How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook

1

Love: The Voice of Men

P01

inline-image Vocabulary Notes

  1. inline-image or the Book of Poetry (hereafter the Poetry) is the fountainhead of Chinese poetry as well as one of the Five Classics (Wŭ jīng inline-image ) in the Confucian tradition. This collection consists of 305 earliest extant poems, divided into three parts: fēng inline-image (airs) or guó fēng inline-image (airs of the states), yӑ inline-image (odes), and sòng inline-image (hymns). ‘Guan Guan,’ Cry the Ospreys inline-image is the first poem of the Poetry and this title is composed of two characters from the poem’s first line. Other poems in the Poetry are also entitled with one or more characters from the first line.

  2. inline-image onomatopoeic reduplicative.

  3. inline-image n. osprey.

  4. inline-image auxiliary particle. MdnC: inline-image (de). See note 13 for a different meaning of this character.

  5. inline-image n. an islet in a river.

  6. inline-image a rhyming reduplicative, used here (as well as in MdnC) to convey impression of a woman’s gracefulness.

  7. inline-image adj. kind and gentle, fair. inline-image a fair maiden.

  8. inline-image n. gentleman.

  9. inline-image n. spouse. MdnC: inline-image (pèi ŏu) [formal].

10. inline-image an alliterative reduplicative, used here (as well as in MdnC) to convey the perception of something irregular, uneven. inline-image uneven, not uniform.

11. inline-image n. water mallow.

12. inline-image v. to flow. Here it means to pick in the flow. MdnC: inline-image (zhāt) inline-image I will pick an apple for you.

13. inline-image pron. It refers to the fair maiden mentioned in the third line. MdnC: inline-image (tā).

14. inline-image v. to wake up. MdnC: inline-image (shuì xĭng). inline-image He woke up.

15. inline-image v. to be asleep. MdnC: inline-image (shuì zháo). inline-image He is asleep.

16. inline-image v. to seek. MdnC: inline-image (zhuī qiú). inline-image He is chasing a girl.

17. inline-image v. to get. MdnC: inline-image (dė dào). inline-image He finally got this job.

18. inline-image used here as an auxiliary particle with no meaning.

19. inline-image v. to long for, miss. MdnC: inline-image (sī niàn). inline-image He longs for his family.

20. inline-image adv. longing for. inline-image auxiliary particle, no meaning.

21. inline-image v. to pass through many hands or places. Here it means to toss about (in bed).

22. inline-image v. to toss and turn, turn one’s body from side to side. inline-image He is tossing in bed and unable to fall asleep.

23. inline-image v. to pick, pluck. inline-image The girls are picking apples.

24. inline-image n. a seven-stringed plucked instrument in ancient China.

25. inline-image n. a twenty-five-stringed plucked instrument in ancient China. See also P75 note 1.

26. inline-image n. friend, used here as a verb, meaning to befriend. MdnC: inline-image (gīn jìn). inline-image inline-image Everyone wants to befriend her.

27. inline-image v. to pick. MdnC: inline-image (zhāi). Cf. inline-image in note 12 and inline-image in note 23.

28. inline-image n. bell.

29. inline-image n. drum. See also P17 note 10.

30. inline-image adj. happy, used here as a verb, meaning to please. MdnC: inline-image (qŭ juè), to please (often in a derogatory sense). inline-image He tried to please his boss.

inline-image Modern Chinese Translation

inline-image Comments and Questions

The Book of Poetry is a Confucian canonical work studied more extensively than any other text, probably with the exception of the Book of Changes (Yì jīng inline-image ). Of the 305 poems in this collection, this first poem is discussed more extensively than any other poem. It has been re-interpreted incessantly right up to our time. In premodern times, it was read almost solely as a political and moral allegory. The beautiful woman in the poem was identified by some as an ideal mate (and, allegorically, a worthy talent) being sought for King Wen inline-image (1152?-1056? B.C.E), the founder of the Zhou Dynasty. This poem was lauded as a testament to the great moral influence of King Wen.

In modern times, however, the Poetry is mostly read and appreciated as a literary work. Freed of the allegorical baggage, we could easily see this first poem for what it most likely was when first composed: a simple love poem by a man. It is the only tetrasyllable poem (sì yán shī inline-image ) in this workbook. Tetrasyllablc verse is representative of the Poetry, as more than 90 percent of 6,595 lines in the Poetry are tetrasyllable. After the Han, however, tetrasyllable verse lost its appeal as a vehicle of lyrical expression and became a niche subgenre of hymns and eulogies. inline-image HTRCP, pp. 4–5 for an account of major Chinese poetic genres and subgenres.

