136 chapter three
That things would have been different had he not killed himself is
another matter. His poetry and his poetics present an amalgam of di-
verse material and influences, including Chinese history, mythology
and language as well as the (Chinese) natural and rural world; and
predecessors in literature and art from a wide range of times and plac-
es, most of them foreign, as they came to him in Chinese translation.
While traceable influences in the works of many contemporary Chi-
nese poets and their reading histories display an international outlook,
most of them also cite (classical) Chinese poetry as a source of inspira-
tion and pride. Haizi, however, felt little regard for classical or mod-
ern Chinese poets to date. He makes an exception for Qu Yuan, who
qualifies for poetic “martyrdom” as the tragic-heroic founding father
of Chinese poetry and poethood—even if he lived in the kingdom of
Chu and had his Chineseness imposed on him only retrospectively—
and, of course, as one said to have drowned himself.^65 Also, the occa-
sional echo of Maoist Political Lyricism such as that practiced by Guo
Xiaochuan and He Jingzhi is unmistakable in Haizi’s work. Perhaps
his tendency toward self-aggrandizement, exaltation and a romantic
vision of poethood is the flipside of what I have called the receptiveness
of his poetics. Be that as it may, the best parts of Haizi’s oeuvre will
stand the test of time by virtue of their sheer intensity, and his current
popularity in China reaches far beyond the avant-garde inner circle
and exceeds that of most other authors. Finally, as much as his mate-
rial and influences may be historically identifiable and regardless of
any inclination to demythify his life and work, we shouldn’t lose sight
of the individual impulse that lies at the root of his art—without taking
recourse to mythologies of an all-powerful creative genius whose very
existence annuls the need for critical, intersubjective reflection on the
work it leaves behind.
Thanatography is presumably as old as suicide itself. This doesn’t
disqualify it as a topic for continuing reflection. For Haizi’s poetry,
I hope to have shown that the poetic voice deserves more attention
than it has hitherto received.
(^65) Haizi 1997: 880. See Schneider 1980 for a fascinating discussion of the myth
of Qu Yuan through the ages, including its rewritings in early modern era and con-
temporary times.