High Tang Research Articles

A Study of Lu-Xiang's Poetry in the High Tang

A Study of Lu-Xiang's Poetry in the High Tang

The Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval China by Robert E. Harrist, Jr (review)

Book Reviews 141 have other objects that signified flight and escape, such as a dragon-head staff that has a protruding tongue. Shao Tuo also possessed carved animal ornaments and wore clothes decorated with phoenixes. Interestingly, within the tomb there is also a sculpture that has a man standing on a bird’s head, as well as pieces of four chariots. The three appendices are particularly valuable since they contain carefully annotated translations of the divination and grave goods inventory texts that were buried in Baoshan tombs numbers 1 and 2. Without a doubt, this is a well-crafted and conceived study that furnishes us with a vivid example of how Warring States period nobles envisioned death and the tomb’s function. However, the author does not clinch her argument that the tomb was merely a way-station to the heavens. Since tombs were structured to be microcosms of the cosmos, it could well be that the grave goods ear-marked for travel were meant for journeys that would be solely conducted within the tomb and that the heavens themselves existed near the crypt’s ceiling. Despite this lingering doubt, the book offers a dizzying array of insights into early Chinese views of illness, death, and the afterlife; as a result, it is an invaluable resource for all students of Chinese religion. KEITH N. KNAPP, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina The Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval China ROBERT E. HARRIST, JR. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008. xi, 397 pages. ISBN 978-0-295-98728-6. US$60.00, £34.00, hardcover. First-time visitors to any of China’s so-called famous mountains (mingshan 名山) are always surprised at the ubiquitous presence of writing on almost every flat, rocky surface in sight, especially at lower, more accessible locations. These inscriptions, called moya 摩崖 or moya shike 摩崖石刻 in Chinese, are not only a distinguishing characteristic of China’s betterknown mountains, but also—as amply demonstrated by Robert E. Harrist, Jr., in The Landscape of Words: Stone Inscriptions from Early and Medieval China—an essential feature of Chinese civilization itself. Composed by everyone from emperors and officials to pilgrims and tourists, moya writings are essential elements in defining the cultural geography of China. This is because many visitors to China’s mingshan do not ascend these heights “simply because they are there.” Rather, the more serious and conscientious (and, of course, literate) climber would actually read his way up the mountain. That is to say, during his ascent the climber would 142 Journal of Chinese Religions stop to inspect various inscriptions cut into rocks and walls, and thereby gather information on previous visitors, when and why his predecessors came to the mountain, and what they had to say in their inscriptions (when appropriate, connoisseur-climbers would also admire an inscription’s calligraphic beauty). Of course, in traditional China humans interacted with mountains in many different ways: some wrote poems or travel accounts, others sometimes took up residence in monasteries, and some even lived in caves. So, composing and then inscribing words on the mountain’s physical face was just one way of interacting with its environment. However, as Harrist convincingly demonstrates throughout his new book, it is an important one because the dynamic nature of this interactive process of new visitors “interacting” in situ with former ones in many ways affected how mountains were understood in traditional China and how the people who visited and wrote about them understood themselves. The Landscape of Words covers the history of moya inscriptions from the first through the eighth centuries (that is, late Han through High Tang), and it is the first study in English devoted exclusively to this form of writing. Harrist’s main focus is how inscriptions cut in stone relate to the landscape environments and historical contexts in which they were produced. With this goal in mind, the author concentrates on a select group of key moya sites in Shaanxi and Shandong and, drawing on materials from social, religious, political, and literary history, presents his description and analysis through a series of “journeys to the locations of four very different types of texts from different...

A Tang Version of Du Fu: The Tangshi Leixuan 唐詩類選

Tang Studies 25 (2007) A TANG VERSION OF DU FU: THE TANGSHI LEIXUAN ~~~J[~ STEPHEN OWEN HARVARD UNIVERSITY The writers who constitute the very top of any literary canon for a long period present us with an interesting problem of judgment. Some say that the greatness of such writers is self-evident, a judgment that is so often and so easily confirmed that we must grant it a certain empirical validity. Another way to think about this fact, however, is to historicize it, to say that the most famous works by canonical writers have themselves become important constituents in the historical formation of literary values, so that judgments of such works will always reproduce themselves, reinforcing both the canonical status of the works in question and the values by which they are judged. A degree of variation is usually allowed-I may prefer Richard II to Richard III or Qjuxing bashou fj(~J\ § to Bingju xing~.$ 1T-but the very top of a literary canon serves its basic cultural purpose, which is to invite members of a cultural community to experience apparently shared values and the long-term continuity of those values as spontaneously reproduced within themselves. Literary canons are usually (but not always) retrospectively constructed. The Greek tragedies that we have through the repeated copying in the Byzantine school system from a canon established by Alexandrian critics were not necessarily the plays that won the prizes. The same was true in China. Some writers were canonical figures in their own day and remained so (Cao Zhi, Xie Lingyun, Su Shi); others had to wait for later generations to stake a claim on their importance. With such delayed preeminence the period when the canon is "under construction" can be unsettling to those who wish to believe that the preeminent value of certain works is both permanent and self-evident. The ever-changing canon of Tang poetry has been, by and large, based on values and judgments of particular poems that go back to the young print culture of the Song. Among Tang anthologies, Yin Fan's ~~:EI Heyue yingling ji 1EJ-ffi5€ II~ of 753 is reassuring by its inclusion of a number of poets and poems that have remained in the canon, even if a full reading of the anthology offers more surprises than old favorites. From the perspective of Song and later taste in Tang poetry, the other anthologies from the Tang itself are more perplexing in the values that informed the anthologists' choices. The Guoxiu ji ~:*~, whose initial form dates to 744, but whose present form postdates Heyue yingling ji, also represents 57 Owen: A Tang version of Du Fu High Tang poetry; it contains a few canonical works, but the most extensively represented High Tang poet is Lu Zhuan mtf€, whose poetry has remained largely ignored ever since that anthology and who survives entirely through that anthology. In the early ninth century, Liu Yuxi referred to "Lu and Du" rather than "Li and DU."l "Lu" here may refer to the somewhat less obscure Lu Xiang J1t~, but Liu Yuxi may have been thinking ofLu Zhuan from Guoxiu ji. Because Heyue yinglingji mostly supports later taste in Tang poetry, it has been taken as the most important contemporary anthology of High Tang poetry. Guoxiu ji, whose taste continues in later anthologies from the eighth century, is largely ignored. This is the norm: we judge the variety of materials in the past and grant them importance by how well they support and contribute to the narrative of what was to come. By and large we remember the Tang anecdotes and references to Tang poems that are still read, while ignoring the much larger range of reference to Tang poetry that is no longer part of the canon. Du Fu presents an interesting case. We know that from the early ninth century Du Fu and Li Bai, "Li and Du," were invoked as the canonical names that represented the height of poetry in the dynasty. Our current collection of Ou Fu, however, consists of over 1400 poems of a great variety of interests and styles, so that the more significant question becomes, just which poems by Du Fu...

“I Envy You Your New Teeth and Hair”: Humor, Self-Awareness and Du Fu’s Poetic Self-Image

Tang Studin 2,l-24 (200S~) "I Envy You Your New Teeth and Hair": Humor, Self-Awareness and Du Fu's Poetic Self-Image CHRISTOPHER G. REA COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Du Fu fJ:-m (712-770) was not the first Tang poet to be concerned about his own image, but the degree to which he sought to shape it through his poetry is remarkable. While it may be said that any text enables some sort of inference about its author, Du Fu's poems exhibit an acute and conscious attention to selfrepresentation . As Stephen Owen writes, "no poet before Du Fu, with the possible exception of Tao Qian, had ever made such elaborate efforts to give an account of himself." 1 However, accepting Owen's assenion that "the only aspect [ofDu Fu's identity] that can be emphasized without distorting his work as a whole is the very fact of its multiplicity"2 should not prevent us from highlighting individual facets of Du Fu's self-portrayal that contribute to his composite identity. This paper examines Du Fu's inclination to make fun of himself: a poetic trait that has been remarked upon in passing by many critics but has never been the focus of a dedicated study. William Hung introduces Du Fu as "a man of ambition, character, and humor,"3 but he does not further discuss the relationship Thanks to Wendy Swartz, Stephen Owen, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this essay. I Stephen Owen, An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginningr to 1911 (New York: WW Norton, 1996), 416. 2 Stephen Owen, The Great Age of Chinese Poetry: The High Tang (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), 184. 3 William Hung, Tu Fu: Chinas Greatest Poet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 47 Rea: •• , Envy You You, N~ Tt~lhana Hai,· between Du Fu's humor and his character or poetic an. David McCraw more specifically detects a "wry, self-mocking humor" in Du Fu's verse and notes: "Du Fu's humor can range from gentle to derisive, from lighthearted to inscrutable .... But its prevailing tone is the 'dry mock,' and its target is almost always himsel("4 Eva Shan Chou draws our attention to "Du Fu's command of physical comedy and his disarming ability to make himself a figure of fun,") while Owen in his seminal study, the Great Agt of ChintSt POttry: The High Tang, refers several times to Du Fu's "half-humorous" and "mocking" self-image.6 As Owen's use of the qualification "half-" implies, Du Fu's risible impulse is sometimes ambivalent or incomplete, deriving its full effect only in relation to other inclinations, such as grandeur, bitterness, heroism, or solipsism. But if Du Fu's "legacy to later poets was the capacity to laugh at oneself,"; as Owen states elsewhere, how did he laugh at himself, and what can be learned from his various laughing self-portrayals? HUMOR AND SELF-MOCKERY AS PoETIC MODES Discussions of humor are sometimes hamstrung by humor's subjectivity. As Qian Zhongshu ~Jt_ (1910-1998) once remarked, humor lies in how one perceives a thing and not in the thing itself/~and this is one of the main reasons why humor is such University Press, 1952), vii. 4 David R. McCraw, Du Fus lAments from the South (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1992), 11, 221. S Evan Shan Chou, Reconsidering Tu Fu: Littrary Greatn~s and Cultural Contcct (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 182. Spelling changed from "Tu Fu" to "Du Fu" for consistency. 6 Owen, The Great Age o/Chinese Poetry, 195, 207, 209, and 212. 7 Stephen Owen, "The Selrs Perfect Mirror: Poetry as Autobiography," in The Vitality 0/the Lyric voice: Shih Poetryfrom the lAu Han to the Tang, ed. Shuen-fu Lin and Stephen Owen (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 94. 8 Qian Zhongshu ~J1., "Shuo xiao" ~~, finri ping/un ~ B ~~, 1.22 (May 28, 1939): 13. 48 Tang SnuJin 23-24 (2005-06) a tricky phenomenon to analyze in literature. What one reader takes to be humorous and playful another may interpret as a bitter self-reproach. Debates about literary humor often come down to interpretation...

胡應麟論齊梁陳隋詩與唐律之關係辨

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 胡應麟(1551—1602)生當明代中葉前後七子主領文壇之世，論詩不脱明人習尚，推尊盛唐，講求興象風神。但他能夠同時客觀地上溯唐律形成的脈絡，舉出眾多例證，切實從詩歌語言的聲調、句法、風格、結構諸端，探討齊梁陳隋與唐律的關係，這在明代是突出的。
 本文試就論流變、論格律、論結構三方面，對胡氏的論述加以辨析，期以補充批評史上對其詩論的認識，更進一步思考在清世聲調論大盛之前，明人在這方面的探索有什麼意義。Hu Ying-lin (1551-1602) was bom into a literary era dominated by the so-called Qian qi-zi and Hon qi-zi (Earlier Seven Masters and Later Seven Masters). His views on poetry, not surprisingly, reflected the prevailing trend which promoted High Tang poetry as the highest standard for writing poems. What set him apart from other Ming critics, however, was his interest in the origins of Tang regulated verse, and his objective attempts to explore the similarities between regulated verse and Qi, Liang, Chen and Sui poems in tonal pattern, syntax, style, and structure.
 This paper examines Hu Ying-lin's views on this subject, focusing on three areas: the development, versification and structure of regulated verse. It is hoped that this would give us a better insight of Hu's poetry criticism. Furthermore, it should shed some light on the views of Ming critics on the issue of tonal patterns before it was vigorously pursued by scholars of Ching dynasty.

The End of the Chinese 'Middle Ages': Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (review)

Reviews 221 Stephen Owen. The End ofthe Chinese 'MiddleAges': Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. 209 pp. Hardcover $39.50, isbn 0-8047-2666-3. Paperback $14.95, isbn 0-8047-2667-1. Despite its recognized importance in the history of Chinese literature, scholarly works in English on Tang dynasty poetry appear only infrequently. Particularly welcome, therefore, is a new book by Stephen Owen, who, since the 1970s, has established himselfas a leading authority on the development ofTang poetry and on Tang poets and the appreciation of their work. In The End ofthe Chinese MiddleAges,' Professor Owen has returned to his first love, the literature ofthe end ofthe eighth and the beginning of the ninth centuries, the subject ofhis first book, based on his Ph.D. thesis, published by Yale University Press in 1975. The Poetry ofMeng Chiao and Han Yu, as its title suggests, was an analysis of the lives and works ofindividual poets, as was The Poetry ofthe Early T'ang, which Owen published two years later, also with Yale University Press. This second work covered the period traditionally known as the Early Tang era, from the beginning ofthe dynasty up to the beginning of the eighth century, and included the transitions from pre-Tang poetry and into the better-known High Tang period of the eighdi century, when China's most famous poets, Li Bo and Du Fu, were active. His new book, The End ofthe Chinese 'Middle Ages, ' Owen claims, in part, to be an answer to the challenge to continue his analysis ofTang poetry into the period after the High Tang. To the Mid-Tang he assigns the dates 791 to 825, when Han Yu, Meng Jiao, and their circle were active, rather than the arbitrary traditional dates ofthe 770s through the 830s. In his introduction, Owen explains what he calls the near impossibility ofwriting a literary study ofthis period devoted exclusively to poetry and concentrating in turn on individual poets and their oeuvres, since die poetry ofthis time was so closely related to other literary genres and to intellectual, cultural, and social developments in general. Instead, he adopts the essay format ofhis 1985 work, published by the University ofWisconsin , Traditional Chinese Poetry and Poetics: Omen ofthe World, to examine certain themes shared by Mid-Tang literature in general and that set it apart from the literature ofearlier and later periods. It is the major break with earlier Tang poetry that gives Owen's book its challenging tide and justifies his movement away from the format ofmore conventional treatments ofTang literature, including his own© 1998 by University early work on what may be termed the last medieval Chinese poems. ofHawai'i PressStephen Owen is not the first scholar to characterize the late eighth century as the transition from China's medieval age to its early modern period. The prewar Japanese scholar Naitö Torajirö argued that medieval Chinese history gave 222 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1998 way to the early modern era around the middle to late eighth century, at approximately the time of the An Lushan Rebellion. His theory has since been accepted by many historians of China in the West, as well as by his followers in Japan. The Chinese acceptance of Han Yu as the major figure of the fugu ("return to antiquity ") movement to restore the primacy of classical-style prose over medieval parallel prose and as a precursor of the Song dynasty Neo-Confucian philosophers is universally acknowledged. Nevertheless, many scholars, including Stephen Owen in his work on the Early Tang, trace the beginnings of the new poetry back to at least a century earlier. The specifically new qualities of the literature of Han Yu and his intellectual circle have been touched upon in a number ofworks written in English over the past three or so decades. Edwin G. Pulleyblank (i960) noted that the aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion saw scholars, uprooted from comfortable careers in nordiern China, developing a new critical approach to the classics and an idealism in literature and in life that they could afford to pursue outside office. Their questioning led to the new-style literature of...

BEYOND ARCHAISM: WANG SHIZHEN AND THE LEGACY OF THE NORTHERN SONG

AbstractIn Five Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry Yoshikawa Kojiro writes:Sixteenth century China was dominated by an archaist literary movement called Old Phraseology… The movement advocated the use of models to recapture the intensity and strength of past literature… Specifically, writings of the Qin and Han dynasties were deemed the proper model for prose writing…For poetry eighth-century High Tang verse was the ideal… [A]lso acceptable as a model, but only secondarily so, was second- and third-century Han and Wei dynasty verse

Ch'en Tzu-ang: Innovator in T'ang Poetry (review)

Reviews 477© 1995 by University ofHawai'i Press convincingly documents how many ofDeng's ideas on culture derive in large part from Mao, particularly the idea ofplaying the "left" offagainst the "right" and vice versa while defining the paramount leader's own position as invariably at the center. The clarity and directness ofHe Yuhai's writing enliven the historical insights he shares with the reader, and his wide-ranging source citations and bibliography make Cycles ofRepression an indispensable reference work for all scholars interested in the cultural life ofthis period. One only hopes that He Yuhai or some other meticulous researcher will go on to write a similar book on the Chinese literary scene during the final decade ofthe twentieth century. Philip F. Williams Arizona State University Richard M. W. Ho. Ch'en Tzu-ang: Innovator in TangPoetry. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1993. 233 pp. Hardcover. Chen Zi'ang (658?-699?) is generally considered by modern scholars to be the most significant poet ofthe early Tang dynasty. In particular, he is credited with rejecting the genre ofcourt poetry that developed during the Six Dynasties and became dominant during the early Tang. Rather than follow the trends ofhis time and write poetry that has been judged by later critics as "effete" and "decadent ," Chen turned to the past for his models, favoring the simpler, more direct styles ofthe Han and Wei dynasties. Since the poets ofthe High Tang followed Chen in rejecting court poetry for earlier styles, Chen is often considered to be an important ancestor in the High Tang family tree. He was, in fact, lavishly praised by many later Tang poets, including Du Fu and Han Yu. While Chen has long been recognized as an important poet by Chinese scholars, however, he has sometimes been overlooked by Sinologists writing in Western languages. Like many other important poets ofthe Tang, Chen's brilliance has been overshadowed by the giants ofHigh Tang poetry like Du Fu and Li Bai. Consequently, there have been comparatively few major studies in English devoted to this poet. Richard Ho's book is intended both to make up for this lack of English-language material and to inspire further interest in Chen Zi'ang in Western countries . Ho's study is the first book-length work in English devoted entirely to Chen, with sections on both the poet's life and his poetry. Prior to Ho, the major study in English on Chen was a chapter in Stephen Owen's The Poetry ofthe Early Tang,1 478 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 which has an excellent analysis ofmany ofChen's poems. However, due to the nature of Owen's study, it did not allow for a lengthy biography, and so many important details of Chen's life have not been available to English readers. Ho's book includes a biography derived from historical sources, and also summarizes the political environment during Chen's years as an official. In his section on Chen's poetry, Ho translates and analyzes the complete set of Ganyu poems, considered to be his most important poetic achievement. In addition, he discusses many of Chen's other poems, including some that were not included in Owen's study. All these elements make Ho's book the most complete study of Chen Zi'ang in the English language. In order to appreciate Ho's approach, it might be helpful to make a few general comments about Chinese literary theory first. From earliest times, Chinese scholars have closely associated literature and politics. There are two important aspects to this association. First, literature, and more specifically poetry (or its counterpart, music), was thought to have a powerful effect on people that could be harmful if uncontrolled. Thus, the Xunzi says that "People cannot be without music, and music must take a form. If the form is improper (wu dao), then it cannot help but cause disorder."2 Consequently, the early rulers of China's idealized past supposedly established poetic standards in order to regulate and harmonize these influences. The second aspect ofpoetry's relation to politics was its potentially beneficial influence once properly regulated. The Daxu, or "Great Preface...

How the Story is Told and Who is Telling: Reading Li Bai’s “Ballad of Changgan” and “Ballad of Jiangxia”

