Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Meow Hui Goh, Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University, specializes in medieval Chinese poetry, poetics, and literary culture.

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Sound and Sight

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

Acknowledgments......................................................ixConventions..........................................................xiPrologue Shengse: Sound and Sight....................................1CHAPTER 1 Individual Talent and the "Worthy One".....................7CHAPTER 2 Knowing Sound..............................................21CHAPTER 3 Seeing a Thing.............................................40CHAPTER 4 In the Garden..............................................57CHAPTER 5 Leaving the Capital City...................................80CHAPTER 6 In and Out of the Landscape................................100Epilogue.............................................................120Abbreviations........................................................127Notes................................................................129Selected Bibliography................................................155Character List.......................................................171Index................................................................183

Chapter One

Introduction

Referring to Shen Yue (441-513), Wang Rong (467-493), and Xie Tiao (464-499) as the Yongming poets-an extension of the so-called Yongming style (Yongming ti), a new prosodic form attributed to them-is a practice developed by modern scholarship. The lives of these three courtier-poets were certainly not confined to the Yongming reign period. While Wang Rong's death did coincide with the end of Yongming, both Xie Tiao and Shen Yue survived it; particularly in the case of Shen Yue-he was already in his forties when the Yongming reign period began, and he lived for another two decades after its end. Shen Yue's long life, which lasted seventy-two years and spanned three dynasties (Song, Qi, and Liang) at a time "when the average age of his contemporary courtiers at death was less than forty," was indeed extraordinary. More importantly, the significance of these courtier-poets and their works far transcends a single reign period or a single dynasty. When Richard B. Mather rendered "Yongming" literally as "eternal brilliance" in the title to his two-volume translation of their poems, he was already hinting at their far-reaching impact.

But what was so "brilliant" about them? In the common account of Chinese literary history, they are recognized mainly, if not solely, for their creation of the Yongming style. An outstanding achievement without doubt, for the Yongming style marks not only the beginning of Chinese tonal prosody, but also a rare moment in Chinese literary history when a "creation" or even an "invention" can be substantively identified; but the Yongming style continues to evoke a sense of unease in literary critics. The Liang shu (Liang History) comments: "By the point [Wang Rong, Xie Tiao, and Shen Yue created the new prosodic form], [the literary trend] turned to adhering to 'sounds and rhymes,' causing a widespread preference for ornateness and superfluousness, so much so that it surpassed that which came before them." Compounding the impression that the Yongming style was "ornate and superfluous" was its association with the Palace style (Gongti), which, flourishing about half a century later, has come to be viewed as a kind of pleasure poem meant for sensuous depiction of court ladies. The genius poet Li Bai (701-762), for example, said on one occasion, "Since the Liang and the Chen, [poetry] has become licentious and vulgar in the extreme. And Shen Xiuwen [Shen Yue] had promoted 'sound regulation' on top of that. If the ancient way (gudao) were to be revived, who but I would be the one [leading the way]?" By the Tang dynasty (618-907), it was apparently necessary to reject the "ills" of Southern Dynasties poetry-whether "licentiousness," "vulgarity," or "sound regulation"-if one were to claim the moral high ground of the "ancient way."

The question facing us is not what the Yongming style was, but what it was about. While this question will be answered more fully in Chapter Two, here it suffices to say that it was about the perception of sound. If not for their probing of the questions How does one differentiate sounds? How does one refine one's hearing? the Yongming poets would not have created a new poetic form so distinctively marked by sound patterning. In that sense, their association with the later Palace style can be seen in a completely new light. As revealed in a recent study by Xiaofei Tian, the Palace style, misunderstood for a long time as being about "women and romantic passions," was in fact intensely visual and concerned a new way of seeing. In light of her argument and my own, we can say that the Yongming style and the Palace style collectively reflect a broader concern for human sensory perception during the Qi and Liang periods. In fact, the association between the two styles was not that one concerned sound and the other sight; rather, they were both concerned with sound and sight. Not only were the Yongming poets attempting to hear with precision and clarity, but to see with equal facility as well. Their coming signaled a new awareness among Chinese cultural elites about one's ability to hear and see. And it was not only in the Palace style, which is also known for its prosodic form, that their influence was evident: for the entire period leading up to the formation of the so-called Regulated poetry (Lshi), which became very popular in the Tang and continued to be composed in large numbers even as recently as the early twentieth century, the poetic issue of sound and sight remained a crucial one, as Chinese poets continued to probe the freshness of poetic imagery and prosodic patterning.

Before entering their world of sound and sight, I want to situate it within the courtier culture of their day, particularly concerning a new and eclectic idea of personal worth. Through this idea, we will see why poetic "sound and sight" had unique relevance to the Yongming poets.

Individual Talent

The contemporaneous critic Zhong Rong (468-518), commenting on the popularity of their prosodic invention, described Shen, Wang, and Xie as "three worthies, all sons and grandsons of respected dukes (guigong zisun), who attained literary distinction as youth." That the three should come to be viewed as belonging to a single elite group is itself indicative of a shifting socio-political structure wherein "literary distinction" was gaining importance.

By some measures, it was a stretch for Zhong Rong to characterize Shen Yue as "a son and grandson of respected dukes." A descendant of the Shens of Wuxing (in modern Zhejiang), a southern gentry family with a military background and members who were not even literate, Shen Yue was the first in his family to rise to prominence. By contrast, Wang Rong was a descendant of the Wangs from Langye (in modern Shandong), whose decorated family history includes aiding the move of the Western Jin (265-316) to the south and helping to establish the Eastern Jin (317-420); and Xie Tiao came from the reputed Xies of Chenliu (in modern Henan), following a long line of influential courtiers and renowned writers. Just over a century earlier, when the Simas of the Eastern Jin were relying heavily on pre established...