Crafting a Collection: The Cultural Contexts and Poetic Practice of the Huajian Ji

429 Pages·2006·8.845 MB·English

by  Anna M. Shields

3

Crafting a Collection
The Cultural Contexts and
Poetic Practice of the Huajian ji (cid:10937)(cid:14727)(cid:14961)(cid:691)(cid:691)
(Collection from Among the Flowers)
Harvard East Asian Monographs 263

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3

Crafting a Collection
The Cultural Contexts and
Poetic Practice of the Huajian ji (cid:10937)(cid:14727)(cid:14961)(cid:691)(cid:691)
(Collection from Among the Flowers)
Anna M. Shields

Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2006

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© 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Printed in the United States of America

The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination with
the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of
Japanese Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to
further scholarly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries.
The Center also sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shields, Anna M., 1966–
Crafting a collection : the cultural contexts and poetic practice of the Huajian ji : collec-
tion from among the flowers / Anna M. Shields.
p. cm. – (Harvard East Asian monographs ; 263)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-674-02142-8 (cl : alk. paper)
1. Ci (Chinese poetry)--History and criticism. 2. Chinese poetry--Tang dynasty,
618–907--History and criticism. 3. Chinese poetry--Five dynasties and the Ten kingdoms,
907–979--History and criticism. I. Title: Cultural contexts and poetic practice of the Huajian
ji : collection from among the flowers. II. Hua jian ji. III. Title. IV. Series.
pl2341.s56 2006
895.1'1308--dc22
2006000334
Index by Jake Kawatski

Printed on acid-free paper

Last figure below indicates year of this printing
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06

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To my parents
Nicholas L. Shields, Jr., and
Johanna Nicol Shields

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3

Acknowledgments
The making of this book stretches back more than a decade, reaches
across many states and a few continents, and owes much to other
people. Throughout the research and writing, I have been fortunate
enough to be sustained by advisors, fellow scholars, institutions, and
good friends. At Harvard University, where I studied Chinese po-
etry with Professor Stephen Owen, I found a tireless mentor who
has helped me often in the years since I left Cambridge. My debt to
him is huge, and I am happy to acknowledge it here. At Indiana
University, where I completed my doctoral degree with Professor
Stephen R. Bokenkamp, I found yet another extraordinary mentor.
He used his own broad learning to widen my perspective on me-
dieval China; his intellectual interests enriched mine, and his un-
flagging support kept me on course through the years. I thank him
for these things and much more. I have often said that I had the best
dissertation committee one could possibly imagine, and it is true.
The work that Professors Bokenkamp, Peter Lindenbaum, Lynn
Struve, and Yingjin Zhang committed to the dissertation made its
transformation to a book conceivable, and I thank them once again
for their critical readings and encouragement. I would also like to
thank Professor Robert Eno of Indiana University, whose scholarly
rigor and patience were important models for me.

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viii Acknowledgments
In the several years I spent teaching at different universities, I
learned a great deal from colleagues who read chapters, listened to
presentations, and gave me comments that influenced this work.
While at the University of Maryland, I benefited from discussions
with traditional China scholars; Jonathan Chaves, Philip Kafalas,
Tobie Meyer-Fong, and Stuart Sargent were especially helpful.
From my year spent as a visiting professor at the University of
Michigan, I wish to thank William Baxter, Shuen-fu Lin, Donald
R. Lopez, Jr., David Rolston, and Robert Sharf for their advice and
comments. At the University of Arizona, I have been lucky to have
colleagues willing to exchange chapters and ideas; I would like to
thank Todd Brown, Noel Pinnington, and my former colleague
Roel Sterckx, now at Cambridge University, for their intellectual
companionship and their responses to a version of Chapter 1.
An earlier version of Chapter 3 appeared as “Gathering the
‘Flowers’ of Poetry and Song: Anthologies in Tang and Shu,” in
T’ang Studies 15–16 (1997–1998), and I thank T’ang Studies for per-
mission to republish the material in its present form. When the
book manuscript was completed, two scholars paid me the great
favor of reading all of it: I am grateful to Daniel Bryant and Paul
W. Kroll for their careful work on my behalf. Many thanks also to
Michael A. Fuller, who read both the dissertation and the later book
chapters and gave me precise, helpful suggestions. Anthony DeBlasi,
Franciscus Verellen, and Sophie Volpp also read and commented on
individual chapters, and I appreciate their timely comments. I
would also like to acknowledge the funding from the Provost’s
Author Support Fund at the University of Arizona for assistance in
completing the index for the book. Finally, I am very grateful to the
two readers for the Harvard University Asia Center, who offered
suggestions and corrections on a wide range of issues in the book
and improved it enormously. The errors and infelicities that remain
are of course mine.
Closer to home, I am glad that my boys—Tommy, Michael, and
Jack Hegarty—were able to put up with their mother’s late nights at
the office and her occasional preoccupation with things other than
themselves. And I thank my husband, Stephen Hegarty, a zhiyin
(cid:8872)(cid:15178) in every sense. The evenings we have spent listening to songs

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Acknowledgments ix
and talking about what and how they mean shaped this book in
many ways; his support and love made the whole thing possible.
Finally, I dedicate this book to my parents, in gratitude: to my
father, Nicholas L. Shields, Jr., who let me keep my nose in a book
and taught me never to be afraid of hard work; and to my mother,
Johanna Nicol Shields, who all her life has shown me the struggles
and rewards of being a wife, mother, and scholar. I owe them more
than I can say.
A.M.S.

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