The Reception of Du Fu (712–770) and His Poetry in Imperial China by Ji Hao

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Reception of Du Fu (712–770) and His Poetry in Imperial China by Ji Hao Michael A. Fuller The Reception of Du Fu (712–770) and His Poetry in Imperial China by Ji Hao. Leiden, Nld: Brill, 2017. Pp. x + 266. $114.00 cloth, $114.00 e-book. The burgeoning scholarship on the reception history of major Chinese poets is a welcome and overdue development in the study of premodern Chinese literature. Ji Hao's The Reception of Du Fu is the first in a series of monographs we can anticipate in English on the reception history of the greatest Chinese poet. Although Hao's title suggests a general survey of the field of Du Fu studies, the book perhaps would have been better called Studies in the Reception of Du Fu, since the field is vast and Hao focuses on a particular set of themes and texts spanning a period from the Northern Song through Qianlong's reign (1735–1799) during the Qing dynasty. Although I believe Hao's book is a useful addition to the literature, there are some critical methodological and conceptual problems that I find with his approach. In the introduction, Hao raises an initial series of questions that very broadly define the goals for the study of reception history: What is the general picture of the history of the reception of Du Fu and his poetry in premodern China? More importantly, what can the process of such a reception reveal to modern readers about the nature of poetry and subtleties of the modes of reading poetry in premodern China? How does knowledge about this process deepen our understanding of the relationship among poetry, politics, and social and intellectual changes in imperial China? How does it better inform us of efforts taken by the literati class to construct their self-identities under constantly changing circumstances? (p. 7) In practice, however, Hao's own study is more narrowly circumscribed and centers on two themes. The first is the changing interpretations of Du Fu as a "loyal" poet. The second is an exploration of an engagement with Du Fu's poems that Hao calls the "mode of life reading" (p. 8), which I discuss below. The Reception of Du Fu is divided into six main chapters with a short introduction and a short conclusion. Chapters 1 and 2 cover the Song dynasty; chapter 3 discusses the Yuan and early Ming, while chapters [End Page 232] 4 and 5 examine the late Ming and early Qing. Chapter 6 describes the official approaches to Du Fu during the Kangxi (1678–1735) and Qianlong reign periods, while the conclusion provides a short coda bringing Hao's study of Du Fu's reception up to the current time. Hao starts with the Northern Song, rather than the reception of Du Fu's poetry in the ninth century, and largely focuses on the commentarial traditions recorded in collections of Du Fu's poetry. Since there are no extant collections of Du Fu's poetry from the Tang, the crucial early years in the shaping of Du Fu's reputation—from Han Yu's 韓愈 (768–824) championing of his poetry to Han Wo's 韓偓 (844–923) complex engagement with Du Fu at the end of the dynasty—are simply omitted. Although references to ninth-century writers' comments on Du Fu appear throughout the book and make it clear that Hao knows the relevant material, he appears to consider the Tang writers peripheral to his project. It would have been better if Hao had addressed this omission in the introduction and explained the logic behind his particular methodological focus and its implications. Although chapter 1 begins with how Wang Qi 王琪 (fl. 1025–1059) used the printing of his edition of Du Fu's poetry to generate revenue, the chapter largely focuses on the relationship between Song-dynasty poetic practice, the reconstruction of Du Fu's collection, and the construction of Du Fu's poetic identity. Hao explores the questions of how writers decided among textual variants in extant versions of Du Fu's poetry, as well as how they decided which poems in fact were written by Du Fu and which were...