The problem of attribution in the song poetry: the case of Wu Shuji (吳淑姬)

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the problem of attribution in the Song poetry using ci written by Wu Shuji (吳淑姬, c. 1185?). In spite of being considered one of the “Four Greatest Female Ci Poets of the Song Dynasty” (“宋代四大女詞人”) her poetry is almost unknown outside China and the records about her life have raised a number of questions over the centuries. The necessity for attribution is determined by two versions of her biography, which led to the hypothesis of the existence of two women with the same name: one was from the Northern Song (北宋, 960–1127), when the other was from the Southern Song (南宋, 1127–1279). The purpose of my article is to prove this point of view by the analysis of four ci, the starting point of which is the distinction between traditional and innovative in classical Chinese poetry. The correspondence of ci to the “standard form” or zhengti (正體) is considered as the tradition. On the one hand, it means to have a pattern to be replicated or followed (in the way of theme, prosody, composition, images, artistic devices, etc.), and, on the other hand, a large number of ci composed by this pattern. Innovation is defined as a departure from the dominant patterns and composing brand new, extraordinary ci. The empirical material of this study is four ci composed to the tunes “Zhu Yingtai. Jin [Form]” (“祝英台近”), “Manifold Little Hills” (“小重山”), “Regret [for] Flying Apart” (“惜分飛”) and “Everlasting Regret. Ling [Form]” (“長相思令”). The analysis has proved that they were written by different authors. The first three ci are traditional in theme, prosody, composition, images, and using artistic devices, as they fully correspond to zhenti. The fourth ci is far from the established pattern and has a large number of innovative elements. It significantly differs from both zhengti and the other three ci. It gives the reason to conclude that it was composed by the other poetess – Wu Shuji from the Southern Song. All analyzed ci have been translated into Ukrainian for the first time.