This poem features some of the most important formal strategies extensively employed in the Airs of the States and frequently used in later poetry: affective image, reduplicatives, topic+comment sentence, topic+comment stanza, and incremental repetition.

1.   Affective image is called xing inline-image xīng) in Chinese. If used as a verb, xing means to evoke or to bring forth. Indeed, an affective image usually occurs at the beginning of a stanza, evoking a sustained emotional response from the speaker: an emotive perception of the image itself, followed by emotive statements about the circumstances of his or her life. Can you identify the affective images used in this poem?

2.   A reduplicative, called lianmiansi inline-image (lián mián zì) in Chinese, refers to a compound (also called binome) that is derived from a complete or partial reduplication of the phonetic quality of one character. inline-image on line 1 is a complete reduplicative and probably onomatopoeic. inline-image on line 3 and inline-image on line 5 are partial reduplicatives. For further distinction, inline-image may be called a rhyming reduplicative because of its reduplication of the vowel; inline-image an alliterative reduplicative because of its reduplication of the initial consonant. It is important to note that most of the reduplicatives used in the Poetry do not have a fixed conceptual meaning and are primarily sound registers of emotional response to things being observed.

3.   Topic+comment is a term used by scholars of the Chinese language to describe the structure of Chinese sentences that do not display a subject-predicate relationship. Topic refers to an object, a scene, or an event being observed; and comment an implied observer’s response (usually emotive) to the topic. Topic and comment are not spatio-temporally or causally linked as subject and predicate are. In the Poetry, an affective image usually occurs together with an emotionally charged reduplicative. Considering the absence of clear spatio-temporal and causal linkage between the two, this combination of an affective image and a reduplicative obviously constitutes a topic+comment sentence. Could you identify the topic+comment sentences in this poem? inline-image HTRCP, pp. 380–382 for a discussion of topic+comment vs. subject + predicate syntax.

4.   Topic+comment stanza may be seen as topic+comment sentence writ large. In this poem, all stanzas except the third strike us as topic+comment stanzas: two lines of nature depiction (topic) are juxtaposed with two lines of emotive statements (comment). Apparently, the principle of juxtaposition (of spatio-temporally and logically unrelated parts) operates on the higher level of stanzaic organization as well as the syntactic level.

The inherent relationship between topic+comment sentence and topic+comment stanza is aptly reflected in the use of the term xing inline-image . This term was first applied only to a single affective image (usually found in the first sentence of a stanza, as just noted), but later broadened to denote a bipartite, juxtapostional stanzaic organization. Thanks to its evocative function at both syntactic and stanzaic operation, xing is much praised as the most poetical of the three modes of presentation in the Poetry and exerts a great influence on later poetry. inline-image HTRCP, pp. 13–14 for a discussion of the three modes of presentation.

5.   The organization of the entire poem seems a stacking up of five self-contained stanzas. Given the regular recurrence of words, phrases, and syntax in these stanzas, the poem may be seen as a series of repetition of the same oral formula, with different degrees of variation. Incremental repetition, a term of English poetry criticism, readily lends itself to describing such a pattern of interstanzaic progression. Compared to their counterpart in English and Scottish ballads, however, incremental repetition is used in the Poetry less for advancing a narrative than revealing a speaker’s complex mental process. Identify the incremental repetitions and discuss how they reveal a steady intensification of the speaker’s yearning for his ideal mate. inline-image HTRCP, pp. 18–20 for a dramatic example of incremental repetition.

P02

inline-image Vocabulary Notes

1. inline-image Willow Branch, a poem rewritten from the famous Tang poet Bai Juyi’s inline-image Road of Plank Bridge (Bănqiáo lù inline-image ). Bai’s poem is a six-line ancient-style poem. Liu Yuxi cut two lines off and used flashbacks and this re-write was highly praised by the Ming scholars Yang Shen inline-image (1488–1559) and Hu Yingling inline-image (1551–1602). See Bai Juyi’s biographic note in P07 note 2.

2. inline-image (style inline-image , Mèngdé inline-image , 772–842), a mid-Tang poet. He often expressed his deep understanding of human life and history in succinct and fresh poetic language, and thus was highly praised as the hero-poet (shīháo inline-image by Bai Juyi. He is also known for his imitation of the Southern folksongs, such as Bamboo Sprig (Zhúzhī cí inline-image .

3. inline-image adj. curved, used here to mean the curved part of the river. MdnC: inline-image (qū zhé). inline-image inline-image The river has a winding course. See also P24 note 13.

4. inline-image n. willow tree. Willow trees are often planted on the sides of river banks in ancient China. Its pronunciation liŭ is very similar to inline-image ’s (liú, meaning to ask somebody to stay.). Thus, people often break off one branch of willow and give it to the one who is going to leave. This tradition started during the Han and became very popular in the Tang. Therefore, inline-image often appears in poems to suggest a reluctant feeling to part with friends and family members, or strong homesickness.

