strength and seemed narrow-minded. In the poetry circle during the periods of Dali and Zhenyuan, there were some accomplished and distinctive poets, for example, Dai Shulun and Li Yi, whose poetic

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styles were equal to but separate from those of the Ten Gifted Scholars of Dali. Dai Shulun (732 A.D.–789 A.D.), courtesy name Yougong, alternatively Cigong, hailed from Jintan, Runzhou (now in Jiangsu Province). During the middle years of Tianbao, he became a disciple of Xiao Yingshi. In the first year of Jianzhong (780 A.D.), he was appointed as magistrate of Dongyang and later joined Li Gao, the military commander of Jiangxi, as a military officer. In the first year of Xingyuan (784 A.D.), he served as governor of Fuzhou and later resigned before his tenure ended. He died in the fifth year of Zhengyuan (789 A.D.). Dai Shulun’s poems reflected social realities extensively, for example, Nü Geng Tian Xing, Tun Dian Ci, Bian Cheng Qu, and Qu Fu Yuan. He inherited the tradition of new Yuefu titles introduced by Du Fu and directly inspired the new Yuefu poems of Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi. Li Yi (748 A.D.–829 A.D.), courtesy name Junyu, hailed from Guzang, Longxi (now Wuwei, Gansu Province). In the fourth year of Dali (769 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. In the sixth year of Dali, he passed an irregular examination hosted by the emperor and was appointed as assistant to the magistrate of Zhengxian, Huazhou. Later, he was transferred to deputy governor. He spent his prime of life in the army. Later, he was transferred to court and served as secretariat drafter, gentleman cavalier attendant, and minister of the Ministry of Rites from which he resigned. His long-term life experience in the army gave him a chance to well understand the life at the frontier. He was particularly accomplished in frontier poetry. For example, he wrote Sai Xia Qu, “Frontier soldiers should die on the battlefield and return buried in horsehide to defend the country like Ma Yuan, and they should not have to live and return home alive like Ban Chao. They should kill all the enemy and leave no runaway, and they should be left on the frontier to keep the enemy away”. The high spirit in this poem was reminiscent of the frontier poetry during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

2 The Poetry School of Han Yu and Meng Jiao: Grand and Obscure During the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Tang under the title of Yuanhe (806 A.D.–820 A.D.), Tang poetry ushered in the second creation peak after the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The poetry in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty as called by predecessors was mainly represented by

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the Yuanhe poetry circle and could be roughly divided into two schools, namely the grand and obscure school represented by Han Yu, Meng Jiao and slightly later Li He, and the plain and popular school represented by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi. Each of them developed their own style and took a new path of development. The Yuan-Bai poetry school will be discussed in the next section. This section focuses on the Han-Meng poetry school. Han Yu (768 A.D.–824 A.D.), courtesy name Tuizhi, hailed from Heyang, Henei (now Mengxian, Henan Province). His clan came from Changli, Hebei, so he was also known as Han Changli. In the eighth year of Zhenyuan, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. In the nineteenth year of Zhenyuan, he was relegated to the position of the magistrate of Yangshan because his memorial to the throne about a drought and famine disaster offended the powerful. In the twelfth year of Yuanhe (817 A.D.), he served as chief of staff to the chancellor Pei Du to pacify Huaixi and was promoted to be assistant minister of Ministry of Justice due to his military exploits. In the fourteenth year of Yuanhe, he irritated Emperor Xianzong because of his memorial about opposing the worship of a Buddhist bone and was relegated to the position of the governor of Chaozhou. When Emperor Muzong acceded to the throne, he was summoned to be imperial libationer. In the fourth year of Changqing, he resigned due to his ill-health and passed away before long. Han Yu was a leader of the ancient prose movement in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, and his poems were a great success. He had a great passion for the revival of Confucianism and Confucian orthodoxy. Full of the boldness for pursuit of ideals and a lofty and unyielding character against prevalent customs, his poems favored frightening, dangerous, and bizarre imagery arranged in a vigorous and unique style. Han Yu also often raised arguments in his poems. His poems also contained many playful verses that mocked his own situation. For example, the plain language and even slang in Two Poems on Mocking Snoring (Chao Han Shui Er Shou) and Meng Jiao Losing His Sons (Meng Jiao Shi Zi) and the physical details of illness in Falling Teeth (Luo Chi) and Presenting A Poem to Zhang Shiba (Bing Zhong Zeng Zhang Shi Ba) Written In Illness were fresh strokes. Han Yu’s poems cleared many new creative paths for later poets. For example, his poems influenced the poetry based on rhetoric, talent, and argument in the Song Dynasty. Meng Jiao (751 A.D.–814 A.D.), courtesy name Dongye, hailed from Wukang, Huzhou (now Deqing, Zhejiang Province). He was born in a poor family and was an upright man. At the age of forty-six, he became

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a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and began to serve as assistant to magistrate of Liyang. He spent his whole life on minor posts and was not good at dealing with political affairs. Meng Jiao was poor and miserable in his life, and his poems were dominated by bitter and sad self-laments for his life. He was known for his deliberation on poems, which was fused with his inner sorrow to form an obscure and secluded style. Literally, his deliberation often resulted in a sharp-pointed and fresh language and unique conception. Li He (790 A.D.–816 A.D.), courtesy name Changji, hailed from Changgu, Fuchang (now Yiyang County, Henan Province). He was a descendant of the imperial family of the Tang Dynasty, so he often called himself “the grandson of Tang kings”, “the grandson of the emperor”, and “the grandson of kings”. His father, Li Jinsu, had been a county magistrate. Because his father’s name “Jin” sounded similar to “Jin” in “jinshi” (meaning a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), Li He could not take the imperial examinations in order to avoid taboo. He only ended up as sacrificial attendant, a nine-grade official, via the merits of his ancestors. Before long, he resigned due to illness and died in his hometown at the age of twenty-seven. He showed his talent at a young age. When Li He was eighteen years old, he brought his poems to visit Han Yu, who appreciated him after reading his first poem, Song of Goose Gate’s Governor (Yan Men Tai Shou Xing). He was a young man with great ambitions. However, not allowed to take the imperial examinations, he was unable to realize his ideals. He relieved his great disappointment and pain through poetry. Li He’s poems were written from negative angles such as death and aging to express his tragic feelings of almost despair about life. He was also good at superimposing a cold and gloomy atmosphere with flowery and colorful rhetoric to accentuate pathos and sorrow. He also liked to express his unique feelings through special rhetorical devices, which are summarized by modern scholars as synesthesia. Liu Yuxi and Liu Zongyuan were also important poets in the poetry circle during the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. Their poetic styles differed from those of the Han-Meng and Yuan-Bai poetry schools. Because of their close relationships with Han Yu, they are discussed in this section. Liu Yuxi (772 A.D.–842 A.D.), courtesy name Mengde, hailed from Luoyang (now Luoyang, Henan Province). He experienced many ups and downs and was relegated for a long time after the failure of Yongzhen Reform. His inner disillusionment was more than flesh and

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blood could stand. Nevertheless, he was not overwhelmed by such pain, and part of him was unyielding. During the extended period of relegation, Liu Yuxi was also influenced by folk songs and composed many excellent works of the folk song style such as Willow Branch (Yang Liu Zhi), Bamboo Branch Song (Zhu Zhi Ci), Sand-Sifting Waves (Lang Tao Sha), Walking on the Embankment (Di Shang Xing), Chanting (Ta Ge Ci) and Walking on a Slash-and-Burn Farmland (She Tian Xing). Liu Zongyuan (772 A.D.–819 A.D.), courtesy name Zihou, hailed from Xiexian, Hedong (now Yuncheng County, Shanxi Province), and hence he was known as Liu Hedong. Liu Zongyuan was a representative figure of the ancient prose movement during the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. His achievements in ancient prose are discussed in the following section. Most of his poems were written when he was demoted to Yongzhou. Liu Zongyuan was a depressed man, and his depression was aggravated by his deep contemplation and perceptions of social and human affairs. He could only pour his anger about current affairs and his self-laments for his life into his poems. As a result, his poems were very profound in that they were about the mental torment of a hundred worries and the lonely state of mind. These two elements were often interwoven together, shaping the unique style of his poems. Liu Zongyuan, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, and Wei Yingwu were known as four great poets of landscape and idyllic poetry. The most important characteristic of his poems was that they looked withered and dry outside but were rich inside and that they appeared plain but were in fact beautiful. His landscape and idyllic poems were well versed in expressing the realm of loneliness and nobleness and venting spiritual anguish and misery.

3

Yuan-Bai Poetry School: Prioritizing Daily Life Over Official Manner

The Yuan-Bai poetry school was formed later than the Han-Meng poetry school. Poets of this school emphasized a popular, frank, and easy language and artistically they were realistic, which made them significantly different from the Han-Meng school. Bai Juyi (772 A.D.–846 A.D.), courtesy name Letian, had his ancestral home in Taiyuan and later moved to Xiagui (now Weinan, Shaanxi Province). He was born in Xinzheng, Henan (now Xinzheng County, Henan Province). In the sixteenth year of Zhenyuan (800 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. From

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the third year to the fifth year of Yuanhe, he was appointed as adviser to the emperor and erudite of the Imperial Academy. During this period, Bai Juyi was passionate about politics and was active in offering advice to the emperor. He submitted many memorials to the throne, discussing the current politics, and wrote a large number of satirical poems, including the famous ten poems of Shaanxi Songs (Qin Zhong Yin) and the fifty poems of New Yuefu (Xin Yue Fu). In the tenth year of Yuanhe (815 A.D.), he was the first one to petition for urgent arrest of a thief who robbed and killed the chancellor Wu Yuanheng, but he was relegated to the post of secretary of Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province) on the charge of overstepping his duties and for some unwarranted charge. This was a great blow to him. From then on, he began to “focus on his own moral uplift without thought of others”. He died in the sixth year of Huichang (846 A.D.). Bai Juyi thought maturely about the creation of new Yuefu works. In this regard, he particularly advocated truthfulness. He maintained that only when the content was “verifiable to be true”, would it be “believable via word of mouth” (Preface to the Fifty Poems of New Yuefu (Xin Yue Fu Wu Shi Shou Xu)). The fifty poems of New Yuefu were written in the fourth year of Yuanhe and were largely revised and finalized in the seventh year of Yuanhe. This group of poems was written with a clear purpose and covered an extremely wide range of topics, including kingly enlightenment, ritual and music, appointment of sages, border affairs, and court ladies. They reflected many social issues. The long lyrical narrative poems The Everlasting Regret and Song of the Lute Player (Pi Pa Xing) were masterpieces of Bai Juyi’s poetry art. The Everlasting Regret was written in the first year of Yuanhe (806 A.D.), and it was an ode to the romance between Emperor Ming of Tang and Concubine Yang. The writer set the love story of the imperial family in the historical context of the An Shi Rebellion, expressing strong feelings for the differences between the present and the past and the sorrow for the change from prosperity to decline. The second half of the poem was about Concubine Yang on the immortal mountain, sending a token and reaffirming her vow. She was portrayed as a kind and faithful woman who was exceptionally devoted to love. Her action echoed Emperor Xuanzong of Tang’s lovesick pain in every long night. Their love was described as exceptionally pure and beautiful. However, their love was completely destroyed. Even respectively as an emperor and an immortal, their regret knew no end. The boundless sky and endless earth might pass away, but

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this vow unfulfilled would be regretted forever. This was not common lovesick pain, but destruction of beauty. Song of the Lute Player was written in the poet’s residence in Jiangzhou after his demotion in the eleventh year of Yuanhe (816 A.D.). Through personal experience, the poet described a pipa (Chinese lute) player who “grew old and became a merchant’s wife”. The poet associated the fate of the lute player with his demotion and lamented “We are both ill-starred, drifting on the face of the earth”. In this poem, the portrayal of the lute player’s voice, demeanor and character was very artful; the setting provided a wonderful background; and the lament for life experience was particularly touching. Bai Juyi’s poems were smooth, plain, and widely popular. They were called “Bai Letian’s style” (“Bai Le Tian Ti”). Yuan Zhen commented, “No other poems have been as popular as Bai Juyi’s poems since literature was born” (Preface to Anthology of Bai Letian (Bai Shi Chang Qing Ji Xu)). Bai Juyi wrote self-conceitedly in Nine Principles of Poetry Writing, “For a trip of three to four thousand meters from Chang’an to Jiangxi, my poems are found in all local schools, Buddhist temples, guest houses and boats, and my poems are often chanted by ordinary people, monks, widows and young girls”. Later, his compositions were spread to Korea and Japan, which made him an extensively influential poet in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. Yuan Zhen (779 A.D.–831 A.D.), courtesy name Weizhi, hailed from Henan (now Luoyang City, Henan Province). In the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793 A.D.), he passed the imperial examination on Confucian classics at the age of sixteen. Ten years later, together with Bai Juyi, he passed the imperial examination on the subject of Confucian classics argumentation and laws. In the first year of Yuanhe (806 A.D.), together with Bai Juyi, he passed the irregular examination hosted by emperor and was appointed as adviser to the emperor. Later, he was transferred to investigating censor. He dared to expose current malpractices in the early days of his career and was thus demoted to the post of logistics officer in Jiangling. Later, he was transferred to prefect of Tongzhou and then served as chancellor in the second year of Changqing under the recommendation of the eunuchs Cui Tanjun and Wei Hongjian. Later, due to discord with another chancellor Pei Du, he was deposed as governor of Tongzhou four months later. Afterward, he served as the governor of Zhedong and the military commander of the Wuchang army. He died during his tenure in Wuchang. Yuan Zhen advocated the composition of Yuefu poems and practiced what he advocated. For example, A Shut-in Maid at Shang Yang Palace

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(Shang Yang Bai Fa Ren) described the suffering of a court maid shut in the palace. Sogdian Whirl Dancer (Hu Xuan Nv) satirized the emperor’s lust for pleasure and the courtiers’ flattering and blamed the crisis and chaos of the country on them. The Merchant’s Joy (Gu Ke Le) expressed deep dissatisfaction with the unscrupulous merchants who were interested in profits only and ran amok in society. Different from Bai Juyi’s new Yuefu poems that portrayed vivid artistic images, these poems tended to be more conceptualized. Many of them did not focus on the theme and were not as artistically successful as Bai Juyi’s new Yuefu poems. In addition to the Yuefu poems, Yuan Zhen also left behind many works of great sentimentality such as Three Poems of Elegy (Qian Bei Huai San Shou) for remembrance of his deceased wife. The emotions conveyed in the poem were sincere and simple, and the antithesis employed was steady and natural. Yuan Zhen also wrote many poems expressing his care for his friends and his thoughts on the prosperity and decline of history.

4

Ancient Prose Movement

During the period of Zhenyuan (785 A.D.–805 A.D.) and Yuanhe (806 A.D.–820 A.D.) in the Tang Dynasty, a large number of writers, represented by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, strongly advocated and composed ancient prose. They stirred a writing style reform of far-reaching influence, which was usually called the “Ancient Prose Movement” (“Gu Wen Yun Dong”). Ancient prose was a concept opposite to modern prose. The latter referred to the parallel prose popular in the society during the Tang Dynasty, while the former referred to the prose writing characterized by non-antithetical and nonparallel sentences passed down from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties. The Ancient Prose Movement occurred under a profound political and social background and due to deep-rooted ideological and cultural motives. After the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty shifted from prosperity to decline. Many men of letters who were alert to potential risks and had a deep sense of social responsibility urgently demanded a social reform to save the Tang dynasty from decay. Under the ideological and cultural background, it was believed that the decline of Confucianism was the cause of various problems in society, for example, the failure of the ruling principles, the feudal separatist rules, the corruption of officials, and the frivolousness and superficiality of scholars. The call for revival of Confucianism reached an unprecedented height during this period. The

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Ancient Prose Movement mirrored the profound demand for political change and the revival of Confucianism. Han Yu clearly put forward the proposition that “prose is the vehicle of ideas”. “When a gentleman takes a position, he thinks of dying for his duty; when he is not given a position, he thinks of articulating his ideas through well-conceived rhetoric. I will articulate my ideas. Rhetoric should be well conceived to articular ideas” (On Remonstrative Ministers (Zheng Chen Lun)). Liu Zongyuan also wrote clearly in Da Wei Zhong Li Lun Shi Dao Shu, “When I was young, I thought that I could show my talent by making my prose look and sound gorgeous; when I was older, I realized that prose is the vehicle of ideas”. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan expected to change realities by reviving Confucianism. Their great passion about attacking the evils of the time and reviving Confucianism was shown in their ancient prose writings. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan emphasized ideas, but they did not take prose lightly. They both advocated the importance of combining prose with ideas and linked the proposition that “prose is the vehicle of ideas” with the complaint about injustice. Han Yu inherited the spirit of Qu Yuan to vent his emotions in compositions and the spirit of Sima Qian to relieve his humiliation by writing books. He put forward the creative view that “People will express their thoughts and opinions when they encounter injustice” (Preface to A Poem Composed on Seeing off Meng Dongye (Song Yu Dong Ye Xu)), and he associated the proposition that “prose is the vehicle of ideas” with the exposure and criticism of social reality. Liu Zongyuan also clearly stated, “The function of prose is to communicate ideas, to praise good and criticize evil, to guide praise and to admonish euphemistically” (Yang Ping Shi Wen Ji Hou Xu). His compositions were made under the proposition that “A freely cursing composition is more effective than an angry face and a sorrowful song is more sincere than a good cry” after his demotion vented his protest for the social reality and greatly enriched the lyrical connotation of ancient prose. Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan placed great emphasis on the attainment of the writer himself. In other words, they emphasized the influence of the writer’s mind, personality, temperament, character, and other inner spiritual forces on literary creation. Han Yu maintained that “When a writer has a high level of moral cultivation, he or she will be able to speak and write appropriately, regardless of the length of words or the tone of voice”. As reflected in his prose writings, his writing style was vigorous, his wording impressive and his emotions strong. For example, in Memorial on Bone-relics of the Buddha

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(Lun Fo Gu Biao), he directly criticized Emperor Xianzong’s obsession with Buddhism and denounced the Buddhist bone as “a filthy object”. He criticized Emperor Xianzong’s obsession with Buddhism as “corrupting public morals, being laughingstock of the country, and not being treated as a trivial matter”. He said the bone “should be handed over to the proper officials for destruction by water and fire to eradicate forever its origin”. Han Yu wrote this prose when an obsession with Buddhism swept the court. He could have offended the emperor and was thus threatened to death. However, he pressed forward with an indomitable will. His boldness and courage were well beyond ordinary people. His argumentation writings were equally touching with his boldness and imposing manner in fighting against the prevalent customs. For example, in response to the social climate of being ashamed of learning from teachers among the scholarly class at that time, his prose On Teaching (Shi Shuo) argued for the necessity of learning from teachers, and he asserted that “What I desire to learn is the doctrine”. His statement that “A strong-willed person who is not constrained by others can be a teacher for others to learn from” caused a great controversy among the prevalent customs. This prose reflected his courage to go straight ahead. The imposing manner in his prose stemmed from his deep emotions and strong feelings. For example, in Preface to A Poem Composed on Seeing off Dong Shaonan (Song Dong Shao Nan Xu), he lamented that Dong Shaonan had no way to advance in his career and had to leave his hometown to seek his fortune in the separatist regime of Hebei. The writer was reluctant to see his friend involved in the separatist regime, yet he felt helpless about his friend’s unsuccessful fate in the dynasty that “an emperor claimed to have keen intelligence and excellent judgment”. The prose was full of modulations in tone and hesitated on a second thought. A strong pathos was shrouded in anger and depression about affairs of human life. His famous prose An Elegiac Address to Shierlang (Ji Shi Er Lang Wen) was a profound expression of sadness about life via the death of a loved one. Han Yu emphasized that “Obsolete words and expressions must be eliminated”. At the same time, he also emphasized “readable and fluent quality of prose”. Under this guideline, his writing language was extremely expressive. For example, The Epitaph of Liu Zihou (Liu Zi Hou Mu Zhi Ming) conveyed the writer’s complex emotions in an undulating and inflectional style and a clear and lucid language. Han Yu was also very good at integrating the language art of parallel prose into his prose

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compositions. He also created many vivid phrases, some of which have been used by later generations for a long time as idioms, for example, “Achievement is founded on diligence and wasted upon recklessness”, “greedy of much and determined to meet one’s desires”, “rejecting nothing, big or small”, “on the horns of a dilemma”, “extremely lonely”, “scraping the dirt off an object and making it shine”, “studying and relishing the beauties of literature”, “liable to be blamed at every move”, “expressing the subtlety tactfully and finely”, “constantly striving to become stronger”, “a hundredweight hanging by a hair”, “hustling about trying to make some profits”, and “poking oneself in the room”. Han Yu’s prose was very good at narrative description and portrayed many vivid literary images. Liu Zongyuan was an outstanding thinker and politician during the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. Different from Han Yu’s rejection of Buddhism and Taoism, he welcomed these two schools of thought and tried to unify Confucianism and Buddhism, with Confucianism as the mainstream. He sought to “keep up with the times” and was strongly concerned with reality. He actively participated in the Yongzhen Reform. After his deportation, especially in Liuzhou, he also implemented some social reforms within his ability, which benefited the country, the people, and the locality. In his Preface to A Poem Composed on Seeing off Xue Cunyi (Song Xue Cun Yi Xu), he proposed the idea that “The government is the servant of the people”. In The Snake Catcher (Bu She Zhe Shuo), he criticized the tyrannical government. In Biography of Tree Planter Guo Tuotuo (Zhong Shu Guo Tuo Tuo Zhuan), he criticized the government officials for disturbing the people. All of these words and actions manifested Liu Zongyuan’s spiritual pursuit. In his early years, Liu Zongyuan was good at writing parallel prose. After he was demoted to Yongzhou, he shifted to concentrate on ancient prose writing and was also well versed in argumentation, fables, travelogues, and biographies. Although his argumentation was not as magnificent and unrestrained as Han Yu’s, they were insightful and logical, developing into a concise, powerful, and undeniable style. On Feudalism (Feng Jian Lun) was a representative of his political treatises. This prose firmly affirmed the system of prefectures and counties and denied feudalism. The argument was flawless, and the prose demonstrated profound theoretical and critical thinking skills. Liu Zongyuan’s fables were well-structured and philosophical. His representative fables included San Jie, Fu Ban Zhuan, Pi Shuo, and Bian Jia. San Jie consisted of three

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fables about elk, donkey, and mouse to satirize those who lacked selfknowledge, who had a swelled head, and who threw their weight around. Obviously, this group of fables carried the writer’s profound and realistic sentiments about life. Artistically, all of them were concise in language and were good at capturing details to portray spirit. Liu Zongyuan’s travel prose could be reputed as a miracle of ancient travel prose in China. When Liu Zongyuan was demoted to Yongzhou, he often relieved his inner pain by traveling and composed many travel prose writings. The scenery in Yongzhou did not really heal his inner trauma. He once told someone that he wandered in mountains and waters to disguise his sorrow. Beneath the superficial ease was a good cry from within. Liu Zongyuan also made remarkable achievements in biographical literature. His representative biographies included Biography of Tree Planter Guo Tuotuo, Biography of A Carpenter (Zi Ren Zhuan), Biography of Song Qing (Song Qing Zhuan), Biography of the Kid Ou Ji (Tong Ou Ji Zhuan), Biography of An Unchaste Woman (He Jian Fu Zhuan), and Anecdotes of Officer Duan (Duan Tai Wei Yi Shi Zhuang). Although these works were inspired by historical biographies, they were written with much progress and more flexibility. Liu Zongyuan and Han Yu were the advocates of the Ancient Prose Movement in the Tang Dynasty, and they were good friends and literary confidants. Although they had different literary styles and did not necessarily share the same political views, they made great contributions to the Ancient Prose Movement in the Tang Dynasty. During the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, there were numerous writers of ancient prose. Those who were peers of or slightly older than Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan included Quan Deyu, Liu Yuxi, Ouyang Zhan, Li Guan, Zhang Ji, Lü Wen, Bai Juyi, and Yuan Zhen. They were all writers of ancient prose and contributed to the prosperity of the Ancient Prose Movement. In addition, Han Yu’s disciples such as Li Ao, Huangfu Shi, Shen Yazhi, Fan Zongshi, and Sun Qiao also learned from Han Yu consciously and developed their own characteristics in the creation of ancient prose.

5

Curious Legends in the Tang Dynasty

In the Tang dynasty, a new style of ancient novels called legends emerged. Legends in the Tang Dynasty were clearly different from the phantastic novels and character sketches (anecdotal novels) that had been developed

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previously. First, they were products of literati’s “curiosity” and “fantasybased creation”. They were conscious creations born from imagination, fiction, and invention of storyline rather than a factual account of anecdotes. Secondly, legendary novels tended to provide elaborate narration with rich rhetoric embellishments, complex plots, and diverse characters. These features were not fully developed in phantastic and anecdotal novels. The emergence of legends in the Tang Dynasty marked a new level of classical Chinese novels. The prosperity of legends in the Tang Dynasty was attributed to a deep social reason. The rapid development of urban economy in the Tang Dynasty led to economically flourishing metropolises such as Chang’an, Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Chengdu. Prosperous characters and colorful social life provided rich materials for the creation of novels. In addition, the practices of “xingjuan” (meaning that before taking the examination, a candidate submitted his writing to a dignitary to ask for recommendation) and “wenjuan” (meaning the candidate submitted his writing to the dignitary on a later day again) had some influence on the prosperity of legends in the Tang Dynasty. Recommendation was a prevailing practice in the imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty. Scholars often submitted their poems and other writings to princes and nobles before taking the examinations, hoping to let their literary talent be appreciated and spread their reputation so that they had better chance of passing the examinations. This practice was called “xingjuan” at that time. Legends incorporated a wide range of styles, including history editing, poetic writing, and argumentation. Therefore, they were used by exam takers as submissions in “xingjuan” and “wenjuan”. This could be a reason for the prosperity of legends. During the Tang Dynasty, the society was open and embraced diverse thoughts and cultures. Buddhism and Taoism were widely popular. The reincarnation theory of Buddhism and the immortal world of Taoism both stimulated the imagination of the Tang people. The belief in folk spirits was also developed in the civil society. As a say went, “No village existed without fox demons” (Fox Fairy (Hu Shen), Vol. 44 of Extensive Records of the Taiping (Tai Ping Guang Ji). Influenced by this social climate, some of the legends in the Tang Dynasty “advertised ghosts and spirits and praised supernatural power” (A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (Zhong Guo Xiao Shuo Shi Lve), Vol. 5). The development of legends in the Tang Dynasty was divided into three stages. The early and heyday of the Tang Dynasty marked the transition from phantastic and anecdotal novels in the Six Dynasties to

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mature legends in the Tang Dynasty, when legends were few and artistically immature. They were mostly about spirits, ghosts, and supernatural events, but they were created for a purpose different from the phantastic novels in the Six Dynasties. Instead of proving the truthfulness of sayings about spirits and deities and fortune and disasters, they were mainly intended to show the writer’s humor. Wang Du’s A Story of the Ancient Mirror (Gu Jing Ji) and Zhang Zhuo’s Journey to the Fairy Grotto (You Xian Ku) were representatives. The middle years of the Tang Dynasty marked the prosperity of legends. From the reign of Emperor Dezong to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, many famous writers emerged to be shining stars. The subjects of legends included love, history, politics, wandering knights, fantasy, and immortality. About forty types of legends have survived since the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. The excellent representatives included Chen Xuanyou’s Lost Souls (Li Hun Ji), Shen Jiji’s Ren, the Fox Fairy (Ren Shi Zhuan), Li Chaowei’s Biography of Liu Yi (Liu Yi Zhuan), Bai Xingjian’s Biography of Li Wa, Yuan Zhen’s Biography of Ying Ying (Ying Ying Zhuan), and Jiang Fang’s Biography of Huo Xiaoyu (Huo Xiao Yu Zhuan). Legends in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty also satirized society by means of fables and fantasy. The most famous legends in this respect were Pillow Story (Zhen Zhong Ji) and The Legend of Governor Nan Ke (Nan Ke Tai Shou Zhuan). These two works compared the disillusion of dreams to the illusion of fame and wealth and satirized scholars who were greedy for fame and wealth. They were a mixture of reality and fantasy and were written in a flexible stroke. Later, “pipe dream” and “fond dream” became popular allusions. In general, legends in the Tang Dynasty made remarkable artistic achievements, thanks to their vivid and complicated plots and bizarre ideas. The characters were well portrayed with great skills. As a whole, many of the legends created profound artistic conception and deeply impressed readers with their amazing and gorgeous beauty. The legends in the Tang Dynasty marked a critical step of novels toward an independent literary genre and had a profound influence on the novel art of later generations.

CHAPTER 18

Literature in the Late Years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties Liu Ning

The period from the reign of Emperor Muzong under the title of Changqing to the end of the Tang Dynasty (821 A.D.–907 A.D.) represented the late years of the Tang Dynasty. During reign of Emperor Muzong under the title of Changqing, the new poetry reform in the Yuanhe period declined from climax. After a short period of Yuanhe Resurgence, the Tang Dynasty was in full decline. During the late years of the dynasty, the separatist regimes, the dictatorship of eunuchs, party struggles, and other conflicts intensified, leading to continuous wars and turmoil and social unrest. Poetry during this time evolved in two periods. One was from the Changqing period to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong under the title of Dazhong, and the other was from the reign of Emperor Yizong under the title of Xiantong to the end of the Tang Dynasty. During the former period, there were active poets like Jia Dao and Yao He and successful poets like Du Mu and Li Shangyin in the poetry circle. In the latter period, the poetry circle was in full decline. Because the poetic style in the former period was inherited as the mainstream in this period,

L. Ning (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Paris, France e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_18

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it was called by some literary historians as the end of the Tang Dynasty. There was little innovation in the poetry circle during the Five Dynasties, and the separatist regimes also led to regional differences in poetic style. In the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, ci, as an emerging literary genre, developed further, and great masters like Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang, and Li Yu appeared.

1

Deliberate and Refreshing Poetic Styles

Jia Dao and Yao He began to enjoy poetic fame in the late Yuanhe period, but they spent quite some time composing poems after the Changqing period. Jia Dao died in the middle of the Huichang period, and Yao He died in the Dazhong period. The poetic style they pioneered had a great influence in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, it is more appropriate to list them among poets in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Jia Dao (779 A.D.–855? A.D.), courtesy name Langxian, hailed from Fanyang (now in Beijing). He was initially a Buddhist monk called Wuben. Later, he came to Luoyang and met Han Yu, who taught him writing. He resumed secular life. He took the imperial examinations and failed several times. Finally, he passed the imperial examinations and served as deputy governor of Changjiang (now Pengxi County, Sichuan Province). Later, he was transferred to warehouse inspector of Puzhou (now Anyue County, Sichuan Province). He eventually died on this post. Jia Dao was famous for his deliberation on poems. His wulü poems were most distinctive, which were mostly about homesickness, temples, and lonely guesthouses, with lonely and isolated atmosphere accentuated by the sluggish and cold environment. Jia Dao often employed emotionally bleak images such as “cold spring”, “cold bones”, “cold swan goose”, “broken houses”, and “lonely swan goose”. In order to enhance the effect, such images were often used repeatedly in the same poem, for example, “The cold dew disappears on the lonely island, and the night dew drops in the empty city” (Song Wei Qiong Jiao Shu), “The cold bones of a lone crane are towering; the tall fir echoes with the soft breeze” (Qiu Ye Yang Huai Qian Meng Er Gong Qin Ke Hui), and “The fireflies emerge from the withered trees; the grasshoppers hide in the broken steps” (Ji Hu Yu). Yao He (775? A.D.–855? A.D.) hailed from Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang Province). He was the great grandnephew of the chancellor

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Yao Chong. During the eleventh year of Yuanhe (816 A.D.), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and was appointed as deputy governor of Wugong. In the fourteenth year of Yuanhe (819 A.D.), he served as assistant to magistrate of Fuping and Waniang. During the Baoli period, he was appointed as investigating censor and court censor. Later, he served as deputy minister of the Ministry of Household Registration, governor of Jinchuan, and deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Household Registration. In the ninth year of Dahe (835 A.D.), he served as governor of Hangzhou. In the fourth year of Kaicheng (839 A.D.), he served as governor of Shanguo from August. During the Huichang period, he served as secretary supervisor. Yao He’s wulü poems mainly expressed deep feelings and savored the leisurely interest in ordinary life. They were artistically unromantic and subtle. The contents of these poems were mostly about scenery, garden landscape, and courtyards. He rarely employed strange images and was good at depicting scenery in plain language. In the poetry circle during the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, a large number of poets continued the career of Jia Dao and Yao He to create wulü poems. Among them, Fang Gan, Li Pin, Cao Song, Zhang Qiao, Xu Tang, and Li Dong were representatives, whose poems were influenced by Yao He. In the late years of the Tang Dynasty, there were some poets good at qilü poems. They created an ethereal atmosphere in the poems with flowery language and developed a refreshing and sentimental poetic style. Xu Hun, Du Mu, Zhang Hu, Zhao Gu, Li Qunyu, and Liu Cang were representative poets in the early period during this time, among whom Xu Hun and Du Mu were the most accomplished poets. Du Mu was one of the most accomplished poets in the late years of the Tang Dynasty and had profound artistic attainments, which will be discussed in the following section. Xu Hun (791? A.D.–858? A.D.), courtesy name Yonghui, was a descendant of Xu Yushi, a chancellor of Emperor Gaozong. His clan came from Anlu, Hubei Province, and his family lived in Luoyang when he was young. During the ninth and tenth years of Yuanhe, when Pinghuaixi battle just broke out and Wu Yuanji’s army disturbed Henan, he and his family moved to Hunan. In about the early years of the Changqing period, they moved to Jiangnan and settled down in a villa in the Dingmao ravine bridge in the southern suburb of Jingkou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province), where he compiled his poetry anthology, called

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Dingmao Anthology. He composed about five hundred and twenty poems. Xu Hun’s poems were informative, most of which were metrical pattern poems of wulü and qilü. They created a refreshing atmosphere, expressed sorrowful and sentimental feelings, and formed a personalized artistic style. His poems recalling antiquity were the most special. Xu Hun paid much attention to polishing word by word and provided neat and natural antithetical parallelism. In terms of level and oblique tones, Xu Hun was well versed in rhyme scheme and applied the tonic rule correctly with level and oblique tones in agreement. Sometimes he also composed poems with irregular rhymes, which developed into a unique style called “Dingmao text” by predecessors. For example, “I have a hearty drink at my friend’s home by a green window under the moon; the poem I left on the red wall last year is still visible though it was wet by rain” (Zai You Gu Su Yu Zhi Guan); and “The scripture box was soaked with dew, words obscure; the lit incense shaped into a character gradually disappears under the breeze” (Ti Ling Shan Si Xing Jian Shi Yuan). In terms of representation theme, Xu Hun was good at writing about water. People in the early years of the Song Dynasty commented, “Xu Hun wrote one thousand poems about water” (Tong Jiang Shi Hua as Introduction to Previous Anthology of Shao Xi Yu Yin Cong Hua). For example, in Ling Xiao Tai Song Wei Xiu Cai, “The clouds rise from the platform before the sun sinks; rays of the setting sun cast rocks in several villages half into shade. The wild silkworms have finished their cocoons and consumed the mulberry; the birds in the stream lead their fledglings to the depth of barnyard grass. The boat sails farther and farther into the distant waters; the bell sound comes nearer and near through the forest. My old friend leaves our hometown; we become thousands of miles apart at this moonlit night”. Xu Hun’s poems were highly influential in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Wei Zhuang praised them in his poem, “Xu Hun, a talented poet from Jiangnan, writes every word refreshing and every sentence surprising. His talent cannot be measured by ten vessels of jewels, but Huixiu’s poems about parting have faded” (Ti Xu Hun Shi Juan).

2

Junior Li-Du

Du Mu and Li Shangyin were the most accomplished poets in the poetry circle during the late years of the Tang Dynasty. They were together called “Junior Li-Du” by later generations.

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Du Mu (803 A.D.–852 A.D.), courtesy name Muzhi, hailed from Wannian, Jingzhao (now Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province). His grandfather, Du You, was a famous chancellor in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. His father’s untimely death put the family in straitened circumstances. Du Mu became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination in the second year of the Dahe period (828 A.D.) and served as an aid to generals in Jiangxi, Huainan, and Xuanshe for nearly ten years. Compared with the poets in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty and the Yuanhe poets in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, Du Mu did not make remarkable progress in poetic art, but he still added many new highlights to the art of Tang poetry. Poets in the late years of the Tang Dynasty were generally narrow-minded and confined to a small range of subject matters and limited styles. However, Du Mu was good at different styles and was able to write excellent poems and prose. He was critical of the bias of Yuanhe poems in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, disagreeing on the obscurity inclination of Han Yu and Meng Jiao. He also frowned on the plainness of the Yuanbai school. His poems showed concern about reality. For example, Jun Zhai Du Zhuo reflected the reality of people’s suffering and expressed the desire to eliminate the separatist regimes and recover the lost territories. To the Early Wild Geese (Zao Yan) (The foe shoots arrows on frontier in autumn day) expressed the deep concern for the people who escaped to the south in panic due to the southward invasion of the Uyghur by entrusting such concern to imagery. Du Mu’s poems were magnificent in structure and cheerful in mood. For example, Mountain Trip (Shan Xing) (“Winding up the chilly hills is a path with stony steps”) depicted the splendid scenery in autumn without a trace of sadness. He also had some bright and vivid poems showing common scenery. For example, in Backyard Pool in Qi’An Prefecture, a Quatrain (Qi An Jun Hou Chi Jue Ju), he wrote “Water chestnuts break duckweeds to green the brocade pool; summer orioles warble in profuse strains to tease the rose. Day ends, and no one bothers to enjoy the light rain, while the mandarin ducks in their red coats bathe face to face”. This poem portrayed a lush summer atmosphere in bright and beautiful colors. These poems stood out in the sentimental and gloomy poetry circle in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Artistically, Du Mu’s ancient poems were influenced by Han Yu’s, and he was good at narration, expression of personal feelings and argumentation. His verses were lean but powerful. He made more remarkable achievements in metrical verses and quatrains, especially qilü and qijue (a four-line poem with seven characters to a line).

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His poems of these two genres outlined a picture or expressed a deep and restrained sentiment in just two or four lines, adding much more colors to the poetry circle in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shangyin (812 A.D.–858 A.D.), courtesy name Yishan, art name Yuxisheng or Fannansheng, had his ancestral home in Henei, Huaizhou (now Qinyang County, Henan Province) and moved to Zhengzhou (now Zhengzhou, Henan Province) from his grandfather’s generation. Deeply influenced by Confucianism, Li Shangyin was concerned about the fate of the country throughout his life. Although he was let down and frustrated under the oppression caused by party struggles, his integrity and uprightness remained intact. When he was fifteen or sixteen years old, he studied Taoism on Mount Yuyang and paid much attention to Buddhist principles. Many of his poems boldly exposed social crises. For example, One Hundred Verses on The Expedition to The Western Suburbs (Xing Ci Xi Jiao Zuo Yi Bai Yun) truly depicted the desolation and people’s suffering in the Western suburbs of Beijing. In the winter of the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Wenzong under the title of Taihe (835 A.D.), the Ganlu Incident occurred. Next year, Li Shangyin wrote Two Poems on Feelings (You Gan Er Shou), Feelings That Do Not Go Away (Chong You Gan), and Qu River (Qu Jiang) to bitterly criticize the eunuchs’ usurpation of power and rebellion. At that time, deterred by the aggressive eunuchs, many scholars remained silent. However, Li Shangyin showed rare courage to clearly show his attitude. Due to his frustration in political career, his poems often showed thick sentimentality, and some of his poems mirrored the withering times in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. For example, he famously wrote Ascending the Leyou Height (Deng Le You Yuan), “Feeling indisposed and listless at dusk, I drove my chariot to an ancient height. The setting sun looks glorious indeed, only it is so close to night”. Stirred by the setting sun, the poet felt lost and upset, which symbolized the terminal decline of the Tang Dynasty in its late years. Li Shangyin’s poems on history were highly respected by later generations. They carried both the profound intention to learn from history and deep emotions, and they were artistically emotional and thoughtful, representing the best poems on history in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. His chanting poems not only revealed the form of the chanted object in detail, but also conveyed his own feelings about his own life. These poems were combinations of description of objects and expression of emotions. There were fourteen poems titled “without a title” (“wu ti”) that could be recognized to be composed by Li Shangyin. In addition, many of his

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poems, as researchers put it, were called similarly untitled, quasi-untitled, or broadly untitled poems. In terms of content, these poems were basically related to love. They blended the understanding of life and fate into the experience of love and profoundly expressed the tragic experience of romantic disillusionment. He was very close to his wife Wang, and many of his poems were written to her, which, of course, were not limited to untitled poems. After his wife passed away, Li Shangyin wrote many mourning poems. Artistically, these untitled poems were fivecharacter ancient poems, seven-character ancient poems, wulü poems, qilü poems and qijue poems, which were embedded with emotions and thoughts. The poet did not particularly recount specific romantic experiences, but focused on his inner feelings. Li Shangyin was good at using allusions from classics, historical texts, myths, and legends. He used them in comparison or in contrast, or deduced new meanings based on the connotations of the original allusions. For example, in The Towers of Anding City (An Ding Cheng Lou), four allusions appeared in eight lines, and they were relevant and excellently employed. The extensive use of allusions enriched the conception of his poems, highlighted their themes and supported more skillful expression of emotions and description of objects.

3 Poetry During the Age of Decadence in the End of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties After the reign of Emperor Yizong under the title of Xiantong, the Tang dynasty declined rapidly, with intensified social contradictions, continuous wars, and turmoil of current affairs sweeping across the dynasty. During this period, the literature circle shrank in all respects. Poems were written either to show ridicule and resentment of current affairs or to express sadness and sentiment about the chaotic world. Writers like Luo Yin, Pi Rixiu, and Lu Guimeng wrote essays to denounce the dark reality. Compositions created in the Five Dynasties were mostly narrow-minded imitations. Wei Zhuang, Zheng Gu, and Han Wo were influential poets in the end of the Tang Dynasty. Artistically, Wei Zhuang and Zheng Gu were mostly influenced by Xu Hun and Du Mu, while Han Wo’s works were more similar to those of Li Shangyin and Wen Tingyun. Wei Zhuang (836?

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A.D.–910 A.D.), courtesy name Duanji, hailed from Duling, Chang’an (now the southeast of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province). He was the fourthgeneration grandson of Wei Yingwu, a poet in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. At the first year of Guangming (880 A.D.), he took the imperial examinations in Chang’an. Wei Zhuang often satirized and criticized the dark reality. For example, he wrote Xian Tong to recall the befuddled life of members of the imperial family during the Xiantong period after the rebel Huang Chao broke into the capital and caused a great turmoil that forced the imperial family to relocate. After Huang Chao’s rebels captured Chang’an, Wei Zhuang wrote a long poem called Qin Fu Yin from the perspective of a woman who escaped from Chang’an, which described the process of Huang Chao leading his rebels to capture Chang’an, founding a state and claiming the throne, fighting with the Tang army repeatedly for Chang’an, eventually being besieged in the city and running out of food. The poem, with one thousand six hundred and sixty-six characters, was one of the longest surviving Tang poems. It focused on a great social disaster caused by war and chaos, truly reflecting the social disaster that plunged the people into an abyss of misery and deprived the country of prosperity. It was a representative poem expressing the sadness of a troubled world in the end of the Tang Dynasty. Having been lost for a long time, it was rediscovered in the Dunhuang Grottoes in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1900 A.D.).1 Wei Zhuang also wrote some gexing poems about romance. These writings were written in flamboyant language, for example, Shang Chun Ci, Dao Lian Pian, and Chang An Chun. Zheng Gu (851? A.D.–910? A.D.), courtesy name Shouyu, hailed from Yichun, Yuanzhou (now Yichun City, Jiangxi Province). During the third year of Guangqi, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and served as attendant in the Ministry of Justice. In his late years, he lived in seclusion in Yichun. Zheng Gu created many works expressing the crisis of the country and lamenting his drifting life. Artistically, his qilü poems were strongly influenced by poets like Xu Hun. They were good at creating situations with refreshing and beautiful language, and carried intense sorrowful and sentimental feelings. He also left some 1 Years after 1000 A.D. will no longer be expressed together with “A.D.” in the following texts of the book, if there aren’t specific explanations. For example, Qing Dynasty (1900) means the year 1900 A.D.

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popular qijue poems about chanting objects, parting or sighing for his life experience. These refreshing poems were written in gorgeous language. Han Wo (842 A.D.–914? A.D.), courtesy name Zhiyao, childhood name Donglang, and art name Wu Qiao Shan Ren, hailed from Wannian, Jingzhao (now Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province). He showed talent in poetry when he was young. After he started a political career, he served as adviser to the emperor, supervisory officer, secretariat drafter, assistant minister of the Ministry of Wars, and head of the Imperial Academy. Later, he was demoted to the south. Han Wo’s Xiang Lian Ji included more than one hundred poems, most of which were written in his early years. These poems were gorgeous and colorful, with traces of imitation from Li Shangyin though they were gentler and more flamboyant. For example, Xi Tu You Zeng, Niao Nuo, and Yong Yu were influential at that time. The quatrains in Xiang Lian Ji by him extracted meaningful scenes to convey indescribable emotions, atmospheres, and feelings. Some of his poems composed when he served as a member of the Imperial Academy and after he was demoted from the court were no longer flowery. Instead, they showed reflections on his personal fate and the future of the homeland. Some of his qilü poems expressed his inner feelings through unconstrained sentences, with rich and gloomy emotions infiltrating reflections. These poems were clearly influenced by Li Shangyin’s qilü poems. During the late years of the Tang Dynasty, some critical realist poems appeared in the poetry circle, with Cao Ye, Liu Jia, Nie Yizhong, and Pi Rixiu being representative poets. Their poems showed sympathy for people’s sufferings or summarized their life experiences through criticism of human affairs and customs and attacked social evils. However, they were not artistically innovative. The poets who really created poems that showed the characteristics of the late years of the Tang Dynasty and who were literally productive were Luo Yin and Du Xunhe. Luo Yin (833 A.D.–909 A.D.), courtesy name Zhaojian, hailed from Xindeng (now Xindeng County, Zhejiang Province). He was also said to come from Xincheng, Hangzhou (now Tonglu County, Zhejiang Province). Luo Yin had a difficult experience in taking the imperial examinations. He failed them ten times from the late years of Dazhong. He traveled to Hunan, Daliang, Huai, and Run, but travel did not lift him from dismay. Later, he depended on Qian Liu, governor of Hangzhou, who put him to important positions such as magistrate of Qiantang and secretary and commander of the Zhenhai Army. Qian Liu also appointed him as supervisor of the State of Wuyue. His difficult life

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experiences exposed him to plenty of social ugliness in the end of the Tang Dynasty, which he criticized without mercy. His poems were sarcastic, biting, straightforward, and unforgettable. They were more satirical than profoundly thoughtful, and the language was sharp but not meaningful enough. They were artistically defective. Du Xunhe (846 A.D.–907 A.D.), courtesy name Yanzhi, hailed from Shidai, Chizhou (now Shitai County, Anhui Province). He came from a humble background and studied in seclusion in Jiuhua Mountain in his early years. He took the imperial examinations several times, but failed. Recommended by Zhu Wen, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination at the age of forty-six. He once served as an assistant to Tian Jun, military commander of Xuanzhou. Later, he joined Zhu Wen, who recommended him to be a member of the Imperial Academy and deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites. He died of illness in five days after his appointment. Du Xunhe also composed many poems satirizing the current affairs. For example, in Revisiting Hucheng County (Zai Jing Hu Cheng Xian), he wrote, “When I passed this county last year, I heard the people complained about the local officials. When I come here this year and hear about the promotion of the officials, I wonder if their red official robes are dyed with the people’s blood”. He sharply satirized the dark reality of the local officials getting their official positions and salaries by bullying and exploiting the people. Some of his poems lamented his life, sighing for his inability to live up to his ambition at an advanced age and the emptiness of the world. These poems were mostly immersed in a low mood. Luo Yin, Pi Rixiu, and Du Xunhe were highly accomplished essay writers and were like a refreshing breeze to the decadent secular world. Luo Yin’s essays were written on the basis of profound arguments and sharp satire. His masterpiece was On the Words of Great Men (Ying Xiong Zhi Yan), which cited the words of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu to satirize the rulers who satisfied their selfish desires under the disguise of helping the people. His essays, employing a variety of artistic techniques and unrestrained satire, not only criticized the reality sharply, but also expressed the writer’s strong emotions. These lively and pungent essays contained profound realistic sentiments and were thought-provoking, showing the outstanding talent of the writer in artistic satire. Pi Rixiu (834? A.D.– 883? A.D.), courtesy name Ximei, also known as Yishao, hailed from Xiangyang (now Xiangfan City, Hubei Province). He lived in seclusion in the Lumen Mountain and called himself Lumenzi. His important poems

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were mostly written in his early years. Deeply influenced by Bai Juyi, he emphasized extolment and satirical criticism in poetry. His essays satirized current malpractices in exceptionally sharp language, expressing his extreme indignation and dissatisfaction with reality. His writing style was sharp, straightforward, and slightly unconcealed, showing the writer’s great courage to criticize reality. Although Lu Guimeng had long been a recluse, he was very concerned about reality. His essays either expressed satire through the channel of an object or satirized the current affairs by entrusting the satire to the ancient history. He employed various techniques and sharp language. His essays were included in Li Ze Cong Shu, an anthology that he compiled by himself. Artistically, his essays were good at citing analogies and metaphors and putting forward new ideas, and they employed more artistic techniques than Pi Rixiu’s essays. The poetry circle in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907 A.D.– 960 A.D.) was under-performing overall. The influential poets during this period included Feng Dao, Wang Renyu, He Ning, Li Fang, Wang Pu, Liu Jian, Wang Zhou, Tao Gu, and Lu Duoxun. Feng Dao went through the Five Dynasties as a political tumbler all along. His poems were easy to understand. Wang Renyu was a very prolific poet. When he came to the place of Shu in his early years, he was called “Cellar of Poetry”. He Ning was known for his one hundred flowery poems on palace life. Li Fang, Wang Pu, Liu Jian, Wang Zhou, Tao Gu, and Lu Duoxun joined the Song Dynasty from the Later Zhou Dynasty and became the earliest poets in the early Song Dynasty. Their works were significantly influenced by Bai Juyi’s metrical pattern poems. Among the Ten Kingdoms, the poetry in the Southern Tang Dynasty was most developed. Famous poets included Han Xizai, Meng Binyu, Xu Xuan, Li Zhong, and Zheng Wenbao. Many of them joined the poetry circle in the early Song Dynasty. Among the court poets, Xu Xian, Zheng Wenbao, and Zhang Ji joined the Song Dynasty with the demise of the Southern Tang Dynasty, while non-official poets Yang Huizhi and Meng Guan joined the Later Zhou Dynasty and then the Song Dynasty. These poets all played a relatively important role in the poetry circle in the early Song Dynasty. As for the literature in Western Shu, ci writings were more prosperous, with famous poets including Guan Xiu and Wei Zhuang. Lady Huarui in the Kingdom of Later Shu famously composed one hundred poems on palace life. In the Kingdom of Chu, under the rule of Ma Yin, there was a group of poets including Liu Zhaoyu, Xu Zhongya, Li Honggao, Cai Kun, Liao Kuangtu, Liao Ning, Wei Ding and the poet-monk Xu Zhong. Although

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the poet-monk Qi Ji lived far away in Jingnan, he also had close contacts with these poets. The poets who gathered in the place Min in the early years of the Ten Kingdoms mainly included Han Wo, Xu Yin, Huang Tao, Weng Chengzan, and Cui Daorong. The Kingdom of Wuyue suffered the most loss of poems, and the surviving poems were mainly composed by Luo Yin, Qian Chu and their clansmen. Artistically, no significant progress was made in poems during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. However, poets in this period tried to inherit the art of their predecessors in the turbulent times, and many of them became active poets in the poetry circle in the early Song Dynasty. In this sense, poems in the Five Dynasties marked a transition from the “the voice of Tang” to the “tone of Song”. They were valuable materials for people to understand the history of poetry.

4

Ci in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties

Ci (lyric), a new literary style that began to rise in the Tang Dynasty, was written to accompany the tunes of banquet music. Ci had many alternative names such as Yuefu, lyric with a melody, rhymed verses, long and short verses, movement, melody, tune, tuning, fun of stringed instrument, song, and music score. Ci had different tunes, and each tune had a name, called name of tune, for example, Sand of Silk-washing Stream (Huan Xi Sha), The Charms of Niannu (Nian Nu Jiao), and Buddhist Dancers (Pu Sa Man). In the beginning, ci was often associated with name of tune. For example, Fabulous South (Jiang Nan Hao) was written to celebrate the scenery in the south. As ci evolved, it was gradually detached from tune, and name of tune became a symbol for a particular lyric pattern. Each name of tune had its fixed tune, which meant that the lyric set to each name of tune had fixed number of lines, number of characters, positions of rhymes, and tone pattern. In other words, each name of tune followed a fixed lyric pattern. As a saying goes, “Every tune has a fixed rhythm, and every character has a fixed tone”. Ci had a complicated rhyme scheme. The oblique tone was divided into the rising tone, the falling tone, and the entering tone, and the sentence patterns varied. In terms of the position of rhyme, there were rhyme within the line, rhyme in the above and the following line, rhyme in every other line, rhyme in every three lines, etc. Rhymes included level rhyme from beginning to end, oblique rhyme from beginning to end, conversion between level and oblique rhymes with different rhyme categories, and level and oblique rhymes with the same

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rhyme categories. Ci was used in singing. A piece of music played once was called one que, so one stanza was one que or one pian. A piece of ci was usually divided into two stanzas of que or pian, also known as double tunes. When it had only one stanza, it was called single tune. A few pieces of ci were divided into three que or four que. In terms of length, ci was also divided into “short lyrics” (“xiaoling”) (less than fifty-eight characters), “long lyrics” (“changdiao”) (more than ninety-one characters), and “medium lyrics” (“zhongdiao”) in between. Long lyrics were also known as slow ci. The ancient literature from Dunhuang included many song scripts, mainly including quzici and daquci. Daquci was remotely related to ci, but quzici, a category of popular literature in which verses were fixed according to the music, provides an important material for people today to understand the origin and development of ci in the Tang Dynasty. Quzici found in Dunhuang included five pieces of ci written by Wen Tingyun, Li Ye (Emperor Zhaozong of Tang), and Ouyang Jiong, while the other pieces were anonymous. Judging from the content, the writers were mostly from a lower social class, and the writings were generally composed between the late years of the reign of Wu Zetian and the Five Dynasties. Among them, the transcript Yun Yao Ji Za Qu Zi included 30 pieces of ci written no later than the first year of Qianhua in the Later Liang Dynasty (911 A.D.), nearly thirty years earlier than the compilation of Among Flowers (Hua Jian Ji) (the third year of Guangzheng in the Later Shu Dynasty, i.e. 940 A.D.). It was the first general collection of ci in China. Quzici in Dunhuang covered a wide range of topics, including the moaning of men residing at the border far away from home and wanderers, brave words of loyal ministers and righteous men, pleasure and delight of recluses, expectations and disappointments of young scholars, praises for the Buddha and formulas of doctors put into verses. Ci rose from the civil society. Some literati in the heyday and middle years of the Tang Dynasty began to write ci. Wei Yingwu, Dai Shulun, Zhang Zhihe, Wang Jian, Bai Juyi, and Liu Yuxi all wrote ci. Zhang Zhihe served as an academician of the Imperial Academy awaiting imperial orders to work during the reign of Emperor Suzong. Later, he lived a free life traveling around the country. His most famous ci writing was five pieces of A Fisherman (Yu Fu). The Song of Flirtation (Tiao Xiao Ling) writings by Wei Yingwu, Dai Shulun, and other writers depicted frontier scenery and were enduring pieces of work. The Song of Flirtation was a name of tune used in drinking games during the Tang Dynasty. These

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two pieces of ci described the homesickness that kept haunting soldiers who had been stationed at the border for a long time. Wei Yingwu’s ci mentioned “grass at the border” in the closing line, while Dai Shulun’s ci mentioned it in the opening line, which met the requirements for “order changing” (“gailing”) and “order recovery” (“huanling”) in drinking games. Their ci writings might be created for antiphony. These writings were born out of antiphony between literati. It could be concluded that writing ci had been a popular fashion among literati from the Dali period to about the Zhenyuan period. The ci writings of literati in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty were more similar to the natural, lively, beautiful, and gentle quzici in Dunhuang than those in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. They were carefully polished and focused on profound and sentimental psychological portrayal yet without being unrefined and straightforward like quzici. This showed that ci became more artistically mature and more sentimentally elegant through the conscious creation of the literati. Wen Tingyun and Wei Zhuang were representative of ci writers in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Their literary achievements were not confined to ci. They made considerable achievements in poetry creation and occupied even more prominent positions in the history of ci. Wen Tingyun was the first writer famous for ci in the literature history of China. He left seventy-six ci writings, the most among ci writers in the Tang Dynasty. His ci writings, with delicate description and a romantic and gentle style, focused on complaint about love and complaint from the palace. Wen Tingyun’s ci writings had unique attainments, making the genre of ci truly move toward independence and creating the tradition of literati in ci writing. In terms of theme, his ci writings were “always about sad laments”, which led to the stereotype that “ci was erotic”. His gentle and romantic style shaped the keynote that ci was “fundamentally graceful and restrained”. His ci writings were very popular at his times, directly influencing the Huajian Ci School in the Five Dynasties and having a great impact on ci writers like Zhou Bangyan and Wu Wenying in the Song Dynasty. Since he was proficient in rhythm, he also made outstanding contributions to the innovation of lyric tune and the standardization of meter. Wei Zhuang was another important ci writer in the late years of the Tang Dynasty, and his ci writings were as famous as those of Wen Tingyun. The two were collectively known as “Wen-Wei”. Wei Zhuang left fifty-five ci writings. In terms of artistic style, unlike Wen’s dense

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and colorful ci writings, Wei’s ci writings were refreshing and sparse. The imagery in Wen’s ci writings was colorful and gorgeous, while that in Wei’s ci writings was fresh and natural. In terms of lyrical approach, Wen’s ci writings were subtle and hidden, while Wei’s ci writings were clear and straightforward. Many of Wei’s ci writings were skillfully crafted and were different from the plainness of Dunhuang quzici. For example, in Song of a Lady’s Crown (Nv Guan Zi), he wrote, “It’s the seventeenth of the fourth month. That’s the time last year when you left. I pretend to look down in holding tears and half locking eyebrows in shyness. No one would know I’m broken-hearted. I could only follow you in my dreams. Other than the moon at the edge of sky, nobody else would understand how I feel”. Due to his experience in chaos, Wei Zhuang often fused the lament for a drifting life and homesickness of wanderers with the description of romantic love or charming sight. Sentimental and melancholy feelings were mixed with natural grace. This emotional connotation distinguished his ci writings from Wen’s. During the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms, ci writings in Western Shu were flourishing. In the third year of Guangzheng period (940 A.D.), Zhao Chongzuo in the Later Shu selected and included five hundred ci writings from eighteen writers, namely Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang, Huangfu Song, Sun Guangxian, Xue Zhaoyun, Niu Qiao, Zhang Mi, Mao Wenxi, Niu Xiji, Ouyang Jiong, He Ning, Gu Xiong, Wei Chengban, Lu Qianyi, Yan Xuan, Yin E, Mao Xizhen, and Li Xun into a ten-volume collection called Among Flowers. Among these writers, Wen Tingyun and Huangfu Song were from the late years of the Tang Dynasty and did not go through the Five Dynasties. Sun Guangxian served as an official in Jingnan and He Ning served as an official in Later Jin, while all of the others served as officials in Western Shu. Among Flowers was the earliest collection of ci writings from literati in China. The included ci writers living in similar environments and had roughly the same styles because they learned from Wen Tingyun. Huajian Ci School was named due to this collection. Among Flowers was a group of selected quzici works sung by female singers and musicians, aiming to inherit the flowery palace style poems from the Southern Dynasties and show the frivolous and flamboyant romantic life. Therefore, Among Flowers basically depicted banquets, bridal chambers, and small gardens with scented paths, highlighting the beauty, dress, and living state of women. Located in the left of the Yangtze River, the Southern Tang Dynasty in the period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms was economically

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prosperous. Its rulers valued literature and attracted many literati from the Central Plains. Although ci writings in the Southern Tang Dynasty were started later than in Western Shu, they made important achievements, with representatives including Feng Yansi, Li Jing and his son Li Yu. Feng Yansi (904 A.D.–960 A.D.), courtesy name Zhengzhong, hailed from Guangling (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province). During the reign of the middle ruler Li Jing, he served as chancellor. His ci writings were mostly about romance, lovesick feelings and parting and love affairs. Complaints about love and the melancholy feeling in spring were the most common themes. His writings were unique because he excelled at showing the subtlest changes in mood. Feng Yansi was a prominent figure in the Southern Tang Dynasty, but he made no political achievements and experienced many ups and downs because of his involvement in party struggles. Also due to the unstable state of the Southern Tang Dynasty, his mentality was naturally influenced by the uncertainty of state affairs and his own life. Therefore, similar to Wei Zhuang, he also fused complex feelings about life with complaints about love, melancholy feeling in spring and romance. Due to the mixture with the sad feelings about life, the refreshing rhetoric in his ci writings touched upon the spiritual world of literati-officials more deeply, formed a melancholy and broad artistic conception, and promoted changes in the ci style since the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Li Jing (916 A.D.–961 A.D.), courtesy name Boyu, hailed from Xuzhou (now Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province). He was a middle ruler of the Southern Tang Dynasty and ruled for nineteen years. In his early reign years, he still kept up his spirits as a ruler and expanded territory. However, in his late reign years, he did not take political affairs seriously, making his dynasty decline day by day and finally surrender to the Later Zhou Dynasty. As a result, his emperor title was canceled, and he became the king of a small kingdom that surrendered and rendered tribute to the bigger kingdom in order to seek momentary ease. Later, he surrendered to the Song Dynasty. Li Jing was versatile and liked reading and making friends with scholars. He left four pieces of ci writings, of which Broken Form of Sand of Silk-washing Stream (Tan Po Huan Xi Sha) was a representative. Li Yu (937 A.D.–978 A.D.), courtesy name Chongguang, was the sixth son of Li Jing. He acceded to the throne in the second year of Jianlong (961 A.D.) and was known as the last ruler. At that time, Zhao Kuangyin had already established the Song Dynasty in which the

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Later Zhou Dynasty was located, making the Southern Tang Dynasty under great pressure. Worried as he was, Li Yu knew little about statecraft, so he had to render tribute to the Song Dynasty year after year in order to seek momentary ease and happiness. He spent fifteen years worshiping Buddhism, chanting poems, and throwing himself into feasts without serious ambitions. In the eighth year of Kaibao (975 A.D.), when the army of the Song Dynasty broke through Jinling, Li Yu laid down weapons and surrendered. He was sent under escort to Bianjing. There he was given a nominal title Weiminghou and spent two years and two months as a prisoner, “washing his face with tears every day and night”. On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month in the third year of Taipingxingguo of the Song Dynasty (978 A.D.), he was killed by the poison sent by Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty. Li Yu grew up with a rich life, whose family favored literature dearly. His father, Li Jing, and his two younger brothers had excellent literary skills, and he had two wives proficient in rhythm and good at music and dancing. He was personally a man of many talents, for example, painting and calligraphy. He knew rhythm well and was well versed in writing. He liked collecting books and recruiting scholars. He indulged himself in singing and dancing and debauchery in his harem all day long. He was sentimental and enjoyed writing. Li Yu left more than thirty ci writings, which were divided into two periods marked by the loss of his kingdom. In the first period, his writings reflected the palace life and erotic romance. Compared with the writers of the Huajian Ci School, he was more inclined to refreshing diction and natural lyricism. After his surrender to the Song Dynasty, his life changed dramatically; being imprisoned for nearly three years plunged him into an exceptionally rich and melancholic emotional world. His soul was hit by the painful loss of his kingdom, the nostalgia about his homeland and the contrast between the present and the past. He tasted desolation and sorrow that he had never imagined in his early years. As a result, his writing style changed significantly. In his late years, Li Yu’s ci writings were generally tinged with such deep sorrow and pain, and despair brought him an extraordinary experience of the impermanent world. His sober understanding of world affairs could not cool his sorrowful heart as a poet, so he wrote about endless sorrow without control. In short, literati’s ci writings in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties gradually developed their independent stylistic characteristics. In terms of subject matter, they were more interested in romantic love.

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In terms of lyrical style, they showed feminine beauty and formed the tradition that “ci was erotic”.

5

Preaching Texts and Bianwen

Popular literature was an important part of Tang literature. It mainly includes popular poetry, bianwen, preaching texts, popular rhapsody, storytelling script, lyric text, and folk songs. Only the works of a few vernacular poets such as Han Shan, Shi De, and Feng Gan were recorded in handed down literature, while the other works were brought to light thanks to the discovery of ancient literature from Dunhuang. In the early twentieth century, a total of more than forty thousand pieces of ancient literature from Dunhuang were discovered in the caves for preserving ancient classics in Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. They provided invaluable literature for the study of social history, economy, philosophy, religion, culture and art of the Tang dynasty, as well as for exchanges between the East and the West, which led to the emergence of international Dunhuang Studies. The ancient literature from Dunhuang included numerous literary works, which were roughly divided into six categories. The first category was narration-chanting works which took on the forms of speaking and singing, including bianwen, preaching text, lyric text, narrative prose, storytelling script, karma, and poetic commentary, as well as auxiliaries like ritual-opening prayer and ritual-concluding remark. The second category was melodies, which were poems set to accompany singing. The musical system of Dunhuang melodies was rich and distinctive. It included both melodies for banquet music and ceremonial music and folk melodies. There was also ethnic minority music from the frontier of China and exotic music (such as Buddhist chants) from India and other countries. The third category was poems in the Sao style, preTang poems, metrical pattern poems, gexing, and poems in the fu style in the forms of qiyan (a poem with every line of the same length) and zayan (a poem with every line of a different length) used for chanting. The fourth category was novels, similar to the anecdotal and phantastic novels during the Wei, Jin, and the Southern and Northern dynasties and legends of the people in the Tang Dynasty, mainly storytelling novels. The fifth category was prose, mainly referring to essays other than novels, for example, documents, letters, inscriptions, epigraphs, biographies, and elegies, mostly created in Dunhuang. The sixth category was miscellaneous works of literary quality that hardly fell into any of those five

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categories, including educational readings for children, precepts, shuyi (a model for etiquette and letter style), and gatha. Clearly, the ancient literature from Dunhuang covered extensive types of literary works, including both popular literature and elegant literature. Due to the long-term loss of popular literature from the Tang Dynasty, the ancient literature from Dunhuang was of particular significance to the study of popular literature in the Tang Dynasty. Preaching texts, bianwen, and popular poems are particularly discussed here. Preaching texts were master copies of preaching for lay people. Preaching for lay people was a religious chanting activity in which Buddhist monks explained Buddhist teachings in sutra to lay people. Buddhist sutra lectures included preaching for monks and preaching for lay people. In the Tang Dynasty, preaching for lay people was very popular. According to Volume III of Japanese monk Ennin’s Travel Notes in The Tang Dynasty for Learning Buddhism (Ru Tang Qiu Fa Xun Li Xing Ji), lectures were given in seven temples at the same time in Chang’an alone during the first year of Emperor Wuzong under the title of Huichang (841 A.D.). “They were started from the fifteenth day of the first lunar month to the fifteenth day of the second lunar month”. The masters preaching for lay people included Hai An, Ti Xu, Wen Shu, etc. In the ancient literature from Dunhuang, more than ten preaching texts have been preserved. The best preserved one was Text on the Preaching Ceremony on the Emperor’s Birthday in the Fourth Year of the Changxing Reign (Chang Xing Si Nian Zhong Xing Dian Ying Sheng Jie Jiang Jing Wen), followed by The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra (Jin Gang Bo Re Bo Luo Mi Jiang Jing Wen), The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra (Wei Mo Jie Jing Jiang Jing Wen), The Sutra of Maitreya Bodhisattva’s Attainment of Buddhahood (Fo Shuo Guan Mi Le Pu Sa Shang Sheng Dou Lv Tian Jing Jiang Jing Wen), The Sutra on Impermanence (Wu Chang Jing Jiang Jing Wen), The Sutra of the Buddha’s Teaching on Amitabha (Fo Shuo E Mi Tuo Jiang Jing Wen), The Lotus Sutra of Wondrous Dharma (Miao Fa Lian Hua Jing Jiang Jing Wen), and The Sutra About the Deep Kindness of Parents and the Difficulty of Repaying It (Fu Mu En Zhong Jing Jiang Jing Wen). All of them were combinations of rhymed and free sentences and speech and singing. The speech part was in plain classical language or vernacular language, while the singing part was composed of seven-character verses, interspersed with three-character pauses or sixcharacter or five-character verses. There were marks indicating the mode of the voice in which a certain passage has to be spoken or chanted,

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such as even, emotionally, inclined, and humming. The preaching texts came from Buddhist texts, with the thoughts contained mainly used to preach Buddhist doctrines. Some of these texts were of literary value as they spread profound teachings to the public through vivid metaphors, complicated stories, and popular language. Bianwen in the ancient literature from Dunhuang, shortly called “bian”, was a master copy of “transformation texts”, another chanting technique popular in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. “Transformation texts” were bianwen for chanting and were very popular in the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. There were even special venues for such performance activity, called “transformation stage”. Many pieces of bianwen have been preserved in the ancient literature from Dunhuang. There are eight varieties of “bianwen” or “bian” known to this date. In addition, there were some fragmented titles inferred by system as bianwen, including Wu Zixu Bianwen, Li Ling Bianwen, Wang Zhaojun Bianwen, Zhang Yichao Bianwen, Zhang Huaishen Bianwen, and Mu Lian Bianwen. Research showed that a typical structure of bianwen included an account of vernacular or plain-spoken part in the rhythmical style marked by parallelism, followed by a rhymed speech which was mostly a seven-character poem rhymed in every even number sentence, interspersed with three-character or less often five-character or six-character verses. The transition from the spoken part to the singing part was surely signaled by some customary sentences such as “let’s look at……”, “let’s look at……and listen”, “the story is about to start”, and “speaking of……”. It was thought that these were instructions for the audience to look at the corresponding pictures before the singing was started, from which it can be assumed that the transformation text was performed in conjunction with story illustrations (sutra illustration paintings). The chanting of bianwen was usually accompanied by music. The meaning of the name bianwen was not clearly explained by ancient people. Chinese and foreign scholars have many speculations on it, but no conclusion has been drawn. The final solution will depend on the discovery of new information. Monks, Toaists, and secular people could chant bianwen, regardless of gender. The formation of bianwen was influenced by Buddhist literature. After Buddhism was introduced into China, Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures retained much of the original vocabulary, grammar, and style. “The Twelve Divisions of the Mah¯ay¯ana Canon” included styles such as long-line (sutta) prose to explain principles, geyya (geya) to reiterate the meaning of the long lines

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through verses, and gatha (Buddhist verses, reciting, independent chant) to directly preach through verses instead of long lines. They undoubtedly influenced the transformation texts and bianwen greatly. In ancient China, there were storytelling, ballads, and narrative traditions combining rhymed and free lines, which were origins of the transformation texts and bianwen.2 Bianwen was roughly divided into three categories by content, namely religion, history and real life, and folklore. Examples of the first category included Ba Bian Xiang, Story of Subduing Magic (Xiang Mo Bianwen), Po Mo Bianwen, Maudgalyayana Saves His Mother From Hell (Da Mu Gan Lian Ming Jian Jiu Mu Bianwen), and Pin Po Suo Luo Wang Hou Gong Cai Nü Gong De Yi Zhi Gong Yang Ta Sheng Tian Yin Yuan Bianwen. These works chanted stories in the scriptures and preached Buddhist principles. Unlike the preaching texts which directly quoted the scriptures, they selected the most interesting stories from the scriptures and further improved them, attracting the audience with vivid plots without being limited by the content of the scriptures. For example, Maudgalyayana Saves His Mother From Hell told a story about Mu Lian saving his mother from hell. It mentioned the gloom and misery of the hell, the cruelty of punishment, and the boundlessness of the Buddha’s teachings. The complicated plot and the bizarre storyline made it appealing to readers. Also, Story of Subduing Magic described Sariputta’s fight with six non-Buddhist masters, who made six changes all defeated by Sariputta. With fantastical imagination and unrestrained description, this text obviously influenced later supernatural novels like Journey to the West (Xi You Ji) and The Investiture of the Gods (Feng Shen Yan Yi). The category of bianwen inspired by history and real life often focused on the major experiences of a historic figure and absorbed folklore, supplemented by anecdotes and embellished through fiction and imagination. Wu Zixu Bianwen now has four fragmented volumes, which totaled ten thousand and six or seven thousand characters when combined. It told a story of the brutal King Ping of Chu killing Wu She, whose son Wu Zixu escaped to the State of Wu and assisted the King of Wu to eliminate the State of Chu as revenge. Later, Wu Zixu was killed by Fuchai, the King of Wu, because his candid advice was not taken by the king. The plot was 2 For all the above, refer to Yuan Xingpei, ed. A History of Chinese Literature, Volume II , Higher Education Press, 1999, pp. 398–403.

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fascinating and appealing, depicting the indomitable character of Wu Zixu through all the hardships. This story was a masterpiece among Dunhuang bianwen works. Zhang Yichao Bianwen was created by a Dunhuang artist based on reality to celebrate Zhang Yichao’s recovery of Hexi. It vividly depicted the mighty and powerful military presence of Zhang Xuanchao’s troop. Examples of bianwen based on folklore included Meng Jiangnü Bianwen, Shun Zi Zhi Xiao Bianwen, Liu Jia Tai Zi Bian, etc. As a long narrative combining speech and chanting, bianwen in the Tang Dynasty earned a unique position in the history of Chinese literature due to its unique artistic value, and it was the most important achievement of popular literature in the Tang Dynasty. It influenced legends in the Tang Dynasty and especially the chanting literature and opera art in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Another important part of the popular literature in the Tang Dynasty was popular poems, with Wang Fanzhi and Han Shan being representatives. Wang Fanzhi hailed from Liyang, Weizhou (now Junxian County, Henan Province). There is little information about his life. What’s known is that his creation activities occurred in the early Tang Dynasty. He left more than three hundred and forty poems which sharply exposed the inconstancy of human relationships, revealed people’s sufferings, and satirized those greedy for fame and gain. Many of his works advocated Buddhist thoughts and precepts, showing a strong religious color. He also had some popular poems written in the form of motto such as family motto and world motto to summarize life experience, punish wickedness, and encourage virtue. He was obviously influenced by Confucian and Buddhist thoughts in many ways. In terms of form, his popular poems were mostly five-character verses of varying lengths. With only one rhyme running through the whole texts, these poems employed slang and common sayings extensively to express strong humor and irony and demonstrated a distinctive personal style. Poet-monks like Han Shan Shi De, and Feng Gan were also famous vernacular poets in the Tang Dynasty. Among them, Han Shan made the most outstanding achievements. His birth and death dates are unknown, so are his surname and place of origin. He lived in seclusion for a long time in a “cold rock” (i.e., Hanshan) in the west of Tiantai, Zhejiang Province, so his art name was Hanshanzi. It was said that he was a poet in the early Tang Dynasty, but this saying does not seem to be credible. Modern scholar Yu Jiaxi verified through investigation that Han Shan was found during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang under the

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title of Xiantian (712 A.D.) and that he died roughly after the ninth year of Emperor Dezong of Tang under the title of Zhengyuan (793 A.D.). During his lifetime, Han Shan wrote a lot of popular poems, and more than three hundred of his poems were included in The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty alone. His poems mostly commented the secular world and human relationships or advocated the Buddhist doctrine of reincarnation and karma, as well as the Taoist gods and immortals. Some of them also expressed the joy of seclusion in the mountains and forests. His language was mostly colloquial, humorous, and witty. His poems seemed to be written freely without too much hesitation, full of wit and humor, and both serious and facetious. They were gradually taken seriously after the Song Dynasty. Wang Anshi, Zhu Xi, and Lu You either imitated or admired these poems. After the twentieth century, they attracted widespread academic interest. In the eighth and ninth centuries, Han Shan’s poems were spread to Japan, which still enjoy wide readership today.

PART V

Literature in the Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties

960 A.D.–1279

CHAPTER 19

Overview Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

1 Diverse and Integrated National Cultural Pattern and Literary Diversity As a multi-ethnic country, China developed under an important driving force of the collision and exchange between various ethnic groups. The Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties marked a famous period of ethnic integration in the history of China. For nearly four centuries, several ethnic regimes such as Liao, Jin, Western Xia, Uyghur, and Tubo (the Tibetan regime in ancient China) coexisted with the Song Dynasty, forming many political and cultural sectors alongside the Song Dynasty. Through different complex interactions such as conflicts, checks and balances, exchanges, fusion, and reorganization, these various sectors gradually transferred from confrontation and coexistence to unification, promoting

Z. Jian (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Z. Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_19

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the continuous deepening and self-renewal of the Chinese culture and literature during this period. In 960 A.D., Zhao Kuangyin, a general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, waged the military mutiny at Chenqiao in the chaotic times and established the Song Dynasty regime with himself as emperor. The conflicts among different separatist regimes that had lasted for a century from the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties were basically ended after more than ten years of conquests led by Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong of Song. However, the territory of the Song Dynasty was far smaller than that of the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, having been poor and weak for a long time, it was always under heavy pressure from ethnic minority regimes. Firstly, the regimes of Liao and Northern Song had coexisted for a long time. Then, the regimes of Jin and Southern Song had confronted with each other for years. In the official history of China, the histories of Song, Liao, and Jin were juxtaposed. In addition to Liao and Jin, there was also a regime called Western Xia regime in the northwest. As a multi-ethnic kingdom dominated by the Tangut, it was originally named Daxia and called by the people of Song as Western Xia. In 1038 A.D., after Yuanhao established his kingdom and became emperor, he launched several attacks on the Northern Song, posing some threat to the dynasty. After the Song Dynasty and the Xia regime made peace, although conflicts and friction still occurred, peace was maintained for most of the time. In addition to the ethnic minority regimes that confronted the Song Dynasty, there were also multi-ethnic groups within it. The Uyghurs remained active in the Western region. Located at the main traffic route between China and the West, the regime was at intersection of the Chinese civilization with Persian, Arabian, and Indian civilizations. The Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom built by the Uyghurs and the Karakhanid Empire were in close contact with the Song Dynasty. The Khan of the Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom paid tribute to the court of the Song Dynasty as a nephew from Xizhou. The Karakhanid Empire also sent missions to the Song Dynasty several times. The Tibetan region was home to the Tubo regime. Once unified during the Tang Dynasty, this regime fell apart and was replaced by a group of local tribes during the Song Dynasty. The Tubo tribes maintained complex relationships with the Song Dynasty. Some of them became tribes under the rule of the Song Dynasty, while others became the target of competition among the Song, Liao, and Western Xia regimes because of their geographical importance. The

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Nanzhao regime in the southwest founded the Dali Kingdom in 937 A.D. as a vassal state of the Song Dynasty and maintained good communication with the Song Dynasty for years. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song, the monarch of Dali was crowned as king of the eight states in Yunnan. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the monarch of Dali was crowned as king of Dali. Such a complex political landscape contributed directly to the rich and diverse cultural landscape during this period. Although there were conflicts and frictions among various ethnic groups, their frequent exchanges resulted in cultural collisions and regeneration. Over these centuries, the Han culture represented by the Song Dynasty was always at the center, radiating to the neighboring ethnic areas with its powerful charm. Liao, Jin, and Western Xia were deeply influenced by the Han culture as they took a series of actions such as the establishment of the regime, the setting up of institutions, and the creation of writing. At the same time, the surrounding ethnic areas, while absorbing the culture radiated, injected simplicity and freshness, magnificence and strength into the Han culture. The literature in the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties as a whole was created, developed, and perfected over this dynamic process. The dissemination of literature was an important part of the exchange between various ethnic groups. With its mature form and rich charm, the literature in the Song Dynasty gained unlimited admiration from the neighboring peoples. The works of famous ci writer Liu Yong and poets Mei Yaochen and Su Shi in the Song Dynasty were widely circulated among various ethnic groups. It was even found later that the books printed in the civil society during the Song dynasty were “all found within the northern boundary” and “had been mostly circulated there”.1 The government of the Jin regime also collectively printed the anthologies of Wang Yucheng, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Wang Anshi, Qin Guan, Zhang Lei, etc. All these facts proved the great charm and far-reaching influence of the literature in the Song Dynasty. When spread to the surrounding ethnic areas, the literature in the Song Dynasty became an important target of study and imitation for various ethnic groups and stimulated the development of local literature. Despite the central position of the literature in the Song Dynasty, the introduction of literature from neighboring ethnic groups also, to some extent, enriched it. According to Zeng 1 Su Zhe, Bei Shi Huan Lun Bei Bian Shi Zha Zi, Anthology of Su Zhe, Volume 42, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1990 version, p. 747.

