poetic chinese

8/13/2019 Poetic Chinese

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New Space and New Writing

The opening up of new space anticipated a

new kind of writing that encompassed

phenomena of larger world

Writing no longer focused on classics,

philosophy, and historiography

Literati created a more autonomous aesthetic

realm paralleling the emergence of new spaces:


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These new spaces

were:

Taverns and pavilions

for pure conversation

and poetry gathering

Buddhist and Daoisttemples

Large gardens and

villas in new cities and

in the hills and

mountains

Hermits dwellings in

wilderness and caves


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New writing went beyond classics,

philosophy, and historiography

It now expanded to encompass mysteries,

legends, life and death, natural and

supernatural worlds

Impacts of Buddhism and Daoism were clear

in both intellectual discourse and fictional

writing: Intellectual discourse: Dark Studies

Fictional writing: Anomaly account or

Account of Anomalies


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Influence of Early Daoism

Dark Studies (or Mysterious Studies) featured ideasand themes found in early Confucian and Daoist texts:

The Canon of Change(Yi jing)

The Canon of Way and Power (Daode jing)

The Master Zhuang (Zhuang zi)

Debates overTeaching of names (mingjiao) vs.

Nature (ziran) figured most prominently

Participants: He Yan, Wang Bi, Guo Xiang, Zhong Hui,Ruan Ji, and Xi (Ji) Kang

Contributed to the pure conversation movement


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Intellectual discourse focused on the relations

between names and forms, nothingness

(nonentities) and entities, character and talent.It reflected conflict between Confucian view that

stresses the existence of a moral heaven and the

early Daoist (Zhuangzis) view of an amoral heaven Zhuangzis views on inaction (no purposive action,

wu wei), nature and spontaneity, and inadequacy

of language gained currency

Intellectuals used Lao-Zhuang to interpret

Confucianism, e.g., Confucius embodied

nothingness and stressed the importance of nature,

naturalness, and spontaneity.


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Terminology used in the Dark Studies

Wunothingness, nonbeing, or

negativity

Wang Bi: Wu is the ultimate basis of reality,

prior to and above Confucian moral heaven. Wu lies beyond the reach of images or

language in the realm of the mysterious or

dark

Wu weiaction based on the principle of

non-action, i.e., nonpurposive action,

particularly when a ruler rules a state


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Perfected Man, Great Man---people who

refused public, political service and work towardself-perfection by living a life that

appreciates the beauties of nature and of simplicity

and spontaneity, enjoys wine and music when going on excursion to

the hills and streams

Ziran(self-so)nature means the union or

integration of natural world and humankind into

a purposeless and amoral state


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Anomaly account

Referred to as zhiguai, with the followingcharacteristics:

Biographical,

Strange/unusual objects,

bizarre and fantastic events:

Daoist fights Demon

Buddhist wonder-working

return-to-life storiesBuddhist magic

portents and auguries


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ghosts, spiritsSex and marriage with ghost spirit:

Lu Chong weds a deceased woman who gives birth to his son Necromantic practices:

Communications and interactions with immortals, sprits ofdead including female spirits, animal spirits, etc.

Types of Stories

Two most common types

Ghost stories: dead persons manage to cross the boundary

between the human world (yang) and the nether (yin)

worldReturn-from-death: living persons at the near death stage

manage to negotiate the difficult crossing and return alive

from the world of the dead.


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The Emergence of New

Poetic Writing: NewForm and New Content

[]


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Chinese Poetic Tradition

Pre-Qin: two traditions The northern tradition: The Book of Poetry(Odes)

The southern tradition: The Chuci(or Chu-tzu)

Han: Fuand Yuefu Fu(epideictic rhapsody or rhymed-prose)

Zuo Si, Three Capitals Rhapsody

Lu Ji Rhapsody on Literature

Yuefu(Music Bureau) ballads

Southeast the Peacock Flies

The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry
http://www.virginia.edu/ealc/chinese_literature/watson/CBtoc.htmhttp://www.virginia.edu/ealc/chinese_literature/watson/CBtoc.htm


