The Halberd at Red Cliff: Jian'an and the Three Kingdoms

465 Pages·2018·11.584 MB·English

by  Xiaofei Tian

THE HALBERD AT RED CLIFF
Juw on ond the Three Kin^lotm
X I A O F E I T A N
The Halberd at Red Cliff
Harvard-Yenching Monograph Series 108
The Halberd at Red Cliff
\
Jianan and the Three Kingdoms
Xiaofei Tian
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2018
© 20i8 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States ofA merica
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tian, Xiaofei, 19 71- author.
Title: The halberd at Red Cliff: Jianan and the Three Kingdoms / Xiaofei Tian.
Other titles: Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series ; 108.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Published by the Harvard University
Asia Center, 2017. | Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series;
108 I Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers： LCCN 20x6056558 | ISBN 9780674977037 (hardcover: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese poetry~~Qin and Han dynasties, 221 B.C.-220
A.D.—History and criticism. | Chinese poetry~~Three kingdoms,
220-265一History and criticism. | Chinese literature~History and
criticism.
Classification: LCC PL2314 .T53 2017 | DDC 895.11/209~dci} LC record available at https://lccn.
Ioc.g0v/2016056558
Index by June Sawyers
© Printed on acid-free paper
Last figure below indicates year of this printing
24 23 22 2i zo 19 18
For George,
my fellow fan
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Sources xi
Timeline of Chinese Dynasties xiii
Map xv
Introduction i
PART I. THE PLAGUE
Chapter I. Plague and Poetry: Rethinking Jianan n
Introduction: Looking Back u
“Dead Poets Society” 13
Gathering at Ye 30
The Poems 35
Reperforming Nostalgia 58
The Jianan That Is Unlike KJian，an” 72
Conclusion 78
Chapter 2. Circling the Tree Thrice: Lord, Vassal Community
Introduction: Wang Cans Jade Pendant 79
Food and Feast 84
Hie Ideal Feast 90
Two Perspectives on Food 102
A Man of Taste 113
Gifts, Letters, Exchange 120
Give and Take 120
Ownership and Competition 131
A Dark Exchange 140
Conclusion 148
PART II. THE BRONZE BIRD
Chapter 3. The Southern Perspective: etFan Writing” 159
Introduction: The Southern Perspective 159
The Fan 163
An Account of Luoyang 167
Bronze Bird 173
“Fan Writing” 181
The Poetics of Unified Empire 196
Conclusion 205
Chapter 4. Terrace and Tile: Ima^ning a Lost City 208
Introduction: Views of Ye 208
Ascending the Terrace: Early Writings 213
A Changed View from the Terrace 222
Irony and Criticism： Later Variations 241
Fragmentation: The Bronze Bird Inkstone 253
Conclusion 279
PART III. THE RED CLIFF
Chapter 5. Restoring the Broken Halberd 283
Introduction: The Broken Halberd 283
Going Local, Getting Personal 284
The Southern Turn in the Ninth Century 290
Owning Red Cliff 302
Dongpos Red Cliff 315
A Storytellers Vision 325
The Reel Red Cliff 335
Conclusion 343
Epilogue. The Return of the Repressed 346
Appendix A. Cao Cads <€Short Songv 359
Appendix B. Red Cliff Poems 362
Appendix C. A Duel of Wits across the River between Two Army
Counselors 371
Works Cited 425
Index 435
Acknowledgments
I have been fortunate in having many wonderful colleagues and students
whose probing questions and comments over the past decade have greatly
enriched my research on this book. A very early version of part of chapter
i was presented at the workshop organized by Wendy Swartz at Columbia
University in 2010, and received extensive feedback from my discussant
Meow Hui Goh. Parts of the chapter were also presented in lectures at
Beijing University and Nanjing University in 2010, respectively hosted by
Chen Pingyuan and Cheng Zhangcan. A Chinese version of the lectures
appears in Zhongguo wenxue xuebao (1.2010). A portion of the material in
chapter 2 was presented at the University of Colorado in 2012, and subse­
quently appears in an article, “Material and Symbolic Economies: Letters