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Minhang, when the popular literature in the Liao Dynasty was spread to the Song Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Huizong, “many exotic songs were sung by humble people on the streets and alleys, for example, Yi Guo Chao, Si Guo Chao, Liu Guo Chao, Man Pai Xu and Peng Peng Hua. They were so popular that even scholar officials sang them” in the capital.2 The literature in the Jin Dynasty literature also stirred some responses when spread into the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, the “Wu-Cai style” represented by Wu Ji and Cai Songnian not only created a northern ci tradition, but also promoted the development of ci in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to History of the Song Dynasty·Biography of Xin Qiji (Song Shi · Xin Qi Ji Zhuan), Xin Qiji was a disciple of Cai Songnian when he was young. Cai Songnian imitated the ci writings of Su Shi, and Xin Qiji’s bold and unrestrained style was, to some extent, influenced by the “Wu-Cai style” (“Wu Cai Ti”). In addition, many important works were also born from the inherent literary traditions in the neighboring ethnic areas. In about 1270s, famous works, stories, and legends like KutadoluBiliq (Knowledge and Wisdom, or Fu Le Zhi Hui), Divan lgat at-Turk (The Compendium of the Turkic Languages, or Tu Jue Yu Da Ci Dian), The Manas Epic (Ma Na Si), Oghuzname (Wu Gu Si Zhuan), and The Book of Dede Korkut (Xian Zu Ku Er Kuo Te Shu) appeared in the Uyghur region. The Life of King Gesar (Ge Sa Er Wang Zhuan) appeared in the Tubo region. Famous epics like The Tale of JangGar (Jiang Ge Er), The Secret History of Mongols (Meng Gu Mi Shi), and King Gus (Ge Si Wang) appeared in the Mongolian region. In short, the literature of different ethnic groups in the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties went hand in hand, prospered together, and coexisted. The literature in this period fully demonstrated the diversity of literature in the vast territory of China. The mutual collision between the farming culture of the Han people in the Central Plains and the hunting culture of the northern peoples and the interaction between different literary forms contributed to the diverse literary landscape in this period.

2 Zeng Minhang, Du Xing Za Zhi (Awake Alone: Collection of Miscellaneous Diaries), Volume 5, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985 version, p. 37.

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2 Establishment of the Imperial Examination System and Position of Scholar Officials as Main Literary Writers As Jinshi, the highest imperial examination, were created in the Sui Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucratic system gradually shifted from the appointment of scholar officials depending on lineage to the appointment of those passing the imperial examinations. In the Song Dynasty, the civil official selection system was established. It might be realistic for “a man who works as a farmer in the morning to become a scholar official in the evening”. Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Zeng Gong, Su Shi, and Su Zhe, as we know them, barely came from a rich or noble family. All of them studied hard in their teenage years and passed the imperial examinations to join the rank of senior bureaucrats. With their own cultural attainments, this group of scholar officials who rose from the imperial examinations either held power in the court as successful men or became country gentlemen or celebrities around the country who still played their unique role in spite of their poverty. In the early Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu explicitly demanded a reform of the political landscape that had been shaped since the establishment of the Song Dynasty by learning knowledge and building ideals. They took the world as their responsibility and regarded the kingly way of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties as the highest ideal. Their idea stirred wide social responses. The political reform in the Qingli period initiated by Fan Zhongyan and others and the Ancient Prose Movement led by Ouyang Xiu were born from deep historical backgrounds. Wang Anshi’s reform brought about complicated disputes between the old and the new parties, which then developed into a ban on political parties in the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty. Scholar officials began to diverge in different Confucian thoughts. The New School, Guan School, Luo School, and Shu School became independent thoughts. Those in power such as Cai Jing followed the direction of Wang Anshi’s New School and advocated the theory of “feng heng yu da” (meaning peace and prosperity) to adorn the tranquil age, which became the official ideology during the reign of Emperor Huizong. Those out of the office repeatedly savored the “poor and aloof life from politics and material pursuits” advocated by Yan Hui and pursued independence, gradually forming a group of local elites. The presence of many academic and literary schools named after localities such as “Zhedong School”,

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“Huxiang School”, “Min School”, “Jiangxi School”, and “Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia” (“Yong Jia Si Ling”) indicated the wide distribution of this trend of pursuing individual development. In the late years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the scholar officials felt overwhelming pain from the invasion of the powerful army from Yuan and the downfall of the Southern Song Dynasty. The most representative scholar official among them was Wen Tianxiang, who cried “Let my heart remain true to shine in the annals” (A Prisoner’s Lamentation Passing by Lindingyang (Guo Ling Ding Yang)). In addition, Fang Fengchen, Xie Fangde, and Xie Ao also demonstrated a steadfast and unyielding will. The establishment of scholar officials as the main literary writers was closely related to the discussion on Confucian orthodoxy and literary traditions among scholar officials in the Southern and Northern Song dynasties. The formation of Confucian orthodoxy and literary traditions in the Song Dynasty could be traced back to the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. During that period, the Confucianism restoration movement marked both a literary movement and an ideological movement. In The Original Way (Yuan Dao), Han Yu listed sages in history and argued that the true Confucian orthodoxy existed only in the genealogy he identified. He thus established his “Confucian orthodoxy” and ushered in a new era of Confucianism. In order to advocate the ancient way, he wrote ancient prose and established his own literary tradition. In his opinion, the ancient way and the ancient prose were an organic whole that could never be separated from each other. Han Yu’s contribution was fully recognized in the Song Dynasty. However, as scholar officials disagreed on the meaning of “way”, Confucian orthodoxy and literary traditions seemed to separate in the middle and late years of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Luo school, represented by Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, and the Shu School, represented by Su Xun, Su Shi, and Su Zhe, insisted on their own views. According to the Luo School, although literary works could be used to clarify ideas, they were only a tool. Over emphasis on literary grace merit was attending to trifles and neglecting the essentials. Therefore, they claimed that “literary works were harmful to the way”. The Shu School, on the other hand, emphasized the value of literary works, which could illuminate the natural way and provided true experience of the “way”. They even argued that “literary works” were the source of “way”. Due to the disagreement on the relationship between “way” and “literary works”, literary traditions surprisingly became independent from Confucian orthodoxy,

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which makes them two different genealogies. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Confucian orthodoxy system constructed by Cheng’s disciples was further refined by Zhu Xi. In The Origins of the Yi Luo School (Yi Luo Yuan Yuan Lu), Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Zhang Zai, and Shao Yong were regarded as the representatives of Confucian orthodoxy in the Song Dynasty. Literati in the Southern Song Dynasty also sorted out the literary systems that had appeared since the Northern Song Dynasty and regarded Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, and Huang Tingjian as representatives of the literary traditions in the Song Dynasty. The independence of the literary tradition meant that literature gained more room for independent development.

3 Cultural Spaces in Cities and the Rise of Civilian Literature The Song Dynasty witnessed the prosperity of city development in ancient China. The stable situation in the first century of the Song Dynasty contributed to rapid economic development at an unprecedented level. With the steady growth of agricultural production and the flourishing of handicrafts and commerce, cities were able to prosper rapidly and a number of metropolises were formed. Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Lin’an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, were metropolises with hundreds of thousands of residents; Suzhou and Luoyang had no less than 100,000 households; Chengdu, Ezhou, Xiangyang, Tanzhou, and Fuzhou were also metropolises in the minds of the people of the time. Meng Yuanlao’s Preface to The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor (Dong Jing Meng Hua Lu Xu) detailed the prosperity of Kaifeng as the eastern capital and outlined a picture of this affluent and prosperous city. As urban population increased, the cultural landscape of cities in the Song Dynasty also underwent important changes. Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, Lin’an in the Southern Song Dynasty, and many other cities were both administrative and cultural centers, as well as commercial and entertainment centers. A marketplace called washi appeared first in the eastern capital and then in other important metropolises everywhere. Washi, also known as wasi, washe, and wazi, was a comprehensive entertainment venue. It was a cultural marketplace for urban people to entertain and consume, providing a variety of folk arts and corresponding service businesses. Goulan in such marketplaces

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was a theater enclosed by barriers like railings and curtain walls. A large goulan could accommodate thousands of spectators. It gathered a variety of crafts, and those closely related to literature included ditty (including soft singing), storytelling (historical tales and novels, including humorous remarks), song-speech drama, poetic drama set to music (including civil music and skits), puppet show and shadow play. All of them were popular forms of literature and art that fascinated the public. This secular aesthetic fashion was a sharp contrast with the elegant interest of scholar officials. The mutual penetration and influence between elegance and vulgarity inevitably injected fresh vitality into the development of literature. For example, ci was an excellent example of the combination of elegance and vulgarity. Ci, originated in the banquet music in the Sui and Tang dynasties, was originally a highly entertaining art form. In the Song Dynasty, ci gradually penetrated into the daily life of scholar officials and was also a hot spot of consumption for citizens in their entertainment life. Some special vulgar and erotic ci writings were communicated from the marketplace to the banquets of scholar officials and even to the imperial palace. The ci writings of scholar officials also spread to the civil society through various channels and became songs. Liu Yong, who hanged out in brothels and marketplaces, became a celebrity in these places due to his special talent. His ci writings were fused with distinctive worldly flavor and were well favored by the people. Arguably, the development of urban culture and the combination of elegance and vulgarity were important motives for the literature development in the Song Dynasty.

4 Printing and New Changes in Literary Fashions The prevalence of woodblock printing and movable type printing in the Song Dynasty was a revolutionary change in the history of Chinese cultural development, which profoundly influenced the reading and creation of Chinese literature. The thick literary atmosphere in the Song Dynasty was closely related to this change in the carrier of writing. Woodblock printing appeared in the Tang Dynasty, when it was still in infancy with limited applications. Popular daily readings such as calendars and wordbooks and Buddhist scriptures were more common. During the early decades of the Northern Song Dynasty, engraving books remained scarce, and hand-copied books still played an important

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role. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong of Song, social stability, economic development, and technological improvement together contributed to the increasing rise of woodblock printing. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, more than one hundred thousand versions of books were produced by the Directorate of Education, dozens of times more than those in the early Song Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, a large number of history books and medical books were revised before printing. In addition to the active woodblock printing, movable type printing was also invented. According to Shen Kuo’s Brush Talks from Dream Brook (Meng Xi Bi Tan), a commoner called Bi Sheng invented movable type printing during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song under the title of Qingli (1041– 1048), and this technology predated the lead movable type invented by the German Gutenberg by about 400 years. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the ban on unauthorized book engraving was lifted, marking press and printing freedom and leading to a significant increase in various printed books. Gone were the days when engraving books were rare and scholars had difficulty in accessing books. In the Southern Song Dynasty, printing techniques reached its peak. The printing industry in the Northern Song Dynasty was concentrated in and limited to a few major regions. By contrast, this industry in the Southern Song Dynasty was flourishing throughout the country. This led to the formation of a series of famous printing centers such as Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Fujian, where the most books were engraved and were the most famous. Books were incredibly diverse, including classics, as well as books for imperial examinations and for people’s daily use. The policy of stressing literature and the maturity of the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty further promoted this technological revolution. Although Zhao Kuangyin, Emperor Taizu of Song, was a general of the Imperial Guards in the Later Zhou Dynasty, he was deeply aware of the importance of reading and remained a diligent reader even though he was in the army. Not only did he believe that the position of chancellor should be served by a scholar, but even the chief of the Military Commission should also be served by a civilian official. Emperor Taizong of Song inherited and developed Emperor Taizong’s policy of stressing literature, and he further promoted literature and education and suppressed military affairs. He also expanded the recruitment of officials through the imperial examinations, developed education, had books compiled, printed, and collected extensively, and promoted the prosperity

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of academic culture. The political tendency of several founding emperors of the Song Dynasty to stress civil administration influenced the Southern and Northern Song dynasties for more than three hundred years. Especially after the imperial examinations became the most important way for scholars to start a political career, learning knowledge provided a major path for scholars to win a high social status. There was a knowledge cult, as a saying went, “Learning is the noblest of human pursuits”. The development of printing dramatically increased the popularity of knowledge. In the Song Dynasty, engraving and circulating books was highly convenient. Reading became the most basic lifestyle of scholars. Du Fu proudly said, “I have read thousands of well-worn books and scrolls” (Give As a Gift With Respect to Official Wei With Twenty-Two Sweet Sounds (Feng Zeng Wei Zuo Cheng Zhang Er Shi Er Yun)). This was not a big deal for scholars in the Song Dynasty. Wang Anshi claimed that he read everything. People in the Song Dynasty benefited from their great learning not only through brilliant use of allusions and extensive quotations, but also profound thought, broad mind, and loftiness. The new look and pattern of literature in the Song Dynasty was directly related to the popularity of books at that time. Based on the scientific and technological development and diverse ideas, the comprehensive advantages of literature also came to the fore during this period. Various literary genres such as poetry, ci, ancient prose, parallel prose, fu and popular literature like storytelling scripts and song-speech drama all coexisted and flourished together. As far as poetry was concerned, Song poetry, after the flourishing Tang poetry, took a different path to become the unique “tone of Song”, which stood side by side with Tang poetry as two major aesthetic paradigms of classical poetry. Although poetry after the Song Dynasty also developed, it generally failed to move beyond the Tang and Song poetry. The development of ci in the Song Dynasty reached a peak, with not only broad subject matters and stylistic tendencies, but also strict paradigms of tunes, sounds, pauses, and rules. Brilliant achievements were also made in prose during this period. Built on the development of prose in the Tang Dynasty, prose in the Song Dynasty dealt well with the relationship between literature and idea, difficulty and ease and parallelism and free verses, struck a rare balance between practicality and aesthetics and perfectly combined narrative, lyricism, and argument. It was not only practical but also natural and smooth. The parallel prose in the Song Dynasty absorbed the techniques of ancient prose and moved from free verses to parallelism. With a flowing

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momentum and a lucid style, a distinctive “four-six style of the Song Dynasty” (“Song Si Liu”) was formed in the history of parallel prose. It is noteworthy that a transformation factor was hidden in the “breaking-down styles of literature” (“po ti wei wen”) when the culture in the Song Dynasty was highly prosperous. In fact, “breaking-down styles” (“po ti”) were based on “respectful styles” (“zun ti”). “Breakingdown styles” were subject to the maturity and finalization of stylistic paradigms and had relatively stable systems and characteristics. Therefore, the complex tendencies of “breaking-down styles” and “respectful styles”, which were both contradictory and mutually reinforcing, exactly reflected a series of evolution of literature from integration to transformation in this period. New classical paradigms and new aesthetic interests were nurtured and developed in this context. For example, many of the poems in the Song Dynasty depicted the trivial daily life, which was the source of poetic inspiration and implication. Literati’s writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and inkstones, tea, wine and meal, laborers’ water carts and farming horses, and even trifles in daily life such as haircuts, foot washing, medicine, dozing, and stomach aches all came into the sight of people in the Song Dynasty when composing works. The concern with and expression of daily life and personalized life feelings made life situations become a more frequent topic in poems and injected the history of private life and daily life into poems.

CHAPTER 20

Poems in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

Song poetry, after Tang poetry, took a different path to become the unique “tone of Song”. Song poetry and Tang poetry were two major aesthetic paradigms of classical poetry. Subsequent poems learned from either of them and generally failed to move beyond them.

1

Poetry Circle in the Early and Middle Years of the Northern Song Dynasty

In the early Song Dynasty, imitating the Tang poetry became a fashion. In the early six decades of the Northern Song Dynasty, different poetry schools imitating the Tang poetry emerged one after another such as the Bai Juyi style, the late Tang Dynasty style, and the Xikun style.

Z. Jian (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Z. Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_20

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The Bai Juyi style, also known as the Bai style, was the first popular poetic style in the poetry circle during the Song Dynasty. Poets using this style were mostly former ministers of the Five Dynasties such as Xu Xuan, Xu Kai, and Li Fang. They learned from Bai Juyi’s poems about scenery created in his late years and developed a plain and simple style, hence the name Bai Juyi style. Among them, the most accomplished poet was Wang Yucheng. Wang Yucheng (954–1001), courtesy name Yuanzhi, hailed from Juye (now in Shandong Province). He was known as Wang Huangzhou and wrote Xiao Chu Ji. Some of his poems were depressed and showed sympathy for people (e.g., Lament for Exile (Gan Liu Wang)), while others depicted refreshing and natural scenery, for example, Journeying to the Village (Cun Xing), “To noises from ten thousand ravines mingle with the sound of dusk; mountain peaks stand silent as I linger in the slanting sun. Leaves of crab apple and pear trees drop their deep rouge color; field buckwheat flowering shed a snow-white fragrance”. This poem portrayed the interesting natural scenery in bright colors. The late Tang Dynasty style imitated the poets such as Jia Dao and Yao He for their deliberation on poems. Poets using this style were mostly monks and recluses. The representative monks include “Nine Poet Monks”, i.e., Xi Zhou, Bao Xian, Wen Zhao, Xing Zhao, Jian Chang, Wei Feng, Hui Chong, Yu Zhao, and Huai Gu. They kept the tradition of Jia Dao and Yao He and were committed to weighing every word. However, their poems were narrow-minded. The representative recluses included Pan Lang, Wei Ye, and Lin Bu. Although they learned from the deliberate spirit of Jia Dao and Yao He, they removed oddity and tried to use plain language. Lin Bu (967–1028), courtesy name Junfu, hailed from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) and lived in seclusion in the Solitary Hill by the West Lake. He was not married and did not take any official post. Because he loved plum and crane, he was called by the people at that time to “have plum as his wife and crane as his son”. He wrote He Jing Shi Ji. The rise of the Xikun style was attributed to A Collection for Xikun Poems (Xi Kun Chou Chang Ji). During the second year of Emperor Zhenzong of Song under the title of Jingde (1005), Yang Yi et al. compiled Ce Fu Yuan Gui under an imperial edict. At the sideline of work, they composed poems for antiphony purposes, and their poems were compiled into a collection which included more than 200 antiphony poems created by 17 poets including Yang Yi, Liu Jun, and Qian Weiyan. These poems were mostly five-character or seven-character

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and imitated the poems of Li Shangyin in terms of content and art. They stressed rhythm, wording, and extensive use of allusions so much that the meanings became obscure. For this reason, the Xikun style was criticized. Certainly, the Xikun style was not good for nothing because its emergence eliminated the unsystematic writing styles that had existed since the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. It was a pioneer in the learning culture and allusion preference of Song poetry. Ouyang Xiu was the key poet who introduced something fresh to the Song poetry. Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), courtesy name Yongshu and art name Zuiweng, also known as Liuyijushi in his late years, hailed from Luling (now Ji’an, Jiangxi Province). He wrote Ou Yang Wen Zhong Gong Ji. He was a learned man who emphasized meaning in his literary creations and a recognized leader in the literary circle at that time, with outstanding achievements in poetry, ci, and prose. In poetry, he was deeply influenced by Li Bai and Han Yu. His poems were as linguistically fresh and beautiful as Li Bai’s poems and also imitated Han Yu’s poems by introducing the prose style into poetry. His poems that expressed his personal interest in life were mostly metrical pattern poems which were fresh and exquisite, vivid in imagery, unbending in structure, and surprising in argumentation. Ouyang Xiu’s poems reversed the humble and mundane nature of poetry since the Five Dynasties and signaled a new vision for Song poetry. Mei Yaochen (1002–1060), courtesy name Shengyu, hailed from Xuancheng (now in Anhui Province) and wrote Wan Ling Xian Sheng Ji. In the late years of Emperor Renzong of Song under the title of Tiansheng, Mei Yaochen was highly appreciated by Qian Weiyan, a poet of the Xikun style. He also made friends and composed antiphony poems with Ouyang Xiu, Xie Jiang, and Yin Zhu, who also served in the Western capital Luoyang, to promote a poetry reform. His political career was not smooth, but he was very famous for his poems. As Ouyang Xiu commented, “Adversity revealed his genius”. In terms of poetry theme, his poems inherited the satire tradition in The Book of Poetry and mainly reflected people’s sufferings (such as Tian Jia Yu and Ru Fen Pin Nv). He was also good at seeking inspiration from life. Not only trifles like eating clams and shepherd’s purses but also some subject matters rarely found in past poems were included in his poems. He expanded the range of subject matters in poetry. In terms of poetic aesthetics, Mei Yaochen pursued a plain poetic style. Plainness was the ideal aesthetic state for the people in the Song Dynasty. This style was started by Mei Yaochen, whose

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poems were filled with elegant colors, simplicity, and naturalness. Song poetry thus transcended the gorgeous and colorful style of the Xikun style and developed its own typical style. Su Shunqin (1008–1048), courtesy name Zimei, hailed from Kaifeng (now in Henan Province) and wrote Su Xue Shi Wen Ji. He was as famous as Mei Yaochen and they were together called “Su-Mei”. However, different from the contemplative, subtle, plain, and leisurely qualities of Mei Yaochen, SuShunqin, and his poems were bold and unrestrained. He was a man of great ambition, who cared about his homeland and wrote many poems lamenting for the times and current affairs. For example, his Defeat in Qingzhou (Qing Zhou Bai) expressed the indignation of a patriot at the behavior of surrendering a country’s sovereign rights under humiliating terms. In this poem, a bold momentum coexisted with penetrating melancholy and melody. He also had some fresh and natural small landscape poems which were quite artistically exquisite. He was one of the early poets in the Song Dynasty to learn from Du Fu. The Anthology of Du Fu (Du Fu Bie Ji) he edited led to a fashion of learning from Du Fu in the Northern Song Dynasty. Wang Anshi (1021–1086), courtesy name Jiefu and art name Banshan, hailed from Linchuan, Fuzhou (now Linchuan, Jiangxi Province). He wrote Lin Chuan Wen Ji. He was an influential man in the political arena and an outstanding poet. His poems had the typical characteristics of Song poetry because he epitomized the learning and argumentation characteristics of Song poetry. Wang Anshi’s poems were divided into two periods by his retreat to Jiangning in the ninth year of Xining (1076). Many of his poems created in his early years served the purpose of “remedying and investigating current politics” (such as North of the Yellow River (He Bei Min)). His chanting poems and poems on history were also unique. For example, he demonstrated his unbending fighting spirit in A Solitary Tree (Gu Tong); and he expressed his feeling of being unappreciated through the perspective of Zhaojun in Ming Fei Qu, which also included decisive arguments and penetrating views. After retreating to Jiangning and fading from the political arena, Wang Anshi wrote many small beautiful lyrical landscape poems in a leisurely and peaceful mood, and these poems had a style widely different from the poems created in his early years. The wording was ingenious with skillful rhetorics. Such poems usually fell into the scope of the so-called “Banshan style” and “Wangjinggong style”.

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Su Shi: A Representative of Song Poetry

Su Shi (1037–1101), courtesy name Zizhan and art name Dongpojushi, hailed from Meishan (now in Sichuan Province). He left A Collection of Su Shi’s Poems, Collected Works of Su Shi, and Dongpo Yuefu to this date. More than 2,700 of his poems have survived, covering a wide range of subject matters and rich content. His versatile styles, exquisite skills, and sincere personality made him a typically representative poet in the history of Song poetry. One achievement of Su Shi’s poems was that everything could be written into poems. He could turn what’s unimaginable and indescribable into talented and fresh writings. He not only offered incisive and vivid descriptions but also composed them so easily and effortlessly. For example, in Drinking at the Lake First in Sunny, then in Rainy Weather (Yin Hu Shang Chu Qing Hou Yu), he wrote, “The brimming waves delight the eye on sunny days, the dimming hills present rare view in rainy haze. West Lake may be compared to Lady of the West, whether she is richly adorned or plainly dressed”. He wrote the scenery in the West Lake changing from sun to rain remarkably true to life and reasonably compared the beauty Xi Shi to the lake. His acclaim for the lake in the rain showed his unique aesthetic. Su Shi wrote many political allegorical poetries that reflected social conflicts in many aspects. For example, he wrote about how grain prices hurt farmers and revealed some malpractices of the reform in Lament of a Peasant Woman (Wu Zhong Tian Fu Tan). These upright and bold poems led directly to the event of “Wu Tai Shi An”, a literary inquisition against Su Shi. However, this event did not clear his concern about imperial politics. In An Ode to Litchi (Li Zhi Tan) created in his late years, he was still sharp to give a bitter critique of the practice of offering tributes to emperors through the ages. Su Shi went through vicissitudes of official life, but he got rid of sorrow in his poems with a detached attitude. In Upon My Arrival in Huangzhou (Chu Dao Huang Zhou), “Living in the loop of the Yangtze, I have a taste for fish; bamboos hill after hill, I’m keen on their delicious shoots. An exile? Why not put him in an out-of-payroll position; poets, in such cases, usually join the ranks of water boys”. Under his calm and unrestrained attitude was a defiant heart. Also, in Crossing the Sea on the Night of June 20 (Liu Yue Er Shi Ri Ye Du Hai) written in his late years, he expressed his clear mind by writing “Do the clear clouds and the bright moon need embellishment? The sky and the sea are inherently lucid and clean”. By

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writing “I don’t hate neither escape I experienced in Lingnan, it is the greatest adventure in my life and brings me unprecedented new feelings”, he dissolved the sorrow of being demoted to Hainan in an open mind and leisure. This transcendence is an important reason why readers have appreciated his poems for generations. Su Shi was knowledgeable and experienced a great deal of life. He was good at drawing experiences from life and explained profound philosophy through commonness. The combination of prose, his talent, and argumentation with poetry was also an important feature of his poems. His poems often resulted from an unrestrained play of writing. One of his best friends mailed six bottles of wine to him, but they were gone halfway. He received nothing but a letter telling him about the gifts. He joked: “Unexpectedly, the six Qingzhou Congshi (good wine) becomes Mr. Nobody” (Zhang Zhifu Sends Me Six Bottles of Wine as Gifts, But I Receive Only His Letter and No Wine (Zhang Zhi Fu Song Jiu Liu Hu, Shu Zhi Er Jiu Bu Da)). Citing the allusion that Deputy Governor Huan Wen in New Account of Tales of the World called good wine as “Qingzhou Congshi” and “Mr. Nobody” in Rhapsody on Sir Vacuous, he made fun of this small incident in an interesting way. Su Shi was greatly talented and unrestrained. He could provide fertile and amazing imagination and metaphors. As a result, his poem embraced a variety of styles, and his poetic style was unconventional and influenced later generations greatly. Yuan Haowen, the most outstanding poet in the Jin Dynasty, started from learning his poems. People in the Ming Dynasty deprecated Song poetry, but they praised Su Shi only. There is no doubt that Su Shi’s poems represented the highest achievement of Song poetry.

3

Huang Tingjian and Jiangxi Poetry School

Huang Tingjian (1045–1105), courtesy name Luzhi, called himself Shangudaoren and was also known as Fuweng. He hailed from Fenning (now Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province). At the age of 23, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. He had served on some low-grade positions such as assistant to magistrate and magistrate. In the eighth year of Yuanfeng, he participated in editing The True Record of Emperor Shenzong (Shen Zong Shi Lu). Later, because the Old Party lost power, he was demoted to Yizhou, where he passed away. He left Shan Gu Nei Ji, Wai Ji, and Bie Ji. He was a disciple and close friend of Su Shi. Among the four disciples of Su Shi, he was most accomplished

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in poems and was known as “Su-Huang” together with Su Shi in the poetry circle. Huang Tingjian summarized through practice a set of highly feasible poetry-making methods which were easy for people to comprehend and learn. Although Huang Tingjian was not as excellent as Su Shi as a poet, he was more admired by people and gradually led a poetry school. Lü Benzhong composed Chart of Jiangxi Poetry Community (Jiang Xi Shi She Zong Pai Tu) at the turn of the Southern and Northern Song dynasties, in which he listed Huang Tingjian as the founder who led 25 followers including Chen Shidao. Because Huang and more than half of the writers were from Jiangxi, they were called the Jiangxi Poetry School, with Huang Tingjian being the core of the school. Huang Tingjian’s poetic theory and creative practice both represented the characteristics of the Jiangxi Poetry School. The center of Huang Tingjian’s poetic theory was originality which sought innovation and change. To this end, he deliberately put forth new ideas in conceptualization, structure, and syntax. The new ideas came forth from solid learning and extensive reading instead of invention or fiction. Huang Tingjian lived in an era when books and printing were increasingly popular. He read extensively. Under his pen, “not a single word comes from nowhere” (Da Hong Ju Fu Shu). He advocated the poetic technique of “duo tai huan gu” (express the ideas in earlier literary works in a new way) (Leng Zhai Ye Hua by Hui Hong), which was a specific result of his passion for “putting forth new ideas”. The so-called “duo tai” mainly referred to changing and developing ideas from earlier poems. The so-called “huangu” mainly referred to identifying an idea from an earlier work and giving it greater refinement by expressing it with a more appropriate choice of words. In terms of poetic rule and syntactic structure, he advocated ups and downs and variety. In the use of wording and rhyme, he avoided vulgarity and familiarity and preferred to use rare words and allusions and unconventional and difficult rhymes. As a result, Huang Tingjian developed a new and steep poetic style. His poems developed into an independent style in the poetry circle during the Song Dynasty because of the unconventional syntax. This style, called “Huang Tingjian style” or “Shangu style” (“Shan Gu Ti”), had an impact on the traditional poetic rules. His ideas and creations were often taken to the extreme by himself and his descendants, intentionally or unintentionally. For example, he was said to have “not a single word come

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from nowhere”, and this led his followers to the path of seeking inspiration from books and learning only and getting detached from reality. His propositions of “turning a crude poem or essay into a literary gem” and “expressing the ideas in earlier literary works in a new way” were vulnerable to the malpractice of following a set routine. His overemphasis on rare words and allusions in poems was also prone to bad grammar and obscure meaning. The poems he wrote after his middle age were less curious and abrupt. Instead, they became plain and natural, reflecting the general tendency of the Song poetry toward the beauty of plainness. In addition to Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao was another highly accomplished poet of the Jiangxi Poetry School and was known as “Huang-Chen” with Huang Tingjian. Chen Shidao (1053–1102), courtesy name Wuji, called himself Houshanjushi and hailed from Pengcheng (now Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province). He wrote Hou Shan Ji. He was a deliberate poet. Whenever inspiration knocked, he would close his door, lie down under the covers, spend the whole day deliberating poems in agony, and even drive his cats and dogs to the neighbor’s house. Huang Tingjian aptly commented that he “searched for lines behind the closed door”. Although his poems were confined to relatively narrow subject matters, they often carried very sincere emotions. He learned from Huang Tingjian and Du Fu to compose poems that presented a simple and robust poetic style. Jiangxi Poetry School remained influential from the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty. However, as the political situation changed and the shortcomings of the poetic style became apparent, the followers of Huang Tingjian took some turns one after another, contributing to a new change within the Jiangxi Poetry School. Jiangxi Poetry School was named by Lü Benzhong and his Chart of Jiangxi Poetry Community, who also promoted new changes in the school. Lü Bezhong (1084–1145), courtesy name Juren, also known as Donglai Xiansheng, hailed from Shouzhou (now Shouxian, Anhui Province). He once served as a secretariat drafter. In his early years, he admired Huang Tingjian only. After he moved into the Southern Song Dynasty, he advocated the theory of “literary flexibility” that “Those who wish to learn to write poetry should master literary flexibility. Literary flexibility means that while knowing all the rules for poetry, the poet goes beyond them to reflect unpredictable changes in his poetry yet without compromising the rules” (The Collected Poetry of Xia Junfu (Xia Jun Fu

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Ji Xu)). The theory of “literary flexibility” tried to remedy the shortcomings of Jiangxi Poetry School and became an important topic in poetics during the Southern Song Dynasty. Lü Benzhong’s poems were apparently light and flowing. His most famous work, however, was a collection of 29 solemn and sorrowful Self-entertaining Miscellaneous Poems after Confusion of War (Bing Luan Hou Zi Xi Za Shi). When Jingkang Incident occurred, he was in Bianjing and experienced firsthand the painful fall of the country. This collection of emotional and sorrowful laments was a true portrayal of turbulent times. Zeng Ji surpassed Lü Benzhong who influenced him deeply. Zeng Ji (1084–1166), courtesy name Jifu and art name Chashanjushi, hailed from Ganzhou (now in Jiangxi Province). He once served as the judiciary officer in Jiangxi and Zhedong. He left Cha Shan Ji. Zeng Ji learned from Du Fu, admired Huang Tinjian and Chen Shidao and even kept Lü Benzhong’s theory of “literary flexibility” deeply in mind. He once consulted Lü Benzhong for poetry rules and imparted what he learned to Lu You. The poetic styles in the Southern and Northern Song dynasties were passed down and evolved in this poetry development context. Zeng Ji’s poems were not confined to a single style. Instead, they included both a sorrowful lament for the country (such as Making Home in Wuxing (Yu Ju Wu Xing)) and refreshing and delightful small poems. Chen Yuyi was another important poet of the Jiangxi Poetry School. Fang Hui, a poetry theorist living in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, was called together with Chen Yuyi, Huang Tingjian, and Chen Shidao as “Three Masters” of the Jiangxi Poetry School. Chen Yuyi (1090– 1138), courtesy name Qufei, called himself Jianzhai, hailed from Luoyang (now in Henan Province). He once served as assistant administrator and left Jian Zhai Ji. His creations could be divided into two periods by Jingkang Incident. In the first period, he was mainly interested in expressing personal grief. In the second period, he focused on showing concern about the times and chaos. His poetic style was similar to that of Du Fu and broke the obscurity and conciseness of the Jiangxi Poetry School. Afterward, the Jiangxi Poetry School gradually declined, but its aftermath lingered. The Four Great Poets in the middle and late years of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jianghu Poetry School launched an attack to the Jiangxi Poetry School in public, which exactly indicated that the Jiangxi Poetry School remained an important pull in the poetry circle. In fact, many famous poets through the ages were influenced by the Jiangxi

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Poetry School, which was the most influential school of classical Chinese poetry.

4

Four Great Poets of Resurgence Era

Lu You, Yang Wanli, Fan Chengda, and You Mao, known as the Four Great Poets of Resurgence Era or the Four Great Poets of the Southern Song Dynasty, were representative poets in the middle years of the Southern Song Dynasty. They were all influenced by the Jiangxi Poetry School in their early years, and they rose from the harsh reality that half of their homeland had been lost. Each of them showed their talent, freed themselves from the shackles of the Jiangxi Poetry School, and reflected the broad realistic life in their poems. Among them, Lu You was the most accomplished. Because his works have been lost, You Mao seemed unable to match the other three poets, judging from his surviving poems and prose. Yang Wanli’s poems showed a distinct personality and a dynamic and humorous style and hence reputed as the “Chengzhai style”. Yang Wanli (1127–1206), courtesy name Tingxiu, called himself Chengzhai, hailed from Jishui (now Ji’an, Jiangxi Province). He wrote Cheng Zhai Ji. He was both a poet and a Neo-Confucianist. He was subtly influenced by the neo-Confucianist thought of focusing on the observation of objects and the flexibility of the mind. Yang Wanli first imitated the Jiangxi Poetry School and then learned from Wang Anshi’s quatrains and the late Tang Dynasty quatrains. Finally, “epiphany suddenly befell”. Therefore, he abandoned all of what he learned and created a technique of writing natural, linguistically lively, and interesting poems, which was called “Chengzhai style”. Behind the “Chengzhai style” was a unique way of observing and emphasis on the importance of learning from nature and restoring the poet’s true sense of natural life. The poems describing natural scenery and daily life best manifested the characteristics of the Chengzhai style. They were well-conceived, rich in imagination, easy to understand in language, witty and interesting. Fan Chengda (1126–1193), courtesy name Zhineng, called himself Shihujushi, hailed from Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). He served as deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, governor of Guangxi, military commissioner of Sichuan, and assistant administrator. He wrote A Collection of Poems by Shihujushi. His poetic style might not be as novel as that of Yang Wanli, but his works showed courage to face reality. He

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had three types of noteworthy poems. The first type was a large group of seventy-two quatrains about a trip to the north as an envoy to the Jin Dynasty. These poems praised heroes who fought against the enemy, condemned relentlessly a fatuous ruler, and more importantly showed deep sympathy for the people in the fallen areas. The second type was the poems that inherited the tradition of the new Yuefu of the Tang Dynasty and reflected the social reality and the hardships of the people, with Pressing for Tax Payment I (Cui Zu Xing) and Pressing for Tax Payment II (Hou Cui Zu Xing) typical examples. The third type was field and garden poems. Among them, the most famous 60 pieces of Seasonal Poems on Fields and Gardens (Si Shi Tian Yuan Za Xing) were divided into five groups of “spring”, “late spring”, “summer”, “autumn”, and “winter”, with 12 pieces of poems in each group. They very thoroughly described the rural labor life, folk customs, fields and gardens, and the scenery of the year in Jiangnan. Historically, fields and garden poems mostly expressed the tranquility of rural life and reflected the poet’s inner feelings of seclusion. The fields and gardens in Fan Chengda’s poems, however, returned to their earthy nature. The poems restored both real scenes of farming work and fresh and natural rural scenery. They expressed both the pleasures of farming and the hardships of agricultural life. They praised and also showed sympathy. This group of poems expanded the fields and gardens poems and became a masterpiece in this genre in China. Among these four great poets, Lu You was the most accomplished. More than nine thousand of these poems have survived, creating the top record among poets in the Song Dynasty. These works were inclusive, skillful, and were full of sincere and impressive thoughts and feelings. Lu You (1125–1210), courtesy name Wuguan, called himself Fangweng and hailed from Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). He left Jiannan Poem Manuscript (Jian Nan Shi Gao) and Collected Works of South Weihe River (Wei Nan Wen Ji). The theme of his poems was a patriotic sentiment against the enemy and fighting for the restoration of the country. A patriotic poet was his most dazzling title, but his poems were not all about patriotism. He wrote not only verses like “Lying in the depth of the night I listen, to the winds blowing the rain. And ironclad horses over frozen rivers, as of old, invade my dreams again” but also romantic verses about deep love like “Alas, the green water under the bridge forlorn, once reflected the charming face of my beloved one” (Shenyuan Garden I (Shen Yuan · Qi Yi)). When he was young, Lu You was deep in love with his wife Tang, but they were forced to divorce.

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Shortly after, Tang died of illness. Lu You felt a great pity. It was said that in his late years, he often looked into distance at the Shenyuan Garden, where he and Tang met again after their separation. The series of poems he wrote to mourn Tang were among the best ancient romantic poems. Lu You was also good at discovering materials to write into poems in broad daily life, capturing poetic meaning from trivial things and writing greatly charming poems. For example, “In the inn I listen to the rain all night; who’ll sell apricot blooms morrow in the lane?” (At Lin’an after a Rain (Lin An Chun Yu Chu Ji)). These lines described the leisurely and carefree mood of the poet in a small study. “Drunk and Fallen down on the village road, I was helped by my son to return home; I stared at him and asked him who he was” (Song of A Drunk Man (Zui Ge)). These lines portrayed the state of the poet being drunk. “The wine as thick as porridge signals the day of sacrifice, the pastry as big as a dish brings the great joy of harvest in autumn. I return hometown and appreciate the people here; any worldly concerns are taken lightly” (Qiu Wan Xian Bu Lin Qu Yi Yu Jin Chang Wo Bing Jie Xin Ran Ying Lao). These lines expressed the yearning for peaceful and pleasant rural life. Many of Lu You’s poems touched upon realistic themes, but they did not mean that the descriptions were realistic. On the contrary, he often wrote reality with imagination. His poems about dreams were the most typical. Because in reality, the court was too weak to carry the poet’s great patriotism, this enthusiasm repeatedly flooded in dreams, transforming into all kinds of happy images of recovering the homeland. According to the calculation of Zhao Yi in the Qing Dynasty, Lu You had 99 dream poems, most of which were about the recovery of the homeland. The fact that Lu You expressed his ideals in his dreams accounted for his ability to touch upon realistic themes in a romantic way. In fact, even in his more purely realistic poems, he did not provide detailed and microscopic descriptions as Du Fu did. Instead, he was adept at incorporating subjective feelings into reality and tended to combine reality with imagination. Romanticism and realism alternated and interpenetrated to become his unique magnificent and majestic poetic style. In a word, Lu You inherited the patriotism tradition of Qu Yuan and Du Fu and brought patriotism in Chinese poetry to a new peak. While others led a befuddled life, Lu You was always filled with the thoughts of restoring the homeland, pacifying the country, relieving the emperor’s worries, and placating public opinion. Whenever there is a serious national

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crisis, people always think of Lu You and hear his inspiring poems ringing as clearly as a bell.

5

Zhu Xi and Neo-Confucian Poetry

Neo-Confucianists were often stereotyped as emphasizing ideas more than literary works. In fact, most neo-Confucianists did not abandon poetry. They believed that as long as poets were not indulged in poetry to the extent of “harming ideas”, they might express their emotions moderately through poetry and observe, feel, and realize ideas from this process. Their poems developed their own characteristics and could be called neo-Confucian poetry. Zhu Xi, a famous neo-Confucianist, was a representative. Zhu Xi (1130–1200), courtesy name Yuanhui or Zhonghui, art name Hui’an, was known as Huiweng in his late years, posthumously named Wen and known as Zhuwengong. His ancestral home was Wuyuan County, Huizhou Province (now Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province), and he was born in Youxi, Nanjian Prefecture (now in Youxi County, Fujian Province). He wrote Anthology of Hui’an Xiansheng. He observed the world through the eyes of a neo-Confucianist and was good at discovering the reason for the creation of the universe in all creatures and expressing the feeling of enlightenment in ordinary scenes. Certainly, not all the poems of neo-Confucianists were neo-Confucian poems. Instead, only when they observed all creatures in the neo-Confucian spirit and tried to express the meaning of life and the reason of all creatures in their poems, such poems could be called neo-Confucian poems. However, neoConfucianists were human beings in the first place, so their poems also expressed various human temperaments and aspects of life. Zhu Xi was a passionate commentator of history and created many poems on history as well as many patriotic poems such as Gan Shi Shu Huai Shi Liu Yun, Ci Zi You Wen Jie Yun Si Shou, and Wen Er Shi Ba Ri Bao Xi Er Cheng Shi Qi Shou. They reflected the complex inner feelings of a patriotic scholar official with flesh and blood and were in tune with the related poems of Chen Yuyi and Lu You. Even when he wrote those natural landscape poems, Zhu Xi did not always try to explore their nature or invent the principles of sages. Rather, his poems in this regard often showed purely natural aesthetics. Most typically, the ten poems Ode to Boating in Wuyi (Wu Yi Zhao Ge) were natural and lively as if they were heavenly sights. He brought to life the scenery of Jiuqu River under Wuyi Mountain.

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6 Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia, Jianghu Poets, and Other Poets in the Late Years of Song Dynasty In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the declining state and the chaotic dynastic government immersed the entire poetry circle in a negative and decadent climate. The poets either indulged themselves in poetry and wine or wandered in the woods and springs to escape from their disappointment and dissatisfaction with reality. As a result, the cry for fighting against the enemy faded, while poems about romance and scenery and lyricism for practical use and entertainment gradually increased. During this period, distinct opposites to the Jiangxi poetic style appeared, namely the Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia and the Jianghu poets. The Jiangxi Poetry School typically “relied on old allusions to compose poems”, while its opposites generally advocated “abandoning allusions”. However, although they, to some extent, corrected the shortcomings of the Jiangxi poetic style, they still imitated and adapted the poems of predecessors and did not completely break away from the shackles of the Jiangxi poetic style. The Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia referred to four poets in the place of Yongjia (now Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province), namely Xu Zhao (?–1211, courtesy name Linghui), Xu Ji (1162–1214, courtesy name Lingyuan), Weng Juan (birth date and death date unknown, courtesy name Lingshu), and Zhao Shixiu (1170–1220, courtesy name Lingxiu). Because all of them came from Yongjia and had the character “ling” (meaning “brilliant”) in their name, they were called the “Four Brilliant Poets of Yongjia”. Their poetic style and orientation echoed those of the nine poet monks in the early Northern Song Dynasty. They learned from Jia Dao and Yao He in the late years of the Tang Dynasty and advocated freshness and simplicity. They opposed the neo-Confucian constraint on poetry and the use of allusions and obscurity of the Jiangxi poetry school. However, they took an overly narrow path, mostly focusing on poems about objects, scenery, love, and trifles, and creating poems for entertainment or antiphony. Although they also created small and fresh works, their styles were similar, and their contents were narrow-minded, with limited achievements overall. In terms of genre, these four poets mostly wrote wulü poems that focused on the landscape. The Jianghu Poetry School appeared later than the four poets. It was a loosely organized creative group formed by roaming scholars across the country. They had no regular organization, and their identities were

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relatively complicated. The name “Jianghu Poetry School” (“Jiang Hu Shi Pai”) became to spread when the Hangzhou bookseller Chen Qi published a collection of their poems under the general name of Jiang Hu Ji. Jianghu poets had similar life experiences and mostly roamed in all corners of the country, living on selling their poems. Most of them did not care much about national affairs and were more concerned with the practical benefits of survival. As a result, they composed quite a few vulgar works for paying respects and entertainment. However, their long-term life experience at the bottom of the social ladder also inspired them to write works reflecting the lives of peasants and the poor in cities. Most of the Jianghu poets were not able to develop into a school of their own. Only Dai Fugu and Liu Kezhuang were able to strike out a new path for themselves and stood out. Dai Fugu (1167–1248?), courtesy name Shizhi, called himself Shiping and hailed from Huangyan, Tiantai (now Zhejiang Province). He wrote A Collection of Shiping’s Poems. In his early years, he learned poetry from Lu You and later once advocated the quiet and beautiful poetic style in the late years of the Tang Dynasty, but he always retained the majestic momentum and patriotic fervor as in Lu You’s poems. For this reason, he distinguished himself from other Jianghu poets who were simply indulged in the scenery. Liu Kezhuang (1187–1269), courtesy name Qianfu, later known as Houcunjushi, hailed Putian (now in Fujian Province). He served as inspector of Zhenzhou, vice prefect of Chaozhou, and erudite of Longtouge. He was a loyal official and was relegated repeatedly. Liu Kezhuang was a great master of the Jianghu Poetry School. In his early years, he learned poetry from Jia Dao, Yao He, and Xu Hun in the late years of the Tang Dynasty. Later, he learned poetry from Lu You and Yang Wanli. He was very concerned about current affairs and composed a lot of poems that showed concern for the country and the people. Liu Kezhuang was also an important poetic theorist and put forward many wonderful insights in his Hou Cun Shi Hua. The poetry circle in the late Southern Song Dynasty was full of blood and tears. Wen Tianxiang, Xie Ao, Wang Yuanliang, Lin Jingxi, and Zheng Sixiao wrote with blood and life about their penetrating pain and infinite sorrow, leaving the last poems in the poetry circles during the Southern and Northern Song dynasties.

CHAPTER 21

Ci in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

The origin of ci was inseparable from the popularity of banquet music. Feast was the main occasion for ci performance, and to entertain and amuse the guests was an important function of ci. This context resulted in a sharp contrast between ci and traditional poetry in terms of content, style, and status. Traditionally, “poetry is solemn while ci is flamboyant”. Ci was better at expressing delicate emotions and presenting a subtle and refined style. As a literary genre, ci, after having been brewed and fermented during the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, increasingly attracted the attention of the literati during the Song Dynasty. People in the Song Dynasty not only took these characteristics of ci to an extreme but also completed the construction of the ci style, elevated its status, broadened its realm, and ultimately developed it into a unique form of lyrical expression.

Z. Jian (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Z. Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_21

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1

Liu Yong and the Ci Circle in the Early Years of the Northern Song Dynasty

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, ci inherited the fashion in the Five Dynasties, focusing on romantic love and the sad feeling of separation or showing a leisurely and comfortable life. Organizationally, they were mainly short verses and short lyrics with excellent lyricism, and the techniques of analogy and association were often employed. These ci writings were gorgeous and soft. Representative writers included Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, etc. Their ci writings were penetrated by the elegance and thought of scholar officials, which was a sign of innovation in addition to inheritance. Yan Shu (991–1055), courtesy name Tongshu, hailed from Linchuan (now Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province). He was versatile when he was young and was recommended as a child prodigy at the age of fourteen. He was awarded as a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and had a smooth political career ever since. He once served as chancellor and wrote Zhu Yu Ci. Yan Shu lived a relatively leisurely life and took delight in composing poems and drinking. His ci writings were greatly influenced by Li Yu and Feng Yanji in the Southern Tang Dynasty. However, compared with the sentiment and obsessions of Li Yu and Feng Yanji, Yan Shu’s grief over the passing of spring or the advent of autumn and his sorrowful thoughts and grievances for parting were more harmonious and restrained and slightly more noble. In the ci circle in the early Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu had a similar style to Yan Shu, and they were together called “Yan-Ou”. Ouyang Xiu wrote Liu Yi Ci. His ci writings were mostly laments for the passage of time. However, such laments were not necessarily grave but showed a kind of unrestrained and light sorrow. However, Ouyang Xiu experienced an eventful political career, which was not as smooth as Yan Shu’s. Thus, his ci writings sometimes included steep verses like “The road in the world is risky and dangerous” (Sheng Wu You). Ouyang Xiu’s ci writings about romantic love also included many excellent verses. For example, “My tearful eyes ask flowers, but they fail to bring, An answer, I see red blooms over the swing” (Butterflies in Love with Flowers (Die Lian Hua)), and “Lonely, the lady gets up and unveils the window gauze, finding that the bright moon is shining on the pear blossoms” (Butterflies in Love with Flowers ), which delicately portrayed the loneliness and sorrow of a lady in boudoirs during the late spring.

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In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to Yan Shu and Ouyang Xiu, another group of ci writers like Fan Zhongyan, Zhang Xian, and Wang Anshi epitomized the new changes in ci during the Song Dynasty with their characteristic works. Fan Zhongyan (989– 1052), courtesy name Xiwen, hailed from Wuxian (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). He was a famous politician in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty. He once served as deputy military governor of Shaanxi and ran the armed forces well. During the third year of Qingli, he served as deputy chief of the military commission and assistant administrator in charge of the “Qingli Political Reform” to remedy age-old malpractices in the country. He wrote Fan Wen Zheng Gong Ji. Five of his ci writings have survived to this date. Most of them were innovative and had deep artistic conception. Zhang Xian (990–1078), courtesy name Ziye, hailed from Wucheng (now Huzhou, Zhejiang Province). He left Zhang Zi Ye Ci. Zhang Xian’s ci writings were confined to the traditional lovesick and parting theme, but they had ingenious intentions and beautiful language. Zhang Xian was also good at depicting realistic scenery through imagination. For example, “The clouds cast their shade to the blooms to creep” (The Flower Fairy (Tian Xian Zi)); “The lady lies lazily on bed; The shadow of flowers reflected on the curtains” (Happy Return to the Court (Gui Chao Huan)); “There is no one in the willow path, not even the shadow of the fallen catkins in the wind” (Peonies Cut Down (Jian Mu Dan)); “Steeped in the moon’s pure light, the middle court is still; Countless willow downs run riot” (Magnolia Flowers (Mu Lan Hua)). All of them portrayed the dynamic and hazy beauty of the scenery through the emptiness of shadow. The first three lines were especially popular, earning Zhang Xian the title of “Zhang Sanying” (meaning three shadows). Wang Anshi was not only a good poet but also a very distinctive ci writer. He had 29 ci writings surviving to this date and made an initial breakthrough to the tradition of describing personal sorrow in the literary style of ci. His ci writings that mediated on the past reflected on the rise and fall of the Six Dynasties through the prosperity and decline of the country. The scenery he portrayed was picturesque. His ci writings were clear and ethereal with lofty artistic conception. In these ci writings, the writer showed a clearer tendency to express his own feelings and speak of his own ambitions, revealing the gradual transformation of ci from entertaining people to expressing emotions and ambitions.

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Liu Yong (987?–1053?), originally named Sanbian and courtesy name Jingzhuang, later renamed Yong and courtesy name Qiqing, hailed from Chong’an (now in Fujian Province). He was proficient in rhythm but failed the imperial examinations several times when he was young. After he turned middle-aged, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and once served in some minor posts such as county magistrate and deputy minister of reclamation. He finally died of poverty. He wrote Yue Zhang Ji and had 213 ci writings surviving to this date. Liu Yong was the first writer specialized in ci writings since the Northern Song Dynasty and had a significant influence on ci in the Song Dynasty from organization to content. He was a worthy celebrity in the ci circle. “Wherever there is water from a well, Liu Yong’s ci writings will be sung” (Bi Shu Lu Hua, Vol. III ). His ci writings were even spread as far as Western Xia and Korea, reflecting their popularity and important position in the history of ci. Firstly, Liu Yong developed the organization of ci. He used extensively slow lyrics and long lyrics. He composed 125 pieces of slow lyrics in 87 tunes, breaking the long-standing practice of literati writing mainly short lyrics. Slow lyrics were longer and had more musical variations than short lyrics. They were good at expressing emotions and thoughts through high and low and melodious tones. The popularity of slow lyrics expanded the content of ci and enriched its expressive power. Secondly, Liu Yong expanded the expressive themes of ci. Although the traditional lovesick theme was still found in considerable ci writings, Liu’s ci writings absorbed much new, including important ci writings about cities, travel, and female singers. Liu Yong depicted the prosperous life in big cities like Bianjing, Suzhou, Chang’an, and Hangzhou in colorful strokes. For example, Watching the Tidal Bore (Wang Hai Chao) described the beauty of Hangzhou. Liu Yong failed to pass the imperial examinations repeatedly and traveled around in order to make a living. Thus, his ci writings were good at expressing the desolation and pathos of disillusioned literati. His long-term struggle in the lower social class and interaction with female singers and musicians in the marketplace from time to time accounted for his extremely prolific ci writings about female singers. Although this was often criticized, some of these ci writings truly expressed the yearning of female singers for a free life, while others praised them from an equal and familiar perspective for

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their “gentle hearts and elegant character, not commensurate to prostitution” (Early Youth Wanders [Shao Nian You]). These verses reflected the innocent and beautiful human nature. Thirdly, he improved the expressive technique of ci. Liu Yong’s ci writings were good at detailed descriptions and made good use of plain writing. His language was both elegant and vulgar, with scenery description, narrative, and lyricism melted to enrich expressions. He was also good at using memories and imagination to narrate and express emotions. He looked back to the past from the present, envisioned the future from the present, or envisioned the future and recalled the present, forming a unique structure with multiple times and spaces interspersed. Last but not least, aesthetically, Liu Yong’s ci writings turned elegance into vulgarity. He hanged out in marketplaces and brothels and composed many ci writings that catered to the aesthetic needs of the public, using vernacular language to express the emotional world of people in marketplaces. Liu Yong created a new era of ci in the Song Dynasty and greatly influenced later writers. Later ci writers like Su Shi, Qin Guan, Huang Tingjian, Zhou Bangyan, Li Qingzhao, Xin Qiji, and Wu Wenying all absorbed merits from his works. His artistic techniques were even named “Liu Shi Jia Fa” and “Tun Tian Xi Jing”, which have long nourished the compositions of later ci writers.

2 Su Shi, Zhou Bangyan, and the Ci Circle in the Late Years of the Northern Song Dynasty In the ci circle in the Song Dynasty, Su Shi was the most important ci writer. He completed a full reform of the ci style, breaking through the tradition that “poetry is solemn while ci is flamboyant” and that ci was “erotic”, which made ci an independent lyrical poetic style. He “indicated an upward direction” (Bi Ji Man Zhi, Vol. II , by Wang Zhuo) for the development of ci. Su Shi’s reform of ci was summarized by later generations as “composing ci as poetry” (Hou Shan Shi Hua). It was first reflected as writing ci as if writing a poem to express the writer’s own feelings and perceptions of life. Anything that could be expressed through poetry was expressed by Su Shi through ci writings. Su Shi’s “composing ci as poetry” was reflected in the transfer of the expressive technique of poetry into ci writings. For example, the practice that allusions were used extensively in ci was started by Su Shi. For example, in Riverside Town·Hunting at Mizhou

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(Jiang Cheng Zi · Mi Zhou Chu Lie), the allusion to Sun Quan shooting tiger was employed in the first part to describe a hunting event outside the city, and the spectacular and unrestrained hunting event was highlighted. In the second part, the writer employed the allusion to Feng Tang to express his loyalty to the country by claiming himself as Wei Shang, and his depression for not being appreciated was implied. Through a wealth of allusions, the writer conveyed his complex inner feelings brilliantly. The introduction of the expressive techniques of poetry not only enriched the expressive force of ci but also helped expand its stylistic realm. Su Shi freely expressed himself in his ci writings, showing his true temperament and mind. His boldness, unrestrained attitude, ambition, philosophical thought, depression, and deep sigh were all poured into his ci writings, which were impressive and charming. He greatly expanded the emotional connotation and stylistic realm of ci writings. Su Shi’s ci writings were often regarded as a representative of the bold and unrestrained style, not only because many of his protagonists were old men, drunkards, or heroes but also more importantly because of the historical consciousness, life sentiment, and unrestrained and bold mind expressed. Su Shi’s ci writings were not confined to a single “bold and unrestrained” style. He wrote many graceful and restrained and delicate works. For example, he wrote sad and lonely verses like “Have you seen the recluse come and go alone, much like the vague shadow of distant geese?” (Song of Divination [Bu Suan Zi]). He also wrote mild and romantic verses like “If spring spirits are divided into three parts, then two parts would be buried in soil, and one part would disappear into river. In looking closely, those may not all be poplar flowers, but tears from bidding farewell” (Water Dragon Chant·Adopted Rhyming Zhang Jie Poplar Blossom Verses [Shui Long Yin · Ci Yun Zhang Zhi Fu Yang Hua Ci]). He also wrote beautiful and elegant verses like “The aloes float under a green screen window; the noise of chess wake up the daytime rest” (Ruan Lang Comes·Early Summer [Ruan Lang Gui · Chu Xia]). More such verses could be found in his ci writings, and there were numerous examples. In a word, Su Shi greatly improved the status of ci, expanded its expressive function, opened up its stylistic realm, and established a new aesthetic style, which was of key significance in the process of stylistic change of ci. In the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty, influenced by Su Shi, writers like Huang Tingjian and Chao Buzhi also composed beautiful and vigorous works in the ci circle. The graceful and restrained style remained

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the mainstream of ci, and both rhyme and rhythm were further regulated. Long lyrics and slow lyrics were further developed. The main writers include Yan Jidao, Qin Guan, Zhou Bangyan, etc. Among them, Zhou Bangyan was the most accomplished and influential. Yan Jidao (1038–1110), courtesy name Shuyuan and art name Xiaoshan, was known with his father Yan Shu as “Two Yans” (also known as “Senior Yan” and “Junior Yan”). He wrote Xiao Shan Ci. He came from a wealthy and elegant family, but in his late years, his family declined. For this reason, he often reminisced about their prosperous past in a sentimental stroke. He was a skilled ci writer, and his short ci writings were particularly beautiful. Qin Guan (1049–1100), courtesy name Shaoyou and art name Huaihaijushi, hailed from Gaoyou (now Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province). When he was young, he read books on the art of war and harbored great ambitions. However, he did not become a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination until the eighth year of Yuanfeng, and he simply served as an editor of the Imperial Library during the Yuanyou period. In the early period of Shaosheng, the New Party took power. Because he was a disciple of Su Shi, he was relegated to Chenzhou, Hengzhou, and Leizhou by implication. When Emperor Huizong claimed the throne, he was summoned back but died in Tengzhou on the way. He wrote Huai Hai Ci and had more than 100 ci writings surviving to this date. He was one of the four disciples of Su Shi, but his style of ci writing was greatly different from Su Shi. He was a representative writer of the graceful and restrained style in the Northern Song Dynasty and was reputed by later generations as “the master of graceful and restrained style”. He introduced the composition technique of short lyrics into slow lyrics, making up for the dispersal and straightforwardness of slow lyrics with reserved, profound, and graceful short lyrics to achieve the artistic effect of emotional and rhetorical success. His ci writings were soft and gentle, with exquisite language and excellent lyrical skills. They inherited the style of Liu Yong and inspired that of Zhou Bangyan. In Qin Guan’s ci writings, characters like sorrow, hatred, and bitterness appeared extremely frequently. This stemmed from his extremely sensitive mind and weaker psychological endurance. As his disillusionment in life intensified, his compositions could be divided into two periods. In the first period, Qin Guan still had a positive attitude toward life, with his sorrow mostly being leisurely, light, soft, gentle, and subtle, which created a new chapter for the graceful and restrained style.

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Huang Tingjian left nearly 200 ci writings surviving to this date, and they could be divided into vulgar and elegant categories. The former was gaudy in vulgar language, similar to the style of Liu Yong and was criticized. These works were completed in his early years and only accounted for one-sixth of Shan Gu Ci. His graceful and vigorous works completed when he was demoted were the main representative ci writings of his personal style. Huang Tingjian inherited Su Shi’s composing ci as poetry and contributed to the ci written as poetry and the creation of the bold and unrestrained ci writings in the Southern Song Dynasty. He Zhu (1052–1125), courtesy name Fanghui, had his ancestral home in Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province) and grew up in Weizhou (now Jixian, Henan Province). He Zhu was the fifth-generation grandson of Empress He of the Song Dynasty and was known as “Ghost He” because of his ugly appearance. When he was young, he was chivalrous and showed disdain for the powerful after joining the court. He remained as underling all his life. In his late years, he retired to Suzhou and Hangzhou and called himself Qinghuyilao. He wrote Dong Shan Ci. His ci writings covered a wide range of subjects and a variety of styles, including brightness and vigor. Zhou Bangyan (1056–1121), courtesy name Meicheng and art name Qingzhenjushi, hailed from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). Because he was proficient in rhythm, he was summoned to serve as the governor of Dashengfu during the reign of Emperor Huizong. He wrote Qing Zhen Ji, also known as Pian Yu Ji. Zhou Bangyan’s ci writings conveyed themes similar to those of Liu Yong and were mostly about romance and sorrow of travels. However, they were relatively reserved and elegant. Although his ci writings about travel were similar to those of Liu Yong, which expressed a feeling about life through the depiction of scenery, they were not as straightforward as Liu Yong’s ci writings. Instead, they were left unfinished to imply a more stir and agreeable aftertaste. Compared with Su Shi’s ci writings, Zhou Bangyan’s works seemed narrow-minded but made notable contributions to the structural arrangement and the use of language and rhythm of ci. His ci writings were good at narration, dense with imagery, and skillful in structure. The style did not seem chaotic or cumbersome, but rather varied and balanced. Although they were tortuous, they were also rigorous and meticulous. His language was skillful, elegant, and strictly rhymed. “Being skillful” meant that he was deliberate on wording, and “being elegant” meant that he was good at borrowing verses and ideas

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of predecessors and using substitute characters to make ci refined instead of being vulgar. Zhou Bangyan well versed himself in music, and he also served as governor of Dashengfu to discuss ancient sounds and examine ancient tunes. In addition to perfecting the old tunes, he also created a large number of new tunes, such as man, yin, jin, and fan. For example, Ling Long Si Fan combined four different tunes together, and Liu Chou combined six different tunes together, all of which were difficult to sing. In this way, the organization of ci was further flourished. This was what the so-called “strictly rhymed” meant. This indicated that his ci writings were harmony and ensemble of tune and sound and thus were different from ordinary ones. In the ci circle before Zhou Bangyan in the Northern Song Dynasty, the ci writings were the most direct expression of feelings. Zhou’s ci writings developed creatively, especially in terms of artificial decoration and arrangement, while absorbing the strength of different masters of the graceful and restrained school. He had a profound influence on the ci circle in the Southern Song Dynasty and especially on Jiang Kui, Wu Wenying, Wang Yisun, and Zhang Yan. He was regarded as the founding father of the metrical ci school in the Southern Song Dynasty.

3

Li Qingzhao and the Group of Nandu Ci Writers

The great regime change from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty had a direct impact on the creation of the Nandu ci writers. Previously, they led a relatively stable life and created ci writings of a leisurely style. Later, their ci writings turned to the sadness of reality, and on this basis, they either retreated to the miserable moaning of reminiscing the old days or advanced to the sorrowful cry of resistance. The representative writers include Li Qingzhao, Zhu Dunru, Chen Yuyi, and Yue Fei. Among them, Li Qingzhao, with her unique female perspective and distinctive artistic achievements, became the most beautiful star in the ci circle at that time. Li Qingzhao (1084–1155), called himself Yi’anjushi, hailed from Jinan (now in Shandong Province). She wrote Shu Yu Lyrics (Shu Yu Ci). She was born to a literary family, and her father Li Gefei was a famous litterateur. Her husband Zhao Mingcheng was an expert in epigraphy. Li Qingzhao had both excellent literary attainments and extraordinary insight. Her Ci Theory was one of the earliest theoretical works about ci.

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Different from Su Shi’s “composing ci as poetry”, Li Qingzhao clearly stated that ci should be “a distinctive literary form”, emphasizing the characteristics of ci as a kind of musical lyrics used mainly for expressing emotions and attaching importance to the aesthetic features specific to ci such as rhythm, language, and emotional subtlety. She maintained that ci should “have harmonious rhythm” and “be sung” and that ci should be “divided into five sounds, five tones, six rhythms, unvoiced or voiced and stressed or unstressed”. She defended the literary status of ci as a literary genre from the ontological position of ci. Li Qingzhao left more than 70 pieces of ci surviving to this date. Divided by Jingkang Incident, her ci writings could be divided into two periods. Her early ci writings were mostly about her joy in girlhood and the conjugal affection with her husband. From the first year of Jingkang, Li Qingzhao suffered from the collapse of the country, the loss of home, and the death of her husband. The change of fate shifted her ci style from warmth and tenderness in her early life to the bleak and poignant sentiment toward her family and country. Li Qingzhao’s ci writings had their own style, reputed by later generations as “Yi’an style”. The defining feature of the “Yi’an style” was the ability to depict the daily life of a female and show her unique mental state from a female perspective. For example, she wrote, “But don’t you know, Oh, don’t you know. The red should languish, and green must grow” (Like A Dream [Ru Meng Ling]). The deary crab apple tree was personified to show how it lost its red flowers and had only lush green leaves left after a storm. It served as a foil to the woman’s frustration and melancholy about the passing of spring. In Joy of Eternal Union (Yong Yu Le), two different states of life and mind as a young girl and as a widow in her old age were fully revealed. It was a dirge of youth and a mirror of the misery of the times. Secondly, the “Yi’an style” had the characteristic of expressing implicit feelings in a straightforward way. Li Qingzhao rarely used allusions in her ci writings; instead, she often forged vivid metaphors with very common and lifelike lucid language, revealing abstract personal emotions that developed and changed dramatically. For example, her woe seemed to be weighty as she wrote, “I fear the locust canoe, cannot bear all my woe” (Spring at Wuling [Wu Ling Chun]). Her sorrow seemed to be quantitative as she wrote, “The sorrow is so deep that it seems to have cut the bowels to pieces” (Rouged Lips [Dian Jiang Chun]). Her unhappiness seemed to have a color and shape as she wrote, “Isn’t that I was haply blessed? There blows wind from the west, I’m a day lily growing lest” (Drunk with

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the Shade of Flowers [Zui Hua Yin]). Sorrow was a common theme, but she had so many ways to express it delicately and indirectly. The tension between the plain language and the hazy artistic conception injected a unique charm and style into Yi’an’s ci writings. The “Yi’an style” was among the styles imitated by later writers. In the Nandu ci circle, Zhu Dunru’s ci writings have distinctive characteristics of expressing personal emotions. They inherited the style of Su Dongpo and inspired that of Xin Qiji and were quite influential in the ci circle during the Song Dynasty. Zhu Dunru (1081–1159), courtesy name Xizhen and art name Yanhe, hailed from Luoyang (now in Henan Province). Before the southward migration, he refused to be summoned to the court of the Southern Song Dynasty but pursued his personal freedom. After the southward migration, he began to take up a post in Lin’an and took the interests of the state as his priority. In his late years, he became disillusioned with state affairs, so he was indulged in the landscape. He had three volumes of ci writings called The Woodcutter’s Song (Qiao Ge). Zhu Dunru’s ci writings were strongly autobiographical and reflected his emotional journey throughout life, no matter they were narrative or lyrical, chanting objects or recording travel. Moreover, they were called “Zhu Xizhen’s style” due to the fresh and clear language. Chen Yuyi’s ci writings were mostly reminiscent of old times. Unlike other nostalgic works, his reminiscent works confronted real suffering and attempted to make a difference. The ci writings of Zhang Yuangan, Zhang Xiaoxiang, Ye Mengde, and Yue Fei were majestic and bold. In addition, Li Gang, Zhao Ding, Li Guang, and Hu Quan, as four famous ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty, also composed many ci writings to call for the recovery of half of the homeland.

4

Xin Qiji and Ci Writers of the Xin School

In the ci circle during the middle years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Xin Qiji was one of the most remarkable ci writers. He imitated Su Shi’s bold, broad, profound, and vigorous style. He also established and developed a bold and unrestrained school. Influenced by Xin Qiji, Chen Liang, Liu Guo, Liu Kezhuang, and other ci writers of the Xin school associated ci writings with real life, personal experience and the fate of the country closely. They ran their pens to freely craft many lofty and impassioned ci writings.

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Xin Qiji (1140––1207), courtesy name You’an and art name Jiaxuan, hailed from Licheng (now Jinan, Shandong Province). He was born in a fallen area and had the ambition of restoring the position of the Central Plains since his childhood. He organized a team to fight against the Jin Dynasty and participated in the fight himself. Unfortunately, the court in the Southern Song Dynasty wanted nothing but temporary peace, so there was no way for him to volunteer for the army and serve his country. His passion for serving the country was poured into his literary works. His prose provided agile arguments; his poems were stirring and majestic; and his ci writings were the most accomplished. His Jia Xuan Chang Duan Ju was passed down to later generations. Xin Qiji left more than 620 ci writings surviving to this date, the largest number among ci writers in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties. In terms of content, he further expanded the range of themes for ci writings. He not only composed ci as poetry but also as prose. His themes were broader than those of Su Shi, almost making ci play the same social role as poetry and prose. As a great patriot in the chaotic times, resisting the enemy and saving the country naturally became the theme of his compositions. He expressed his strong determination to resist the enemy and his love for the country under a variety of themes such as antiphony, landscape and object chanting, and mediation on the past and history. Suppressed in the imperial court, Xin Qiji retired to Shangrao and Qianshan in Jiangxi for twenty years. Therefore, he had considerable ci writings about the leisurely life in the countryside which depicted the rural natural scenery and the daily life of peasants from different levels, injecting a fresh and natural rural atmosphere into the ci writings. Xin’s ci writings not only expanded the themes compared to those of his predecessors but also made great progress in artistic creation. First of all, his ci writings made freer and more flexible choices of imagery. They included not only military terms such as swords and spears, iron horses, and flags but also daily vocabulary like chicken cage, yellow calf, rice flowers, wild grasses, and even eyes, ears, tongues, and teeth. These colorful images contributed to a variety of styles dominated by sadness and melancholy and complemented by grace and freshness in his ci writings. Secondly, he also applied the artistic techniques of analogy and association, allusion, the art of composition, argumentation, and dialogue in ancient poetry, and rhapsody in ci writings to expand their artistic techniques. In addition, Xin’s ci writings also combined the languages of classics, schools of thought, history books, and novels, breaking through the linguistic

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boundaries between ci and other literary genres, enhancing the expressiveness of ci and enriching its language. These multiple attempts resulted in a linguistic style that was both profound and elegant as well as fresh and smooth in Xin’s ci writings. Xin Qiji inherited and developed the bold and unrestrained ci style created by Su Shi. He composed ci as prose and injected patriotism into ci writings, pushing them to a higher level. His ci writings had a strong and far-reaching influence both at the time and on later generations. More than scores of schools living at the same time or later than Xin Qiji were influenced by his ci writings. They formed a school of patriotic ci writers together. Han Yuanji, Chen Liang, and Liu Guo, who composed ci writings as reciprocal presents to Xin Qiji, were contributors to the Xin school. Han Yunji (1118–1187), courtesy name Wujiu and art name Nanjianweng, hailed from Xuchang (now Xuchang, Henan Province). He served as minister of personnel and wrote Nan Jian Jia Yi Gao. Xin Qiji wrote Water Dragon Chant·Jia Chen Sui Shou Han Nan Jian Shang Shu during the eleventh year of Chunxi to encourage him to help restore the state. In the next year, Han Yunji wrote Water Dragon Chant·Shou Xin Shi Lang following the same rhyme as a gift to Xin Qiji in return. In this writing, he compared Dou Xian and Zhu Geliang to Xin Qiji, expecting him to recover the Central Plains in the future. This writing was much more magnificent than common popular birthday ci writings. Chen Liang (1143–1194), courtesy name Tong Fu and art name Longchuan, hailed from Yongkang (now in Zhejiang Province). He liked to talk about military and political affairs, and he strongly supported resistance to the enemy. Even though he was imprisoned three times, he did not change his mind. He wrote Long Chuan Ci. Chen Liang’s ci writings included strong arguments and were obviously realistic. He often expressed his political views in ci writings, which were bold, powerful, and unrestrained. Liu Guo (1154–1206), courtesy name Gaizhi and art name Longzhoudaoren, hailed from Taihe (now in Jiangxi Province). He wrote Long Zhouci. His ci writings often included brave words, which was the result of intentional imitation of Xin Qiji’s style. His Patio Spring·Dou Jiu Zhi Jian imitated the dialogue pattern in Xin Qiji’s Patio Spring· Jiang Zhi Jiu Jie Jiu Bei Shi Wu Jin and well captured the unrestrained and humorous quality of Xin’s ci writings. Liu Guo also wrote some sorrowful and grieved works. For example, his Tang Duo Song·Lu Ye Man Ting Zhou expressed the resentment for the loss of homeland in an indirect subtle way and felt bleak and touching.

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The ci writings of the Xin school had a taste for boldness and freedom and were prone to the shortcomings of rudeness, extroversion, and lack of implication. Ci writers like Chen Liang and Liu Guo inevitably had such problems. Liu Kezhuang was a major writer of the Jianghu Poetry School and the most accomplished ci writer of the Xin school in the late years of the Southern Song Dynasty. He wrote Hou Cun Chang Duan Ju. His ci writings were mostly concerned with national affairs and showed awareness of unexpected development and a strong sense of crisis. He presented his broad concern for social reality, and he even expanded on some aspects more than Xin Qiji. For example, he talked about the rebellion of an ethnic minority in the south in The River All Red·Song Song Hui Fu Ru Jiang Xi Mu, which was a theme never written by his predecessors. His ci writings were powerful and unbridled. Although some of them were not refined enough, his excellent works often showed boldness and depression. Liu Chenweng (1232–1297), courtesy name Huimeng and art name Xuxi, hailed from Luling (now in Jiangxi). He was once a disciple of Lu Jiuyuan and later served as administrator of Xilian Academy. His political career stopped with the collapse of the Song Dynasty. He wrote Xu Xi Ji. In terms of ci style, he was closest to Xin Qiji among the adherent poets. Nevertheless, having experienced the great change of a conquered nation, he was no longer as bold and unrestrained as Xin Qiji and shifted to works that mourned the homeland and expressed painful emotions.

5

Jiang Kui and Wu Wenying

In the middle years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a School of Poetic Meter led by Jiang Kui and supplemented by Shi Dazu and Gao Guanguo were comparable to the ci writers of the Xin school. Its influence extended to the late years of the Song Dynasty and the early years of the Yuan Dynasty. Wu Wenying, Zhou Mi, Wang Yisun, Zhang Yan, and Jiang Jie learned remotely from Zhou Bangyan and recently from Jiang Kui’s “elegant ci”. They pursued neat meter, the craft of wording, subtlety and melody of ci, and further developed the artistic techniques of ci. Jiang Kui (1155?–1221?), courtesy name Yaozhang and art name Baishidaoren, hailed from Poyang, Jiangxi Province. He once refused Zhang Jian’s generous offer to buy him an official position and lived with poverty and personal integrity. He was a master of poetry, ci, prose, and

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calligraphy and was especially adept at music. He left 84 ci writings in his Bai Shi Ci, 17 of which were composed by him and were the only surviving music scores from the Song Dynasty. They provide valuable information for the study of music and ci histories by later generations. Jiang Kui’s masterpieces in the genre of ci were mostly about laments for the times and sentimentality, love, and chanting objects. His ci style could be described as “qing, kong, sao and ya”. “Qing” meant that his language and imagery were beautiful, elegant, even cold and chilly. “Qing” was a defining feature of the language in his ci writings. “Kong” meant the ethereal context of his ci writings. His lyricism and chants were aloof and prioritized spirit over appearance, without stagnating on the object itself. “Sao and ya” meant that he inherited the traditions of The Book of Poetry and Verses of Chu to express grave and reserved feelings through analogy and association. “Ya” referred to not only the refined and elegant content but also the mild and graceful language. In his ci writings, he tried to be elegant instead of vulgar in wording and was admired by later generation as the “master of elegant ci”. Wu Wenying (1207?–1269?), courtesy name Junte, art name Mengchuang and alternatively Jueweng in his late years, hailed from Siming (now Ningbo, Zhejiang Province). He served as an aid to the powerful and noble for a long time in his capacity as a civilian but did not take advantage of his job to seek an official position. He was a lofty and straight man. He wrote Meng Chuang Ci and left 34 pieces of ci writings surviving to this date. In terms of the number of ci writings, Wu Wenying was second only to Xin Qiji and Liu Chenweng in the Southern Song Dynasty. However, most of his ci writings were written with a narrow mind for antiphony, laments for the times and nostalgia, or chanting objects or landscapes. In terms of artistic skills, he creatively developed the ci writings of Zhou Bangyan and Jiang Kui and became an excellent master with his unconventional thinking and structure, as well as his strange and fresh language. His 240-character Ying Ti Xu, which was the longest self-composed musical piece in the history of ci, consisted of a bunch of fragmented images that lacked rational logic, but its inner structure essentially was guided by the ebb and flow of feelings to express the longing for a deceased lover at different levels and in multiple dimensions. Such leapfrogging structure dominated by psychological, time, and space changes, interspersed with the development of physical time and space, covered any obvious echoing clues in the text and showed forward thinking of modern stream of consciousness. The ambiguity and multiple

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meanings of the context also maximized the release of subtle feelings from the heart. The fresh and strange language in Wu’s ci writings was mainly reflected in the choice of words. Wu Wenying liked to use stimulating words that conveyed strong senses or emotions. In his ci writings, words like filthy, freezing, sour, fishy, and swallowing appeared frequently to enhance the senses like touch, taste, smell, and hear, so as to convey fresh stimulation psychologically. In his ci writings, Wu Wenying also combined words and phrases in a strange way. This was, on the one hand, reflected in his invention of words and phrases with keen intuition to make them appear in a very logical order; on the other hand, this was also reflected in his combination of words and phrases arbitrarily by his subjective psychological feelings, making manipulated connections between words that did not speak the same language with each other. These features in the structure and phrasing of his ci writings greatly expanded the depth and breadth of his subjective feelings, but the lack of a rational and logical explanation made his ci writings difficult to understand. Nevertheless, Wu Wenying also composed some beautiful and easy-to-understand works. His unique artistic creations made an important contribution to the development of ci and were highly influential. He was highly regarded by Yin Huan, Shen Yifu, and Zhou Mi, and he was even more praised by some of the ci writers in the Qing Dynasty such as Zhou Ji, Ge Zai, Chen Tingzhuo, and Kuang Zhouyi.

