Abstract
Abstract Zuo Si’s 左思 [ca. 250-305] “Poems on History” [yongshi 詠史] have often been regarded as a milestone in the development of the poetic subgenre “poems on history.” Scholars have noted Zuo’s use of historical allusion and description to articulate his personal emotions and ambitions and to criticize the political hierarchy of the Western Jin [265-316]. In addition, they have recognized Zuo’s “Poems on History” as representing an alternative to the ornamental style of poetry popular in his time. This article addresses the way in which Zuo’s poems contributed to the “poems on history” subgenre, as well as how they reflected the broader context of Six Dynasties [220-589] society. At the same time, it investigates another purpose for his use of historical figures in his poetry: self-canonization. This paper argues that Zuo used historical figures not only to express his emotions but also to skillfully place himself into the larger context and lineage of exemplary historical figures. Zuo is thus telling later generations that they should remember him with the same reverence—he is invoking history as a force of self-canonization. This self-canonization perspective reveals the complexity of Zuo’s appropriation of earlier historical sources. It also deepens our understanding of the purpose of Zuo’s “Poems on History” and of the ways in which history is disseminated through poetry in the Six Dynasties period.
Highlights
This article addresses the way in which Zuo’s poems contributed to the “poems on history” subgenre, as well as how they reflected the broader context of Six Dynasties [220-589] society
This paper argues that Zuo used historical figures to express his emotions and to skillfully place himself into the larger context and lineage of exemplary historical figures
Zhang telling later generations that they should remember him with the same reverence—he is invoking history as a force of self-canonization
Summary
Zuo Si 左思 [ca. 250-305], styled Taichong 太沖 ( written 泰沖), a native of Linzi 臨淄 (modern Zibo 淄博 in Shandong province) was well known for his literary writing in the Western Jin [265-316] dynasty.[1]. Because Zuo was not politically successful, these poems became an alternate path to becoming part of posterity This self-canonization perspective reveals the complexity of Zuo’s appropriation of earlier historical sources. The first, based on lines in the first poem, is that they were written when he was young, before the Western Jin unified the country.[8] The second holds that these poems could not have been composed when Zuo was young because the divergent styles, moods, and spirit in these poems reflect different periods in the poet’s life and draw on a variety of life experiences.[9] The third theory points to the coherence of the “Poems on History” as a set— the first poem serves as a preface, and the seven use miscellaneous historical and literary allusions to expand on the themes established in the first to articulate the poet’s feelings—as evidence that the poems were composed as a set relatively late in Zuo’s life.[10] I find the third theory the most compelling. Zuo places himself in “conversation” with each of these stages of life, in an effort to find a suitable position for himself in the past, present, and future and to transcend the limits of time and space
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