and Gifts in Early Medieval China,” in A History of Chinese Letters and
Epistolary Culture edited by Antje Richter (Brill, 2015). An early version
of chapter 3 was presented at Princeton University in 2012, and also at a
lecture hosted by Paula Varsano at Berkeley in 20x3； it was later incorpo­
rated into an article, “Fan Writing: The Cultural Transactions between
North and South from the Third through Sixth Century,M included in
Southern Identity and Southern Estrangement in Medieval Chinese Poetry
edited by Ping Wang and Nicholas Morrow Williams (Hong Kong
University Press, 2015). I have presented on Three Kingdoms fan fiction
at an AAS panel on “Three Kingdoms in East Asia” that I organized in
2014, and at workshops at Harvard University respectively organized by
Lan T. Nguyen and Cuncun Wu in 2014 and 2015. The presentations
were developed into an article, “Slashing "Three Kingdoms: A Case Study
in Fan Production on the Chinese Web，” which received many comments
from Kirk Denton and was printed in Modem Chinese Literature and
Culture 27，no. 1 (2015). I am grateful to my fellow paper presenters, audi­
ences, hosts, editors, and anonymous readers for their critical insights.
In addition to my regular sabbatical, an extra semester of leave from
Harvard University in the fall of 2015 enabled me to finish the final draft
of the book manuscript. For the precious gift of time, and for the Harvard
Publications Fund for Tenured Faculty for coverage of the indexing cost，
I thank William C. Kirby, Diana Sorensen, Robin E. Kelsey, and the
late Jeremy R. Knowles, the former and current deans who generously
supported scholarship in the arts and humanities at Harvard. I also wish
to affectionately acknowledge the talented graduate students in the semi­
nars on Jian’an and Three Kingdoms in 2010，2012, and 2014, and the
enthusiastic undergraduate students in the course “The Worlds of the
Three Kingdoms” in the spring of 2013.
A special note of thanks to Paul W. Kroll and Antje Richter for gener­
ously reading the entire manuscript and giving perceptive comments and
corrections; to James Cheng and Ma Xiaohe at the Harvard-Yenching
Library for offering invaluable research assistance; to Bob Graham at
Harvard Asia Center Publications Program for warmly encouraging me
to submit my manuscript; and, last but not least, to Kristen Wanner,
for putting so much thought and care into making this book better. All
imperfections that remain are mine.
It is difficult to be a scholar, teacher, administrator, parent to a young
child, and to write a book at the same time. I could never have done it
without my family’s love and support. Thank you, Steve and George,
for being sources of strength and joy in my life. I dedicate the book to
George, who is a most vivacious reciter of Cao Caos e£Short Song” and
shares my passion for the Three Kingdoms.
—X.F.T.
Note on Sources
For early medieval Chinese poetry and prose citations, I use primarily
Lu Qinlis 逐欽立（1910-73) Pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jiny and Southern and
Northern Dynasties Poetry QUan Qin Han Wei Jin nanbeichao shi 先秦漢
魏晉南北朝詩）and Yan Kejuns 嚴可均（1762-i843) Complete Prose of
Antiquity, the Three Dynasties, Qin, Hany the Three Kingdoms, and the Six
Dynasties {Quan shanggu sandai Qin Han sanguo liuchao wen 全上古三
代秦漢三國六朝文)，followed by modern annotated editions wherever
necessary. These anthologies are divided into different volumes by dynas­
ties, such as Wei Poetry {Wei shi 魏詩）and Complete Jin Prose {Quan Jin
wen 全晉文).In identifying the source of a text from Lu Qinli or Yan
Kejuns anthologies, I shall not refer to the complete title but cite only the
relevant volume title, followed hyjuan and page numbers (e.g., Lu Qinli,
comp., Wei shi, 1.12). For Tang and Song poetry and prose citations, I use
primarily Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 Quan Tang wen 全唐文，Quan Song shi
，
全宋詩，and Quan Song ci 全宋詞，supplemented whenever necessary
with modern annotated editions.