An Outline of Chinese Literature II

Yuan Xingpei

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781315277875
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Different from previous researches weighted toward historical description and individual writer and work, this book establishes a general analytical system and a multi-angled methodology to examine Chinese literature.

In ancient China, there was no definite concept of pure literature. Considering both modern ideas of literature and the corresponding traditional concept, this book broadly discusses Shi and Fu poetry, Ci poems and Qu verses, novels and essays. The four chapters deal with the origins, evolutions, structures and styles of the various genres respectively, analyzing some representative works. It's worth mentioning that the book is written from an individual perspective. Based on his own appreciation as a reader, the author expresses the depth of his various related impressions on Chinese literature. In addition, it conveys many fresh points of views, which will enrich and inspire related researches.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of Chinese literature and comparative literature. People who are interested in Chinese literature and Chinese culture will also benefit from this book.

Part 1

Shi and fu poetry

The collocation shi and fu poetry is a very old one. We find in the Songs of Chu * Great Summons: “Sixteen girls danced in succession, their gestures coordinating rhythmically with the elegant songs and lyrics.” Wang Yi notes “shi and fu poetry refers to elegant music.”¹ As two styles of poetry – shi and fu – Wang Fu of the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) has this to say in his Sayings of a Hermit: “Shi and fu poetry, inasmuch as it has the virtue of recounting both the good and the bad, has the quality of being an outlet both for sorrow and joy; thus it has a steady and elegant form while containing deep meanings of stimulus and analogy.”² Liu Xin, in his Seven Outlines has a section on shi and fu poetry, and in the History of the Han Dynasty * Records of Art and Literature we find, “Liu Xin gathered a multitude of records, which he then arranged into Seven Outlines for presentation to the emperor. Among them were the “Compilation Outline,” “Six Arts Outline,” “Philosophers Outline” and “Shi and Fu Poetry Outline.”³ Cao Pi, in his Dissertation on Scholarship * On Literature, divides literature into four branches, of which shi and fu is one. He says, “Shi and fu are marked by beauty.”⁴ From the above, we can see that shi and fu were two forms of versification which were often regarded for the purposes of discussion as very closely linked. And so this book will discuss them together, paying attention to their influence upon each other and the mutual connection in their growth and decline.

Notes

1[Song Dynasty] Xingzu, Hong: Additional Commentary on the Songs of Chu, Vol.10, Zhonghua Book Company, 1983, P. 221.

2[Qing Dynasty] Jipei, Wang: Commentaries on Sayings of a Hermit, Vol.1, Dealing with the Fundamentals, Zhonghua Book Company, 1979, P. 19.

3[Han Dynasty] Gu, Ban: History of the Han Dynasty, Vol.30, Zhonghua Book Company, 1962, P. 1701.

4Li Shan, Lv Yanji et al. [Tang Dynasty]: Selection of the Major Writings of Six Officials, Vol.52, Collected Writings of the Four Basic Branches of Literature

1 The three sources of Chinese poetry and ballads

Book of Odes: songs of the heavenly flute

According to conjectures in written records, a certain kind of primitive songs were produced in China pre-dating the Book of Odes. These songs were accompanied by music and dancing. The Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lv * Section on Ancient Music says, “In antiquity the musical performances of the Getian tribe involved three people holding ox tails and moving their feet to the ‘song in eight que’.”¹ Described here is obviously a primitive song-and-dance performance. “Holding ox tails” is clear, and “moving their feet” must refer to dancing, but as there is no written record of the “eight que,” it is not known for certain what kind of song this was.

Doubtless, the songs and ballads of the most ancient times were handed down orally; they were written down at a much later date an example of an ancient song reduced to writing is the “The Catapult Song” from The Spring and Autumn Annals of the Kingdoms of Wu and Yue:

Split the bamboo. Bind the pieces. Let the mud fly. Chase the prey [lit. “meat”].²

Liu Xie, in his Carving a Dragon with a Literary Heart * Inheritance and Innovation, says, “When the Yellow Emperor sang the song ‘Splitting the Bamboo’ he was sincere in the extreme.”³ It is not known on what grounds he based his conclusion that this song dated from the time of the Yellow Emperor; however, the simplicity of the language indicates an origin of great antiquity. It depicts the life of a hunter, who splits bamboo and binds the pieces to make some sort of catapult. He then makes pellets out of mud, which he shoots at his prey. In only eight characters four actions are described covering the whole course of making and using a hunting weapon in a natural and unadorned manner.

Vol.11 of the Comprehensive Categories of Art and Literature quotes the “Song of the Husbandman,” contained in Huang Fumi’s Era of the Monarchs. It is said to be part of a song titled “Fifty Old Men on their Way to Till the Soil,” dating from the time of the legendary Emperor Yao:

I go to work at sunrise, and rest at sunset. I dig a well and drink. I till the fields and eat. Does the emperor labor as hard as I?