T'ang Studies 12 (1994) How the Story is Told and Who is Telling: Reading Li Bai's "Ballad of Changgan" and "Ballad of Jiangxia" SHELLEY W. CHAN UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER "Narrative poetry constitutes a significant category of T'ang literature."l To this category Li Bai $8 (701-762?) has made his contribution, since "yueh-fu and 'songs' (ko-hsing ~ff) make up about one-fifth of [his] collection in its present form."2 Yuefu and "songs," classified as guti shi "i5t1~(ancient-style poetry) in contrast with jinti shi llilU'if (modem- or recent-style poetry), are usually considered the most appropriate forms for narrative. As C.H. Wang observes, "In comparison with the modern-style poetry, the ancientstyle appears to be more inclined to narrativity" as "a long poem written in the ancient style is clearly provided with the mechanisms necessary to develop a plot and with the other elements required of the narrative."3 This paper intends to make close readings of two of Li Bai's long narrative poems, namely, "Changgan xing" *Tff or "Ballad of Changgan" (the first of the two), and "Jiangxia xing" ~I8!1f or "Ballad of }iangxia," and to display how the narrative structure together with poetic devices construct the stories. In addition, we will also consider the notion of the speaking voice in a literary text. Let us start with "Ballad of Changgan." 1 Ching-hsien Wang, liThe Nature of Narrative in Tang Poetry," in The Vitality of the Lyric Voice: Shih Poetry from the Late Han to the T'ang, ed. Lin and Owen {Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986),217. 2 Stephen Owen, The GreatAge of Chinese Poetry: The High Tang (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1981), 119. 3 Wang, 229. 39 Chan: Li Bai' 5 Changgan xing and Jiangxia xing Ballad of Changgan4 When my hair just fringed my forehead, I plucked flowers in front of the gate at play. The boy came riding on a bamboo horse, 4 Round about the couch, we fooled with green plums. Together living in Changgan village, Both too young to arouse rumor or gossip.s At fourteen I became my lord's wife; 8 My bashful countenance never relaxed. Hanging my head, I faced the dark wall, Not once did I answer his thousand calls. At fifteen I started to extend my eyebrows, 12 And wished to be together like dust with ashes.6 Always maintaining the faith of "clinging to the post,"7 How could I climb the "gazing-for-husband" terrace?8 {no stanza break} 4 This is an old yuefu title. In Guo Maoqian ~~fR (fl. 12th cent.), camp. Yuefu shiji ~Jf..f~~, there is an anonymous "Changgan qu," and the Tang poet Cui Hao ,*ii (d. 754) has four poems under this title. These poems are all about the lives of boatwomen . See Yuefu shiji, 4 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1979), 72.1030. Changgan is the name of a village located near present-day Nanjing. 5 After reaching seven years of age, boys and girls were traditionally forbidden to have direct contact. For information about this taboo, see Li ji 1ttil (Shisan jing zhushu edn.), 28.1471a. 6 The line may also be translated" And wished to be together till we became dust and ashes." Regardless, the meaning of the poem is not altered. 7 The allusion comes from Zhuang zi. The story tells: "Wei Sheng made a tryst with a girl under a bridge; the girl did not come, when the rising waters reached him he would not leave, and died clinging to a post of the bridge." See Zhuang zi jijie m:.:r#!ft¥,comm. Wang Xianqian x.;t~(1842-1917) (Taibei: Sanmin, 1974), 29.17778 . The translation is from A.c. Graham, Chuang-tzu: The Inner Chapters (London: Unwin, 1981), 238. S Several folktales tell of a woman who stands on the top of a mountain, gazing off after her long-absent husband and finally turning to stone. 40 Tang Studies 12 (1994) When I was sixteen my lord went far away, 16 Through the Qutang Gorge, passing the Yanyu Mound-9 In the fifth month it should not be touched, And the cries...

