346 t He y uan, m i ng, anD q i ng Dy na s t i e s
the girl’s move a loving gesture when she tries to prevent her lover from reading
and gives him no excuse to get annoyed. It also brings out the naïveté in her un-
disguised refutation of his worldly ambitions (lines 4–5) and makes her exhorta-
tion sound somewhat pleasing. The charm and sweetness of the female character,
which can be palpably felt between the lines, is living proof that the joy of love is
far more desirable than success in one’s official career. Judging from the intensity
of the love scene in the middle of the song (line 3), the “red sleeve” successfully
overcomes the “silver candlelight” (line 1).
The word “silver,” which modifies “candle,” refers either to the color of the
candle or of the light it casts or to the material of the candle stand. The only thing
that matters is the original meaning of the word: “money.” The blocking out of the
silver candle by the red sleeve—whose symbolic meaning is evident—is therefore
a metonymy standing for the conflict between two values. The conflict is further
complicated by the “books” (line 2) the girl’s lover reads, since it is with them that
she must compete for his attention.
The entanglement can be explained by a possible subtext in the poem, a popular
saying that enjoys the same status as that of the best-known nursery rhymes in
the Chinese language. It reads like a lampoon definition of the civil service exami-
nation system: “In books there are thousands of bushels of grain; in books there
is no lack of golden mansions; in books there are girls as beautiful as jade.” The
argument that concludes the poem takes the same utilitarian approach. Isn’t it just
about money and women? Whether one can find such things in books is question-
able. But just look at the “red sleeve” that is close at hand, the argument urges;
the girl “as beautiful as jade” is right in front of you. Therefore, “who cares even if
you pass?” (line 5). The rhetorical question forcefully declares that the “red sleeve”
should outweigh the “books.” (Had the question been posed as “who cares even if
you fail?” it would have implied that success is the first choice and the “red sleeve”
only the comforting compensation one gets after failing the exam.) Seen in this
light, besides the alternatives previously mentioned, perhaps there is yet another
way to interpret the point of view of “On Love.” The concluding lines could be the
exclamation uttered by the male character, who has just been enlightened by the
education of love and wants to throw away his books for good.
P o e m s oF r a m b u nC t i o u s w i t a nD i m P u D e n t h u m o r
Any survey of representative sanqu works, no matter how brief, cannot leave out
song poems of witticisms and humor. The following poem is by a poet whose
hallmark can be easily seen from even a casual glance at the list of his songs: “On
Baldness,” “Big Fish,” “Turtle with Green Hair,” “Long-Haired Little Dog,” “Sister
Wang Got Beaten in the Bathroom,” and “Fat Couple,” presented in the introduc-
tory section as an example of sanqu prosody.
The poet Wang Heqing is known almost exclusively for his raw and exuber-
ant humor. His works on trivial, “vulgar,” and erotic subjects are worthy of inclu-
sion in any survey of sanqu works because they tell about the cultural milieu of
their time and are among the best reminders of the genre’s origins in the streets,