All Mine!: Happiness, Ownership, and Naming in Eleventh-Century China

206 Pages·2021·1.915 MB·English

by  Stephen Owen

All Mine!

All Mine!
HAPPINESS, OWNERSHIP,
AND NAMING
IN ELEVENTH- CENTURY CHINA
STEPHEN OWEN
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by
the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange in the
publication of this book.
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia . edu
Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Owen, Stephen, 1946– author.
Title: All mine! : happiness, ownership, and naming in eleventh-century China /
Stephen Owen.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021020189 (print) | LCCN 2021020190 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231203104 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231203111 (trade paperback) |
ISBN 9780231554879 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese literature—Song dynasty, 960–1279—History and criticism. |
Literature and society—China—History—To 1500.
Classification: LCC PL2293 .O94 2021 (print) | LCC PL2293 (ebook) |
DDC 895.109/0042—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020189
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020190
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: The Garden for Solitary Enjoyment, 1515–1552, Qiu Ying.
The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1978.67.
Courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. What’s in a Name?
The Biography of the Retired Layman Six Ones 17
2. The Magistrate of Peach Blossom Spring 35
3. Missing Stones 59
4. All Mine: The Poetics of Ownership 85
5. The Stone That Tells Its Name 107
6. The Bamboo in the Breast and in the Belly 127
Closure 145
Further Readings 147
Sources and Translations 151
Notes 181
Bibliography 187
Index 189

All Mine!

INTRODUCTION
T
he famous Ouyang Xiu (1007– 1072) once wrote down a joke that he had
heard and was probably already old when he told it. Like all old jokes, it is
probably better retold than translated. We have the wit and the straight
man, both court ministers in an imperial Secretariat during the Five Dynasties. Min-
ister He Ning noticed that Minister Feng Dao (whose pseudonym was “Ever- Happy
Old Guy” 長樂老) was wearing new shoes and, pointing to his foot, asked: “How much
did that cost?” Feng Dao lifted his leg to show his new shoe and said: “Nine hundred
cash.” He Ning at once summoned his aide and began to angrily berate him: “How
come my new shoes cost eighteen hundred cash?!” After He Ning had given his aide a
thorough tongue- lashing, Feng Dao smiled and lifted his other leg and pointing to
that shoe said: “This one cost nine hundred too.” At that the whole hall broke into
thunderous laughter.1
At the end, Ouyang Xiu adds: “At the time it was said that if court ministers
behaved like that, how could they maintain their authority over their subordinates?”
There is much to reflect on in this joke. If English and many languages didn’t
make that pesky distinction between singular and plural, the joke has universal
appeal among shoe- wearing peoples whose shoes must be purchased. A Turkish
speaker would immediately think this was a story about Nasreddin Hoca (Afanti
in modern Chinese). In Chinese the fact that the comic pair are high ministers of
state adds to the humor.
What might strike a modern reader as strangely incongruous is the concluding
judgment. Ouyang Xiu is obviously writing this down for the joke, but something
within him cannot let this pass without striking a note of critical disapproval. He
finds in the joke a moral lesson about the proper behavior for high government
officials, which some modern critics expand to a reflection of the decadence of
government in the Five Dynasties period.