6 Ci Writers in the Late Years of the Song Dynasty In 1276, the Southern Song Dynasty perished. Some ci writers thus became the so-called adherents of the former dynasty, and a group of “adherent ci writers” represented by Zhang Yan, Zhou Mi, Liu Chenweng, Wang Yisun, and Jiang Jie was formed. This group was roughly divided into two schools. One school inherited the tradition of Jiang Kui and was represented by Zhang Yan, Zhou Mi, Wang Yisun, and Jiang Jie. The other school learned from Xin Qiji and was represented by Liu Chenweng and Wen Tianxiang. Zhang Yan (1248–1320?), courtesy name Shuxia, art name Yutian and Lexiaoweng, hailed from Lin’an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). He wrote Shan Zhong Bai Yun Ci and left 302 pieces of ci writings surviving to this date. Zhang Yan wrote the two-volume The Origin of Ci

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(Ci Yuan). The first volume discussed rhythm, while the second volume discussed the creation of ci. This book talked about techniques like rhythm, wording, syntax, organization, and use of allusions. He emphasized harmonious rhythm in ci writings and learned from Jiang Kui whose ci writings were praised by him as being “not only refreshing and ethereal, but also elegant”. His works had a significant influence on later generations. Stylistically similar to Jiang Kui, Zhang Yan often described the pain of the ups and downs of personal life and the country in a desolate and bleak mood. His masterpiece Double Rings Unchained·Lonely Wild Goose (Jie Lian Huan · Gu Yan) entrusted a solitary goose to depict his miserable drifting life and nostalgia for the homeland. He was thus reputed as “Solitary Goose Zhang”. Zhou Mi (1232–1298), courtesy name Gongjin and art name Caochuang, hailed from Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang Province). He was the magistrate of Yiwu County in the Southern Song Dynasty. After the collapse of the Song Dynasty, he did not take on any official position. He concentrated on compiling literature and completed a variety of influential notes such as Wu Lin Jiu Shi and Qi Dong Ye Yu. He also compiled seven volumes of Jue Miao Hao Ci, which were widely circulated. His Cao Chuang Ci left 152 ci writings surviving to this date. Zhou Mi’s ci writings were influenced by Jiang Kui and Wu Wenying to varying degrees, especially more directly by Wu. However, his style turned bleak as he suffered from the pain of the fall of his country in his late years. Wang Yisun (1240?–1310?), courtesy name Shengyu and art name Bishan and alternatively Zhongxian, hailed from Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). He wrote Bi Shan Yue Fu and left 64 pieces of ci writings surviving to this date. He was famous for his chanting of objects. Most of his ci writings expressed the lonely and miserable feelings as a survivor of the fallen state. His ci writings were also favored by some predecessors, especially the Changzhou Ci School in the Qing Dynasty, which thought that his ci writings had the deepest implication and greatest power, lingered on loyalty and love, and expressed laments for the times and worries about the country. Jiang Jie, courtesy name Shengyu and art name Zhushan, hailed from Yangxian (now Yixing, Jiangsu Province). In the tenth year of Xianchun (1274), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination. After the collapse of the Song Dynasty, he was determined not to take on any official position. He wrote Zhu Shan Ci. Jiang Jie was a loner by nature, and he had no contact with other adherent ci writers like Zhou

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Mi, Zhang Yan, and Wang Yisun. Different from Xin Qiji and Jiang Kui, he opened a new path for himself that combined boldness and refreshment with depression and subtlety. Jiang Jie’s ci writings also focused on the delicacy of language and the beauty of sound. After the death of the Song Dynasty, the ci circle was full of miserable tones and bitter tunes, but the Xin school still showed some staying passion. Unlike Xin Qiji’s heroic spirit, the passion shown in this period was somewhat vague. For example, Wen Tianxiang showed his loyalty and gave a passionate cry in the lines “The world is as changeable as wind and rain; I am determined to remain as unshaken as the moon” (The River All Red (Man Jiang Hong)). He also vehemently wrote down the inspiring lines “Life is fleeting, so we should make a great difference for the country and the people. If Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan were afraid of death and surrendered to be captured, they would be scorned and go down in history as a symbol of infamy instead of leaving a good name?” (Patio Spring ·Zhi Yuan Jian Liu Yan Shan Zuo). However, he seemed not confident enough, and his language was too straightforward. However, his patriotic loyalty was awe-inspiring.

CHAPTER 22

Prose and Novels in the Song Dynasty Zhang Jian and Zhou Jianzhi

Brilliant achievements were also made in prose during the Song Dynasty. The ancient prose was a perfect combination of practicality and aesthetics, forming a mainstream style that was easy to understand, concise, and lively and opening up a whole new realm of art. In addition to ancient prose, parallel prose, and fu were also developed. People in the Song Dynasty transformed parallel prose and fu by introducing the syntax and artistic appeal of the ancient prose and created the four–six style and fu with a prose style. People during this period mostly wrote ancient prose to elaborate ideas and as daily writings and confined parallel prose to specific applications. Since then, ancient prose and parallel prose have been separated and each has excelled in its own way.

Z. Jian (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Z. Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_22

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Novels also developed in the Song Dynasty. Classical Chinese novels continued the tradition of their predecessors and showed the characteristics of their own times. At the same time, the prosperity of the urban economy and the rise of the civic class contributed to the popularity of storytelling scripts, which were secular, contrasted sharply with the elegant poetic tradition and showed great vitality.

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Prose in the Song Dynasty

The gaudy literary style originating from the late years of the Tang Dynasty ran through the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty and extended all the way to the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song. Especially in the early years of the reign of Emperor Zhenzong and Emperor Renzong, the Xikun style became very popular. Although writers like Liu Kai, Mu Xiu, Shi Jie, and Yin Zhu bitterly criticized the Xikun style and strongly advocated ancient prose, they failed to completely reverse the trend because they over-emphasized ideas and neglected the artistry of poetry and prose. During the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Renzong under the title of Tiansheng (1030), Ouyang Xiu became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination and gradually became a leader in the literary circle. He not only participated in the poetic reform but also led the innovation of literary style. Ouyang Xiu believed that only prose that was literally and ideologically superior could be passed down to later generations. His theory well addressed the relationship between literature and ideas and pointed out a right path for the development of poetic and literary innovation. Under the influence of Ouyang Xiu, the leader of the literary circle, prose in the Song Dynasty gradually ushered in a golden stage, during which a group of excellent prose writers emerged. Their prose reflected life in a simple and smooth way, jointly eliminating the gaudy and flamboyant style passed down from the late years of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Therefore, the middle years of the Northern Song Dynasty witnessed new prosperity of prose after the Ancient Prose Movement in the Tang Dynasty. The poetic and prose reform accomplished all of its goals by then. Before Ouyang Xiu and others initiated the poetic and prose reform, accomplished prose writers in the Northern Song Dynasty included Wang Yucheng and Fan Zhongyan. After the rise of this reform, in addition to the most accomplished Su Shi,

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representative writers also included Su Xun, Su Zhe, Wang Anshi, Zeng Gong, Chao Buzhi, and Li Gefei. Arguably, that was a star-studded era. Wang Yucheng’s compositions were mostly prose that showed fermented concern about realistic politics and people’s suffering. His expression of personal emotions and ambitions was real and natural, and he developed a simplistic and plain prose style. Fan Zhongyan’s prose was unique in that it combined his personal emotions and ambitions with landscape depiction. Yueyang Pavilion (Yue Yang Lou Ji) was his most famous prose. In this prose, his saying “Be the first to bear the world’s hardship, and the last to enjoy its comfort” became an epitome of the spiritual ideal of scholar officials in the Song Dynasty. Su Xun was good at discourse on politics. His prose often included arguments based on historical successes and failures, major political measures, and relevant political and military issues in the real world. They were thorough, insightful, and highly relevant. The ten pieces of Quan Shu and the ten pieces of Heng Lun were his representative argumentation writings. Su Xun’s argumentation writings were sharp, well controlled, and well-versed in the use of parallelism. They embraced both the style of strategists during the Warring States Period and the simplicity and sincerity of the Song people. Su Zhe’s argumentation writings were good at reasoning with metaphors and elaboration, and his arguments were detailed and thorough. His travel prose provided a lifelike description of landscape as if it were just right before readers. His famous prose, Huang Zhou Kuai Zai Ting Ji, was about the favorable geographical position of a pavilion. The writer expressed his nostalgia for the past and a feeling of “delight”. Both the feeling and the rhetoric were impressive, with subtle and profound charm shown. Wang Anshi was a famous politician in the Northern Song Dynasty. Throughout his life, he devoted himself to reforms, and his prose was closely associated with his political career. The most striking feature of his prose was strong argumentation. Many of his prose writings were either memorials to the emperor that stated his political views and exposed the ills of the times, or letters to rebuke his political opponents. These prose writings were concise in diction, decisive in tone, and logical in reasoning, showing the demeanor of an enterprising and persistent politician. Wang Anshi’s other writings such as epistles, small essays, and travel notes were able to elicit thought-provoking arguments from the depiction of landscapes and narratives. For example, Lament over the Oblivion of Zhongyong (Shang Zhong Yong) described how a child prodigy named

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Fang Zhongyong became an ordinary person without proper education. It conveyed the message that life was like a boat that sailed against the current and that it would be pushed backward if it did not move forward. This prose had deep and far-reaching social significance. A short prose writing with less than one hundred characters, Reading the Biography of Lord Mengchang (Du Meng Chang Jun Zhuan), included four transitions and expounded the new idea that “Lord Mengchang was not favored by scholars”. Although Zeng Gong’s prose was not as accomplished as that of Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, and Su Shi, it was unique in its own way. His prose was thoughtful and detailed in both narrative and reasoning, and it was greatly influenced by Ouyang Xiu’s style of writing. His prefaces, miscellaneous essays, and small essays often discussed the past and the present through well-organized narratives and carried deeply philosophic interest. For example, Ink Pond (Mo Chi Ji) shared an anecdote about the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi to convey the message that studying hard was necessary for success. His prose elicited personal emotions from real happenings and conveyed great meaning from a small theme, reflecting the writer’s rigorous and clear style of writing. Song Li Cai Shu Zhi Liu Zhou Xu advised Li Caishu not to be frustrated by the remoteness of Liuzhou where he was going to take a post. The advice was given in a euphemistic way, but the friendship was self-explanatory. Zeng Gong’s prose emphasized simplicity, so the depiction of the landscape was not the mainstay. Different from the vigorous style of Han Yu and the serious style of Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu created a new prose style that was generally plain, natural, subtle, and diverse. Such a special calm, relieved, subtle, and thorough style was known as “Liu Yi Feng Shen” (Ouyang Xiu’s Vim and Vigor). Ouyang Xiu’s prose took on a variety of forms such as political essays, historical essays, notes, prefaces and postscripts, travel notes, and fu, but they could be roughly divided into two categories of argumentation and narrative. His political and historical essays pointed out the current malpractices, provided detailed analysis and often expressed personal emotions, while his narratives were about people, events, landscape, etc. These narratives about people and events, mostly written in the form of letters, prefaces, postscripts, and epitaphs, were mostly about the ups and downs of life, rises and falls of the times, and life and death, all of which could convey emotions in a simple but methodical and relieved

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narrative, with a strong sense of life experience. His narratives about landscape often entrusted landscape to express emotions and were written with a subtle and diverse style. The Pavilion of Plenty and Happiness (Feng Le Ting Ji), Old Tippler’s Pavilion (Zui Weng Ting Ji), and Ode to the Sound of Autumn (Qiu Sheng Fu) were representatives of his landscape narratives. The Old Tippler’s Pavilion was a well-known masterpiece. This prose was about the beautiful scenery and folk customs of Chuzhou, showing a picture of the local government and the people enjoying themselves together and the writer’s optimism in the face of adversity. The landscape depiction was vivid and natural, and the language combined parallelism with free prose. Tone words were used extensively. All these made the whole prose complicated with one climax following another. Su Shi was a great prose writer who was as famous as Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, and Ouyang Xiu. His prose was written in a wide variety of styles and inclusiveness. It developed on the basis of the achievements of his predecessors and represented the highest achievement in prose development during the Song Dynasty. Su Shi’s political essays were often based on the reality in the Northern Song Dynasty and put forward political insights to pacify chaos and make the country strong. His miscellaneous essays included various kinds of essays about pavilions, travel notes, biographies, letters, and so on. These writings often combined narrative, description, and argumentation. He wrote everything with spirit, and his writings were a unity of poetic splendor and profound philosophy. Su Shi was highly accomplished in prose. The conception and structure of his writings could break through tradition and showed novel, amazing, and diverse characteristics. For example, The Timely Rain Pavilion (Xi Yu Ting Ji) focused on the depiction of rain although it seemed to be about a pavilion as the title suggested. The Stone Bell Mountain (Shi Zhong Shan Ji) was a travel note intended to convey a message. Xing Shang Zhong Hou Zhi Zhi Lun drew on historical materials and created something from emptiness to make the prose ethereal and diverse. The biographies he wrote omitted the lineage, life experience, and official ranking of the protagonist and highlighted a certain personal trait. These works were all innovative and further developed the genre of biography. In terms of artistic technique, Su Shi’s prose, regardless of length, combined narration, description, and argumentation, and unified personal emotions, landscape depiction, and reasoning as a whole. In terms of style, his prose was unconventional, natural, and sincere, with full expression of emotions and a flexible and flowing style.

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In the early Southern Song Dynasty, prose writers were concerned about national welfare and the people’s livelihood. They expressed their feelings directly, and their literary styles were impassioned and highspirited. During this period, famous prose writers also included Hu Quan, Li Qingzhao, Chen Liang, Zhu Xi, and Lu You. In Wu Wu Shang Gao Zong Feng Shi, Hu Quan (1102–1180) directly attacked the powerful and noble and suggested that those who voted for peace through negotiation should be punished such as Wang Lun, Qin Hui, and Sun Jin. His emotion and rhetoric were vehement, and his cry resounded in the court. Li Qingzhao’s Later Preface of Jin Shi Lu (Jin Shi Lu Hou Xu) recalled how the poetess and her husband Zhao Mingcheng collected and compiled inscriptions, calligraphy works and paintings happily and their conjugal love. It also recounted the loss of calligraphy and painting artifacts in the social turmoil, the death of her husband and her own infinite sorrow of displacement. Her emotion and description were sincere and deeply touching. Chen Liang’s Shang Xiao Zong Huang Di Di Yi Shu attributed the sluggishness of the country to the traitors’ plundering of official positions, the exclusion of talented people, and the Taoists’ meaningless talk about life and death without benefit to the country. All of these called for reforms urgently. The discussion on the current malpractices was sharp and profound. Zhu Xi’s prose could break through the constraint of Taoist theories and applied conciseness in both landscape depiction and narratives. His prose was natural, fresh, and full of charm. For example, Bai Zhang Shan Ji recounted how the writer climbed Mount Baizhang and appreciated the surrounding scenery which included the beauty of streams, rocks, and ancient trees. This prose showed the writer’s aesthetic taste and literary talent. For all his life, Lu You had supported resistance to the Jin Dynasty and restoration of the county. His prose was wide-ranging, with deep patriotism running through the narration of events and people, description of landscape, expression of personal emotions, or direct discussion on the court politics. His two famous notes were Lao Xue An Bi Ji and Ru Shu Ji. The former mostly recorded what he heard and saw in the world or what he learned from books. It was written in a concise language and a flexible and free form. The latter described what he saw as he came to the place of Shu along the Yangtze River and recounted the scenery and customs on both sides of the river. It expressed the writer’s deep affection for the landscape in the country. It was concise and good at capturing

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the characteristics of objects, so that the scenery was depicted realistically, naturally, and charmingly. Prose in the late Southern Song Dynasty was created in the change of dynasties. It mainly expressed the patriotic spirit of defending the country until death or lamented for the fallen country in a sad and tragic atmosphere. The main writers included Wen Tianxiang and Xie Ao. Wen Tianxiang’s prose could be divided into three categories, namely political essays, prefaces, and travel notes. His political essays mostly stated his political views and criticized current malpractices, imbued with a sense of righteousness. The language was earnest, with impressive vigor and imposing manner. Yu Shi Ce Ti and Yi Wei Shang Huang Di Shu were his representative works. His prefaces and travel notes often combined narratives, argumentation, and lyricism as a whole and showed strong emotions and an imposing manner. For example, Later Preface of Zhi Nan Lu recorded his experience after he was captured by the enemy for the first time. The writing was concise but detailed, overflowing with impassioned loyalty and martyrdom. Wen Tianxiang’s loyalty to the country and his resistance to the Yuan Dynasty at the cost of his life were admired by later generations. After this national hero died for the country, he was mourned in many literary writings. The most famous one was Xie Ao’s Deng Xi Tai Tong Ku Ji, describing the writer’s recall of this national hero which made him cry on a fishing platform in his dream. The detailed descriptions of the windy and snowy dark weather, “the making of a bamboo artifact to hit the stone and compose a song of Chu in order to summon the soul of the deceased national hero” and “the destruction of the bamboo artifact and the stone”, showed the deep mourning and sorrow of the writer for the deceased and implied strong patriotism. During the Southern Song Dynasty, plenty of prose in the style of notes also emerged. Most of these writings took on the form of prose to record reflections on reading, life experiences, scenic spots, dynastic affairs, historical legends, etc. Hong Mai’s Rong Zhai Sui Bi, Luo Dajing’s He Lin Yu Lu, and Meng Yuanlao’s Dong Jing Meng Hua Lu were representatives. These notes were not constrained by organization or length. They not only had important historical value but also presented colorful literary styles.

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Parallel Prose and Ci-Fu in the Song Dynasty

Parallel prose in the early Song Dynasty mostly followed the old traditions of the Tang Dynasty. Ouyang Xiu was an early reformer of parallel prose. In his parallel prose, he incorporated the ancient free prose style, used less allusions, and was not strict with the neatness of parallel sentences. Therefore, the parallel prose was more inclined to free prose. Arguably, writing ancient prose like poetry began with Han Yu, while writing ancient prose in the four–six prose style began with Ouyang Xiu. For example, his Cai Zhou Qi Zhi Shi Di Er Biao broke the style of four–six stanzas and used seven-, eight-, and nine-character stanzas instead to make the narrative clear and vivid. It was a famous four–six writing in the prose style. From the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, parallel prose writers like Wang Zao, Sun Di, Hong Shi, Qi Chongli, and Zhou Bida inherited the traditions of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, broke the four–six prose format and combined the free prose technique with parallel prose. Using long sentences was a striking characteristic of the parallel prose in the Song Dynasty. Even though long parallel sentences appeared during the times of Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, they became a fashion during this period. Wang Zao (1079–1154) was a well-read writer always with a book in his hand. His Description of was the earliest product of a comprehensive and systematic study on New Account of Tales of the World and was of great academic value. His writings inherited the excellent traditions that had been passed down since the Six Dynasties while making innovation. Like Lu You, Yang Wanli, and Lou Yue, he was also good at parallel prose and wrote considerable excellent sentences. In the late years of the Southern Song Dynasty, parallel prose writers Li Liu and Fang Yue represented the characteristics of parallel prose that were smooth, beautiful, reasonable with relevant and plain allusions, and refreshing in language. Li Liu became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination during the seventh year of Jiading (1214) and served as assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel. He composed 1100 pieces of four–six prose, many of which were famous. However, his writings over-emphasized skills and thus led to the typical shortcomings of being delicate and flowery for his four–six prose works. They completely lost the vigor and magnificence features found from the Northern Song Dynasty to the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty.

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In the Song Dynasty, parallel prose was not only widely used in official writings such as admonitions and memorials to the throne but also deeply influential among the folks. For example, the four–six prose was common in tablet inscriptions, qingci (the Taoist green lyrics used in rituals), memorials, shangliangwen (diction used when a roof beam was set), and even novels and classical local opera that were popular in society. The popularity of parallel prose was evident. There were quite a few theoretical works about parallel prose. For example, Notes on the Four– Six Prose (Si Liu Hua) written by Wang Zhi during the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122) imitated notes on classical poetry, summarized the rhetorical skills of the four–six prose and created “the notes on the four–six prose”. Rhetoric Guide (Ci Xue Zhi Nan) written by Wang Yinglin in the late years of the Song Dynasty discussed the writing approach to the four– six prose and provided samples. It was a relatively systematic theoretical work about parallel prose. Ci-fu in the Song Dynasty was dominated by fu in the prose style, but it also covered other genres of fu such as fu in the regulated prose style and fu in the lisao style. Fu in the prose style referred to fu written in the style of ancient prose. It was not confined to parallelism and was more akin to prose due to its loose structure and flexible sentence patterns. It could be described as a special kind of prose. It was a combination of landscape depiction, lyricism, narratives, and argumentation, with flexible sentences and free rhymes. It had three main characteristics. The first was a realistic narrative. Different from the considerable fictitious of Han-Fu, fu in the prose style was mostly realistic travel notes with relatively truthful and clear time and location information. For example, in Boating at the Red Cliff (Qian Chi Bi Fu), “In the seventh month of the year Renxu, when an autumnal full moon was just a little on the wane, I, Su Shi, went boating with my guests in the river near the Red Cliff”. Information like when, where, and who was clear. Then it described the scene where the host and the guests were enjoying the moon in the boat and talking. Finally, they were “unaware that it was dawning in the east”. This was a complete record of a trip. The second characteristic was argumentation. Fu in the prose style often presented arguments in the form of questions and answers, or it elicited laments through sightseeing and appreciation of artworks. Most often, argumentation and lyricism were introduced upon the sightseeing of scenery. Different from other fu writings that often entrusted landscape to express emotions and combined landscape and emotions inseparably, fu in the prose style often borrowed

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landscape as an introduction to argumentation and philosophic thoughts. The third characteristic was flexibility. Fu in the prose style was free from the neat four–six parallel sentences and even got rid of the combination of parallelism and free prose as in ancient fu. It was freer in rhyme. Some mocked that a piece of fu in the prose style followed only several rhymes, and its freedom in rhyme could be easily imagined. Although fu in the prose style also paid attention to antithesis, it was not neat enough and quite a few prose phrases were often found in the sentences. The tone was also intensified by phrases like “should be”, “how come”, and “why then”. These characteristics reflected that fu in the prose style was more akin to prose. Fu in the regulated prose style became flourishing in the Tang Dynasty. After the reign of Emperor Shenzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system increasingly emphasized Confucian classics. The quotas for successful candidates passing the examinations on subjects like Nine Confucian Classics, Five Classics, Kaiyuanli, Three Histories, Three Rites, Three Commentaries, Mingjing, and Mingfa were much more than the quota for successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations, which encouraged literati to shift from devotion to the extreme beauty of poetry and fu to theoretical thinking of Confucian classics argumentation and discourse on politics. Therefore, simply from the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the reign of Emperor Renzong, because the imperial examination system still followed the tradition from the Tang Dynasty, coupled with the popularity and prosperity of the Xikun style, fu in the regulated prose style was popular at one time. Writers like Xu Xuan, Tian Xi, and Wang Yucheng all wrote fu in the regulated prose style. From the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty to the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had been plagued by internal and external troubles, and fu in the lisao style and in the prose style that combined parallelism with free prose became popular. In particular, the fu writings of Su Shi and others focused on argumentation and expression of laments for life. They inspired the argumentation of writers like Lu You, Fan Chengda, and Yang Wanli in the Southern Song Dynasty. Fu, as a literary genre, became more akin to discourse on politics and prose.

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Storytelling Script in the Song Dynasty

Huaben (storytelling script) originally meant the copy of storytellers. In the Tang and Song dynasties, “hua” meant “story” and “shuohua” meant telling stories, similar to storytelling by later generations. Storytelling script was a kind of folk art which sprouted in the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, with the prosperity of cities and the expansion of the citizen class, the art of storytelling quickly swept the marketplace (the venue for public entertainment) due to the cultural needs of citizens. At the same time, storytellers who specialized in this art emerged. Some of them recorded the stories they chanted in writing for the purpose of memorizing and teaching. Storytelling then developed from oral literature to written literature. This was the background of storytelling script. Storytelling script became flourishing in the Song Dynasty mainly because of the cultural needs of the citizen class. The development of industry and commerce and the prosperity of cities in the Song Dynasty promoted the growth of the citizen class, including handicraft workers, workers in small and medium-sized industrial and commercial institutions, monks, and entertainers. Due to differences in literacy and ideology, traditional poetry, ci, and prose were too elegant for them. As a result, various folk arts came into being. With the popularity of storytelling, storyteller guilds also emerged and owned a group of scriptwriters who specialized in writing storytelling scripts for storytellers. These guilds protected the interests of their members externally and provided opportunities for their members to compete with and learn from each other. Scriptwriters were representatives of the citizen class, and some scriptwriters received good education and had excellent artistic attainment. Their storytelling scripts were rooted in the life of citizens, reflected their ideology from their standpoint, and represented their moral viewpoints and aesthetic interests, although they touched upon a wide range of themes from ancient to present. Their storytelling scripts were written in popular language and demonstrated a strong sense of life. For this reason, they were popular among the general public. Storytelling script, which emerged in response to the need of “storytelling”, had its own stylistic characteristics. Firstly, it included prologue poems and a warm-up story. In order to attract audience, the storyteller would summarize his story in a few poems before he officially started telling the story. These prologue poems were often followed by a short story in order to wait for the audience to arrive and lead to the story. This

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process was called “winning with a warm-up story”. Secondly, a storytelling script also included ending poems. The storyteller often concluded his storytelling with a poem to indicate the tenet, summarize the whole piece or offer a warning message. Thirdly, the main text of a storytelling script combined both free verses and rhyme. The main text was the body of the story unfolded in the form of prose and interspersed with a lot of poems and songs. Longer storytelling scripts were divided into sections and a table of contents. This structure pioneered by the storytellers in the Song Dynasty became the origin of the chapter-based novels for the later generations in China. There were many storytelling scripts in the Song Dynasty. According to Zui Weng Tan Lu written by Luo Ye, there were more than 100 types of storytelling scripts in the genre of novel, but most of them have been lost. In addition to a few separate editions, surviving storytelling scripts are mostly found in Hua Ben Tong Su Xiao Shuo, Qing Ping Shan Tang Hua Ben, Gu Jin Xiao Shuo, Jing Shi Tong Yan, and Xing Shi Heng Yan. Because storytelling scripts rose and flourished in the Song and Yuan dynasties, there are disagreements on whether storytelling scripts should be ascribed to the Song Dynasty or the Yuan Dynasty. In the literature history, storytelling scripts that appeared during this period were collectively called storytelling scripts in the Song and Yuan dynasties. The classification has been controversial. Judging from the types of surviving storytelling scripts, they could be roughly divided into three categories of historical storytelling scripts, Buddhist storytelling scripts, and novels. Historical storytelling scripts told the historical stories of previous generations and added comments. They were forerunners of historical romance novels of later generations. Buddhist storytelling scripts meant telling Buddhist stories. Compared with the other two categories, novels were usually short. They were not as religious as “Buddhist storytelling scripts” and were not interested in serious topics like the rise and fall of previous dynasties as in “historical storytelling scripts”. They focused on citizen life and were thus called vernacular short novels. Novels were the most abundant and most literally accomplished storytelling script among other types in the Song and Yuan dynasties. The artistic achievements of novels as a type of storytelling script were first reflected in the artistic image of a group of lower-class workers. Commoners living in cities were first portrayed as protagonists in these novels to show their mindset against feudal rituals, their accusations against the evils of officialdom, and their pursuit of democracy and

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freedom. The writers based on their viewpoint revealed their sufferings and spoke out their aspirations, exposing us directly to the lives and ideals of the lower-class workers in ancient society. This was a chance that had never been provided in traditional poetry. Secondly, these novels, which were written in vernacular language instead of classical Chinese language, developed a kind of popular, vivid, and lively vernacular literary language. Furthermore, the complicated and appealing plot was also a characteristic of these novels. The storytelling scripts in the genre of a novel during the Song Dynasty novel marked a major turn in the history of Chinese novels and created a new chapter of ancient novels. Later operas and novels generally adopted the vernacular style and developed into specific ethnic forms that were popular among the public. Storytelling scripts in the genre of novel made an undeniable contribution to make this happen. The storytelling scripts of historical storytellers in the Song and Yuan dynasties, also known as pinghua (meaning popular stories), were mostly processed by storytellers based on history books and notes on various unofficial histories as well as folklore. They were mostly about military and state affairs of various dynasties when they were at war and experienced ups and downs. They revealed the ideological tendency to oppose brutality and wantonness and expressed the hope for a peaceful and prosperous era and the emergence of wise and honest officials. Although these works were inevitably influenced by the feudal position in orthodox history books, they reflected the demands and aspirations of the general public for the development of history by praising loyalty, cursing evil, and injecting new meanings to some historical figures and events as they commented on historical figures. Historical storytelling scripts were generally long and were divided into chapters. That’s how chapter titles emerged. Many historical storytelling scripts simply provided storytellers with an outline or some reminders, and they had to enrich and expand these materials as they told the stories. Therefore, the artistic achievements of historical storytelling scripts handed down were not as splendid as novels, but they laid organizational and scale foundation for romance novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, developed unique ethnic styles, and had a profound influence on the popular novels and operas in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Buddhist storytelling directly originated from the bianwen of monks for preaching lay people in the Tang Dynasty. In order to promote Buddhist teachings, monks in the Tang Dynasty often used their imagination and creativity to attract the audience based on Buddhist stories,

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which thus weakened the religious component and enhanced the entertainment in the preaching for lay people. A representative Buddhist storytelling script surviving from the Song and Yuan dynasties was Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua, which added many magical and bizarre elements to the story of Chen Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang dynasty, traveling to Tianzhu to seek Buddhist purport despite hardships and difficulties. For example, during the journey, he met a “Monkey Walker”, passed through the “Land of Incense”, the “Land of Lions”, the “Land of Tree Men”, the “Land of Women”, and so on. He subdued the white tiger spirit and other demons and monsters, arrived at Tianzhu, finally obtained the scriptures, returned to Chang’an, and became immortal in heaven. Although this work as a whole was not artistically accomplished enough, it provided the earliest material for the full-length novel Journey to the West.

4

Classical Chinese Novels in the Song Dynasty

Popular storytelling scripts in the genre of novel were tremendously successful in the Song Dynasty. At the same time, classical Chinese novels written and compiled by literati were also popular in society. Both of them were popular and penetrated into each other. Storytelling scripts borrowed themes from classical Chinese novels, while classical Chinese novels were nourished by the artistic styles of storytelling scripts, for example, the theme of civic life and the expression methods of poetry and prose. Classical Chinese novels in the Song Dynasty were mostly collected in books like Extensive Records of the Taiping, Yi Jian Zhi, Lv Chuang Xin Hua, and Zui Weng Tan Lu. Among them, Extensive Records of the Taiping was a general collection of short classical Chinese novels from the Six Dynasties to the early Song Dynasty, compiled by Li Fang, Xu Xuan, Wu Shu et al. on the order of Emperor Taizong. It was completed during the third year of Taipingxingguo (978). The book contained more than 6500 stories classified into different categories. Xu Xian and Wu Shu were both experts in classical Chinese novels. The book compiled by them with stories collected was relatively comprehensive and clearly classified. The Yi Jian Zhi, compiled by Hong Mai in the Southern Song Dynasty, mainly contained stories about gods, ghosts, and spirits, as well as anecdotes and historical stories from the real world. The Zui Weng Tan Lu compiled by Luo Ye in the late years of the Southern Song Dynasty was a collection of

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classical Chinese novels in the Tang and Song dynasties. The stories were mainly about love affairs and public legal cases on eroticization. Many of the plots in these books became the basis for storytellers to invent their stories at that time and inspired most of the short stories and plays in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. In addition, there were also many short collections of strange stories, notes, and anecdotes in the Song Dynasty such as Zhao Lingyan’s Hou Qing Lu and Kong Pingzhong’s Xu Shi Shuo. Since ancient Chinese literary critiques had never attached much importance to novels and the concept of novels was fairly vague, the content of classical Chinese novels was often disorganized and confused. Broadly speaking, classical Chinese novels in the Song Dynasty were mainly divided into the following categories: There were novels about ghosts, spirits, and weird events. These novels mostly inherited the phantastic novels from the Six Dynasties such as Xu Xian’s Ji Shen Lu, Wu Shu’s Jiang Zhun Yi Ren Lu, Zhang Junfang’s Cheng Yi Ji, and Zhang Shizheng’s Kuo Yi Zhi in the Northern Song Dynasty, as well as Hong Mai’s Yi Jian Zhi and Guo Tuan’s Kui Che Zhi in the Southern Song Dynasty. This category mostly included works like these, which blended some exhortations in fanciful and bizarre events. There were also novels that recorded history, real people, and related anecdotes. For example, Fei Yan’s Liang Xi Man Zhi was an anecdotal account of a historical figure. These novels often highlighted the character of a figure in an interesting way and echoed the official history. This short novel highlighted the excellent memory and unrestrained personality of Ge Jun by recounting his two drinking experiences. While these two categories of novels were generally short, there were some longer classical Chinese novels in the Song Dynasty, called legends in the Song Dynasty. These legends were often collected together with the two categories of novels mentioned above, but some of them were also separate. For example, longer classical Chinese novels about history included Qin Chun’s Zhao Feiyan Bie Zhuan, Yue Shi’s Lü Zhu Zhuan, and Yang Taizhen Wai Zhuan, and Li Shishi Wai Zhuan by an unknown author. These novels were mostly based on the little-known private lives of emperors, empresses, noblemen, and bureaucrats, and some of them revealed the corruption and darkness of the upper class. Except for a few of such novels that provided rich characterization, most of them lacked originality and artistic appeal and were limited in artistic achievement. Representative works based on real-life included Liu Shiyin’s Wang Youyu

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Ji, Qin Chun’s Tan Yige Zhuan, and Wang Kui Fu Xin Gui Ying Si Bao by an unknown author. Among them, Wang Kui Fu Xin Gui Ying Si Bao told a story of a scholar who became ungrateful after passing the imperial examinations and was finally punished. It, to some extent, reflected the social reality under the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty and had universal significance. Some legends showed the lives and virtues of ordinary citizens and exhibited progressive ideological tendencies. However, due to the influence of the traditional idea that literature was the vehicle of ideas and the neo-Confucianism, classical Chinese novels in the Song Dynasty often contained strongly preaching arguments, which limited their ideologically progressive significance and made them clearly inferior to the storytelling scripts in the genre of novel, which were full of resistant and rebellious spirit. In spite of the shortcomings of classical Chinese novels in Song Dynasty, they inherited the phantastic novels of the Six Dynasties and the legends in the Tang Dynasty and inspired classical Chinese novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties. They marked an important transition in the development history of classical Chinese novels and influenced the operas and poetic dramas in Yuan and Ming dynasties.

CHAPTER 23

Literary Classics in Liao, Jin, Western Xia, and Other Ethic Areas Zhang Jian, Zhou Jianzhi, and Urgumal

While the literature in the Song Dynasty was developing, literary achievements were made in the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia dynasties. They not only absorbed nutrients from the Han literature but also embraced the unique simplicity and robustness of the nomadic peoples in the north. The literary creation in the Jin Dynasty was particularly prosperous, and there were great masters like Yuan Haowen, who excelled at poetry, ci, and prose and made great contributions to literary criticism.

Z. Jian (B) Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Z. Jianzhi School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] Urgumal Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_23

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Other minority groups in China also created many literary classics with different styles, which contributed to the diversity of literature in the country. In particular, the Mongolians, the Tibetans, and the Kyrgyz people created magnificent epics JangGar (Jiang Ge Er), Gesar (Ge Sa Er), and Manas (Ma Na Si), respectively, which filled in the gap of epics in the history of Han literature and became monuments in the history of Chinese literature.

1

Literature in Liao, Jin, and Western Xia

Liao (916–1125) was a multi-ethnic regime established by the Khitan people in the north of China and confronted the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty for more than 160 years. The Khitan people were martial and brave, and they were influenced by the thought and culture in the Central Plain. Han people were hired as literary attendants in the Liao regime, which imitated the decrees and regulations of the Central Plain, adopted the imperial examination system, published classics in the Chinese language, and developed the Khitan script based on the official script. To a certain extent, these measures enhanced the political status and civilization of the region north of the Yellow River, especially the Youyan region. The Liao monarchs and concubines were fond of literature. Emperor Shengzong, Emperor Xingzong, and Emperor Daozong of Liao were all able to write poems and prose. Emperor Daozong, Yelü Hongji, even composed poems for the purpose of antiphony with his ministers. Many of the concubines in the Liao Dynasty were talented in poetry, among whom Xiao Guanyin, the concubine of Emperor Daozong, and Xiao Sese, the concubine of Emperor Tianzuo, were most excellent. In the late years of the Liao Dynasty, the Jurchen tribe gradually became stronger and coveted the Liao Dynasty, while Emperor Tianzuo indulged himself in hunting and took no heed to state affairs. As a result, loyal and wise officials were excluded from the court, while crafty and evil courtiers dominated the kingdom. His concubine, Xiao Sese, worried about the kingdom and the times, wrote Historical Poem (Yong Shi) to admonish the emperor, encouraging him to endure present hardships to restore morale and to clear foreign aggression to revive the kingdom. This poem was smooth in structure and simple in language, expressing the hope for prosperity of the kingdom. In addition, most of the Khitan ministers and the Han people who served as officials in the Liao Dynasty also composed

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poems and prose. Generally speaking, the literature in the Liao Dynasty imitated the literary techniques of the people in the Tang and Song dynasties and was mostly influenced by Bai Juyi and Su Shi. At the same time, it showed ethnic characteristics of robustness and plainness. However, the literary works in the Liao Dynasty were limited in quantity and crude in art, which made them hardly comparable with those in the Central Plain. However, the music style and some “songs of men of prowess on horseback” in the Liao Dynasty had a profound influence on sanqu (a type of verse with tonal patterns modeled on tunes drawn from folk music) after the Song Dynasty. Jin (1115–1234) was a regime established by the Jurchen tribe in the north of China after the Liao Dynasty. It once penetrated into the Central Plain and set up capitals in Zhongdu (Beijing) and Kaifeng, confronting the Southern Song Dynasty for nearly 100 years. The Jin Dynasty was influenced by the culture in the Central Plan more deeply and comprehensively. It shifted from a military regime to a civil regime which attached importance to literature. This, coupled with a longer period of stability, contributed to literary achievements more splendid than those in the Liao Dynasty. While imitating the literature in the Tang and Song dynasties, the literature in the Jin Dynasty further developed, with most achievements made in poetry, ci, and qu (melody). Closely linked with the development of the state, the literature in the Jin Dynasty could be divided into three periods. During the first period, when the Jin Dynasty was just established, with political instability and frequent wars, the ruler advocated bravery and military force, taking no heed to literature. In the literary circle, only the former ministers of the Liao and Song dynasties who were forced to serve in the Jin Dynasty chose to express their nostalgia for the homeland as wanderers in a foreign land, for example, Yuwen Xuzhong, Wu Ji, and Cai Songnian. During the second period, having been established for thirty to forty years, the Jin Dynasty confronted with the Southern Song Dynasty. After the domestic situation became stable, the construction of thoughts, cultures, decrees, and regulations was strengthened, and literature was relatively prosperous, with a group of literary scholars such as Cai Gui, Dang Huaiying, and Wang Tingjun emerging. They learned from the poems of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian in the Song dynasty, and their poems mostly depicted scenery and objects to express leisurely and relaxing feelings. A few of these poems were excellent. During the third period, in the late years of the Jin Dynasty, the Mongolians rose and often

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invaded the south. Emperor Xuanzong of Jin was forced to migrate to the south, losing the land in the north to the Yellow River. Increasingly intense national and class conflicts, social unrest, and people’s sufferings caused a change in the literary style. Worrying about the times and the chaos and aspiring to serve the country became the main themes of poems and prose during this period. In addition to the outstanding poet Yuan Haowen, Zhao Bingwen, Zhao Yuan, and Song Jiujia also joined the mainstream of the times with their poems. In addition to poetry and prose, the popular literature in the Jin Dynasty was equally accomplished, especially Jin opera and song-speech drama. Jin opera was the scores and librettos used by artists of poetic drama. Jin opera developed further on the basis of the poetic drama in the Northern Song Dynasty and directly inspired the creation of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. It is recorded that there were many popular pieces of Jin opera at that time. Unfortunately, all of them have been lost. Song-speech drama was a chanting form of literature. Among song-speech drama in the Jin Dynasty, The Song-speech Drama Version of Romance of the Western Chamber (Xi Xiang Ji Zhu Gong Diao) written by Dong Jieyuan, and The Song-speech Drama Version of Liu Zhiyuan (Liu Zhi Yuan Zhu Gong Diao) written by an unknown author were influential and laid the foundation for the creation of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. Western Xia was a minority regime located in the northwest of the Song Dynasty. Its culture was an important part of the Chinese culture. During its evolution, Western Xia gradually abandoned the nomadic culture native to the Western frontier and drew closer to the farming culture of Han. It “embraced the Han culture as the core and showed the Western frontier characteristics superficially” until it was finally integrated into the Han culture. While absorbing the Han culture extensively, the Western Xia Dynasty paid special attention to the acceptance and absorption of ritual culture and Buddhist beliefs. Located as a hub on the ancient Silk Road and inhabited by a mixture of ethnic groups, Western Xia developed literature characterized by ethnic integration. Its literature also included some memorials to the throne and inscriptions that had distinctive cultural overtones of the Central Plain. This indicated that although the Song Dynasty and the Western Xia Dynasty ruled independently, the literature of Western Xia followed the bloodline of Chinese culture and was permeated with the root and origin of the Han literature.

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2 Yuan Haowen and Dong ’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber Yuan Haowen was the most accomplished writer in the Jin Dynasty. Yuan Haowen (1190–1257), courtesy name Yuzhi and art name Yishan, hailed from Xiurong, Taiyuan (now Xinxian, Shanxi Province). He became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination in the Jin Dynasty and served as a reviser of the National History Academy, the magistrate of Nanyang, and vice director of the local department of state affairs. After the demise of the Jin Dynasty, he was detained in Liaocheng. After he returned to his hometown, he was committed to the collection and collation of historical materials about the Jin Dynasty and compiled a collection of poems from the Jin Dynasty named Zhong Zhou Ji passed down to later generations. Yuan Haowen left more than one thousand and four hundred poems surviving to this date, ranking the first among poets in the Jin Dynasty. Because he lived in the late years of the Jin Dynasty and experienced the chaos during the transition from the Jin Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, his poems mostly reflected the great disaster that his country and its people suffered due to the Mongolian invasion and showed his hatred for the enemy and nostalgia for his homeland. Yuan Haowen was also the most outstanding ci writer in the Jin Dynasty. His ci writings were mainly concerned about state affairs and expression of sorrow and anger. They were as majestic and unrestrained as those of Su Shi and Xin Qiji. Yuan Haowen also made achievements in poetic theory. His Thirty Pieces of Quatrains (Lun Shi Jue Ju San Shi Shou) systematically discussed the important poets and their styles since the Jian’an period. He advocated fresh, natural, majestic, and unrestrained compositions and opposed the tendency of polishing and flamboyance. This theoretical proposition was of great significance to the poetic creation and theory of his time and later generations. Song-speech drama was a chanting form of literature that mainly featured songs in combination with speech, and it was popular in civil society during the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. It was named for the singing method of one set of songs followed by another under different modes of music called gongdiao. It was born in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty and had an important influence on the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. The only three surviving works of songspeech drama were The Song-speech Drama Version of Romance of the

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Western Chamber by Dong Jieyuan, The Song-speech Drama Version of Liu Zhiyuan by an unknown author, and The Song-speech Drama Version of Tian Bao Yi Shi (Tian Bao Yi Shi Zhu Gong Diao) by Wang Bocheng. The Song-speech Drama Version of Romance of the Western Chamber by Dong Jieyuan was the most accomplished one. “Jieyuan” was a synonym for scholars instead of a specific person’s name. The Song-speech Drama Version of Romance of the Western Chamber was adapted from The Story of Yingying, a novel written by Yuan Zhen in the Tang Dynasty. The Story of Yingying was a romantic story about the joy and sorrow of Cui Yingying, a lady born in a noble family, falling in love with a man called Scholar Zhang. It celebrated the heroine’s pursuit of free love and happy life, but the storyline of Scholar Zhang making up for his betrayal behavior implied the feudal thought of the author. Dong Jieyuan adapted it into The Song-speech Drama Version of Romance of the Western Chamber by greatly changing the main plot, characters, and ending and discussing a new theme. Firstly, Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber (Dong Xi Xiang) changed the sad ending of Scholar Zhang forsaking Yingying in Hui Zhen Ji (an alternative name of The Story of Yingying ) into a happy end of the two lovers eloping. Secondly, Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber changed the original setting of characterization and added more characters. For example, Scholar Zhang was changed from an ungrateful and immoral scholar to a man who was faithful to his lover and who finally became a high-ranking official. Yingying was also changed into a rebellious woman who struggled uncompromisingly with feudal ethics to defend her love. The matchmaker who was insignificant in the original story became a major character with a distinctive personality who pushed forward the plot. As a result, the themes of the two works were substantially different. The Story of Yingying was intended to praise Scholar Zhang for rectifying his error after forsaking Yingying and revealed an emotional tendency to condemn “woman as dangerous beings”. However, by changing the characterization and adding a happy ending, Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber highlighted the irrationality of feudal ethics and showed the anti-feudal struggle and its victory. The Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber was also an artistically accomplished work. It unfolded the storyline consisting of the encountering of the hero and the heroine, their joint composition of a

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poem under the moon, the hero’s playing of a stringed musical instrument to steal the heart of the heroine, the expression of love between the hero and the heroine through casting bamboo slip, the hero Scholar Zhang’s lovesickness, the heroine Yingying visiting the lovesick Scholar Zhang, as well as the interrogation of the matchmaker, the hero meeting the heroine as he woke up from his dream, the breaking of engagement, the elopement, and the reunion. The original novel with a simple plot was adapted into a major chanting script with a complex structure and a complicated plot to enhance the fun and artistic appeal. Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber was also good at depicting the mentality of the characters and building up the atmosphere through the depiction of scenery to highlight the theme. Artistically, the shortcomings of this version were that the plot was slightly verbose and that the personal traits of the characters were not fully-fledged. However, this version marked a transition from The Story of Yingying to Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu and represented the high achievement of the chanting art at that time. It had a profound influence on the language and style of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty.

3

Three Peaks in the Literature History of the Mongols

The Secret History of Mongols and the epics JangGar and Gesar were three peaks in the literature history of the Mongols. The Secret History of Mongols was the first masterpiece of Mongolian classical literature and was an exceptional reference for the study of the ancient history, literature, and language of the Mongols. Because The Secret History of Mongols attracts wide attention from domestic and foreign scholars interested in Mongolian studies due to its important historical, literary, linguistic, religious, and social value; study on the work has become an international academic field and has developed into a specialized discipline called “the study of The Secret History”. The Secret History of Mongols mainly consisted of three parts. The first part was the family tree of Genghis Khan from its previous twenty-second generation ancestors to his father Yesugei Baghatur. The second part was the biography of Genghis Khan. The third part was a brief history after Genghis Khan’s son Ogadai acceded to the throne. There are different views on the year when the original text of The Secret History of Mongols was written, and there is also a controversy over its author. In the past,

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there were various speculations about the possibility that it was written by different authors, and now it is said that it was the product of collective wisdom. The Secret History of Mongols used literary descriptive methods widely spread among Mongolian folklore such as legends about ethnic origins, historical legends, folk songs, hymns, and proverbs to vividly describe the social history of the ancient Mongols. It successfully portrayed a series of distinctive characters of Genghis Khan, Jamukha, Jo’chi Qasar, Bo’orchu, and Genghis Khan’s mother Hoelun in a literary way. Genghis Khan demonstrated the exemplary qualities of a Mongolian leader such as wisdom, great aspiration, well-conceived governance, and constant self-improvement. Bo’orchu was a symbol of loyalty. Hoelun was a concentrated epitome of broad-mindedness in enduring humiliation and perseverance found in Mongolian women. The Secret History of Mongols had a great influence on the literature of the Mongols. Qing Shi Yan Yi was a historical novel written by the famous Mongolian litterateur Yinzhannaxi under its direct influence. The Secret History of Mongols depicted Genghis Khan as a man who was trained to be indomitable through hardships from childhood, which was a subjective factor necessary for him to achieve greatness later on. This narrative mode was often borrowed by Mongolian epics represented by JangGar. The JangGar was a long Mongolian epic named after the protagonist and was one of the three major epics in China. So far, JangGar has recorded more than one hundred and fifty long poems and variant texts, which amounted to 190,000 lines of poetry, representing a peak of the development of Mongolian epics. The JangGar was spread among the Oirats in Xinjiang, China, the Kalmyk people in the Volga River basin, and the western Oirats in Mongolia mainly through word of mouth. It was rhythmical for the most part and had beautiful singing tunes. Some Jangarchi (Mongolian, meaning folk artist singing JangGar) played Tovshur, a kind of trichord, when singing JangGar. Singing JangGar was not subject to strict time or place restrictions, but it was often sung on long winter nights. Jangarchi sang this epic anywhere from the Khan’s palaces, princes’ palaces, and lamaseries to Mongolian yurts of ordinary herdsmen among the Oirats and the Kalmyk people. The JangGar mainly described the heroic deeds of the heroes, with JangGar as the core, who resisted foreigners or foreign invasion and pledged their life to defend their homeland. It portrayed twelve distinctive and lovable heroes, including the wise man JangGar, the brave man

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Hongor, the smart man Altan Chegeji, the beautiful man Mingyan and the powerful man Harsanara. The fairy Bumba kingdom, the home of these heroes depicted in the epic, was free from war. The people there led a free and peaceful life. They were immortal and prosperous. Each season there seemed like spring. This epic perfectly reflected the beautiful ideal of the Oirats longing for freedom, peace, unity, and tranquility, in contrast to their long-term endurance of war, unrest, and hardships. The JangGar extracted a large number of proverbs, benedictions, and hymns from the folklore, and carefully employed artistic techniques like metaphors, exaggerations, and personification to beautify the language and artistic conception. It represented the highest literary and artistic level of the Mongolian epics. The Geser was a long epic widely spread in all Mongolian tribes and regions. Singing Geser was a widespread custom among the Mongolians living in the region spanning from Xinjiang in the west to Hulun Buir in the eastern frontier of China to Mongolia, Kalmyk in the Volga River basin, and the vast steppes of the Republic of Buryatia on Lake Baikal. The epic Geser was passed down in oral and handwritten forms. The Mongolian epic Geser and the Tibetan epic Geser had basically similar names and personal traits of core characters and storylines, but each had its own characteristics of story details and artistic expression. Therefore, Mongolian scholars believe that Geser and Gesar were epics of the same origin and different variants. The Mongolian scholars of Geser usually refer to it as Gesa(e)r. The Geser was a heroic epic which was a perfect combination of fierce battles with poetic lyricism. It was a romantic and magical masterpiece with a complicated plot and great artistic appeal. At the same time, Geser absorbed a large number of myths, legends, and folk proverbs and contained rich information about steppe life. It was reputed as a treasure of ancient Mongolian literature and language.

4

A Literary Classic of the Tibetans: The Life of King Gesar

Born in about the eleventh century, The Life of King Gesar (Ge Sa Er Wang Zhuan) was a long epic widely popular among Tibetan folklore in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan regions. Through constant singing via word of mouth over the subsequent centuries, it has been accumulated to be a masterpiece with more than two hundred volumes

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and one million lines, which makes it the longest epic in the world. The Tibetans were all Buddhists and regarded Gesar as their protector. They believed that singing, copying, and collecting The Life of King Gesar could help them eliminate disasters and illnesses, head off dangers, and turn calamities into blessings. Gesar statues, murals, thangkas, portraits, and handwritten copies were widely worshiped from the tents of ordinary people and noble families to monasteries in Tibetan regions. The Life of King Gesar, either orally transmitted for antiphony or handwritten, was circulated in Tibetan folk and was deeply loved by the Tibetan people. The Life of King Gesar described the beautiful ideals of the Tibetan people for resisting invasion, defending their motherland, and longing for a peaceful life. It was a vast, majestic, and fantastical masterpiece in which many characters were portrayed successfully, especially the enduring heroic image of King Gesar. Stylistically, it was chanted and consisted of free verses and rhymed verses. The free verses introduced the content and plot of the story, while the rhymed verses were mainly dialogues and feelings of the characters. The lyrics were generally in the form of luti1 folk songs or free folk songs which were widely popular in Tibetan folklore. The book was written in a lively language and quoted a large number of Tibetan proverbs. It was very close to life and thus could also be regarded as an encyclopedia on ancient Tibetan society. It is noteworthy that the Tibetan epic The Life of King Gesar had a very different plot from that of the Mongolian epic Geser, despite their similarities in the name of the protagonist and the themes of subduing demons, opposing aggression, and punishing violence.

5

Ethnic Literary Classics in the Turkic Languages

The Turkic people created literary classics such as Manas, Oghuzname, Kutadolu Biliq, The Book of Dede Korkut, and Divan lgat at-Turk. The Oghuzname was an epic in the prose style that was handed down among the Uyghur people in ancient times. The only surviving handcopied version in the Uyghur language is collected in the National Library of France in Paris. This hand-copied version was written in cursive Uyghur script, with the beginning and the end missing. This language was late Uyghur language. Because the beginning part of the hand-copied version is missing, the title of the original book is unclear. Based on its content,

1 Luti folk songs, also known as mountain songs, were a variant of Tibetan folk songs.

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Mr. Geng Shimin called it Legend of Oghuz Khan and translated it into Chinese. The translation version was published by Xinjiang People’s Publishing House in 1982. The epic Oghuzname recorded legends about the origins of the ancient Turkic tribal names like “Kepxak” and “Qangly” and reflected the wolf cult and shamanistic beliefs. Some scholars believe that Oghuzname could be a long epic and what’s recorded was nothing but its storyline. The epic Oghuzname not only occupied an important place in the history of Uyghur literature but also had a significant influence on the history of Central Asian literature. The Kutadolu Biliq was an ancient classic created by Yusuf Hass Hajib (1010?–1092?), a famous Uyghur poet, scholar, and thinker, in the Uyghur language (ancient Uyghur language) during 1069–1070 in Kashgar (now Kashgar City in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region). With thirteen thousand lines, this epic reflected the social life, thoughts, and cultural background of the Uyghur people during the Karakhanid Empire. It not only inherited the folklore literary tradition of the ancient Uyghur people but also was influenced by Arabic and Persian literature. The Kutadolu Biliq meant the knowledge that bestowed happiness. The entire book was written with rhymes and consisted of 2 prefaces, 85 chapters as the body, and 3 annexes. The Kutadolu Biliq was a highly philosophical narrative poem. It portrayed four characters, namely the King of Sunrise, the Minister of Full Moon, the Minister of Wisdom, who was the son of Full Moon, and the hermit Awakening. They symbolized “justice”, “luck”, “wisdom”, and “contentment”, respectively. Centering around these four main characters, the author expressed his views on political, social, legal, and ethical issues. The core idea of the book was enforcing the country and enriching the people. The Kutadolu Biliq was not only magnificent but also written in the Aluzi poetic rhythm and in the Mathnawi style (an Arabic poetic rhythm). It was the first Uyghur poem to use two ancient rhythms and became the first literary monument in the history of ancient Uyghur culture. The Kutadolu Biliq was characterized by rich and fluent language and resonant tones. It was a combination of figurative and musical beauty and of narrative and reasoning. The inclusion of profound and incisive philosophical aphorisms made it much like a poetic drama. The Kutadolu Biliq was a contribution of the Uyghur people to the development of Chinese literature. The long epic Manas was a folklore literary work that was widely spread in Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, as well as in countries like Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in Central

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Asia. It was deeply loved by the Kirghiz people. While it was spread through word of mouth in the Kirghiz society, it blended the local people’s understanding, thought, and pursuit of nature, society, and life over generations and became an encyclopedia that provided information about the language, history, culture, literature, art, religious beliefs and folk life of the Kirghiz people, and a spiritual pillar and cultural symbol the Kirghiz nationality. The Manas was not only one of the three major epics in China but also a treasure of the world literary heritage that occupied a prominent position in the history of Central Asian literature. The Manas could be understood in broad and narrow senses. In a broad sense, it referred to the whole epic. In a narrow sense, it referred to only the first part of the epic. The first part of Manas was the core of the total eight parts. Manas mainly described and praised the Kirghiz people with eight generations of heroes from the Manas family as the core who fought bravely against the invasion of the Kalmak2 Mongols to protect the survival and independence of their nation. The beauty of tragedy was an important aesthetic feature of Manas, in which numerous tragic heroes with distinctive personalities were depicted. In terms of narrative structure, Manas was organized in a genealogical manner following eight generations of heroes from the Manas family. Each part told the stories of one hero. Each part of the epic had a complete plot and narrative structure and could be a separate epic. At the same time, the plots, characters, and narrative structures of the eight parts were closely related to constitute a complete epic. The Divan lgat at-Turk and The Book of Dede Korkut were also time-honored creations of the Turkic people. Divan lgat at-Turk was an encyclopedic cultural masterpiece completed in the 1070s by Mahmoud Kashgari, a famous Uyghur scholar in ancient times. It covered all aspects of the Turkic people, including geography, religion, folklore, literature, and art. The book was written in Arabic as a dictionary for Arabs to learn the Turkic languages. It quoted a large number of folklore literary works in notes to entries, including more than two hundred poems and proverbs. The Book of Dede Korkut was a collection of heroic epic poems that combined rhyme with free verses about the ancient Turkic people.

2 Kalmak was a name for hostile tribes that was often seen in Turkic epics like Manas and Alpamis and referred to the Oirat Mongols. Later, it became a general name for enemies.

PART VI

Literature in the Yuan Dynasty

1279 A.D.–1368 A.D.

CHAPTER 24

Overview Wang Damin

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Literary Styles Under the Rule of Mongols

In 1206, the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan founded a country in the north of the Gobi desert and successively destroyed the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin dynasties. After Kublai succeeded to the throne, he changed the name of the state to “Great Yuan” and moved the capital to Dadu (now Beijing) in 1271. In 1279, after conquering the small Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty became a unified dynasty that unified the Central Plain for ninety-eight years until 1368 when it was replaced by the Ming Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was the first dynasty in Chinese history in which the Central Plain was ruled by a minority group, and its cultural and literary orientation and qualities were greatly different from those of predecessors. The Mongols, as the supreme rulers, regarded their own culture as the mainstay, which caused an impact on the orthodoxy Confucian thought. At the same time, the intermingled multiple cultures caused by the gathering of multiple ethnic groups broke the programmatic and homogeneous nature of culture. Throughout the history of ancient Chinese literature, the new literary phenomena and styles in the

W. Damin (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_24

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Yuan Dynasty fully demonstrated the uniqueness that distinguished it from other dynasties and contributed to its unique status. After the Mongol rulers dominated the Central Plain, they implemented a series of new cultural policies. On the one hand, the rulers attached importance to the traditions of the previous dynasties. Emperor Shizu of Yuan actively advocated civil administration. He set up schools, established an official system, and recruited famous Confucian scholars. In the early years of the state, important high-ranking ministers such as Yelü Chucai, Hao Jing, and Liu Bingzhong made many important proposals for the economic and political development during the early period of reunification, including putting Han literati in important positions and adopting their views and suggestions. Yelü Chucai suggested that the state be ruled by Confucianism and that Confucians who were captured as slaves be given a chance to take examinations. Masters who hid their slaves and did not send them to take examinations would be sentenced to death. Four thousand and thirty examination takers passed, and one-fourth of them would be exempted from slavery. The Mongols exempted scholars from corvée, implemented the imperial examination system, and paid great respect to the great Confucian scholars and litterateurs from the previous dynasties. This obviously had a positive influence on the inheritance and development of culture and literature. On the other hand, the early rulers of the Yuan Dynasty, while absorbing the ruling methods of the Han people, insisted that the interests of the Mongols be put first and foremost and that the Mongolian culture be worshiped. The Mongols had their own cultural traditions and characteristics. They lived by nomadic hunting and left their footprints all over the Eurasian continent after long years of conquest. They developed an optimistic, heroic, and open-minded national spirit. Aesthetically, they pursued originality and simplicity. Their narrative epic tradition drew them naturally close to long narratives; their innate love of song and dance made them fully supportive of commercial performances. Due to the cultural divide and gap, they disliked the poetry and prose of the Han people and believed that poetry and fu had nothing to do with cultivating their moral character and serving their country. The imperial examinations in the Yuan Dynasty emphasized Confucian classics studies and dismissed poetry and fu, which, to some extent, hindered the creation of poetry and prose. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people, especially those living in the north, were more or less influenced by Mongolian customs and culture, specifically in many aspects such as learning the

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Mongolian language, marrying Mongols, and getting adapted to the Mongolian costumes. The two cultural traditions of Mongols and the Han people were necessary products of the great differences between a nomadic society and an agrarian society. The merging of two different social forms resulted in a violent collision of two cultures. In spite of disintegration, there was even more cultural integration and reconstruction. This was exactly reflected in the cultural development in the Yuan Dynasty.

2

Survival and Creative Environment of Scholars in the Yuan Dynasty

It has long been believed in the academic community that the discriminatory attitude of the Mongol rulers had a great negative impact on the development of literature in the Yuan Dynasty. During the Yuan Dynasty, a “Four Classes” system was implemented, with people classified by the descending order as the Mongols, the Semu people (non-Chinese) and the people of the former Southern Song Dynasty. It is easy to imagine that the Han people were treated unfairly in imperial examinations, career advancement, officialdom, and even daily life. On the other hand, some scholars have suggested that the Mongolian policies also had positive implications from their emphasis on culture and education and their effort to promote freedom of academic thought. The rulers respected literature and Confucianism and preserved Confucian classics. They also helped popularize academies and develop the book industry. Literati and Confucian scholars were provided with a more open and freer creative environment. Some new prospects and styles of literary creation did appear under the new historical conditions. Judging from the surviving materials, the surviving conditions of Han literati and Confucian scholars were indeed strongly influenced by the ethnic and cultural policies, most notably by the imperial examination system. Compared with Confucian scholar officials in the previous dynasties, the Confucian scholars in the Yuan Dynasty were rejected from moving forward in their career and lost their way up the ladder. As a result, their status naturally declined dramatically. Therefore, most of them had a deep sense of crisis and either chose to retire to the mountains and indulge themselves in sightseeing or chose to hang out in the marketplace with entertainers as their confidants. In such a social environment, a specific group of literati, playwrights in the Yuan Dynasty, appeared with

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their overall tendency to either satirize the world or express their love for the landscape. During the Yuan dynasty, the choice of literary themes somewhat abandoned the customary options in the past and preferred compositions based on recluse life, landscape, banter, and jokes. In terms of literary creation and style, the most important phenomenon and characteristic was, first of all, ethnicity. The whole society in the Yuan Dynasty was dominated by the interests of the Mongolian nationality. While minority writers emerged and wrote about life in the north, they also advocated bold and natural literary quality, which influenced the general style of various literary genres such as poetry, prose, and qu. The second characteristic was regional differences. The regional division among the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties led to differentiated literary styles. While annexing the Jin and Western Xia regimes, the Yuan Dynasty confronted the Southern Song Dynasty, which resulted in a sustained state of north–south division in the course of history. The Khitan, Jurchen, and Monglian regimes ruled the north for more than three hundred years one after another. The literati in the north accepted the reality earlier, interacted more frequently with northern nationalities such as the Mongols, and had more profound mutual influence with them; the literati in the south, however, were haunted by the doom of a fallen kingdom for a long time and were more resistant to the Mongols and other foreigners. After the Yuan Dynasty unified the Central Plain, it did not quickly bridge the cultural divide between the north and the south. The confrontation between northern and southern literature and the slow integration were important phenomena in the development of literature in the Yuan Dynasty. Dadu, as the capital of Jin and Yuan dynasties, was bound to become a cultural center where important literati and scholars from all over the country, especially from the north, gathered. With its picturesque landscape and abundant materials, Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, was incomparable to other regions in terms of book publishing, academy education, and literary creation. During the Yuan Dynasty, the different creative styles in the north and the south went through from disintegration to integration due to the political environment of great unification. The imperial court recruited Confucian scholars from the south to serve as officials, and migrating to the north became a trend for southerners. The frequent exchanges between the north and the south made it more convenient to publish and disseminate works. Judging from the development of various traditional literary genres such as poetry, ci, and prose, some elements of the

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northern style also penetrated into the creation of the southern literati while the southern literary style was brought to the north. The Yuan Dynasty brought the first great unification in the Chinese history when a minority group held the supreme ruling power. The change from the Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty imposed a difficult career choice on the literati who were influenced by Confucianism. Therefore, some scholars contend that the early years of the Yuan Dynasty were a special era when literati and scholars were overwhelmed by both heavy mental pressure and new life experiences. This, when reflected in literature, surely led to new prospects that had not been seen in the previous dynasties.

3 Diversity and Integration of Literary Forms and Thoughts The establishment of the Yuan Dynasty put an end to the coexistence and segmentation of multiple dynasties such as Song, Liao, Xia, Jin, Tubo, and Dali. This undoubtedly contributed to social stability and economic development. The transformation of social form and dominant ideology was even more important. Since the emergence of the great unified regimes of Qin and Han, Confucianism had long been the dominant thought under the support of the rulers. During the Yuan Dynasty, with different ethnic groups cohabited in the society, pluralism became the social mainstream in daily life, folklore, and culture. Religiously, the pluralism of beliefs made Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism widely spread. Among them, Buddhism and Taoism were particularly influential. Quanzhen Sect was a new Taoist sec that rose in the Jin Dynasty. Its founder, Wang Jia, was a Confucian scholar who taught Confucian classics. He absorbed the ideas of Confucian teaching, and most of his disciples were offspring of scholars. Therefore, he was very close to famous literati and had a significant influence on the literary circle. Ideologically, the development of neoConfucianism was an important phenomenon in the philosophical circle and was an important factor influencing the literature in the Yuan Dynasty. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty promoted the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism as the official school of thought. Neo-Confucianism pursued truth and nature, emphasized pragmatism and the unification of literature and ideas, and disdained rhetoric. This attitude, to some

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extent, influenced the plain and natural poetry and prose style in the Yuan Dynasty. The great integration of diversity led to a variety of cultural characteristics during this period. Two of them were the most important. Firstly, literati and scholars of different ethnic groups emerged. There were outstanding representatives of all ethnic groups. They were bilingual or good at Chinese, Uyghur, Mongolian, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and other languages. They not only relied on their linguistic ability to translate various classics, especially Buddhist scriptures but also mostly composed poems, prose, and other literary works in their own language and Chinese. Secondly, various literary forms sprouted and developed. Storytelling scripts and other entertainment forms popular in the cities of the Southern and Northern Song dynasties continued to develop, and the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty became the most notable literary and art form in the literature during this period. The achievements of Yuan opera stood alongside Tang poetry and Song ci. During the formation of Yuan opera, the love of song and dance among ethnic minorities was one of the reasons. In order to accommodate the appreciation requirements of the numerous Mongolian audiences, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty absorbed a large number of Mongolian words in its texts and borrowed several elements from the northern opera and Hu music.

4 Division and New Changes of Refined and Popular Literature Yuan opera, as a representative literary style in the Yuan Dynasty, became a major component of the literature in the Yuan Dynasty and a topic for mainstream research. The “popular literature” represented by Yuan opera rose to prominence and was regarded as “the emergence of living literature” that overturned the established literary pattern. For this reason, poetry and prose compositions were neglected in the Yuan Dynasty. People in the Ming Dynasty once asserted that there were no poems or prose writings in the Yuan Dynasty. From today’s perspective, poetry and prose in the Yuan Dynasty seemed to decline and be inferior to poetic drama and sanqu. However, they were not without merit quantitatively and qualitatively. The compilation and publication of The Complete Collection of Prose in the Yuan Dynasty (Quan Yuan Wen) and The Complete Collection of Poems in the Yuan Dynasty (Quan Yuan Shi) revealed the

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whole picture of poetry and prose in the Yuan Dynasty. The fashionable literati gathering in the Yuan Dynasty facilitated the establishment of poets’ associations. In terms of subject matter, poems on paintings became a major highlight among the poems composed during the Yuan Dynasty. In terms of poetic theory, the disputes between learning from Tang poetry and Song poetry reflected the understanding of poetry and the summary of poetics from the previous dynasties by the poets during this period. The status and achievements of refined literature in the Yuan Dynasty need to be reexamined and reviewed. At the same time, it is still necessary to acknowledge and affirm the achievements of Yuan opera, because it enabled the popular literature, which had always been rejected from the rank of refined art, to compete with the traditional poetry and prose without any shame. The emergence of poetic drama in the Yuan Dynasty was a product of the special cultural atmosphere during that period. The overall cultural level of the Mongols and the demand for popular entertainment was one important condition for the formation and development of poetic drama. The inclusion of female singers and dancers made the creation of poetic drama become a popular practice; the use of stories like legal cases as the main subject matter made the content of poetic drama close to ordinary people; the absorption of a large number of colloquialisms made the language of poetic drama become vernacular and meet the aesthetic needs of most people in the multi-ethnic society in which poetic drama was favored. All of these were factors that contributed to the success and popularity of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. Before the Yuan Dynasty, refined literature occupied an unshakably dominant position, not only for social aesthetic reasons but also for the need to consolidate feudal rule and strengthen ideology. In spite of its prosperity and wide popularity among citizens, poetic drama was still despised and disparaged by neo-Confucianists. However, the uniqueness of literature in the Yuan Dynasty accelerated the unprecedented integration of refined and popular literature. This was an important contribution of the literature in the Yuan Dynasty.

CHAPTER 25

Poetic Drama in the Yuan Dynasty Li Fang

In Study on the Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties (Song Yuan Xi Qu Kao), Wang Guowei wrote, “Each dynasty has its own literature: lisao in the State of Chu, fu in the Han Dynasty, parallel verses in the Six Dynasties, poetry in the Tang Dynasty, ci in the Song Dynasty and opera in the Yuan Dynasty. All of the them were representative literature in a dynasty and could not be reproduced by later generations”. Yuan opera, especially the poetic drama of Yuan Dynasty, was the “natural and original living literature” in the ideal of Wang Guowei and became the most representative art style of the literature in the Yuan Dynasty that came into the sight of researchers.

1

Overview of Poetic Drama in the Yuan Dynasty

The germination of opera performance occurred early in the “pantomime performance of artists” in the Spring and Autumn Period. Later, the jiaodi opera “Dong Hai Huang Gong” in the Han Dynasty and the song and dance drama “Ta Yao Niang” in the Tang Dynasty were products of opera development in its infancy. The poetic drama of the Song Dynasty

L. Fang (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_25

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was often regarded as the earliest complete opera form. The poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was developed from the poetic drama of the Song Dynasty and the opera of the Jin Dynasty, and it was also called the northern poetic drama because it was mainly popular in the north. Its rise can be traced back to the period of confrontation between the Mongol Empire and the Southern Song Dynasty. Wang Guowei defined the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Taizong of Yuan (1234) as the initiation of the poetic drama development of the Yuan Dynasty. The unification of the north and south in the Yuan Dynasty created a favorable external environment for the maturation of poetic drama. It is generally believed that the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was formed in the late years of the Jin Dynasty and the early years of the Yuan Dynasty and that it flourished during the reign of Dade in the Yuan Dynasty (the second half of the thirteenth century to the fourteenth century). From the perspective of performance, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was a complete form of opera that was formed under the direct influence of Jin opera and the song-speech drama, and it integrated various forms of performing arts. Based on the storytelling scripts, lyric and melody, and chanting literature since the Tang and Song dynasties, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty developed with a large number of mature scripts with a fixed style. The scripts for the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty had a fixed pattern. Each script basically consisted of four acts and one prelude. This could be a regular pattern under the influence of the poetic drama of the Song Dynasty in which the performance was divided into several sections. Act in stage performance was roughly similar to the “act” in modern play. If four acts were not enough, a prelude would be added. The prelude was usually used at the beginning to introduce the plot or the synopsis, although sometimes it was also used as a transition and connection between two acts. The musical form in the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was regular as well. There were nine gongdiao (musical modes) in use, called five gongs and four diaos, namely zhenggong, zhonglügong, nanlügong, xianlügong, huangzhonggong, dashidiao, shuangdiao, shangdiao, and yuediao. They were also known as “beijiugong”. As a musical concept, gongdiao had two parameters of pitch and mode. Each gongdiao had its special style. In the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty, each act had a roughly regular gongdiao, which would not be repeated in different acts. The set of songs in each act was composed of several song names under the same gongdiao, and the song names under the same

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gongdiao followed a roughly regular order. Most often, xianlügong was used in the first act; nanlügong was used in the second act; zhonglügong was used in the third act; and shuangdiao was used in the fourth act. The performance of poetic drama consisted of three parts, namely singing, spoken part, and acting. The poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty had a unique singing form. Each script was sung by a leading role from beginning to end, which was mostly a main female or male role. The script for the main female role was called “danben”, and the script for the main male role was called “moben”. Singing was the main means of shaping and portraying characters. The main characters sang sets of songs in several important nodes over the development of the plot to fully express their emotions and show their personality traits, thus achieving a coherent and complete artistic effect. The poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was played by five major roles, namely, the female role, the male role, the painted face male role, the male roles other than the main male role and painted face male role, and others. Among them, male role and female role were dressed in pure colors. Each role could be further divided. For example, the male role was divided into the main male role, the supporting male role, the secondary male role, the young male role, the male role making debut, etc.; female role was divided into the main female role, the supporting female role, the secondary female role, the maiden role, the young female role, the old female role, the prostitute role, the clown female role, etc.; the painted face male role, mostly portraying a vigorous character, was divided into the painted face male role, the painted face male role portraying a bad character, the secondary painted face male role, etc.; there were also male roles other than main male role and painted face male role; others included bolao (old male role), bu’er (old female role), banglao (a bandit role), lai’er (a child role), jia (an emperor role), gu (an official role), he (a farmer role), xisuan (a scholar role), yeci (a pawn role), zhicong (an attendant role), etc. One actor or actress could play different roles, and this was called “yi jue zhong jiao”. Roles other than female role and male role performed only the spoken parts and movements. Spoken parts were also known as “binbai” and were often marked by the word “say” in the script. Depending on the plot, spoken parts were divided into monologue, dialogue, recitation, voiceover, synchronous spoken parts, interposition, words spoken by an actor from offstage, short spoken parts, etc. Some of the spoken parts were free of rhyme, and they were called yunbai, while others were rhymed, and they were called

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yunbai. The opera was lyrical, and the spoken parts were narrative. In the so-called narrative, the characters told their names, their backgrounds, the context of their stories, their activity environments, their dialogues with others, their own thoughts, etc. Because one actor or actress played the leading role in the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty and performed both the singing and spoken parts, the other roles all explained their relationships with other roles, their circumstances, their inner world, and their personality traits through the spoken parts. Stage effects such as movements, facial expressions, singing and dancing, and martial arts were called “ke” or “kejie”, which included workmanship (movements and facial expressions) and acrobatics. The stage effects in the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty were not just a vivid imitation of real life, but combined refinement, omission, inflation, and exaggeration. They reflected life in an artistic way through virtual performance actions, combined with some “stage decor” (props).

2 Different Phases, Themes, and Representative Works of the Poetic Drama of the Yuan Dynasty According to Zhong Shicheng’s Register of Ghosts (Lu Gui Bu) and other books, there were more than five hundred kinds of poetic drama scripts and more than one hundred playwrights in the Yuan Dynasty. More than one hundred and fifty kinds of scripts have been handed down to this date. These scripts had various styles that were solemn and tragic, impassioned and bold, elegant and beautiful, warm and mellow, cold and craggy, subtle and soft, natural and original, or secluded and refined. Depending on the main themes, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty could be divided into the drama of Bao Zheng (an upright official known for stressing the dignity of law), the drama of heroes in Water Margin, the drama of the Three Kingdoms, etc. Depending on the major types, it could be divided into romantic drama, legal case drama, historical drama, the immortal-Taoism drama, etc. In the History of the Poetic Drama of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan Za Ju Shi), Li Xiusheng divided the history of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty into the initial, middle, and late phases. Most scholars divide the creation of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty into two phases. The first phase centered around the north. In the second phase, northern poetic drama writers began to wander or migrate to the south, and many southern literati also wrote poetic drama. After the late years of the reign of Dade or so, the center of poetic drama creation

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gradually moved from Dadu to Hangzhou. From this period to the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty came to its late phase, when famous writers passed away one after another, and poetic drama creation began to decline. In the literature history, there were four leading Yuan opera writers, namely Guan Hanqing, Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan, and Zheng Guangzu, who were four poetic drama writers in the Yuan Dynasty. They represented the achievements of different genres of poetic drama creation in different periods of the Yuan Dynasty and thus were called by later generations as “Four Leading Yuan Opera Writers”. Bai Pu and Guan Hanqing were writers in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, and they were mainly active in Zhending and Dadu regions. Guan Hanqing is to be discussed in a special section. Bai Pu is discussed here. He was originally named Bai Heng, courtesy name Renfu, and was later renamed Pu. His art name was Langu, and he hailed from Yuzhou (now Hequ, Shanxi Province). Bai Pu wrote fifteen types of poetic drama, and most of them were inspired by historical stories and folk legends. They were mostly about the marriage and love affairs of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies. The Wu Tong Yu, full name Tang Ming Huang Qiu Ye Wu Tong Yu, was adapted from Bai Juyi’s The Everlasting Regret. Through the tragic meaning of the drama, Bai Pu illustrated that even though the emperor had supreme power, he had no choice but to surrender to the situation. The drama conveyed a sense of emptiness and disillusionment. The fourth act depicted Li Longji’s longing for Yang Yuhuan, which was the highlight of the whole drama. The Qiang Tou Ma Shang was a love story as well. It was adapted from Bai Juyi’s poem called Jing Di Yin Yin Ping. The drama version intensified the conflict and dramatic properties of the original story. Pei Shaojun, son of a minister, and Li Qianjin fell in love at first sight and pledged to marry without the permission of his parents. Pei hid Li in the back garden of his family’s house, and Li gave birth to a son and a daughter. Seven years later, their relationship was known to the public, and Pei’s father stopped them from getting married. Fighting in vain, Li Qianjin was abandoned by her family. When Pei Shaojun passed the imperial examinations and remarried Li Qianjin, the couple was finally reunited. Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao (Zhao Shi Gu Er) was an early representative piece of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty and was brought to Europe early. In 1754, the French enlightenment thinker Voltaire adapted it into an opera called The Orphan of China with the note “Ethics of Confucius in Five Acts”. Ji Junxiang, a native of Dadu, whose dates of

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birth and death and biography were unknown, probably lived during the reign of Zhiyuan (1264–1294). He wrote six poetic dramas, of which only The Orphan of Zhao has survived in its entirety. This drama was mainly based on the historical story of the conflict and struggle between the two families of Zhao Dun and Tu Angu during the reign of Emperor Ling of Jin during the Spring and Autumn Period, as recorded in Records of the Grand Historian·The House of Zhao. The drama emphasized the moral dichotomy between Tu Angu as a “powerful traitor” and the Zhao family as a “loyal and virtuous family”. Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu were representative writers living during the flourishing period of poetic drama in the Yuan Dynasty. Ma Zhiyuan, art name Dongli, was a native of Dadu. He was born around 1250 and died between 1321 and 1324. During the twentysecond year of the reign of Emperor Shizu of Yuan under the title of Zhizheng, he served as a minor official in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and later he returned to live in seclusion. The Autumn in the Han Palace was his early work and his representative poetic drama. The story of Zhaogun’s departure to the frontier, which was first recorded in the History of the Han Dynasty, was a common subject of literary creation. Writers generally focused on Zhaogun’s misfortune and tragic fate. However, Ma Zhiyuan’s Autumn in the Han Palace (Han Gong Qiu) was a drama played by male roles, and the main character was Emperor Yuan of Han. As an emperor, Emperor Yuan of Han was still unable to control his own fate. Although Zhaogun was originally a palace maid who had no chance to meet the emperor in person, Ma Zhiyuan made her a beloved concubine of Emperor Yuan of Han and also a fragile woman who could protect herself. The adaptation reflected more profoundly the vicissitudes and helplessness of an individual who was displaced in the flood of history. In addition to Autumn in the Han Palace, Ma Zhiyuan also composed the immortal-Taoism drama A Pipe Dream (Huang Liang Meng) and Yueyang Tower (Yue Yang Lou), as well as Tears on Green Shirt (Qing Shan Lei) and The Retirement of Chen Tuan from the World (Chen Tuan Gao Wo) in which Confucian scholars were the protagonists. In the late phase, the center of poetic drama was in Hangzhou. It accepted poetic drama writers who migrated from the north and gathered poetic drama writers in the south. At the same time, it was also a major city of poetic drama performance and publication. According to Zhong Sicheng’s Record of Ghosts, the poetic drama writers who were active in Jiangsu and Zhejiang included not only Zheng Guangzu, who was among

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the “Four Leading Yuan Opera Writers”, but also Gong Tianting, Jin Renjie, and Qiao Ji. Zheng Guangzu, courtesy name Dehui, hailed from Xiangling, Pingyang (now Linfen, Shanxi Province). His dates of birth and death were unknown. Zheng Guangzu worked in Hangzhou and was a representative of the southern writers in the late phase of poetic drama. According to Register of Ghosts, he wrote 17 kinds of drama. A Fair Girl’s Soul Departed (Qian Nv Li Hun) and Wang Can up the Castle (Wang Can Deng Lou) were his representative works. A Fair Girl’s Soul Departed was based on the novel Departure of Soul written by Chen Xuanyou in the Tang Dynasty. The story was about Wang Wenju and Zhang Qiannv, who were betrothed when still in womb by their parents and were in love with each other. Wang Wenju went to the capital to take the imperial examinations. After he parted with Qiannü in Liuting Pavilion, Qiannü missed him so much that her soul left her body to follow Wang Wenju to the capital. Wang Wenju, however, was not aware that he was accompanied by Qiannü’s soul. He thought that he was accompanied by Qiannü herself to the capital. Qiannü’s concern was described in detail under different circumstances. Her soul stayed with her lover night and day, while her body was sick in bed. After Wang Wenju passed the imperial examinations as the best performer and was ready to depart from the capital to take an official position, he planned to visit his mother-in-law on the way. He wrote a letter to inform Qiannü’s parents first and came with her soul to visit her. The soul and the body were united, so was a loving couple. Zheng Guangzu depicted “the little bit true love” of Qiannu in great detail.

