r e C e n t-s t y l e Sh i P oe t ry : quat ra i n s 201categories of deixis and modality gives the impression of direct speech. Deixis
includes words and expressions that are ambiguous without specific knowledge of
the context of the speech act (for example, “Hey you! Bring that over here! ”).4 Mo-
dality refers to subjectivity of expressions, as inferences, conditionals, imperatives,
questions, and so on; it is the grammaticalization of speakers’ subjective attitudes
and opinions.5
Colloquial elements in the songs also created a tone and pace starkly different
from those in contemporary shi, which strongly influenced the course of wujue
(and qijue) development. In languages that use alphabets, the distinction between
written and spoken forms at any one time is not that great; the written generally
follows the vernacular and remains a language of action and direct communica-
tion. However, Chinese characters do not spell out spoken words, but are sym-
bols for words; this fact allowed the classical written and the vernacular forms
semi-independent evolutions. Classical Chinese did not develop in the direction of
easy communicability or even clear referentiality, but toward dense, concise, and
erudite presentation. It tended toward monosyllabism and was undergrammati-
calized and ambiguous relative to the spoken language. Thus the injection of ver-
nacular elements into jueju had the effect of considerably lightening the tone and
speeding the pace relative to denser forms like lüshi.
Another product of Six Dynasties yuefu music was the fixed-length pentasyllabic
quatrain form itself: it appears that popular southern musical tunes and phrasing
dictated the length. A singer standing in front of an audience creates a context full
of dramatic potential. The language and phrasing used are designed for maximum
emotional impact. The fixed-length quatrain form of Six Dynasties music required
the singer to say more by saying less and so was the catalyst for the gradual inven-
tion of standard compositional formulas that relied on implicit suggestion. Fixed
length had not heretofore been a feature of Chinese poetry. It can reasonably be
argued that experimentation with quatrains in the Six Dynasties led to interest in
the fixed-length octet and eventually the development of the lüshi forms.
One Six Dynasties technique to overcome short fixed length was to employ clever
homonym puns in the final couplet of quatrains, which, depending on which side
of the pun one considered, cast the lines in wholly different ways. Consider the
following couplet from a “Ziye ge” (Ziye Song):
bright lamp shine empty game 明燈照空局 (míng dēng zhào kōng jú)
distant -like no have chess 悠然未有棋 (yōu rán wèi yŏu qí)
The lines can be rendered, “The bright lamp shines on the empty chessboard /
—For a long time there won’t be any game.” Yet when puns in the last line are
factored in, it also reads, “The oil burns on but no date [for our reunion] has been
set.”6 Other Six Dynasties songs omit puns, but the goal of projecting meaning
and emotional resonance beyond the literal words remains intrinsic.
A representative example of Six Dynasties yuefu songs is another “Ziye Song”: