Shi JingSongs as Performance Texts: A Case Study of “Chu Ci” (Thorny Caltrop)

Abstract

Focused on a detailed philological analysis of the sacrificial hymn “Chu ci” in theShijing, the present study aims to reconstruct the dramatic multi-vocal structure of an exemplary early Chinese performance text. Examining the interrelation between performance and commemoration from anthropological, art historical, and linguistic perspectives, the study in its first part outlines major characteristics of early Chinese ritual culture in terms of ritual self-reference, aesthetic expression, cultural memory, and the performative act of constituting ritual reality. After these historical and theoretical considerations, a fully annotated translation of “Chu ci” is offered, with the text presented in its multi-vocal structure. This structure of multiple voices and changing perspectives is then discussed through a close analysis of linguistic features such as rhyme shifts, the distribution of pronouns and formal designations for the ritual participants, and the use of formulaic prayer sequences. It is argued that these features are directly interrelated and, if seen together, allow us to reconstruct “Chu ci” as an actual performance text that can be related to specific practices and situations of early Chinese ritual culture. It is concluded that only such a reconstruction renders the text fully intelligible, integrating all its otherwise unruly linguistic elements into a coherent reading. In view of the evidence from “Chu ci,” it is suggested that its multi-vocal structure is not a singular phenomenon but reflects a principle of composition that might also apply to other early Chinese ritual texts.