3

Guan Hanqing and the Circle of Authors in Dadu

Guan Hanqing’s dates of birth and death were unknown, and he was born in about the late years of the Jin Dynasty or during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Yuan. According to Sun Kaidi’s investigation, he was born between 1248 and 1250 and died after the seventh year of Yanyou (1320) and before the first year of Taiding (1324). His native place is controversial, and possible places included Qizhou (now in Anguo City, Hebei Province, Chronicle of Qizhou, Vol. VIII ), Dadu (now Beijing City, Record of Ghosts ), and Haizhou (now in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, Classified History of Yuan (Yuan Shi Lei Bian, Vol. XXXVI ).

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Guan Hanqing was knowledgeable, humorous, and unyielding. He compiled sixty-seven pieces of poetic dramas, of which eighteen pieces have survived. There is still disagreement about whether some of the pieces were written by him. He was known for his depiction of the complex reality of life and the fate of the underclass. His masterpieces were The Injustice to Dou E (Dou E Yuan), Saving a Prostitute (Jiu Feng Chen), The Riverside Pavilion (Wang Jiang Ting), The Pavilion of MoonWorship (Bai Yue Ting), Lu Zhai Lang, The Conference of a Single Dao (Dan Dao Hui), and The Smart Girl Cheating on Love Affair (Tiao Feng Yue). These profoundly influential works enjoy a high reputation even today. The Injustice to Dou E was an exemplary tragedy of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. Officially named The Injustice to Dou E That Touched Heaven and Earth (Gan Tian Dong Di Dou E Yuan), it was mainly inspired by the story of “a dutiful daughter-in-law who lived in the East Sea area” from Biography of Women in Ancient China (Lie Nv Zhuan). The protagonist Dou E, born to a poor family, was sold by her father to Cai’s family as a child bride of Cai’s son in order to pay her father’s debt. After her husband died, Dou E was determined to preserve chastity. She was wrongfully accused by a bad man of a murder when she refused to marry him. Based on the wrong accusation, the government ordered to have her executed, and she was burdened with infinite grievances. The third act Execution Ground was the climax of the whole drama. On the execution ground, Dou E bitterly complained about her sentence because she did not break the law. Before her execution, Dou E swore that her innocence would be proven when: dripping blood splashed on a white cloth but did not land on the ground; snow fell in the midst of summer; and a three-year drought befell the local place. All three did occur. Guan Hanqing also wrote several dramas about marriage and romance as well as comedies reflecting the life of ordinary people in a witty and playful language. In his works, he paid special attention to the fate of women and showed deep sympathy to them. He portrayed female protagonists with distinctive personalities and different life experiences, including traditional women like Dou E, who honored female virtues and filial piety, Zhao Pan’er, the heroine of Jiu Feng Chen, who was a prostitute with high morality, and Tan Ji’er, the heroine of Wang Jiang Ting, who was a young widow with great courage. He respected, understood, and sympathized with women, and these calm, sophisticated, and insightful women in his works demonstrated a common characteristic that

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they dared to change their fate through resistance and fighting with a positive attitude. Guan Hanqing was interested in extensive themes and subject matters in his dramas. He was good at writing dramas about legal cases, romance, and history. The Dan Dao Hui was the most excellent historical drama written by Guan Hanqing. During the Three Kingdoms Period, in order to conquer Jingzhou, Guan Yu crossed the Yangtze River alone to attend a banquet, showing extraordinary heroism. Guan Hanqing’s dramas were famous for their compact rhythm and natural adeptness, coupled with refined and rigorous structure and language. Guan Hanqing was already a leader poetic drama writer in Dadu. Known as “northernstyle melody”, the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was undoubtedly born and popular in the north. Most poetic dramas were northerners. During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, poetic drama was highly popular in Pingyang (Shanxi Province), Zhending (Hebei Province), and Dongping (Shandong Province). With the unification of China by the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the capital Dadu, Dadu not only became the political and cultural center of China but also rapidly developed into a metropolis that was economically prosperous and highly commercial with strong consumption. The prosperity of the city directly influenced population growth and commercial prosperity. The formation and growth of the citizen class contributed to the rise of entertainment in Dadu. Outstanding playwrights and actors gathered in Dadu from different places such as Wang Shifu and Ma Zhiyuan from Hebei and Hongzi Lier from Shaanxi. As the center of poetic drama development in Yuan Dynasty, Dadu witnessed the formation of a large group of excellent authors. The only surviving thirty kinds of poetic drama published in the Yuan Dynasty were mostly named “New Compilation in Dadu” and “New Publication in Dadu”, which showed the status of Dadu in the compilation of poetic drama. According to Record of Ghosts, there were nineteen authors of poetic drama in Dadu, and they were joined by authors who lived permanently in Dadu for drama activities. This author group in Dadu was led by Guan Hanqing. Jia Zhongming’s eulogy Ling Bo Xian was evidence for his high prestige in the drama circle. Also, according to Record of Ghosts, Guan Hanqing interacted with many drama authors such as Yang Xianzhi, Liang Jinzhi, and Fei Junxiang in Dadu. Their close interactions and learning from each other surely contributed to the improvement of poetic drama art and the convergence of creative styles. Poetic drama authors

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communicated with each other through “guilds of authors” which were organizations of drama and musical theater authors and artists during the Song and Yuan dynasties, as well as bridges for creators and performers to contact and communicate with each other. Activities in guild of authors that are now found in records were carried by Yujing Guild and Yuanzhen Guild. Yujing Guild was established earlier. Its members were scriptwriters active in Hebei in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty. Yujing was a courtesy name of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty. Members of this guild included not only authors who lived permanently in Dadu, but also writers like Bai Pu who once attended its activities when he traveled in Dadu. There was also Yuanzhen Guild in Dadu. Yuanzhen was the reign title of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan. Guilds of authors were similar to ancient poet societies and produced flexible and various creative forms. Scriptwriters were independent creators, but they often learned from each other and drew on others’ merits to offset their own weaknesses. Sometimes they composed dramas under the same title. Therefore, some of the scripts in the Song and Yuan dynasties were collective compositions by guilds of authors.

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Wang Shifu and Romance of the Western Chamber

Wang Shifu, courtesy name Dexin, hailed from Dadu. His dates of birth and death were unknown. He lived for the most part of his life during the turn of the Jin and Yuan dynasties. He wrote fourteen kinds of scripts, of which the most famous script that has survived to this date is Romance of the Western Chamber (Xi Xiang Ji). In the late years of the Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen, a famous poet, wrote an autobiographical novel called The Story of Yingying. In this story, Scholar Zhang fell in love with his distantly related cousin Cui Yingying while living in Pujiu Temple, but he finally abandoned her. During the Song and Jin dynasties, the story of Scholar Zhang and Cui Yingying became an important subject of chanting literature. The “tiaoxiao zhuanta” (a style of traditional dance drama in the Song Dynasty) versions of Hui Zhen Ji (alternative name The Story of Yingying ) written by Qin Guan and Mao Pang and the drum lyric written by Zhao Lingzhi were all adapted from Yuan Zhen’s original work. The Songspeech Drama Version of Romance of the Western Chamber written by Dong Jieyuan in the Jin Dynasty, generally known as “Dong’s Version

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of Romance of the Western Chamber”, was an important milestone in the development history of “the Western Chamber” story. Dong Jieyuan made substantial changes to the original storyline and characters. Scholar Zhang was changed from an unfaithful man to a loyal lover, while Yingying was changed from a fragile woman to an independent and bold woman. The couple broke through obstacles and eloped. “Dong’s Version of Romance of the Western Chamber” also served as the blueprint for Wang Shifu’s masterpiece. Wang Shifu’s Romance of the Western Chamber, full name Cui Yingying Waiting for Her Lover in the Western Chamber under the Moon (Cui Ying Ying Dai Yue Xi Xiang Ji), addressed a refined theme expressing the best wish that “all shall be well”. Scholar Zhang and Yingying defied family status and power for the sake of their true love and fought relentlessly with Yingying’s mother, who was the wife of a minister. Their choice was always regarded as a fearless challenge to feudal ethics in order to win personal freedom. Wang Shifu described the love between Cui and Zhang in an extremely detailed and subtle way, from budding and growth to commitment and maturity. Wang Shifu’s biggest contributions to the adaptation of Romance of the Western Chamber were the restructuring of the script and characterization. The theme of Yuan Zhen’s original work was praising Scholar Zhang for “making up for his mistake”. In The Story of Yingying, the tragic ending of Scholar Zhang abandoning his lover was criticized by readers. Both Dong Jieyuan and Wang Shifu portrayed the hero and the heroin remaining faithful to their love, boldly breaking through the shackles of feudal ethics, overcoming all kinds of obstacles and living happily ever after making unremitting efforts. In Wang Shifu’s Romance of the Western Chamber, Scholar Zhang, Yingying, and the matchmaker were reshaped to be main characters with flesh and blood. These well-portrayed and real characters became classical in the drama history. Another storyline in parallel with the conflict between Cui, Zhang, and the matchmaker as a team and Cui’s mother was the different personality traits of Yingying, Scholar Zhang, and the matchmaker as the love of the couple developed. After the matchmaker found that Cui and Zhang “found each other congenial” and “became lovesick”, she served as a go-between messenger for them. However, she consciously or unconsciously caused misunderstandings between Scholar Zhang, who was crazy about his lover, and Yingying, who was confused about whether to accept him or not. The personality traits of these three characters and intense

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dramatic conflicts were fully demonstrated in episodes such as delivering letters under the moon and secret meetings in a garden. In terms of script structure, Romance of the Western Chamber was unique among the poetic dramas of the Yuan Dynasty. It consisted of five chapters, twenty-one acts, and five preludes, different from the conventional structure of four acts and one preclude and the common practice of one leading role in the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. In each of its acts, the male role and the female role sang alternately in fact. At the end of the fourth act of each chapter, there was “a synopsis” to mark a turning point in the storyline and a special [end song of silk reeler] as a transition to connect the next chapter. Wang Shifu was good at depicting the personality traits of the characters through their identities, tones of voice, and words, and his setting was also in line with the development of the plot. Romance of the Western Chamber was one of the most influential dramas in the history of Chinese literature and was translated into Manchu and Mongolian languages, which proved its popularity and value. From the late nineteenth century, it was spread to foreign countries and was translated into Latin, English, French, German, and Japanese. Romance of the Western Chamber: History of Romance of the Western Chamber, A Drama in Sixteen Acts in French, translated by the famous Chinese sinologist Stanislas Julien, was published in 1880 as the earliest translation version on the European continent. So far, this drama has been translated into many English versions, including Henry H. Hart’s Romance of the Western Chamber: A Medieval Drama, Xiong Shiyi’s five volumes of Romance of the Western Chamber, Wilt L. Idema’s and Stephen H. West’s Romance of the Western Chamber in Hongzhi Edition, and Xu Yuanchong’s Romance of the Western Chamber. Obviously, Romance of the Western Chamber has become a jewel in the treasure of world literature, with long-term vitality that transcends time and space.

CHAPTER 26

The Rise of Southern Opera Li Fang

During the Southern Song Dynasty, “Southern Opera”, also known as “play” or “southern-style melody”, was popular in the Yongjia area. It was called in Shui Yun Cun Gao as “Yongjia Play”, which was the earliest literature in which the word “opera” was coined. The Yongle Canon (Yong Le Da Dian) in the Ming Dynasty recorded thirty-three pieces of play of Southern Opera in a total of twenty-seven volumes. Three of them, namely Number One Scholar Zhang Xie (Zhang Xie Zhuang Yuan), Xiao Sun Tu, and Grandee’s Son Takes the Wrong Career (Huan Men Zi Di Cuo Li Shen), have survived to this date. The Romance of a Hairpin (Jing Chai Ji), The Story of Liu Zhiyuan and the White Rabbit (Liu Zhi Yuan Bai Tu Ji), The Moonlight Pavilion (Bai Yue Ting Ji), and The Killing of a Dog (Sha Gou Ji) collectively written by scriptwriters belonging to the same guilds were representatives of Southern Opera in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Gao Ming’s A Tale of the Pipa (Pi Pa Ji) was reputed as the “ancestor of ci and qu”.

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1

Formation and Development of Southern Opera

While the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty was popular in the north, opera was born and developed in the south. Southern Opera (nan xi), also known as play, shortened from “play of Southern Opera”, was reputed as the ancestor of all operas in China. Because it first appeared in Wenzhou (known as Yongjia in ancient times), Zhejiang Province, it was also known as “poetic drama of Wenzhou”, “poetic drama of Yongjia”, or “Yongjia play”. Born in the Song Dynasty, it became mature in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty after a long period of development and evolution and later evolved into the main form of drama in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, i.e., legends. Traced back to its origin, Southern Opera was influenced by ditty in the south in terms of musical system. According to Nan Ci Xu Lu, “Ci writings from the Song Dynasty were set to music and sung on the streets and alleyways”. The textual system of Southern Opera featured sets of melody patterns, and long stories were acted in narrative from others’ perspective. This gave birth to a new artistic style. In terms of performance form, it integrated many art skills in the Song Dynasty such as poetic drama, shadow play, puppet shows, and grand pieces of song and dance, and it also absorbed the performance advantages of changzhuan (a set of songs composed of many melodies with the same gongdiao), chanling (changzhuan with introduction and ending), etc. It was more closely related to song-speech drama. The popularity of “storytelling” in the Song Dynasty also influenced the spoken parts of the Southern Opera. Southern Opera integrated singing, dancing, spoken parts, and stage effects to perform a complete story. The length of Southern Opera depended on the plot and was highly flexible. Due to the complicated storyline, the scripts were usually long stories several times longer than poetic drama. A piece of Southern Opera could be as long as more than fifty acts and as short as twenty to thirty acts. For example, in Three Types of Southern Operas in the Yongle Canon (Yong Le Da Dian Xi Wen San Zhong), Number One Scholar Zhang Xie had fifty-three acts, and the shortest opera Grandee’s Son Takes the Wrong Career had only fourteen acts. Usually, there was a four-line “synopsis” before the first act to summarize the main idea of the plot. Southern Opera was mostly sung in southern-style melodies and was mainly played by clapper.

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In terms of role, there were seven major roles in Southern Opera, namely, male role, female role, painted face, the male roles other than the main male role and painted face male role, clown, secondary role, and the maiden role. One piece of poetic drama was sung by only one main role, while Southern Opera could be sung by any role on the stage. There were also many singing forms such as solo, antiphonal singing, relay singing, and chorus, as well as vocal accompaniment in some traditional Chinese operas from back stage to build up the atmosphere. The flexible and diverse singing forms not only allowed actors to take a break and kept the stage lively but also facilitated the expression of thoughts and feelings of characters and the portrayal of characters with different identities and personality traits. Southern Opera was born in the civil society and involved less literati than the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, most of the Southern Operas were anonymous. For example, two early pieces of Southern Opera, Chaste Woman Zhao (Zhao Zhen Nv) and Wang Kui, were marked by words like “written by Yongjia natives”, and other pieces were usually marked by words like “written by gifted scholars”. These compositions were concentrated in different guilds of authors such as Jiushan Guild in Wenzhou, Yongjia Guild, Guhang Guild in Hangzhou, and Jingxian Guild in Suzhou. “Jiushan Guild” wrote Number One Scholar Zhang Xie, “Guhang Guild” wrote Xiao Sun Tu, and so on. As for plays in the Southern Song Dynasty, the surviving works include Chaste Woman Zhao and Cai Erlang (Zhao Zhen Nü Cai Er Lang), Wang Kui, Le Chang Fen Jing, Chen Xun Jian Mei Ling Shi Qi, Wang Huan, Number One Scholar Zhang Xie, etc. Most of them were concerned about marriage and romance. Except for Number One Scholar Zhang Xie, none of them was circulated in society. The Number One Scholar Zhang Xie was written by scholars belonging to Jiushan Guild in Wenzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty, and the story was transplanted and adapted from a song-speech drama. It is a precious play that has been preserved in its entirety from the Southern Song Dynasty. It had a classical plot of “scholar being an unfaithful lover” in the history of Chinese drama. The story was about Zhang Xie, a scholar on his way to the capital for the imperial examinations, who was helped by a poor girl living in a temple and married her. After Zhang Xie became the top performer of the imperial examinations, he refused to acknowledge the poor girl as his wife because she was “ugly, humble and penniless”. He even later tried to kill

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her with a sword and pushed her down a cliff. She was saved by a chancellor called Wang Deyong. Threatened by Wang’s power, Zhang Xie had to be reunited with his poor wife.

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Four Major Southern Operas “HLMK”

“HLMK” was the short form of four Southern Operas, namely The Romance of a Hairpin, The Story of Liu Zhiyuan and the White Rabbit, The Moonlight Pavilion, and The Killing of a Dog. They were also known as “Four Major Southern Operas” and marked the transition from Southern Opera in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty to the legends in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. The Romance of a Hairpin, full name The Romance of Wang Shipeng and a Hairpin (Wang Shi Peng Jing Chai Ji), is generally said to have been written by Ke Danqiu in the Yuan Dynasty. The original version was about an unfaithful man called Shipeng abandoning his lover Yulian who finally drowned herself in a river. Similar to Wang Kui and Zhao Zhenyu, it was also a story about an unfaithful scholar. The Romance of a Hairpin changed this theme. It started with “an introduction by the actor” that indicated the play was written to praise “a righteous husband and a chaste wife”. Its theme was encouraging mutual loyalty and trust between husband and wife. “Being moral” was not a requirement and constraint on women only. Both husband and wife were supposed to “preserve chaste” equally and together. Therefore, Wang Shipeng was a “righteous husband” and Qian Yulian was a “chaste wife”. With a hairpin as a prop from beginning to end, The Romance of a Hairpin was a perfect stage play with a series of well-arranged conflicts and disputes. The Story of the White Rabbit was “compiled by guild scriptwriters in Yongjia”. With a full name as The Story of Liu Zhiyuan and the White Rabbit (Liu Zhi Yuan Bai Tu Ji), it was a story about partings and reunions of Liu Zhiyuan and his wife Li Sanniang. The Story of the White Rabbit was adapted from historical tales and monologue storytelling materials such as The New Edition of Monologue Storytelling about the History of the Five Dynasties (Xin Bian Wu Dai Shi Ping Hua) and The Song-speech Drama Version of Liu Zhiyuan. Liu Zhiyuan was highly skilled in military drills. He joined the army after marrying Li Sanniang and served with distinction in the war. Sanniang gave birth to a son at home and named him “Yaoqilang”. She sent the child to Liu Zhiyuan for him to raise. Yaoqilang returned to visit his mother after he grew up. One

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day, he went out hunting and met his mother drawing water from the well when he was chasing a white rabbit. The family was thus reunited. The most striking feature of this play was the simple and vernacular language. For example, some of its acts like Sai Yuan retained rural customs and interesting practices such as “worshiping and redeeming a vow to a god” in ancient times. The Moonlight Pavilion was also an adapted work. With the full name of Wang Ruilan Complains about Love in the Moonlight Pavilion (Wang Rui Lan Gui Yuan Bai Yue Ting), it was also named The Secluded Chamber (You Gui Ji). Among the poetic dramas of the Yuan Dynasty, A Secluded Fair Lady in the Moonlight Pavilion (You Gui Jia Ren Bai Yue Ting) written by Guan Hanqing and A Gifted Scholar and a Beautiful Lady in the Moonlight Pavilion (Cai Zi Jia Ren Bai Yue Ting) written by Wang Shifu addressed the similar theme. In The Moonlight Pavilion, Jiang Shilong and Wang Ruilan became a couple after partings and reunions during the chaotic times of war. Because the story was set against the backdrop of the Mongolian invasion of the Jin Empire, the plot got rid of the cliche of romance between a gifted scholar and a fair lady. The full name of The Killing of a Dog was A Virtuous Wife Named Yang Educates Her Husband by Killing a Dog (Yang De Xian Fu Sha Gou Quan Fu). Xiao Dexiang, a writer in the late phase of the poetic drama development of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote a poetic drama named A Woman Named Yang Educates Her Husband by Killing a Dog (Yang Shi Nv Sha Gou Quan Fu). This story was basically the same as The Killing of a Dog. The Killing of a Dog was a family ethical drama that advocated the values of “filial piety and fraternity” and the idea that “The virtue of a wife is a precondition for the success of her husband”.

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Gao Ming and A Tale of the Pipa

Gao Ming (1306–1359), courtesy name Zecheng or Huishu, art name Caigendaoren, known as “Dongjia Xiansheng”, hailed from Rui’an, Zhejiang Province. Gao Ming was born to a literary family of scholars. His grandfather Gao Tianxi, his uncle Gao Yan and his brother Gao Yang were all able to write poems. In addition to A Tale of the Pipa, Gao Ming also wrote the twenty-volume Rou Ke Zhai Ji and left only more than fifty poems and more than ten pieces of prose to this date. These works are compiled into Gao Ze Cheng Ji. From the perspective of literary achievements, A Tale of the Pipa was a great progress from the works in Three

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Types of Southern Operas in the Yongle Canon. A Tale of the Pipa was also an adapted script. The original play was written by scriptwriters and was not refined enough. It was even subjected to addition and deletion at will during performance. On the basis of folk creations, Gao Zecheng took playwriting to a new height. Gao Ming attached great importance to “loyalty” and “filial piety”. When he was a government official, he praised filial women and wrote Poem of a Chaste Woman Wang (Wang Jie Fu Shi) and A Tale of Filial Piety Well (Xiao Yi Jing Ji). In Confucianism, the ethics of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith were the basis for self-cultivation and family management. It was Gao Ming’s social ideal to promote Confucian traditional morality through plays, so as to correct the “deteriorating” customs and reconcile social conflicts. This was also the original intention that motivated him to write A Tale of the Pipa. The main plot of A Tale of the Pipa could be summarized as “three refusals”. After Cai Bojie and Zhao Wuniang got married, they wanted to serve their parents and lived in peace, but Cai’s father refused. Cai Bojie passed the imperial examinations as the top performer, and Chancellor Niu proposed to marry his daughter to him. Cai Bojie turned down the offer, but Chancellor Niu refused to take no as an answer. Cai Bojie missed his parents and wanted to resign and return home, but the court refused to accept his resignation. As a result, on the one hand, Cai Bojie had no choice but to leave behind his elderly parents and his newly-wed wife to take the imperial examinations in the capital. Unable to resign and turn down the engagement offer, he had no choice but to marry Chancellor Niu’s daughter and stay in the capital for three years without having a chance to write a letter home. On the other hand, his parents died of starvation and illness due to a severe drought in their hometown, and Zhao Wuniang cut and sold her hair in order to bury her parents-in-law in tombs built with her clothes. Afterward, she went to the capital with a pipe to look for her husband. Cai Bojie, Cai’s parents, Zhao Wuniang, and Chancellor Niu’s daughter were all tragic characters resulting from the “three refusals”. A Tale of the Pipa tried to convince people of being “loyal and filial”. While capturing this core theme, Gao Ming made substantial changes to the main plot of Cai Bojie’s story. The most crucial change was that Cai Bojie was transformed from a negative character who abandoned his wife to pursue wealth into a positive character with loyalty and filial piety and his despicable behavior of refusing to support his parents and forsaking his wife to marry another woman was justified by his inability to refuse under

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the coerce of the emperor and his new family. A Tale of the Pipa conveyed highly informative thoughts, which was reflected in the portrayal of Cai Bojie. The adapted version of A Tale of the Pipa revealed the conflict between “loyalty” and “filial piety” as two basic ethics concepts in the feudal times by telling the life story of Cai Bojie. It had a happy ending. “The family with one husband and his two wives was praised for its harmony”. This was a somewhat cliche ending. However, A Tale of the Pipa was a great work because it elaborated the family ethics in daily life under the context of the traditional Chinese society. The important characters in the play were all positive: the ruler and his subjects, the father and the son, and the husband and the wife. All of them lived and behaved under the guidance of traditional moral values, but they and others ended up in tragedy contrary to their wishes. A Tale of the Pipa had an ingenious structure. The author staggered Cai Bojie’s life in Chancellor Niu’s mansion with Zhao Wuniang’s misery in her hometown, creating a strong contrast. Getting Married and Eating Bran, Playing the Qin and Taking Medicine, Building Tombs and Enjoying the Moon and Portrait were all successfully written chapters. The contrast technique highlighted the dramatic conflicts and sharpened the tragic atmosphere. The plain and natural language in the play fits the personality traits of the characters. A Tale of the Pipa was considered as “ancestor of ci and qu” surely because it was welcomed by rulers of different dynasties for its strong advocacy of morals and manners. Gao Ming turned the creation of play into real social life and was concerned about the real fates and emotions of individuals. The issues addressed in the play such as the conflicts between “loyalty” and “filial piety” and between personal will and the ruling power of society were key to the immortality of the play.

CHAPTER 27

Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty Li Fang

Yuan opera was the combination of poetic drama and sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty. Similar to poetic drama, sanqu was also a new literary form that shone in the Yuan Dynasty and was a unique genre in addition to poetry and ci. Sanqu was deeply related to ci and was known as “derivative of ci”. However, it had a more lively oral language and a more dynamic poetic form, thus showing unique aesthetic features of natural and vivid stylistic characteristics and a lively urban aura.

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Origin and Formation of Sanqu

Sanqu was called “Yuefu”, “Contemporary Yuefu”, “Northern Yuefu”, and “Dayuan Yuefu” in the Yuan Dynasty. It was also called “musical movement”, “popular melodies”, and “qingqu” (melody without spoken parts or instructions for performers’ movements and expressions). It was a variant of Ci and could be sung with music. It was a popular singing form at that time. Musically, the formation of Yuan opera was inseparable from the “Hu music”. The Mongols ruled the Central Plain during the Yuan Dynasty, bringing elements of northern music, which was the direct cause of the

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emergence of Yuan opera. The music of Yuan opera came into being after the music of exotic nationalities was absorbed into folklore melodies and traditional lyric music. Melodies varied with north and south, and the music of Southern Play was mostly based on southern ditties. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, northern-style melodies flourished, and writers gathered in the north. After the unification of north and south by the Yuan Dynasty, Southern Play gradually prospered, and sanqu began to embrace “south-north set” that combined southern and northern music. The name “sanqu” was first introduced in Chengzhai Yuefu written by Zhu Youdun in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Nevertheless, “sanqu” in this book referred specifically to short lyrics and did not include sets of songs. In Tai He Zheng Yin Pu written by Zhu Quan in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, all of the sets were marked as “unrestrained sets” in order to be different from the poetic drama with four sets of songs. In the middle years of the Ming Dynasty, for example, in Wang Shizhen’s Qu Zao and Wang Jide’s Qu Lü, sanqu covered a wider range to be a collective name of “short lyrics” and “sets”. Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty often adopted a simple writing technique without extensive use of allusions. Yuan opera was natural, which meant that it was not subtle, not implicit but mostly colloquial. Structurally, sanqu was mainly divided into short lyrics, sets, and incidental melodies in between. Short lyrics, also known as “ye’er”, was the basic structural unit of sanqu. The name of short lyrics came from the drinking game in the Tang Dynasty. Single piece and melody, short tune, and few lyrics were its basic features. In spite of their limited length, short lyrics could be combined into a group called combined short lyrics, which consisted of several short lyrics sharing the same title and same tune. Up to a hundred short lyrics could be combined to chant something collectively or several things separately. Set, also known as “set of songs”, “unrestrained set” and “long lyrics”, developed from daqu in the Tang and Song dynasties and the song-speech drama in the Song and Jin dynasties. It was most influenced by song-speech drama. The set had three most striking stylistic characteristics. Firstly, it was composed of several melody patterns under the same gongdiao; secondly, all of the melodies shared the same rhyme, and a single rhyme was followed from beginning to end. Usually, an [epilogue] was finally added to mark the end of the whole set. There was also a kind of set called “incidental melody”, which was composed of two or three different melody patterns. In other words, when one melody came to an end with the audience

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unsatisfied, one or two “incidental” pieces would be added as complements. According to the record in The Complete Collection of Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty (Quan Yuan San Qu), commonly used incidental melodies usually shared the same gongdiao because sharing the same gongdiao allowed for coherent and consistent melodies without changing the rhyme. In very few cases, incidental melodies came with different gongdiao or combined southern- and northern-style melodies.

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Representative Writers and Works

In terms of chronological development, the creation of sanqu was similar to the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty and was generally divided into two periods. During the first period, northern writers occupied the dominant position. After the unification of the north and south by the Yuan Dynasty, the center of sanqu creation moved to the south, and southern literati and scholars wrote sanqu extensively, with the style of sanqu changed as well. In terms of creative style, sanqu could be simply divided into the bold and unrestrained school and the refreshing and exquisite school. The former was summarized by the ancient people as emphasizing originality and reducing the use of allusions, while the latter was summarized as polishing phrases to convey subtle and implicit meanings. In fact, no sanqu writer could be simply classified into the “bold and unrestrained” school or the “refreshing and exquisite” school. These two styles often coexisted without contradiction in most writers’ works. Sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty generally touched upon such themes as retirement from the world, an ode to history, a depiction of landscape, and a complaint about love, among which retirement from the world was the most important theme and a defining feature of the literature in the Yuan Dynasty. Writers in the Yuan Dynasty, regardless of their status, mostly preferred to advocate “retirement from the world” and worship “seclusion”. One of the reasons was a series of social realistic factors such as the difficulty for literati to serve as officials through the imperial examinations, the humble status of the Han people and conflicts between ethnic groups. In addition, the influence of the Taoist thoughts of revering nature and governing by non-interference were other important factors. As a representative literary form in the Yuan Dynasty, writing sanqu was an attractive act for a majority of literati at that time, and sanqu writers came from different classes and identities such as officials, literati and scholars, musicians, and singers. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, a

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group of literati who held high-ranking official positions such as Lu Zhi, Zhang Yanghao, and Wang Yun became famous for their sanqu creations. Influenced by their backgrounds, identities, and knowledge, they shared somewhat similar creative styles which differed significantly from those of ordinary literati and lower-class courtesans. Engaged in the imperial court and seldom involved in the dissolute and irrational life in the marketplace, they were mainly interested in meditating on the past and history, showed the thinking of traditional scholar officials and used more elegant diction. Ma Zhiyuan was a famous composer of sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty. He was depressed in his whole life with a poor political career. He was aggressive when he was young, but he failed to win any scholarly honor or official rank, ending up as “a commoner trapped in the Central Plain”. He changed his mind to focus on studying qu. He left more than one hundred and thirty short lyrics, twenty-two sets of songs, and four fragmented sets of songs. His works mainly lamented the rise and fall of history, celebrated the hermit life and chanted landscape and idyllic scenery. While retaining the special artistic style of sanqu, his works often showed poetic conception and beautiful images found in poems and ci. His language was natural and beautiful, elegant and vernacular. The implicit thoughts and artistic styles in his works were most likely to resonate with intellectuals. Ordinary literati composers of sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty who did not take on any official positions included Yuan Haowen (1190–1257), Bai Pu (1226-after 1291), Guan Hanqing (1227-after 1297), Wang Heqing, Qiao Ji, Ju Jingchen, Zhong Sicheng, and Zhou Deqing. Some of these literati and scholars made good friends with the upper-class officials, while others were close to the lower-class female singers. Their different experiences and social intercourse directly influenced their creative styles. The humble status of the lower-class literati and scholars in the Yuan Dynasty and their close contacts with female singers were striking features of qu studies in the Yuan Dynasty. Songs and dances were common part of sanqu. Famous female singers like Zhu Lianxiu also left short lyrics surviving to this date. Writers like Guan Hanqing, Wang Heqing, and Bai Pu also wrote poetic drama and sanqu, mostly in colloquial language. They were generally regarded as writers of the bold and unrestrained school, but their works were equally delicate and elegant. Bai Pu himself led a leisurely life without taking on any official position, and most of his sanqu compositions were about recluse life. Zhang Kejiu and Qiao Ji were top sanqu

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writers in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, and they were known as the two great writers of sanqu in the Yuan Dynasty. They were regarded as representatives of the refreshing and exquisite school. After the unification of north and south by the Yuan Dynasty, the center of sanqu creation moved to the south, and Southern Play influenced the creative style of sanqu. The general trend was advocating literature and an elegant style. The compositions of Zhang Kejiu and Qiao Ji were outstanding representatives during this period. Among Yuan opera writers, a group of writers deserves special attention. They were the numerous writers from ethnic minorities like Mongolian, Jurchen, and Hui. The most important writers in this group included Aluwei, Xue Angfu, Guan Yunshi, etc. They wrote a large number of excellent sanqu writings and showed a unique style in the literature world marked by the integration of diverse cultures in the Yuan Dynasty.

CHAPTER 28

Poetry in the Yuan Dynasty Yu Fei

Abundant records of poetry have survived from the Yuan Dynasty. According to the record in The Complete Collection of Poems in the Yuan Dynasty written by Mr. Yang Lian, there were more than five thousand writers in the Yuan Dynasty, leaving about one hundred and thirty-two thousand poems surviving to this date. Compared with the contemporaneous opera, poetry was not the mainstream of literature in the Yuan Dynasty. As for the genre itself, poetry creations in the Yuan Dynasty were not as artistically accomplished as poetry in the Tang and Song dynasties. However, poetry in the Yuan Dynasty was unique and valuable in its own way. Clear narrative features were one of the main characteristics of poetry in the Yuan Dynasty, which might be related to the sophisticated narrative literature at that time. Another characteristic was the large number of bilingual writers. A large number of ethnic minority writers wrote in their own languages as well as in Chinese. In the poetry circle of all ages, the Yuan Dynasty was the only dynasty that witnessed the emergence of numerous bilingual writers. This was an important contribution from the

Y. Fei (B) College of Chinese and Literature, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_28

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poetry circle in the Yuan Dynasty to the unification of Chinese civilization, which strongly proved the openness, inclusiveness, and cohesiveness of Chinese culture.

1

Poetry in the Early Years

The poetry circle in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty was divided into the north and the south, and poets came from relatively complicated backgrounds. Most of the poets in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty were adherent poets who migrated from the Jin or Song Dynasty. Some of them were from the Jin Dynasty in the north, while others were from the Song Dynasty in the south. They also joined the Yuan Dynasty in different phases. As a result, these two groups seldom interacted with each other. It was not until the unification of the south and the north that the combination of southern and northern poetic styles became a characteristic of the poetry circle in the Yuan Dynasty. Poets in this period also showed different attitudes toward the Mongolian Yuan regime. Some of them were cooperative and joined the ruling class of the Yuan Dynasty, while others remained adherents wandering in all corners of the country. The poetry in the Yuan Dynasty started with the reign of Genghis Khan. As the Mongolian tribe rose and became stronger, the first influential poet in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty emerged approximately when the Mongols moved westward to conquer and destroy the Jin Dynasty (1234 A.D.). The poet was Yelü Chucai. Yelü Chucai (1190–1244), courtesy name Jinqing and art name Zhanranjushi, was a politician and poet. His poems were composed at the juncture of the Jin and Yuan dynasties. All of his surviving poems were written in more than a decade following his migration to the Yuan Dynasty. The best poems of them were completed when he followed Genghis Khan to conquer the Jin Dynasty in the West. His poems were mainly about his experience and impression of the Western region. In the description of natural scenery which was very different from that in his homeland, the poet highlighted only one protagonist, namely himself. During the journey to the West, Yelü Chucai, who was an imperial grandson in his homeland, witnessed the fierce conflicts among the northwestern tribes. He combined the rise and fall of history with his life to compose a number of poems imbued with a sense of vicissitude. After the Jin Dynasty perished in 1234, a group of important adherent poets migrated from the Jin Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, and Yuan Haowen was the leader. He was also closely related

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to a group of poets who lived between Yellow River and Fen River. They were collectively called “Hefenzhulao”. Politically, they did not cooperate with the Mongolian regime. They lived in the Mongolian Dynasty for two or three decades as adherents of the Jin Dynasty. From an objective point of view, they actually composed poems and prose during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, but they were never recognized by the ruling class. Yelü Chucai joined the ruling class of the Mongols early and was reasonably the first poet in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. He was followed by Liu Yin, who also migrated to the Yuan Dynasty from the Jin Dynasty as an important poet appreciated by the ruler. Liu Yin (1249–1293), courtesy name Mengji and art name Jingxiu, hailed from Rongcheng, Xiongzhou (now in Hebei Province). He wrote The Anthology of Jingxiu Xiansheng. Liu Yin was an important neoConfucianist in the north of the Yuan Dynasty and was known with Xu Heng as “Two Great Confucian Scholars in the North of the Yuan Dynasty”. Although he was not an adherent of the Song Dynasty and refused to serve as an official in the Jin and Yuan dynasties, he was full of respect for the former officials of the Song Dynasty who were captured but did not yield and retained their moral integrity. Liu Yin maintained integrity and dignity himself and wrote more than seventy Poems in Reply to Tao Yuanming (He Tao Shi) because he revered Tao Yuanming’s lofty and unyielding character. Among his poems, the historical poems on the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty were famous in the poetry circle of the Yuan Dynasty. Liu Yin had complicated feelings about the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, through which he often lamented the decline and demise of the Han culture instead of being concerned about the political regime. He was good at not only rhymed quatrain but also ancient-style poems. In Huang Yuan Feng Ya compiled during the middle years of the Yuan Dynasty, Liu Yin was rated as the top poet of the Yuan Dynasty, and many of his poems were selected in this book. Huang Yuan Feng Ya also included the poems of a poet appearing earlier than Liu Yin. He was Bo Yan, a Mongolian commander and chancellor. He left only four poems, but they reflected how the Mongols learned Chinese poetry when they destroyed the Song Dynasty. As a military commander who made a great contribution to the pacification of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chancellor Boyan set a typical example of Mongolian-Chinese literary exchange with his mature poems written in Chinese. Not only the Mongols learned Chinese poetry but many Semu people also began to learn Chinese poetry consciously in the early years of the

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Yuan Dynasty. A more accomplished representative of these people was the painter-poet Gao Kegong. Gao Kegong (1248–1310), courtesy name Yanjing, hailed from the Western region and was a registered resident of Fangshan (now in Beijing). He was a relatively successful official with good political performance and reputation; he was also a highly prestigious painter at that time. He had an anthology called Fang Shan Ji, which has been lost. Now only thirty or forty of his poems are collected. His reputation as a poet was overshadowed by his reputation as a painter. These poems he wrote were commented by Wu Shidao as being “similar to those of Wang Wei and Zhang Ji” and “naturally appealing in their own way”. Arguably, Gao Kegong was the first Simu native who could write poems in Chinese and was a worthy poet. He eventually settled in Jiangnan and became one of the first Simu writers to integrate into the local place and be accepted by the Han people. In addition to the adherents surviving after the Jin Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols and the Mongolian and Semu poets, a large number of the adherents of the Song Dynasty surviving after it was destroyed by the Mongols actually became the major poets in Jiangnan during the early years of the Yuan Dynasty. Since imperial examinations remained absent for a long time in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, these poets lost the opportunity to pursue a political career. They therefore vented their talent through poetry creation. The most influential activities were carried out by the poetry society, Moon Spring Poem Association. These were the most important activities in the poetry circle in Jiangnan during the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, and many excellent poets emerged from them. However, the most excellent Southern poet was not among them but a latecomer named Zhao Mengfu, who was a royal descendant of the Song Dynasty. Unlike those adherent poets, Zhao Mengfu was a representative of the literati poets in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), courtesy name Zi’ang and art name Songxuedaoren, hailed from Huzhou (Wuxing, Zhejiang Province). He was a descendant of the royal member Zhao Defang, the King of Qin in the Song Dynasty. He wrote ten volumes of Song Xue Zhai Ji. He was a major calligrapher and the top painter in the Yuan Dynasty, and his extremely high artistic attainment somewhat overshadowed his poetic reputation. Most of his surviving poems were five-character ancient poems and qilü poems. His five-character ancient poems were well received and his qilü poems were equally excellent. Some even say that they were better

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than his five-character ancient poems. Different from other poems in the Song and Yuan dynasties, his more than five hundred poems that were surviving barely repeated his own or others’ verses. He expressed his thoughts in verses with ease skillfully and naturally without any seeming strain. This was closely related to his quality as an artist. Zhao Mengfu and Liu Yin represented the highest achievements of the poetry circles in the south and the north during the early years of the Yuan Dynasty.

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Poetry in the Middle Years

After the division of northern and southern poetic styles in the early years, the poetry circle in the middle years of the Yuan Dynasty headed toward integration. The political stability, economic prosperity, and the resumption of the imperial examination system in the middle years of the Yuan Dynasty, coupled with its vast territory, allowed many literati to feel that they were living in a “flourishing age”. Writing “elegant and standard” poems became their main aim. During this period, the recognized masters in the poetry circle included Yu Ji, Yang Zai, Fan Peng, and Jie Xisi, who were known as “Four Great Poets of Yuan Dynasty”. Excellent ethnic minority representative poets included Ma Boyong and Sa Duci. Yu Ji was the most famous poet and a leader in the literature circle during the middle years of the Yuan Dynasty. Yu Ji (1272–1348), courtesy name Bosheng and art name Daoyuan, hailed from Renshou, Shujun (now Sichuan Province). He wrote the fifty-volume Dao Yuan Xue Gu Lu and the six-volume Dao Yuan Yi Gao. His poems had a vigorous style. Yang Zai (1271–1323), courtesy name Zhonghong, hailed from Pucheng, Jianning (now Fujian Province), and migrated to settle in Hangzhou. He was renowned because his literary talent was appreciated by Zhao Mengfu. Fan Peng (1272–1330), courtesy name Hengfu and Deji, hailed from Qingjiang, Linjiang (now in Jiangxi Province). Fan Peng wrote two treatises on “poetic techniques”. In his opinion, the techniques of ancient people were simply references and sources of inspiration. Poets should apply these techniques flexibly in their creation practice without being restricted. They should bring their wisdom into play. Fan Peng’s poems were influenced by the powerful, unconventional, and romantic styles of Li Bai and Li He, but they were still innovative without merely imitating the predecessors. Jie Xisi (1274–1344), courtesy name Manshuo, hailed from Jieyuan, Fuzhou, Longxing (Fengcheng, Jiangxi Province). Among the “Four Great Poets”, he and Yu Ji were

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both good at poetry and prose. Generally speaking, they made more achievements than Yang Zai and Fan Peng. The most accomplished ethnic minority poet during this period was Sa Duci, whose achievements were as equally splendid as those of the “Four Great Poets of Yuan Dynasty”. Arguably, he was reputed as the crown of ethnic minority poets. Another important imperial academy poet called Ma Zuchang was also so prestigious and influential that few ethnic minority poets could hardly match him. Ma Zuchang (1279–1338), courtesy name Boyong and art name Shitian, hailed from the Yolngu in the Western region. His poems and prose writings were collected in the fiftyvolume Shi Tian Ji. Ma Zuchang was good at writing poems about travel, and his travel poems mostly recorded what he saw on the Silk Road in the Western region. Sa Duci (circa. 1280- circa. 1346), courtesy name Tianxi and art name Zhizhai, was a member of the Daneshmend clan in the Western region. “Daneshmend” was a word specific to the Yuan Dynasty and referred to people who believed in Islam. The first collection of Selected Poems in the Yuan Dynasty by Gu Sili recorded 303 of his poems. His poetry collection was impressive for the concern about current affairs and the closeness to life. Maybe this was the direct reason why his poems were so famous and popular among the people. In fact, this was also true with “poems on palace life” under specific circumstances in the Yuan Dynasty. In the poetry circle during the Yuan Dynasty, Sa Duci was originally known for his Poems on Palace Life (Gong Ci). His “poems on palace life” and “miscellaneous odes to the capital” were so widely popular that he was even compared to Wang Jian in the Tang Dynasty. Although Sa Duci’s clan, his dates of birth and death, and the authenticity of his poems remain controversial, his position in the poetry circle during the Yuan Dynasty was irreplaceable and only Yu Ji and Yang Weizhen were as influential as him.

3

Poetry in the Late Years

The period of more than three decades during the reign of the last Emperor Yuanshun marked the late phase of the poetry circle in the Yuan Dynasty when it was already in chaos. Rebellious armies rose all over the country and launched riots to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty. Poets no longer sought to write “elegant and standard” poems. Instead, they paid more attention to chanting their emotions. It could be said that

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“emotionalism” was the most prominent feature of the poetry circle in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty. The representative poet was Yang Weizhen. The gathering of scholars in Yushan Caotang hosted by Gu Ying in Kunshan was the most influential poet gathering in the poetry circle during this period. In addition, the universally recognized most realistic poet during this period was Wang Mian, who was good at painting plum blossoms. There were still some very outstanding ethnic minority poets during this period, represented by Jin Yuansu and Nai Xian. Yang Weizhen (1296–1370), courtesy name Lianfu, hailed from Shanyin (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). Yang Weizhen was famous for his poems known as Tieya Style. When a sluggish poetic style became trendy in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, he advocated the ancient Yuefu, and his poems imitating the ancient Yuefu were appreciated by the people at his time. In addition, Yang Weizhen also learned actively from folk songs and wrote many ancient folk songs with love as their main theme. Although his poems were often criticized by later generations, he was undoubtedly the most influential poet in the poetry circle during the late years of Yuan Dynasty and occupied the leading position. It was an unalterable statement that Yang Weizhen wrote the best poems in the Yuan Dynasty poetry. Gu Ying (1310–1369), also known as Gu Dehui and Gu Aying, courtesy name Zhongying and art name Jinsudaoren, hailed from Kunshan (Taicang, Jiangsu Province). Gu Ying’s poems were stylistically different from Yang Weizhen’s “Tieya Style”. In addition to Yang Weizhen and Gu Ying as influential leaders in the poetry circle, the most realistic poet in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty was Wang Mian. Wang Mian (1300– 1359), courtesy name Yuanzhang and art name Zhushishannong, hailed from Zhuji (now in Zhejiang Province). He failed the highest imperial examinations and began to wander in the place of Wuchu, living on selling his paintings. He wrote Zhu Zhai Ji. As a painter, Wang Mian was good at painting plum blossoms. His representative paintings were Plum Blossom in Ink Painting and Plum Blossom. In the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, ethnic minority poets had been fully integrated into the poetry circle, and the most accomplished poets among them were Jin Yuansu and Nai Xian. Jin Yuansu (circa. 1310–1378), originally known as Haci, courtesy name Yuansu and art name Kuiyang (or Kuiyang Laoren), hailed from a Christian family in Fulin. His Nan You Yu Xing was an important reference for studies on lost poems in the Yuan Dynasty. It was found in the neighboring country Japan and contained 365 surviving poems. Nai Xian

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(1309–1368), courtesy name Yi Zhi and art name Heshuowaishi, hailed from Ziyunshan. He wrote the two-volume Jin Tai Ji. Nai Xian was an important poet in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty. He was a classical Chinese writer who wrote poems with all his heart and soul, taking poetry as his refuge and his expressing channel. He expressed his feeling after coming to Dadu in his poems. As the last Semu poet in the Yuan Dynasty, Nai Xian brought an end to the poetry circle in the Yuan Dynasty with his nostalgia poems.

CHAPTER 29

Novels and Prose in the Yuan Dynasty Yu Fei

1

Novels in the Yuan Dynasty

The dominant form of novels in the Yuan Dynasty was storytelling script, which was divided into “fiction” and “historical tale”. Fiction was further divided into nine variants, while historical tales were further divided into eight variants, of which six variants were known as “monologue storytelling”. Monologue storytelling was named partly because “monologue” was synonymous with “vernacular”, which suggested that historical tales were told in a vernacular language. It was also partly because “monologue” was synonymous with “comment”, which suggested that historical tales were told with comments. Generally speaking, monologue storytelling was popularized in historical readings with half classical and half vernacular languages. The narrative combined historical biography with folklore, with a mix of reality and fiction. The plot was based on history, and chronicle was the most common narrative form. The details of the stories were from fabrications or miscellaneous legends. Monologue storytelling was artistically crude and often provided simplistic and straightforward folk comments on historical events and historical figures.

Y. Fei (B) College of Chinese and Literature, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_29

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In the development history of ancient Chinese novels, historical tales published in the Yuan Dynasty occupied a very important position. Firstly, the monologue storytelling system was in the infancy of the later chapterbased novels. The whole book was divided into volumes, and each volume had a synopsis, similar to a chapter in the later chapter-based novels. There were opening poems and closing poems in each volume to summarize the content and the lessons of history. Secondly, Monologue Storytelling of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi Ping Hua), Legacy from the Reign of Xuanhe in the Song Dynasty (Da Song Xuan He Yi Shi), and The Story of King Wu’s Conquest over Yin (Wu Wang Fa Zhou Shu) were relatively important textual materials that contributed to the formation of full-length novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi Yan Yi), Water Margin (Shui Hu Zhuan), and The Investiture of the Gods in the Ming Dynasty. They provided clues for the development trajectory of historical tales as well as historical romances, heroic legends, and supernatural novels.

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Prose in the Yuan Dynasty

Of the four literary genres in the Yuan Dynasty, prose was not vital and vigorous enough. It basically developed slowly as a continuation of the ancient prose in the Tang and Song dynasties. On the whole, it was not as accomplished as poetry in the Yuan Dynasty. During the development process, prose in the Yuan Dynasty showed a different tendency from prose in the Tang and Song dynasties. Early prose writers such as Yao Sui and Yuan Mingshan, tended to imitate the prose in the Tang Dynasty and mainly learned from Han Yu. They thus showed a majestic and profound prose style. Other writers such as Liu Yin and Wang Yun preferred the prose style of the Song Dynasty and tended to show a plain and fluent style. Later, these two tendencies gradually merged. The most prominent feature of the prose in the Yuan Dynasty was the unity of neoConfucianism and writing. The specific influence of neo-Confucianism on prose in the Yuan Dynasty was mainly reflected in the pursuit of the “elegant and standard” style and the purpose of pragmatism. People in the Yuan Dynasty criticized and abandoned the neo-Confucian negation and disdain for literature and rhetoric in the Song Dynasty. They inherited the viewpoint that neo-Confucianism and writing should be integrated and put forward the idea that neo-Confucianism and ancient prose should be integrated.

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On the whole, this proposition about prose raised by people in the Yuan Dynasty suggested upholding the tradition of emphasizing prose as ancient prose writers after Han Yu did, and in this regard, they were laudable. If the fact that Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism became a famous discipline and even an official discipline in the Yuan Dynasty was taken into account, this achievement of people in the Yuan Dynasty would be more reasonably laudable. However, they did not put forward a new viewpoint on another contradiction and bias about the relationship between “literature” and “idea” that had existed since Han Yu, i.e., the bias that easily led to the underestimation of the literary characteristics of prose. Therefore, people in the Yuan Dynasty emphasized pragmatism in both prose theory and writing practice, and the idea that literature should be pragmatic could easily lead to a tendency to emphasize practicality rather than literary excellence. Moreover, an edict on the resumption of imperial examinations during the reign of Nianyou in the Yuan Dynasty stated that “The examinations should put Confucian scriptures at first, followed by writing skills. I will fail those who focus too much on flamboyant rhetoric” (Edict on the Imperial Examinations (Ke Ju Zhao) written by Cheng Jufu on behalf of Emperor Renzong). This edict suggested reforming the emphasis on ci and fu writings in imperial examinations and the shortcoming of flamboyant rhetoric pursued by scholars since the Sui and Tang dynasties. This reform also influenced the prose in the Yuan Dynasty, which was inclined more to record events and illuminate ideas than to express emotions and personality. Yang Weizhen in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty advocated the expression of personal feelings, but his influence was confined to the field of poetry and was limited to prose. The relatively accomplished prose writers in the Yuan Dynasty were Yao Sui, Yu Ji, Ouyang Xuan, and Huang Jin. Yao Sui (1238–1313), courtesy name Duanfu and art name Mu’an, hailed from Luoyang and had his ancestral home in Liucheng, Yingzhou (now Chaoyang, Liaoning Province). Most of Yao’s surviving writings were practical writing such as inscriptions and edicts, with little lyrical and landscape depiction prose writings. His prose was slightly archaic amid vigor and majesty, and vivid amid rigor and simplicity. Some of his tombstone inscriptions and inscriptions on tablets inside tombs featured clear descriptions and portrayals of the life experiences, thoughts, and personality traits of the deceased. Yu Ji was a leader not only in the poetry circle but also in the literature circle during the middle years of the Yuan Dynasty. He wrote various kinds of

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prose, some of which revealed his understanding of the interpersonal relationships and physics of society, while others praised independent political ambition and moral integrity of men. Ouyang Xuan (1273–1358), courtesy name Yuangong and art name Guizhai, had his ancestral home in Luling and moved to Liuyang, Tanzhou (now in Hunan Province). He wrote Gui Zhai Ji, which had sixteen volumes surviving to this date. Ouyang Xuan showed a style of profoundness amid quietness. In some of his argumentative writings, the idea was expressed in the first few sentences that were straightforward and profound, followed by subsequent plain and easy developments. Some of his excellent prose included Qi Feng Shuo, Fang Lin Ji, Ting Yu Tang Ji, etc. Huang Jin (1277–1357), courtesy name Jinqing, hailed from Yiwu, Wuzhou (now in Zhejiang Province) and was known as Jinhua Xiansheng. Most of his prose was practical writings which were smooth and elegant rather than unbridled and bold. Huang Jin was an upright and honest man, and these personality traits were mirrored in some of his writings. He believed that it was truly unfair for merchants to be disdained by scholar officials. In the feudal society long dominated by the idea that prioritized agriculture over commerce, this view was rare and seemed valuable.

PART VII

Literature in the Ming Dynasty

1368 A.D.–1644 A.D.

CHAPTER 30

Overview Zhang Dejian

1

Decline of Traditional Literary Genres and Rise of Multiple Literary Thoughts

Over the two hundred and seventy years of the Ming Dynasty, numerous writers and works emerged. Now, The Complete Collection of Prose in the Ming Dynasty (Quan Ming Wen), The Complete Collection of Poems in the Ming Dynasty (Quan Ming Shi), and The Complete Collection of Ci in the Ming Dynasty (Quan Ming Ci) are still under compilation. However, compared with the previous dynasties and especially the glorious Tang and Song dynasties, the Ming Dynasty did not have much to boast of with respect to the “traditional literary genres” (prose, poetry and ci) on the whole. The gloomy traditional literary genres were often attributed by the ancient people to the prevalence of the eight-part essay (a literary composition prescribed for the imperial civil service examinations). In all fairness, numerous excellent pieces in the traditional literary genres of poetry, prose, ci, and qu had been produced thanks to the creativity and contributions of countless gifted writers over the long-term historical practice. Indeed, they made unsurpassed achievements in terms of content, form,

Z. Dejian (B) School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_30

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and technique. The alleged “decline” of the traditional literary genres in the Ming Dynasty did not mean that the literature in this period was not noteworthy. Speaking of prose in the Ming Dynasty, the prose writings of representative writers like Gui Youguang, Li Zhi, Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao, and Yuan Zhongdao with their Gong’an style and Zhang Dai in the late years of the Ming Dynasty made literary achievements and had literary value at least as good as those in the Qin, Han, Tang, and Song dynasties. The modern spirit of seeking newness and change contained therein was rediscovered in the early twentieth century and became an important driving force of the New Culture Movement. What’s more, the flourishing novels and operas in the Ming Dynasty left masterpieces that will live on for centuries to come. The Ming Dynasty witnessed highly active literary thoughts, with almost every poet and prose writer raising their own literary ideas, and many literary groups or schools emerged, including the famous Taige Style, Chaling School, Former Seven Writers, and Latter Seven Writers (Qian Hou Qi Zi), Tang-Song School, Gong’an School, and Jingling School. Discussions and debates on return or not to the ancients lasted at all times. Debates between and within schools kept going on, leading to the contention of a hundred schools of thought. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu, exercised strict control over the field of thought, and Zhu Di, Emperor Chengzu, strongly advocated the Cheng-Zhu neoConfucianism. The Taige Style, represented by Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu, came into being, with the aim to transmit the doctrines of sages, praise the prosperity of the country, and advocate a peaceful and gentle style of writing. During the middle years of Ming Dynasty, from the reign of Hongzhi to the end of the reign of Jiajing, the Chaling School led by Li Dongyang, the Former Severn Writers led by Li Mengyang and He Jingming and the Latter Seven Writers represented by Xie Zhen and Wang Shizhen advocated learning from the prose in the pre-Qin and the Western and Eastern Han dynasties and the poetry from the Han, Wei, and the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. This retro trend of thought enveloped the literature circle for more than a hundred years. During the reign of Emperor Wanli, the leftist School of the Mind led by Wang Yangming prevailed, and the trend of literary liberation was on the rise. Xu Wei, Li Zhi, Tang Xianzu, Yuan Hongdao, etc. opposed returning to the ancients and advocated the expression of true feelings, natural disposition, and individual desires. With domestic strife and

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foreign aggression in the late years of the Ming Dynasty, Ye Xianggao, Gu Xiancheng, Chen Zilong, etc. reintroduced the theory of political and educational combination, advocating that literature should be based on neo-Confucianism and return to the rightness of nature. Arguably, the development of literary thoughts in the Ming Dynasty started and ended with the same theory of political and educational combination. The relationship between literature and idea was an important topic in the traditional literary theories in China. Literary thoughts in the Ming Dynasty developed toward convergence, reflecting both the internal integration of the Confucian literary thought system and the integration of the indoctrination theory and the aesthetics theory. Such integration came to full maturity in the Qing Dynasty. Although the retro movement in the middle years of the Ming Dynasty triggered two waves of ideological trends, the ideas of return to the ancients and reverence for the ancients ran through the Ming Dynasty to varying degrees from beginning to end. The creative achievements under the influence of the retro movement in the Ming Dynasty were hardly comparable to those of the ancient prose masters in the Tang Dynasty who also advocated returning to the ancients. The original intention and ultimate goal of the people in the Ming Dynasty to advocate returning to the ancients was to develop a school of their own. They knew clearly that they would never reach the height of the classics from the previous dynasties. In fact, as they were anxious under the influence of predecessors, they hesitated between the choices of whether to return to the ancients or not. They were caught in the dilemma between literary theory and creative practice and had little chance of making a big difference, thus yielding much less bearing fruits.

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Prosperity of Popular Novels

After the reign of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, with the publication of fulllength novels such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, a variety of sophisticated novel genres came into being by the late years of the Ming Dynasty, including novels based on historical tales, supernatural novels, and secular novels, or novels based on storytelling scripts (vernacular fictions). Immortal classics such as “Four Marvelous Masterpieces of the Ming Dynasty” and “Sanyan and Erpai” (“Sanyan” refers to Instruction Stories to Enlighten the World (Yu Shi Ming Yan), Lasting Stories to Awaken the World (Xing Shi Heng Yan (Jing Shi Tong Yan) compiled by

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Feng Menglong, “Erpai” refers to Amazing Stories: Vol. I (Chu Ke Pai An Jing Qi) and Vol. II (Er Ke Pai An Qi) compiled by Ling Mengchu in the Ming Dynasty) emerged, with images and the storyline of many fictional characters becoming almost household names and appealing even to this date. The prosperity of popular novels in the Ming Dynasty was the result of the interaction of various historical factors. While economic development, progress in printing technology, and the resulting popularization of culture were all important conditions for the emergence of popular novels, the quality and quantification level of novelists determined the quality of popular novels. After the reign of Jiajing, literati had a significantly different attitude toward popular novels. They not only wrote and invented novels based on storytelling scripts but also planned and organized the creation of Heroes of the Imperial Ming (Huang Ming Kai Yun Ying Wu Zhuan). By the reign of Wanli, The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) had already been a popular topic of public discussions among scholar officials, and there was an endless stream of famous literati directly involved in the creation and critique of popular novels such as Feng Menglong, Ling Mengchu, and Jin Shengtan. This trend continued from the reign of Jiaqing and Longqing in the Ming Dynasty to the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, witnessing the epochal glory of popular novels. The involvement of scholars in the creation and critique of popular novels was a major shift in traditional Chinese thought, a shift that was closely associated with Wang Yangming’s School of the Mind and Li Zhi’s “Theory of Innocent Mind” (“Tong Xin Shuo”). Scholars were encouraged to preach theories among the lower classes in a way that was acceptable to ordinary audience. Li Zhi, a key figure in Wang Yangming’s leftist school, emphasized the pragmatism for daily use and truthfulness of theory, promoted humanity, and recognized human desires. These radical ideas, which broke through the barrier of traditional Confucianism, not only summoned scholars to engage in the creation and critique of popular novels but also comprehensively reformed the themes and artistic ideas of novels, i.e., novels shifted the focus from emperors and ministers to the sorrows and joys of ordinary people thematically and from storyline to characterization artistically. From then on, popular novels passed down from the Song and Yuan dynasties finally emerged as a shining star and became the main representative of the literature in the Ming Dynasty. Indeed, the shift of the identity of popular novelists in the Ming Dynasty was limited. So far, no satisfactory conclusion has been drawn in

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the authorship of “Four Marvelous Masterpieces of the Ming Dynasty”. “Sanyan and Erpai” were more adapted than the original. The traditional hierarchy of literary genres was shaken but not broken. It was not until Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng) and Unofficial History of the Scholars (Ru Lin Wai Shi) were born during the reign of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty that literati novels in the real sense came into being. It was not until the end of the empire, with the eastward transmission of Western sciences and the start of modernization, that the literary status of popular novels was fully established.

3 Commercial Publishing and Literary Production With the popularization of printing and the prosperity of commercial publishing, literature in the Ming Dynasty, especially in its late years, was not purely a spiritual product, but was a strongly commercial one. Literary production, to some extent, became a profit-motivated commercial activity. Many literary phenomena were better explained from the angle of the publishing market only. The influence of commercial publishing on the development of popular literature was even more striking. In the forty-fifth year of Jiajing (1566), bibliophile Tan Kai (1509–1568) compiled and published the voluminous Extensive Records of the Taiping, which not only provided abundant materials for the creation of classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels in the late years of the Ming Dynasty but also stimulated a boom in re-editing story anthologies in classical Chinese language. Feng Menglong alone compiled and published selected thematic novel collections like A Chat about the Present and the Past (Gu Jin Tan Gai), Book of Jokes (Xiao Lin), Outline of the History of Love (Qing Shi Lei Lue), and Brain Power (Zhi Nang) through modifications including clipping and addition of comments, prefaces, and postscripts. The rise of popular novels based on historical tales and supernatural novels was first closely related to the planning and promotion efforts of merchants of literature. For example, following the publication of Journey to the West in the twentieth year of Wanli (1592), twenty supernatural novels flocked to the market in the thirtieth year of Wanli or so. When publishing novels and operas, merchants of literature often spent heavily hiring famous scholars to make comments or write prefaces and postscripts for the upcoming publications

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in order to promise big sales. In this way, make commentary and annotation as an orthodoxy literary genre was introduced into the field of popular literature, and the development of novel and opera theories was promoted. The commercial context also changed writers’ lifestyles. They were not only engaged in creative writing but also interested in various cultural activities such as editing, publishing, and critique. Gone were the days when traditional literati generally had the only narrow path of officialdom to live up to their ambitions, and now they could make a rise in life and reap both fame and fortune in the commercial market.

CHAPTER 31

Poetry and Prose in the Ming Dynasty Zhang Dejian

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, most writers migrated from the Yuan Dynasty. They had both the open and free mind as scholars from the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and the great ideal of helping the world and saving the people. More importantly, they also followed the court culture and the general trend of restoring the reverence to Confucianism and elegance in Han and Tang dynasties.

1 Taige Literature and the Literary Movement of a Return to the Ancients of Former Seven Writers From the reign of Yongle to the reign of Hongxi and Xuande, the Ming Dynasty experienced a period of political stability and economic prosperity. In literature, the graceful and elegant Taige Style representing the voice of the times of peace and prosperity was exclusively venerated and prevailed, and the Taige School was formed. The representative figures were Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong, and Yang Pu. Yang Shiqi (1366–1444),

Z. Dejian (B) School of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_31

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courtesy name Yu, by which he was known, hailed from Taihe, Jiangxi Province. He served through five emperors as a grand secretary in the cabinet. He wrote Dong Li Ji. Both his poems and prose writings were prestigious. In prose, he learned from Ouyang Xiu and mainly showed a simplistic and plain style. His poems were elegant, fresh, and natural. During the reign of Chenghua and Zhengde, because the eunuch Wang Zhi grabbed all the power and he was followed by another eight bullying eunuchs including Liu Jin, coupled with the dissoluteness of Emperor Wuzong and the Tumupu Defeat, the bubble of the prosperous times broke and the exclusive prestige of Taige Literature was under impact and challenge and was replaced by the Chaling School led by Li Dongyang. Li Dongyang (1447–1516), courtesy name Binzhi and art name Xiya, hailed from Chaling, Hunan Province. He wrote Huai Lu Tang Ji. He served in the court for fifty years, including eighteen years in the cabinet. He was followed by numerous literati and scholars, and the Chaling Poetry School was established with him as the center. This school, to some extent, got rid of the shackle of the early orthodoxy Taige School, but it was still generally part of the Taige literature. Writers of this school still emphasized the relationship between writings and morality and pursued a peaceful, elegant, and standard style. In poetry, Li Dongyang revered the Tang poetry and dismissed the Song poetry. He insisted on learning from Du Fu. He pursued a peaceful and pure poetic and prose style. He explored the aesthetic characteristics and requirements of literature, especially poetry, and paid more attention to the form and rhythm of poetry. The period during the reign of Hongzhi was immersed in a relatively open-minded atmosphere and witnessed the full swing of the first literary movement of a return to the ancients in the Ming Dynasty. The Former Seven Writers of the Ming Dynasty were Li Mengyang, He Jingming, Xu Zhenqing, Bian Gong, Kang Hai, Wang Jiushi, and Wang Tingxang, and the representatives of them were Li Mengyang and He Jingming. They sought to restore the classical aesthetic ideal, advocated true emotions, emphasized the opposition between emotion and reason, and even opposed reason with emotion. They maintained that poetry and prose must express true feelings and reflect significant social realities. They focused on literary and formal skills of works that gave poetry a noble quality and flowing beauty; they advocated going beyond the poetry and prose in the Song and Yuan dynasties and learning from the poetry and prose in the Han, Wei, and the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

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Taige literature and neo-Confucianism repeatedly emphasized the “way” and advocated nothing but a graceful and plain style while rejecting others. The Retro School, however, believed that human beings had seven kinds of emotions and that emotions were born from experiences. Different experiences led to varied emotions, and literary styles should be diverse as well. After a comprehensive study of the aesthetic characteristics of classical poetry, they proposed the gediao theory. Diao referred to the overall form with dynamic characteristics due to the combination of emotion and reason, meaning and image, poetry and music in poetic works. Ge referred to the realm and level of such flowing mixture. The basic characteristic of literature was the unity of emotion and reason, meaning and image, poetry, and music to some degree, which injected emotion, temperature, sound, taste, rhetoric, and skill into literary works. The Former Seven Writers did not completely reject the literature in other eras. They all agreed on learning from the past, but there was disagreement on how to learn from the past within them. Li Mengyang believed that the learning should start from the genres and rules of ancient poetry, specifically wording, syntax, and linguistic rules. When creating a writing, the writer should follow the appropriate selected genre and rule based on its content, so as to imitate everything from the ancients but differentiate from them. He Jingming, nevertheless, contended that learning extensively from and imitating masterpieces of predecessors to comprehend their emotions and imagery in general was more important than following the genres and rules. It was natural and tacit comprehension that mattered. In terms of creation, retro writers were conservative and tried to defend the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism instead of doubting and denying it. In addition, their creations were confined to the old literary styles and barely provided new expression techniques, new subject matters, or new language. Li Mengyang wrote excellent Yuefu poems, five-character ancient poems, seven-character poetic songs, and qilü. He Jingming was mostly interested in wulü, and his poems were beautiful and elegant. As one of the four great writers in Wuzhong, Xu Zhenqing moved to the capital as a member of the Retro School after becoming a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations. He was also a poetry theorist. His Notes on Literature and Art (Tan Yi Lu) was a representative poetry treatise from the Ming Dynasty. Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi were unique writers. Kang Hai was known for his prose, which straightforwardly expressed his emotions without following ancient rules. Wang

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Jiusi composed the best sanqu writings in the Ming Dynasty, and they were mostly about the beauty of leisure and satire on the world.

2 Scholars in Wuzhong and Writers of the Tang-Song School After famous poets Gao Qi, Yang Ji, Zhang Yu, and Xu Ben passed away in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the literary circle in Wuzhong began to go silent. Literature in Wuzhong began to revive after the reign of Chenghua. Farm from the political center, Wuzhong was a place blessed with a developed economy, convenient transportation, and deep cultural traditions. Local scholars were knowledgeable and did not rest their life value upon officialdom. As gifted scholars, poets in Wuzhong were often not bound by secular moral standards and were given sensual pleasures. When the Former Seven Writers advocated returning to the ancients in the capital, literati in Wuzhong also showed a tendency to “reviving the ancients”. Being engaged in calligraphy and painting together was their defining feature. Ideologically, they explicitly criticized neo-Confucianism, and most of their works were written in a careless manner, without paying attention to the theme and gediao. Their poetry focused on the pleasure of self-comfort and no longer tried to express emotions and build images in a standard way as the Retro School did. At the same time, they turned their attention to mountains and marketplaces which they entrusted to express their emotions and interests, presenting a unique aesthetic style. Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), initially known as Mingbi, courtesy name Zhengming, which was changed to Zhengzhong, art name Hengshan, hailed from Changzhou. He was good at poetry, calligraphy, and painting, but he did not write poems deliberately. His poems were quiet and gentle, written in a dynamic and delicate language and showing a beautiful, harmonious, and light style. Tang Yin (1470–1524), courtesy name Bohu, hailed from Changzhou. His works showed the beauty of sorrow and a resentful emotion in the midst of cynicism. They seemed at the same time to be ethereally transcendent. He admired Li Bai and called himself the Peach Blossom Fairy. He presented a different style from his contemporaries. According to History of the Ming Dynasty·Biography of Literature (Ming Shi · Wen Yuan Zhuan), Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shunzhi living during the reign of Jiajing learned from the prose of Ouyangxiu and

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Zeng Gong and the poetry in the early years of the Tang Dynasty. They, together with Mao Kun and Gui Youguang, developed the Tang-Song School. The Tang-Song School did not see eye to eye with the Retro School. However, Wang Shenzhong and Tang Shunzhi were also influenced by the Retro School in their early years. Wang Shenzhong learned ancient prose first from the Qin and Han Dynasties and then from the Tang and Song dynasties, focusing on Ouyang Xiu and Zeng Gong. The Tang-Song School objected to extreme retro claims and ridiculed that the Retro School simply created bloated and frivolous writings with little meaning and obscure language. The Tang-Song School was able to take a foothold in the literature circle mainly because of its unique literary ideal. They believed that the best writing in the universe was the one that was written freely with a transcendent heart to express true feelings without hesitation. Learning from the ancient prose of the Qin and Han dynasties required dedication to its vocabulary and grammar, which inevitably affected the free expression of thoughts and feelings. Learning from the ancient prose of the Tang and Song dynasties, however, was not restricted by the same requirement and allowed the expression of the subject spirit. Wang Shenzhong (1509–1559), courtesy name Daosi, hailed from Jinjiang (now Fujian Province). His prose was characterized by detailed description, coherent structure, clear reasoning, and free expression of emotions. The reasoning was clearly and elaborately presented and showed a “profound and elegant style”. However, sometimes the reasoning overshadowed the rhetoric and was not vivid enough. Gui Youguang (1507–1571), courtesy name Xifu and Kaifu alias Zhenchuan and Xiangjisheng, was known as Zhenchuan Xiansheng. His writings focused on describing daily life and were permeated with Wang Yangming’s spirit to “apply the conscience in his heart, which was his divine principle, to everything”. They opened up a path for the harmonious development of rationalization and daily pragmatism in the elegant literature during the middle years of the Ming Dynasty. His masterpieces were Xiang Ji Xuan Zhi, Xian Bi Shi Lue, Han Hua Zang Zhi, and Shang Shu Bie Jie Xu. These writings expressed the pure and natural beauty of human affection. In spite of the insignificant topics they discussed and the trivial contents they addressed, they carried a light charm, with intentionally or unintentionally conceived structure, downplay phrases but lasting feelings, and simple words but deep meaning.

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3

The Literary Movement of a Return to the Ancients of Latter Seven Writers and Xingling Literature in the Late Years of the Ming Dynasty

During the reign of Jiajing and Longqing, the Latter Seven Writers, namely, Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen, Xie Zhen, Zong Chen, Liang Youyu, Xu Zhongxing, and Wu Guolun, rose and gained the upper hand against the Tang-Song School. Following the Former Seven Writers, they continued to dominate the literature circle. Theoretically, they emphasized the reflection of reality in literature, especially the use of literature to vent grievances. Through their writing practice, they exposed and criticized the darkness of real life and healed and remedied evils. They studied the genres, styles, and changes of classical poetry in depth and with great precision. However, their creations were innately narrow-minded, rigid, and greatly limited. How could they respect and break the shackle of rules at the same time? They emphasized the role of comprehension, which meant that they hoped to comprehend the essence of rules application on the basis of mastering all the rules. Practice was the precondition for comprehension. Comprehension paved the way for the expression of heart. Practice brought out the best potential. In creation, Li Panlong had the most striking shortcoming because he obstinately followed the ancient tradition. For example, he often invented poems from ancient Yuefu by changing only some characters in them, and his changes sometimes went wrong. He wrote excellent seven-character rhymed quatrains, which were as elegant as those of Wang Wei and as beautiful as those of Li Qi. Xie Zhen spent many years wandering and joining others as a hanger-on. He was in great distress and suffered from the inconstancy of human relationships. Xie Zhen became the leader of the literature circle after Li Panlong. His poems were known for expressing emotions, reflecting social turmoil and fickleness of worldly relationships, showing passion, and displaying an imposing manner. The twenty-two poems in Yue Fu Bian were excellent works reflecting social realities, including resistance to Japan, the invasion of Altan Khan, the mutiny in Nanjing, the front line in the northeast, and the great earthquakes in Shaanxi and Shanxi. They were written for the main purpose of opposing the powerful. Some of them were about members of the imperial house, powerful minsters, and mighty generals. Wang Shizhen’s prose not only inherited the impassioned, solemn, and profound styles

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of the Former Seven Writers but also expanded into a more magnificent realm. They were characterized by rigorous application of rules, profound meanings, and magnificent structure. The representatives of the Gong’an School were three brothers named Yuan Zongdao, Yuan Hongdao, and Yuan Zhongdao. Yuan Hongdao put forward the proposition of the Gong’an School, “Most of my poems express my inner self, without being constrained by any particular regulations or formulas. I would not commit to paper anything not flowing naturally from my inner world”. This literary proposition was obviously influenced by Li Zhi. The literary theory of the Gong’an School was centered on the opposition to return to the ancients and suggested that no rule was perfect and fixed and that rules should be governed by meanings. In addition, they advocated the xingling theory (bold expression of true self), emphasizing interesting wit and ingenuity. The literary creations of the Gong’an School pursued “genuine interest” and “charm”. Genuine interest could be elegant or popular. The elegant interest came from an innocent heart and pure truth while rejecting falsehood, while the popular interest was the secular interest and feeling common in the marketplace. The literary language of these writers was smooth and natural. Their artistic conception was ethereal and flexible, manifested as an awareness of the harmony and completeness of the personal mind and the inner core of objects and an ethereal and transcendent state of self-sufficiency. The representatives of the Jingling School were Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun, both of whom were natives of Jingling, Hubei. They were founders of the Jingling School and advocated a serene and solitary style known as Jingling Style. The school was known as the Jingling School. In the xingling literature during the late years of the Ming Dynasty, both the Gong’an School and the Jingling School were important schools. The former was a commendable pioneer, while the latter was a profound latecomer. The Jingling School advocated the literary proposition of following the mind and the ancients to learn from their expression of true feelings and writing with genuine interest. Different from the Gong’an School, which expanded into “all images” in artistic conception, they focused on the exploration of emotional depth. Artistically, they regarded the realm of desolation and silence as the highest requirement for creativity and emphasized subtlety and deep aftertaste in poetry.

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4

Folk Songs in the Ming Dynasty

Folk songs in the Ming Dynasty were “fabulous” (quoted by Chen Hongxu in Han Ye Lu from Zhuo Keyue). They began to be popular after the middle and late years of the Ming Dynasty, not only favored by commoners but also advocated by the literati class. They first attracted the attention of Li Mengyang and He Jingming. Folk songs rose and flourished in the Ming Dynasty due to two reasons. Firstly, with the development of urban economy, commoners needed to express their emotions and needs, which was a natural requirement for entertainment. A consumer market was thus bred. On the other hand, the open ideological and public opinion environment provided a suitable soil for the development of such folk songs. Folk songs in the Ming Dynasty developed through two phases, with the first phase starting from the reign of Xuande and Chenghua to the early reign of Jiajing and the second phase starting after the reign of Jiajing. In the first phase, popular folk songs included Suo Nan Zhi, Bang Zhuang Tai, Shan Po Yang, Shua Hai Er, Zhu Yun Fei, and Zui Tai Ping. These folk songs were informative and mostly narrative. For example, Mian Feng edited by Li Lian collected “the oar, watchman’s clapper, corn pounding and rice transplanting songs” of people living by the Mian River. Some of the folk songs were poems about labor life, while others were romantic poems. They were relatively subtle, different from the straightforward and rude folk songs in the second phase. In the second phase, popular folk songs included Nao Wu Geng, Ji Sheng Cao, Luo Jiang Yuan, Ku Huang Tian, Gan He Ye, Fen Hong Lian, and Yin Niu Si. The most popular ones were Da Zao Gan and Gua Zhi Er, which were mainly about love affairs. Feng Menglong commented Shan Ge, “All the songs were about love affairs”. The earliest surviving collections of folk songs in the Ming Dynasty were the four collections of Xin Bian Si Ji Wu Geng Zhu Yun Fei, Xin Bian Ti Xi Xiang Ji Yong Shi Er Yue Sai Zhu Yun Fei, Xin Bian Tai Ping Shi Sai Sai Zhu Yun Fei, and Xin Bian Gua Fu Lie Nv Shi Qu published by the family of Lu in Jintai. Some collections of selected operas and sanqu compositions published since the reign of Zhengde and Jiajing included some folk songs such as Sheng Shi Xin Sheng by an anonymous author, Ci Lin Zhai Yan by Zhang Lu, Yong Xi Yue Fu by Guo Xun, and Nan Gong Ci Ji by Chen Suowen. This was a classic folk song that spread extremely widely in the Ming Dynasty. Later, there was a folk song called

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Ni Ren in Feng Menglong’s Gua Zhi Er·Huan Bu, and it was assumed to have been adapted over the spread process. The Gua Zhi Er and Shan Ge compiled by Feng Menglong were the two most influential collections of folk songs in the Ming Dynasty. The former was a collection of folk song ditties that emerged in the north during the reign of Wanli. They were called “Dazaogan” or “Dacaogan”. After being spread to the south, they were renamed “Guazhier” or “Guazhen’er”. The latter was a collection of Wu folk songs. The folk songs collected in these two books could be broadly divided into three categories, namely love affairs, depiction of sex, and satire of the world. The first two categories were most common.

CHAPTER 32

Opera in the Ming Dynasty Li Fang

Through the prosperity of the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty, opera reached a development peak in the Ming Dynasty. Both the upper-class vassal kings, high-ranking ministers, scholar officials, and erudite and the lower-class actors and actresses in opera troupes were engaged in opera creation and systematically studied issues such as rhythm and technique. Wealthy families paid opera troupes heavily for private performances. All of this jointly promote progress in opera literature and art. From then on, the genre of legend was finally established, and Kun Opera was widely disseminated, attracting many literati to participate in its creation. In such a thick opera cultural atmosphere, Tang Xianzu and his opera The Peony Pavilion emerged.