This song is quoted too in the “Commentaries on the Book of Documents” section of the Book of Rites * Explanation of the Classics. It reflects the hand-to-mouth existence of the common people in ancient times. The last line – “Does the emperor labor as hard as I?” – is quoted in the “Record of Early Studies,” which comments on its primitive thought. However, some people contend that this line is a later forgery, for instance, see Zhu Ziqing’s Three Types of Ancient Poetry and Ballads with Comments and Translations * Collection with Discussions of Ancient Works no Longer Extant. In addition, there is no way of deciding whether the songs “South Wind” and “My Lord Says,” which are said to date from the time of the legendary Emperor Shun, are genuine or not. In Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. Lv * First Part of the Section on Music we find, “Yu [Legendary emperor who tamed the floods] went forth upon his task. He saw the woman of Tushan, but did not go to her. Instead, he went to inspect the territory of the south. The woman of Tushan waited for Yu as his wife on the north side of Mount Tu, where she composed and sang the song ‘Waiting for my lord, indeed how wonderful!’ This was the true beginning of the southern music.” From this we can get a glimpse at least of what the songs of high antiquity were like.

With the invention of writing, the old ballads came to be written down as poems. It is said that in ancient times there was a system for collecting such poems. Ban Gu, in the “Food and Goods” section of his History of the Han Dynasty, says, “In the first month of spring, just as the farmers were on their way to the fields, officials beating wooden clappers as a sign of their office would record the songs they were singing, and submit them to their superiors. These songs were then set to music for the consideration of the emperor.”⁴ As to the reason why they did so, the “Records of Art and Literature” section of the History of the Han Dynasty tells us: “In olden times, special officers would collect folk songs so that the ruler would be cognizant of the doings of the common people, know what was going right and what was going wrong, and reflect on his own conduct.”⁵ It was a way of ascertaining the mood of the people, judging the benefits and defects of policies, and adjusting the focus of government. It is said that many of the poems and ballads contained in the Book of Odes were collected and recorded in this way. However, these are restricted to those in the sections titled, “Airs of the States” and “Minor Court Hymns”; those in the sections titled, “Eulogies” and “Hymns” were probably compositions by court ministers and scholars.

The Book of Odes was China’s first collection of poems and ballads; it was also one of the sources of such poems and ballads. Altogether, it contains 305 pieces collected from the early years of the Western Zhou period (11th century BC) to the middle part of the Spring and Autumn period (sixth century BC) – a time scale of some 500 years. The last edition of the book was probably completed in the sixth century BC, somewhere in the area now occupied by the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and the northern part of Hubei. In the Han Dynasty it was held that Confucius had compiled the Book of Odes. For instance, according to the section on Confucius in the Records of the Historian, “There were over 3,000 poems handed down from ancient times, but Confucius pared them down to only those which were consonant with benevolence and righteousness – some 305 – which Confucius sang to the accompaniment of the zither.”⁶ It is believable that there were 305 poems which could be set to music, but not that Confucius alone did the editing, because in his time there was already a tradition of the “Three Hundred Poems,” which only acquired the title Book of Odes in the Han Dynasty. In the pre-Qin period [in which Confucius lived], they were simply known as the Poems; it was Han Dynasty scholars who raised them to the level of a classic, and called the collection the Book of Odes.

The contents of the Book of Odes are divided into three parts – Airs, Hymns and Eulogies. The Airs, or Airs of the States, were collected from 15 states in ancient China. The Hymns are divided into Minor Court Hymns and Major Court Hymns, and the Eulogies into the Eulogies of Zhou, Lu and Shang.⁷ The tripartite division is because of supposed differences in the music which originally accompanied the poems: That for the Airs, which were folk songs collected from 15 different regions, had a regional coloring; that of the Hymns, which originated in the area directly ruled by the Zhou king, the overlord of the various states, was the solemn music of the Zhou court. The character ya, which occurs in the title of the Hymns section, originally meant “straight” or “correct,” as the music of the Zhou court was considered the standard mode. The difference between the Hymns and the Airs was that between “standard language” and “regional language.” There are different theories about the division of the Hymns into Minor Court Hymns and Major Court Hymns, but it was probably connected with differences in musical accompaniment. As for the Eulogies, in the “Preface to the Mao Poems” we find “They are replete with beauty and the aspect of virtue, and are ideal expressions of worship.” The Qing Dynasty (1644–1...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword to the Chinese edition
• Preface to the Chinese edition
• Part 1 Shi and fu poetry
• Part 2 Ci poems and qu verses
• Part 3 The novel
• Part 4 Essays
• Further discussion
• Afterword to the first Chinese edition
• Afterword to the second Chinese edition
• Index