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Yuefu Ballads

Han and Wei Five-character shi(shih) poetry became the favorite

vehicle for lyric expression

Nineteen Old Poems of the Han poets: Cao Cao, Cao Zhi, Seven Masters of Jianan

Jin

Ziye songs,

wanderingwith immortals


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Selections from the Book of Songs

Jiang Zhongzi

Please ZhongziDo not climb into our hamlet

Do not break our willow tree

Its not that I begrudge the willows

But I fear my father and mother

You, I would embrace

But my parents words

Those I dread

Please Zhongzi

Do not leap over our wallDo not break our mulberry trees

Its not that I begrudge themulberries

But I fear my brothers

You, I would embrace


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Song of the Great Wind

--Liu Bang (256-195 BC)

A great wind arose,

the clouds flew up and

away;

My majesty now grown tothe seas edges

I return to my old home.

Yet where shall I findbrave men to guard

the four quarters?
http://www.ourhappyland.net/xungen/liu/liu03020c.html


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Song of Gaixia (202BC):

Farewell, Lady Yu!

My strength plucked up the

hills

My might shadowed the world

But the times were against me

And Dapple runs no more

When Dapple runs no more,

What then can I do?

Ah! Yu, my Yu!

What will your fate be?


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Northern Ballad: PrinceLangye Song

I just bought a five-foot sword,

From the central pillar I hang it.

I stroke it three times a day

Better by far than a maid of fifteen.


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Southern Ballad: Ziyesong

.

I held my dress, not tying the sash;

I painted my brows and went to the

windows.

My gauze skirt is easily whirled by

the breeze

If it opens a bit, just blame thespring wind.

.

.


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Ancient Poems

Seven Worthies of Bamboo Grove Ruan Ji

Xi (Ji) Kang

Tao Qian (Yuanming) The most widely admired of the early Chinese poet

Creator of the Chinese Shangri-lathe Peach BlossomSpring

Characteristics of poems during this time Sang personal feelings in response to events of ones

own life

Conveyed personal thoughts about human condition


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Reflected on a variety of human sorrow or

frailty

Frailty of human body

Fleeting life and ineluctable death

Appreciated the beauties of nature and

lamented the fading of things and the

transience of life

Paid attention to the signs of human mortality


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Ruan JisPoem

Hibiscus overgrows the grave

mounds,

Sparkling in lustrous shades.

But when the bright sun

sinks in the forest,

Its petals fall to the roadside.

Crickets chirp by doors andwindows,


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Cicadas hum amidst the brambles.

Mayflies play for only three

mornings,

Yet they preen themselves,

working their wings.

For whom do they display theirfinery,

Flying up and down, sprucing

themselves up?

How short life is,

But everything, full or ardor,

labors on.


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Tao Yuanming

Tao Yuanming (365-427) A Confucian scholar and poet who was well-versed in

Daoist philosophy

Served as a local officials but never held any post verylong

Quit his post because he couldn't for five pecks of rice

bow before a village buffoon. Buffoon was used to

ridicule a local inspector, his superior.

Regarded as the patriarch of the poets of reclusion


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Poems are plain,unadorned but deep

and often philosophical;

representative of

pastoral poetry Many of his poems are

tinged with Daoist

sentiment


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Recurrent Themes

of Taos Poetry

Life is fleeting, death isineluctable The Three Sovereigns, the great sages

of old

Where are they today? Pengzu loved longevity,

Wanted to stay longer but it couldnt

be.

Old ad young alike die a single death

Wise and foolish are not allotted

different fates.

(Substance, Shadow, and spirit:

spirit expounds)


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Fleeting life, ineluctable death--- Theyre dead and gone, none of them left!

In one generation both court and city change.

Mans life is a phantom affair

And he returns at last to the empty void. (Return to My Home, no.4)

As a boy in braids, I held to my own odd ways,

Then before I knew it I was over forty.

My body must go where the course of change takes it, But the spirit within me will always be at peace.

(we had a fire)


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Fleeting life.

why do we value this body of ours?

Isnt it because we have just one life?And this one lifetimehow long will it last?