5. inline-image n. ladder, steps. MdnC: inline-image (tái jiē). 6. inline-image n. plank bridge. See also P46 note 7.

inline-image Modern Chinese Translation

inline-image Comments and Questions

1.   This poem is a heptasyllabic regulated quatrain. inline-image HTRCP, pp. 199–200, 212–223 for a description of the structural, prosodic, and aesthetic features of the quatrain form.

2.   Compare the treatment of the sorrow of separation in P07 and this poem. Think about a contrast between prolonged longing and a sad moment of remembrance. Is the quatrain form particularly conducive to an expression of the latter kind of feeling? If so, why?

P03

inline-image Vocabulary Notes

  1. inline-image Untitled. The poet was apparently reluctant to give a title to his poem.

  2. inline-image (style inline-image , Yìshān inline-image ; literary name inline-image , Yùxī shēng inline-image , 813–858), a great late Tang poet. He is famous for his poems on history and love. He is also known for his dense and allusive poetic language. He and another late Tang poet Du Mu inline-image are often mentioned together as younger Li-Du (xiăo Lĭ Dù inline-image as opposed to older Li [Bai]-Du [Fu]. See Du Mu’s biographic note in P22 note 2.

  3. inline-image n. chance. MdnC: inline-image (shí jī). inline-image He lost a chance. See P27 note 5 for a different meaning of the word.

  4. inline-image adj. difficult. There are two inline-image ’s in the first line. The first inline-image refers to the difficulty in getting a chance to meet each other (nán dé inline-image . The second inline-image refers to the difficulty in saying goodbye (nán shĕ nán fēn inline-image .

  5. inline-image adv. also, too. MdnC: inline-image (yĕ) inline-image He came, too.

  6. inline-image v. to lack strength, feel weak. Here it means (that the wind) dropped.

  7. inline-image adj. ruined, withered. MdnC: inline-image (diāo xiè). inline-image The flowers all withered away. See also P08 note 4, P33 note 4, and P63 note 11.

  8. inline-image n. silkworm.

  9. inline-image n. silk. See also P62 note 12.

10. inline-image adv. not until. MdnC: inline-image (cái). inline-image Today’s meeting will not begin until 4 p.m. See also P07 note 12. See P10 note 13 and P31 note 4 for different meanings of the word.

11. inline-image v. to exhaust. inline-image He exerted himself to the utmost. See also P34 note 5, P39 note 9, P40 note 11, and P68 note 6.

12. inline-image n. candle. MdnC: inline-image (là zhú).

13. inline-image n. ash.

14. inline-image adv. not until.

15. inline-image n. dawn. MdnC: inline-image (fú.xiăo) [formal]. See also P28 note 1, P73 note 6, P75 note 8, and P79 note 4.

16. inline-image adv. only. MdnC: inline-image (zhĭ). inline-image I only worry about you. See P50 note 7 for a different meaning of the word.

17. inline-image v. to worry. MdnC: inline-image (dān yōu), inline-image . Don’t worry about me. See P07 note 8 for a different meaning of the word.

18. inline-image n. hair on the temples. See also P54 note 5, P63 note 10, P93 note 15, and P99 note 11. inline-image hair as thick and beautiful as clouds.

19. inline-image v. to change. MdnC: inline-image (gӑi biàn). inline-image He changed his mind.

20. inline-image v. to chant, recite. MdnC: inline-image (yín chàng). inline-image He is chanting this song again and again. See also P42 note 2, P76 note 16, and P85 note 25.

21. inline-image or inline-image , Penglai Mount, one of the three legendary mountains inhabited by immortals. See P21 note 12 for the note on the three legendary mountains (sān shān inline-image .

22. inline-image blue birds, who deliver mails for Queen Mother of the West (Xīwángmŭ inline-image ) in the ancient legends.

23. inline-image adv. solicitously. inline-image Thanks for your solicitous hospitality.

24. inline-image (kān) v. to look over. MdnC: inline-image (chá kàn). inline-image He is checking the accounts.

25. inline-image (ruò) adj. weak.

26. inline-image (rán sháo) v. to burn.

inline-image Modern Chinese Translation

inline-image Comments and Questions

1.   This poem is a heptasyllabic regulated verse. inline-image HTRCP, pp. 161–200, 212–223 for a discussion of semantic, syntactic, structural, prosodic rules of regulated verse in general; and pp. 181–183 for further comments on the tonal patterning of heptasyllabic regulated verse.

2.   The second couplet is one of the best-known metaphorical statements on love in Chinese poetry. Images