L. Fang (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_32

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1 Opera Creation from the Early to Middle Years in the Ming Dynasty After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, culturally and ideologically Zhu Yuanzhang revered only Confucianism and promoted neoConfucianism. Many restrictions were imposed on the performance activities of actors and actresses. On the one hand, laws were enacted to strictly prohibit actors and actresses from dressing up on stage as emperors and concubines, loyal ministers, martyrs, saints, or sages, in order to maintain the dignity of the rulers. On the other hand, opera performances involving gods and immortals, righteous husbands, chaste wives, filial sons, virtuous grandsons, and messages that persuaded people to be good were not prohibited and encouraged because they could serve the rulers in promoting karma and feudal moral ideas. One of the masterpieces was Wu Lun Quan Bei Ji by Qiu Jun, a famous minister who believed in neo-Confucianism. Qiu Jun (1420–1495), courtesy name Zhongshen, hailed from Qiongshan, Guangdong Province. In the fifth year of Jingtai (1454), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations and served in the Imperial Academy. He left a poetic and prose anthology called Qiong Tai Hui Gao, which included thousands of poems surviving to this date. Qiu Jun was a prolific writer, and his plays alone were abundant, including Tou Bi Ji, Luo Nang Ji, Xue Ding Ji, Long Quan Ji, and Wu Lun Quan Bei Ji. Among them, Wu Lun Quan Bei Ji was best known. In Qiu Jun’s opinion, “If a writing does not discuss ethics, it would not be worth of spreading even if it is novel”. Wu Lun Quan Bei Ji was a story about two brothers called Wu Lunquan and Wu Lunbei. Because the Wu brothers observed the feudal code of ethics and were inclined to goodness, they finally became immortals. By telling this story, the writer expressed his understanding of the code of ethics and achieved the purpose of “keeping people alert”. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Southern Opera was popular in society, but it was disdained by decent people due to its vulgar lyrics. Qiu Jun, in his capacity of a famous neo-Confucian minister, participated in the creation of Southern Opera and became a pioneer in making rhetoric progress in the genre of legend. He expected to persuade people to follow cardinal guides and constant virtues, and this was a development in preaching a code of ethics through opera. In the imperial house during the early years of the Ming Dynasty, two vassal kings made outstanding contributions to opera. One of them

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was Zhu Quan, the seventeenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. Known as Damingqishi, he was interested in ancient classics, literature, traditional medicine, and divination. His Tai He Zheng Yin Pu was a treatise on opera literature and music theories. He advocated poetic drama as an embellishment to the peaceful era and attached importance to rhythm. The most famous poetic drama writer in the early years of the Ming Dynasty was Zhu Youdun (1379–1439), the grandson of Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and the eldest son of Zhu Su, King of Zhouding. Zhu Youdun was fond of writing poems and was well-versed in calligraphy and painting. He was especially good at composing qu. His poetry and prose anthology was called Cheng Zhai Ji, and left thirty-one pieces of poetic drama. He also wrote a sanqu anthology called Cheng Zhai Yue Fu. Opera writers who were relatively accomplished in the middle years of the Ming Dynasty were Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi, who shared similar literary ideas. Kang Hai (1475–1541), courtesy name Dehan, art name Duishan and Pandongyufu, also known as Huxishanren, hailed from Wugong County, Xi’anfu. He wrote a poetry and prose anthology called Dui Shan Ji, an opera anthology called The Wolf of Zhongshan (Zhong Shan Lang) and a sanqu anthology called Pan Dong Yue Fu. The poetic drama The Wolf of Zhongshan, full name Mr. Dongguo Saved the Ungrateful Zhongshan Wolf (Dong Guo Xian Sheng Wu Jiu Zhong Shan Lang), was adapted from The Story of the Wolf of Zhongshan, a fable story written by Ma Zhongxi in the Ming Dynasty. The two versions had basically the same plot. Wang Jiusi (1468–1551), courtesy name Jingfu and art name Meibei, became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in the ninth year of Emperor Xiaozong of Ming under the title of Hongzhi (1496). He once served as a reviser in the Imperial Academy and a director of the Ministry of Personnel. Because he was implicated by the crime of the eunuch Liu Jin, he was wrong accused of being Liu’s ally and was demoted. He returned to farming and lived in countryside for more than forty years. His works included a poetry and prose anthology called Mei Bei Ji, poetic drama Gu Jiu You Chun and The Wolf of Zhongshan (one act), and a sanqu anthology called Bi Shan Yue Fu. Kang Hai and Wang Jiusi were supporters of the Retro School. In terms of literary creation, they strongly advocated a return to the ancients and highly esteemed prose of the Qin and Han dynasties and poetry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. These ideas were reflected in their poetic drama. Their creations basically continued the practice of relying on one leading role in the poetic drama of the Yuan Dynasty. Their lyrics also

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imitated Yuan opera. They made innovation in the content and introduced short drama with a single act, which brought new changes to the poetic drama in the Ming Dynasty. In the middle years of the Ming Dynasty, a special talented writer appeared in the qu circle. His life experiences, thoughts, and writings were exceptional. Xu Wei (1521–1593), courtesy name Wenchang, art name Qingteng and Tianchi, also known as Tianshuiyue and Shiyeweng, etc., hailed from Shanyin, Zhejiang (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). Xu Wei’s achievements in poetry, opera, painting, and calligraphy were extraordinary. He was unrestrained in nature, defied moral standards, and concentrated on Tao and Zen, which made him incompatible with the world. In poetry, Xu Wei was deeply dissatisfied with and sharply criticized the prevailing retro trend. His opera masterpiece was The Four Cries of the Gibbon (Si Sheng Yuan). He also wrote Nan Ci Xu Lu, a theoretical work on the study of Southern Opera. The Si Sheng Yuan was the collective name of four operas, namely The History of the Mad Drummer of Yuyang (Kuang Gu Li Yu Yang San Nong), The Heroine Mulan Goes to War in Her Father’s Place (Ci Mu Lan Ti Fu Cong Jun), The Female Top Graduate Gives up a Phoenix-hen and Obtains a Phoenix-rooster (Nv Zhuang Yuan Ci Huang De Feng), and A Zen Master’s Dream of the Land of Green Jade (Yu Chan Shi Cui Xiang Yi Meng). The Si Sheng Yuan was named after a ballad that sang “When the ape cries three times, any hearer will shed tears” in the Three Gorges in Badong. The name of the opera meant four cries of an ape were more heartbroken than three. Kuang Gu Li Yu Yang San Nong, also known as Yin Ma Cao, was inspired by the killing of Shen Lian by Yan Song, and it was a story about beating a drum in hell to severely reproach Cao Cao. Both Ci Mu Lan Ti Fu Cong Jun and Nv Zhuang Yuan Ci Huang De Feng were about how women disguised as men to establish their merits. The Nan Ci Xu Lu was an important work in the history of Chinese opera theory development and Southern Opera study, as it provided an excellent analysis on the origin, styles, rhythm, writers, and works of Southern Opera. Xu Wei advocated “originality” and believed that opera language should be in line with the identities of the characters. He did not reject colloquial or vernacular language, in order to ensure the authenticity of the characters. He opposed elegant parallelism and excessive ornamentation. Li Kaixian (1502–1568), courtesy name Bohua and art name Zhonglu, hailed from Zhangqiu, Shandong Province. In the eight-year of Jiajing

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(1529), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations. He wrote Xian Ju Ji with twelve volumes, including four volumes of poems and ci writings and eight volumes of prose writings. In addition, he wrote a sanqu anthology called Zhong Lu Xiao Ling. He also wrote many pieces of poetic drama and legends. He compiled and revised Gai Ding Yuan Xian Chuan Qi. He advocated natural and true feelings and opposed to blind imitation. Thus, he highly esteemed folk songs and believed that “True poetry comes from the folk only”. He successively compiled folk song collections such as Yan Xia Xiao Gao and Bang Zhuang Tai Xiao Ling. In terms of literary thought, he believed that “Emotion is enough to touch people” and advocated originality and true feelings. He maintained that the language of opera “suited both refined and popular tastes” and “was understandable and not difficult to comprehend”. His surviving opera was Bao Jian Ji, which was adapted from stories in Water Margin. In this opera, Lin Chong, the head of the Imperial Guards in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a memorial to the throne to impeach the treacherous ministers Tong Guan and Gao Qiu, but he was framed by Gao Qiu on the pretext of borrowing a sword. He was forced to revolt. Finally, he was offered amnesty and reunited with his wife Zhang Zhenniang, who was also prosecuted by the government. The writer changed Lin Chong’s experience of being falsely accused and forced to become an outlaw into a traditional story ending of a reunion between husband and wife and elevation to a higher official position after amnesty was offered by the court. This change was made to express the main idea that “The slanderous will be eliminated and the loyal will be commended”.

2

Huanshaji and the Prosperity of Kun Opera

The more influential opera singing styles that were popular around the middle years of the Ming Dynasty included the Yiyang style and the Kun style. The Yiyang style originated from Yiyang, Jiangxi Province, and was initially popular in the hinterland of northern Jiangxi and southern Anhui. It was bolder and closer to the folk than the Haiyan style and the Kun style, which were born in highly commercial and industrial areas. The Yiyang style was accompanied mainly by percussion instruments such as gongs and drums. It consisted of gunchang (rhymed or short lyrics added

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before, after or in the middle of a melody) and bangqiang (vocal accompaniment) to adapt to the needs of square performances. Compared with other singing styles, the Yiyang style was spread to very extensive regions. The Kunshan style was as famous as the Yiyang style, and it originated from Kunshan, Suzhou. In the late years of the Yuan Dynasty, famous Kunshan musicians like Gu Jian improved the Southern Opera popular in Kunshan, Jiangsu, by combining it with local music. This combination was gradually known as the Kunshan style in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. Wei Liangfu in Kunshan was another important reformer of the Kun style. He drew on and made concentrated efforts to study and improve the essence of the northern-style melody, the Haiyan style, and the Yiyang style to form the Shuimo style featuring that one sang and the other three joined in. At first, the Kunshan style was only a kind of unaccompanied singing style. After Wei’s reform, it embraced the softness and gentleness of Southern Play while preserving some impassioned tunes of the northern-style melody. It was accompanied by stringed instruments like bamboo flute, pipa, and yueqin (a four-stringed plucked instrument with a full-moon-shaped sound box). It was more varied than the Yiyang and Haiyan styles. Therefore, after it became popular, the Kun style was incomparable to other singing styles except the Yiyang style. During the reign of Longqing, Liang Chenyu, a Kunshan native, innovated and reformed the Kun style again. Liang Chenyu (1519–1591), courtesy name Bo Long, wrote the first legendary opera using the Kun style, and it was called Washing the Silken Gauze (Huan Sha Ji), which introduced the practice of expressing feelings about the rise and fall of a country through a love story. As a result, literati began to write legends that could be sung with the Kun style, and art performances were increased accordingly. The story of Washing the Silken Gauze written by Liang Chenyu was based on historical records such as Records of the Grand Historian. It was set in the Spring and Autumn Period, when Wu and Yue were fighting for supremacy. The rise and fall of Wu and Yue as two states was reflected in the parting and reunion of Xi Shi and Fan Li. The greatest value of Washing the Silken Gauze lied in its singing style as well. It was sung with the new Kun style in a soft tone. It was the first opera to introduce the Shuimo style to the stage performance. As the first legendary opera to use the Kun style improved by Wei Liangfu, Washing the Silken Gauze played a major role in the spread of the Kun style.

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Tang Xianzu and the Peony Pavilion

Tang Xianzu (1550–1616), courtesy name Yireng and art name Hairuo, called himself Qingyuandaoren. He was an excellent dramatist and litterateur in the Ming Dynasty. His ancestral home was in Linchuan County, Jiangxi Province. He was born to a literary family, with four generations of ancestors enjoying literary fame. Tang Xianzu served as an official and showed no regrets through twists and turns. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, the state was declining, and neo-Confucianism occupied the absolute dominant position in the intellectual world. Tang Xianzu lived in an era when the trend of a return to the ancients advocated by Former and Latter Seven Writers such as Li Mengyang, He Jingming, and Wang Shizhen was on the rise. Tang Xianzu, however, believed that prose in the Han and Song dynasties had different charms and his contemporary writers should get rid of the stale and bring forth the fresh instead of blinding imitate the predecessors and sticking to convention. His literary idea was intended to break through the stereotypical dogma of Cheng-Zhu School in the late years of the Ming Dynasty and to make innovation and aim for distinction from the shackles of “neoConfucianism”, “true self”, and “way”. His creations were so beautiful and fresh, with every word written like a gem. They justified the status of the writer as “apotheosis”. The Peony Pavilion (Mu Dan Ting) was the most famous opera written by Tang Xianzu. It was a story about a young girl named Du Liniang and a young man from a famous family named Liu Mengmei. They fell in love with each other through a dream. They confessed to each other in a garden. The girl died and became a ghost to stay with her lover. They finally got married in the court. This story, which was the ultimate interpretation of the message that “love can conquer everything”, was widely praised in the Ming and Qing Dynasties for its fantastical and magnificent plot and its elegant and sophisticated rhetoric. The popularity of “legend” was attributed to the “transmission” of fantastical events and the gorgeous rhetoric. The Peony Pavilion had an incredible plot that did not follow the beaten track of inventing fantasy and hunting for novelty blindly. The depiction of the characters and the lives of women were realistic. Wang Shifu’s poetic drama Romance of the Western Chamber in the Yuan Dynasty and Tang Xianzu’s legend The Peony Pavilion in the Ming Dynasty were known as two stars in the Chinese opera history. Both of them were about young girls longing for free love. Tang Xianzu skillfully

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wrote how the protagonist Du Liniang risked her life for a beautiful dream and revived for love. Escorted and protected by the god of flowers, the Yama, and small ghosts all the way, she went through to the traditional ending of reunion in the Chinese culture: her lover Liu Mengmei became the top performer in the imperial examination and their marriage was granted by the emperor. The couple lived happily ever after. But that was indeed a disturbing dream. In addition to The Peony Pavilion, Tang Xianzu also wrote The Story of the Purpose Flute (Zi Xiao Ji), The Story of the Purple Hairpin (Zi Chai Ji), The Story of Han Dan (Han Dan Ji), and Record of Southern Bough (Nan Ke Ji). The last three were known with The Peony Pavilion as “The Four Dreams of Linchuan”.

4 The Debate Between Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing and the Wujiang School The debate between Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing was an issue that could not be circumvented in the history of opera in the Ming Dynasty. The differences between the Wujiang School represented by Shen Jing and the Linchuan School formed under the influence of Tang Xianzu in opera concepts such as “rhythm” and “interest” resulted in a fierce confrontation. Shen Jing (1553–1610), courtesy name Boying and later renamed Danhe, art name Ning’an, hailed from Wujiang, Jiangsu Province. He wrote a two-volume poetry and prose anthology called Shu Yu Tang Gao and seventeen legends collectively known as Shu Yu Tang Shi Qi Zhong. His seven or eight surviving legends included Hong Qu Ji, Yi Xia Ji, and Bo Xiao Ji; he also wrote sanqu anthologies including Ci Yin Xin Ci and Qu Hai Qing Bing. His treatises on qu included Zun Zhi Zheng Wu Bian, Lun Ci Liu Ze, Chang Qu Dang Zhi, and Gu Jin Ci Pu, which were not passed down to this date. Hong Qu Ji was his first opera and was recommended by qu artists Xu Fuzuo and Wang Ji De at that time. This opera was based on a Tang legend called The Story of Zheng Delin. According to this story, scholars Zheng Delin and Cui Xizhou met the daughters of salt merchants Wei Chuyun and Zeng Liyu at Dongting Lake when they docked. They gave each other red lotus flowers, red silk, and red paper as gifts with poems written on them. They finally become two pairs of couples after twists and turns. The main idea of the story was to preach that good and evil had their own rewards and to “shame those who failed to return a favor”.

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Shen Jing’s opera theory focused on two aspects, namely rhythm and originality. These propositions held a place in the history of opera. Rhythm and lyrics were two aspects of opera composition that were given equal importance. An outstanding opera required excellent lyrics and harmonious rhythm with equal beauty. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, many opera artists participated in a heated discussion on whether rhythm or rhetoric (i.e., “sound” or “word”, or “tune” or “lyric”), was more important. Shen Jing put rhythm in the first place and attached extreme importance to rhythmic harmony, even with prejudice to the meaning of words. His emphasis on rhythm was proposed on the ground that literati should be rejected from performance on the stage, and it did promote the development of opera singing styles. Shen Jing’s theory on qu studies influenced some of his contemporary writers, and they formed a school known to later generations as the “Wujiang School” or the “Metrical School”. Xu Wei and Tang Xianzu disagreed with Shen Jing. In Nan Ci Xu Lu, Xu Wei believed that Southern Play was a popular play in the folk society and should not bother to care about gongdiao. A Tale of the Pipa written by Gao Ming was good because it did “not care about gongdiao” and reflected the freedom of creation for literati. Tang Xianzu also opposed the use of meter as a constraint on composition. With this opinion in mind, Tang Xianzu opposed any changes made to his scripts. He believed that composition should pursue interest while qu artists who emphasized rhythm “broke the throats of all” in order to harmonize the rhythm. His emphasis on rhetoric influenced a group of qu artists, who were later known as the “Linchuan School” or the “Wencai School”. From the perspective of overall literary concept, Shen Jing’s emphasis on rhythm was actually synchronized with the literary proposition of returning to the ancients, while Tang Xianzu’s proposition, which emphasized “emotion”, was closely related to the popularity of the School of the Mind in the Ming Dynasty.

CHAPTER 33

Novels in the Ming Dynasty Liu Qian

1

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The existing literature agree that Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San Guo Zhi Yan Yi) was written by Luo Guanzhong. Luo Guanzhong’s life experiences were little known, and related records were obscure. Different opinions existed. A relatively reliable record was Sequel Record of Ghosts written by Jia Zhongming in the early years of the Ming Dynasty about the works of poetic drama writers in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. According to this record, Luo Guanzhong lived in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty in about 1320– 1400. In addition to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, his surviving novels include Sui Tang Zhi Zhuan, Can Tang Wu Dai Shi Yan Yi Zhuan, and San Sui Ping Yao Zhuan. Another famous novel Water Margin in the Ming Dynasty was written by Luo Guanzhong as a co-writer. The earliest published novel surviving to this date was Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms published in 1522 (the year of Renwu in the first year of the reign of Jiajing), with a preface written by Yuyongzi (known as Jiang Daqi, from Jinhua, Zhejiang Province) in 1494 (the year of Jiayin in the seventh year of the reign of Hongzhi). This version

L. Qian (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_33

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published during the reign of Jiajing was more than one hundred years later the era when Luo Guanzhong lived. No evidence has supported the conclusion that it was originally written by Luo Guanzhong or not. Romance of the Three Kingdoms published in the Ming and Qing Dynasties had many versions passed down and thus deserved the crown among ancient novels in China. The most popular version was the one modified and commented by Mao Lun, a scholar from Suzhou in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, and his son Mao Zonggang. Published in 1666 (the fifth year of the reign of Kangxi). It was known in the academic circle as “Mao’s version” and “Mao’s comment version”. Mao’s revision to the version published during the reign of Jiajing was deeply influenced by Jin Shengtan’s (1608–1661) modification and comment on Water Margin, but they did not make drastic changes on account of their talent as Jin Shengtan did to Water Margin. Instead, they modified the original version through only partial additions, deletions, and embellishments, and to a large extent retained the original version as it was when published in the Ming Dynasty. Mao’s revision, according to the guide to the use of the book, was mainly reflected in four aspects: Firstly, they made corrections to tell historical facts; secondly, they organized the chapter titles to make them into antithetical parallelism; thirdly, they added and deleted some poems and prose in the text and removed commentaries; fourthly, they paid attention to the diction and modified the rhetoric. Their revision improved the structure of the book to be more rigorous and complete, the plot to be more in line with historical facts, and the language to be more concise and smoother. After the publication of Mao’s version, the other versions were abandoned without being transmitted. Mao’s version has been passed down for more than 300 years to this date. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was inspired by the history in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu, and Wu, starting from the Yellow Turbans Uprising in the first year of the reign of Emperor Ling under the title of Zhongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (184) to the first year of the reign of Emperor Wu of Jin under the title of Taikang (280). The artistic achievement of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was first of all reflected in its structure. The novel was centered on the rise and fall of the Shu Han Dynasty, with Wei and Wu as the backdrop. It organized complex historical characters and events and managed the history of the fights among the Three Kingdoms for almost one hundred years to make up a coherent and complete story.

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Zhu Geliang was the soul of the novel, and his life story was used as the main line for the writers to unfold the fights among the Three Kingdoms. The characters and events of Wei, Shu, and Wu as branch lines were all directly or indirectly related to the main line. A slight event in one part was related to the whole history. Such a rigorous structure could only be accomplished and realized by a character-centered novel, which avoided the fragmentation and isolation in biographical history books and the looseness and disorder of chronological history books. Another artistic achievement of Romance of the Three Kingdoms was its adeptness at depicting the political and military struggles between various interest groups. The writers described a myriad of battles with different characteristics such as “Guan Yu slayed Hua Xiong while the wine as still warm” versus the fight of Liu Bei, Guang Yu, and Zhang Fei against Lü Bu, the Battle of Guandu versus the Battle of the Red Cliff and the Seven Captures of Meng Huo versus the Six Attempt to Conquer Wei in Qishan. Tactically, the novel mentioned defenses and attacks, sneak attacks, encounters, interceptions, chases, and the use of fire or water as weapons. The implementation of tactics relied not only on the skills of warriors and generals, right timing and place, and the unpredictable fate but also more importantly on the planning of strategies before the war. Finally, the novel made an extraordinary achievement in characterization and was well-known for its three prominent characters, namely, Cao Cao’s treacherousness, Guan Yu’s righteousness, and Kong Ming’s wisdom. In addition, Liu Bei’s benevolence and sincerity, Zhang Fei’s brashness and kindness, Zhou Yu’s wit and suspicious nature, and Zhao Yun’s bravery and loyalty were also vividly written. Capturing and highlighting a personality trait of a character through exaggeration was a basic technique of character-building in pre-modern novels. In terms of the language in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, “The text is not abstruse, and the language is not vernacular”. The book was written in a popular classical language that was half literary and half vernacular for historical reasons. This novel evolved from the “historical tales” in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. As the word “romance” in the title suggested, it dealt with meanings in history books and inevitably accommodated historical events and consulted history books. For the purpose of transcribing and rewriting history books, classical language became the main language. Another relevant feature of the novel was that it was more narrative than descriptive. It simply narrated the actions of the characters without taking heed to their mental changes. Wang Yun applied a

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series of stratagems and a honey trap with the help of Diao Chan and Lv Bu to kill Dong Zhuo. This plot was much more complex than Shakespeare’s Othello, but the psychological motivation of the central character in this episode, Diao Chan, was taken lightly, and even her fate remained unknown. Because the fate of Shu Han was the center of the novel, emotions, and desires that were not relevant to the big picture were not worth mentioning at all. The plot and characters of Romance of the Three Kingdoms always revolved around the rise and fall of Shu Han, which reflected the ideological tendency to “support Liu Bei and opposing Cao Cao” in the novel. This ideological tendency was slowly established over the enduring circulation process of stories about the Three Kingdoms. It was a combination of official thought and public consciousness. Its core was the Confucian ideal of benevolent government. The writer of this novel was guided by this idea to deal with the many and varied stories of the historical figures in the Three Kingdoms. Based on this idea, Liu Bei’s benevolent team became the backbone of the plot, in contrast to Cao Cao’s treacherous heroism. The episode of sworn brothers in the peach garden, in particular, impressed numerous readers with its simple ethical thought appealing to the folk society. Also based on this idea, Zhuge Liang’s personal charisma was glorious. He was both a representative of military wisdom and a typical example of a wise minister. His harmonious monarch-subject relationship with Liu Bei was much appreciated by scholars. Although the Shu Han Dynasty died, benevolence and benevolent government outweighed the success or failure of a dynasty. Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were immortal heroes. Zhuge Liang, in particular, spent his entire life attempting the impossible and fighting against the fate of “Han not blessed by Heaven” tenaciously. Romance of the Three Kingdoms also standardized and limited the creation of later historical romance novels. No one could be more successful in depicting various wars than the writers of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, no matter how hard they tried. In terms of characterization, the wisdom of Zhu Geliang and the recklessness of Zhang Fei were most influential. Romance of the Three Kingdoms stood out among historical novels mainly because of its subject matter. As Lu Xun commented, “The stories of the Three Kingdoms were not as disorderly as those of the Five Dynasties or as simple as those of Chu and Han. They were perfectly simple and complicated for a novel. What’s more, the heroes in the Three Kingdoms were very impressive due to their wisdom, tactics,

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military skills and bravery. They were popular raw materials for novels”. Although a novel was “seventy percent fact and thirty percent fiction”, the “thirty percent” fiction embraced diverse folklore, folk tales, and even folk beliefs as the basis, and the fictional part was the most wonderful part of the novel. Many later historical romance novels were simply bound by historical facts and “invented stories based on reference to history”. They were deeply trapped in historical facts. They did not grasp sufficient material resources or master the extraordinary gift to come up with imaginative and creative fiction. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was insurmountable, and it forced other writers to open a new path and take a new direction in the creation of ancient Chinese novels. That was to get close to the folklore, telling unofficial historical stories without constraint. This approach prioritized description over narration and blurred official history in order to shape heroic characters. It led to the creation of heroic legendary novels represented by Water Margin, Generals of the Yang Family, and stories about the heroes in the Tang Dynasty, Yue Fei, and his military team.

2

Water Margin

Water Margin (Shui Hu Zhuan) was a collection of stories about real historical figures. In Water Margin, the one hundred and eight rebellion heroes in Liangshan were basically all fictitious, except the protagonist Song Jiang. There are few historical records about Song Jiang’s uprising, and its force and threat to the court were far less than those of other peasant uprisings in the Northern Song Dynasty. The reason why the story of Song Jiang became folk tales and eventually evolved into a great vernacular novel was inseparable from the social background during that specific period. The Song and Yuan dynasties were crucial periods for the completion of Water Margin. After the Northern Song Dynasty fell in 1127, northerners under the rule of the Jin Dynasty and southerners under the rule of the Southern Song Dynasty added new contents and new experiences to the story of Song Jiang with the anti-Jin sentiment and under the overarching principle of “loyalty and righteousness”. During the Yuan Dynasty, Water Margin stories got rid of national contradictions, and Song Jiang and other characters were considered as “bandits” more than symbols of “loyalty and righteousness”. The first completion of Water Margin was believed to be in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of

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the Ming Dynasty. This conclusion was drawn mainly because the authors of the version published in the Ming Dynasty were Luo Guanzhong and Shi Nai’an. Shi Nai’an lived in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty as a contemporary of Luo Guanzhong. His biographical details are not available. In recent years, scholars have questioned the authorship and the completion time of Water Margin, but no consensus has been reached. The theme of Water Margin was an apparent paradox. On the one hand, it was about outlaw heroes vehemently resisting tyranny. On the other hand, it expressed their longing for amnesty from the imperial court and gave a tragic ending of these heroes suffering casualties in an ordered conquest of a peasant uprising leader called Fang La. This contradiction in the theme could be explained by the long time it took to complete the novel over centuries and the social psychology in a different period when Water Margin stories were transmitted. As mentioned earlier, the novel was written in a critical period when the national crisis was severe at the juncture of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Due to the weakness of the court, the people hoped that powerful bandits like Song Jiang could be recruited to defend against foreign invasion. Song Jiang and other outlaw heroes embodied the quality of the northern “Zhongyi Army” (literally meaning “loyal and righteous army”) that resisted the Jin Dynasty and hinted obliquely at Yue Fei (1103–1142), a famous general who died unjustly against the Jin Dynasty. The bandits who resisted the imperial court and defied the monarchy were reconciled to be loyal and righteous heroes who accepted amnesty and assisted the imperial court in resisting domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. Moreover, such reconciliation was also in line with the historical and social realities of ancient China. Historically, rebellion and amnesty were not contradictory. The court took both soft and hard measures of pacification and suppression of the bandits, and the rebels often took advantage of their power and strength as a bargaining chip to accept the imperial amnesty offer. Thus, as a ballad recorded by people in the Song Dynasty put it, “If you want to become an official, just kill, set fire and accept amnesty”. Officialdom and bandit could be transformed at any time without strict boundaries. As a novel written for ages, Water Margin was inevitably divided into different series and segments. The stories of Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, and Yang Xiong could be separate, as best exemplified in The Story of Wu Song told by the modern commentary artist Wang Shaotang (1889–1968) in Yangzhou. There was no central character throughout

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the book, and the first seventy chapters, themed “driven to revolt”, tied together the separate legend of each character to make the most exciting part of the book. The later stories about the conquest of Liao, the conquest of Tian Hu and Wangqing, and the conquest of Fang La were clearly pieced together with crude and haphazard narrative. Suppression by the ruler was not the only culprit of the outlaws being “driven to revolt”. The heroes in Liangshan included both voluntary outlaws and military officers and rich men who were forced to revolt and get aboard in Liangshan because they were caught by venomous schemes. The first chapter of the novel was the story of Lin Chong, which started with the abuse of power by the emperor’s favorite minister Gao Qiu. It preemptively set the keynote of blaming the ruling class for causing chaos and forcing people to revolt. The most noteworthy artistic achievement of Water Margin was the characterization. Lovers of this novel are familiar with the names and nicknames of the one hundred and eight heroes in Liangshan. Each of the 108 characters had their personality and temperament, and their personality traits were manifested through conflicts. The artistic achievement of Water Margin was also shown in its language. Based on the northern dialects, the language of the novel was processed to be clear, concise, vivid, accurate, and expressive. Both the narration of events and the portrayal of characters were vivid and lifelike in just a few strokes. After the emergence of Water Margin, it became an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the adaptation and recreation of works in other literary forms. Some operas in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including poetic dramas, legends, and serialized theatrical performances, drew on Water Margin stories. Operas about Water Margin continue to be active on the stage to this date. In the novel sphere, The Golden Lotus was a story that occurred from Chapter Twenty-Three to Chapter Twenty-Six of Water Margin, and more than twenty novels were direct sequels of Water Margin. Among them, Sequel to Water Margin written by Chen Chen (1615–1670?), an adherent to the Ming Dynasty, and Dang Kou Zhi (see the section about novels in the Qing Dynasty for details) written by Yu Wanchun in the Qing Dynasty were more artistically accomplished and influential. Water Margin, centering around the theme of people driven to revolt under the suppression of the ruler and showing a strong awareness of resisting tyranny, was influential not just in the fictional world of literary texts but also more significantly on the organization of armed resistance movements by later generations. From the uprising of Li Zicheng in the

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late years of the Ming Dynasty to the Movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Boxer Rebellion, and even from secret societies originally dedicated to overthrowing the Qing Dynasty such as the Heaven and Earth Society and Hung Mun to ordinary underworld organizations, Water Margin became their “textbook” to learn from. Their slogans were variants of “enforcing justice on behalf of Heaven”, and their gathering venues were often named “Loyalty Hall”. The leaders’ nicknames were directly copied from the names and nicknames of the heroes in Liangshan, and their strategies and tactics were mostly inspired by Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin. For this reason, Water Margin was regarded as a book that “tempted people into outlawry”. The bare depiction of bloody and violent scenes, the indiscriminate gang morality codes, and the extreme hatred of women in Water Margin have led many modern researchers to hold reservations about this masterpiece. However, despite the many debatable aspects, extraordinary heroic behavior and temperament are the eternal yearning from the hearts of men. As Liang Qichao (1873–1929) put it, Water Margin had the power to correct the cultural tradition and national character that emphasized literature and suppressed martial virtues.

3

Journey to the West

Similar to Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, Journey to the West (Xi You Ji) was also a novel completed through the ages. This novel was inspired by a real historical event. In 627 (the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty), monk Xuanzang (602–664) started a solitary pilgrimage to Tianzhu (now India) for obtaining Buddhist scriptures. It took him seventeen years to travel tens of thousands of miles in a round trip through more than fifty countries. Based on his oral account of this journey, his disciples compiled Record of Xuanzang’s Travels to the West in Tang Dynasty (Da Tang Xi Yu Ji), and some of his disciples wrote Da Tang Ci En Si San Zang Fa Shi Zhuan, which incorporated quite a few magical legends. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Notes on Monk Xuanzang’s Pilgrimage for Buddhist Scriptures in Tang Dynasty (Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua) began to put various myths and stories occurring during the pilgrimage journey together. Many descriptions became prototypes for some chapters of Journey to the West, and the image of the trip master monkey appeared, which marked the change of the central character from Xuanzang to the Monkey King. As late as the end of the

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Yuan Dynasty, Monologue Storytelling about Journey to the West (Xi You Ji Ping Hua) also appeared. This book has been lost now, but the story of the pilgrimage journey had basically taken shape, according to the fragments preserved in The Yongle Canon. At the same time, there were also operas with the pilgrimage storyline, and the most important of them was the Poetic Drama of Journey to the West (Xi You Ji Za Ju) written by Yang Jingxian in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty. It consisted of six chapters and twenty-four acts. The pilgrimage was joined by Monk Sha, a pig monster, and a white horse. The earliest surviving version of Journey to the West was the Shidetang version published in 1592 (the twentieth year of Wanli). Various versions of Journey to the West appearing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were signed either by their editors or revisers or by the writer named Qiu Chuji (1148–1227), a famous Quanzhen Taoist in the Yuan Dynasty. It was not until the 1920s that the author was confirmed to be Wu Cheng’en through the textual research of Hu Shi and Lu Xun. According to the existing materials, there is no conclusive evidence to prove or disprove Wu Cheng’en as the holder of the copyright. Wu Cheng’en (1510?– 1582?), courtesy name Ruzhong and art name Sheyangshanren, hailed from Shanyang, Huai’an (now Huai’an, Jiangsu Province). He briefly held the post of county magistrate. He was fond of unofficial legends since his childhood and wrote a legendary novel called Yu Ding Zhi (which has been lost now). He left four volumes of She Yang Xian Sheng Cun Gao surviving to this date. As a writer who completed the story of the journey to the West, Wu Chengen not only absorbed the essence of folklore and previous texts but also recreated the pilgrimage story into a new masterpiece of fiction with his talent and ability. Journey to the West invented an imaginative magical world and was full of magical and magnificent fantasy. This world included the heavenly palace system ruled by the Jade Emperor, the Western Paradise under the charge of the Buddha, heavenly gods, immortals, and Buddhas as well as demons and monsters with different characteristics, various tricky and weird spells and magic weapons and intense, exciting and changeable battles. This fictional imaginary world was not only an essential setting for the pilgrimage story but also a stage for Sun Wukong to defeat demons and show his skills. This was as absurd as reasonable. A series of distinctive characters were portrayed in Journey to the West. Sun Wukong was a hero in the journey to the West and the real protagonist of the novel. He was blessed with unmatched superhuman strength and the ability to

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transform into seventy-two different animals and objects. He had Fiery Golden Eyes and a Magic Golden-Clasped Rod that could help him defeat everything from heaven to earth. He dared to fight with authorities in the heavenly palace and the Buddha. He was a loyal guardian of Xuanzang. He was optimistic, cheerful, witty, and naughty. He never retreated from difficulties and fought to the end. He was finally appointed by the Buddha as “the Great Victorious Fighting Buddha”. Another character Zhu Bajie was foolish, rude, and weak-willed. When encountering difficulties, he always claimed to break up with the team and “return to be a son-in-law” in the place of Gaolaozhuang. The pilgrimage was almost ruined by his jealousy of Sun Wukong. Zhu Bajie represented two kinds of greed in human nature: food and sex. When he finally attained Buddhahood, the Buddha named him “Altar Cleanser” because he still had “the greed for food and sex” and his new job could satisfy his desire to be worshiped and enjoy feast. Zhu Bajie and Sun Wukong were two complementary characters, and they were compared by some scholars to Sancho and Don Quixote. Xuanzang in the novel was not the real monk with a sincere and courageous heart in history. He was a weak and incompetent “stupid” monk, who strictly adhered to the precepts to the extent of being pedantic, unreasonable, and even confused about right and wrong, easily deceived and often prone to tears when encountering danger and obstacles. From the perspective of spiritual cultivation, none of these three characters managed to grow in hardships. Sun Wukong had already “brought his mind back from indulgence” at the moment when he decided to escort Xuanzang throughout the pilgrimage journey. Everything that followed but nothing but a demonstration of his full character and actions as a hero. Humor and wit were important stylistic features of Journey to the West. Its humor and wit were a manifestation of the ancient comic tradition and closely related to the flourishing of joke literature in the middle and late years of the Ming Dynasty. “Joke” was not only Sun Wukong’s catchphrase, but was also reflected between the lines in the novel. Arguably, it was written freely and well. After it was published, Journey to the West was widely spread and greatly influential, attracting many imitators. By the late years of the Ming Dynasty, supernatural novels had been on par with historical romance novels. At least nineteen supernatural novels (including two abridged editions of Journey to the West ) were published, among which Sanbao Eunuch’s Journey to the West Ocean (San Bao Tai Jian Xi Yang Ji), The

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Investiture of the Gods, and Supplements to Journey to the West (Xi You Bu) were relatively important works.

4

The Golden Lotus

The Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) was first circulated as a hand-copied book. In 1590 s, famous scholars like Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Zhongdao, Feng Menglong, and Shen Defu (1578–1610) began to mention this novel. As modern historian Wu Han (1909–1969) investigated in his paper The Time and Historical Background of the Golden Lotus published in 1933, The Golden Lotus was completed in about 1582–1602 (tenth year to thirtieth year of Wanli). This conclusion was widely accepted by the academic community. According to a preface written by Xinxinzi to Commentary on the Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei Ci Hua) published in 1617, The Golden Lotus was written by “Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng”, which was a pseudonym. Langling was a place in Yixian in the south of Shandong (now in Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province), and with the extensive use of Shandong colloquialisms in the book, the writer was probably from Shandong, but his real name remains unknown. The Golden Lotus consisted of one hundred chapters and could be classified into two version systems: one of the systems was Commentary on the Golden Lotus with a preface that indicated the time of the fortyfifth year of Wanli (1617), and it was referred to as “the commentary version” for short. The other system was The Golden Lotus with Illustrations (Xiu Xiang Jin Ping Mei) published during the reign of Chongzhen (1628–1644), and it was referred to as “the Chongzhen Version” or “the illustration version” for short. Similar to the Mao’s commentary version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Jin Shengtan’s commentary version of Water Margin, there was Zhang Zhupo’s (1670–1698) version of The Golden Lotus based on the Chongzhen version, and the commentary was highly regarded by modern researchers. Zhang’s commentary version became the most popular version after it was published in the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi (1695). The storytelling version remained unknown for a long time until it was rediscovered in 1932. The Golden Lotus focused on a middle-class urban family, as well as its food and lifestyle, wedding and funeral rituals, mutual jealousy between wives and concubines, social interactions, prosperity and decline, reunions and partings. Radiating from the family to all social classes, the novel presented a rotten world of moral degradation and human lust. The

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plot of The Golden Lotus was drawn from the story of Wu Song killing his sister-in-law in the twenty-third to twenty-seventh chapters of Water Margin, and it mainly narrated the family life of Ximen Qing. The story ostensibly took place in the late years of the Northern Song Dynasty in the twelfth century, but it was actually a portrait of the social life in the Ming Dynasty during the end of the sixteenth century. The first twenty chapters of the novel explained the basic setting of the story and gathered all the main characters in the book. The twentyseventh to the seventy-ninth chapters mainly described how Ximen Qing, as his power and wealth grew, became increasingly indulgent and had sexual partners regardless of their gender and class. The infighting among his jealous wife and concubines was particularly brutal. The most important power struggle occurred between Pan Jinlian and Li Bing’er. In the last twenty-one chapters, the pace of the story turned fast and furious. After Ximen Qing died, his sworn brothers and concubines left for new patrons, and his servants and shopkeepers absconded with his money and possessions. In the hundredth chapter, the Jin soldiers invaded and the Song Dynasty fell. Ximen Qing’s wife Wu Yueniang and her fifteen-yearold son Xiaoge took refuge in a Buddhist temple, where the monks said that Xiaoge was the reincarnation of Ximen Qing and he had to become a monk in order to help his father atone. Yueniang died at an advanced age, and a former manservant named Dai’an changed his surname to inherit the family business and became known as Ximen Xiaoguanren. The Golden Lotus was a seminal work in the development history of the ancient Chinese full-length novels due to its artistic structure. The other three “Marvelous Masterpieces” before it, namely Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West, were structurally divided into series and segments through the long-term buildup of materials. The Golden Lotus was the history of a family, with stories mainly occurring inside the house, where the main characters moved around and their personalities and conflicts unfolded naturally daily trivial affairs, while the external social life related to the family was naturally presented at the same time. A slight move in one part might affect the situation as a whole. Characters and events appeared one after another, becoming part of the complicated network that could not be ignored. The Golden Lotus was no longer a web of relatively independent stories. The characters and events were deeply connected, seemingly trivial yet integrated into a whole as they were in real life.

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As one of the “Four Marvelous Masterpieces of the Ming Dynasty”, The Golden Lotus was special for its naked descriptions of sexual affairs. The Golden Lotus was most noteworthy and controversial for its descriptions of sexual affairs. Being accused of “tempting people into obscenity”, it was always among various lists of banned books published in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is still considered as “a pornographic book” even today. Only “the abridged version” is circulated in public in the book market. Although the unabridged “complete version” was once published, they were sold in limited quantities for academic research purposes only. In all fairness, the descriptions of sexual affairs were not a stunt to attract readers. The writer had a sense of propriety. Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian were the central characters of the novel, but they were denied and condemned by the writer. Therefore, the descriptions of sexual affairs were mostly related to them and were particularly unrestrained. Through selective descriptions of sexual affairs, the writer tried to suggest that sex was not only a display of power relations but also hard currency with purchasing power. Deleting these passages failed to fully present the characters’ spirituality and accurately reflect the social atmosphere of “not to be ashamed of talking about private affairs and aphrodisiac” and the all-pervasive commodity economy in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. The Golden Lotus was special for its focus on non-heroic characters, contemporary materials, and a non-legendary plot. The writer patiently and meticulously described daily life in detail and convincingly presented the social context for the characters. The novel was written in a delicate and fluent style. The Golden Lotus was the first full-length novel written by a scholar independently and based on family life in China. It had an extremely profound influence on the creation of later secular novels and family novels. Dream of the Red Chamber was clearly a continuation of its subject matters and details. Considering the poetic characters in Dream of the Red Chamber, the subtlety and precision of the saying that “Dream of the Red Chamber was implicitly similar to The Golden Lotus ” in the Qing Dynasty was more apparent. In the world of The Golden Lotus, not only was sex real and colorful, but the vile, dirty, dark, and ugly human nature was also completely unmasked.

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5

Legendary Novels and Novels Based on Storytelling Scripts

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the representative legendary novels were New Tales of Trimmed Lamp (Jian Deng Xin Hua) written by Qu You and Extra Tales of Trimmed Lamp (Jian Deng Yu Hua) written by Li Changqi. Qu You (1347–1433), hailed from Shanyang (now Huai’an, Jiangsu Province) and had his ancestral home in Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province). He was famous for his talent in poetry since childhood. Jian Deng Xin Hua was completed in 1378 (the eleventh year of Hongwu), including twenty-one novels in total. They were supernatural novels imitating legends in the Tang Dynasty. They showed distinctive characteristics of the times and reflected the war-stricken society in the late years of the Yuan Dynasty. Li Changqi (1376–1452) hailed from Luling (now Ji’an, Jiangxi Province). In 1404 (the second year of Yongle), he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations and participating in editing The Yongle Canon as a member of the Imperial Academy. He once served as the executive governor of Henan. Jian Deng Yu Hua was an imitation of Jian Deng Xin Hua. It not only had a similar style and story materials but even included twenty-one stories as well. In this book, the romantic stories were more artistically accomplished. Jian Deng Xin Hua and Jian Deng Yu Hua were very popular among readers. They were copied and engraved all the time, and imitations kept emerging. Some of them borrowed the title “jian deng” such as Jian Deng Chuan Qi, Jian Deng Xu Lu, and Jian Deng Suo Yu. During the middle years of the Ming Dynasty, Jian Deng Xin Hua was even spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. The Korean novel Geumo Sinhwa (Tales of Mount Geumo) written in Chinese, the Japanese novels Record of Miscellaneous Strange Stories (Qi Yi Za Tan Lu) and The Maidservant of the Royal Family (Yu Jia Bi Zi), and the Vietnamese novel Casual Records of Transmitted Strange Tales were clearly related to Jian Deng Xin Hua in terms of content and genre. Most of the legendary novels in the middle and late years of the Ming Dynasty were novellas, which were known in the academia as “legendary novellas”. This was a vaguely defined concept. These novellas were basically about love affairs written in a shallow classical Chinese language and were much longer than the general classical Chinese novels. They had at least ten thousand characters, with plenty of poems and ci interpolating

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narrative. They were not written by elites like Qu You or Li Changqi, but also lower-class literati. Influenced by the obscene social climate in the middle and late years of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of legendary novellas that seemed obscene appeared, represented by The Empress and Her Gigolo (Ru Yi Jun Zhuan) and A Loose Woman (Chi Po Zi Zhuan). The Empress and Her Gigolo was completed roughly before the reign of Jiajing by Xu Changling, whose biography remained unknown. This novella was a historical chronicle of Wu Zetian and her sexual partner Xue Aocao. It influenced some of the descriptions in The Golden Lotus. A Loose Woman was written by an unknown author. This novella was unique in the history of ancient Chinese novels in that it was written in the first person about the recollection of an old woman, Shangguan Ana, about the history of her sexual life. Novels based on storytelling scripts were novels that originated from the “storytelling” technique in the Song and Yuan dynasties and to some extent retained the “storytelling” narrative method. Narrative novels are mainly referred to as vernacular fiction. Full-length vernacular novels also evolved from “storytelling”, but they became independent of novels based on storytelling scripts due to their length and the unique chapter-based structure that took shape over the development course. Therefore, they were known as chapter-based novels. Novels based on storytelling scripts were in their infancy during the Song and Yuan dynasties, but most of the texts have been lost. A few of them were edited by people in the Ming Dynasty and were no longer what they originally looked like during the Song and Yuan dynasties after modification and polishing. The development and change of novels based on storytelling scripts in the Ming Dynasty were closely related to the prosperity of the book market. They went through three stages: the collection and adaptation of old books, the adaptation of current affairs and news of the dynasty, and independent creation by literati. Artistically, they shifted from vulgarity to elegance and drifted away from the oral “storytelling” among the folk. The Qing Ping Shan Tang Hua Ben compiled by Hong Pian, a famous scholar and bibliophile living during the reign of Jiajing was the earliest surviving collection of novels based on storytelling scripts published in the Ming Dynasty. The status of such novels in the literature circle was owed to Stories to Instruct the World (Stories Old and New), Stories to Caution the World, and Stories to Awaken the World, collectively known as “Sanyan”, which were compiled by Feng Menglong

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living during the reigns of Taichang and Tianqi. Feng Menglong (1574– 1646), courtesy name Youlong, also Guqusanren and Mohanzhaizhuren, hailed from Changzhou, Jiangsu (now Suzhou). In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, he served as a country magistrate and was known as an honest and upright official. After the Ming Dynasty perished, he died of worry and indignation. Feng Menglong devoted his life to collecting, organizing, and publishing popular literature, and he revered Wang Yangming’s School of the Mind, hoping that it could enlighten the “consciousness” of foolish people. Also influenced by Li Zhi’s “Theory of Innocent Mind”, he believed that food and love were human ethics and nature. He preached popular literature as a means to “carry out moral instruction with emotion”. “Love affairs in literary works could serve to expose and criticize the hypocrisy of feudal ethics”. “Sanyan” included a total of one hundred and twenty novels, some of which were rewritten from the old versions from the Song and Yuan dynasties while others were adapted from existing stories written in classical Chinese. In terms of subject matter, these novels were about history, life of literati, commercial and business affairs, love affairs, legal cases, religious legends, and supernatural events. However, the mainstream was the depiction of the lives and emotions of ordinary people, and a large number of small merchants, shopkeepers, and craftsmen became the main characters of the stories who were understood, shown sympathy, and praised. The most influential novels in “Sanyan” were those about love and legal cases. After being published, “Sanyan” became “bestsellers”. The creation and publication of novels based on storytelling scripts was prosperous. Striking the Table in Surprise (Pai An Jing Qi) (1628, the first year of Chongzhen) and Striking the Table in Surprise II (Er Ke Pai An Jing Qi) (1632, the fifth year of Chongzhen) written by Ling Mengchu were collectively known as “Erpai”. Lu Renlong wrote Xing Shi Yan (published in the first year of Chongzhen), known as “XSY I” for short. Other influential collections of novels based on storytelling scripts included Xi Hu Er Ji, Huan Xi Yuan Jia, Gu Zhang Jue Chen, Shi Dian Tou, Yuan Yang Zhen, etc.

PART VIII

Literature in the Qing Dynasty

1644 A.D.–1911 A.D.

CHAPTER 34

Overview Wang Damin

The Qing Dynasty was the last monarchical dynasty in China. From the establishment of the capital in Beijing (1644) to the gloomy end (1911), the Qing Dynasty ruled China for two hundred and sixty-eight years. After thousands of years of vicissitudes and ups and downs, Chinese literature welcomed the last glory of the Qing Dynasty. At the juncture of the reigns of Daoguang and Xianfeng, China met the West and was involved in a global modernization movement that began in Western Europe. Afterward, Chinese literature started a hard transformation from classics to modernism under foreign influence. In the Qing Dynasty, the Aisin gioro clan, from Shunzhi to Guangxu, had nine emperors whose poems and prose writings were passed down. Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing were particularly prolific writers, and their works were more beautiful and abundant than any other emperors in history. Emperor Kangxi reigned for sixty-one years, and Emperor Qianlong reigned for sixty years. These two emperors, as grandfather and grandson, together created the Kang-Qian Flourishing Age and contributed to the eventual pluralistic Chinese nation with their rare gifts and bold strategies. Emperor Kangxi wrote more than

W. Damin (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_34

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one thousand and one hundred poems, while Emperor Qianlong wrote more than forty thousand poems. Although many of these voluminous poems were written by scholar officials on behalf of them, they demonstrated the literary gift of emperors in flourishing ages. The Manchu imperial family came from Northeast China, a poorly civilized place. In order to effectively manage the country, emperors in the Qing Dynasty mostly received extremely strict cultural education before ascending to the throne. Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong respected Confucianism and literature. Emperors Kangxi once ordered to test candidates of imperial examinations for their extensive learning and great literary talent. He also recruited famous Confucian scholars and paid a formal visit to the Confucian temple in Qufu. He also organized the revision of masterpieces including Kangxi Dictionary (Kang Xi Zi Dian), Collection of Ancient and Modern Books (Gu Jin Tu Shu Ji Cheng), The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty (Quan Tang Shi), The Standard Phrase Dictionary (Pei Wen Yun Fu), Pian Zi Lei Bian, and Zi Shi Jing Hua. Emperor Qianlong attached importance to the cultural cause more than his ancestors. During his reign, he supported the compilation of more than a hundred books. Among these books, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature (Si Ku Quan Shu) was particularly outstanding. This tremendous collection included important classics from the preQin period to the early Qing Dynasty, covering almost all the classical academic fields. The cultural policies, literary propositions, poems, and prose writings collected were both an important part of literature in the Qing Dynasty, as well as the cultural background and driving force behind its prosperity.

1

Literature in Full Swing

The most important feature of the literature in the Qing dynasty was that it combined great literary achievements from previous generations. Each dynasty witnessed the emergence of excellent literary styles before the Qing Dynasty. The Zhou and Qin dynasties were known for different philosophical scholars; Chu was known for the lisao style; the Han Dynasty was known for ci and fu; the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Six Dynasties were known for parallel prose; the Tang Dynasty was known for poetry; the Song Dynasty was known for ci; the Yuan Dynasty was known for qu; and the Ming Dynasty was known for novels, operas, and eightpart essay. Only the literature in the Qing Dynasty did not create any

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special genre surpassing the predecessors and representing an era without shame. However, it encompassed the strength of all the predecessors and shone brightly. Novels and operas in the Qing Dynasty made remarkable achievements after the Ming Dynasty. Unofficial History of the Scholars was the pinnacle of ancient satirical novels. Dream of the Red Chamber was a pinnacle in the history of Chinese novels due to its new ideas and techniques that created an artistic world with the fog of desolation spread all over superficial prosperity. The Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liao Zhai Zhi Yi) and Yuewei Cottage Notes (Yue Wei Cao Tang Bi Ji) broke new ground outside of the legends in the Tang and Song dynasties. Opera masterpieces in the Qing Dynasty were well-structured, with rhythmic harmony and composition much better than those of the operas in the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, some famous writers, such as Wu Weiye and You Tong, abandoned the common view of traditional literati and scholars that despised opera and wrote about the pain of the fallen country. Hong Sheng’s Palace of Eternal Life (Chang Sheng Dian) and Kong Shangren’s The Peach Blossom Fan (Tao Hua Shan) became the best works in the opera world because of their strong dramatic properties and typical historical themes. Tremendous poems and ci writings were created in the Qing Dynasty, and their real achievements could stand alongside those of Tang poems and Song ci works. Although some poets were entangled in the ideas of respecting Tang poems and imitating Song poems, poems in the Qing Dynasty were neither Tang poems nor Song poems, but had their own vivid and lifelike style on the basis of digesting examples from Tang and Song. Qian Qianyi, Wu Weiye, Shi Runzhang, Qu Dajun, Wang Shizhen, Yuan Mei, Zhao Yi, Huang Jingren, Gong Zizhen, Chen Sanli, and other famous poets in the poetry circle were excellent enough to be on a par with the outstanding poets in the Tang and Song dynasties. After a long period of silence following the heyday in the Song Dynasty, ci was suddenly revived in the Qing Dynasty to become the main art form for literati and scholars to express their feelings and hearts. There were many schools and famous writers of ci in the Qing Dynasty. In the sphere of ci, Yangxian School led by Chen Weisong, Zhexi School led by Zhu Yizun, and the four major ci writers in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, namely Wang Pengyun, Zhu Zumou, Kuang Zhouyi, and Zheng Wenzhuo, were able to open up new frontiers. Some of them were good at analogy and association techniques, while others advocated “zhong” (stateliness

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and deepness), zhuo (guilelessness and unadornedness), and da (boundlessness and completeness). All of them broke fresh ground beyond the Southern and Northern Song dynasties. There were many great prose writers in the Qing Dynasty. Parallel prose writers Chen Weisong, Wu Qi, Yuan Mei, Hu Tianyou, Hang Shijun, Hong Liangji, Wang Zhong, Sun Xingyan, Kong Guangsen, and Wu Xiqi were talented and knowledgeable. Their writings profound in substance and beautiful in style reached a height that was inaccessible to the ornate parallel style in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Six Dynasties. Ancient prose writers, gathering around the Tongcheng School, learned from and carried forward the doctrines of Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi. They also inherited the literary styles of The Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, Records of the Grand Historian, Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu. Their writings were elegant and simplistic, embracing both softness and magnificence. They still managed to keep pace with the modern times, expounding tradition to supplement modernization. Thus, they lasted for hundreds of years without decay and became an amazing presence in the literature history. The literary theories and literary criticism in the Qing Dynasty were fruitful and conclusive. They cleaned up, analyzed, synthesized, and deepened the theoretical propositions and achievements of predecessors, and put forward many new propositions and conclusions according to the realistic needs and creative practice in the Qing Dynasty, pushing classical Chinese literary theory and criticism to a peak. Throughout the literature history for nearly three hundred years in the Qing Dynasty, many Manchu writers emerged with their magnificent and prolific works. Most of these works were written in Chinese, but they were different from those of Han writers. They expressed the beliefs, history, environment, and customs of the Manchus and revealed the unique psychological and personality traits of these people from the borderlands. Nalan Xingde was the best ci writer in the Qing Dynasty. His works describing the scenery of the north and the customs of the Manchu people adopted a natural observation perspective and expressed emotions in a natural language. They were so genuine and fresh that no ci writers of the pure Han nationality could match. Zidishu (songs in the Qing Dynasty sung by groups of singers to the accompaniment of a drum) was invented by the Eight Banner Manchus and was very active in the qu circle in the Qing Dynasty. Han Xiaochuang’s zidishu was famous for its stories about history, love, and heroes. His Lu Lei Hen was a perfect song

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of stories in Dream of the Red Chamber. Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber was a typical combination of the Manchu and Chinese cultures. While the aesthetic taste revealed in the book was indeed consistent with the classical literary tradition of the Han people, the religious and sacrificial rituals, basic necessities of life, weddings and funerals depicted in it were totally Manchu styles. The academics in the Qing Dynasty were divided into the school of Song and the school of Han. They decisively influenced the outlook of literature in the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Kangxi regarded Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism as orthodoxy Confucianism and believed that Zhu Xi best captured the spirit of sages. After the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, the school of Han emerged and became the pinnacle of classical Chinese academics. In sinologists’ opinion, the Six Classics were the doctrines of sages. Han studies represented by Xu Shen and Zheng Xuan were close to ancients, adhered strictly to the traditional discipline, and paid attention to textual research. They provided a reliable way of exploring the implication of classics. Different literary genres were all based on the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism during the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, but they were influenced by Han studies after the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing. Fang Bao, a pioneer of the Tongcheng School, put forward the yifa theory (guidelines and criteria for prose writing), placing equal emphasis on substance and logic and on appropriate language and sequence. Yao Nai, a trailblazer of the Tongcheng School, introduced the theory of conveying righteous messages, facts and evidence, and rhetoric and technique. Living in an age when the school of Song was flourishing, Fang Bao tried his best to connect ancient prose with the Cheng-Zhu neo-Confucianism. Yao Nai, faced with the rising trend of Han studies, attempted to incorporate the emphasis of the Han studies on facts and evidence into the creation of ancient prose. This school not only catered to the interests of the imperial court but also anticipated trends in the academic world, which was probably the key to its lasting appeal. Weng Fanggang was a scholar of both Han and Song studies. Prior to him, Wang Shizhen’s theory of elegant subtlety emphasized that poems should be subtle and implicit, and Shen Deqian’s theory of form and melody emphasized that poems should be gentle and sincere. Weng Fanggang thought that both elegant subtlety and form and melody were not real, so he proposed the distinctive theory of reasoning and structure. The theory of reasoning and structure advocated the development of poetry based on classic learning. The learning included both the Cheng-Zhu

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neo-Confucianism and the textual research of the Han studies. The boom of Han studies even penetrated into novels, which were rejected as a refined art. Writers of A Rustic’s Idle Talk (Ye Sou Pu Yan), Romance of the Mirrored Flowers (Jing Hua Yuan), and other novels tried to demonstrate their talent and classic learning in shaping characters. On the whole, the academics in the Qing Dynasty enriched the substance of literary works and, to some extent, constrained the artistic creativity of writers.

2

Boom in Feminine Literature

In the history of Chinese literature, feminine literature was most flourishing in the Qing Dynasty. Textual Research on Women’s Works of Past Dynasties (Li Dai Fu Nü Zhu Zuo Kao) written by Hu Wenkai listed more than four thousand female writers. There were more than three thousand and eight hundred female writers in the Qing Dynasty. Most of these female writers grew up in the more urbanized and commercialized Jiangnan, where they were well-educated and more open-minded. They were educated by their fathers and brothers and wrote compositions with their sisters when they were young. After they grew up, their husband became their partners in literary creation. Thus, they had chances to show their talent. Among various literary genres, they were particularly good at writing poems and ci. Female poets in the Qing Dynasty were very fond of forming associations, through which they moved from their secluded boudoirs to the social and cultural venues they created to communicate with each other and learn from each other’s poetic skills. Adding lyrics to melodies became a fashion among female writers in the Qing Dynasty. Female ci writers touched upon diverse themes. In addition to grieving over the change of seasons and partings, they also discussed some major historical, social and political events such as the southward migration in the Song Dynasty, the Movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the invasion of the powers. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, female writers such as Qiu Jin and Xu Zihua began to express the desire for personal independence and revealed the dawn of women’s emancipation. Beyond poetry and ci writings, female writers in the Qing Dynasty also shone in other literary genres in spite of the limited quantities of works. In particular, tanci (storytelling to the accompaniment of stringed instruments) became a bright spot in the literature during the Qing Dynasty. Chen Duansheng’s Eternal Happiness (Zai Sheng Yuan), which was an

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unfinished tanci writing, was inspired by the story about the reunions and partings of Meng Lijun, daughter of a minister, and Huangfu Shaohua, son of a governor, during the reign of Emperor Chengzong. It celebrated women’s thoughts and behavior to get rid of fetter of feudal ethics and their talent and courage. Written in over six hundred thousand characters, the book had a magnificent structure and a bizarre plot, showing the author’s brilliant talent. Gu Chun, who had unsurpassed beauty of a generation, was the first woman to write vernacular novels in the history of Chinese literature. The Dream Shadow of Red Chamber showed her unique life experience as a Manchurian talented lady born to a noble family. It stood out among a large number of sequels to Dream of the Red Chamber. The Qiao Ying written by Wu Zao was a short lyrical sketch in which Xie Daoyun had a good drink and burst into tears in front of a small portrait painting of herself dressed as a man drinking and reading lisao poems, venting her depression and gloom. This work expressed the writer’s frustration with the historical tradition and social environment that confined women and her desire for a free life. Female writers in the Qing Dynasty paid due attention to collecting and editing materials of feminine literature. The Anthology of Gentle Women’s Poetry (Guo Chao Gui Xiu Zheng Shi Ji) edited by Wanyan Yunzhu was a general collection of works written by talented female poets before the middle years of the Qing Dynasty. Sequel to the Anthology of Gentle Women’s Poetry (Guo Chao Gui Xiu Zheng Shi Ji Xu Ji) was edited by her granddaughter Miao Lanbao following her footstep. Wanyan Yunzhu repelled brothel literature, and her book selected the works of talented female poets that obeyed the Confucian doctrine of educating people through poems and female virtues. Some female critics with keen insight also appeared in the Qing Dynasty. The Ming Yuan Shi Hua written by Shen Shanbao is the largest surviving note on female poets and their poems from ancient times. The author constructed feminine literary classics by commenting on outstanding female writers through the ages. The Poem Collection of Thirty Scholars of Ming Dynasty (Ming San Shi Jia Shi Xuan) edited by Wang Duan was the first try of a female editor to comment on famous male poets in the Ming Dynasty.

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3

Transition from Classicism to Modernism

After the reigns of Daoguang and Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, along with the arrival of the Western powers, China embarked on a difficult journey of modernization. By the establishment of the Republic of China, China’s political system, material life, and spiritual world underwent transmutation from the surface to the inside, and the Chinese literary system also began a comprehensive transformation from classicism to modernism. From then on, the team of writers, literary concepts, creative connotations, literary forms and systems, literary language, and the way literary works were disseminated, and the relationship between Chinese literature and world literature were all fundamentally changed. While most Chinese literati in the classical era embraced the Confucian ideal of serving the ruler and benefiting the people, modern literati were very different from their predecessors after experiencing great changes in thought and intellectual structure. The abolition of the imperial examination system, the founding of new-style schools, and the tide of studying abroad brought a group of writers with modernist thought, literary independence awareness, and professional pluralism consciousness to the literature circle. The dramatic changes in literary concepts occurred in the late years of the reign of Guangxu. Firstly, the literary revolution theory with the Theory of Evolution as its core replaced the historical view based on the revival of classicism. Secondly, the new literary democracy theory replaced the theory of using literature as the vehicle of ideas and education. Thirdly, novels, which had been despised, was regarded by Liang Qichao as the best part of literature. Fourthly, the aesthetic interest of a happy ending was abandoned, and the value of tragedy was affirmed by scholars such as Wang Guowei. Modern literature was rich in content, broad in subject matter, and close to reality, showing the journey of Chinese social life and scholarly spirit toward modernity. Inspired by Western literature, modern writers burst forth astonishing vitality in literary expression, and the new newspaper style introduced by Liang Qichao emerged. This new literary style, which took the literature circle by storm, was easy to read and often emotional. Translated novels were injected with narrative techniques common in Western literature, as well as the techniques of portraiture, environmental description and psychological description, which were accepted by modern writers. The linguistic changes in literature during the late years of the Qing Dynasty were mainly reflected in two aspects: Firstly, vernacular became

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a written language and a tool to enlighten people; secondly, vocabulary and sentence structures that could be used to express new thoughts and emotions were invented. Gone were the days when writers had to rigidly stretch the meaning of new terms and new grammars; now they were able to use them freely. This greatly changed the usage of the Chinese written language. Traditional writers had historically disseminated their writings mainly through politics, academy education, mentorship within the family, and publication. Connection with the West brought in newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses, which slowly became the main channels for disseminating literary works. These new dissemination channels expanded the scope and increased the speed of the circulation of literary works, promoted the socialization and commercialization of literature and provided material assurance for writers to become independent and free professionals. Ancient Chinese literature had absorbed the nourishment of Indian Buddhist literature over its development course, but it was basically a self-contained system relying on internal inheritance and renewal. In the process of modern and contemporary transformation, Chinese intellectuals strove to break this self-contained system and create new literature by looking for new ideas from other countries, which changed the development direction of Chinese literature.

CHAPTER 35

Integration and Expansion of Prose Theories Yang Xuhui and Guo Daoping

1

Prosperity of Parallel Prose

After the great recession of the Ancient Prose Movement in the Tang and Song dynasties, substantial achievements in parallel prose and its status in literary history quickly fell into a low ebb. At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, literati in Jiangnan, unwilling to accept the reality of the fallen country, were extremely worried and indignant. They shed tears of anger and participated in the battle against the Qing army. During this process, they wrote many indescribably excellent parallel prose masterpieces. In their parallel prose writings, famous writers like Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, Gu Yanwu, and Chen Weisong all expressed a strong emotion of “mourning Jiangnan” from archetypal imagery, realm composition, and emotional and psychological expression. As the literary network grew stricter in the Qing Dynasty, Xia Wanchun’s style of emotional expression gradually became complicated

Y. Xuhui (B) School of Chinese Language and Literature, Soochow University, Suzhou, China e-mail: [email protected] G. Daoping Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_35

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and obscure, as evidenced by the works of Chen Weisong, a parallel prose master in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Historical allusions to Jinling almost ran through the whole text of his Preface to Memories at Jinling (Jin Ling Lan Gu Xu), and these historical stories were often relevant to the reality of the demise of the Ming Dynasty. The “unspeakable deep meaning” and trauma were expressed from within the heart in a subtle and clever way. This writing technique provided a chance for many of the adherents and honest patriots to vent the entangled concern that haunted their heart. It immediately aroused a strong and widespread resonance, and the status of parallel prose masters like Chen Weisong and his contemporaries in the literature history was established. The important factors that contributed to the rise of parallel prose from ensuring silence in the turbulent early years of the Qing Dynasty could be glanced. At the juncture of the reigns of Shunzhi and Kangxi, many adherent writers became parallel prose masters and created many masterpieces in their blood-soaked and sad writings driven by strong emotions. However, as the Qing Dynasty promoted governance through culture and education, the dispute between the Manchu and the Han people and the difference between the barbarians and the Chinese nation gradually faded. Such parallel prose writings slowly faded in the literature history and were replaced by the profound and elegant style of parallel prose during the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing. This change was entirely attributed to the prosperous development of academics during this period. During the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, down-to-earth learning was booming and great Confucian scholars came forth in large numbers, which eventually created a peak in the history of Chinese academics. The unprecedented boom of the academics was undoubtedly one of the most important reasons for the great prosperity of parallel prose. In the literature circle during the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, parallel prose masters such as Hu Tianyou, Yuan Mei, Shao Qitao, Liu Xingwei, Wang Zhong, Hong Liangji, Sun Xingyan, Ruan Yuan, Kong Guangsen, and Li Zhaoluo were almost all learned scholars and great philosophers that pursued extensive knowledge for academic purposes. Mastery of deep knowledge allowed these writers to write parallel prose skillfully. In writing, they were almost completely free from the shackles of sound and rhythm, parallelism, antithetical couplet, and allusion. They could “use allusions coherently like pearls and show their talent as naturally as taking breath”. Their writings were natural and smooth, providing both strong sensory enjoyment and spiritual shock and resonance. Some

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parallel prose writers, represented by Wang Zhong from Yangzhou, were able to blend sincere emotions and profound thoughts with gorgeous rhetoric. They “wrote everything about the world”, showing their reflections on society and history in their writings incisively and vividly that were good enough to represent the “lofty character” of parallel prose in the Qing Dynasty. It was because of these wonderful writings that brought the parallel prose in the Qing Dynasty to complete revival. Hu Tianyou (1696–1758), known with a family name of Fang, alternatively called Kui, courtesy name Zhiwei, alternative courtesy name Yunchi, hailed from Shanyin, Zhejiang (now Shaoxing Province). In the first year of the reign of Qianlong, he passed the imperial examination on extensive learning and great literary talent. His parallel prose preferred uniqueness and elegance over softness and cliche in terms of both wording and structure. He was most special because he blended the magnificent and smooth ancient prose style and imposing manner in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty with parallel prose. The profound, unrestrained, and vigorous wording, the powerful style, and the magnificent imposing manner left a strong impression of “being nonparallel under the disguise of parallelism”. A Letter in Reply to a Friend (Bao You Ren Shu) was written to his old friend Qu Jie in Changshu. The first half of the letter reminisced about the past deep friendship. It was written mostly in short, fast-paced sentences, with words unfolding like pearls and unrestrained expression of thoughts. Wang Zhong (1744–1794), courtesy name Rongfu, hailed from Jiangdu (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province). He was good at using classical allusions in his parallel prose to describe current affairs and expressing suffering and compassion in life. His parallel prose writings included Zi Xu, Diao Huang Zu Wen, Hu Fu Zhi Dao Song, and Jing Jiu Yuan Diao Ma Shou Zhen Wen. All of them “combined similarities with differences and mixed ancient with present”. During the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, parallel prose was in full swing. Numerous excellent parallel prose writers gathered to form many schools and groups. Zhejiang writers represented by Hu Tianyou and Yuan Mei gradually formed the “Boli School”; Changzhou writers represented by Hong Liangji, Liu Xingwei, Sun Xingyan, and Li Zhaoluo formed the “Changzhou School”; writers represented by Kong Guangsen formed the “Liuchao School”; Yangzhou writers represented by Wang Zhong and Ruan Yuan formed the “Yangzhou School” (or the “Yizheng School”). In terms of the scale and achievements of the creative team, the

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Changzhou School was particularly notable. Zhang Weiping, a scholar in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, listed Hong Liangji, a representative writer of the Changzhou School, and Hu Tianyou, as the best parallel prose writers during the reign of Qianlong in his book Yi Tan Lu. Writers from Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces were still active in parallel prose during the last seven decades in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. A particularly remarkable group of parallel prose writers, represented by Wang Kaiyun, Pi Xirui, and Wang Xianqian, emerged in the land of Hunan. These parallel prose writers shared similar academic backgrounds, and most of them joined the Gongyang School and had a deep relationship with the Changzhou School. Most of them advocated that prose writing should be “both thoughtful and simple” and combine both “parallelism and free verses”. Therefore, they inherited the profound style of parallel prose of the Changzhou School after the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing. “The tone was sad and contemplative, and the wording was beautiful and elegant” (On Changes in Modern Literature by Liu Shipei). In the late years of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, parallel prose writers represented by Liu Shipei still focused on the study and promotion of prose from the Six Dynasties, and they served in important teaching positions in the Imperial University of Peking. For a time, parallel prose stood side by side with the ancient prose of the Tongcheng School and the vernacular new literature. However, the tide of the New Culture Movement soon swept in, and the parallel prose of the Liuchao School and the ancient prose of the Tongcheng School eventually withdrew from the center stage of literature history, unable to resist the general trend.

2

Tongcheng School and Prosperity of Prose in the Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was a period when traditional Chinese academic cultures were summarized. The “down-to-earth learning” (“Pu Xue”) represented by textual research directly influenced the development of prose in the Qing Dynasty. Gu Yanwu was the founder of the academic culture in the Qing Dynasty. He spent his life studying two aspects of academics, namely, “being erudite in classic culture” and “conduct oneself with a sense of shame”. He strongly advocated that prose should serve to promote morality and academics. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, his prose theory was of general significance in the current context. Huang

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Zongxi believed that “Confucianism is the study of heaven and earth”. Thus, he maintained that prose should transcend learning”. His Yuan Jun sharply cried, “Monarch was the worst being in the world”. Such a writing that bitterly criticized feudal autocracy reflected the democratic and progressive thinking in ancient China and was particularly valuable. In the fifty-second year of the reign of Kangxi (1713), Dai Mingshi was executed for “acting in undue confidence of his talent” and for his “many wild and perverse remarks” in Nan Shan Ji. His death had a great impact on the literati of the time. Fang Bao, who was implicated in the case of Nan Shan Ji, began to advocate the literary style of “purity without dregs” and “simplicity and beauty” after he was pardoned and released from prison. His idea was respected by the later scholars of the Tongcheng School, and he was honored as the founder of “Tongcheng School”. Fang Bao (1668–1749), courtesy name Fengjiu and Linggao, art name Wangxi, hailed from Tongcheng (now in Anhui Province). His “yifa” theory became the most central theory for the prose of the Tongcheng School. He required unity of content and form in prose. He advocated that prose should be beneficial to education, mind, politics, and law. He also promoted a clear, elegant, and standard writing style. His representative works Zuo Zhong Yi Gong Yi Shi, Wan Ji Ye Mu Biao, and You Tan Zhe Ji were such simplistic and elegant masterpieces. The artistic quality of the prose of the Tongcheng School was further developed by Liu Dakui. Liu Dakui (1698–1779), courtesy name Caifu and Gengnan, art name Haifeng, hailed from Tongcheng, Anhui. His early prose writings were highly appreciated by Fang Bao. His prose writings preferred elaborate parallelism and were excelled in sumptuous rhetoric. They demonstrated real vigor, but they were not as elegant and profound as Fang Bao’s prose writings. His Fen Shu Bian, Shu Jing Ke Zhuan Hou, Song Yao Ji Zhuan Nan Gui Xu, and Huang Shan Ji all showed such literary style. In the late years of the reign of Qianlong, Yao Nai inherited the ancient prose tradition of the Tongcheng sages and finally achieved a high level of artistic achievement by absorbing the advantages of the school. Yao Nai (1732–1815), courtesy name Jichuan and Menghu, had a study named Xibaoxuan and was known as Xibao Xiansheng. He hailed from Tongcheng, Anhui. He placed equal emphasis on righteous messages, facts and evidence, and rhetoric and technique. He regarded “inner strength, reasoning, vigor, taste” and “rule, form, sound, color” as eight elements of prose. He accepted both “masculine beauty” and “feminine beauty”. He advocated a literary style that was “majestic and straight,

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gentle and soft”. When the Tongcheng School swept the literature circle, comments on the prose writings of Tongcheng style varied. The famous poet Yuan Mei, based on the “xingling” theory, advocated that writers should write freely and express their thoughts and emotions according to their respective “natural strengths”. He also suggested that prose writers should not regard the revival of classicism as innovation or be bound by the “tradition” of any school. He denied any absolute boundary between parallelism and free verses. “Yanghu Literary School” appeared after the Tongcheng School. Zhang Huiyan and Yun Jing, another pioneer of the Yanghu Literary School, once learned prose writing techniques from Liu Dakui’s disciple Qian Bojiong. They were able to turn “input” into “output” and finally developed their own prose theories and characteristics. Under the influence of Changzhou School’s academic guideline that “Theories should be understood to meet present needs”, the writers of the Yanghu School advocated learning extensive knowledge and adopted an inclusive attitude. On the basis of learning from the Tongcheng School, they traced back to the great writers of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and even to the historical biographies in the Qin and Han dynasties, as well as the Confucian classics and thoughts of different schools in the pre-Qin period. In terms of style, they broke through the restriction of the Tongcheng prose that “rejected the linguistic style of the Six Dynasties” and proposed the theory of “combining parallelism with free verses”. The academic style that attached equal importance to pragmatism and achievement encouraged the prose writers of the Yanghu School to pay more attention to social reality, and their strong awareness of unexpected development deep in their hearts revealed a kind of ideological wakefulness and self-consciousness. As a result, the Yanghu Literary School was groundbreaking in terms of prose theory and creative theme and style. They marked a key turning point in the modernization of Chinese literature, as shown by its influence on the prose writings of Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, and others. After the Opium War, the academic tradition of pragmatism gained unprecedented prominence in the wave of saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival. The Changzhou School’s study on the new text of Gongyang and its call for reform using sublime words with deep meaning were cited by many people with lofty ideas as resources of thought. From Wei Yuan’s call for “learning from foreigners to compete with them” to the “Constitutional Reform and Modernization” initiated

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by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, efforts were made under this guideline to break conventions and absorbed new knowledge. In this social and academic context, the pragmatic function of ancient Chinese prose was honored as never before. The representatives were Gong Zizhen, Wei Yuan, and Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan (1811–1872), courtesy name Disheng, hailed from Xiangxiang, Hunan. In his early years, he learned from the prose of Tongcheng School and admired Yao Nai. His prose writings were extensive and vigorous, in sharp contrast to the refined style of “simplicity and plainness” of the Tongcheng School. Therefore, he was known as leading the “Xiangxiang School”. In terms of the content of prose, in addition to Yao Nai’s “righteous messages”, “facts and evidence”, and “rhetoric and technique”, Zeng Guofan added “economics” (i.e. pragmatism) and required responding to the times and helping the world. He corrected the tendency of the last writers of the Tongcheng School to pursue leisure and elegance while becoming increasingly detached from reality. His four great disciples, namely Zhang Yuzhao, Wu Rulun, Li Shuchang, and Xue Fucheng, were also able to adapt themselves to the great changes of the times and come into contact with new ideas. Their prose writings also got rid of the shackles of the Tongcheng School. The new changes in prose composition represented by Zeng Guofan and the emerging new prose style advocated by the bourgeois reformists merged to become a strong trend in the development of modern prose.

3

The Revolution in the Literati Circle and the Newspaper Style

“The Revolution in the Literati Circle” in the modern times could understood in broad and narrow senses. In a narrow sense, it referred to “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century and was proposed, advocated, and practiced by Liang Qichao as a fruitful “New Literary Style” movement. In a broad sense, after the mid-nineteenth century, a group of native intellectuals who were exposed to Western learning and who were interested in literature reform broke through the traditional paradigm of writing in the classical Chinese language and gradually took on a new trend of writing that accommodated a large number of new phrases and syntax, that tended to be easy and colloquial, and that was of appropriate length. It even influences the written Chinese language in use today.