It shoots by like a bolt of lightning! (Drinking Wine, no.3)

Or should I be like gentlemen of our time,

hearts filled with hopes that clash like ice and fire,

who, their hundred years ended, gone to tall graves,

find they have won themselves only empty names? (poems without category, no.4)


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Fleeting life .

Long ago, men in search of fame and honor fought valiantly with each other over this ground

but then their hundred years one morning ended,

And together they went home to the northern hills.

Now people have cut the pine and cypress on their graves; only the tall mounds remain, dipping and rising side by

side.

The graves wash away, no heirs to tend them;

And their wondering ghosts---where have they gone?

Wealth and glory---no doubt, worth prizing;

At the same time, a cause for sorrow and pain.

(imitating the Old Poems, no. 4)


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Tao Yuanming

by Ming Painter Wang Zhongyu

Returning to My Home in the Country,no. 1 by Tao Qian (365-427)

In youth I couldnt sing to the common

tuneIt was my nature to love the mountains

and hills.

By mistake I got caught in the dusty snare

Went away once and stayed thirteen

years.The winging bird longs for its old woods;

The fish in the pond thinks of the deeps it

once knew.

I have opened up some waste land by the

southern fields

Stupid as ever, Ive come home to the

country

My house and land on a two-acre lot,

My house plot measures ten muor more


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A grass roof covering eight or nine spans

Elm and willow shade the back eaves,

Peach and damson ranged in front of the hall.

Dim dim, a village of distant neighbors;

drifting drifting, the smoke from settlements

A dog barks in deep lanes,Chickens call from tops of mulberry trees.

Around my door and courtyard, no dust andclutter,

In my empty rooms, leisure enough to spare.

After so long in that cage of mine,

Ive come back to things as they are.


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Poetry and Language

New generation of poets introduced thenew system of tonal prosody

Poetic (prosodic) rules began to include four

tones: level (png), rising (shng), parting(q), entering(r) and eightprohibitions

/faults

Four tones were classified into two categories

later: level (png), oblique (z)

Interest in tonal patterns reflected the

influences of Indian literature and Buddhism


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Calligraphy

Calligraphy rose to become the leadingvisual art.

Literati with great calligraphic skill could

command respect. The development of calligraphic art resulted

in the emergence of new scripts: running-

hand and cursive scripts, which simplifiedmany Chinese characters.

Calligraphic theory tied the beauty/ugliness

to human characters.


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Calligraphic art became an importantsubject in literatisdiscourse and

calligraphic theory.Questions regarding copies and forgeries were

raised.

Fraud (wi ) and Genuineness (zhn)becamecriteria for evaluating calligraphic works.

Wang Xizhi (303-361) Canonized as the sageof Chinese calligraphy

Calligraphic works were characterized in amodel of the running modescript.


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Wang Xizhis calligraphy


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Prose Narrative

Historya boom in historical writingappeared: dynastic histories and localhistories

Dynastic histories: Chen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms Shen Yue, Book of the Song Dynasty

Xiao Zixian, Book of the Southern Qi

Local histories: Record of the States South of Mt. Hua

Hagiographies: Biographies of Eminent Monks


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Temple records

Record of the Buddhist Temples of Luoyang Collections of Anecdotes

Forest of Conversations

New Account of Tales of the World Anomaly account/ Account of Anomalies.

Referred to as zhiguai, with the followingcharacteristics: Biographical

Strange/unusual objects

Bizarre and fantastic events: Daoist fights Demon

Buddhist wonder-workingreturn-to-life stories

Buddhist magic


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Writers fascinated with the anomalous created

stories to teach moral lessons, despite theiracknowledgement of Confuciusadvice: The master never talked of prodigies, feats of

abnormal strength, natural disorders, or spirits

Most writers were southerners who used thebenefits of space expansion in the south to givefree rein to their imagination about a fantastic,

boundless nature, cosmos, and myriad creatures


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Paintings


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Paintings

Painting: Gu Kaizhi (or Ku Kai-chih, ca.344-406) The only work extant, Admonitions of the

Instructress to the Court Ladies,reflects theConfucian content of the painting.

Known as specialized in figure painting.


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Gu Kaizhis Painting


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Goddess of the River Luo
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/File:Goddess_of_luo_shui_(part)1.jpg

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