The Age of Courtly Writing: Wen xuan Compiler Xiao Tong (501-531) and His Circle

320 Pages·2012·7.714 MB·English

by  Ping Wang

The Age of Courtly Writing
Sinica Leidensia
Edited by
Barend J. ter Haar
Maghiel van Crevel
In co-operation with
P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski,
W.L. Idema, H.T. Zurndorfer
VOLUME 106
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/sinl
The Age of Courtly Writing
Wen xuan Compiler Xiao Tong (501-531)
and His Circle
By
Ping Wang
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
Cover illustration: Wenyuange siku quanshu edition of Zhaoming taizi ji (electronic version).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wang, Ping, 1973-
 The age of courtly writing : Wen xuan compiler Xiao Tong (501-531) and his circle / by Ping Wang.
  p. cm. — (Sinica Leidensia, ISSN 0169-9563 ; v. 106)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-22522-0 (hardback : alk. paper)
 1. Xiao, Tong, 501-531—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Xiao, Tong, 501-531—Friends and associates.
3. Chinese literature—220-589--History and criticism. 4. China—Intellectual life—221 B.C.-960 A.D.
I. Title.
 PL2668.H7W36 2012
 895.1’82409—dc23
2012003101
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ISSN 0169-9563
ISBN 978 90 04 22522 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 90 04 22825 2 (e-book)
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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contents v
For DRK and PWK,
with gratitude
vi contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Born and Bred to be a Ruler
What is in a Name? 13
Establishment of the Eastern Palace 13
Writing Profundity and Subtlety: Speaking of the Big and the Small 18
Speeches on the Big and Small at the Chu Court 20
A Third Century Interest in Playfulness: Fu Xian’s “Xiaoyan Fu” 26
Dayan/Xiaoyan Poems By Xiao Tong and Others 27
The Big and The Small: Lesson of Rulership 31
Companions of Crown Prince 35
Virtuous Words and Pure Dust: 38
Friendship with the Crown Prince 38
Portraying Crown Prince 44
Gentlemanly Style: Xiao Tong’s Literary Inclination
The Great Anthology 51
Xiao Tong as the Compiler and his Preface to Wen Xuan 52
An Age of Literary Proliferation 57
Trimming Weeds and Brambles 61
Setting Norms: The Case of Pei Ziye 64
The Ambiguity and Potentiality of Qing 70
Gentelmanly Writing 77
Poetry as Experimentation 78
A Taste of the “Frivolous” 84
Brotherly Love Through Courtly Writing 87
Writing for the Crown Prince: Worthy with Words
Liu Family of Pengcheng 105
Demanding Promotion: Liu Xiaochuo’s Exchange Poems with Ren Fang 107
Attending to the Emperor with Poems 117
Worthy with Words 121
Literary Camaraderie and Competition: A Historical Review 124
Remembering the North, A Repository of the Past 132
Finding Comfort in a Versified Present 135
Poems on the Third Day Festival:
Celebrating the Curving Waters in a Water Land 141
Same River, Different View 146
The Tone of “Gentleness and Ease” 162
A Long Exchange of Commiseration 166
Xiao Tong’s Encounters with Buddhism
Hosting Lectures on Buddhism in the Hanging Garden 184
Notes between Emperor Wu and Xiao Tong on Buddhist Lectures 193
Exchanges between Monk Fayun and Xiao Tong 196
Commemorating with Verse 199
Excursions To Buddhist Sites 202
Matching Poems by Xiao Tong’s Literary Companion 208
Between Filial Piety and Religious Identity 216
Distancing from Buddhist Activities 224
Pondering on Reclusion and Rulership
Reclusion as a Key Topic in the Six Dyansties 230
Reclusion As A Powerful Rhetoric: The Case Of Zhang Chon 232
A Genuine Recluse and His Rejection of the Crown Prince 248
Writing Tao Qian to Explain Himself: Xiao Tong’s Last Piece 261