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From the perspective of historical development, this “revolutionary” change in the written Chinese language in modern times occurred through four major generations. It was started by those born between the 1820s and 1830s. At that time, the Chinese people were exposed to Western learning mainly through interactions with missionaries and the private experience of overseas travel that they might gain from such interactions. Very few of them (e.g. Wang Tao, 1828–1897) were able to emerge in the public discourse that began to emerge after the 1870s, with the development of the local printing industry and the real beginning of the Chinese newspaper, and a new quality of prose writing began to emerge. Those who were born later in the 1840s and 1850s were the key generation to receive the imported Western learning, and the representatives were Huang Zunxian (1848–1905), Yan Fu (1854–1921), Li Shu (1852–1924), etc. They had a good background in old learning. With the gradual “opening up” of the country at that time, they might be able to acquire new knowledge and experience through the official channel of diplomatic missions or overseas study tour. Along with the development of newspaper in the mainland, their voices were heard in the public sphere roughly at the same time as those born in the 1860s and 1870s, i.e., after the late nineteenth century. Among this generation, Liang Qichao (1873–1929) was no doubt the most influential. He was the one to call for “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” and was noted for his practice of the “New Literary Style”. Those born in the 1880s and 1890s were able to grow up in the context of new learning and had the chance to study abroad more easily. Some of them such as Zhang Shizhao (1881–1973) and Hu Shi (1891–1962) were associated with “The Revolution in the Literati Circle” and later became famous figures of the “May Fourth” generation. During this cultural transformation process, new media and particularly newspaper played a key role. Arguably, the occurrence and development of the “Revolution in the Literati Circle” was directly associated with newspaper. The period from the founding of Universal Circulating Herald in 1874 to the eve of the Sino-Japanese War in the year Jiawu was the preparatory stage of “the Revolution in the Literati Circle”. After the war in Jiawu in 1918, “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” was officially proposed and ushered in the stage of diversified development. After New Youth shifted to the use of vernacular language in 1918, “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” continued to develop and matured when it became the combination of “a literature revolution” and a style revolution, with

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vernacular language still as the mainstream. Wang Tao was a pioneer in modern China. With his rich experience and new learning experience, Wang Tao, together with partners, founded Universal Circulating Herald in Hong Kong in 1874 and served as the editor in chief. The articles written for the newspaper not only discussed current affairs and propagated reform ideas, but also, in large quantities, paid attention to the situation in Europe and its negotiation with China. They had distinctive themes and were written for clear purposes, initially showing the stylistic characteristics of newspaper. During this period, the literature circle was also undergoing changes quietly. Firstly, translations gradually increased. Official institutions such as Jiangnan Arsenal and foreign missionaries who came from afar were engaged in this cultural undertaking. Secondly, people at that time wrote travelogues and diaries. Travelogues based on personal experience in overseas travel (such as Record of A Diplomatic Mission to the West [Shi Xi Ji Cheng] by Guo Songtao) naturally presented a new quality. Indeed, the demand for writing changes in this period was far from being the consciousness of the intellectual community. “Revolution” was still in the womb. A clear turn occurred after the Sino-Japanese War in the year Jiawu. During this period, two generations in the late years of the Qing Dynasty spoke out at the same time, and the “May Fourth” generation also made its debut. These concerted efforts created a vibrant and diverse “Silver Age” for the literature circle. In terms of the trend of writing change, there were broadly three groups of reformers, namely the relatively conservative group that tended to learn from the past, the active group who advocated a reform, and the group of vernacular writers. Their writing practices accommodated the elegant literary style (“the new style of ancient prose”, as the author of this book puts it) with new concepts and vocabularies, the accessible classical Chinese language that was colloquial (“New Literary Style”), and the vernacular language, respectively. It is worth mentioning that female writers were increasingly prominent during this process. Liang Qichao was a key figure of “the Revolution in the Literati Circle”. Through practice experience in Current Affairs Newspaper and The China Discussions, he wrote Han Man Lu (also called Travel to Hawaii [Xia Wei Yi You Ji]) on a trip from Japan to the United States in late 1899, in which he proposed “the Revolution in the Literati Circle”. This idea was inspired by two sources. The first source was the Japanese Meiji culture. The enlightenment from reading works by Tokutomi soho

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was indeed accidental, but the cultural impact of his wide exposure to the “new artistic conception” and “new discourse” in Japan surely signaled his reform initiative. The second source was the ideological clue of “revolution”. In late 1899, Liang Qichao raised the “revolution” requirement that included both “new artistic conception” and “new discourse”. “New artistic conception” and “new discourse” referred to the “artistic conception” and “discourse” from outside the native land, or new subject matter and corresponding vocabularies in the new times. Liang Qichao was even inclined to combine language with text, although he did not further specify clear requirements for breaking through the traditional literary genres and linguistic forms. Liang Qichao explained “the Revolution in the Circle of Poets” more than “the Revolution in the Literati Circle”, which he did not elaborate. Therefore, although the proposal of “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” marked the theoretical self-awareness of modern Chinese prose reform, it was simply a casual call without a concrete and clear vision. In fact, Liang Qichao bolstered a theoretical call for the “Revolution in the Literati Circle” by relying on his own writing practice performance. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, he wrote numerous prose writings in the new accessible classical Chinese language which addressed new themes and new vocabularies to be fluent and emotional. These writings became popular through the newspaper he founded, providing the most influential model for the establishment and circulation of the “New Literary Style”. A defining feature of the “New Literary Style” was an accessible classical Chinese language that accepted a large number of new vocabularies and even syntax and that was close to colloquial language. The concentrated introduction of new vocabularies surely mapped new changes to the local culture to the ideological and linguistic spheres in the historical context of exchanges between China and the western in the modern times. This was a historical contribution because it also greatly expanded and enriched the vocabulary of the Chinese language. The use of new vocabularies in both colloquial and written languages replaced the mainly monosyllabic traditional classical Chinese language and promoted the merging of written and colloquial languages. The “New Literary Style” represented by Liang Qichao was easy to understand and suitable for reasoning and expression of strong emotions. It could be written without worrying about word choices and length. These qualities kept it in line with the characteristics of newspaper as a public media. All of this, combined with its value in communicating thought, contributed to its

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wide and far-reaching popularity in the country in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. Yan Fu was the model translator who first translated European social sciences in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, and his translations were carefully embellished, elegant and profound. His contemporary Liang Qichao proposed the Revolution in the Literati Circle again and clearly argued that prose should be simple and clear in order to serve the purpose of spreading “civilized thought” or “enlightening people”. This was exactly a characteristic of newspaper and a feature of his “New Literary Style”. “Yan Fu and Lin Shu are two equally gifted translators”. As the most famous translators in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, Yan Fu and Lin Shu were also well-known for their ancient prose writings. Although their translations were concentrated on social sciences and popular literature, respectively, they shared the biggest similarity that both of them translated the original texts into classical Chinese language. Yan Fu’s translations were profound and elegant, “comparable to scholars in the late years of the Zhou Dynasty” (Preface to Evolution and Ethics [Tian Yan Lun Xu] by Wu Rulun). His translations were mainly social sciences works, and most of his own writings were political commentaries on current affairs. After he reached middle age, he thought deeply, wrote prudently, and presented reasoning excellently. Lin Shu, however, was subtle, emotional, narrative, and lyrical. He translated European and American full-length novels into classical Chinese language, “opening up a new colony for ancient prose style” (Fifty Years of Chinese Literature by Hu Shi). He not only taught ancient prose on the podium for years, but also collaborated with the Commercial Press in the business of selecting and commenting prose writings. He proudly called himself an ancient prose writer. Both of them firmly believed in the value of the classical Chinese language as a bearer of native traditional culture and actively defended it in debates. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the new ancient prose and the “New Literary Style”, the most radical proposition raised during “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” was the use of vernacular language. In the late nineteenth century, vernacular newspaper began to appear. In 1898, Qiu Tingliang clearly proposed that “Vernacular was the basis of the reform” and that “Vernacular should replace classical Chinese language” in Wuxi Vernacular Chinese Newspaper, of which he was a founder. After the Gengzi Incident (1900), “Opening People’s Mind” evolved from an ideological trend to a social movement, and newspapers

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that could facilitate “enlightenment” sprang up in large quantities. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, vernacular writings became phenomenal. It is noteworthy that Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu (1879–1942), the leaders of the “May Fourth” New Literature Movement, were also engaged in vernacular newspapers in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. This was undoubtedly the most direct connection between the generation in the late years of the Qing Dynasty and the generation of the May Fourth in the vernacular literature movement. Thus, the modern vernacular movement should be undoubtedly accounted from the late years of the Qing Dynasty. The tripartite confrontation shifted from ancient prose, parallel prose, and eight-part essay written in the traditional classical Chinese language to the new ancient prose, the “New Literary Style”, and the vernacular writing in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. The final triumph of the vernacular writing in the era of “May Fourth” was not the result of following suit after the call was made by one or two. The famous debate between Lin Shu and Qian Xuantong et al. was, in a sense, a repetition of the debate between Yan Fu and Liang Qichao and Huang Zunxian more than a decade ago. Among the new generation of intellectuals, the value of the classical Chinese language was still revered. Huang Zunxian’s “reform” replaced Liang Qichao’s “Revolution in the Literati Circle”, and likewise Hu Xiansu (1894–1968) proposed “literature reform” to rebuke the “literature revolution” called by Chen Duxiu et al. The “logical prose” and political essays of Zhang Shizhao and Gao Yihan (1885–1968) et al. seemed to continue the tradition of Yan Fu and developed further. “Xueheng” and “Jiayin” were both newspapers and schools whose reverence for the classical Chinese language also showed their adherence to the value of the native traditional culture. In 1918, the use of vernacular by the magazine New Youth was monumental. It meant that intellectuals consciously used vernacular as a tool to express themselves and that vernacular writing was recognized as having a high cultural value in the minds of the new-generation intellectual elites. There was also a chance for this written language to be upgraded. From the founding of Universal Circulating Herald in 1874 to the use of vernacular by New Youth in 1918, modern prose changes led to the emergence of the new ancient prose, the New Literary Style, and the vernacular writing, which were interrelated yet differentiated. Finally, with the merging of “the Revolution in the Literati Circle” and the “literature reform” and even the linguistic form revolution, vernacular replaced the classical Chinese language to be the new written Chinese paradigm. This

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historical change occurred for the following reasons. Firstly, the structural input of new knowledge and concepts and the establishment of a new knowledge system demanded a breakthrough of the traditional classical Chinese language in its capacity as a tool of written expression. Secondly, modern media, mainly newspapers, fostered a new public sphere. With increasingly popularity of education and the transformation of social classes, the “popularization” of culture accelerated with modern technological advances. The use of language must keep pace with it accordingly. Thirdly, the shape and development of a nation-state required the establishment of a national language, and the possibility of writing in dialects was suppressed. Therefore, the unification of spoken and written languages in a “national language” was the most appropriate choice. Indeed, the status of vernacular as the mainstream written language did not mean that the classical Chinese language tradition completely withered. In any language, written and spoken languages were not necessarily the same. Language was not only the bearer and transmitter of ideas, but also a direct manifestation of cultural standards. Even a century after “the Revolution in the Literati Circle”, cultivating a beautiful and subtle Chinese language and giving it new vitality is still a cultural mission continuing to this day.

CHAPTER 36

Poetry in the Qing Dynasty Wang Damin

The Qing Dynasty witnessed the last glory of classical poetry and a key stage for a transition to the modern society. In the early Qing Dynasty, the country was war-torn, and people’s livelihoods were depleted. Faced with the cruel social reality, poignant cries about the chaos of life and the pain of home wreckage rang in the poetry circle. With the stabilization of the regime and the implementation of cultural governance measures, the Qing Dynasty became economically prosperous and culturally flourishing. The Kang-Qian Flourishing Age arrived, and the peaceful, elegant, and standard poetic style became the mainstream in the poetry circle. The theory of elegant subtlety, the theory of form and melody, the theory of reasoning and structure, and the theory of true self emerged one after another. Under the impact of the Opium War and the Movement of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, China made transition to the modern society. In the midst of domestic turmoil and foreign aggression, modern democratic consciousness germinated, and bold exploration of form was made in poetry, and this marked a significant departure from traditional poetry. At the same time, the emergence of the School of Song Poetry,

W. Damin (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_36

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the School of Han, Wei and Six dynasties, and the School of Late Tang Poetry testified the enduring appeal of traditional poetry. In a period of more than two hundred and sixty years from 1644 to 1911, many poets emerged and created numerous works. According to Ke Yuchun’s Summary of Collection of Poems and Prose in Qing Dynasty (Qing Ren Shi Wen Ji Zong Mu Ti Yao), more than nineteen thousand and seven hundred poets in the Qing Dynasty left their poem collections, which totaled more than forty thousand. Emperor Qianlong alone created more than forty-three thousand poems, close to the sum of poems in the Tang Dynasty. All forms, styles, and subject matters of classical poetry were seen, and these works could surpass those in the Ming Dynasty and compete those in the Tang and Song dynasties in the poetry history. Moreover, poems in the Qing Dynasty showed three distinctive characteristics. Firstly, there were many female poets. Thousands of poetesses wrote poems and formed poetry associations, creating a miracle in the history of Chinese poetry. Secondly, there were many ethnic minority poets, especially the cultural group of Eight Banners poets, presenting the prosperity and diversity of Chinese literature. Thirdly, there are many theoretical works on poetry, and the emergence of more than one thousand and five hundred poetry notes reached a peak in classical poetics.

1

Elegy During the Change of Dynasties

During the seventieth to eightieth year of the early Qing Dynasty, social conflicts were acute. The rulers of the Qing Dynasty successively annihilated the regimes of King of Fu of the Nan Ming Dynasty (Zhu Yousong) and King of Gui (Zhu Youlang) and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories. They also recaptured Taiwan in the twenty-second year of Kangxi (1683) and established a powerful and unified empire. During the fierce conquest, the court of the Qing Dynasty issued a hair-shaving order, which intensified ethnic conflicts and led to the brutal atrocities of the “Ten-day Yangzhou Massacre” (“Yang Zhou Shi Ri”) and the “Three Massacres of Jiading” (“Jia Ding San Tu”). The ruling class also strictly prohibited literati associations and implemented literary inquisition. In particular, more than 70 people were killed and nearly 200 others were implicated in the “Case of Ming Dynasty History” (“Ming Shi An”) in the second year of Kangxi (1663). Zhuang Tinglong, who recruited scholars to revise the history of the Ming Dynasty, was an extremely cruel example because his skeleton was excavated from the tomb and burned.

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The great turmoil of the times changed the fate of poets, and their poems also showed different characteristics from those in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. The poets who migrated from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty could be roughly divided into three groups by their political attitudes and life experiences. The first group was turncoat poets who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty or who were forced to work as officials in the Qing Dynasty such as Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye. The second group was martyr poets who died in their persistent efforts to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, such as Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, and Zhang Huangyan. Although most of their impassioned poems were written after 1644, they were traditionally classified as poets in the Ming Dynasty in literature history writings. The third group was adherent poets who politically refused to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty, such as Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi. Although these three groups of poets differed greatly or were even opposite to each other in the content of poems, because some of them expressed the heroic spirit of defiance against the Qing Dynasty and faced death bravely while others praised the court of the Qing Dynasty for their education and celebrated their victory, they all expressed, to varying degrees, feelings about the rise and fall of their homeland and concern for the hardships of people because they all experienced the difficult years of dynastic change. Among the turncoat poets, Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye, who were already famous in the Ming Dynasty, became the leaders of the poetry circle in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Qian Qianyi was the pioneer of the Yushan Poetry School, and Wu Weiye founded the Loudong Poetry School. They were known as Three Great Poets of Jiangzuo with Gong Dingzi. Qian Qianyi (1582–1664) was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty. As a leader of the Donglin Party, he was highly prestigious. He was at the forefront of criticizing the literary shortcomings in the Ming Dynasty and opposed the idea of the Former and Latter Seven Writers of the Ming Dynasty to “highly esteem poetry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty” and the secluded and lonely poetic style of the Jingling Poetry School. He advocated and learned from various models, including those from the Tang and Song Dynasties, and praised the poems of the adherent poets of the Song Dynasty on the ground that their poems could complement history. He started the trend of studying Song poetry in the Qing Dynasty. His poetic theory had farreaching influence in the Qing Dynasty. Among the influential poetry

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collections compiled during the reign of Kangxi, Selected Poems of the Song Dynasty (Song Shi Xuan) compiled by Wu Zhizhen et al. and Selected Poems of the Yuan Dynasty (Yuan Shi Xuan) compiled by Gu Sili inherited Qian Qianyi’s reverence for poetry in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Qian Qianyi was a prolific writer. In addition to his poem and prose anthology and historical works, he also compiled Collection of Poems by Dynasty (Lie Chao Shi Xuan) in the Ming Dynasty and wrote short biographies of poets. Wu Weiye (1609–1671) was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations during the reign of Chongzhen. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, he served as a reviser in the Imperial Academy and attendant to the crown prince. He learned from the poetic idea in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty and the famous poets Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. He was good at narrating current affairs in long poetic songs. Major historical events at the juncture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were settings in his poems that reflected social changes and life tragedy. His poems were known as Meicun style that was popular at one time due to their variations, charming appeal, use of relevant allusions, neat rhyme, gorgeous rhetoric, and plain language. There were many adherent poets in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, and the most famous and influential ones were Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, Wang Fuzhi, Wu Jiaji, and Qu Dajun. Each of them was distinctive with their poems.

2

From Wang Shizhen to Weng Fanggang

Rulers in the early years of the Qing Dynasty adopted a series of policies to stabilize the people, especially the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent and the opening of the Ming History Archive. These policies caused division inside the adherents. With the further consolidation of the rule and the implementation of the cultural governance policy in the Qing Dynasty, the poems of the adherents began to decline. Poet native to the Qing Dynasty who took part in the imperial examinations rose to prominence, and they were represented by Shi Runzhang, Song Wan, and Wang Shizhen. Shi Runzhang (1618–1683) was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations during the reign of Shunzhi and joined the history archive to revise History of the Ming Dynasty (Ming Shi) after passing the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary

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talent. He admired Tang poetry and advocated gentle and sincere education through the vehicle of poetry. He maintained that academics and literature should penetrate into each other and pursued a “clear and deep” poetic state and a “simple and beautiful” style with “sincerity” as the core. He was a native of Xuancheng and wrote responsorial poems with Gao Yong, Mei Geng, Mei Qing, Mei Wending, and Shen Mi. His poems were characterized by a simple and clean language, strict syntax and a clear, sincere, elegant, and standard Style. Although his poems conveyed feelings about vicissitudes and dynastic change, they had a light and leisurely tone that was sharply different from the poems of adherent poets. Song Wan (1614–1673) was also a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations during the reign of Shunzhi. He once served in the Ministry of Household Registration and the Ministry of Personnel. Song Wan, who led a difficult life, admired the poetic styles of Du Fu and Han Yu. His poems were written in an exceptional and beautiful language, with fresh metaphors, euphemism, and skillful antithetical couplet. Wang Shizhen was good at writing ancient style poems and metrical verses, and his poems were admired in his times. He was reputed as a leading poet and known as “Shi in the south and Wang in the north” together with Shi Runzhang. Wang Shizhen (1634–1711) was a leading poet after Qian Qianyi and served in the Ministry of Justice Book of History. Wang Shizhen changed his poetic style several times throughout his life. In his early years, he learned from the Severn Writers of the Ming Dynasty. When he reached the middle age, he began to learn Song poetry and triggered a fashion. In his late years, he returned to Tang poetry. Nevertheless, the style of elegant subtlety always occupied an important position in his poems. When the elegy about dynastic change was the mainstream, poems were mostly about the rise and fall of homeland. The theory of elegant subtlety objectively catered to the tastes of the rulers in the Qing Dynasty and reflected the requirement for reconstructing the cultural order in the new dynasty. Therefore, the theory of elegant subtlety quickly became trendy after it was introduced. The selection and compilation of poems in Wang Shizhen’s Tang Xian San Wei Ji was an epitome of the tenet of this theory and contributed to its popularity. The late years of the reign of Kangxi witnessed social stability and prosperity. The reigns of Yongzheng and Qianlong were flourishing ages. The publishing industry flourished, and the collation of ancient books reached its heyday. In particular, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature had far-reaching influence, and textural research prevailed. In this social

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and cultural climate, a peaceful and standard poetic style became trendy, and theoretical explorations were active. Shen Deqian put forward the theory on form and melody, and Weng Fanggang put forward the theory of reasoning and structure. Dissatisfied with the superficial poetry creations under the prevalence of the theory of elegant subtlety, Shen Deqian (1673–1769) advocated the theory on form and melody and admired the Confucian doctrine of educating people through poems, the ancient style poetry of Han and Wei dynasties, and the metrical pattern poetry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. He required that poems be created in a peaceful, elegant, and standard manner, and he promoted the role of poetry in social edification. In line with the theory on form and melody, he compiled selected poems in Origin of Ancient Poetry (Gu Shi Yuan), An Anthology of Tang Poems (Tang Shi Bie Cai), An Anthology of Ming Poems (Ming Shi Bie Cai), and An Anthology of Qing Poems (Guo Chao Shi Bie Cai). By introducing the theory on form and melody, serving as erudite in the cabinet and minister of the Ministry of Rites, and being appreciated by Emperor Qianlong, Shen Deqian was prestigious among poets and the leader of the poetry circle after Wang Shizhen. He had many disciples in the poetry circle in the southeast, including Wang Mingsheng, Wang Chang, Qian Daxin, Cao Renhu, Huang Wenlian, Zhao Wenzhe, and Wu Tailai, who were known as Seven Great Poets of Wuzhong. When Tang poetry was pervasive under the support of Shen Deqian, Li E preferred Song poetry. Li E (1692–1752) failed the imperial examinations many times, including the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent in the early years of the reign of Qianlong. He wrote Notes on the Song Poetry (Song Shi Ji Shi). He attached importance to learning. His poems were secluded and sharp. He was adept in refining words and was known as the leader of the Zhejiang School. Shen Deqian, leader of the poetry circle, was the representative of literati scholars, while Li E was the representative of literati out of office. Inscription expert Weng Fanggang (1733–1818) introduced textual research into poetry and advocated reasoning and structure in poetry. He emphasized the “righteous messages” and “unity and coherence” in poetry. He contended that poetry should be based on the Six Classics of Confucianism in content and respect rhythm and structure rules in form. He also suggested adding facts and evidence and exegesis to enrich poems and incorporating righteous messages, facts and evidence, and rhetoric and technique into poems.

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Yuan Mei (1716–1793) advocated bold expression of true self and opposed to the theory on form and melody due to its tendency to imitate ancient poems and introduce textual research into poetry. In response to the prevalence of the theory on form and melody and the theory of reasoning and structure, he suggested that both the Song and Han studies had shortcomings and that the Six Classics were also useless. He advocated the expression of true self and sincere feelings through flexible writing. He focused on expressed personal true feelings and highlighting creative personality. His theory that feelings were the core of poetry and that men and women were the origin of true feelings was enlightening. Yuan Mei’s poems were light, awesome and lively in tone. They were a fresh breeze in the poetry circle.

3

The Song Poetry Movement

In the turbulent society, a school of form and melody of Song poetry emerged, led by Qi Junzao and Cheng Enze. It was known as the School of Song Poetry and the Song Poetry Movement. The main poets of this school included He Shaoji, Zheng Zhen, Mo Youzhi, and Zeng Guofan, who were under Cheng Enze’s tutelage. The Song Poetry Movement was more of a continuity of traditional poetry than the poetry with modern democratic consciousness. The poets were dissatisfied with the social climate of the time and were unwilling to be complicit with the evil forces. They dreamed of returning to the heyday of the Kang-Qian Flourishing Age and proposed to “take learning from the great poets in the reigns of Kaiyuan, Tianbao, Yuanhe, and Yuanyou as their lifework” (Poetry Critique of Shiyishi (Shi Yi Shi Shi Hua) by Chen Yan) and to learn from Du Fu, Han Yu, Su Shi and Huang Tingjian. Their creations were influenced by the Han studies, which were the main academic trend of the time, and they attached importance to human character and learning, combining the poems of scholars and poets into one. They advocated that poetry should be original and unique, and they opposed to imitation. He Shaoji, a theoretician of the Song Poetry School, emphasized that poets and prose writers should express their true self and establish a style of their own, but the so-called true self included the individuality naturally endowed and the temperament acquired. This theory was largely confined to the scope of feudal ethics and the standard of scholar officials, and it seemed conservative when compared with the

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new trend of the times, which promoted individuality. The main achievement of the Song Poetry School was their attempt to make specific life artistic. Zheng Zhen was most accomplished in this regard. Zheng Zhen (1806–1864), who had long been isolated in the southwest of Guizhou, was good at simple and straightforward descriptions. His poems did not shun trivialities or vulgarities, and they depicted the life of poor scholars in a concise and easy-to-understand language. The successors of the Song Poetry Movement became active in the tenth year of Guangxu (1884) or so, and they were known as Tongguang Style. They mainly studied Song poetry, but they also learned from Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, and Meng Jiao in the middle years of the Tang Dynasty. The Tongguang Style was divided into the Min School represented by Chen Yan, the Gan School represented by Chen Sanli, and the Zhejiang School represented by Shen Zengzhi. Chen Yan (1856–1937) esteemed Wang Anshi and Yang Wanli, and he proposed the “Sanyuan Theory” (“San Yuan Shuo”) of poetry (Sanyuan referred to the reigns of Kaiyuan, Yuanhe and Yuanyou). Chen Sanli (1852–1937) revered Huang Tingjian, and his poetic style was obscure. Shen Zengzhi (1851–1922) in his late years advocated another version of “Sanyuan” (Yuanjia, Yuanhe and Yuanyou), and he learned from Xie Lingyun, Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Li Shangyin, and Huang Tingjian. His poems were difficult to understand. In addition, a group of poets represented by Wang Kaiyun (1832– 1916) and Deng Fulun (1828–1893) imitated the poets in and developed the School of Han, Wei and Six dynasties. Fan Zengxiang (1846–1931) and Yi Shunding (1859–1920) admired the gorgeous poetic style in late years of the Tang Dynasty and developed the Late Tang School.

4

Elegant Poetesses and Eight Banners Poets

The emergence of elegant poetesses became noteworthy in the poetry field during the Qing Dynasty. There were many poetesses whose creativity flourished. Their poems were diverse in content and varied in styles, covering landscape scenery, nostalgia for the ancient times, chanting and expressing personal feelings, inscriptions on paintings and walls, family and homesickness, and even patriotism. Moreover, they also formed antiphony associations and turned it into a trend. Adherent poet Xu Can (1618–1698) the second wife of the grand secretary Chen Zhilin. She was good at writing poems and ci and drawing paintings of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. Her ci writings were regarded as

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the best works among elegant female ci writers since the Southern Song Dynasty, and she was regarded as the most talented woman in the Qing Dynasty. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, she and her husband stayed at their villa in the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, indulging themselves in scenery and antiphony. In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), Chen Zhilin defected to the Qing Dynasty despite her opposition. Filled with guilt and great concern, Xu Can converted to Buddhism in her late years. After the country was ruled by the Qing Dynasty, her poems broke through the narrow world of family life and natural scenery, expanding the traditional themes of poetesses by touching upon sentiments about the rise and fall of the homeland. She became a pioneer among the poetesses in the Qing Dynasty who moved beyond their boudoir to pay attention to society. Xu Can, Gu Chun, and Wu Zao were known as the three great elegant poetesses in the Qing Dynasty. Gu Chun (1799–1877) was a Manchu and was formerly known as Xi Linchun. She was versatile and was good at painting Bodhisattva. Wellversed in both poetry and ci, she was as famous as Nalan Xingde in the group of Manchu ci writers. Xi Peilan (1766–?) wrote poems about natural scenery, trivialities in life, and nostalgia after partings. Her poems were naturally skillful, bright, and elegant. Her Poems on a Picture Book of Beauty (Ti Mei Ren Ce Zi) was a collection of poems on paintings. These poems commented on twelve women in history, revealed the gentle and sincere Confucian doctrine of educating people through poems, and showed the harmony between the bold expression of true self and the Confucian doctrine of poetry-based education. Wu Zao (1799–1862), a female disciple of Bicheng Poetry Society, came from a family of merchant in the south of the Yangtze River and was good at writing poems and ci. In ci writing, she was as famous as Nalan Xingde. Her early poems were colorful and gorgeous, but the social reality of a fallen homeland turned her poems into a somber and miserable style. The Eight Banners system was a military and life organization unique to the Qing Dynasty, and the emergence of the Eight Banners poets, most of whom were Manchurian, joined by Mongolian and Han poets, became a beautiful landscape in the poetry circle during the Qing Dynasty. There were many Eight Banners poets, totaling over five thousand according to preliminary statistics. Among them, E Maotu (1614–1661) from the Yellow Banner was the first Manchurian to write poems in Chinese and

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was a pioneer among the Eight Banners poets. As a member of the excellent group of Eight Banners poets in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, E Maotu had a poetry collection called Bei Hai Ji, which contained many poems about military life. These poems were full of bravery and heroic spirit of Eight Banners members spurring the horse and leveling the swords to sweep away all obstacles in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Some of the poems depicted scenes of life in Liaodong, which were rarely seen in the history of poetry. Among the Eight Banners poets, Nalan Xingde, Cao Yin, Fa Shishan, and Tie Bao were particularly famous. Among poetesses, Gu Chun was prestigious. Nalan Xingde (1654–1685), a member of the Yellow Banner, was the eldest son of the grand secretary Nalan Mingzhu. Among the Eight Banners poets, Nalan Xingde was extraordinary. He was a good ci writer, who led a generation and made great contributions to the revival of ci in the Qing Dynasty. He had close relationships with Han poets and brought the poems of the Eight Banners to the whole poetry circle in the Qing Dynasty; he strongly rewarded Han poets and left a good story of mutual respect between Manchurian and Han poets. He was also good at summing up poetic creations and put forward his theoretical propositions in the controversial poetry circle. “Poetry is the voice of the heart and a matter of human nature” (Lu Shui Ting Za Shi). He stressed the importance of expressing individuality without being confined to any school. Cao Yin (1658–1712) served the clan of the White Banner as a general secretary in the Department of General Secretariat who managed Jiangning Textile Bureau and inspected salt transportation in Lianghuai as an investigating censor. He was good at riding, shooting, and writing poems and qu. He was open-minded in different creation theories. Although he learned from Tang poetry and respected the ancient styles of the Han and Wei dynasties, he also affirmed the poetic styles of the Song and Yuan dynasties. In the forty-fourth year of Kangxi (1705), he chaired the compilation of The Complete Collection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty, which was meaningful in the history of Chinese poetry. His grandson Cao Xueqin wrote Dream of the Red Chamber, a world masterpiece that was circulated not only among different nationalities but also to different countries. The Mongolian Fa Shishan (1753–1813) was a member of the Yellow Banner and once served as libationer of the Directorate of Education.

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He was a diligent writer. He left more than 3500 poems. Tie Bao (1752–1824) was a Manchurian of the Yellow Banner and served as the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, imperial inspector of Shandong, and governor of Liangjiang (Jiangnan Province and Jiangxi Province). He was known as three gifted youths in the north together with Fa Shishan and Bai Ling. Eight Banners poets wrote critiques on poems, explored the origin of poetry, showed the prosperity of poetics, and broke the monopoly of Han poetic critiques. They indirectly represented the peak of traditional poetics in the Qing Dynasty.

5

The Revolution in the Circle of Poets

From the Sino-Japanese War in the year of Jiawu (1894) to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, a bourgeois reform movement and a democratic revolution movement broke out. The poetry circle underwent the Revolution in the Circle of Poets, with Huang Zunxian as the representative. From the third year (1877) to the twentieth year (1894) of Guangxu, Huang Zunxian (1848–1905) was sent on diplomatic missions to Japan, the United States, England, and Singapore. He assisted Chen Baozhen, the imperial inspector of Hunan, in implementing the reform and was an important figure in the Constitutional Reform and Modernization. He insisted that China must follow the Western path and made bold explorations in poetry creation. He believed that classical poetry had been extremely varied and unsustainable from ancient times to the present, and he opposed imitation of the ancients, calling for “expressing personal thought and not being confined to ancient theories” (Miscellaneous Poems (Za Shi)). He called on poets to look at the world and the history of five thousand years behind them. He demonstrated the boldness and wisdom as a poet in the midst of the stormy times to make breakthroughs and strive for change. The two main themes of his poems were the struggle against imperialism and reform to grow stronger. Major historical events from the resistance against the British and French allies and the SinoJapanese War to the Gengzi Incident were reflected in his poems. In addition, his poems depicted the overseas world, and new things such as automobiles, telecommunication, and Suez Canal, as well as foreign life scenes, appeared in his poems for the first time. This attempt expanded the content of poems and made his poem refreshing. In addition to Huang Zunxian, other major bourgeois reformist poets included Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tang Sitong.

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Kang Youwei (1858–1927) wrote, “The new world is a strange and exotic place, I will explore Eurasia deeper to bring new life to poetry” (Discussing Poetry in Shuyuan Garden (Yu Shu Yuan Lun Shi)). Before the Hundred Days Reform (1898), his poems focused on current affairs and reform movements. After his exile, his poems were mainly based on his travels. His poems were characterized by peculiar imagination and gorgeous rhetoric. Liang Qichao (1873–1929) called for writing a new realm with a new spirit and educating the people. He promoted patriotism and military spirit and devoted himself to reform movements. His poems were emotional and impassioned. Tan Sitong (1865–1898) opposed the life spent in conducting textual research in study and participated in leading the Hundred Days Reform. He was killed at the age of 33 after the reform failed. He was one of the Six Gentlemen of the Hundred Days Reform. His poems were exploratory and employed some foreign allusions in the pursuit of change. They showed a majestic style and were patriotic.

CHAPTER 37

Revival of Ci in the Qing Dynasty Li Fang

After the decline in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, ci began to rise again in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. There were many ci writers and schools that presented masterpieces in different styles. The revival of ci in the Qing Dynasty was not a reproduction of the glory in the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Song dynasties. Instead, it was redeveloped as a literary genre after decline, and its revival should be regarded as a process of change and innovation as it was carried on. The characteristics of ci in the Qing Dynasty included the expansion and extension of subject matters, changes in composition techniques and skills, elevation of artistic conception, and construction of ci theories.

1 Ci Circle in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty The revival of ci in the early years of the Qing Dynasty was attributed to historical and realistic reasons. The banner people invaded and became the real rulers of the new dynasty. The literature circle was shrouded in the cultural oppression policy in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Writing

L. Fang (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_37

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poems and prose was liable to be blamed. Ci was traditionally considered as just a game and was not appreciated. Therefore, literati shifted from poetry to ci to express their complex emotions about dynastic change, chaos, and the rise and fall of the country. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, literati such as Chen Zilong and Li Wen of the Yunjian School admired the ancient artistic conception of Song ci when ci was generally in recession in the Ming Dynasty, and their endeavors directly influenced the ci style in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Chen Zilong (1608–1647) was a leader of the Yunjian School. His courtesy name was Renzhong, which was later changed to Wozi, and his art name was Dazun. In the tenth year of Chongzhen, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations and served as a supervisor of the Ministry of Wars. He was the leader of the Literati Association of Ji in the Ming Dynasty. At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, he once led the anti-Qing Dynasty movement and drowned himself after the movement failed. He left ci writings You Lan Cao and Xiang Zhen Ge Cun Gao to this date. You Lan Cao collected a total of fifty-five pieces of ci writings, all of which were written by Chen Zilong before the demise of the Ming Dynasty. In the ci circle in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there were many different schools that brought climaxes one after another, including the Yangxian Ci School led by Chen Weisong and the Zhuxi Ci School led by Zhu Yizun. Chen and Zhu were important representatives in the development of ci during the Qing Dynasty. Chen and Zhu were important figures in the development of ci in the Qing Dynasty. Writers of the Yangxian Ci School were centered in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, which was known as “Yangxian” in ancient times. Its ci theory influenced hundreds of followers. The Zhexi Ci School was named after the fact that most of its members were from Zhexi (western Zhejiang) and learned from Zhu Yizun. Chen Weisong (1625–1682), courtesy name Qinian and art name Jialing, hailed from Yixing, Jiangnan. During the middle years of the reign of Kangxi, he passed the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent and served as a reviser in the Imperial Academy. He was good at writing poems, parallel prose and free verses. He was particularly well versed in ci. He once worked with Zhu Yizun in completing a ci collection called Zhu Chen Cun Ci. Thus, they were collectively known as Zhu-Chen. He left abundant ci writings, including the surviving ci collection Hu Hai Lou Ci, and he left more than one thousand and eight hundred poems surviving to this date. His ci style

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imitated those of Su Shi and Xin Qiji and was famous for brave words, particularly similar to the style of Jiaxuan. Some critics even claimed that his works were inspired by Su Shi and Xin Qiji and were more significant than their works. In creation, his ci writings were concerned about social reality and mourned the fall of the homeland. A majority of his works revealed the suffering and misery of people. His masterpiece Congratulate the Bridegroom·Ci on Boat Tracker (He Xin Lang · Qian Fu Ci) imitated Du Fu’s Three Petty Officials and Three Separations, recounting history and events in the form of ci. This was a new phenomenon arising in the development course of ci. Chen Weisong earned a position in the ci circle during the early years of the Qing Dynasty not only because of his creations but also due to his ci theory. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Weisong proposed the theory of “historical ci”. It was the first clear theory in parallel with “historical poetry” in the field of literary criticism. This theory denied the traditional view that ci was the subsidiary of poetry and unorthodox. It esteemed ci in parallel with Confucian scriptures and history and emphasized the role of ci in social edification. Zhu Yizun (1629–1709), courtesy name Xichang, hailed from Xiushui, Zhejiang Province. In the eighteenth year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1679), he passed the examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent. He participated in revising History of the Ming Dynasty. He was known with Chen Weisong as “Zhu-Chen”. He left the seven-volume ci collection called Bao Shu Ting Ci. He learned from the ci styles of Jiang Kui and Zhang Yan, and he advocated elegant and ethereal ci writings. His ci writings were graceful and restrained, with much deliberation on wording and rhythm. Zhu Yizun also selected more than five hundred ci writers from the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, and the Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties based on the standard of his ci theory and compiled them into Ci Zong. His original version consisted of twenty-six volumes, but later Wang Sen added ten volumes, increasing the number of selected writers to more than six hundred, together with a total of more than two thousand and two hundred ci writings. This book was compiled to derive his theoretical proposition. Ci Zong was an important collection of selected ci writings. It was widely spread and influential. With the publication of this book, the Zhejiang School almost attained cult status. In his ci theory, Zhu Yizun regarded “elegance” as the highest state. He reiterated that “Sages in the past all esteemed elegant and standard ci”, and he spoke highly of the “elegant” ci writings in the

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Song Dynasty. In general, he advocated “deliberation on wording”, and “particular expertise in rhythm” was his characteristic. Nalan Chengde (1654–1685) was the most famous banners writer. He was particularly good at ci writings. He changed his name into Xingde because his former name coincided with the name of the crown prince. His courtesy name was Rongruo, his childhood name Donglang and his art name Lengqieshanren. The Nalan family was a member of the Manchu Yellow Banner. Nalan Rongruo passed away in May of the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi at the age of thirty-one. After his death, Xu Qianxue compiled his posthumous works as Tong Zhi Tang Ji in the thirtieth year of Kangxi (1691), which consisted of one volume of fu writings, five volumes of poems, four volumes of ci writings and five volumes of prose writings. Among the more than three hundred surviving ci writings of Nalan Rongruo, only a small number of them were about frontier scenery and presents for his friends, and most of them were about love.

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Creation of Female Ci Writers and Ci in the Late Years of the Qing Dynasty

Gu Taiqing (1799–1877) was the most famous Manchu female writer in the Qing Dynasty. She was good at poetry, ci, qu and painting, and her ci writings were the best. She was known as “the best female ci writer in the Qing Dynasty”. She was as famous as the banner ci writer Nalan Rongruo. There was a saying among ancient people when they talked about ci, “The best male ci writer was Nalan Chengde (Rongruo), and the best female ci writer was Gu Taiqing (Gu Chun)”. A majority of Gu Taiqing’s surviving works were written after she got married and returned to Beijing. They were confined to limited subject matters, such as seasons, travels, poems on paintings, chanting objects, and so on. Elegant poetesses were an important literary group in the Qing Dynasty. In terms of ci, Xu Naichang edited Xiao Tan Luan Shi Hui Ke Gui Xiu Ci and Gui Xiu Ci Chao, which include more than six hundred female ci writers in the Qing Dynasty. In addition to Gu Taiqing, Xu Can, Gu Zhenli, and Wu Zao all made outstanding achievements. Xu Can (circa. 1618–1698), courtesy name Xiangping and art name Shenming, hailed from Wuxian, Jiangnan. She was the daughter of Xu Zimao, who was the director of the of Imperial Household and the wife of Chen Zhilin who was the grand secretary of Hongwen Academy. Her ci writings were mostly nostalgia about the homeland and feelings about

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the rise and fall of the country. She wrote Zhuo Zheng Yuan Ci Yu. Gu Zhenli (1624–1699), originally named Wenwan, courtesy name Bifen, called herself Biqinren. She was the elder sister of Gu Zhenguan, who was a scholar in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Her husband was named Hou Jin, who was from the same county as her. She was good at writing poems and ci. She wrote two-volume Can Xia Zi Ji and Qi Xiang Ge Ci. Wu Zao (1799–1862), courtesy name Pingxiang, called herself Yucenzi and hailed from Renhe, Zhejiang. She became a widow at the age of nineteen, but she was determined to remain chaste. She was famous for her talent in the capital. She wrote one-volume Hua Lian Ci and Xiang Nan Xue Bei Ci. She also wrote poetic drama Qiao Ying. Wu Zao had a noble sentiment and unique character. She advocated freedom. Her works were most praised for a gender perspective of breaking the shackles of women and pursuing gender equality. The late years of the Qing Dynasty marked a special historical period for the transition of Chinese society to modernization. Literature became a mirror of politics. With intensified social conflicts, literary genres such as poetry, prose, ci, and qu all underwent major changes. In terms of ci, its subject matters, stylistic features, and theoretical concepts were greatly influenced by social changes. In the history of ci, the merging of the Changzhou School and the Zhexi School was the most significant feature during this period. Tan Xian (1832–1901) was a leader of the ci circle in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. He was originally named Tingxian. His courtesy name was Zhongxiu, and his art name was Futang. He hailed from Renhe, Zhejiang Province. He wrote a ci collection named Fu Tang Ci, which recorded 104 pieces of ci writings. He also wrote Qie Zhong Ci, which was the most important collection of selected ci writings in the Qing Dynasty. Tan Xian was a representative of the Changzhou Ci School in its late years. He inherited the ideas of Zhang Huiyan and Zhou Ji, and he put forward “the purport of softness and sincerity”, which started the trend of modern ci writings. “Softness and sincerity” meant the tradition of educating people through poems “in a soft and sincere way”. Tan Xian held that ci should be in line with the substance of Confucianism, elegant, standard and peaceful. He argued that ci could be written to express resentment but not indignation. Wang Pengyun, Zheng Wenzhuo, Zhu Xiaozang, and Kuang Zhouyi were collectively known as “Four Great Ci Writers in the Late Years of the Qing Dynasty” (“Wan Qing Si Ci Ren”). They all lived in the special

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historical environment at the juncture of the Qing Dynasty in its late years and the Republic of China in its early years. As adherents, they expressed their nostalgia through their ci writings and shared a common ci theory. “Because ci is aimed to convey a core message, it is noble; because ci follows rules, it is strict”. Their creations and theory showed the characteristics of the new times.

CHAPTER 38

Opera in the Qing Dynasty Li Fang

In the Qing dynasty, all the emperors were fond of watching opera. Imperial appreciation and reward best motivated the flourishing creation and performance of opera. As a result, opera performance suited both refined and popular tastes of a wide audience base. It became a major form of entertainment both inside and outside the court. The extraordinary prosperity of opera performance promoted the continuous progress of art. Kun Opera and local operas competed with each other, making “the controversy between local operas and Kun Opera” become a major symbol of opera in the Qing Dynasty and directly influence the birth of Peking Opera. Court opera performance led the trend of innovation and change in the playwright and stage performance opera in the Qing Dynasty.

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Court Scrips and Performance

Opera performance was always an important part of festival ceremonies. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, when the newly built country was still faced with political instability, court performance followed the

L. Fang (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_38

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system of the Ming Dynasty and was managed by the Imperial Office of Music affiliated to the Ministry of Rites. During the reign of Kangxi, the court established two special government offices to manage opera performance, namely Nanfu and Jingshan. Since his accession to the throne, Emperor Daoguang had tried to be frugal, streamlined the government offices, dismissed a large number of artists, abolished schools other than the Imperial College, and sent all the artists to their hometown. In the seventh year of Daoguang, Jingshan was merged into Nanfu and became Shengpingshu, an important institution for opera and music performance in the court. Although Shengpingshu was not as big as Nanfu and Jingshan in the heyday of Qianlong, court performances were equally frequent and prosperous. When Empress Dowager Cixi was in power, she invested a lot of material and financial resources to support opera performance and repeatedly summoned famous artists to perform and act as instructors in the palace. These efforts pushed court performance to another peak. During the reigns of Shunzhi and Kangxi, the emperors were interested in having new scripts produced. During the reign of Qianlong, the court of the Qing Dynasty developed a large number of chengying operas (operas performed by commissioned artists) for festive and celebration occasions. The development and performance of court operas reached a peak. In the seventh year of Qianlong, the emperor ordered Yunlu, who was Prince Zhuangqin, to manage the Department of Music and the development of chengying operas of Shengpingshu together with ministers San Tai and Zhang Zhao. Chengying operas in the court focused on the themes of festivals, seasons, and celebrations. The stories were usually about Buddhists, Taoist priests, and immortals paying respects to the royal family. Some of them were based on ancient myths, folk legends, or Extensive Records of the Taiping, Tales of Immortals (Lie Xian Zhuan), The Investiture of the Gods, and Tales of Supernatural Events (Lie Yi Zhuan). Other stories were pure inventions to praise the royal grace, with simple plots and similar to songs and dances. The supreme rulers of the Qing Dynasty had always been enthusiastic supporters of opera. During the twenty-second year of Kangxi, after the pacification of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the recapturing of Taiwan, Emperor Kangxi “decided that it was time to celebrate with his subjects after peace was secured within the country. He allocated a special public fund of 1000 taels to erect a high stage in Houzaimen and ordered a theatrical troupe to perform the legend of Mu Lian using live tigers, elephants and horses as props”. This was the first recorded

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large-scale performance after the Qing Dynasty founded the country. The reigns of Qianlong and Guangxu witnessed two peaks of court performance. During the reign of Qianlong, stages were put up every ten steps in the capital to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s sixtieth, seventieth, and eightieth birthdays. Different operas and music from all over the country gathered to culminate in the prosperity of opera performance. During the reign of Guangxu, in order to meet the demand of Empress Dowager Cixi, the stage equipment was unprecedentedly luxurious. In order to facilitate the performance, a large number of theaters of different scales and for different purposes were erected in the Forbidden City and palaces in different places during the Qing Dynasty. There were threestory stages such as the Changyinge Stage in Ningshou Palace and the stage in Shou’an Palace in the Forbidden City, the Qingyinge Stage in Fuzhou Garden of Rehe Palace, the Qingyinge Stage in Tongle Garden and the stage in Shoukang Palace in the Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden, as well as the Deheyuan Stage in the Summer Palace. At the same time, rulers in the Qing Dynasty also strengthened the censorship of opera scripts and folk performances. Novels and opera lyrics were loaded with “trivial and obscene words” that could corrupt customs and confuse people easily. Only texts were banned initially. During the reign of Kangxi, the age-old malpractice of the Eight Banners system began to surface, and the banners people tended to be slack. Stage performance was regarded as an important cause of arrogance and corruption. Worried about the Eight Banners princes, officials, and soldiers wearing down their fighting spirit due to indulgence in watching operas, the emperors expanded the ban from opera scripts to stage performance. In order to remedy the ethos and quit extravagance, measures were taken from the reign of Kangxi to “ban theaters in the inner city” and to “prohibit the Manchurian from learning to sing opera”. During the reign of Yongzheng, the emperor launched a bold reform on the affairs of the banners, strictly prohibited the Eight Banners officials from visiting singing halls and theaters and severely punished offenders. Although opera was always considered as a rude form of entertainment, it was part of the wider Han culture in a broad sense. The court’s attitude toward opera in the Qing Dynasty reflected its ambivalent and wavering attitude toward the Han culture.

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2 Palace of Eternal Life and the Peach Blossom Fan During the reign of Kangxi, Hong Sheng’s Palace of Eternal Life (Chang Sheng Dian) and Kong Shangren’s The Peach Blossom Fan (Tao Hua Shan) emerged one after another, becoming two peaks of opera in the Qing Dynasty. They were known as “Hong Sheng in the south and Kong Shangren in the north”. Both plays followed the main storyline of romantic love to draw the historical picture of the rise and fall of the society. Hong Sheng (1645–1704), courtesy name Fangsi, art name Baiqi or Baicun, also known as Nanpingqiaozhe, hailed from Qiantang, Zhejiang (now Hangzhou). Hong Sheng was famous for his poems in the capital, and his poems were written with excellent skills in a leisurely manner and beyond commonness. His poetry collection was called Bai Qi Ji. He was regarded by his contemporaries as being “good at writing scripts used by courtesans”. His early scripts Chen Xiang Ting and Zhi Jin Ji were wellknown. Later, he devoted himself to the playwright career for more than ten years and modified his script three times until he finally completed this masterpiece Palace of Eternal Life in the twenty-seventh year of Kangxi at the age of 44. The Palace of Eternal Life consisted of 2 volumes and 50 chapters. The play was based on the love between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and his concubine Yang Yuhuan. Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, was a wise emperor that created the Great Reign of Kaiyuan. In his late years, he led an erotic life inside his palace. In order to “spend his remaining years with a gentle partner”, he appointed Yang Yuhuan as his concubine, gave her jewelry and a jewelry box and pampered her. On the night of the Chinese Valentine’s Day, Emperor Xuanzong and the concubine vowed to be a couple for life and never to be separated under the twin stars of the Altair and the Vega. In the court, Yang’s brother Yang Guozhong manipulated power for personal ends and accepted bribery by taking advantage of his sister’s favored status. He and An Lushan denounced each other. Later, An Lushan rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and broke the Tongguan Pass. Emperor Xuanzong fled in panic. When he arrived at Maweiyi, the six armies of Imperial Guards refused to march forward and forced to have Guozhong and Yuhuan executed. Emperor Xuanzong had no choice but to order Yuhuan to kill herself, and he continued his journey westward

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to Shu. The bell rung in the plank road in Jiange aroused his lovesickness, which was aggravated by the autumn rain, fallen leaves, and lonely geese in the sky. Emperor Suzong acceded to the throne and appointed Guo Ziyi as military commander to quell the rebellion. Chang’an was recaptured, and the two emperors returned to the capital. Emperor Xuanzong abdicated and lived in seclusion, feeling regretful. He ordered Yang Youtong, a Taoist priest from Linqiong, to try every means to search the soul of the concubine. Finally, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Emperor Xuanzong and Yuhuan met at the Moon Palace, and the Jade Emperor made them live together in the Heavenly Palace and be a couple forever. “Love” was undoubtedly the theme in the original intention of Hong Sheng to write this play. The Palace of Eternal Life was inspired by Bai Juyi’s The Everlasting Regret and Chen Hong’s The Tale of the Everlasting Regret and Tian Bao Yi Shi. It also referred to the past poems, ci, qu, song-speech dramas, and literary sketches about the love affairs between Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan. Hong Sheng’s sympathetic narration of the tragic and poignant relationship between the couple showed his admiration for the sincerest love and carried deep implications. However, “love” was only part of the theme of Palace of Eternal Life. The “love” between Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan was the direct trigger of the national turmoil. Their greed and indulgence stimulated them to “put love over the law of the imperial court” and caused Yang Guozhong and An Lushan to fight for favor and power. This finally led to the An Shi Rebellion. The Palace of Eternal Life reproduced the process of the Tang dynasty moving from prosperity to decline. “Those who have been extravagant and have done whatever they want pay a heavy price”. “Extreme joy begets sorrow”. It expressed the sense of disillusionment and endless thoughts. The Palace of Eternal Life not only had profound and rich historical connotation, but also had high artistic attainment. In terms of characterization, the main characters were distinctive. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang was a man deeply in love and was infatuated with Yang Yuhuan. They became a classic couple in the history of opera literature. In terms of structure, the love between Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan was the main line of the play, while the An Shi Rebellion was a subplot. This arrangement rendered the whole play intrinsically linked and revealed the changing fortunes of the main characters. The play was characterized by a large scale, a rigorous structure, well-connected episodes, compact fabric, simple narrative, and vivid depiction of picturesque scenery. In terms of

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language, Palace of Eternal Life was good at using famous quotes from poems, ci and qu songs in previous dynasties. Its lyrics were smooth, beautiful, and full of poetic and rhythmic beauty. The writer was good at blending emotions with scenery to convey the characters’ inner emotions and psychological activities vividly. They also had distinctive personality traits and spectacular movements. The play was a truly perfect combination of lyrics and rhythm, literary talent, and performance skills. The hundreds of tunes written in the whole play were unique, varied, popular, easy to sing, and suitable for performance. Another playwright contemporary to and as famous as Hong Sheng was Kong Shangren. Kong Shangren (1648–1718), courtesy name Pinzhi, art name Dongtang, alias Antang, called himself Yuntingshanren and hailed from Qufu, Shandong Province. He was the sixty-fourthgeneration grandson of Confucius. In the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi, he was transferred to the head of the Ministry of Household Registration. He was dismissed from his official position for writing The Peach Blossom Fan and returned to his hometown. In the fifty-seventh year of Kangxi, he died at home. He left many poems and prose writings surviving to this date, including Shi Men Shan Ji, Hu Hai Ji, Chang Liu Ji, Xiang Jin Bu, and Ren Rui Lu. Before he took on any official position, Kong Shangren had the plan to write. The Peach Blossom Fan, he had only the outline and did not rhetorically embellish it. In the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (1699), Kong Shangren completed The Peach Blossom Fan at the age of fifty-two after writing it for more than ten years and modifying it three times. This masterpiece caused a sensation in the court. The Peach Blossom Fan was a historical play based on historical facts. It was set in the chaotic late years of the Ming Dynasty and told the story of separation and reunion between Hou Fangyu, a scholar of Fu Society, and Li Xiangjun, a famous prostitute from Qinhuai. The theme was to account for the rise and fall of the small court of Hongguang, the “land of prosperity in six dynasties”. This play was written shortly after the late years of the Ming Dynasty, and Kong Shangren intended to reflect on the root causes of the Ming Dynasty’s demise. Although The Peach Blossom Fan focused on a love story, it was intended to mirror the broader social reality under dynastic change. It shaped a series of extremely distinctive characters that broke away from the traditional division of absolute “loyalty” and “treachery”.

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The Peach Blossom Fan had ever-lasting appeal on the stage after it was published. As people at that time commented, “Not a single day went by in Chang’an without the performance of The Peach Blossom Fan”. On the fifteenth day of January in the next year after the play was completed, vice censor-in-chief Li Nan paid “Jindou Theatrical Troupe” to perform The Peach Blossom Fan. In mid March, Kong Shangren was suddenly dismissed from his post. The reason for his dismissal has been controversial, but his poems and prose writings seemed to suggest that it had nothing to do with The Peach Blossom Fan and did not affect its popularity on the performance stage in the Qing Dynasty.

3

Li Yu and the Suzhou School

Suzhou was an affluent place in the south of the Yangtze River. It was economically and culturally developed and was also a center of legendary creation and performance at the time, providing excellent cultural soil and creative atmosphere for the playwrights of the Suzhou School. “The Suzhou School” referred to the more than ten playwrights who appeared in Suzhou at the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties. They lived in Suzhou and the surrounding areas. Although they did not really form an association, they interacted frequently with each other, cooperated and learned from each other by exchanging views and developed a common literary style over the creation process. This style was known as the Suzhou School. Li Yu (1616–1677?), courtesy name Xuanyu, which was later changed to Yuanyu in order to avoid coinciding with the name of Emperor Kangxi, art names Sumenxiaolü and Yili’anzhuren, hailed from Wuxian, Jiangnan. He was a representative and the backbone of the playwrights in “the Suzhou School”. Li Yu was a talented writer and master of music, and devoted himself to music. He was a prolific playwright and wrote more than thirty legends, more than ten of which have survived to this date. His plays emerged during the reign of Chongzhen in the late years of the Ming Dynasty, and the most famous ones were the four plays Yi Peng Xue, Ren Shou Guan, Yong Tuan Yuan, and Zhan Hua Kui collected in Yi Li An Si Zhong Qu, all of which were completed before the demise of the Ming Dynasty. These four legends reflected the living conditions of the lower class of society, honored the humble but morally noble people, and mocked and scolded the despicable acts of profit-oriented and ungrateful people.

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The change from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty caused great psychological trauma to literati and scholars in Jiangnan. After the country was ruled by the Qing Dynasty, Li Yu’s creation intention of “explaining hidden truth through ironic and invective writings” was more evident in his works. He befriended famous scholars such as Qian Qianyi and Wu Weiye, and was influenced by their adherent ideas. Therefore, he paid more attention to court and military affairs and compiled many historical plays with allegorical meanings. In addition to Li Yu, writers of the Suzhou School also included brothers Zhu Hu and his brother Zhu Zuozhao, Zhang Dafu, Zhu Yuncong, Sheng Jishi, Qiu Yuan, Chen Erbai, and Bi Wei. “The Suzhou School” was not a regular group at that time, and it did not organize any collective or regular activities. Because of their similar backgrounds and shared interests, the members naturally came together to review rhythm and writ plays. The playwrights of the Suzhou School had been through the great dynastic change and witnessed losses and chaos. Most of them had no intention to become officials, but rather to devote themselves to composing music. They had insights into worldly affairs and understood the hardships of the people, so they put their thoughts on state affairs into their plays. Thus, they were able to address the problems of the time, and their lyrics were naturally impassioned. They were good at using historical materials, and they also dared to face reality and life. They depicted major social events and political struggles and reflected the demands and aspirations of the people. Their plays not only drew on authentic and timely subject matters, but also tried to be dramatic and suitable for stage performance. These plays were fresh, robust, simple, natural, and highly influential. Another defining feature of the playwrights of “the Suzhou School” was their adeptness at shaping insignificant characters. In their plays, painted face roles and clowns were most often more excellent and vivid than male and female roles. The reason was that most of them were familiar with stage performance, understood and paid attention to the public taste in opera, and did not write lyrics and compose music for self-amusement. Instead, they provided scripts for performances and paid attention to stage requirements and performance effects. Thus, they changed the traditional opera concept that put lyrics at the core. They put opera structure at an important position and enhanced artistic expression by combining music with southern and northern styles. The lyrics were simple lyrics, and the spoken parts were vernacular. These techniques

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overcame the drawbacks of legends in the late years of the Ming Dynasty such as cumbersome rhetoric, lengthy plot, and unsuitability for stage performance. Their creative activities spanned two dynasties for more than fifty years starting from the late years of the Ming Dynasty. Their legends included rich information about society and were very close to life. They were suitable for performance, abundant, and widely welcomed, thus giving a great impetus to the creation of legends in the late years of the Ming Dynasty and the early years of the Qing Dynasty.

4

Representative Poetic Dramas and Legends

The change from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty had a great impact on the lives, minds, and creativity of literati. This change was inevitably reflected in literary works. The restriction on literary creation in the early years of the Qing Dynasty forced literati to turn from poetry and prose to lyrics and music. They used history as the subject matter, drew on the past as a metaphor for the present, and borrowed others wine to intoxicate their hearts. They sought to express their grief, anger, and sorrow, hoping to gain spiritual liberation. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, erudite Ding Yaokang, Fu Shan, Wu Weiye, Wang Fuzhi, and Huang Zhouxing composed music with the talent of literati and scholars and drew on the past subject matter as a metaphor for the present. They poured their talent into literary works, and their plays were literally graceful. They simply sought to write freely without paying much attention to the structures of the plays and stage requirements. Their works were more inclined to be closet dramas that could hardly be put on stage. Ding Yaokang, courtesy name Xisheng, art name Yehe, alias Ziyangdaoren and Yehangjushi, hailed from Zhucheng, Shandong Province. He was born in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. When he was young, his father died and he was known for his talent. He was a prolific writer for this whole life. He wrote poetry anthologies Jiang Gan Cao, Gui Shan Cao, Xiao Yao You, etc. He was also famous for his novels and operas in his times. He wrote six legends, and four of them have survived to this date, namely Hua Ren You, Chi Song You, Xi Hu Shan, and Biao Zhong Ji. Hua Ren You was “world-saving fable”. The story was about a man called He Gao who traveled around to visit persons of extraordinary abilities. The Fairy of Lyre in the East Sea took him to appreciate the beauty of heaven and earth, and he woke up to find

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that what happened was just a dream. The Chi Song You was the story of Zhang Liang, who retired after assisting Liu Bang in establishing his country. Biao Zhong Ji was the story of loyal officials Yang Jiaoshan and Shen Lian, who fought against Yan Song’s gang in the Ming Dynasty. The Xi Hu Shan was the love story of Gu Shi, a famous scholar, and Song Xiangxian and Song Juanjuan. Wu Weiye (1609–1671), courtesy name Jungong, art name Meicun, alias Guanyinzhuren, hailed from Taicang. He was well versed in scriptures and history and was good at writing poems and prose. He was knowledgeable and was known with Qian Qianyi and Gong Dingzi as “Three Master” of Jiangzuo (“Jiang Zuo San Da Jia”). His works included Mei Cun Ji, opera legend Mo Ling Chun and two poetic dramas Lin Chun Ge and Tong Tian Tai. The Mo Ling Chun, also known as Shuang Ying Ji, consisted of 2 volumes and 41 chapters. It was a love story between Xu Shi, the son of Xu Xuan, a minister in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Huang Zhanniang, the daughter of General Huang, after the fall of the Southern Tang Dynasty. You Tong (1618–1704), courtesy name Tongren, which was later changed to Zhancheng, art name Hui’an and Genzhai, called himself Xitanglaoren in his late years and hailed from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was a gifted man with a wide learning and a retentive memory. He was good at poetry, prose, ci, and qu. He wrote five poetic dramas about historical events, namely Du Li Sao, Tao Hua Yuan, Diao Pi Pa, Hei Bai Wei, and Qing Ping Diao. Wan Shu, courtesy names Kaocheng, Hong You, and Hua Nong, art names Shan Nong and Shan Weng, hailed from Yixing, Jiangsu Province. He wrote more than 20 operas, and 10 of his legends are still wellknown today. He wrote 7 poetic dramas, and only three of them have survived as legends, namely Feng Liu Bang, Nian Ba Fan, and Kong Qing Shi. The block-printed edition was titled Yong Shuang Yan San Zhong Qu. He also wrote 100 poems of Xuan Ji Sui Jin, which he wrote freely with ingenious thought. His 20-volume Ci Lü gathered ci writings extensively, selected examples properly and contained elaborate and clear textual research. Wan Shu placed equal emphasis on the music, emotion, and reasoning of qu. In the composition skills, he imitated Wu Bing and Ruan Dacheng. He employed techniques such as misunderstanding, mistaken identity, coincidence, and sudden changes. He often manipulated repeated changes in fourteen pairs of merit and demerit, evil and righteousness, master and disciple, slave and master, chastity and

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obscenity, old and young, poor and rich, noble and humble, monk and layman, life and death, men and women. These fourteen pairs were made into twenty-eight changes such as meritorious ministers making mistakes while sinners making contributions, evil people turning into good people, righteous people turning into evil people, and good people turning into bad people, and so on. These changes were made to show the diversities of the world and the capriciousness of human feelings. The varied plot, proper transition and cooperation, proficient skills, and ingenious language earned positive comments for the plays at that time. Li Yu was an extraordinary playwright in the Qing Dynasty. Li Yu (1611–1680), initially named Xianlv, courtesy name Zhefan, art name Tiantu, later known as Yu, courtesy name Lihong and later art name Liweng, had his ancestral home in Lanxi, Zhejiang and was born in Rugao, Jiangsu. He wrote ten legends, namely Lian Xiang Ban, Feng Zheng Wu, Yi Zhong Yuan, Shen Zhong Lou, Yu Sao Tou, Nai He Tian, Bi Mu Yu, Qiao Tuan Yuan, Huang Qiu Feng, and Shen Luan Jiao, which were collectively compiled into Li Weng Shi Zhong Qu. Among them, Feng Zheng Wu was the most famous. His opera compositions did bring him great economic benefits and reputation. These ten plays “were spread in the capital and were sold at high prices in the marketplace”. Li Yu outshone others at one time. He had a reputation as a talented man and was well versed in artistic appreciation. He valued wit and sought new ideas. He wrote plays for a clear purpose, “I relied on writing as a livelihood. I am not writing a book out of anger, but I am writing from my heart. Neither am I writing sublime words to satirize the world”. His purpose was sharply different from other literati’s motives for composing qu at that time, i.e., to either vent anger from deep within their hearts or showcase their talent. The profit motive determined that Li Yu had to cater to the needs of readers and audiences. His legends were mostly romantic stories of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies. He was good at arranging misunderstandings and coincidences to put the plot together. His plays were characterized by vivid plot and novel structure, as well as popular and witty spoken parts. These works were lively and in line with the identities of the characters. They were also suitable for performance and were thus widely spread on the stage. In the middle years of the Qing Dynasty, poetic drama turned into a low ebb. Playwrights sought innovation in the form and content. During the reign of Qianlong, Yang Chaoguan and Jiang Shiquan were prestigious poetic drama writers.

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Yang Chaoguan (1710–1788), courtesy name Hongdu, art name Lihu, hailed from Jinkui, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. His masterpieces were the thirty-two Poetic Dramas of Yinfengge, and all of them were sing-act dramas. This single-act drama originated from Xu Wei’s Si Sheng Yuan in the late years of the Ming Dynasty and culminated in Yang Chaoguan. Yang Chaoguan included a small preface to each of his poetic drama to indicate the main idea, draw on the past to enlighten the present, expressed emotions induced by incidents, and showed the aspiration for wise politics and integrity. Jiang Shiquan (1725–1785), courtesy names Xinyu and Tiaosheng, art names Qingrong and Cangyuan, later art name Dingfu, wrote Zhong Ya Tang Shi Ji, which included poems, ci writings, and qu writings. He left a total of sixteen surviving operas, including Yi Pian Shi and Di Er Bei. He was a quick thinker, and his plays rejected the cliché romantic stories of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies. Most of his plays reflected ethnic conflicts and depicted social customs in an informative and interesting manner. Jiang Shiquan was the “rear guard of Kun Opera”. Legends in the Qing Dynasty were divided into “those written by Hong Sheng in the south and Kong Shangren in the north”. Although no masterpieces appeared after The Peach Blossom Fan and Palace of Eternal Life, still many plays were active on the stage. Tang Ying, courtesy names Jungong and Shuzi, art name Wojilaoren and Taochengjushi, was known as Gubai Xiansheng. His play collection was called Deng Yue Xian Qing, also known as Gu Bai Tang Chuan Qi, including five legends, namely Tian Yuan Zhai, Zhuan Tian Xin, Shuang Ding An, Qiao Huan Yuan, and Liang Shang Yan. He also left twelve poetic dramas surviving to this date. Tang Ying lived in a time when “the controversy between local operas and Kun Opera” was most fierce and was deeply influenced by local operas. His scripts got rid olichésliches of romantic love between gifted scholars and beautiful ladies or stories about emperors and ministers. Instead, they touched upon many social problems and were often adapted into local operas. Huang Tubi, courtesy name Rongzhi, art name Huajianzhuren and Shouzhenzi, alias Jiaochuangjuzhi, had his ancestral home in Xiuning, Anhui Province. He hailed from Huating, Jiangsu Province. His most widely spread and popular legend was Leifeng Pagoda, which swept the Wuyue region. In Stories to Caution the World, Madame White Snake Cast under the Leifeng Pagoda Forever (Bai Niang Zi Yong Zhen Lei Feng Ta) was a well-known folk tale. Huang Tubi adapted it into a legend and retained the original plot: Madame White Snake was

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cast under the pagoda, and Xu Xian became a monk. Afterward, Fang Chengpei re-wrote Leifeng Pagoda by changing it into a comedy with a happy ending, and it was more enjoyable to the audience.

5 The Controversy Between Local Operas and Kun Opera and Folk Operas “The controversy between local operas and Kun Opera” germinated in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. The central issue of the controversy was how to deal with the contradiction between script writing and stage performance. A large number of literati and scholars were engaged in writing scripts and produced numerous poetic dramas and legends. However, most of these works were moral and ethical dramas and entertaining comedies that were far from the real life, and many of them were detached from stage practice and lost their vitality. At the same time, local opera, known as huabu, which represented new aesthetic interest and had long existed and spread widely among the folk, became increasingly flourishing. Due to their rich content, lively forms, bold style, and popular language, they were loved by the people and appreciated by scholars. In terms of opera style, the Kun style representing the “Kun Opera” (“yabu”) became more and more delicate and subtle after it was improved by Wei Liangfu. It indeed reached a high level of artistic expression. At the same time, having developed for more than a hundred years, it lost its vitality in terms of both script and performance due to their adherence to conventions. Local operas, however, were favored by audiences for their freshness and developed to be the active “huabu”. The triumph of local operas and the decline of the Kun Opera represented a significant change in the aesthetic perception of opera performance. The controversy between local operas and Kun Opera was centered in Beijing. From the beginning of the reign of Kangxi, local operas entered the capital one after another. For more than a century, they became more and more flourishing. The stage in the capital was open to all, and most of the exotic styles were tolerated. With many styles mixing together, performances flourished. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, birthdays of emperors and empresses were the most important celebration occasions. In order to celebrate the peaceful and prosperous times and show the joy of songs and dances in every street, the court assigned local officials and salt merchants to select and send theatrical troupes to Beijing to perform

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operas on a paid basis. Many theatrical troupes were recruited to perform in Beijing. The arrival of Huiban opera troupes in the capital finally facilitated the formation of Peking Opera. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty and the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Huiban opera troupes emerged one after another. Huiban opera troupes moved around southern provinces to perform operas. In the fifty-fifth year of Qianlong, Sanqing Troupe came to the capital for the first time for performance. It was unrivaled at that time and became the best troupe in the capital. In the late years of the reign of Qianlong and the early years of the reign Jiaqing, Sixi Troupe and Chuntai Troupe visited Beijing successively. In the early years of the reign of Daoguang, Sanqing, Sixi, Chuntai and Hechun were collectively rated as Four Big Huiban Opera Troupes and completely occupied the opera performance market in the capital. In the late years of the reign of Daoguang, all the operas were performed by Huiban opera troupes in opera houses. Large theaters like Guangdelou, Guanghelou, Sanqingyuan, and Qingleyuan were all dominated by Huiban opera troupes. After coming to Beijing, they absorbed extensively the strength of other art forms until the middle years of the reign of Guangxu, when they established a new performance paradigm. Opera performances were popular in the Qing Dynasty, and many commercial theaters emerged, successively called taverns, restaurants, tea gardens, opera centers, opera houses, etc. They were distributed throughout the country, and Beijing, as the best host, accommodated the largest number and more concentrated theaters. Zhajialou and Yueminglou were famous theaters at that time.

CHAPTER 39

Novels in the Qing Dynasty Liu Qian

1

Novels in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty

In the early years of Shunzhi and Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, when the country was not unified yet, the rulers took military affairs as their priority and placed less barriers on literary creation. The creation and publication of novels maintained a strong momentum. Romances between gifted scholars and beautiful ladies rose in the early years of the Qing Dynasty and could be traced back to legends in the Tang Dynasty and poetic dramas and romantic legends in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. In spite of the sheer quantity, their plots followed a set routine and were stereotyped. Most of them clung tclichécliche that “a scholar and a lady pledged to marry without parental consent in a backyard garden. The amorous scholar became top performer in the imperial examinations, got married on an imperial order and lived happily ever after with his lady”. Such plot reflected the life ideal of ordinary scholars to become successful, famous, and wealthy and marry a beautiful wife and concubines. With elegance and vulgarity as measures, such romances could be divided into the elegant school represented by a writer called Tianhuacangzhuren and the vulgar school represented by another writer called

L. Qian (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_39

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Yanshuisanren. The heroes and heroines of the elegant school were born to famous families and had love, talent, and virtue. They controlled their feelings within the limit of ritual propriety and were far from obscenity. The heroes and heroines of the vulgar school were of lower status and were more emotional than talented. They were mostly obscene. The Ping Shan Leng Yan and Yu Jiao Li were his masterpieces and were collectively block-printed as Tian Hua Cang He Ke Qi Cai Zi Shu. About fifty novels based on storytelling scripts in the Qing Dynasty have survived to this date, and nearly half of them were completed in the forty years in the early Qing Dynasty. Li Yu was a master of such novels during this period. He wrote Voiceless Opera (Wu Sheng Xi) and Twelve Towers (Shi Er Lou). He also wrote full-length novels the twentychapter The Carnal Prayer Mat (also known as Jue Hou Chan, Ye Pu Yuan, Ye Sou Qi Yu Zhong Qing Lu, Xun Huan Bao, Qiao Qi Yuan etc.). Li Yu lived at the chaotic juncture of the late years of the Ming Dynasty and the early years of the Qing Dynasty, but his novels were very entertaining, light-hearted, and comedic. He basically avoided the social reality of the time. Even his works about war-torn lives were not intended to present suffering, but to convey the writer’s flexible and obedient philosophy of life. Previous novels based on storytelling scripts were mostly based on unofficial history or the “scripts” of storytellers. Li Yu, however, conceived plots and invented stories from his own experiences and stories, which opened up the space for the writer’s self-expression and broke from oral literature. This approach manifested a strong literary personality and style. Li Yu named his novels based on storytelling scripts after “voiceless opera”, and his novels were noted for their freshness, unconventional nature, distinctive themes compact, and rigorous structure. His language was vivid and fluent, popular and easy to understand, witty and interesting. The shortcomings of this style were also obvious: the plots were too ingenious and the writer’s ingenuity was evident everywhere. Another artistically accomplished novel based on storytelling scripts in the early years of the Qing Dynasty was Dou Peng Xian Hua. The versions published during the reigns of Shunzhi and Kangxi have survived to this date. The writer was called Ainajushi whose real name was unknown. The book contained twelve stories, each of which was an independent short story but all of them were interlinked, with records of conversations among a group of people under a beanstalk. Each story was not affixed with an introduction in the beginning or a conventional conclusion or summary in the end. In terms of narrative and structure,

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Dou Peng Xian Hua broke the routine of novels based on storytelling scripts. Other important novels based on storytelling scripts in the early years of the Qing Dynasty included Zui Xing Shi, Qing Ye Zhong, Zhao Shi Bei, and Jue Shi Bang. Most of them were written by writers using pseudonyms, but judging from the titles, they followed the purpose of novels based on storytelling scripts to “instruct the world”, “caution the world”, “awaken the world”, and “represent the world” in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, intricate class and ethnic conflicts injected new characteristics of the times into heroic legendary novels, and the representative works included Sequel to Water Margin (Shui Hu Hou Zhuan), The Complete Story of Yue Fei (Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan), Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties (Sui Tang Yan Yi), etc. The Sequel to Water Margin consisted of forty chapters and was first published in the third year of the reign of Kangxi (1664). The writer Chen Chen (1590?–1670?), courtesy names Xiaxin and Jingfu, art name Yandangshiqiao, hailed from Wucheng, Zhejiang (now Huzhou). He once participated in Jingyin Poetry Society organized by famous adherents Gu Yanwu, Gui Zhuang, and others. It was a novel that continued Water Margin with one hundred and twenty chapters about surviving heroes from Liangshan, including Li Jun, Ruan Xiaoqi, and Li Ying, raising up the banner of righteousness again, going on a sea expedition to conquer the Siam islands and finally building their own marine kingdom. The novel inherited the spirit of resistance of Water Margin, but it also focused on the turmoil and hardship caused by the invasion of the Jin Dynasty to the south, reflecting the social reality in the early years of the Qing Dynasty in a complicated plot. The Complete Story of Yue Fei consisted of eighty chapters and was once banned during the reign of Qianlong. The writers, Jin Feng and Qian Cai, whose biographies were unknown, lived roughly during the reigns of Kangxi and Qianlong. The novel drew a clear distinction between love and hatred, glorified the national hero Yue Fei, denounced the capitulation gang led by Qin Hui, and condemned the atrocities of Jin Wushu. It showed a strong sense of nationalism. The story of Yue Fue resisting the Jin Dynasty had been spread in the civil society in the Southern Song Dynasty and was the subject matter of artistic and literary works in various genres in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The earliest surviving story about Yue Fei was a chapter-based novel compiled by Xiong Damu in the Ming Dynasty. It was called Popular Romances of the Reviving Song Dynasty (Da Song

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Zhong Xin Tong Su Yan Yi), which provided a simple account of historical facts. However, The Complete Story of Yue Fei elaborated the life of Yue Fei in detail and established the image of a national hero vividly. The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties consisted of one hundred chapters and was published in the thirty-fourth year of the reign of Kangxi (1695). The writer was Chu Renhuo (living in circa 1681), courtesy name Jiaxuan and Xuejia, art name Shinong, hailed from Changzhou, Jiangsu (now Suzhou). The story spanned more than one hundred and seventy years from the suppression of Chen Qi by the army of Emperor Wen of Sui to the return of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang to the capital and his death. The book was basically a combination of four books, namely Unofficial History (Yi Shi), The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, The Love Story of Emperor Yang of Sui (Sui Yang Di Yan Shi), and Ancient Works in the History of Sui Dynasty (Sui Shi Yi Wen), plus folk tales. It combined past stories about the Sui and Tang dynasties and embraced the characteristics of both historical romances and heroic legendary novels. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, representative secular novels were Marriages that Awaken the World (Xing Shi Yin Yuan Zhuan) and Sequel to the Golden Lotus (Xu Jin Ping Mei). Marriages that Awaken the World (also known as Bad Marriages (E Yin Yuan) and Tale of Strange Marriages (Yin Yuan Qi Zhuan)) consisted of one hundred chapters and was completed in the eighteenth year of the reign of Shunzhi (1661). The writer was Xi Zhousheng, whose real name was unknown. The novel carried on the focus of The Golden Lotus on the daily family life of a couple, but it extended to the wider social environment and carried deep social information. Although the novel adopted the marriages in the previous life and the present life as the framework to explain the characters’ personalities and relationships with the karma theory, the descriptions were mainly realistic and the language was vivid, natural, individualistic, and typical of Shandong style. Sequel to the Golden Lotus consisted of sixty-four chapters and was published in the sixteenth year of Shunzhi (1659). The writer Ding Yaokang (1599–1669), courtesy name Xisheng and art names Yehe, Ziyangdaoren, and Mujidaoren, hailed from Zhucheng, Shandong Province. He was a prolific writer and wrote the ten-volume Ding Ye He Shi Chao, one-volume Chu Jie Ji Lve, onevolume Jia Zheng Xu Zhi, and ten-volume Tian Shi. He also wrote six legends, including Xi Hu Shan, Hua Ren You, and Ran She Dan. Sequel to the Golden Lotus continued the story of The Golden Lotus and was set in the chaotic late years of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was a story

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about Ximen Qing, Li Ping’er, Hua Zixu, Pan Jinlian, Pang Chunmei, and Chen Jingji, who were reincarnated and repaid for their sins. The novel mixed Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian scriptures, and it was based on the Book of Rewards and Punishments (Gan Ying Pian) to encourage kindness and punish evil. The depiction of the southward migration of the Jin people and the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty in the novel were obviously related to the writer’s painful experience in the turmoil at the juncture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the third year of Kangxi (1664), Sequel to the Golden Lotus was banned because it was complained about containing “tabooed words”. Afterward, Siqiaojuzhi deleted the part describing the war between the Song and Jin dynasties, changed the names of the characters, compressed the book into forty-eight chapters, and published it under the title of Beauty Behind the Curtain (Ge Lian Hua Ying). The sixty-chapter Jin Wu Meng, which was serialized in newspapers in the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), was also an abridged version of The Golden Lotus.

2 Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and Classical Chinese Novels Classical Chinese novels in the Qing Dynasty got rid of the erotic, redundant, and weak style of writing in the Ming Dynasty due to the publication of Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liao Zhai Zhi Yi). The creation of classical Chinese novels was unprecedentedly prosperous. Pu Songling (1640–1715), courtesy names Liuxian and Jianchen, art name Liuquan, hailed from Zichuan (now Zibo City), Shandong. In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (1658), he took the imperial examinations to admit scholars at the age of nineteen and became the top performer at the county, city, and prefecture levels. Later, he failed the provincial examinations several times. In the forty-ninth year of Kangxi (1710), he was recommended to be an Imperial College student based on a precedent at the age of seventy-one. He spent his whole life in Ziyi and Jinan, except one year in Baoying and Gaoyou as staff at the prime of his life, and he worked as staff at Bi Jiyou’s house in his hometown for thirty years. The Bi family was a famous local family, and Pu Songling had the chance to get acquainted with government officials, celebrities, and local officials such as the great poet Wang Shizhen and Shandong administrative commissioner Yu Chenglong. The Bi family also had a

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rich collection of books stored in “Wanjuanlou” (literally Building of Ten Thousand Scrolls), which provided good conditions for Pu Songling to read and write. He completed this collection of short stories around the age of forty and continued to revise it by making additions and deletions since then. When he was alive, the book was circulated only in the hand-copied form. Although some of the manuscripts were appreciated by Wang Shizhen and others, the first edition was not printed until fifty years after Pu’s death. The manuscript version, hand-copied version, and publication version have survived to this date. The manuscript version was written by Pu, only the first half of which has survived. The more important four hand copies were the Kangxi version, the Zhuxuezhai version, the Yongzheng version, and the Qianlong version. Each of these versions had roughly the same stories, in spite of slight differences in quantity. There was a total of nearly five hundred stories. These five hundred stories varied in length, ranging from thousands of words to less than a hundred words. The shortest story Chi Zi had only twenty-five words. In terms of style, there were both phantastic stories of the Wei and Jin Dynasties which recounted supernatural tales and legends which had twisted narratives and carried profound messages. The latter best represented the artistic achievements of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Most of these legends featured bewitching fox demons as the main characters. In particular, the love stories between a bewitching fox demon and a human being were most impressive, and they celebrated the sincere love that transcended the boundaries between life and death and between human beings and other creatures. Fox demons could be reincarnated as human beings, and vice versa. Although Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio were supernatural stories, rich realistic information was contained in the unrealistic plot. Pu Songling’s “loneliness and indignation” was directly caused by his lifetime remorse for failing the imperial examinations. So many stories in the book bitterly criticized the imperial examination system. The Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio was written in classical Chinese language in a concise, subtle and diverse style. It was good expressing emotions and depicting scenery, which helped created poetic conception. Also influenced by the essays from the middle years of the Ming Dynasty, Pu Songling was good at absorbing and refining contemporary colloquial dialects, which to some extent overcame the typical poor depiction of the moods and tones of characters in conversations found in classical Chinese novels.

