China & Inner Asia: Table of Contents
Organizer and Chair: Zu-yan Chen, SUNY, Binghamton
Maija Bell Samei, University of Michigan
Many scholars have noted the widespread practice among male poets in the Chinese tradition of writing in the voice of an abandoned woman. Feminist critics have recently shown a particular interest in the phenomenon, notably with respect to how conventions of femininity arising from this largely male poetic discourse constrained the work of female poets. Scholars of the ci, or song lyric, which eventually became associated with a "feminine" aesthetic character, have begun to consider the role of these conventions in shaping the ci’s generic sensibilities. As part of a larger project which examines female-voiced complaints in the ci form during its development in the Tang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960), this paper will examine the figure of the abandoned woman as aesthetic or erotic object ("thing"), as commonplace or topos ("place"), and as persona ("person"), in order to explore the range of uses to which this convention was put in the ci of this period. The eroticized figure, shared with earlier palace-style poetry, has perhaps received the most attention to date, although studies have tended to rely on one or two major poets. The less obviously objectified versions of the figure as commonplace and as persona, on the other hand, are not well understood. By unraveling and characterizing the complex and overlapping relationships which held between the poet’s voice or persona, and that of the fictional female figure, this paper promises to enrich our too often over-simplified view of the gendered poetics of the ci during this formative period.
Xiaofei Tian, Harvard University
One central reading tenet of classical Chinese poetry is that the Fair Lady (jiaren) expecting sexual favors from her lord is always taken to represent the poet himself, who longs for understanding and promotion from his deceived prince; or, if the poet expresses his yearning for a beautiful lady afar, then she is considered a symbol for the monarch (or a lofty political ideal) beyond the poet’s reach. In either case, the Fair Lady is a silent and passive agent who only serves to mirror the poet’s political aspirations, an empty vessel deprived of subjectivity and individuality by the male poet’s literary transvestitism.
However, the Southern Dynasties Palace Style Poetry is curiously the first classical Chinese love poetry into which no political or moral allegory can be read. Exactly how the reinvestment in the image of the Fair Lady is achieved, and what the deeper implications of this revolutionary phenomenon in classical Chinese literary history are, shall be the subject of this paper. I shall argue that the de-allegorization of the Fair Lady transforms her from a mere symbol into a "subject of consciousness" whose sexuality and identity subvert the very tradition presuming to contain her. Impossible to be subsumed in the allegorical reading framework, the Fair Lady depicted in the Palace Style Poetry is an apt figure for the poetic genre itself, the value of which should now be reassessed beyond literary craftsmanship—the verse’s only raison d’être granted by many a scoffing critic.
Tim Wai-keung Chan, University of Colorado, Boulder
There has been a trend, especially in Mainland China, to render too much credit to the so-called "Four Elites of the Early Tang," namely Wang Bo (650–ca. 676), Yang Jiong (650–ca. 694), Lu Zhaolin (ca. 634–ca. 683), and Luo Binwang (ca. 626–684), as poetic innovators. The prevailing attitude has resulted in a neglect or whitewashing of some negative, even mocking, remarks from their contemporaries. In this paper I examine some of the main sources that shed light on the Four Elites, to restore an accurate picture of their true historical roles. It is beyond doubt that they had, at least in many circles, a reputation for being frivolous and shallow (qingbo), bombastic and impetuous (fuzao).
My first argument is based on a reading of some lines from Du Fu’s (712–770) "Xiwei liu jueju" (Six quatrains composed in a playful manner) focusing on the line "frivolously indicting compositions: the mockery never ceased" (qingbo weiwen shen weixiu). The phrase qingbo carries decidedly negative connotations, in the literary arena of the Zhenguan reign-period (627–650) and the later periods when such literary legacy still had great influence.
Some epithets of the Four Elites bestowed by contemporary critics also reveal a mocking tone. For instance, "Erudite of Arithmetic" (suanboshi) for Luo Binwang and "Roster of Ghosts" (dianguibu) for Yang Jiong obviously reveal a disparaging attitude toward the flashy artifice of their poetic writing.
My final focus will be on the writings of the Four Elites themselves. Their abundant writings in the role of promotion seeker reflect the prevalent Tang practice of ganye [importuning an audience with a high official] and amply corroborate the picture derived from our readings of the secondary sources.
Li Zeng, York University
Many poems by Li Shangyin (ca.812–858), a major poet of the Tang Dynasty, possess highly allusive characteristics. It is recognized that Li Shangyin’s use of allusion is a development in Chinese literary history where one finds a preference for allusion among poets of previous ages. To show how exactly Li Shangyin’s allusions work is in a way to explicate the poetic significance of allusion in classical poetry.
The present study focuses on one allusion which Li Shangyin favors, namely, "clouds and rain." By examining this allusion in different variations in several model instances, the study provides conveniently limited examples of Li’s allusive modes which are seen as a continuum of forms that starts with the use of overt allusions, and moves on with a tendency to reduce the more visible marks of borrowing through subtly internalizing his allusions. While trying to show that allusion functions as a constitutive element of the poetic system and thus contributes to the process of poetic signification, the study also renders a presentation of the poetic world of some of Li Shangyin’s poems.
With the illustration of Li’s allusive modes, the study emphasizes that the art of allusion in Li Shangyin is a highly crafted and conscious one which is based upon a dialectic understanding of the literary past.
Xiaoshan Yang, University of Notre Dame
The Chinese aesthetic appreciation of rocks of curious shapes goes back to early historic times. It is only in the ninth century, however, that we begin to see the appearance of the great connoisseurs and extensive treatment of rocks in poetry and prose. The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactions between aesthetic taste and moral consciousness reflected in the poetic configurations of fantastic rocks. The primary texts are drawn mainly from the ninth century when a distinct aesthetic taste is formed and from the eleventh century when petromania becomes a frequent target of moral condemnation and philosophical critique. What I hope to demonstrate is as follows. Mid-Tang poems on rocks develop a basic repertoire of images and motifs, wherein the grotesque and the ugly are aestheticized. Though not insensitive to larger social ramifications of rock-collecting, poets of this period typically choose to circumvent the moral concerns, sometimes through the convenient physico-moral analogy, sometimes through speculative rhetoric on the intention of the Fashioner-of-Things in shaping the wondrous rocks. In contrast, Northern Song poetry, though showing little aesthetic innovation, demonstrates a heightened moral sensitivity and philosophical reflectivity in its critique of obsession with rocks. At the same time, the Northern Song literati are caught up in a great irony in that many of the most eloquent critics of petromania are obsessive rock-fanciers themselves.