Conclusion

Bibliography

index
contents vii

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Born and Bred to be a Ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
What Is in a Name? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Establishment of the Eastern Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Writing Profundity and Subtlety: Speaking of the Big and the
Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Speeches on the Big and Small at the Chu Court. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A Third Century Interest in Playfulness: Fu Xian’s “Xiaoyan Fu” 26
Dayan/Xiaoyan Poems By Xiao Tong and Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Big and The Small: Lesson of Rulership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Companions of Crown Prince . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Virtuous Words and Pure Dust: Friendship with the Crown
Prince . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Portraying Crown Prince . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2. Gentlemanly Style: Xiao Tong’s Literary Inclination . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Great Anthology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Xiao Tong as the Compiler and his Preface to Wen Xuan . . . . . . 52
An Age of Literary Proliferation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Trimming Weeds and Brambles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Setting Norms: The Case of Pei Ziye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The Ambiguity and Potentiality of Qing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Gentlemanly Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Poetry as Experimentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
A Taste of the “Frivolous” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Brotherly Love Through Courtly Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3. Writing for the Crown Prince: Worthy with Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Liu Family of Pengcheng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Demanding Promotion: Liu Xiaochuo’s Exchange Poems with
Ren Fang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
viii contents
Attending to the Emperor with Poems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Worthy with Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Literary Camaraderie and Competition: A Historical Review . . . 124
Remembering the North, a Repository of the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Finding Comfort in a Versified Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Poems on the Third Day Festival: Celebrating the Curving Waters
in a Water Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Same River, Different View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
The Tone of “Gentleness and Ease” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
A Long Exchange of Commiseration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
4. Xiao Tong’s Encounters with Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Hosting Lectures on Buddhism in the Hanging Garden . . . . . . . . 184
Notes between Emperor Wu and Xiao Tong on Buddhist
Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Exchanges between Monk Fayun and Xiao Tong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Commemorating with Verse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Excursions to Buddhist Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Matching Poems by Xiao Tong’s Literary Companion . . . . . . . . . . 208
Between Filial Piety and Religious Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Distancing from Buddhist Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
5. Pondering on Reclusion and Rulership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Reclusion as a Key Topic in the Six Dyansties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Reclusion As A Powerful Rhetoric: The Case Of Zhang Chong . . 232
A Genuine Recluse and His Rejection of the Crown Prince . . . . . 248
Writing Tao Qian to Explain Himself: Xiao Tong’s Last Piece . . . 261
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
acknowledgements ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
From its inception to the present final form, this book has taken almost a
decade, but its message is a simple one. Stereot ypes and clichés in literary
history grow rapidly and reproduce themselves with amazing ease and
tenacity, like weeds. It takes, however, much more attention and care to
get to the truth, and even more effort to maintain it, because the reality
may just be too plain to make a lasting impression. Narratives about liter-
ary history tend to tell much more exciting stories, with beginnings and
endings, major changes and transitions, watersheds and turning points.
But sometimes there isn’t that much drama, as much as we as humans
love them. Often scholars create dramas.
This book uncovers a period that has been left out in the dramatic rep-
resentation of the Southern court and its writings in sixth-century China,
an age that has long been condemned, and ironically somewhat champi-
oned, as one of “unrestrained indulgence in sound and sight.” Its litera-
ture, as the embodiment of sensual pleasures, is said to have led to the
demise of Jiankang, the Southern capital. However, the truth of the mat-
ter, in terms of the spirit of the elite culture and their literary practice,
comes out quite differently if one undertakes the old-fashioned and oner-
ous exercise of reading (not cherry-picking), annotating, translating, and
interpreting texts of all sorts. Circumspection and restraint were the norm
in court life and its expressions in various forms. It was the dedication to
balance, rather than extremity, that governed the thinking and writing of
the Liang Crown Prince Xiao Tong and his companions, old and young,
living and dead. This book gives priority to what they had to say on spe-
cific occasions instead of painting a sweeping big picture, the ample
examples of which are in urgent need of review.
In the process of writing this small book, I have had tremendous help
from my two mentors, Professors David R. Knechtges and Paul W. Kroll,
who most generously offered their time and expertise on countless occa-
sions. It is to them that this book is dedicated.
I have also had the good fortune to be in a field of supportive col-
leagues. Parts of the book have been presented at the Fifth Annual
Medieval Studies Workshop and Early Medieval China Sourcebook
Meeting, both hosted by Wendy Swartz. I am grateful for the comments
and suggestions offered to me by Alan Berkowitz, Robert Campany, Jack