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After Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio was published, the most influential classical Chinese novel was Yuewei Cottage Notes. This book was written between the fifty-forth year of Qianlong (1789) and the third year of Jiaqing (1798), consisting of five parts in twenty-four volumes, with six volumes of Luan Yang Xiao Xia Lu, four volumes of Ru Shi Wo Wen, four volumes of Huai Xi Za Zhi, four volumes of Gu Wang Ting Zhi and six volumes of Luan Yang Xu Lu. Each part was affixed with a small preface written by the writer. They had been published separately until a collection was published in the fifth year of Jiaqing (1800). The writer Ji Yun (1724–1805), courtesy names Xiaolan and Chunfan, called himself Yunshi, hailed from Xianxian, Zhili (now in Hebei Province). He served as minister of the Ministry of Rites and led the revision of Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature. He was a highly respected scholar during the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing. Ji Yun was a conservative novelist. He criticized Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio for “mixing two styles in one book” because it was a collection of phantastic stories written in the legend style. He described this approach as “the writing of scholars but not writers” (quoted in the postscript of Gu Wang Ting Zhi by Sheng Shiyan from Ji Yun). In his own writing, he also followed the principle of keeping factual records and the style of non-Confucian books. His books were always confined to the scope of “narrating miscellaneous matters”, “recording anecdotes”, and “collecting trivialities”. In spite of the similarity in writing supernatural stories, Yuewei Cottage Notes and Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio had very different aesthetic interests. For example, in Volume III of Huai Xi Za Zhi, a scholar living in Dongchang passed by someone’s tomb in the suburbs at night. “He read the stories of Qingfeng and Shuixian in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and hoped to encounter these souls”. Later, he was indeed invited by a fair lady to her house, but he was asked to be an attendant of the bridegroom instead of being the bridegroom. The ending was thickly ironic. Yuewei Cottage Notes had three characteristics: Firstly, it learned from miscellaneous academic treatises such as Wang Chong’s Discussive Weighing and Ying Shao’s Feng Su Tong. It echoed the down-to-earth learning trend during the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, so the book often recorded local customs and corrected literary and historical errors, with narration interspersed with comments, and discussions even became dominant in some works, weakening the position of characters and stories. Secondly, Yuewei Cottage Notes was written in a plain rather than flamboyant language and followed

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the simple and natural style in the phantastic novels during the Six Dynasties represented by New Account of Tales of the World. Thirdly, Ji Yun believed that novels should be beneficial to the way of the world and the heart of human beings and should “not violate customs and education”. Therefore, the supernatural stories in the book were often permeated with the spirit of Confucian preaching.

3

Unofficial History of the Scholars

Wu Jingzi (1701–1754), courtesy name Minxuan and art name Limin, hailed from Quanjiao, Anhui Province. After moving to Nanjing, he called himself Qinhuaiyuke. Because his study was named Wenmushanfang, he also called himself Wenmulaoren. Wu Jingzi was born to a big aristocratic family, with many of his ancestors being officials through the imperial examinations. “The family was flourishing for five decades”. However, since his father’s generation, the family began to decline. Moreover, due to inheritance disputes, Wu Jingzi, who was generous and capricious, had no means of making a living and managing the family. Although dabbling in scriptures and history books extensively, he did not distinguish himself in the imperial examinations and failed the provincial examinations several times. In the first year of Qianlong (1736), he failed to take the court examination on the subject of extensive learning and great literary talent in the capital upon recommendation and perished the thought of pursuing an official career ever since. Wu Jingzi was good at writing poems and prose. In addition to Unofficial History of the Scholars, he also wrote Wen Mu Shan Fang Ji with twelve volumes, of which four volumes have survived to this date and contain the poems, ci, prose, and fu writings he completed before he was forty years old. He also wrote the seven-volume Wen Mu Shan Fang Shi Shuo as a treatise on The Book of Poetry. This book had long been lost, and recently a hand-copied version has been discovered. Unofficial History of the Scholars was completed in about the thirteenth year (1748) to the fifteenth year (1750) of Qianlong. The book was circulated among his friends in the form of hand-copy and was not printed until the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768) after he passed away. The initial printed version has been gone, and the earliest surviving version was the Woxiancaotang version with fifty-six chapters printed in the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803). Unofficial History of the Scholars consisted of three parts. Chapters 1– 30 portrayed the examination takers who were keen on the eight-part

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essay and the famous hermits who seemed to be elegant and transcendent but were actually shallow and vulgar. Chapters 31–37 positively introduced four true Confucian scholars named Du Shaoqing, Chi Hengshan, Zhuang Shaoguang, and Yu Yude reviving Confucian rituals and restoring the Taibo Temple in Nanjing. Chapters 38–55 narrated the failure in practicing Confucianism in daily life, as the Taibo Temple as a symbol of “rituals and music” tumbled down and was left unattended soon after the ritual of restoration was ended. Xiao Yunxian and Tang Zhendai, who advocated the development of “military strength and agriculture”, were dismissed and relegated. The first thirty chapters were the most ironic part of the book. The work began with a description of the tragedy and comedy of Zhou Jin and Fan Jin before and after passing the imperial examinations, revealing how the imperial examination system corrupted and destroyed the minds of students. Zhou Jin, who still failed to pass the county examinations in his sixties, was taunted and ridiculed by younger students. His grief and anger with the failure in passing the examinations for his life turned to an outburst when visiting the examination hall. Under a whirlpool of emotion, he cried so hard that he spit out blood. The merchants took pity on him and gave him money to support him taking the provincial examinations after passing the county examinations. He passed the examinations unexpectedly. Fan Jin was also an old student who had failed the examinations more than twenty times in a row. He was usually bullied by his father-in-law. He was overjoyed and became crazy after he suddenly learned that he passed the examinations. “In the past, he was looked down upon. Now he is envied”. The people changed from arrogance to respect toward him and all flattered him. The imperial examinations not only changed the fate of scholars, but also revealed the attitudes of those around them. Ma’er Xiansheng believed that taking the imperial examinations was the most important thing in life. Even if Confucius were living at that time, he would have to “read eight-part essays and take the imperial examinations”. He himself failed the imperial examinations, but he devoted all his efforts to selecting and compiling eight-part essays, hoping to help young people gain fame and fortune. Ma’er Xiansheng’s tour of the West Lake was a famous episode in the novel. Wu Jingzi straightforwardly indicated that the beautiful scenery of the West Lake was not interesting at all in the eyes of Ma’er with a withered heart. The Unofficial History of the Scholars sympathetically satirized Zhou Jin, Fan Jin, and Ma’er Xiansheng. Famous scholars like Du Shenqing and

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Kuang Chaoren and corrupt officials like Wang Hui and Yan Gongsheng were exposed with their greed, hypocritical and dreadful souls. The art of satire in Unofficial History of the Scholars was fully expressed in the depiction of these people. The novel also included some ideal characters, and the one who left a deep impression on readers was Du Shaoqing, who was always considered to be the writer himself. Du Shaoqing had both the traditional Confucian moral integrity and the wild and rebellious personality as a famous scholar in the Six Dynasties. He epitomized individual liberation. At the end of the novel, four “strange men” in the marketplace outside the Confucian circle appeared, and they were in fact the embodiment of guqin, chess, penmanship and painting in the intellectuals’ elegant life, reflecting the traditional literati’s choice of “turning to a hermit life if they failed to followed a principled course”. This echoed the image of Wang Guan in the opening chapter of the novel. These ideal characters, while despising fame and fortune, also abandoned the social responsibility of intellectuals to “pursue principles” and represented the writer’s inevitable moral choice when his social ideal became disillusioned. The Unofficial History of the Scholars was deeply influenced by historical biographical literature in art. Such influence was mainly manifested in two aspects: structure and narrative. Structurally, “There was no backbone in the whole book. Only various characters were listed in a procession, and stories were begun and ended with them. In spite of its full length, it was similar to a collection of short stories”. The second chapter to the end of the book, which spanned more than a hundred years, consisted of several biographies of characters who were either not or weakly related to each other but with consistent internal logical ideas. The four words “honor, fame, wealth and fortune” unified the seemingly independent parts of the book and reflected the writer’s holistic thinking about the minds and fates of intellectuals. In terms of narrative style, Unofficial History of the Scholars adopted the objective narrative style common to historical biographies rather than the pseudo-storytelling tone in traditional novels so as to avoid judge the characters directly.

4

Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng) in the current version with one hundred and twenty chapters was written by more than one writer. The first eighty chapters were written by Cao Xueqin, and the

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latter forty chapters were written by someone else. The entire book with one hundred and twenty chapters was compiled by Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E. Cao Xueqin (1715?–1763?), known as Zhan, courtesy name Mengruan, art names Xueqin, Qinpu, and Qinxi, had his ancestral home in Liaoyang (now in Liaoning Province) or possibly Fengrun (now in Hebei Province). His ancestors were Han people as servants for the Manchurian White Banner (or possibly Han Banners). By the reign of Kangxi, his family had been a prestigious noble family. Cheng Weiyuan (1745?–1819?), courtesy name Xiaoquan, hailed from Suzhou. He was literally talented and was good at poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Gao E (1758–1815), courtesy name Yunshi, art name Qiuyu, also named Lanshu, alias Honglouwaishi, hailed from Tieling (now in Liaoning Province). He joined the Han army of the Bordered Yellow Banner affiliated to the Office of Imperial Household. In the fifty-sixth year of Qianlong (1791), Cheng Weiyuan, who moved to Beijing, worked with his friend Gao E to put the first eighty chapters and the latter forty chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber that they searched, and this version was engraved and published by Cui Wen Shu Wu under the title of Xin Juan Quan Bu Xiu Xiang Hong Lou Meng. This was the “Cheng’s Version I”. In the following year, they modified Cheng’s Version I and print “Cheng’s Version II”. Dream of the Red Chamber was the artistic pinnacle of the ancient Chinese fiction, and no ancient novels before or after it ever reached or surpassed it. Lu Xun praised, “Since Dream of the Red Chamber was published, traditional thinking and writing methods have been shattered”. The great artistic achievement of Dream of the Red Chamber was first reflected in an artistic space that seemed almost identical to real life resulting from its all-round net structure and flexible perspective adjustments. The skeleton of the novel was the love and marriage tragedy among Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. The characters were active mainly in Grand View Garden. The novel was basically about the fates of Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and many women in the garden. As part of the House of Jia, everything that happened in Grand View Garden was closely linked to the activities in the entire House of Jia. The change of the House of Jia from prosperity to decline, the complex family conflicts and the fates of other characters in it were also the basic content of the novel. The plot was unfolded mainly in the House of Jia, and members of the Houses of Shi, Wang, and Xue were also active in this place. In addition, the novel radiated from these four families to the court

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and the countryside, extending to all aspects of society spatially. The characters and events in Dream of the Red Chamber were delicately organized in this structure, checking and influencing each other. Life was mirrored in Dream of the Red Chamber as it actually was. It was an interconnected and inseparable whole. Dream of the Red Chamber was able to reveal real life also because it often adopted the objective narrative technique of third-person limited perspective. The overview was not made by the writer himself but by the characters. It described the setting through the eyes and mouths of the characters, explained the background of the story, and introduced the characters. When describing scenes, the writer was also hidden and the knowledge-limited perspective was strictly followed. This was manifested in descriptions of scenes, characters, and their activities through the lens of a fixed observer and in the limited access to the inner world of the characters to portray their inner feelings and convey rich meanings through their words and actions. This skillful use of objective narration from the knowledge-limited perspective in Dream of the Red Chamber broke through the tradition of omniscient and omnipotent narration by storytellers. The repeated narration about an object by different narrators from multiple perspectives further changed the traditional single narrative style and enriched the narrative art of ancient novels. The great artistic achievement of Dream of the Red Chamber was also reflected in characterization. The book described the real lives of ladies, and females were depicted most, especially a large group of young girls who had the same or similar ages, living environments, lifestyles, etc. Cao Xueqin was able to not only describe their distinctive personalities, but also clearly differentiated the subtle traits of some characters who were both similar with and different from each other. Ping’er and Xiren were both gentle and soft, but in different ways, and so were the bold and forthright Shi Xiangyun and Third Sister You. Both Lin Daiyu and Miaoyu were lonely, but the former was worldly while the latter was aloof. In the portrayal of characters, the writer also adopted a shadow depiction method similar to contract. For example, Qingwen and Xiangling were the shadows of Daiyu. Qingwen was as lonely as Daiyu, and Xiangling was as lonely and helpless as Daiyu. Xiren was the shadow of Baochai. Dream of the Red Chamber completely changed the rigid approach of typified and stereotyped characterization in ancient novels. It excelled in diverse characterization. The writer seldom praised or criticized the characters

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directly. For example, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai were traditionally separated by the pro-Lin school and the pro-Xue school. There was also the compromised “Baochai-Daiyu combination theory”. This phenomenon was undoubtedly related to the writer’s objective presentation narrative. In terms of the linguistic expression of characters, Dream of the Red Chamber was another peak model after Water Margin in Chinese classical novels. Based on the northern dialect, Dream of the Red Chamber was concise, natural, and expressive. The book was full of dialogues, which also fully occupied some chapters. These dialogues, either long or short and either refined or vulgar, all fit with the tones of the characters. There were hundreds of male and female characters from different classes and strata in the book. Some of them appeared only once and spoke only a few words, but they were sufficient to outline a vivid image. In addition, although Dream of the Red Chamber inherited the writing tradition of ancient novels, numerous poems, ci, qu, and parallel prose interspersed in the narrative. These verses were integrated with the characters and the plot, without superfluous remarks, and they successfully assisted the characterization. The number of sequels to Dream of the Red Chamber created a record high among Chinese ancient full-length novels. The reigns of Jiaqing and Daoguang witnessed the peak of sequels. Up to eleven sequels are known today. In spite of differences in conception, emotional appeal and level of writing, most of these sequels were unwilling to accept the tragic ending of the original work. They insisted on making Baoyu and Daiyu a couple and restoring the glory of the Jia Mansion. This was far apart from the thought and spirit of Cao Xueqin. Among these sequels, the most noteworthy one was The Dream Shadow of Red Chamber (Hong Lou Meng Ying) written by Gu Taiqing (1799–1876), a famous Manchu poetess and female ci writer. This book consisted of twenty-four chapters, with a preface written by Xihusanren in the eleventh year of the reign of Xianfeng (1861), and it was published in movable type by Juzhentang in Beijing in the third year of the reign of Guangxu (1877), continuing the one hundred and twentieth chapter of the original book. In this sequel, Baoyu was saved by his father in Pilingyi and returned home after he was healed. He led a peaceful life with his wife Baochai and his concubines Xiren, Sheyue, and Ying’er. Later, he became a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations and was appointed to an official position together with Jialan. Xiangyun gave birth to a posthumous daughter, who was betrothed to Baochai’s son. Ping’er became a lawful wife after

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giving birth to a son, who was betrothed to Xiangling’s daughter. The book ended with Baoyu fell into fantasy in front of Dayuan Mirror at Xichun’s residence in Green Lattice Nunnery in which he saw all the female characters in the book turned into bones of the dead in the wilderness. Among so many sequels in the Qing Dynasty, The Dream Shadow of the Red Chamber was the only one that did not let Daiyu revive after death or be reincarnated in a new body, and it even did not let her appear. It simply recounted the life of Baoyu and Baochai after they got married. The study on Dream of the Red Chamber has been a specialized study today known as “Redology”. “Redology” is divided into the new and old studies. The old study consists of two main schools, namely the comment school and the hidden meaning search school. The comment school was started from Zhiyanzhai. Huhuazhuren Wang Xilian (1805– 1877), Taipingxianren Zhang Xinzhi (1828–1850), and Damoushanmin Yao Xie (1805–1864) were three major commentators of Dream of the Red Chamber in the Qing Dynasty. During the reigns of Jiaqing and Daoguang, Chen Qitai’s comment was also noteworthy. The representative works of the hidden meaning search school appeared in the late years of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China, mainly including Hong Lou Meng Suo Yin by Wang Mengyuan and Shen Ping’an (1916), Shi Tou Ji Suo Yin by Cai Yuanpei (1917) and Hong Lou Meng Shi Zhen by Deng Kuangyan (1919). This school asserted that the plot and characters of Dream of the Red Chamber alluded to real political events and political figures in history. They tried to “prove” the original historical events associated with Dream of the Red Chamber in a way that was similar to riddle guessing and put forward views such as the family affairs of Mingzhu, the family affairs of Heshen, the love affairs of Emperor Shunzhi and Concubine Dong E, and the political affairs during the reign of Kangxi. During the “May Fourth” period, Textual Research on Dream of the Red Chamber by Hu Shi (1921) and Argument for Dream of the Red Chamber by Yu Pingbo (1922) secured the position of “new Redology”. Although it greatly offset the influence of the hidden meaning search school, it claimed that Dream of the Red Chamber was an “autobiography” of the writer Cao Xueqin himself. After that, Zhou Ruchang brought the “autobiography” to its peak, thinking that Cao Xueqin was Jia Baoyu, the Jia family was the Cao family, and that Dream of the Red Chamber was a factual record of the life of the Cao family. The “autobiography” theory had undeniable value to the study on Dream of the Red Chamber, but it is important to understand the

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connotation and extension of this theory. It is reasonable to suggest that the Jia family alluded to the Cao family, but drawing on a conclusion that the novel alluded to real figures and real events based on the claim that the Jia family was the Cao family was searching hidden meaning. Yu Pingbo reviewed the autobiography theory from 1925, arguing that both this theory and the masters of the hidden meaning search school were in fact guessing, with no essentially different methods employed. Throughout the history of Redology for a century, the dividing line between the old and the new Redology was not clear-cut. The new Redology had its own flaws, and the hidden meaning search school of the old Redology did not disappear. It was worth noting that Commentary on Dream of the Red Chamber written by Wang Guowei in 1904 evaluated the literary value of Dream of the Red Chamber from philosophical and aesthetic perspectives, and it was the first specialized treatise in the history of literary criticism in China to comment on classical Chinese literature with Western theory. This research approach has also become a new field of Redology in recent years. The work of the traditional comment school has also been reexamined by researchers. Indeed, such literary research must be based on historical evidence of the new Redology, otherwise it would be ridiculed for “basing on hearsay evidence”.

5 Other Novels in the Middle and Late Years of the Qing Dynasty In the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, there were also some noteworthy full-length novels, mainly including Lv Ye Xian Zong, Qi Lu Deng, Ye Sou Pu Ya, and Jing Hua Yuan. Lv Ye Xian Zong consisted of one hundred chapters, and the writer Li Baichuan (1719–1771?) was a native of Shandong with his biography remaining unknown. It took him ten years to complete the novel from the eighteenth year (1753) to the twenty-seventh year (1762) of the reign of Qianlong. The novel was first circulated in a hundred copies, and was only engraved and printed in the tenth year of Daoguang (1830). The novel was initially circulated with one hundred chapters and was not printed until the tenth year of the reign of Daoguang (1830). It was a blend of supernatural, martial arts, and secular novels. The story was about Leng Yubing, a scholar living during the reign of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, abandoning his family to visit immortals and traveled around after he lost his official rank because he offended the traitor minister Yan Song.

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He learned magic arts and received magic weapons from the immortals and understood that accumulating merits was the only path to become immortal. Qi Lu Deng consisted of one hundred and eight chapters. The writer Li Lüyuan (1707–1790), known as Haiguan, courtesy name Kong Tang, art name Lvyuan, hailed from Baofeng, Kenan. He started to write the novel in the thirteenth year of Qianlong (1748) or so. The writing was stopped halfway for twenty years due to his travel around the country and was not completed until the forty-second year of Qianlong (1777). It took him three decades to complete the novel. The novel was not published in print after it was completed and was circulated in the hand-copied form, and it was not published in lithography until 1924. The novel was a story about turning a new leaf. There was a man called Tan Shaowen, who was born to a well-known family in Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan Province, during the reign of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty. After his father passed away, he befriended a gangster and became addicted to gambling. He repented in the end, and with the help of his clan members, his father’s friends, and his loyal servants, he changed his mind and revived his family. The novel had the mediocre intention of educating children, but it inherited the realistic tradition of secular novels and presented a real picture of social customs with a strong sense of life. Ye Sou Pu Yan consisted of one hundred and fifty-four chapters. The writer Xia Jingqu (1705–1787), courtesy name Maoxiu, art name Erming, hailed from Jiangyin (now in Jiangsu Province). In addition to Ye Sou Pu Yan, he also wrote Huan Yu Xuan Shi Wen Ji, Gang Mu Ju Zheng, Tang Shi Yi Jie and Yi Xue Fa Meng. The novel was completed in the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779) by the writer to vent his anger. It was circulated in the hand-copied form and was not printed until the reign of Guangxu. The novel was set in the periods during the reigns of Chenghua and Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty and narrated the achievements of Wen Suchen throughout his life. He was not a candidate in the imperial examinations, but he served as minister and chancellor. He had the military skills to pacify civil unrest, eliminate traitors, defend against foreign invasion and conquer foreign countries. He also had the literary talent to inherit and pass down the Confucian ethical code and Confucian orthodoxy and to eradicate heresy. The novel included many quotes from the writer’s academic writings, and it also reflected the influence of the increasingly flourishing down-to-earth learning trend on novels during the reign of Qianlong.

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Jing Hua Yuan consisted of one hundred chapters. The writer Li Ruzhen (1763?–1836?), courtesy name Songshi, hailed from Daxing, Zhili (now in Beijing). During the forty-seventh year of Qianlong (1782), he moved with his elder brother to Banpu, Haizhou, and served as a county magistrate in Henan. He was an erudite and knowledgeable person who studied phonetics well. He wrote Li Shi Yin Jian. The Jing Hua Yuan was completed in about the twentieth year of Jiaqing (1815) and was printed in the twenty-third year of Jiaqing (1818). The first six chapters of the novel was the prelude to explain the cause-andeffect framework of the storyline and to indicate that the main purpose was to recount the stories and praise talented ladies in the country. The seventh to the fifty-third chapters recounted Tang Ao’s travel abroad and Tang Xiaoshan’s search for her father abroad. In the fifty-fourth to the hundredth chapters, Tang Xiaoshan returned home to take the examinations for woman and gathered with the other ninety-nine talented girls to compete by playing the guqin, writing poems, discussing academics and arts, and showing their abilities. After the banquet, Tang Xiaoshan went abroad again to look for her father but did not return. Xu Jingye and other descendants revolted against the Zhou to restore the Tang Dynasty, and Emperor Zhongzong was restored to the throne. He honored Wu Zetian as the Empress Dowager, and the imperial examinations for women were implemented again. Former talented female examination takers were ordered to attend the Hongwen banquet again. In particular, the writer expressed his idea of equality between men and women. At the juncture of the reigns of Qianlong and Jiaqing, legal case novels merged with chivalric novels. Representative legal case novels included The Case of Lord Shi (Shi Gong An) and Three Heroes and Five Gallants (San Xia Wu Yi). The Case of Lord Shi was highly influential and was often adapted into Peking Opera and local operas. In the sphere of Peking Opera, Village of Tigers (E Hu Cun), Stealing the Imperial Horse (Dao Yu Ma), and Concatenate Traps (Lian Huan Tao) were operas that audiences were familiar with in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. Three Heroes and Five Gallants consisted of one hundred and twenty chapters, and it was originally marked “By Shi Yukun”. Shi Yukun was a famous chanter in Tianjin during the reigns of Xianfeng and Tongzhi. The novel told the story of a group of chivalrous men who helped Bao Zheng eliminate violence and solve cases. Xiaxie novels (courtesan novels) were stories of talented men with prostitutes or actresses. Xiaxie, or “narrow slope”, referred to brothels in small streets and alleys. There had been stories

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of literati and prostitutes since the emergence of legends in the Tang Dynasty, but they were all short stories. Long vernacular stories began in the Daoguang period with Chen Sen’s Pin Hua Bao Jian. The Pin Hua Bao Jian consisted of sixty chapters and was published in the twentyninth year of the reign of Daoguang (1849). The novel recollected the romantic stories between ten famous actors and actresses in Beijing such as Du Qinyan and Su Huifang and scholar officials since the reign of Qianlong. The focus was placed on the “male romance” between the famous scholar Mei Ziyu and the famous opera actor Du Qinyan. The purpose of the novel was similar to those of the romantic novels about gifted scholars and beautiful ladies. Its style imitated that of Dream of the Red Chamber. The novel reflected the social reality at the time and preserved a lot of valuable historical information about the operatic circle. Biographies of the Sing-song Girls of Shanghai (Hai Shang Hua Lie Zhuan) consisted of sixty-four chapters. The writer Han Bangqing (1856– 1894), courtesy name Ziyun and art name Taixian, hailed from Songjiang (now in Shanghai). He was admitted into official schools after passing examinations. He moved to live in Shanghai and wrote for Shen Bao (Shanghai News). He also edited the novel semimonthly A Remarkable Book on the Sea. He began to serialize Biographies of the Sing-song Girls of Shanghai from February of the eighteenth year of Guangxu (1892) on the first issue of A Remarkable Book on the Sea. The separation edition was published in the twentieth year of the reign of Guangxu (1894). The writer claimed that the book was “written for the purpose of exhortation”, and there were indeed many descriptions of the degradation of prostitutes and their clients. However, the book was more about the simply and realistic daily life of brothels and got rid of the cliche in novels that praised prostitutes and actresses. The whole book was written in Suzhou dialect, so it was called a novel in Wu language. The narrative was written in national speech, while the upper class spoke the official language and the prostitutes spoke Suzhou dialect. Their languages varied with their identities. The characters had their own dispositions, tempers, attitudes, and behaviors, and there were “no similarities or contradictions”. The writer is also quite conscious of the structure of the book. The experience of Zhao Puzhai and Zhao Erbao trapped in a brothel was the main clue, inserted by other stories of prostitutes. Hence, the title contained the word “biographies”. Biographies of the Sing-song Girls of Shanghai was a masterpiece among courtesan novels. Between the reigns of Guangxu and Xuantong, in spite of the large number of such novels as Nine-Tail

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Turtle (Jiu Wei Gui) published by Zhang Chunfan in the second year of the reign of Xuantong (1910), most of them were “excessive pretense” that tried to exaggerate the traps of prostitutes and became the so-called “guide to prostitution clients”. With the defeat of the Hundred Days Reform in the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898) and the Gengzi Incident in which the Eight-Power Allied Forces ravaged Beijing two years later, rebuking novels came into being to attack current affairs and expose evils in the world. Rebuking novels inherited the tradition of satirical novels, but their rhetoric was flamboyant without hidden intention. They exposed the dark side of society with caricature-like exaggeration and lacked artistic subtlety. Officialdom Unmasked (Guan Chang Xian Xing Ji), The Strange State of the World Witnessed Over 20 Years (Er Shi Nian Mu Du Zhi Guai Xian Zhuang), The Travels of Lao Can (Lao Can You Ji), and A Flower in a Sinful Sea (Nie Hai Hua) were collectively known as four major rebuking novels in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. Officialdom Unmasked consisted of sixty chapters and was serialized in World Prosperity Newspaper in Shanghai from the twenty-ninth year (1903) to the thirty-first year (1905) of Guangxu. The novel was divided into five parts of twelve chapters, which were successively printed into books. The writer Li Baojia (1867–1906), courtesy name Boyuan and alias Nantingtingzhang, hailed from Wujin (now in Changzhou), Jiangsu Province. The Officialdom Unmasked pungently described all kinds of devious tricks in the officialdom during the late years of the Qing Dynasty. Important officials of the court and miscellaneous petty officials all involved compete for fame and wealth, expelled opponents and engaged in internal strife and sought personal profit at the expense of the future of the country and the welfare of the people. The novel was structurally similar to Unofficial History of the Scholars. Without a single character that ran through the entire book, stories began and ended with their protagonists. After the publication of Officialdom Unmasked, a large number of rebuking novels exposing the darkness and corruption in the officialdom, business, academic and medical communities emerged within six to seven years under its influence. The Strange State of the World Witnessed Over 20 Years consisted of one hundred and eight chapters and was a representative work that expanded the target of rebuke to all walks of life in society. The writer Wu Woyao (1866–1910), courtesy name Xiaoyun, art name Jianren, pen names Wofoshanren, Laoshanghai, and Zhongguolaoshaonian, hailed

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from Foshan, Guangdong Province. The Strange State of the World Witnessed Over 20 Years was serialized in New Novel during the twentyninth year of Guangxu (1903). Later, separate editions were printed in batches, and the complete set was all put on the market successively between the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906) to the second year of Xuantong (1910). This book was a first-person account of the protagonist’s experiences in escaping from death for twenty years in his life. The Travels of Lao Can was written by Liu E (1857–1909), courtesy name Tieyun, pen names Hongdubailiansheng, Baocan and Laotie. He hailed from Dantu, Jiangsu Province. Influenced by family learning, he advocated saving the country through practical learning. He once served river engineering projects, supported the construction of railroads, and used foreign capital to run the mining industry. The initial collection of The Travels of Lao Can consisted of twenty chapters and was first published from the twenty-ninth year (1903) to the thirty-second year (1906) of Guangxu in Illustrated Fiction in Shanghai and Daily News in Tianjin. The second collection of nine chapters was published in Daily News in the thirty-third year of Guangxu. The novel was written after the Sino-Japanese War, when the imperial government was hopelessly faced with coveted foreign powers externally and bureaucratic corruption internally. “The game of chess was already doomed”. The novel was titled “travels” because it recounted the experiences of the main character, a wandering doctor named Lao Can, who traveled through the northern provinces of China. The characters were portrayed mainly in a realistic manner, while scenery and objects were mostly depicted straightforwardly. The criticism of officials in the Qing Dynasty who endangered the country was particularly insightful. A Flower in a Sinful Sea was written by Zeng Pu (1871–1935), courtesy name Taipu and later renamed Mengpu, pen name Dongyabingfu, hailed from Changshu, Jiangsu Province. In the seventeenth year of Guangxu (1891), he became a successful candidate in the imperial examinations at the provincial level and served as an official in the capital. He studied French in the Imperial Tongwen College and translated the works of Hugo, Zola, and Moliere. A Flower in a Sinful Sea was completed through a rather complicated process. The first six chapters were originally written by Jin Tianhe (1874–1947), whose motivation was related to the defense against the powerful Russians in the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu (1903). He was originally intended to write a political novel.

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Later, Jin Tianhe quit, and Zeng Park continued to complete twenty chapters in one go through modification and sequel and published them in the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905). In the next two years, the twenty-first chapters to the twenty-fifth chapters were serialized in Xiao Shuo Lin. In the sixteenth year of the Republic of China, Zeng Park again modified and continued the novel to thirty-five chapters. The main storyline was the romantic love between Jin Wenqing and Fu Caiyun, “weaving in the history of the old and new societies in the last thirty years”. The novel described the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War, the Hundred Days Reform, and other major historical and political events, spatially covering not only the domestic court but also the European diplomatic arena.

CHAPTER 40

Prosperity of Popular Literature Li Fang

Popular literature has a long tradition in China and encompasses a wide range of ballads, ci and qu, novels, and legends. Although it was never considered as refined art, it was widely welcomed by the public. When it developed into the Qing Dynasty, it came in many kinds, of which chanting literature was the most accomplished and most widely circulated. Guci and tanci, as representative forms of chanting art in the south and the north, still keep their literary and artistic charm to this date.

1

Long-Standing Tradition of Popular Literature

“Popular literature” was a concept first proposed by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo in the book History of Chinese Popular Literature. In this seminal work, which delineated the scope of “popular literature”, a definition was provided that “Popular literature is vernacular literature, or folk literature and literature of the public. In other words, popular literature is not considered as refined art and is not appreciated by scholars. Instead, it is something popular among the people and something that the public

L. Fang (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_40

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enjoys and takes delight in”. He also summarized that popular literature had several important qualities such as public and anonymous collective creation, oral transmission, freshness and vulgarity, unrestrained imagination, and courage to introduce novelty. Popular literature covered an extremely broad scope. Depending on the style and communication characteristics, it was called chanting literature and folk literature. “Chanting literature” was a literary style and was also known as “speech-song literature”. Its main feature was the parallelism of rhymed and free prose to be spoken and sung. “Folk literature”, in a broad sense, was a generic term for all written and oral literature that was beyond the elite literary tradition. In the long history of Chinese literature, only poetry and prose were recognized as orthodox literature by the literati, while ci in the Song Dynasty and operas and novels in the Ming and Qing dynasties were never included in the scope of elite literature. However, more and more literati were attracted to write ci, qu and novels, which went through a process of continuous “refinement”. Nowadays, “popular literature” includes a large number of literary works written by anonymous writers of low status in the history of literature, and it is named in order to differentiate from the literature of literati. Although ballads, ci and fu writings are generally classified as popular literature, this chapter discusses mainly narrative-based chanting literature such as bianwen, baojuan, tanci, and guci. Bianwen was a kind of speech-song literature arising in the Tang Dynasty. Stylistically, bianwen was a text of alternated free prose and rhymed prose. The free prose was the spoken part, while the rhymed prose was sung. It was the earliest form of chanting literature. The formation of bianwen was closely related to the transmission of Buddhism. Thus, earlier bianwen was mainly created to elaborate Buddhist scriptures and to guide the people to overcome evil and commit to goodness by interpreting stories in the Buddhist scriptures, such as Mu Lian traveling through hell to save his mother from the sea of suffering. Later, bianwen of historical and folk tales was written such as Wu Zixu Bianwen and Wang Zhaojun Bianwen. Bianwen was widely influential at that time. Collection of Dunhuang Bianwen was a general collection of bianwen from Dunhuang in the Tang Dynasty. It included 187 pieces of bianwen and was published by the People’s Literature Publishing House in 1957. Baojuan (literally precious scrolls) was a kind of chanting literature evolving from bianwen. It was formally similar to bianwen and mainly included seven-character and ten-character rhymed text, interspersed by

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free prose. Although the writers were unknown, the earliest performers included both monks and nuns and sutra speakers in the marketplace. Like bianwen, baojuan was mostly about stories in Buddhist scriptures. There were also exhortation texts, stories about divine principles, and folk tales. They were often divided into Buddhist and non-Buddhist categories, but the basic tendency was still to promote karma and monasticism, with strong religious overtones. The earliest surviving baojuan was Xiangshan Baojuan, which is generally believed to have been written by the monk Pu Ming in the Song Dynasty. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, baojuan based on Chinese folk tales became increasingly popular. There were more than 200 pieces of most known bianwen, including Liang Shanbo Baojuan and Baojuan of Medicine Names. Che Xilun’s Catalogue of Baojuan in China included more than one thousand and five hundred pieces of baojuan collected at home and abroad and was published by Beijing Yanshan Publishing House in 2000. The Qing Dynasty witnessed the peak of the development of chanting literature, which was more colorful than that in the previous dynasties in terms of genre innovation, literary creation, and speech-song performance. There were several reasons behind this. Firstly, the high development level of narrative literature in the Ming and Qing dynasties provided more references for the creation and adaptation of chanting literature. Secondly, the popularization of education allowed more and more slightly literate scholars and elegant ladies from the lower classes to participate in the creation of chanting literature. Thirdly, the entertainment needs of urban residents contributed to the flourishing of chanting literature creation and performance.

2

Tanci and Muyushu

The term tanci was first coined in the Ming Dynasty. The text of tanci consisted of the spoken parts and lyrics. The former was free verses, while the latter was mainly seven-character rhymed verses, interspersed with three-character sentences. Tanci was performed in a place called “Shuchang”. It was accompanied by sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument) and pipa. With the mix of speech and singing and the combination of rhymed and free verses, tanci has an enduring appeal that continues to this date. Tanci was the most famous form of chanting literature in the Wu dialect region during the Qing Dynasty. In recent years, tanci has attracted more attention from researchers because it was created

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and appreciated by females. Tanci was considered to be the reading material for females, and educated females in the boudoir developed a habit of writing, listening or reading tanci in life. The most accomplished tanci writings such as Tian Yu Hua, Zai Sheng Yuan, Bi Sheng Hua, Liu Hua Meng, and Zi Xu Ji were written by females, portraying the ideal female protagonists in the eyes of female writers and telling stories of females. The tanci writings from female writers fully revealed the ideals and mentality females and could be used to reconstruct the life and world of boudoir females in the Qing Dynasty. The Tian Yu Hua was written by Tao Zhenhuai, whose biography was unknown. The book was set in the struggles within the imperial court during the reigns of Wanli and Tianqi, with the life experiences of Zuo Weiming, a bureaucrat with a sense of justice, and his daughter, Zuo Yizhen, as the main storyline. Zai Sheng Yuan was written by Chen Duansheng (1751–circa 1796), who came from a famous family in Qiantang (now Hangzhou), Zhejiang Province. She married a man named Fan Qiutang from Huainan, but her husband was exiled due to the affairs of the imperial court. Thus, she wrote tanci to amuse herself. Zai Sheng Yuan was a story of Meng Lijun, a girl in the Yuan Dynasty. She was engaged with Huangfu Shaohua, but his family was killed by the traitor Liu Kuibi. Meng Lijun was unwilling to marry Liu Kuibi, so she disguised herself as a man and left home. Later, she changed her name to Li Junyu and became the top performer in the imperial examinations. She was an official in the same court as her father and husband, but she did not want to be recognized. Therefore, she started a struggle against the monarch, her father, and her husband. She became the first pioneer female image in the literature history. Bi Sheng Hua was written by Qiu Xinru. It was a story of Jiang Dehua, a woman in the Ming Dynasty who disguised herself as a man and went to the capital to sit for the imperial examinations in spite of all odds. She finally became the top performer and married her cousin Wen Shaoxia. Liu Hua Meng was written by Li Guiyu in the twenty-first year of Daoguang (1841). It was a 360-volume book that was set in the Tang Dynasty struggling with loose law of the imperial court and years of war after the reign of Zhenguan. It depicted the complex social life and human relationships of the time through the officialdom experiences of four families, i.e., Huan, Luo, Mei, and Gui. The Zi Xu Ji was written by Wang Oushang. It was based on the story of Wen Yulin, a typical example of a loyal and filial son during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhao Xiangxian, a female

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hero with a rebellious character. This work broke away from the traditional story patterns found in Zai Sheng Yuan and Bi Sheng Hua, and it concluded with a tragic ending for the characters. It was a valuable work to be understood and had important artistic appeal. The female writers of tanci were mostly talented females in the Jiangnan region. They recounted their life experiences and creative intentions in each self-narrative section before the text of tanci. The female writers continued the works of predecessors in the form of “sequels”, which allowed them to talk with both writers in previous dynasties and contemporary readers. In addition, female tanci writers expanded their activities beyond the boudoir and became publishers who revised and adapted tanci writings. Female writers endowed the female characters in their tanci writings with super talent so that they were powerful enough to stand up to men as equals. These female writers demonstrated a strong sense of femininity. Tanci was performed in the national speech and the Wu dialect. The most famous works sung in the Wu dialect were Yu Qing Ting, Zhen Zhu Ta, and San Xiao Yin Yuan. Tanci performers also made excellent contributions to the creation and development of tanci performed in the Wu dialect. Ma Rufei, a native of Suzhou, was born in the twenty-second year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. He studied criminal law when he was young and served as a government staff. He was proficient in writing poems and ci and wrote more than eight hundred writings compiled into Ye Yin Lou Cao. After his father passed away, his family had difficulties in making ends meet. Chen Langyuan, one of his father’s friends, convinced him to continue his father’s career. So, he was trained by his cousin Gui Qiurong to sing Zhen Zhu Ta. After he modified this tanci writing several times, it suited both refined and popular tastes and marked the opening of a brand new world for tanci. Muyushu (wooden-fish books), also known as Fishing Song, was a speech-song art performed in Cantonese language in the Cantonese dialect areas. Muyushu was mostly long serial text. “Ten gifted books of muyushu” were selected in the Qing Dynasty, and Hua Jian Ji, Er He Hua Shi, and Shan Hu Shan Jin Suo Yuan Yang Ji were the three pieces of them that was highly regarded. Because muyushu often came in dozens of books, one or two episodes were excerpted or one or two short stories were selected from them to perform. This was called “zhaijin”. Guangzhou was the center of muyushu performance, which was popular in the Pearl River Delta. Because Guangdong was a port for foreign trade,

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muyushu was spread overseas early on. Hua Jian Ji was translated by the English man Peter Perring Thoms into English for the first time in 1824 and by Heinrich Kurz from the original Chinese text to German in 1836. On February 23, 1827, Goethe recorded that he had read the fulllength novel Hua Jian Ji, which was “written in rhyme”. On February 23, 1827, Goethe recorded that he had read the full-length novel Hua Jian Ji (written by a native of Dongguan) “written in rhymes”. Some scholars believe that Hua Jian Ji influenced Goethe and inspired him to compose Chinesisch-deutsche Jahres und Tageszeiten (Chinese German Seasons and Hours).

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Cihua and Guci

Cihua (storytelling with song and speech) flourished in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. “Yanchang cihua”, “ziban cizhuan”, “banshuo cihua”, and “banchang cihua” already appeared in the records of the Yuan Dynasty, which showed that the performance was relatively common at that time. In terms of text, the earliest surviving of the chanting cihua published during the reign of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty was unearthed in 1967 in Jiading, Shanghai. It was a batch of 16 pieces of chanting cihua printed by Yongshuntang in Beijing from the seventh year to the fourteenth year during the reign of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1471–1478). This batch of cihua was short and mostly about legends, legal cases, and supernatural events. Guci (storytelling aided by a drum and clapper) was popular in the south and north. Guci in the north was mainly popular in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Liaoning, Beijing, and Tianjin. In the south, guci was mainly divided into Yangzhou guci in Jiangsu and Wenzhou guci in Zhejiang. It is generally believed that guci was also known as “guzici” and “gu’ershu”. However, the earliest surviving version of Zhao Lingzhi’s Shang Diao Die Lian Hua Gu Zi Ci was written in the style of tune and was different from the guci popular among later generations although it was named as “guzici”. In terms of system, guci was mainly sung with the accompaniment of drum music. Like most chanting literature, it was written in seven-character or ten-character rhymed texts, accompanied by free prose. In the late years of the Ming Dynasty and the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Mu Pi San Ke Gu Ci written by scholar Jia Fuxi was a famous guci writing. Jia Fuxi (circa. 1590-circa. 1676) was known as Yingchong, courtesy names Situi and Jinfan, art names Fuxi and Danpu,

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alias Mupisanke. Mu Pi San Ren Gu Ci was mainly composed of historical stories, from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of remote antiquity to Emperor Chongzhen hanging himself in Meishan the late years of the Ming Dynasty. It was sometimes performed with rural and local dialects which could particularly accentuate the rhyme to be catchy without interrupting the refinement of the whole piece. In terms of length, early guci was “huge book”, and some pieces that were sung without spoken parts were called “small sections”. After the middle years of the Qing Dynasty, long pieces of guci became unpopular because of their length. Short sections extracted from guci to perform with “drum accompaniment” became the most popular form of performance. Depending on the region where guci was popular, guci was divided into different schools including Taohua guci with drum accompaniment, Xihe guci with drum accompaniment, and guci sung in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment.

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Zidishu and Kuaishu

Zidishu was a popular opera art in the middle and late years of the Qing Dynasty. It was created, composed, performed, and enjoyed by the Banners people in the early years of Emperor Qianlong and was gradually spread from big mansions in the inner city to theaters and tea houses in the outer city. It was enjoyed by the Banners and Han people in the capital. It was highly popular due to its beautiful lyrics and elegant music. As a kind of performing art spread from the Eight Banners nobleman’s residence to ordinary people, it was a combination of beautiful lyrics that refined scholars appreciated and expressions that ordinary people took delight in. It was mostly performed for self-entertainment at family banquets and gatherings of amateur performers. The texts that were passed down were mostly copied versions sold in bookstores and handed down by enthusiasts. With such characteristics, it had unique charm and value from its ethereal and refreshing quality. Zidishu first appeared in the early and middle years of the Qing Dynasty. The two most famous writers of zidishu were Luo Songchuang and Han Xiaochuang living in its early years. Luo Songshu was the founder of zidishu. “Songchuang” was a symbol embedded in the lyrics. There are now six works of zidishu that have been confirmed by scholars to have been composed by Luo Songchuang, namely Hong Fu Si Ben, Cui Ping Shan, Zhuang Shi Jiang Xiang, You Yuan Xun Meng, Luo Cheng

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Tuo Meng, and Li Hun. After Songchuang, Han Xiaochuang took the lead as a master of zidishu. Among zidishu writers in the Qing Dynasty, Han Xiaowu was the most prolific and most famous. Some even claim that he wrote more than five hundred pieces. In addition, the zidishu writers whose identities can be verified with certainty include Aisin Gioro·Yigeng, who signed “Helüshi”, and Guo’ermin, who signed “Xisuzhai”. Both of them were offspring of the Eight Banners clans and were prominent figures. Based on this, it could be concluded that zidishu writers were of prominent identities and from higher classes in the early creation stage of zidishu. This special feature greatly differentiated zidishu from the popular melodies in Beijing during the late years of the Qing Dynasty, such as guci sung in Beijing dialect with drum accompaniment. Popular melodies were mostly sung in vernacular and colloquial language in the streets, while the lyrics of zidishu were more elegant with more allusions and idioms. The surviving zidishu texts were divided into pure Han text, combination of Manchu-Han text, and Manchu-Han parallel text. The pure Han text was also mixed with a large number of phonetic translations of Manchu words in the Han language and was hardly written by those who were not proficient in both languages. The subject matter of zidishu, in general, could be divided into two categories, namely adaptation and real-life sources. Adapted works had texts extracted from an episode of a popular novel or opera, coupled with further processing, or had descriptions of an anecdote selected from current affairs and life. For example, among the works of Luo Songchuang, an early writer of zidishu that is widely recognized in the academia, Du Li Niang Xun Meng and Li Hun were adaptations from an episode in The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, respectively. In fact, except some long pieces such as Cui Ping Shan (twenty-four chapters) and Lu Lei Yuan (thirteen chapters), most of zidishu writings consisted of one to four chapters, and adaptations from operas or novels were often selected from the most wonderful episodes. Descriptions of current affairs were more concerned with a particular scene and rarely told a long, complete story. Works with depictions of real life mostly focused on the life of the Manchu. For example, Yuan Yang Kou described the marriage etiquette of noble Manchu families; Pang Xie Duan Er described interesting anecdotes of a Manchu couple in life. Kuaishu (clapper ballad) originated from zidishu and came into being in the middle years of the Qing Dynasty. It was popular in Beijing,

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Tianjin, and Hebei during the reigns of Tongzhi and Guangxu and is still sung today. Since most of the performers were unpaid Banners members, kuaishu was also called “zidi kuaishu”. Also, because its last tune pattern was lianzhudiao, it was also known as “lianzhu kuaishu”. Kuaishu consisted of seven parts: shipian (poem), hutout (introduction), chunyunban (lyrical tune), liushuiban (fast rhythm), shibai (poem summarizing the plot), huabai (vernacular introduction to the plot), and lianzhudiao (catchword repetition). Judging from the surviving kuaishu, it was mainly about stories of heroes. In order to fit the content, the tune of kuaishu was mostly impassioned and fast. Performers generally praised the chivalry of heroes with a majestic momentum and bold singing, emphasizing powerful articulation and completion of singing in one breath. Kuaishu usually had regular sentence patterns in shipian, shuzhutou, and shibai, while the number of sentences in chunyunban, liushuiban, huabai, and lianzhudiao was not regular. The shipian part was generally eight lines of seven characters, which was very similar to the shipian part of zidishu. It was used either to summarize the story or to explain its background, serving as a lead-in to the rest of the story. Among the surviving pieces of kuaishu, most are adaptations from stories about the Three Kingdoms, which amount to eighteen pieces. On one hand, the artistic characteristics of kuaishu determined that its content was mainly heroic and chivalrous stories in order to complement each other. On the other hand, this was related to the special feelings of the Manchu to the Three Kingdoms. The Manchu liked to read The Three Kingdoms, which had been translated into the Manchu language for reading before the Manchu came into the mainland.

PART IX

Modern Literature

1911 A.D.–1949 A.D.

CHAPTER 41

A Difficult Start of Modernization Zhao Jinghua

1 Politics and the Literature Circle in the Early Years of the Republic of China After the late years of the Qing Dynasty, China underwent “a great change unprecedented in three thousand years”, and its modernization process started with difficulty under the military, economic, political, and cultural pressures of the Western powers. The tragic defeat of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 inspired the Constitutional Reform and Modernization Movement for the purpose of saving the nation from subjugation and ensuring its survival. After the failure of the Hundred Days Reform in 1898, new intellectuals, represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, began to deviate from the traditional bureaucratic system and carried out ideological and political enlightenment activities by means of new media such as newspapers and societies. A new group of modern intellectuals came into being and opened up space for the emergence of a new literary form. In the midst of such a great change, literature was also undergoing drastic changes. The new literary form had two basic characteristics. Externally, its social function was greatly enhanced. It was

Z. Jinghua (B) Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_41

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not only closely related to the major issues of the time such as enlightenment, revolution, and the establishment of a modern nation-state, but also participated in the operation mechanism of modernity change to the fullest extent. Internally, it was more inspired by Western thought and culture and was a product of the intense collision between foreign civilization and local tradition. In this sense, it was the result of fission and separation from traditional literature, which allowed the brewing and breeding of modern Chinese literature in the midst of conflicts. The fission and separation were finally completed in the 1920s, when the “stylistic revolution” of the fellows of New Youth completely divided literature into the binary “new” and “old” structures by language (classical Chinese/vernacular). Since then, literature belongs to different groups and fields within such modernity dividing line, and a complex pattern of mutual independence and confrontation took shape. On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out and a military government was established in Hubei. Many southern provinces also declared independence. In 1912, the interim government of the Republic of China was founded in Nanjing, and Sun Yat-sen assumed the post of Provisional President. On February 12 of the same year, Emperor Puyi of the Qing Dynasty issued an imperial edict of abdication, bringing an end to the autocratic empire that had lasted for more than two thousand years. After the abdication of the Qing Emperor, Yuan Shikai, the former premier of the cabinet of the Qing Court, claimed the presidency of the Republic of China, and the capital of the National Government was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. Modern China officially ushered in the Beiyang era. Under the rule of powerful warlords, the Republic of China was plagued by internal and external difficulties and crises. The democratic republican system was built upon an unstable foundation, and political scandals of the Hongxian monarchy and Zhang Xun Restoration occurring one after another. This had far-reaching effects on the political and cultural landscapes of China. On the one hand, various factions, including the Northern Warlords, the Chinese Revolutionary League, and the Progressive Party, competed fiercely for political power and interests at various levels, coupled with political parties in disarray and frequent changes of cabinet, which caused tremendous internal damage to the newly established national system and infinitely drained the public’s confidence and ideals in the republican system. On the other hand, intellectuals did not forge an independent, autonomous, and stable class of modern intellectuals. As individual scholars, they were either mired in political

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strife, roamed in the consumer culture market in pursuit of fame and fortune, or indulged themselves in a small circle of literati. Some other literati swung back and forth between several fields, at a loss. The literary landscape in this period was also the most direct manifestation of scholars under the current state of existence.

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The Prosperity of Newspaper “Argumentation” and Traditional Poetry and Prose

Thanks to the rise of modern newspapers and magazines, political essays became an important way for Chinese intellectuals to participate in politics. In 1914, Zhang Shizhao founded Jia Yin, a magazine that brought together Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Huang Yanyong, and Gao Yihan, among others, to write and discuss political issues in a way that transcended party affiliation. Zhang Shizhao once studied in England and absorbed the strengths of overseas political essays. Many of his articles published in Jia Yin also focused on correcting the shortcomings of the flashy and empty “New Literary Style” advocated by Liang Qichao and others and promoted rational expression that was simple and logical. In this way, the unique “logical essays” appeared, and their popularity and charm even influenced the essays that “criticized Confucius” in New Youth in its early years. Political essays published in the modern press carried the enlightenment ideas and national salvation sentiments of the intellectuals living in the early years of the Republic. They also provided the main channel for them to participate in politics, but they could not truly transcend party politics to develop into a group of independent and autonomous modern intellectuals. More importantly, while intellectuals regarded politics as a public sphere, they also relegated literature and art as private spheres. In political publications such as Jia Yin, novels, poems, ci, and other literary writings were often published at the bottom of the length in a section called “Literature Garden” as a means of attracting readers. This in fact manifested the separation between politics and literature. For this reason, Huang Yuanyong, a reporter of Jia Yin, proposed that “The fundamental remedy should start with the promotion of New Literature”. Although the editor in chief Zhang Shizhao still emphasized the priority of political issues, “If the article is not relevant to political affairs and is compatible with the private sector, even if Shakespeare and Hugo resurrected, they would be powerless to render

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assistance”. However, the trend turned out to be irresistible, and the seed of “Literature Revolution” had been sown. After the Revolution of 1911, traditional poetry and prose did not disappear. In fact, they remained influential to a large extent and even prospered with the last radiance in a specific spatial field. First of all, parallel prose, which had been criticized during the Modernization Movement in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, became popular again in the political and cultural context during the early years of the Republic. The government adopted parallel prose for official documents and announcements; revolutionaries wrote official calls to arms in the form of parallel prose; even merchant signs and advertisements were often written in the “four-six” style. Parallel prose became popular because it was politically provocative and readable in the public consumer market due to its neat style, powerful sentences, and beautiful rhetoric. It could also be used to showcase the elegant tastes and rhetorical attainment of literati. Thus, it could be widely disseminated in specific political and cultural environments and was favored by politicians, literati, and the public. Different from the sensation of last radiance for parallel prose, Tongcheng ancient prose had a profound and solid effect in the early years of the Republic. In 1905, the imperial examination system was abolished by the court of the Qing Dynasty, and both the eight-part essays and the composition of poetry writing attached to it gradually disappeared. While Tongcheng ancient prose was also in decline, it continued to exist with tenacious vitality because it was embedded in the background of the new education system. During the dramatic changes in the education system during the late years of the Qing Dynasty, many Tongcheng ancient prose writers incorporated “ancient prose” into the then-fledgling national speech education by writing textbooks and compiling ancient prose readings. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Rulun, a representative of the Tongcheng School, served as the director of teaching in the Imperial University of Peking. After the founding of the Republic of China, Yan Fu, who had deep relationships with Wu Rulun and the Tongcheng School, served as the first president of Peking University. During the tenure of Yan Fu, ancient prose masters like Ma Qichang, Yao Yongpu, and Yao Yonggai taught in the university, making the Department of Arts in Peking University an important base of the Tongcheng School. All of this laid a solid foundation for Tongcheng ancient prose to continue its influence. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Tongcheng ancient prose writings such

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as Gu Wen Ci Lei Zuan were reprinted continuously, which showed the prestige of Tongcheng ancient prose in the scholarly circle. Lin Shu’s translation of Western classics such as Evolution and Ethics (Tian Yan Lun) into ancient prose injected vitality into ancient prose to connect with new European and American trends. Lin Shu also absorbed the writing techniques of ancient prose when translating novels like The Lady of the Camellias, which qualified ancient prose for dissemination to the general public and helped it become more prestigious.

3 Prevalence of Popular Novels: “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School” and “Muckraking” The Revolution of 1911 succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu monarch of the Qing Dynasty, but the establishment of the Republic of China itself marked the end of “revolutions” in all senses during the late years of the Qing Dynasty. In terms of literary creation, the decline of the “Revolution in the Circle of Novels” turned to a trend, and literati no longer tried to reveal their visions about revolutions and the subsequent “new China” through novels. In the “post-revolution” period, novels became a material means of livelihood and a fictional space for scholars to indulge themselves decadently. Sometimes novels provided a channel for them to vent their anger against politics, society, and the world. However, none of this could form a real critical force. Instead, they were integrated into the system of the public cultural consumer market. Relying on its economic and cultural strength, the metropolis of Shanghai accommodated the scholars who sought a way out after the imperial examinations, and its developed press and media laid the foundation for the prosperity of novels and popular culture as a whole. In 1912, Xu Zhenya began to serialize The Death of Yuli in Civil Right Newspaper which he worked for. Later, the separate edition was published by the Civil Rights Publishing Department. Hundreds of thousands of copies were reprinted. Its influence even extended to Hong Kong and southeast Asia, and it became a representative novel of the “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School”. In addition to The Death of Yuli, similar works appearing during this period also included Wu Shuangre’s Nie Yuan Jing and Li Dingyi’s Yun Yu Yuan. In 1914, the foundation of the publication Saturday in Shanghai was a landmark, indicating the great momentum of the novels of the “Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School”. Besides, social novels drew huge repercussion. Li Hanqiu’s Guangling Tide covered all aspects of the early

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civil society by linking major historical events and anecdotes. Almost as magnificent as social encyclopedia, it was a representative of social novels. Another kind of novels popular in the market and among the public was “muckraking novels”. From 1916 to 1918, The China Times launched the so-called “muckraking reward” and thus compiled abundant textual materials exposing social scandals. Later, the term “muckraking” was used to describe works that depicted the dark side of society during this period, and one of the representative works was Private Records of Studying in Japan (Liu Dong Wai Shi) by Pingjiangbuxiaosheng. In the book, the bold descriptions of scandals among the Chinese students studying in Japanese left a deep impression on readers.

4 “Opera Reform” with “Mix of Tradition and Innovation” In the late years of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic, the opera community in China was a mix of tradition and innovation. Old operas that flourished coexisted with a new civilized opera that drew on the forms of Western discourse. They were intricately connected. The tradition of opera has a long history in China, and with the arrival of the four Huiban opera troupes in Beijing during the late years of the Qing Dynasty, Peking Opera became popular and gradually replaced the declining Kun Opera as the mainstream of the opera community. After the founding of the Republic of China, Peking Opera moved from the court to the public, and its influence spread to all walks of life. Peking Opera became an entertainment that suited both refined and popular tastes. The new civilized opera appearing in the late years of the Qing Dynasty was born among the Chinese students studying in Japan. After this art form became influential, it was often associated with politics and used as a means of publicizing reform or advocating revolution. However, this was a transient phenomenon. After the success of the Revolution of 1911, this kind of strongly political “new opera” gradually disappeared, and repertoire that was entertaining and available for commercial consumption gradually became popular in Shanghai. In 1914, six professional drama clubs, including the New People Association and the Civilization Association, held public performances in Shanghai and achieved good box office results. The representative piece E Jia Ting was a hit. The early years of the Republic saw a meaningful interaction between elegance and vulgarity, and it was in this context that the reform of Peking Opera began. A series

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of new fashion repertoire performed by Mei Lanfang after he came into contact with the opera community in Shanghai was sensational, including Huan Hai Chao, Deng Xia Gu, Yi Lv Ma, and Lao Yu Yuan Yang. This gradually established his status in the opera community. To sum up, the literature circle in the early years of the Republic continued the prosperity in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, but many changes took place. Firstly, although traditional poetry and prose flourished in the last radiance, they relied more on the abundant materials available during the times of social changes. They were obviously not motivated enough to sustain stylistic innovation. “The Revolution in the Circle of Poets” almost ran out of its energy in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. Secondly, although novels and operas were popular for a while, they were too subservient to the market logic of public cultural consumption and focused on assuming the function of entertainment while lacking the power of social criticism. At that time, many political topics and social issues of enlightenment and public nature existed, but they were rarely touched upon deeply in literature and art. This indicated some division between literature and politics in the early years of the Republic, which was exactly the result of the inherent division of the scholar group in the transition era. They either were involved in complicated political disputes and could not extricate themselves from them, or deliberately kept themselves detached from politics and disappeared into the narrow space of their personal lives to intentionally avoid public space. Obviously, the prerequisite for changing such division state was literature reform that could activate the inherent political potential of literature and release it from personal sentiment and public consumption to give off cry of the times. This becomes the key for intellectuals in the early years of the Republic to define their own cultural mission.

CHAPTER 42

“Literature Revolution” and “New Literature of May Fourth” Li Zhe

1 Establishment of New Youth and Beginning of “Literature Revolution” In 1915, Youth Magazine was born in Shanghai with Chen Duxiu as the editor in chief. This fellow publication gathered a group of former writers from Jia Yin. However, unlike the focus of Jia Yin on political discourse, Youth Magazine focused on more fundamental ideological enlightenment. Chen Duxiu regarded the founding of the newspaper as broad education and consciously pinpointed the broad youth as the clear beneficiaries. From then on, new modern consciousness and a cultural enlightenment mechanism took shape. The Youth Magazine was later renamed New Youth, which provided a chance for Chen Duxiu and many of his colleagues to attack Confucianism, defend the republic, promote science, and discuss religion and ethics. This eventually triggered the beginning of Literature Revolution.

L. Zhe (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_42

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On January 1, 1917, Hu Shi published A Preliminary Discussion of Literature Reform on New Youth (Vol. 2 and Issue 5). In this groundbreaking article, Hu Shi gently and clearly stressed “eight guidelines” for the literature reform: “(1) Write with substance; (2) Do not imitate the ancients; (3) Emphasize grammar; (4) Reject melancholy; (5) Eliminate old cliches; (6) Do not use allusions; (7) Do not use couplets and parallelisms; (8) Do not avoid popular expressions or popular forms of characters”. Later, Chen Duxiu published Toward a Literature Revolution to support Hu Shi and upheld more radical “three banners”, “Destroy the aristocratic literature that was nothing but literary chiseling and flattery and construct a simple, expressive literature of the people; destroy the outmoded, showy, classical literature and construct a fresh and sincere literature of realism; destroy the obscure and abstruse ‘forest’ literature and construct a clear and popular literature of society”. With these two articles as milestones, the banner of “literature reform” from New Youth was held up under the call of Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi. It was also in early 1917 that Chen Duxiu was invited by Cai Yuanpei to be the Dean of Arts at Peking University, and the editorial office of New Youth was moved to Beijing. After Cai Yuanpei returned to China to be the president of Peking University in 1916, a comprehensive reform was initiated on campus. Cai Yuanpei, who had returned from studies in Germany, was well versed in modern university education concepts. He suppressed applied disciplines such as law and commerce, elevated the status of the two disciplines of literature and sciences, strictly enforced the principle of letting professors rule the school, and pursued the educational thought of “freedom of thought and inclusiveness”. These efforts created a good academic and cultural atmosphere in Peking University. The combination of “one school and one journal” became a landmark historical event. Relying on high-quality cultural resources and a good academic platform, the “Literature Revolution” led by Chen Duxiu, Hu

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Shi, and others was fully unfolded at “form” and “content” levels. As Hu Shi said in his essay Constructive Literary Revolution, “We have only two central theories. One is that we want to build a kind of ‘living literature’, and the other is that we want to build a kind of ‘human literature’. The former theory is innovation in writing as a tool, and the latter theory is innovation in literary content”. The so-called “living literature” referred to a stylistic change of replacing “classical Chinese language” with “vernacular language”. Since the beginning of the “Literature Revolution”, Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, and others had promoted the “theory of historical literary concept”. They elevated the value of novel and opera by presenting different arguments while denouncing parallel prose and Tongcheng ancient prose as “evil learning” and “products of ridiculous Tongcheng members”. They adopted a harsh attitude and poured out fierce criticism for the fundamental purpose of establishing “vernacular as the orthodoxy of literature”. In 1918, New Youth began to generally adopt the vernacular language, and vernacular literary works, represented by A Madman’s Diary (Kuang Ren Ri Ji), came into being, which marked the official start of the “New Literature” based on the change of language style. In April 1918, Hu Shi proposed the slogan of “literature of national speech and national speech of literature” in Constructive Literary Revolution, which was combined with the “National Speech Movement” advocated by the education circle in Beijing in the early days of the Republic. They acted in unison, and the vernacular movement developed in leaps and bounds. In 1919, the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang Government established the “Unified Preparatory Union of National Speech” to promote the reform of textbooks and teaching in the education system through state power. After the outbreak of the “May Fourth” movement, vernacular writings were widely disseminated. Hu Shi recalled, “Between 1919 and 1920, there were more than four hundred kinds of student publications of all sizes across the country. All of them were written in the vernacular language”. These mushrooming literary journals and newspaper supplements provided ample space for the publication of new poems, vernacular novels, and prose thereafter. The so-called “human literature” meant that the formation of the ideological paradigm and aesthetic quality of “New Literature” through a series of critical practices centered on individualism and humanism by New Youth. New Literature was unique because its critical discourse

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was constructed before literary practice. When the “Literature Revolution” was in its infancy, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, and Liu Bannong discussed the problem of old-fashioned vernacular novels such as The Golden Lotus and Water Margin in “tempting people into outlawry and obscenity” in the correspondence column of New Youth. They also bitterly denounced the novels translated by Lin Shu, muckraking novels, novels of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, and old-fashioned operas represented by Kun Opera and Peking Opera in the literature circle during the early years of the Republic. However, these discussions and criticisms never moved beyond the single dimension of moral criticism. In 1919, Zhou Zuoren published Human Literature and established the idea of “individualistic selfish departmentalism”, which not only established the benchmark for the critique of old-fashioned literature, but also provided an ideal model for the ongoing “New Literature”. In April 1918, Hu Shi published Constructive Literary Revolution on New Youth, declaring that “I hope that supporters of the Literature Revolution should realize that all of the corrupt literary genres must be ‘replaced’. They should make efforts in construction, creating living literature in the new China for its sake within thirty to fifty years”. While criticizing the old literature, he also advocated a constructive literature revolution to push discussions further on the genres of drama, novel, and poetry in a concrete, detailed and practical manner, so as to pave the way for a creative climax of New Literature. As far as the fellows of New Youth were concerned, the most important contributors to the creation of literature were Hu Shi and the brothers of Zhou. Hu Shi was both an advocate of the “Literature Revolution” and a practitioner of vernacular literature. He built his theory with his own creative experience and confirmed his theoretical vision of literature with his creative performance. To a great extent, these two aspects echoed each other. Hu Shi’s contribution to the creation of New Literature was mainly in the field of poetry. In 1920, the new poems that Hu Shi had written over years were published as A Collection of Attempting Modern Language Poem, which was a pioneering milestone because it was the first collection of new poems in the history of China. In his poetry creation, Hu Shi practiced his poetic principle of “writing poetry as prose”. He adopted the writing technique of prose, focused on argument and reasoning, and pursued simplistic and straightforward expression. All of this broke the aesthetic practices and taboos of traditional metrical verses.

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Different from Hu Shi as the main leader of the Literature Revolution, Lu Xun occupied a relatively marginal position among fellows of New Youth. Lu Xun, whose real name was Zhou Shuren, began his literary activities when he studied in Japan in the late years of the Qing Dynasty. He published his novel Nostalgia (Huai Jiu) written in the classical Chinese language in 1913. At the beginning of the Literature Revolution in 1917, Lu Xun worked for the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang Government and devoted most of his energy to collecting and organizing ancient books and cultural relics. He almost refrained from literary activities. At the invitation of Qian Xuantong, Lu Xun wrote his famous work named A Madman’s Diary, which was published in New Youth in 1918. A Madman’s Diary was often regarded as the first vernacular novel, in which Lu Xun provided a novel narrative with meticulous rational logic and presented the schizophrenia of intellectuals caught between tradition and modernity through the mouth of a “madman”. The novel impressed readers with its profound expression and exceptional form. After A Madman’s Diary was completed, Lu Xun started to build momentum and wrote a series of famous works such as Kong Yiji, Medicine, Storm in A Teacup (Feng Bo), and My Old Home (Gu Xiang). These works were mostly based on the local life experience of the writer himself in his hometown Shaoxing. They provided both a keen insight into rural society and a sharp critique of the spiritual obscurity of the nationals. They also had an extreme aesthetic quality of “lyrical poetry”. They were rare masterpieces in the rank of modern Chinese short stories. The Real Story of Ah Q (A Q Zheng Zhuan) was serialized in Chen Bao Fu Juan edited by Sun Fuyuan in December 1921. The character Ah Q in this novel was very typical, and his “spiritual victory” mentality was a reflection of Lu Xun’s profound understanding of national nature. The publication of The Real Story of Ah Q marked an unprecedented level of artistic excellence of Lu Xun’s novels. Lu Xun’s young brother Zhou Zuoren made contributions mainly to theoretical construction and literary translation during the times of New Youth, but his poems and prose writings were also outstanding. His long poem A Little River (Xiao He) was rated by Hu Shi as “the first masterpiece of new poetry”, and his small essays Wild Vegetables of My Home Region (Gu Xiang De Ye Cai), Bitter Rain (Ku Yu) and The Wupeng Boat (Wu Peng Chuan) were all masterpieces with each word a gem. After 1919, Chen Duxiu left Peking University, and the editorial office of New Youth moved southward to Shanghai, where it eventually became

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the official organ of the Communist Party of China. After New Youth was moved southward, the fellows who had gathered around it began to go their separate ways. However, the “Literature Revolution” movement initiated by New Youth did not end but flourished after the “May Fourth Movement”. From 1919 to 1925, before the rise of the “Great Revolution”, literary societies sprang up and literary journals proliferated. Literary practices in different genres were rapidly developed. The influence of “New Literature” spread from Beijing to all parts of the country, with independent production mechanisms, dissemination channels, and audience groups gradually coming into being. A solid front was established outside the “old” literature circle. The New Youth was influential not just because of the thought it advocated, but also due to the way it organized itself as a society to unite fellows with its periodicals. Under the influence of New Youth, Peking University welcomed a trend of forming societies and publishing periodicals, including the New Tide Society, which was immeasurably instrumental in the prosperity of New Literature. In 1919, Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, and other students of Peking University founded a magazine called New Tide. They wrote articles to advocate vernacular literature, participated in the “drama debate”, published translated European and American literary works, and echoed the “Literature Revolution” proposed by New Youth. In terms of literary creation, New Tide developed a relatively stable group of novelists who focused on cultural reflection on social issues and at the same time had both rational spirit and humanitarian feelings. They became forerunners of “problem novels” during the “May Fourth” period. Shortly after, with the departure of key figures such as Fu Sinian and Luo Jialun to abroad, the New Tide Society gradually disintegrated, but Beixin Shuju, an organization developed on the basis of the New Tide Society, continued to exert influence, and former members of the New Tide Society like Li Xiaofeng published the works of Lu Xun and other famous writers many times. The success of New Tide was inseparable from its resonance with New Youth. Turning many ideas of the “Literature Revolution” into concrete social and cultural practices marked an important step toward the establishment of a production mechanism for “New Literature”. As the influence of the “Literature Revolution” continued to expand, “New Literature” gradually gained the upper hand in the “battle between tradition and innovation” and began to challenge the literature circle dominated by popular literature.

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2 Societies, Schools, and Genres of “New Literature” In early 1921, Zheng Zhenduo, Ye Shaojun, Shen Yanbing, and others initiated the Literary Research Society, with the clear purpose of “studying and introducing world literature, organizing old literature and creating new literature”. The Society advocated the idea of “art for life”. In the same year, Shen Yanbing took over and made keen innovation in Novel Monthly, a publication of the former “Saturday” school, turning it into the journal of the Society. From Volume 12 and Issue 1 in 1921, Novel Monthly began to publish a large number of New Literature works and translated foreign literary works, as well as many New Literature critiques. At the same time, commercial capital and mass media also gradually noticed the potential of “New Literature” and began to get deeply involved in the construction of the “New Literature” ecosystem. Major newspapers began to fill their supplements with New Literature in order to attract readers. Chen Bao Fu Juan and The China Times·Light of Learning gradually became the leading front of New Literature in the mass media. Especially after the “May Fourth” Movement, students replaced citizens as the stable readership of New Literature, and the publishing and remuneration systems were increasingly improved, which motivated the group of writers known for creating “New Literature” to become a beautiful bright spot in the literature circle. New Literature writers in the early days of the “May Fourth” were mostly associated with the Literary Research Society. Among them, Bing Xin, Ye Shengtao, Xu Dishan, and Wang Tunzhao were relatively famous. In 1919, Bing Xin published her novels Two Families (Liang Ge Jia Ting) and The Man Alone Is Off Color (Si Ren Du Qiao Cui) in the Morning News, stepping into the literature circle as a novelist. Later, she published poem collections The Stars (Fan Xing) and Spring Waters (Chun Shui), which earned her the fame as a poet. When she published the series Letters to My Young Readers (Ji Xiao Du Zhe) in Supplement to Morning News in 1923, Bing Xin had been veritably a famous writer. At that time, Ye Shengtao was a member of the New Tide Society, and his early novels were significantly contemplative on social issues from the cultural perspective, such as Life (Yi Sheng), A Retarded Child (Di Neng Er), Estrangement (Ge Mo), and Bitter Herbs (Ku Cai). After 1919, Ye

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Shengtao began to draw on materials from the field of secondary education with which he was familiar to his novels, and Meal (Fan) and The Principal (Xiao Zhang) were of great social relevance. Mr. Pan in Distress (Pan Xian Sheng Zai Nan Zhong) successfully portrayed a complex gray character of Mr. Pan and became a representative of his early works. Xu Dishan was also a member of the Literary Research Society, and his representative works included The Bird of Destiny (Ming Ming Niao), Laboring Spider (Zhui Wang Lao Zhu), Merchant’s Wife (Shang Ren Fu), etc. Most of them were inspired by the exotic southeast Asia and were permeated with religious aura and philosophical reflections on the fate of individuals. Wang Tongzhao’s novels focused on the realistic subject of suffering, but his narrative was poetically lyrical. He was interested in expressing a humanitarian concern for the characters. His representative works included Shipwreck (Chen Chuan) and The Queue of Life and Death (Sheng Yu Si De Yi Hang Lie). A highly important phenomenon of the “May Fourth” New Literature was the emergence of a group of female writers. In addition to Bing Xin, other important female writers during this period included Lu Yin, Ling Shuhua, Feng Yuanjun, etc. “Women’s liberation” had been an important cultural trend since the late Qing Dynasty, and New Youth also had a column dedicated to “women’s issues”. The introduction of Nora in its “Ibsen Issue” practically set a model for the life of the “new women”. With the slogan of “freedom of marriage”, there was a trend of leaving old families among women. “May Fourth” women writers were mostly interested in writing about marriage. The Old Friend in Shore (Hai Bin Gu Ren) portrays mostly new women, who gathered at the seashore to lament their sad fate and were unable to find a way out in spite of the endless sorrow. The full-length novel Ivory Ring (Xiang Ya Jie Zhi) written by Lu Yin was inspired by the love stories of her friends Gao Junyu and Shi Pingmei and showed her confusion and agony about love from the unique perspective of woman. Ling Shuhua’s novels featured subtle and restrained narrative and embraced the classical poetic aesthetic of “starting with feelings and controlling with propriety”. Her masterpiece Embroidered Pillow (Xiu Zhen) was a modern psychological portrayal of a young lady’s longing for her lover. Feng Yuanjun’s novels focused more on interpreting society. Her novels Isolation (Ge Jue) and Trip (Lv Xing) were about romantic love, but the “romantic lover” was often placed in the objective social environment to trigger a tense confrontation between

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the individual and society, thus adding rich social content and cultural significance to the female perspective. Another noteworthy phenomenon was the popularity of “local novels”. Local novel writers preferred to depict the suffering and barbarism of the countryside. In Water Burial (Shui Zang), Jian Xianai presented a shocking scene of a thief being tortured. In Gloomy Mist (Can Wu), Xu Jie depicted bloody armed fights between villages. The Gambler Ji Shun (Du Tu Ji Shun) touched on the vicious pawning wife system. In Juying’s Wedding (Ju Ying De Chu Jia), Wang Luyan elaborated the bad practice of ghost marriage. Pomelo (You Zi) was about innumerable murders in the writer’s hometown Hunan. Under the cognitive framework informed by modern culture, local novel writers seemed to have discovered a backward, barbaric, and “inhuman” rural world and further built up their own logic of cultural criticism. However, along with rational criticism, sentimental emotions also pervaded and evolved to be unstoppable nostalgia. In a sense, local novels also marked the formation of local characteristics in Chinese New Literature. During the development after the “May Fourth”, New Literature became complex in many ways. The campus-centered educational system became the main venue for the production and dissemination of New Literature, and young students replaced citizens as the most important participants of New Literature, both as writers and as readers. For this group, literature was not only an artistic activity, but also a social channel for young people. Exactly for this reason, New Literature was somehow independent and autonomous and was deeply involved in the literary movements that flourished after the “May Fourth”, while at the same time it kept a distance from the public consumer market. This literary group became increasingly active, as shown in the emergence of various literary societies specifically. The Sunken Bell Association, formerly known as Shallow Grass Literary Association, was founded in 1922 by Lin Ruji, joined by members including Chen Weimo, Chen Xianghe, Deng Junwu, and Feng Zhi. They published a quarterly journal called Shallow Grass. In 1923, the main members of the Shallow Grass Literary Association gathered in Beijing to continue their literary activities. In 1925, Lin Ruji, Chen Weimo, Chen Xianghe, and Feng Zhi founded the Sunken Bell Association, whose name Sunken Bell came from the German modernist Gerhart Haupt. The name Sunken Bell came from the German modernist play Die Versunkene Glocke (The Sunken Bell) written by Gerhart Hauptmann. This indicated

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how much the members of the Sunken Bell Association valued literary translation. Within a few years, the members of the Sunken Bell Association translated a large number of German literary works. Under this influence, the Sunken Bell Association was also drawn to romantic lyrical creation and modernist expressive techniques. For example, Lin Ruji’s It Will Pass (Jiang Guo Qu), Chen Weimo’s Light Mist (Qing Wu) and Chen Xianghe’s The West Wind Blows to the Pillow (Xi Feng Chui Dao Le Zhen Bian) were famous novels of this type. Among these writers, Feng Zhi was most accomplished and was rated by Lu Xun as “the most outstanding lyrical poet in China”. His masterpiece Snake (She) presented the mentality of human through bizarre imagery and was deeply rooted in the symbolist literature. He collected his works completed during this period into Song of Yesterday (Zuo Ri De Ge). Lakeside Poetry Society was founded in Hangzhou in 1922, and its members included Wang Jingzhi, Feng Xuefeng, Ying Xiuren, and Pan Mohua. Most of these four members were students of the First Normal School of Zhejiang Province, and they started a career as poets under the influence of their teachers Zhu Ziqing, Ye Shengtao, and others. Lakeside Poetry Society was a relatively loose organization. In 1922, Wang Jingzhi published a collection of poems called Wind from the Orchid (Hui De Feng). In 1923, Feng Xuefeng, Ying Xiuren, and Pan Mohua jointly published a collection of poems called Songbook of Spring, which were mainly “love poems”. Wang Jingzhi was the most accomplished poets among them. His representative works such as Her Eyes (Yi De Yan) and My Lover is Like Water (Mei Mei Ni Shi Shui) were bold, vigorous, passionate, and innocent, and they fit the trend of the “May Fourth” against hypocritical rituals and were highly praised by masters of New Literature such as Hu Shi, Zhu Ziqing and Lu Xun. Members of the Creation Society were mainly students who studied in Japan, including Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Cheng Fangwu, and Tian Han as representatives. Unlike the Literary Research Society with the aim of “for life”, fellows of the Creation Society advocated “art for art’s sake” and emphasized the demonstration of individual genius and romanticism. The most accomplished member of the Creation Society was Guo Moruo. In 1919, Guo Moruo’s new poems were published by courtesy of Zong Baihua in The China Times Light of Learning, and Guo Moruo formally entered the poetry circle in China. In 1921, his poetry collection The Goddess (Nv Shen) was published and caused a sensation in the literature circle, laying a foundation for new poetry. The poems collected in

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The Goddess drew on extensive materials and presented a broad vision. The poet always placed a passionate self in an immense spatial and temporal coordinate, breaking the narrow pattern of the early new poetry. Compared with small vernacular poems in the early period, his poems were more provocative, serving as a medium and entrance for individuals to burst into the social and cultural movement and even as part of the “movement” itself. Different from Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu was known in the literature circle in China for his novels. His novel series Sinking (Chen Lun) was influenced by the Japanese “Watakushi novels”, and their bold revelation of the abnormal sexual mentality of young wanderers in foreign lands largely fit the logic of morality and ethics critique during the “May Fourth” period. Thus, these novels were tremendously influential. In Yu Dafu’s works, the characters were “the unwanted” who were mostly physically weak and mentally depressed, and they were trapped in despair and decadence, but with aesthetic meaning and moral power injected by the writer so that they resonated with young readers. Another member of the Creation Society, Tian Han, was well-known for his plays. His masterpieces were Return from the South (Nan Gui), The Voice of an Ancient Pool (Gu Tan De Sheng Yin), and The Tragedy on the Lake (Hu Shang De Bei Ju). Tian Han’s plays did not focus on narrative or plot, but on the emotions of the characters and the overall ambient atmosphere. Their language was gorgeous and poetic. Founded in 1923 as a literary salon organized by intellectuals in the higher education community of Beijing in the form of dinner party, the Crescent Moon Society later became a literary society with shared artistic pursuit. It published works mainly in Supplement to Morning News and founded the magazine Crescent Moon in its late years. Hu Shi was not famous for his poems in the Crescent Moon Society, and the important poets and poetry theorists were Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, and Zhu Xiang. Wen Yiduo was known for his poems The Stagnant Ditch (Si Shui) and Confession (Kou Gong), which were filled with elaborate imagery and notable for systematic forms, while emotions were presented with power in a restrained way. In addition to compositions, Wen Yiduo also made considerable achievements in poetry theory and proposed the principle of “three aesthetics”, namely the aesthetics of music, painting, and architecture. This theory had a far-reaching influence and opened up a wide space for the integration of classical tradition into Chinese new poetry. Xu Zhimo once studied in Cambridge, the UK, and his poems

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had the free and gentlemanly English style. His poems like Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again (Zai Bie Kang Qiao) and Joy of Snowflakes (Xue Hua De Kuai Le) featured cheerful rhythm, beautiful images, and strong readability. They were admired and loved by young readers and were recognized and appreciated by traditional literati. Another poet of the Crescent Moon Society, Zhu Xiangying, died young and left few works surviving to this date, but his attempts to modernize classical forms as shown in Lotus-plucking Tune (Cai Lian Qu) and Tune of Bridegroom’ Gift of Cosmetics to Bride (Cui Zhuang Qu) deserved due attention. Arguably, the experiments and explorations of the fellows of the Crescent Moon Society on the standardization of new poetry not only laid down the basic composition rules for new poetry, but also dissolved the division between “traditional” and “modern” tastes to make new poetry acceptable to readers and expanded the breadth of its dissemination. The creation process of prose as a modern genre was more complex than that of poems. In the early days of the Literature Revolution, there were special discussions on poetry, novel and play as literary genres, but “prose” itself was not heeded from a literary perspective. During the “May Fourth” period, the scope of prose was still mixed and complicated. It seemed that any text that was not classified as novel, poetry, or play could be put into the scope of “prose”. Chen Duxiu once differentiated “applied writing” and “literary writing”, but the effect remained limited. It was not until Zhou Zuoren proposed the concept of “beautiful prose” that the modern concept of prose composition was advanced and took a relatively important step forward. Since then, writers have written prose with a clear awareness of its status as a literary genre, and a number of writers have emerged who are famous for writing prose such as Zhou Zuoren, Zhu Ziqing, Liang Yuchun, and Feng Zikai. Zhu Ziqing’s prose was characterized by rich content, exquisite structure, and concise and refined language. For example, Moonlight over the Lotus Pond (He Tang Yue Se), The Sight of Father’s Back (Bei Ying), and Rush (Cong Cong) were all popular and famous. Liang Yuchun’s prose captured the charm of English essays deeply, and his masterpieces included Chun Lao Ji and Tears and Laughter (Lei Yu Xiao), which were full of knowledge and fun. Feng Zikai’s prose had a simple and innocent style, and he was able to write the mundane interests of life. His small essay collection Yuan Yuan Tang Sui Bi has enduring influence. Indeed, the differentiation and development process of the New Literature genres was tortuous and subtle, and the boundaries of the four major genres were gradually clear but not

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isolated from each other. Many writers were good at more than one genre and created their own aesthetic quality although they had expertise in a particular genre.

