LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 晉杜預，爲杜甫十三世祖，著《春秋經傳集解》，其《序》文特提微、婉、顯、晦之法，懲惡勸善之義。揭示叙事傳統無數法門，爲《春秋》學之一大功臣。杜甫三十歲時，曾作《祭遠祖當陽君文》，宣稱不敢忘本，不敢違仁。於是《春秋》與詩，同爲杜氏家學。杜甫流離隴蜀，所作敍事歌行，世號“詩史”，《本事詩》所謂“推見至隱，殆無遺事”者。叙事傳人之際，遂多《春秋》書法之體現。諸如屬辭比事，筆削顯義；據事直書，美惡自見；微婉顯晦，推見至隱；以小該大，因彼見此；偏載略取，舉輕明重；直斥不宜，曲筆諱飾；彼此相形、前後相絜，行屬辭比事之法；詳略、異同、重輕、忽謹，指義見乎筆削，其大者焉。杜甫於安史之亂前後所作敍事歌行，如《麗人行》、《哀江頭》、《贈花卿》、《戲作花卿歌》、《丹青引贈曹將軍霸》、《韋諷録事宅觀曹將畫馬圖歌》、《觀公孫大娘弟子舞劍器行》諸什，除轉化《春秋》書法爲詩史之外，且多寓抒情於叙事之中。正杜甫稱元結《舂陵行》，所謂“比興體制”；章學誠所稱：“必通六義比興之旨，而後可以講春王正月之書。”叙事傳統，可以兼涵抒情傳統，由杜甫詩史，“比興發於真機，美刺該夫衆體”，可見一斑。
 Du Yu (222-285) of the Jin Dynasty was the great, great-grandfather of Du Fu (712-770) by thirteen generations. In the “Introduction” to his Variorum of the Spring and Autumn Annals with Zuo’s Commentaries, Du Yu described four devices of the classics, namely “subtlety,” “euphemism,” “manifestation,” and “ambiguity”; as well as the significance of punishing the evil and commending the virtuous. He illustrated countless devices of the narrative tradition and became a great contributor to the study of Spring and Autumn Annals. Du Fu wrote “A Funeral Oration for My Remote Ancestor, Lord of Dangyang” when he was thirty years old, in which he claims that he does not dare to forget his origin nor go against the principle of benevolence. Therefore, both the Spring and Autumn Annals and poetry became the legacy of the Du family. When Du Fu wandered to the Long and Shu regions in southwestern China, he wrote poems in the form of narrative ballad, which won him the sobriquet of “poet-historian.” Meng Qi (jinshi 875) in his Benshi shi praised him for “inferring the most obscure content without missing anything.” Du Fu employs devices of the Spring and Autumn Annals in writing narratives and biographical accounts. These devices include combining diction and enumeration of allusions, revealing meaning in refined wording; providing a faithful account of events to unveil the good and bad; inferring the most obscure content in subtle, indirect, manifesting, and ambiguous ways; including the whole picture with one small part and realizing one thing by means of another; recording minor and abridged details and illuminating the important through the minor; directly condemning the indecent and writing euphemistically to hide it if necessary; contrasting one part with another and establishing the foreground and background; deploying diction and allusions; and the most important points concern how the acts of recording and deletion reflect one’s choice between giving details or simplifying, disagreement and agreement, stressing and ignoring, and neglecting and taking seriously. During the An Lushan Rebellion, Du Fu wrote some narrative poems in ballad form, such as “The Beautiful Ladies,” “Lament by the Riverside,” “To Minister Hua,” “A Song on Minister Hua Written Playfully,” “Song of Painting, a Gift Poem for General Cao Ba,” “Viewing a Painting of a Horse By General Cao at Secretary Wei’s Residence,” and “Watching a Sword Dancing Performed by the Disciples of Madam Gongsun.” In these poems, Du Fu not only adapts the writing style of the Spring and Autumn Annals to that of a poet-historian, he also lodges his own sentiments in the narrative content. This practice is a realization of “a mode of analogy and metaphor,” a comment he makes on Yuan Jie’s (723-772) “On Chongling.” They also fit Zhang Xuecheng’s (1738-1801) comment: “One must first become proficient in the main ideas of analogy and metaphor and the Six Principles before one can talk about the Spring and Autumn Annals.” The tradition of narration can be compatible with the tradition of lyricism. This can be seen in the works of poet-historian Du Fu: “analogy and metaphor are made by genuine thought and praise and criticism can be found in his poems in various forms.”
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Oct 1, 2022
Pralhad Adhikari 