Chang Yüeh: First Poet of the High T’ang

Tang Studies 12 (1994) Chang Yueh: First Poet of the High Tang ZU-YANCHEN BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY The periodization of T'ang poetry has been a recurrent critical topic since the time of Yen Yu !l3J5J (1197-1241) in the late Sung.1 It was Kao Ping ittiW3 (1350-1423) who set in his T'ang-shih p'in-hui ~~t%. (A Classified CollectionofT'ang Poetry) the "standard" demarcations between the four distinct periods: Early T'ang, from the beginning of the dynasty to K'ai-yuan (618-712);High T'ang, K'aiyuan to Ta-li (713-766);Middle T'ang, Ta-li to the end of T'ai-ho (766835 ); and Late T'ang, K'ai-ch'eng to the end of the dynasty (836907 ).2 Kao Ping went on to arrange four hundred forty-six T'ang poets accordingly, providing emperors, women, and monks with their own special categories. Most later literary historians and anthologists have adopted this fourfold periodization with little hesitation. Kao Ping's scheme places Chang Yueh ~~ (667-731)in the Early T'ang and thus he has traditionally been considered an Early T'ang poet.3 But in fact, the year 713, the first year of K'ai-yiian and the 1 Although the origin of the periodization of T'ang poetry can be traced back to the T'ang dynasty itself, Yen Yii's Ts'ang-Iang shih-hua tir~w~15contains the first serious discussion in this regard. 2 Tang-shih p'in-hui, facsimile edition of the Ming wood-block edition (2 vols., Shanghai, 1982),1:18-45.Kao Ping's original sentence delineating the Middle T'ang says "from Ta-li to the end of Yiian-ho" (1:37). Because Kao Ping says the Late T'ang began from K'ai-ch'eng, i.e., 836, the Middle T'ang should rather end with T'ai-ho, 835, not Yiian-ho, 820. 3 According to the Chinese lunar calendar, Chang Yiieh died on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of the eighteenth year of K'ai-yiian, which may be converted to February 9,731 in the Gregorian calendar. Because the eighteenth year of K'ai-yiian corresponds generally with 730, almost all reference and research books date Chang Yiieh's death in 730. This inaccuracy should be corrected, as discussed in Paul W. Kroll's "On the Date of Chang Yiieh's Death," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 2.2 (1980): 264-65. On Chang Yiieh generally, see also Kroll's entry on him in The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Bloomington, 1986),223-24,and my "Impregnable Phalanx and 1 Chen: Chang Yueh start of the so-called High T'ang, also began what was to be for Chang Yiieh a period of two decades during which he reached the summit of his political and literary career and also made a great contribution to High T'ang poetry. By exploring him and his milieu, this study proposes a shift in this regard-to consider Chang Yiieh not so much the last poet of the Early T'ang, as the first poet of the High T'ang. The question of Chang Yiieh's chronological classification was first raised by Ch'ien Ch'ien-i ~~~ (1582-1664) in his disparaging comments on the fourfold periodization: For three hundred years, up to the present, people have followed the false and erroneous theory [of the fourfold periodization]. The so-called Early, High, Middle, and Late Tang are based on a discussion of time and of writers. If we discuss the time in terms of the writers, Chang Yiieh and Chang Chiu-ling are generally recognized masters of the Early T'ang. But because Chang Yiieh's poems became sorrowful and graceful after his Yiieh-chou period -he seemingly benefited from the rivers and mountains-Chang Yiieh should be a poet of both the Early T'ang and the High T'ang as well.4 The comments here on Chang Yiieh's poetry style allude to his political career. In 713Chang Yiieh was demoted from the premiership to be prefect of Hsiang-chou itHi'l (modem An-yang in Honan...

Ye Xie's "On the Origin of Poetry" (Yuan Shi) a Poetic of the Early Qing

In the history of Chinese literature, times of poetic bloom only rarely appear to coincide with a flowering of literary theory. In most cases, reflection on begins after a period of blooming has subsided. We experience, for example, the first blooming of literary criticism during the late Six Dynasties as a reaction to the flourishing of during the preceding Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties. It was in this era that Zhong Rong AftV (/1. 483-513) wrote the Shipin 5n4rx (Classification of Poets) and Liu Xie WIR', (c.465-c.520) his great theoretical treatise Wenxin diaolong I'L'tfit (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons) which, with its comprehensive, systematic, and profound probing into the essence of literature, stands unrivalled in the history of Chinese literary criticism. The minor theorists of the High Tang, the Golden Age of Chinese poetry, such as Wang Changling 3Piff (c.690-c.756) and the monkJiaoran A (730-99), are more acknowledged for their rather than their theoretical works; and Sikong Tu's J1 (837-908) influential series of critical poems Ershisi shipin -t+VANN (Twenty-four Classes of Poetry) was written, long after the bloom, at the very end of this dynasty. Likewise, the theoretical and critical reception of the flowering of during the Tang and Northern Song first began with Yan Yu's #11 important treatise Canglang shihua (Canglang's Poetry Talk), written during the Southern Song period. This work, which interprets in analogy to Chan-Buddhist ideas-i.e., understood as a reflection of the intuitive, enlightened apprehension of reality-was to have a lasting influence on literary theory in the centuries to come, particularly on the archaist movements of the periods that concern us here, the Ming and early Qing dynasties. The Qing period fits right into this pattern: insignificant regarding poetry, but flowering in theory. The critical literature of this time, the so-called poetry talks (shihua 'i# ),' outmatches in