CHAPTER 43

“National Revolution” and the Rise of Left-Wing Literature Li Zhe

In 1927, the new Nationalist Government set up its capital in Nanjing, which marked the southward shift of China’s political and cultural center, and the center of New Literature shifted from Beijing to Shanghai, ushering in a new stage. Firstly, with highly developed economy, Shanghai established a complete commercial capital system and gave rise to a modern media system with bookstores and publications as the core, providing a convenient channel for the dissemination of various ideas and a solid foundation for the further prosperous development of New Literature. Secondly, due to the existence of Concession, the oppressive political persecution and harsh cultural censorship imposed by the Kuomintang and its government on intellectuals were greatly cushioned, which objectively created a relatively free cultural space. Thirdly, Shanghai, known as “Paris of the East”, was now the economic hub of the Far East and was a completely cosmopolitan city, so it was able to receive the most advanced cultural trends and the most fashionable literary ideas in the world and

L. Zhe (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_43

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respond to them quickly. This also provided rich soil for the formation and development of various modern literary and artistic trends. The literary forms in the 1930s as a whole were no longer as rich and mixed as they were during the May Fourth period, and they were relatively consolidated and modular. First of all, the Nationalist Government promoted party-oriented education and supported various cultural policies such as nationalist thought. They also employed political tactics to squeeze the development space of dissident cultures. Secondly, with the rise of revolutionary literature, progressive intellectuals took advantage of the mass media and free Concession in Shanghai to initiate different debates on revolutionary literature. During this process, revolutionary plus romance novels were popular and quickly took over the market. Jiang Guangci’s novels and Lu Xun’s essays became bestsellers. Thirdly, liberal writers who stuck to the education circle in Beijing such as Zhou Zuoren, Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, and Liang Shiqiu sought to connect with tradition. Fourthly, writers of the Shanghai school living in Shanghai were adapted to the public consumer market or insisted on absorbing the modernist theories in an attempt to break through modern forms and transform the modern urban experience. These major literary sections maintained normative generally in the midst of debates as well as checks and balances. In short, during the decade between 1927 and 1937, all genres of modern Chinese literature developed substantially. They not only secured readers and gained a firm foothold, but also became more and more artistically mature. The intertwining of politics and literature, the interaction between elegance and vulgarity and the integration of tradition and innovation within the literature circle generally removed the confusion and chaos that plagued the “May Fourth” period, and the literature circle moved toward regulation and order.

1 The Debate on “Revolutionary Literature” and the Commencement of Proletarian Literature Revolutionary literature could be dated back to the “May Fourth” period. Strongly advocated by Li Dazhao and others, Marxism spread rapidly in the Chinese intellectual circles, and numerous related theoretical works were translated. Some writers such as Mao Dun, Shen Zemin, and Jiang Guangci began to try to interpret literary works and literary movements with Marxist literary theories. This marked the beginning of “revolutionary literature”. In 1928, young critics, mainly from the

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Creation Society and the Sun Society, gathered in Shanghai and initiated “the debate on revolutionary literature”, thus officially starting the “revolutionary literature” and even the left-wing literature movement as a whole. At that time, the Creation Society was relaunched by Guo Moruo, who had just participated in the Northern Expedition, and Cheng Fangwu, who went to Japan to recruit young intellectuals such as Li Chuli, Feng Naichao, Peng Kang, and Zhu Jingwo. These young intellectuals recruited had a high level of theoretical attainment because they deeply studied the Marxist theory represented by Fukumoto Kazuo when they studied in Japan. In 1928, the new journal Cultural Critique was launched. It was joined by earlier magazines such as Creation Monthly and Flood to become the venue for the Creation Society to make its voice heard in its late years. The advocates of “revolutionary literature” placed extreme emphasis on the political function of literature. Based on this, fellows of the Creation Society and the Sun Society conducted historical reflection on “the literature of May Fourth”. They criticized not only liberal writers such as Hu Shi and the Crescent Moon School, but also progressive writers and intellectuals such as Lu Xun and Mao Dun, who also members of the left-wing camp. The criticism of the Creation Society and the Sun Society encountered counterattacks from Lu Xun and Mao Dun. In the debate between the two sides around “revolutionary literature”, issues like the class nature of literature and the relationship between literature and politics were fully discussed, and the Marxist theory was also further translated and disseminated. In 1928 or so, when the debate on “revolutionary literature” was in full swing, the proletarian literature trend also emerged rapidly and could be regarded as the precursor of the left-wing literature movement. However, the relationship between the debate on “revolutionary literature” and the specific creation of proletarian literature was extremely complicated. Although the latter was restricted by the theoretical vision and creative principles proposed by the former, proletarian literature had an aesthetic quality specific to the transitional era due to the complex relationship between social and cultural context in the late 1920s and the personal creation of writers and the literary writing practice of the “May Fourth”. Representative proletarian writers included Jiang Guangci, Hong Lingfei, Hu Yepin, Qian Xingcun, Yang Hansheng, etc. Most of their novels depicted the spiritual process of intellectuals undergoing class transformation, and they testified the writers’ effort to break through

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the ideological framework and writing mode of the “May Fourth”. However, such a breakthrough itself was in line with the emotional logic of the “May Fourth” itself. Roughly speaking, proletarian novels could be divided into three categories, which were interrelated and echoed each other to outline the three-fold logic of the intellectuals’ transformation at that time. The first category of novels focused on the mental distress of individual intellectuals such as Hong Lingfei’s Eggshell (Dan Ke), Qian Xingcun’s Sketches of a Young Man (Yi Ge Qing Nian De Shou Ji), and Hu Yepin’s Unforgettable Shadow (Bu Neng Wang De Ying). The second category of works was the popular “road choice” novels, and the representatives were Qian Xingcun’s Life (Ren Sheng), Yang Hansheng’s Two Women (Liang Ge Nv Xing), and Hu Yepin’s In the North Wind (Bei Feng Li). In these works, the writers often depicted two close characters (lovers or friends) going their separate ways at a specific historical moment and choosing to take different paths in life due to their different political views. The third category of works depicted the suffering of the general public, including Hong Lingfei’s In the Torrent (Zai Hong Liu Zhong) and Labor Seller (Qi Li Chu Mai Zhe), and Liu Yimeng’s After Losing the Job (Shi Ye Yi Hou). This category seemed to be an attempt made by intellectuals to seek a breakthrough in the subject matter, and writers began to focus on shaping the image of resistant people. This greatly dissolved the humanitarian projection on the people by the “May Fourth” writers. Proletarian novels relatively concentrated on specific subject matters, and their creative techniques were relatively unified and distinctive. The “revolution plus love” model was widely adopted and became popular for a while in depicting the identity transformation of intellectual class. Examples were Hu Yepin’s two representative works To Moscow (Dao Mo Si Ke Qu) and Light before Us (Guang Ming Zai Wo Men De Qian Mian), and Jiang Guangci’s A Juvenile Rover (Shao Nian Piao Bo Zhe), The Party without Knee Breeches (Ku Dang), The Moon That Breaks out of the Clouds (Chong Chu Yun Wei De Yue Liang), and Roaring Land (Pao Xiao Le De Tu Di). Most of these works were filled with unbridled passion and were indefinitely dynamic due to the language of characters, the progression rhythm of the plot, and the dense political slogans. In the context of the macro political and cultural environments, proletarian novels became popular in very complex international and domestic backgrounds. In view of the overall international situation, the Soviet Union established the first socialist state in the world after the October Revolution, but the subsequent proletarian revolutions in Europe suffered

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serious setbacks due to repression in different countries. Thus, the Soviet Union, the Communist International, and even proletarian parties around the world pinned their revolutionary hopes on the “Great Revolution” led by the Community Party of China and the Kuomintang. China was actually included in the world proletarian movement and became the most active part of it. Even after the defeat of the “Great Revolution” in 1927, Shanghai was still seen as a bridgehead of the international proletarian movement. In addition, Shanghai was also undergoing rapid capitalist development in the late 1920s, and its cultural consumer market provided a huge space for the popularity of literature. In a sense, the popularity of proletarian literature resulted from the collision and agitation between socialism and capitalism by relying on the cultural publishing mechanism of modern capitalism and fitting the tastes of the public cultural consumer market. In terms of specific content and ideological tendency, proletarian literature echoed the trends of thought in the early 1930s and served the aim of “proletarian revolution”. This combination reflected the pioneering and popular nature of proletarian novels, made them a unique presence in the literary world, and released great temptation and call to the youth to participate in the revolution.

2 “CLLW” and Literary Creations Under Its Influence From 1929, the Communist Party of China began to intervene in the left-wing literature movement through organizational means to stop the attacks on Lu Xun and others by the Creation Society and the Sun Society and asked them to unite with fellow writers to oppose the authoritarian cultural rule of the Kuomintang. On March 2, 1930, China League of Left-wing Writers (CLLW) was founded in Shanghai with the cultural guideline of “assisting and engaging in the production of proletarian art”, which marked a new stage of the Chinese left-wing literature movement. Under the leadership and organization of the CLLW, groups of progressive left-wing writers published magazines, translated Marxist literary theories, promoted popular language, and launched combatant “debates” one after another in unison. In these “debates”, writers such as Lu Xun targeted at the “nationalist literature” of the Kuomintang, and the liberal literature of the Crescent Moon School in its late years even also targeted at the so-called “free people”, “the third people”, and other left-wing

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fellows. These “debates” added to CLLW’s momentum in the literature circle and led to deeper discussions on many literary and artistic theoretical issues. More importantly, it gave birth to new literary and artistic creation concepts, and left-wing literature began to turn to realist creation. The founding of the CLLW first promoted the establishment of the Poetry Writing Union. In 1932, left-wing poets such as Mu Mutian, Yang Sao, Lu Senbao, and Pu Feng founded the Chinese Poetry Association in Shanghai. It was a public poetry group under the direct leadership of the CLLW, and its members published their poems in New Poetry, which was published every ten days. They advocated “ideological poetry” and “popularization of poetry and poets”. Most of these poets were proletarian revolutionaries, who consciously combined poetry creation closely with revolutionary activities and regarded literary creation as a means of propagating the revolution and mobilizing the people. The best-known poet of them was Yin Fu, one of the five martyrs of the CLLW, and his poem collection Children’s Tower (Hai Er Ta) was highly praised by Lu Xun for “showing great love for the precursors and tremendous hatred for the destroyers”. Left-wing writers went through a somewhat special writing career. This was mainly reflected in that the CLLW and its literary theories did not deeply influence the conception and creation of individual writers, while the more successful novelists were mostly esteemed and admired by Lu Xun. For example, Ruo Shi had a deep friendship with Lu Xun, and his writing career also coincided with proletarian literature, but he showed a distinctive style. His most famous novella February (Er Yue) had a complete structure and well-portrayed characters to vividly reveal the disillusion and confusion of intellectuals in the late years of the Great Revolution. Ye Zi was also highly regarded by Lu Xun. His masterpieces such as Good Harvest (Feng Shou) and Star (Xing) also focused on the topic of rural riots, but they got rid of conceptual cliche and stereotype by describing the customs of local society with a sense of reality and an affectionate and poetic language. Zhang Tianyi first was mainly interested in writing popular comic novels and detective novels. Later, after his novel Three and a Half Days’ Dream (San Tian Ban De Meng) was published by courtesy of Lu Xun in Torrent, he became a real left-wing writer. In the 1930s, Ai Wu was as famous as Sha Ting, and his collection of novels, Journey to the South (Nan Xing Ji), was semi-autobiographical and was

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written with a very poetic language to tell his unique experience of traveling to south in the border between China and Myanmar in Yunnan from his hometown in Sichuan. His In the Mountain Gorge (Shan Xia Zhong) was more representative and portrayed a naked and innocent “evil”. It seemed that the CLLW had only limited intervention in narrative genres such as novel, and writers were influenced mainly by artistic techniques rather than abstract and empty political concepts. From a bird’s-eye view of left-wing novels in the 1930s, Ding Ling was a representative writer who put the concept of left-wing literature into practice more consciously. Her novel Water (Shui) portrays characters through group portraits and uses a realistic lens to present the suffering and riots of the people in a panoramic manner, which was appreciated and affirmed by critics such as Feng Xuefeng. After the outbreak of September 18 Incident in 1931, many northeastern writers went into exile in Shanghai and joined the CLLW, forming the famous group of northeastern writers in exile. The most accomplished writers in this group were Xiao Jun and Xiao Hong, who went into exiled in Shanghai together and began to engage in literary creation with the support and encouragement of Lu Xun. Xiao Jun’s Village in August (Ba Yue De Xiang Cun) recounted the experience of an anti-Japanese guerrilla force in the northeast. It painfully reflected the national spirit and carried forward the national will to survive, adding a rugged and wild primitive flavor to the left-wing literature circle. Another female writer, Xiao Hong, led a bump life. Although she did not receive strict training on literary writing, she wrote The Field of Life and Death (Sheng Si Chang) and The Story of Hulan River (He Lan He Zhuan), which became rare classics in the history of modern literature. Most of these works were based on rural areas in the northeast and depicted the most basic state of human survival in a harsh environment. These writers were not particularly concerned with plot, but rather turned to alternated poetry and prose to convey tragic and stifling implications between the lines. The most accomplished left-wing writer in the 1930s was undoubtedly Mao Dun. When the Great Revolution ended, Mao Dun entered the literature circle with his trilogy of Corrosion (Disillusion (Huan Mie), Wavering (Dong Yao), and Search (Zhui Qiu)), which were based on his own experiences during the Great Revolution. Unlike the widespread “romance of revolution” in the proletarian novels, Mao Dun’s novels were written in an objective and dispassionate manner to record the various states of the revolution in local society and truly reflected the

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confusion and helplessness of the petty-bourgeois intellectual revolutionaries after the defeat of the Great Revolution. After 1929, the United States and other capitalist countries entered the “Great Depression” era, and the economic crisis was then transferred to China, leading to depression in the countryside and suffering of the people. The economic crisis was then passed on to China, leading to a depression in the countryside and a lack of democracy. Mao Dun keenly captured this subject matter and wrote Spring Silkworms (Chun Can), Autumn Harvest (Qiu Shou), and The Last Days of Winter (Can Dong), together called Trilogy of the Villages. They presented the overall functioning of rural society from an economic perspective and described the historical process of the peasants from “disastrous harvest” to “uprising”. Midnight (Zi Ye) was the pinnacle of Mao Dun’s works. In this epic work, Mao Dun provided a panorama of the society at that time, including the struggle of businessmen around the stock market and the strike of workers trying to survive. It revealed the fogyism of the old and the love and confusion of the young. It incorporated various characters and dazzling scenes in a magnificent manner following clear clues. It developed the left-wing intellectuals’ historical imagination of the social process.

3

“A Tale of Two Cities” in Literature: Confrontation Between the “Beijing School” and the “Shanghai School”

After 1928, the left-wing literature movement in China flourished and was impressive, but left-wing literature was not the only spectacular sight in the literature circle at that time. The numerous societies and diverse schools of thought during the “May Fourth” period developed into several relatively stable groups of literati. They were both controversial and mutually reinforcing, existing with pluralism and harmony. Compared with the “May Fourth” period, the New Literature in the 1930s had already broken out of the narrow field of campus and developed to broader urban and rural areas. If left-wing literature focused more on the countryside, urban literature mainly took place in the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai and the former capital of Beiping. In a sense, the geographical and cultural features of the New Literature in the 1930s could be described as a “Tale of Two Cities” in which Beijing and Shanghai interacted with each other.

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Literary Landscape in Former Capital Beiping

Beijing, once the political center of China, was also the birthplace of the “Literature Revolution” and the “the New Culture Movement”. In the decade following the beginning of the Literature Revolution in 1917, New Literature was mainly centered in Beijing and radiated throughout the country. After the rise of the “Great Revolution”, intellectuals moved southward in large numbers. Guangzhou and Wuhan in the south became the major revolutionary cities, while Beijing, the capital of the Beiyang system, became a symbol of the “reactionary” fortress. Especially after the Nationalist Government set up its capital in Nanjing in 1928, Beijing was set up as a special municipality and renamed Beiping, which marked its complete loss as a political center. In addition, with the rapid development of the coastal economy in China during the 1930s, Shanghai began to rise rapidly and, relying on its own developed market economy, became the de facto center of New Literature and new culture. Beiping, however, was reduced to a marginalized city. The loss of political centrality and the absence of a mass consumer market, combined with the proliferation of higher education institutions, produced a cultural ecology unique to Beiping in the 1930s. The intellectuals and writers tended to live with the relatively stable and tolerant college system, remaining deliberately detached from the revolutionary trend externally and consciously resisting the erosion and penetration of consumerism into literary interests. They were a marginalized group with a marginalized posture in marginalized cities. Internally, they acted in unison and were drawn to each other due to the same tastes around the center of pure cultural pursuits. They formed a loose circle of literati and enjoyed themselves in it with freedom and liberty. Arguably, the literature in Beiping in the 1930s was closely related to the college culture and presented the seclusion interest reminiscent of classical scholar officials among the intellectuals. Zhou Zuoren was a representative of the literati in Beiping in the 1930s. He developed a distinctive artistic style around the center of Kuyuzhai, the name of his study. His writings often criticized left-wing literature, for which he was attacked by the left-wing youth. Zhou Zuoren published a book called Origin of New Literature in China based on his lectures at Fu Jen Catholic University to strongly advocate the small essays in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. In connection with this, his prose writing during this period also consciously tended to be plain and

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quaint, and his artistic skills became more and more proficient. The intellectual salons in Beiping also included the literary salon organized by Lin Huiyin and the “Poetry Reading Club at Cihuidian No. 3” with Zhu Guangqian as the center. Teachers and students from several universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Yenching University were active members of these two circles. Compared with the revolutionary political parties and literary groups organized with political ideas in the same period, these salons and poetry reading clubs of intellectuals in Beiping were relatively loose, and their members were mostly teachers, students, colleagues, and friends. Most of them were based on publications such as Modern Review, Mercury and Literature Magazine, and shared similar literary interests in literary concept and creation. Lu Fen, Xiao Qian, and Shen Congwen, who were active in the cultural circle of Beiping, were often referred to as novelists of the “Beijing School” together with Fei Ming. This group of writers lived in Beijing, but they chose to write the “rural world” they were familiar with and criticized modern urban life. Shen Congwen was the most accomplished novelist of the Beijing School. His series of novels The Border Town (Bian Cheng) depicted the west of Hunan with pastoral appeal, in which the characters were innocent and simple, overflowing with the beauty of interpersonal relations. The Border Town was between poetry and fiction, with a clean and soft language and a flowing rhythm and posture. Poems in Beiping in the 1930s were also noteworthy. The poets He Qifang, Bian Zhilin, and Li Guangtian, known as the “Three Poets of Han Yuan”, were the representatives. All of them were students at Peking University. They spent time together sharing poetic skills and carrying out literary activities. In 1934, they published a collection of poems called Han Yuan Ji, which was included in the “Series of Literature Research Society” edited by Zheng Zhenduo. The three poets shared the same artistic ideals, pursued knowledge, harbored ideals, relied heavily on Western modernist literature, got fascinated about traditional Chinese culture, and remained refrained in expressing personal emotions. He Qifang’s poems such as Prophecy (Yu Yan), Joy (Huan Le), and Love (Ai Qing) were exquisitely structured and lively with the breath of youth and musical rhythm. The abstract sentiments could be felt and touched thanks to the addition of color and sound. Bian Zhilin was the most accomplished one of the three poets. His masterpieces such as Fragment (Duan Zhang), Round Jewel Box (Yuan Bao He), and The Shakuhachi (Chi Ba), were written from novel perspectives and in exceptional languages to create a world full of

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metaphysical thoughts without losing the daily interest of life. For this reason, he was called the “poet of wisdom” in China. 3.2

“Modern” Literature in Shanghai

Since the opening of the five ports to commerce in the late years of the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai entered a period of rapid development. By the 1930s after the Great Revolution, it had risen to become a modern international city. In the early twentieth century, the modern cultural media in Shanghai, centering on bookstores and newspapers, was well developed, and this gave rise to the prosperity of popular culture at the beginning of the Republic of China. In the early years of the “Literature Revolution”, New Youth relocated from Shanghai to Beijing bitterly criticized the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School and muckraking novels. This led to the criticism of Shanghai for it was infested with foreign adventurers and indicated New Literature’s avoidance and rejection of urban consumerist life. It was not until after the Great Revolution that left-wing intellectuals gathered in Shanghai and launched the powerful Left-wing Literature Movement that New Literature took root in Shanghai. Indeed, although the production and consumption of left-wing Literature relied on the developed cultural market of Shanghai, the focus was on the interpretation of political ideas and the expression of literary thoughts. The portrayal of the city of Shanghai focused more on the suffering and resistance of the working and peasant classes and the dilemma and uncertainty of the intellectual community. The literary group known as “writers of the Shanghai School” tried to present the “modern” literature in Shanghai. Zhang Ziping’s early novels were mostly based on his life in Japan, for example, The Wooden Horse (Mu Ma), The Water of the Yuetan River (Yue Tan He Zhi Shui), and the long novel Living Fossils in the Impact Epoch (Chong Ji Qi Huo Hua Shi). These novels also showed a personality rebelling against the feudal code of ethics and aesthetic qualities of romanticism and aestheticism. However, in the 1930s or so, he began to produce four full-length novels on average per year and became known as a “novel factory”. His works became so increasingly deteriorated that they lost the critical spirit of New Literature. Another writer of the Shanghai School was Ye Lingfeng. His works were influenced by Freud and boldly portrayed the romance between men and women, but most of them fell into mediocrity interest. The Bath (Yu) and The Virgin’s Dream (Chu Nv De Meng) focused on the psychology of women’s love and desire,

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while The Sins of Nüwa (Nü Wa Shi De Yi Nie) and The Forbidden Land (Jin Di) depict incestuous love. On the contrary, Hong Lü Mei, The Temptation of Magha (Mo Jia De Shi Tan), and The Falling Geese (Luo Yan) carried some artistic value because of their twisted plots and fantasy. Although the novels of Zhang Ziping and Ye Lingfeng were not so elegant and had simple narrative modes and rough language, their descriptions of gender relations touched on modern urban life and psychological experience, and they were once very influential. Unlike the early Shanghai School, the creations of novelists like Liu Naou, Shi Zhecun, and Mu Shiying avoided vulgar cultural interests. Based on publications such as Literature Factory and Trackless Train, they learned directly from the pioneering techniques of the writers of the “New Sensation School” in Tokyo, Japan, and made great breakthroughs in formal exploration and stylistic innovation. In addition, modernist poets, represented by Dai Wangshu and Shi Zhecun, published their poems mainly in Modern magazine. Their poems were closely related to the novelists of the “New Sensation School”, and they also made achievements in novel writing. They could also be classified as writers of the “New Sensation School”. In addition to novels, Shi Zhicun also wrote poems. His poems such as Peach-colored Clouds (Tao Se De Yun) focused on the dense modern images in cities and poetically imagined things in the modern industry. Dai Wangshu was one of the leading poets of the modern school. His poems activated the artistic conception of classical Chinese poetry with the technique of Western symbolism and alleviated the mental anguish brought about by the modern “urban nostalgia” in the artistic conception of classical Chinese poetry, creating harmonious beauty from the integration of classicism and modernism. His representative poem, A Lane in the Rain (Yu Xiangzi), described an encounter with “a girl like a bouquet of lilacs”. The poem was characterized by a beautiful language and a lively rhythm. The entire poem was filled with a mood of despair and sorrow. In short, Chinese New Literature in the 1930s was a “Tale of Two Cities”, with distinctive cultural ecology and literary landscapes in modern Shanghai and tranquil Beiping, both contradicting and echoing each other to together advance the development and depth of the literary movement in the 1930s. In the early 1930s, writers of the “Beijing School”, represented by Shen Congwen, criticized literature in Shanghai as “a combination of ‘scholarly talent’ and ‘commercial sale’”, and named

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it “the Shanghai School”. This naturally elicited the defense and counterattack from peers of the Modern magazine, which thus triggered the famous debate between the “Beijing School” and the “Shanghai School”. On the surface, this debate was a divergence of literary concepts and interests between writers in Beijing and Shanghai, but it was a hidden confrontation between college culture and commercial culture. But in any case, both sides of the argument have a deep interaction and connection. Both sides of the debate interacted and were connected deeply. In fact, writers in Beijing and Shanghai shared a stable “urban–rural” dichotomy in their creation, but different footholds caused the two experiences to appear in their creation either implicitly or explicitly. The sense of wandering between the two experiences was likely to allow them to share a common life experience.

4 The Expansion of Subject Matter and the Perfection of Form: The Wave of Literary “Classics” in the 1930s The political and cultural changes in China at the turn of the 1920s and the 1930s had a profound impact on the ecology of New Literature, and the internal growth logic of literature itself also deserved full attention. The literature in the 1930s broke through the narrow pattern of “individualism” and expanded to increasingly broader choices of subject matters and complete construction of genres. A number of classic writers and works emerged. All of this marked the maturation of “New Literature” as an independent literary form. “Individualism” was the most important and contemporary trend of thought during the May Fourth period. Under the influence of this trend, writers mostly turned to cathartic expression, a paradigm that echoed the ideal of “individual liberation” and the pursuit of opposing old rituals among young intellectuals. At the same time, this paradigm also seemed to be closed and depleted in the changing trend of the times, so that after the ebb of the “May Fourth”, “New Literature” quickly lost its ability to capture social reality and was enveloped in a “sentimental” mood. The development of literature in the 1930s was predicated on the rejection of “individualism” and the resulting “sentimental” mood. The introduction of modernist literary concepts in the 1930s also restrained emotions. For example, Bian Zhilin et al. proposed the theory of “impersonal poetry” which advocated replacing emotions

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with intellectual elements, and they thus led poetry into philosophical metaphysics. Although the left-wing literature and modernism did not take quite the same path, they offset the expressive subjects in the literature of the “May Fourth” in their own way. Different requirements on form pushed the New Literature to gradually move beyond the primary level of “exercises” to maturity. In the 1930s, the four major literary forms of novels, poetry, prose, and plays created by the New Literature of May Fourth were not only fully developed in their respective fields, but also produced new literary genres within and between them. The prose in the 1930s was not as diverse as that of the May Fourth, but many classical paradigms emerged through the convergence of writers. In the 1930s, Lin Yutang founded publications including The Analects, The Preservation of Life and Wind in the Universe, through which he published a large number of humorous small essays that had both the humorous interest of the West and the leisurely style of small essays in the late years of the Ming Dynasty. This was a useful attempt made in the greater prose category. In the 1930s, Lu Xun already shifted from novels to essays with penetrating vision, profound thoughts, and sharp writing, bringing his potential in social and civilized criticism to the fullest. The greatest literary achievement in the 1930s was narrative literature. The maturation of novels, full-length novels, and multi-act plays marked important breakthroughs in the development of New Literature, and classical literary masters as Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She, Li Jieren, and Cao Yu also emerged. The “May Fourth” literature was dominated by short fictions, with few full-length novels. Wang Tongzhao’s Mountain Rain (Shan Yu), and Zhang Ziping’s Living Fossils in the Impact Epoch were not structurally complete yet. The structure of a full-length novel to connect the entire text was not a matter of artistic skill, but required a holistic understanding of society and history, which did not appear in fulllength novels until the 1930s. For example, “Countryside Trilogy” and Midnight by Mao Dun provided literary perspectives that “presented a panoramic view” of society through the vision constructed by economics. In Camel Xiangzi (Luo Tuo Xiang Zi), Lao She, a Christian, drew on the theological narrative of “repeated crucifixion” in the Bible·Book of Job to encompass the cruel social reality in Xiangzi’s personal tragedy and inject a strong tragic touch into the work. In Family (Jia), Ba Jin, however, superimposed his personal memories of youth on the “May Fourth” era full of historical transformations and thus made use of the diverse background

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of the era to support the narrative of the entire work. As a writer from Sichuan, Li Jieren was even more special because he was far away from Beijing and Shanghai, two centers of New Literature. His A Ripple from the Stagnant Water (Si Shui Wei Lan) created a narrative space through a “local chronicle” technique like Chronicles of Huayang and dived deeper into history based on a plot of a series of connected events in modern history. With new views of history, such as historical materialism, historical theology, and modern historical perspective, writers consciously reviewed the characters in a wider spatial and temporal context and constructed an epic narrative system. As a result, the full-length novels in the 1930s provided a deep view of history. Cao Yu marked the maturity of drama art of New Literature. In 1933, Cao Yu, who was a student, wrote Thunderstorm (Lei Yu), which was published in The Literature Quarterly for which Ba Jin was the editor in chief in the next year. In 1935, Thunderstorm was performed in public in Tokyo, Tianjin, and Shanghai, causing a sensation. Afterward, Cao Yu produced famous dramas such as Sunrise and Champaign, which were also exemplary works in the history of modern drama. The Thunderstorm was set in a mansion and focused on the family of Zhou to present the fates and struggles of several characters. The Sunrise (Ri Chu), however, turned its attention from family to society, deliberately weakened the quality of drama, and revealed different aspects of life through a poetic writing style. Champaign (Yuan Ye), set in the vast wilderness traveled by the train, was a story of dynamic revenge. Cao Yu’s works were often full of tension and poetic quality, with a penetrating view of society, a transcendent view of history, and profound insight, introspection, and compassion for the fate of men.

CHAPTER 44

Literary Forms During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Li Zhe

With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and the establishment of the Chinese United Front against Japanese Aggression, the realistic pattern and development of modern Chinese literature underwent great changes. From July 1937 to October 1938, faced with the frenzied attack of the Japanese army, the National Government organized large-scale battles such as the Battle of Songhu in Shanghai, the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Xuzhou, and the Battle of Wuhan, which crushed Japan’s arrogant attempt to “destroy China in three months”. During this period, major cities such as Beiping, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou fell one after another, and the urban-centered literary production system was severely damaged. Thus, the creative interactions among individual writers and the organization and operation of literary societies became unsustainable. At the time of national peril, Chinese writers chose to be united and save the country without hesitation. At first, the literary production mechanism began to take turn. New organizations such as “All-China Anti-Japanese Association of Writers and

L. Zhe (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_44

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Artists” (hereinafter referred to as “the Association”) gradually eliminated the disputes within the group of writers, and the propaganda and mobilizing function of literature was brought to the fore for the first time. Secondly, the spatial pattern of literature changed. The “May Fourth” literature was centered on Beijing and Shanghai as two metropolises and radiated outward. Since the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the major cities fell one after another, and the space of Chinese literature was divided into distinct regions, with different artistic qualities and aesthetic characteristics. These two changes together contributed to a literary ecology during the Anti-Japanese War that was different from the past.

1

Establishment of “the Association” and the Turning of New Literature

On March 27, 1938, “All-China Anti-Japanese Association of Writers and Artists” (hereinafter referred to as “the Association”) was established in Hankou, and Lao She served as the director of the General Affairs Department to be in charge of its daily activities. On May 4, 1938, “the Association” published its bulletin Literature and Art about AntiJapanese War to continue publishing literary works and critiques about the Anti-Japanese War. “The Association” was a literary organization with a political function, and senior dignitaries from both the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang such as Zhou Enlai, Sun Ke, and Chen Lifu served as honorary directors of the Association. Under the banner of the national Anti-Japanese War, the Association shelved official, partisan, and ideological differences and played an important role in gathering and integrating Chinese literary forces in the war environment. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, traditional literary towns such as Beijing and Shanghai fell one after another, and the established groups of writers, readers, and audiences, and cultural networks were all destroyed unprecedentedly. The universities in Beijing moved southward, and cultural facilities such as the Commercial Press in Shanghai were destroyed by the Japanese bombing. Under such circumstances, the establishment of “the Association” marked activation of the war mechanism. It fostered new literary receptive groups and produced new literary properties and dissemination methods. These efforts helped the Chinese New Literature develop through the test of war. The period from July 1937 to October 1938 was the most brutal period of the war and the most difficult situation in China, but Chinese

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writers participated in the Anti-Japanese War most actively and excitingly then. During this period, “the Association” raised the slogan of “writing articles for soldiers and the countryside”, and it became a collective consensus among writers. Chinese writers almost unconditionally abandoned their respective literary ideals and norms and consciously integrated their creative practices into the social mobilization of the Anti-Japanese War for all. Poets unanimously sang songs for the Anti-Japanese War. Collection of Voices of War by Guo Moruo, Joining the Army (Cong Jun Xing) by Zang Kejia, The Strongest Voice (Zui Qiang Yin) by Xu Chi, New Blessings (Yuan Ri Zhu Fu) by Dai Wangshu and Chengdu, Let Me Wake You Up (Cheng Du, Rang Wo Ba Ni Yao Xing) by He Qifang echoed the trumpet of the Anti-Japanese War and became the strongest voices of the times. In terms of subject matter, novelists also focused on the sudden war and the crisis-ridden country and society. Works originally based on fiction were fully realistic, for example, The Story of the First Stage (Di Yi Jie Duan De Gu Shi) by Mao Dun, The Valley of the Snail (Luo Si Gu) by Duanmu Hongliang, Company Commander Xiao (Xiao Lian Zhang) by Xi Ru, The Nocturnal Sacrifice in Wulanbuliang (Wu Lan Bu Lang De Ye Ji) by Bi Ye and A Dull Farmer (Cha Ban Che Mai Jie) by Yao Xueyin. Although they were artistically immature and did not guarantee the expected mobilizing effect in the war context, the writers abandoned their originally narrow-minded “literary ideals” and got deeply involved in the Anti-Japanese War in word and in deed, which greatly expanded the connotation of New Literature. During such a special period, the theater art emerged and received extraordinary response for its efforts to propagate anti-Japanese and mobilize the people. When the Lugou Bridge Incident just broke out, the Chinese Playwrights Association collaborated to create a three-act play, Defending Lugou Bridge (Bao Wei Lu Gou Qiao), to denounce the invaders and call on the Chinese people to rise up against the Japanese invaders. On July 28, 1937, the Communist Party of China initiated the establishment of the Shanghai Literature and Arts Association for Salvation. After the August 13 Incident, the association gathered theater workers from all over Shanghai and organized 13 “salvation performance teams” successively. They broke the narrow space of theaters and stages and expanded their performance venues to streets, squares, schools, tea houses, temples, and other open spaces, interacting directly with the audience and maximizing the propaganda and mobilization effect of plays. Under the deployment of the Communist Party of China, except two of

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the salvation performance teams based in Shanghai, all of the others went on tour to the mainland, which enabled theatrical performances and AntiJapanese War propaganda to break through the boundary of cities and expand to towns and even the vast rural areas in the mainland. In addition to theatrical performances, another noteworthy literary genre in the early years of the Anti-Japanese War was reportage. Many famous writers actively joined the battlefield and the rear areas, producing a large number of immediate and realistic works. Qiu Dongping, a writer of the “July School”, went to the front line in Shanghai and wrote The Seventh Company (Di Qi Lian), We Lost a Battle There (Wo Men Zai Na Li Da Le Bai Zhang), and The Experience of a Company Commander (Yi Ge Lian Zhang De Zao Yu) based on the famous Battle of Shanghai. Luo Binji, a writer born in the northeast and going exile in the mainland, also wrote a large number of war reports such as Blood in the Ambulance (Jiu Hu Che Li De Xue), My Right Arm Is Just Right (Wo You You Ge Bo Jiu Xing), and On the Traffic Line at Night (Zai Ye De Jiao Tong Xian Shang). Based on his experience working in a refugee shelter, Cao Bai wrote figure news stories such as Yang Kezhong and In Memory of Wang Jiayin (Ji Nian Wang Jia Yin). In these works, the writers set aside their impulse to express themselves, which they were good at, and consciously acted as witnesses of the times. Their realistic writing observed and recorded the war in which they were involved, and their works were of specific literary value and more importantly special historic value.

2

Chongqing as the Provisional Capital and Literature in the Vast Rear Areas

In mid-November 1937, the National Government decided to relocate the capital to Chongqing after the defeat of the Battle of Songhu in Shanghai and the serious threat to the capital Nanjing. During the subsequent eight-year Anti-Japanese War, the provisional capital Chongqing became the political center of the vast rear areas, with enough power to gather various political, economic, and cultural resources. Especially after the war entered the phase of stalemate and the direct threat of war was relieved, Chongqing became a relatively independent cultural space. Under such circumstances, a large number of writers and intellectuals who had been exiled from Beijing and Shanghai moved to this mountain city and promoted the prosperity of literary creation and cultural activities in this provisional capital.

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During this special period when the whole nation was dedicated to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, literature in Chongqing as the political center was unlikely to be detached from politics. A remarkable literary phenomenon that arose in this region during this period was the prosperity and maturity of satirical literature. Since its birth, “the New Literature of May Fourth” had been strongly critical among nationals, but the main target was the “ignorant” people at that time and only a few writers such as Lu Xun and Ye Shengtao were able to dissect the souls of petty intellectuals. In the 1930s, writers such as Zhang Tianyi turned their attention to the civic class, and satire became a more mature literary paradigm. During the period of the total resistance against Japanese aggression, many writers employed the satirical technique to the target of the corrupt and chaotic political situation and social reality in the rear areas instead of the “enemy” on the front line. In 1938 or so, Zhang Tianyi published The Job of Mr. Tan Jiu (Tan Jiu Xian Sheng De Gong Zuo), Mr. Hua Wei (Hua Wei Xian Sheng), and “New Life” (“Xin Sheng”), which were later collected into a fiction collection called Three Sketches. In these fictions, Zhang Tianyi examined the living conditions of landlords, bureaucrats, and intellectuals during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression through a calm and sharp perspective. The seemingly impressionistic “sketches” of the characters were full of insight into social reality and a precise grasp of their souls. Another representative of satirists is Sha Ting. He returned to his hometown Sichuan in 1935, when his novels such as Acting County Head (Dai Li Xian Zhang) were already quite mature. After the total resistance against Japanese aggression, he famously wrote Air Defense (Fang Kong), The First Movie in Hehe Township (He He Xiang De Di Yi Chang Dian Ying), In Qixiangju Tea House (Zai Qi Xiang Ju Cha Guan Li), and A Tale of Gold Rush (Tao Jin Ji) based on his experiences in northwest Sichuan, in which he sank to extremely microscopic reality of life in a satirical manner and impressed people with his calm observations, objective descriptions and quiet praise and criticism. Qian Zhongshu wrote Fortress Besieged in Shanghai, and many of the characters in the book were overseas students, but their activity venue “Sanlv University” was located in the mainland. This huge mismatch created a highly meaningful comedic effect. Qian Zhongshu pungently revealed the empty souls of modern intellectuals. Unlike Zhang Tianyi and Sha Ting, the realist “July School” opposed “objectivity” and advocated a “subjective fighting spirit”. The so-called

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“July School” was a realist literary school formed around the famous writer Hu Feng. Their distinctive literary ideas and aesthetic quality were transformed into important achievements in both poetry and novel. The magazine July was launched in Shanghai on September 11, 1937. Hu Feng, the editor in chief, believed that “It is time to create literary works that reflect life, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the hopes and feelings of the people”. Hu Feng had a unique understanding of the Anti-Japanese War. He did not see the war as “a simple military action” but as a way “to shake away dead dregs that blocked the vitality of the nation and to inspire the great power hidden in the people”. The July School believed that “Literary creation begins with the struggle against the real life with flesh and blood”. In their novels, they placed characters in complex and concrete social situations, explored the complex relationship between literary characters and social reality, and examined the psychological developments and changing trajectories of characters. Their poetic works were mostly magnificent and sought to explore deeper revolutionary power. During the period of the Anti-Japanese War, Guo Moruo served as the head of the Third Section of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government and had many interactions with high-ranking officials of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. During this period, he wrote famous historical plays including The Tiger Tally, Qu Yuan, The Twin Flowers, Gao Jianli, South Crown Grass, and The Gall Bladder of the Peacock. Most of these works were based on stories from the Warring States Period. In the 1930s, these materials were studied by Guo Moruo when he was conducting historical research. In the 1940s, the “Anti-Japanese War” and the “Warring States” echoed each other spiritually. The Qu Yuan was a representative among them. After publishing The Goddess, Guo Moruo became slightly silent in his writing career, but Qu Yuan could be seen as a new outburst that echoed the spirit of the “May Fourth”. Guo Moruo applied the principle of “seeking approximation when historical truth cannot be got” in the writing of plays. The characters in his plays were two worlds apart, for example, positive and negative and light and darkness. The dark characters on the negative side were usually those in power, while the positive characters were mostly the powerless, commoners, or women. The tragedy of the plays was mainly attributed to the sacrifice of these characters. This in fact implicitly showed Guo Moruo’s profound insight and rational reflection on the fate of intellectuals in the current times.

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In March 1943, Xu Xu’s full-length novel Feng Xiao Xiao (The Moan of the Wind) was a confusing spy story set in Shanghai around the outbreak of the Taiping War. The characters in the novel were of multiple nationalities, including Chinese, American, and Japanese. These characters with multiple identities were tied through complex emotional connections. This work was both legendary and modern, popular and philosophical. It was pioneering in the history of New Literature. Wumingshi, originally known as Bu Naifu, served as a secretary to Lee Beom-seok, the chief of staff of the Korean Restoration Army, in his early years. In 1943, he wrote Romantic Encounter in the Northern Country based on the abundant materials provided by Lee Beom-seok and serialized it in North China News under the pseudonym of Wumingshi. The novel was so popular in Xi’an that a reading fever was triggered. “Wumingshi was discussed in the whole city”. Romantic Encounter in the Northern Country was later renamed Romance in the Northern Country, which was published in Chongqing as well as The Woman in the Tower completed by the same writer later and caused a sensation. Wumingshi’s works were undoubtedly novels written with respect to commercial logic under the appearance of popular novels. After they were published, they were criticized by the literary and artistic circles in Chongqing and were even regarded as “new novels about the romance between gifted scholars and beautiful ladies”. The reason was naturally that they did not fit in with the wartime trend and focused too much on the discussion on gender relations, for which they were accused of being “pornographic” and “atrocious”. Today, a revisit to these works, which explored and portrayed gender relations, surely discovers elements of commercial operations, but it also reveals their relevance because they depicted the helpless personal destiny and the complexity of human relationships in the shadow of the war. Both Xu Xu and Wumingshi did not directly depict war, but rather portrayed it as a personal experience of modernity. The common feature of their works was the combination of modernity and popularization, which was not so much a result in the context of the Anti-Japanese War as the inevitable result of the development of “interaction between elegant and popular” Chinese literature in the 1940s. Avoiding depicting war in the shadow of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was a very special literary phenomenon of “the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression literature”. When the war was in a stalemate, stable vast rear areas centering around Chongqing were

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formed in China. The writers living in the great southwest were far away from the front line of the war, and their relatively calm daily life seemed to be set in stone, but from time to time they were haunted and threatened by war. Thus, some writers became dissatisfied with the life. Works such as Chengdu, Please Let Me Wake You Up by He Qifang could be seen as a unique way for writers to participate in the Anti-Japanese War. With the advent of the stalemate, depictions of everyday life resurfaced with a different voice. Liang Shiqiu wrote the series Yashe Essays, which contained many detailed depictions of daily life. This choice of writing was criticized and opposed by many because it evaded and even contradicted the political situation.

3

Southwest Associated University and Modern Literary and Artistic Trend in China

In 1937, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University moved southward and finally merged into the National Southwest Associated University (SAU) in Kunming. This university born at wartime gathered famous writers such as Wen Yiduo, Zhu Ziqing, Feng Zhi, Shen Congwen, and Bian Zhilin, creating a free and strong literary atmosphere. The effective operation of the school mechanism at wartime also allowed SAU to provide a free and relaxing space for speech in the midst of political currents. The context of war and the borderland experience away from metropolises cut off the consumption factor substantially. At that time, SAU also became a medium of exchange between China and the international modern poetry circle. The modern poems of Rilke, Eliot, and Auden, among others, were translated and introduced by Feng Zhi, Bian Zhilin, and others to China. The famous English modern poet and critic Empson also taught a course called Modern English Poetry at SAU in Kunming. In 1938, the famous poet Auden also visited the battlefield in China and wrote his famous Sonnets from China. This greatly inspired the young students of SAU to write. Influenced by so many factors together, Mu Dan, Zheng Min, Du Yunxie, Yuan Kejia, and Wang Zuoliang grew up rapidly to form the “New Poetry School of China” that would later be valued in the literature history. The first noteworthy SAU teacher was Feng Zhi. Feng Zhi was famous for his poems since the 1920s and was called by Lu Xun as “the best lyricist in China”. His poetic writing stagnated in the 1930s, and he was not inspired again until he lived in exile in the mountains nearly

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Kunming in 1941, when he wrote the highly acclaimed Sonnets. The poems he wrote in his late years were influenced by Rilke, Du Fu, and others. His Sonnets were mostly inspired by reality, but his thought was temporally and spatially broad, showing a deep life experience. His poems were mostly about daily life with hidden deep philosophic thoughts and wisdom and perceptions of life. This was also true with another masterpiece he wrote, Wu Zixu. Physical wanderings and mental struggles added an apparent undertone of an intellectual’s spiritual autobiography. The translations, creations, and teaching of Feng Zhi in SAU influenced a number of poets who pursued modernism, the most important of whom was Zheng Min. He was admitted into the Philosophy Department of SAU in 1939, took a course in German taught by Feng Zhi, and started her career as a poet under his influence. She was introduced by Feng Zhi to Faust and Rilke, and based on her own basic resources of modern philosophy, she broke away from sentimentality and stepped into discursive aesthetics. Her masterpiece Golden Sheaves of Rice compared the sheaves of rice standing in the field to “countless tired mothers”, creating a silent and solemn national space, while history became “a small river flowing beneath the feet”. It was through this dramatic reversal that the poet incorporated the grand history into her own life experience and poetic metaphysics. The most accomplished and influential poets of SAU was Mu Dan. In SAU, Mu Dan wrote many excellent poems which were later collected in The Expedition, The Collected Poems of Mu Dan, and The Flag. Studying in SAU exposed him to the essence of modern English poetry. His lyrical poems precisely dissolved the expression of emotions. His poems like Spring, Fundamental Dream of Nature, and Eight Poems put youth, love and gender psychology into his calm reflection mechanism, thereby breaking through the traditional system of expressive poetry and forming a modern aesthetic style. He not only studied in SAU, but also joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force in February 1942 and participated in the Yerenshan Campaign, which shocked the whole country and the world. With the experience of going to war, Mu Dan did not understand war as conventional wisdom did. He was no longer caught in the dilemma of moral evaluation between righteousness and evil, but tried to think holistically about war and life per se. In addition to Zheng Min and Mu Dan, other SAU poets included Du Yunxie, Yuan Kejia, and Chen Jingrong, who, along with Xin Di, Tang Qi, and Tang Shi in Shanghai, became known as the “Nine Leaves School of Poetry”. Yuan Kejia published two

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articles titled Modernization of New Poetry and Dramatization of New Poetry in the 1940s, which were both summaries of the creative experience of this school and guidelines for their poetic theory and artistic practice. Their holistic reflection on the war through the vehicle of poetry provided a new perspective and a new way for Chinese literature to review history and intervene in reality. It also marked the maturation of modern new poetry that had been developing for nearly thirty years.

4 Family Stories and National Spirit: “Epic-Style” Full-Length Novels About War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression The Japanese War of Aggression Against China plunged the already calamitous China into an unprecedented national crisis. At the same time, the dangers of the war destroyed the stability of the new intellectual class and fundamentally changed the fate, life, and spiritual structure of many individual intellectuals and writers of New Literature in China. Concern for national crisis and difficulties was a long-standing tradition among Chinese intellectuals, but such concern was often somewhat detached. However, the war forced them to experience upheaval and formed a veritable community of destiny together with the people. In the context of foreign invasion and the shattering of the country, they transcended the limits of class, and nation, state, family, era, and history changed from originally grand and even somewhat empty concepts into something tangible through the experience of countless sufferings, which provided them with the opportunity for self-rejuvenation. During the fourteen years of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the narratives of New Literature writers developed in an unparalleled broad space under an unprecedented historical structure with unrivaled life experiences, giving rise to the spurt of full-length novels in the 1940s. The New Literature in China ushered in an “epic era” that was frequently revisited by later generations. First of all, the return of writers from Beijing and Shanghai to their hometown after the outbreak of the total war was a noteworthy phenomenon. Lu Xun wrote My Old Home as early as in the “May Fourth” period, presenting the social decay of his homeland and the spiritual ignorance of its people through his own experience of homecoming. In this way, he brutally shone a light on reality and profoundly reflected

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on the defects of the intellectuals’ cultural ideals and spiritual structure. Shen Congwen also wrote Letters over a Trip to Hunan and Sketches of a Trip to Hunan based on his experience of returning to his hometown in western Hunan, in which he also sighed the customs of his hometown and lamented and questioned the atrophy of primitive vitality. After the outbreak of the total resistance against Japanese aggression, famous writers returned to their hometown in the midst of the war, and their nostalgia about “hometown” and “homeland” was aroused again. For these writers, the war was both a national disaster and an inescapable personal encounter, and their “return” meant a sincere examination of their personal lives and a deep reflection on the fate of the nation. In 1941 and 1942, Ba Jin, who had been away from his hometown for nearly twenty years, returned to Chengdu twice to visit his relatives, when he found himself in the “Mansion of the Gao Family” again, which was a symbol of feudal family he had fiercely criticized. In the 1930s, when he wrote “The Torrent Trilogy”, Ba Jin’s indictment of his family revealed the spirit of the “May Fourth” which was almost fundamentalist. However, in the 1940s, Garden of Repose, one of his novels that was based on his two returning trips to his hometown, was completely different from his life experience when he wrote Family. In this novel, “Garden of Repose”, which witnessed the change of its owner, was trapped in a tragic historical cycle, and its various owners dragged out an ignoble existence and struggled with their unpredictable fates. In Garden of Repose, both the historical chain of progressiveness and the rebelliousness of youth disappeared and were replaced by the historical sorrow of individuals for the decline of the family system. Ba Jin wrote Cold Night after China won the Anti-Japanese War. It depicted a “new family” constructed under the ideal of “May Fourth”, but it was bothered by internal contradictions and conflicts all the time. Everyone was plagued by the throes of despair. The heroine Zeng Shusheng was a typical new woman, echoing Nora who ran away during the “May Fourth” period. However, this “runaway” totally offset the meaning of the “runaway” during the “May Fourth” period. In Cold Night, Ba Jin captured the essence of “family” as an inevitable killing and tormenting mechanism between people. This was his deeper insight into social relations and a personal analysis on the ideal of the “May Fourth”. In 1942, the famous playwright Cao Yu adapted Ba Jin’s novel Family into a play. At the same time, Cao Yu himself also produced two masterpieces called Metamorphosis and Beijing Man during the total resistance

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against Japanese aggression. Beijing Man was a worthy classic play. It was set in Beiping in the 1930s and depicted a family in a dismal state of decline, showing the complex mentality of the family members: the older generation was inextricably tied to the old way of life but was unable to sustain it, while the new generation was full of aspirations for a new life but could not break away from the entangled kinship. In the play, the writer built an image of “Beijing man” to conjure a primitive brutal force and make it the basis for the shaping of an ideal personality and find a way out for the troubled life. Unlike Ba Jin, who had the transient experience in returning to his hometown to visit his relatives, Fei Ming, a well-known writer of the Beijing School in the 1930s, returned to his hometown and lived there for a long time. In 1937, as a teacher at Peking University, he was not qualified to move southward with the university due to his low position, so he returned to his hometown Huangmei. He made a living on teaching Mandarin and English at Jinjiazhai Primary School and the Middle School of Huangmei County, both of which were located in the remote countryside. He was not able to resume his position in Peking University until the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. During this period, he completed works including After Mr. Mo Xuyou Took the Plane. He changed the simple and timeless language style and the “Utopian” ideal of scholar officials found in his previous works completed in the 1930s, and began to take a deeper look at the political, economic, educational, and social problems in the countryside and poignantly ponder on the history of the nation and the future fate of the country. This work broke the stylistic limitations imposed after the “May Fourth” and developed a unique artistic style by shifting between different genres. Among the many novels about the Anti-Japanese War, Four Generations under One Roof written by Lao She was the most impressive one. It was divided into three parts and contained nearly a million words. The writer focused on the family of Qi in Xiaoyangjuan Hutong, Beijing, from which the storyline extended to all strata of society in the occupied area and a large number of vivid characters were shaped. In this novel, the writer did not elaborate the Japanese invaders, but they haunted the whole book like a shadow. Under the pressure of this shadow, the citizens of Beijing were forced into a complex dilemma, and they had different experiences due to their different political attitudes. Their complex mentalities were also presented clearly. Rather than writing about the war directly, Lao She showed the world in the context of war.

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The New Literature of “May Fourth” once guided criticism of family against individualistic ideal under the theme of “Nora left”. In the 1940s, as the total resistance against Japanese aggression progressed, what had been revolted and obscured by the New Literature came to the fore again. Both “tradition” and “family” were somehow revived and constituted the temporal and spatial framework of the writer’s creative conception. Indeed, they now had different meanings, including retrospect into the past, criticism of reality, and a vision of the future. “Family” was both a symbol and a real presence, where stories of personal experiences as well as the misery of nation and state occurred. It was associated with an unspeakable sense of tragedy and fate. It was a distant response to the ideal of the “May Fourth” and enriched the imagination of the “nation” in literature.

5

Special Perspective of Female Writers

Compared to male writers, female writers were more persistent and dedicated to the presentation of daily life in their creative works, and Zhang Ailing and Su Qing from Shanghai and Mei Niang from the northeast were representatives. These three writers consciously shunned grand historical narratives and sensitive political topics, and instead probed into the unequal gender relations in the civil society from a unique female perspective. They had different linguistic styles. Zhang Ailing’s language was gorgeous and bleak. Su Qing’s descriptions were vigorous and straightforward. Mei Niang’s writing was sharp and intense. Zhang Ailing was most accomplished in art and influential in society. She was known as a “genius” since childhood, and she gained fame in the literature circle after publishing her maiden novel Scraps of Agalloch Eaglewood ·The First Charge in the Incense Burner in a magazine called Violet in 1943. Later, she wrote Love in a Fallen City, Sealed off, The Golden Cangue, and Red Rose, White Rose, most of which were collected in her novel collection called The Legend. These works were mostly legendary, but they were relevant less to the times than to the daily life of individuals. As the writer put it, “I look for ordinary people in the legend and I look for legends in ordinary people”. Zhang Ailing came from a declining family and grew up, studied and lived in a modern city. She had more complete and deeper urban life experiences than writers of the “Shanghai School” in the 1930s. Most of the novels collected in The Legend were set in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Zhang Ailing revealed the

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sorrows and joys of men and women in these cities in a gorgeous way. In her novels, the contradiction between “classicism” and “modernity” disappeared. Classicism was transformed into a gorgeous and decadent atmosphere in the novels, and modernity was mirrored in the modern and mundane life. They were superimposed and intertwined to create a magnificent and desolate urban picture. Long immersed in the glamorous urban life, Zhang Ailing was specially obsessed with and thirsty for “true self”, and her characters such as Bai Liusu and Cao Qiqiao, were mostly skeptical, confused, and even despaired in their search for the “true self”, ending up in a tragic fate. Su Qing was as famous as Zhang Ailing in Shanghai in the 1940s. Her full-length serial novel Ten Years of Marriage was a hit in the metropolis of Shanghai infested with foreign adventurers. Like Zhang Ailing, Su Qing was not concerned with the historical changes of the times in her writing. She was simply interested in the experiences, feelings and plight of women being part of society. Su Qing herself had an unhappy marriage and stepped out from her home to society like “Nora” in A Doll’s House, transforming from a puppet wife to a truly independent new woman. Therefore, the plight of women portrayed by Su Qing was not the result of old family oppression, but the experience of new women in a modern society. Unlike the flamboyance and bleakness of legendary stories written by Zhang Ailing, Su Qing insisted on exposing women’s daily experiences in sex, marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing straightforwardly, and these experiences were substantially naturalist and were reduced to the basic physical and psychological dimensions. They were largely the deconstruction of the romanticized image of women themselves and a rebuttal to the discourse of male power. They conveyed an indescribable sense of laceration and penetration.

CHAPTER 45

New Direction: Brief Discussion on Literature in Liberated Areas Li Zhe

1

The Cultural Strategy of the Chinese Communist Party and the Formation of Literary Production Mechanism in Yan’an In October 1935, the main force of the Red Army led by the Communist Party of China arrived in North Shaanxi and established a revolutionary base there. In October 1936, the Second and Fourth Red Front Armies arrived in Huining, Gansu, joining the First Red Front Army. The junction of the three main forces of the Red Army marked the victorious end of the Long March. After the Japanese launched a full invasion into China in 1937, the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang cooperated again, and the Communist Party of China changed the name of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Soviet revolutionary base to the Shaanxi-GansuNingxia border Area, with the capital in Yan’an. During the Anti-Japanese War, the Communist Party of China was an important force in the resistance to the enemy by the whole nation, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia

L. Zhe (B) Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] © China Social Sciences Press 2024 Y. Liu (ed.), Concise Reader of Chinese Literature History, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5814-6_45

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border area became the home of many anti-Japanese bases behind enemy lines. In such a revolutionary center, the appearance and development of literature in Yan’an was not a purely artistic evolution process, but a product of social functioning mechanism in liberated areas. In the context of political, economic, and military fit and integration, “literature in liberated areas” pursued the unique purpose of “serving the workers, peasants and soldiers”. With the victory of the military struggle against the Kuomintang and the founding of New China, this pioneering and people-oriented literary form gradually developed and flourished, and it laid a profound foundation for the emergence and development of the literature of the PRC. Three different forces converged in “literature in liberated areas”. The publicity agencies and their cultural policies led by the Chinese Communists, the progressive youth and intellectuals who went to Yan’an from all over the country and the local culture and folk art in the liberated areas. The Communist Party of China was at first a political party dominated by progressive young intellectuals, and most of its members had been baptized by the “Literature Revolution” and the “New Culture Movement”, so they had a deep understanding of the social functions of literature and art. Their appreciation of literature and art was evident in the publicity work during the “Great Revolution” period. Later, the publicity of literature was more appreciated in liberated areas and revolutionary areas, and it continued and flourished after the party members came to the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi. The Shaanxi-GansuNingxia border area was also established under the historical background of the Japanese imperialist aggression, so the literary creation and activities in this area also focused on the theme of “resisting the Japanese and saving the country” at that time, which strongly echoed the nationwide literary trend then. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937, progressive intellectuals and young writers from all over the country came to Yan’an, including Ding Ling, Xiao Jun, and Zhou Yang, who had participated in the left-wing literary movement in Shanghai, as well as writers and poets like He Qifang, who were politically liberal. They were gathered in Yan’an under the call of the Communist Party of China for “fighting the war and saving the country”. The Communist Party of China paid much attention to this group of incoming intellectuals, and they were warmly welcomed and properly accommodated. In November 1937, the Anti-Japanese Salvation Association of the Cultural Community in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border

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Area was established in Yan’an. It operated subordinates such as the General Association of Poetry, the Society of Literature and Art Assault, the Drama Salvation Association, the Society of Literature and Art Battlefront, the Lecture and Literature Research Society, the Popular Reading Society, the Literary and Art Advisory Committee and the Anti-Japanese War Literature and Art Working Group. These organizations had the slogans of “Letting literature and art serve for the Anti-Japanese War” and “Going to masses”. These could be seen as heralds of the later “literature in liberated areas”. In September 1938, the Anti-Japanese War Federation of Cultural Community in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area was established. In May of the following year, it was renamed the Yan’an Branch of the Anti-Enemy Association of Literary and Artistic Circles in China, with Ding Ling, Tian Jian, Cheng Fangwu, and Zhou Yang as executive members. It signaled that a leading organization for literature in liberated areas was taking shape. In 1938, with the support of Mao Zedong and other top leaders, “Lu Xun Literature and Art University” was founded in Yan’an to be responsible for uniting and training literary and artistic specialists. With the support of the Communist Party of China and the participation of enthusiastic intellectuals, literary and art organizations such as the “Literature and Art Association of China”, the “Salvation Association of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area” and the “Yan’an Culture Club” were founded in Yan’an. Publications like Literature and Art Assault, Literature and Art Monthly, Popular Literature, and New Poetry also sprang up. Between 1938 and 1942, literary and artistic activities were spatially active, and Yan’an was filled with a strong literary and artistic aura.

2 Creative Development of the Nationalistic Form In October 1938, Mao Zedong emphasized in his report The Position of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War, “We must abolish the foreign stereotyped writing, reduce empty and abstract writing tones and stop dogmatism. They should be replaced by a fresh and lively Chinese style and manner that is pleasing to the common people of China”. In fact, Mao’s report was aimed at “making Marxism become concrete in China”, which meant “applying the Marxist-Leninist theory to the concrete circumstances of China”. The discussion on the application of Marxism in China could not shun the issue of nationalization, and it

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echoed in some way the discussions on “literary and artistic forms” among intellectuals in the Nationalist Government-controlled areas and liberated areas. It also directly influenced the development of literature during the Anti-Japanese War. In the Nationalist Government-controlled areas, the intellectuals represented by the Society for the Editing of Popular Books put forward the idea of “using old forms” and the representative of them, Xiang Linbing, borrowed the Yan’an theory to try to develop “folk literature and art” into “nationalistic literature and art”. Later, the literary associations in the Nationalist Government-controlled areas quickly integrated the theories of the Society for the Editing of Popular Books and launched a campaign calling for “putting new concepts in an old framework”, trying to establish it as a directional proposition for the development of “new literature”. However, the core of this proposition seriously questioned the legitimacy of the “May Fourth New Literature” and was thus criticized by new literary writers such as Hu Feng, Tian Jian, and Ai Qing. A widespread controversy was triggered as well. However, due to a variety of complex subjective and objective reasons at that time, this controversy did not develop in depth at the theoretical level in the Nationalist Governmentcontrolled areas, nor did it penetrate into the concrete practice of literary creation. In liberated areas, Mao Zedong put forward the theory of “new democracy” in 1940 and incorporated the issue of “nationalistic form” into his main framework of cultural theory: “Everything about nationalistic form and new democracy is what our new culture means today”. After the publication of Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, “nationalistic form” was incorporated into the new literary policy as an important category, and the aim of integrating it with the workers, peasants and soldiers encouraged writers to go deeper into society and experience life. They were further encouraged to utilize folk art forms and related local resources to the fullest extent and created a new literary path. In the special context of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Communist Party integrated the intrinsic theoretical relationship between “class” and “nation”. It was through such resonance of “class” and “nation” discourse that literature in liberated areas began to take on a new look. In terms of poetry, more attention was paid to absorbing the folk music and art resources in border areas such as folk jingles, clapper ballads, and xintianyou (a kind of Shanxi local melody). A conscious “ballad” trend

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was formed. Among many poets, Li Ji was most accomplished for his long narrative poems. In 1946, he serialized a significantly influential long poem Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang in Jiefang Daily. Through a story about the free marriage of a young couple Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang in the countryside, the poem illustrated the complex struggle in a liberated area and touched upon multiple themes such as the standing up of peasants and the liberation of women. The use of xintianyou and many folk song techniques such as analogy and association injected this work with a strong local flavor and created a powerful aesthetic appeal. In the opera sphere, artists fully drew on folk music and art resources and made many breakthroughs in artistic forms, letting opera art to largely perform the social function of approaching the people and expanding propaganda. From then on, Western-style dramas such as Thunderstorm, Sunrise, and Imperial Commissioner began to die out in liberated areas, while the reformed Ping Opera and Shaanxi Opera gradually became popular. Representative pieces of Ping Opera included Driven to Revolt, Three Sieges of Zhu Village, and Promotion Official Chart. The representative figure of Shaanxi Opera was Ma Jianling, whose representative works included Vengeful Feelings Nurtured by Blood and Tears and Resentment of the Poor. These operas, either adaptations from old plays or new ones, focused on the theme of “struggle” embedded in traditional opera forms and were performed well on the stage. They marked the formation of a nationalistic cultural ecology. Among various opera genres in Yan’an, the most typical one was “new yangge opera” led by Lu Xun Literature and Art University. During the Spring Festival in 1943, Brothers and Sisters Clear the Wasteland featuring Wang Dahua and Li Bo from “LXLAU” was put on the stage and caused a sensation in the literary and artistic circles in Yan’an. Its success promoted the popularity of the “new yangge opera” in Yan’an and various anti-Japanese bases and even in government agencies, schools, villages, and troops to become an important part of the daily activities in the border areas. In addition to Brothers and Sisters Clear the Wasteland, other influential works included Spouse Literacy, Liu Er Builds up a Fortun, and Niu Yonggui Wounded in an Action. These works took on the traditional yangge form of northern Shaanxi and integrated song and dance performances. Focusing on themes such as the great production movement, land reform, rehabilitation of loafers, and literacy, they played an extremely important role in social mobilization and organization. In 1945, The White Haired Girl, a large opera written by He Jingzhi and

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Ding Yi under the concerted efforts of “LXLAU”, was introduced and became a masterpiece in the genre of “new yangge opera”. He Jingzhi and others adapted the folk tale about “a white haired female immortal” and extracted from it a grand theme of contemporary significance to tell a legendary story about “the old society forcing humans to become ghosts and the new society turning ghosts into humans”. Different from the previous yangge opera, The White Haired Girl absorbed the essence of modern art extensively in terms of stage, music, and performance to give off an extraordinary epic aura although it upheld the new tradition of literature to be “popular” and “nationalistic” in liberated areas and adopted folk resources. In this sense, The White Haired Girl, as an art work, was no longer a response to or an illustration of a political movement, but an artistic means to awaken people’s imagination of the “revolution’ and the “new China”. This artistic innovation had a profound influence on the development of contemporary drama after 1949. In terms of novel creation, the best epitome of the “nationalistic form” was legendary novels about anti-Japanese heroes that were popular in liberated areas. The Story of an Imported Metal Barrel published in 1944 was the origin of such novels. In this novel, the writer Ke Yan adopted the traditional narrative form of chapter-based novels to recount the legendary story of the main character Wu Gui, who grew from an ordinary young peasant to an anti-Japanese hero. Afterward, such novels sprang up in liberated areas and various bases. The most representative ones of them were Legend of the Heroes in Lvliang written by Ma Feng and Xi Rong and New Biography of Heroes and Heroines written by Kong Jue and Yuan Jing. In the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Communists and their army was confronted with a far more modernized opponent, but the flexible use of the guerrilla warfare strategy of retreating when the enemy advanced and attacking when the enemy was tired was pretty successful. Guerrilla warfare was the source of inspiration for the novels mentioned above, which also adopted the narrative style of traditional martial arts novels to portray reckless but wise and brave anti-Japanese heroes. Most of these novels were full of positive and optimistic revolutionary spirit, and thus they could effectively boost morale and mobilize the masses.

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3 Main Idea and Influence of Mao Zedong’s Talks at the yan ’an Forum on Literature and Art To address the various problems that had arisen in the literary and artistic circles in Yan’an, on April 27, 1942, Comrade Mao Zedong personally issued an invitation to prominent figures in the literary and artistic circles to a forum. Three meetings were held. The first meeting was held on May 2, 1942, when Comrade Mao Zedong made an introductory speech and listened to opinions on different aspects. The second meeting was held on May 16 to continue the exchange of ideas. On May 23, Comrade Mao Zedong, after much deliberation, made a concluding speech at the meeting, and this speech was published in Jiefang Daily in October 1943 under the title of Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art (herein after referred to as “Talks ”). In his speech, Comrade Mao Zedong focused on two major questions. The first question was “For whom do our literature and art serve?” Because this question was fundamental, it was a question of principle. The second question was how literature and art “serve the workers, peasants and soldiers”. The conclusion is that “Our literature and art are for the people, first of all for the workers, peasants and soldiers. They are created for the workers and peasants and are used by the workers, peasants and soldiers”. The Talks went beyond the production system of the “May Fourth New Literature” and played an important role in guiding the creation of literature and art in the border area during the Anti-Japanese War. It also laid the theoretical foundation and indicated the direction for the development of contemporary literature after 1949. Coincident with the publication of Talks, a vigorous Rectification Movement was started in Yan’an and even in the entire border area. Early in February 1942, Mao Zedong gave a speech titled Rectify the Party’s Style of Work at an orientation ceremony of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Later, Zhou Yang gave a report on “Rectifying Three Styles” at Lu Xun Literature and Art University (LXLAU). The Chinese Literature and Arts Association Against the Enemy also began to study documents on the Rectification Movement. The Rectification Movement to overcome subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped party writing was in full swing in the literary and artistic circles. The Talks was an important document during the rectification process in the literary and artistic circles in the liberated areas,

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and it had an important influence on the literary and artistic circles in Yan’an. At first, the literary and artistic circles in Yan’an actively organized study, implementation and practice of the message in the Talks. In 1940, LXLAU began to pursue formalized and professionalized teaching reform. After the publication of the Talks, Zhou Yang delivered The Reformation of Art Education — Theoretical Part of the Summary Report of LXLAU’s Academic Style: An Examination and Self-Criticism of the Education at LXLAU , calling for adjusting the educational direction of LXLAU and an educational focus on “popularizing knowledge”. This was just part of the whole picture. After the publication of the Talks, the original literary pattern in the border area of Yan’an and the major antiJapanese bases also began to undergo major adjustments. From 1942, the literary and artistic circles in Yan’an began to discuss the fashion of “grand opera performance” and criticized it for “neglecting the wider audience of soldiers”. Later, “grand operas” and “foreign operas” that were prevalent in the border area gradually ebbed, and several literary and artistic organizations, including “LXLAU”, were sent to perform in various sub-districts in the border area. “Serving workers, peasants and soldiers wholeheartedly and unconditionally for an enduring period” became consensus in the literary and artistic circles. In addition, the messages conveyed by “the Rectification Movement” and the Talks deeply changed the creative concepts and literary styles of many famous writers. For example, Ai Qing studied in France in his early years and was deeply influenced by the symbolist style of poetry. His early poems were full of modernist elements, and he was called “the poet of reed flute”. After coming to Yan’an, Ai Qing consciously got closer to the new writing paradigm, and his long poem Xue Li Zuan presented a tragic historical picture of the anti-Japanese battlefield and showed revolutionary heroism. After the publication of the Talks, Ai Qing further agreed with the political function of literature and art. In his article My Opinion on Several Issues in Literature and Art, he stated that “Literature and art should be subordinated to politics”. Another representative was He Qifang. He favored liberalism at first. After coming to Yan’an, he consciously abandoned his writing style in the era of Hua Meng Lu and created works including I Sing for Young Boys and Girls to express his joy after coming to Yan’an. His poems such as Shouting and North China Is Burning were bolder and broader, marking his efforts to actively move closer to the new literature. He Qifang agreed with the literary concept

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established by the Talks and wrote essays like On Literary Education. Indeed, no writer could transform his way of thinking and creative style overnight. During this period, He Qifang revealed some fragile emotions in Three Chapters of Sighs and was criticized in the literature circle in the liberated area. Finally, due to geographical barrier, poor communication, and other factors, the Talks was spread more slowly to the literary and artistic circles in the Nationalist Government-controlled areas, but its influence was equally far-reaching. It was not until 1943 that Xinhua Daily in Chongqing had brief coverage of the Yan’an forum on literature and art. In early 1944, excerpts of the main idea of the Talks were published in this newspaper. In April 1944, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent He Qifang and Liu Baiyu, two literary and artistic workers from Yan’an, to the large rear area of Chongqing to promote the message of the Talks. In late May, Guo Moruo, the leader of the left-wing literary and artistic circles in the Nationalist Government-controlled areas, convened a gathering of local writers at the Tianguanfu Mansion to discuss the message and significance of the Talks. The Talks began to spread openly among progressive figures in the literary and artistic circles in the Nationalist Government-controlled areas. With successive victories of the Chinese Communist Party in the Liberation War, the message of the Talks moved beyond regional boundaries and became firmly rooted in the deep structure of the cultural system of the republic, laying a solid ideological foundation for the emergence, development, and prosperity of contemporary Chinese literature.

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New Literary Practice Under the Influence of the Talks

The first discussion about “nationalistic form” allowed literature in liberated areas to fully absorbed local cultural resources. After the publication of Comrade Mao Zedong’s Talks, the creative purpose of “serving the workers, peasants and soldiers” further solidified the spiritual foundation of literature in liberated areas, and the historical “nationalistic” and “people-oriented” character of modern Chinese literature began to take shape. Under the influence of the Talks, the external pattern and internal spiritual structure of the group of writers in liberated areas underwent drastic changes. Some writers who got rid of the “May Fourth” tradition

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consciously reformed their thinking, abandoned their established creative methods, got closer to the people, and started to explore new literary approaches. Young writers in liberated areas grew up rapidly under the inspiration and influence of the Talks and produced a large number of classic works that led the way. From here, a new kind of literary practice that later influenced the new China for six decades was launched. Among the many “May Fourth” writers in transformation, Ding Ling was the most typical and successful one. When she first came to Yan’an, her masterpieces were In the Hospital and When I was in Xiacun. The protagonist of When I was in Xiacun was a young girl named Zhenzhen, who was coerced by the Japanese army to become a “comfort woman”. The book sympathetically described the trauma she suffered from war and bitterly criticized those around her for their unfair condemnation. In the Hospital narrated the contradiction between Lu Ping, a young female doctor, and the hospital system and exposed the bureaucratic problems that were incompatible with the revolutionary cause. Another meaningful novel, Night, explored the contradiction between family and revolution for rural grassroots cadres and exposed their inner spiritual crisis based on the tense relationship between the protagonist He Huaming and his wife. On the whole, most of these novels adopted the narrative perspective of individual intellectuals and showed much concern for the fate of individuals and their psychology and reflection on their nationalism. The critical spirit extended from the “May Fourth” and the “Left Wing” periods still shone between the lines. For this reason, Ding Ling’s thought and creation did not fully fit in with the cultural system of the liberated areas, and she was therefore subjected to many objections and criticisms during the “rectification” process. After the Yan’an forum on literature and art was held, Ding Ling stopped writing essays and novels and participated in the “rectification” movement. During this process, she changed her mind radically. In 1944, Ding Ling was sent by the Party organization to work in the literary association in the border area and had the chance to experience rural and specialize in writing. In June 1944, she completed the reportage Tian Baolin, which showed an important change in her creation from form to content. In 1946, she was sent by the Party organization to the liberated areas in the northeast. Due to the war, she was stranded in Zhangjiakou halfway, and she then joined the local land reform in Zhuolu, Hebei Province. Based on the work experiences and encounters during this period, Ding Ling wrote a full-length novel The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River. In this work, Ding Ling skillfully used

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NEW DIRECTION: BRIEF DISCUSSION ON LITERATURE …

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the narrative structure of the social class theory to realistically present the extremely complex relationships among characters in Nuanshuitun and outlined the historical process of the land reform movement in the countryside with twists and turns and even brutal struggles. The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River was published in 1948 and received good reviews. Later, it won the “Stalin Prize for Literature” in the Soviet Union. Another writer who successfully made transformation in his creation was Zhou Libo. He was exposed to the new literature in the 1920s and was introduced by Zhou Yang to join the China League of Left-wing Writers in the 1930s. He was deeply influenced by Soviet literature and the trend of “revolutionary literature”. He later followed Zhou Yang to Yan’an, the sacred place for the revolution, where he worked as an instructor at Lu Xun Literature and Art University. Zhou Libo attended the Yan’an forum on literature and art and published articles including Thought, Life, and Form after the forum, in which he criticized himself for his “petty-bourgeois ideology” and preference to “masterpiece”. In 1946, Zhou Libo took part in the land reform in Shangzhi County, a liberated area in the northeast, and served as deputy secretary and secretary of the Yuanbao District Committee. This front-line work experience prompted him to write a full-length novel The Hurricane. Different from Ding Ling, Zhou Libo condensed the complex history of the land reform into a rural world full of local characteristics. He included both exciting “scenes of struggle” and extremely tense storyline, revealing the personalities and detailed psychology of the characters through dramatic conflicts. This novel showed strong local characteristics and adopted a folk perspective. The Hurricane was as famous as Ding Ling’s The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River. It also won the “Stalin Prize for Literature” and had a profound influence on contemporary literature. Unlike Ding Ling and Zhou Libo, although Zhao Shuli was also influenced by the “May Fourth New Literature”, his literary concept and creative practice were mainly based on the real-life practice in an antiJapanese base. Therefore, he understood and practiced the message of the Talks more consciously and smoothly. Marriage of Xiao Er Hei (Xiao Er Hai Jie Hun) was a story of young peasants Xiao Er Hei and Xiao Qin, who broke through obstacles and got married freely. In organizing this storyline, the writer did not confine the story to a single linear narrative structure, but wove it into a deep spatial dimension that covered many characters and events within the rural society, presenting a vivid picture for the reader. The writer called himself a litterateur in the “literary circle”

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who told the story of ordinary countrymen in the form of storytelling and using the language of ordinary people. The conversations of the characters were just the straightforward tone of unsophisticated peasants. Arguably, the publication of Marriage of Xiao Er Hei was an important expansion of the new literary language, characterization, and narrative mode since the “May Fourth”, and it was of great literary historical significance. Afterward, Zhao Shuli wrote Rhymes of Li Youcai, Changes in Li Village, Good Prevails over Evil, Fu Gui and Family Heirloom, most of which invented stories and characters based on the political situation and social issues of the time such as the land reform, women’s liberation and the rehabilitation of loafers. Zhao Shuli was called “people’s artist” by Zhou Yang. His novels were regarded in the literary and artistic circles as successful examples in practicing the message of Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art and thus opened up the “direction of Zhao Shuli” that had a profound influence on contemporary literature. Among novelists in liberated areas, Sun Li took a highly individual path of creation. His writing was concise, simple, and poetic, forming a unique style other than Zhao Shuli’s “rural narrative” paradigm. Most of Sun Li’s works were based on war, but he described war as if it were daily life. He highlighted the beauty of interpersonal relationships and had a strong humanitarian undertone, thereby downplaying the cruelty and tragedy of war. His short stories such as Reed Marshland and Lotus Creek had delicate and charming narrative structures and took no heed to dramatic plot. They instead created meaningful connotations and shaped innocent, simple, and very charming characters in a skillfully straightforward manner. His full-length novel Wind and Cloud in the Early Days of That War traced in a poetic tone the history of the Communists building an anti-Japanese bases in the Hutuo River and cast a compassionate view at the fate of individuals and the nation. Unlike Ding Ling and Zhao Shuli, Sun Li did not deliberately describe specific social movements or present the themes of the times in his novels. Instead, guided by the message of the Talks, while trying to retain “local” flavor, he consciously absorbed and applied various literary experiences, including English literature, Russian literature and classical Chinese literature represented by Dream of the Red Chamber, in terms of plot setting, scene design and dialogue description. In this way, his depiction of the wartime struggles in the base was distinctively poetic and showed the richness and diversity of literature in liberated areas.