386 a s y n tHe sis
pond banks grow◦ spring grass 池塘生春草 (chí táng shēng chūn căo)
garden willows change◦ singing birds 園柳變鳴禽 (yuán liŭ biàn míng qín)The 2 + 3 rhythm of this couplet may seem at first sight an insignificant reversal of
the 3 + 2 Chuci rhythm. In reality, the significance of this transposition cannot be
overstated. After the middle-positioned xi (or any other connective) is eliminated
and the trisyllabic segment swaps position with the disyllabic segment, the top-
heavy imbalance of the 3 + 2 Chuci rhythm is corrected. What arises is a balanced,
dynamic rhythm of 2 + 1 + 2 or, alternatively, 2 + 2 + 1. In this new rhythm, the
odd 1 is no longer confined to the trisyllabic segment (as in the Chuci 3 + 2 line)
and, in fact, becomes the pivot for the entire line, engaging its two segments in a
dynamic interplay.
The rhythm of Xie Lingyun’s couplet is 2 + 1 + 2. The initial 2 and ending 2 are
noun binomes in both lines, and the odd 1 is a verb in both. Seeing this succession
of noun + verb + noun, we, conditioned by our habitual manner of reading, almost
automatically read the couplet as subject + predicate with two direct objects: “Pond
banks giving birth to spring grass, / Garden willows change into the singing birds.”
Our sense of logic, however, immediately makes us realize that the two verbs de-
pict the poet’s imaginative perception rather than real phenomena of nature.
This leads us to see a genuine topic + comment construction underlying what
we may call a pseudo subject + predicate. “Pond banks” and “spring grass,” and
“garden willows” and “singing birds” are the twin topics. The verbs, “grow” and
“change,” placed between them are the comments. The two comments reveal the
poet’s perceptual illusion resulting from a dramatic condensation of time in his
reverie-like perception. Condensing months of gradual seasonal changes (the
grass’s growth and the birds’ return) into a startling moment of change, Xie Ling-
yun entertains the illusion of the pond banks giving birth to green grass and the
garden willows changing into singing birds. As we reexperience Xie Lingyun’s
imaginative transformation of physical realities, we cannot but share the poet’s
sense of delight and wonder at the sudden advent of spring. Moreover, this mon-
tage of disparate images—barren pond banks with green grass, (implied) leafless
willow gardens with singing birds—brings forth a cosmic vision, one character-
ized by perpetual growth and change. Indeed, the comments “grow” and “change”
are none other than the twin cardinal cosmic principles expounded in the Book of
Changes: “To grow and grow is called the Changes” and “[The alternation of ] one
yin and one yang is called the Dao.”7
Xie Lingyun’s construction of this famous couplet presages how Tang poets,
especially the High Tang masters, would exploit the expressive potential of the
2 + 3 rhythm in pentasyllabic poetry. Like Xie Lingyun, they would spare no effort
to utilize syntactic ambiguities to conflate a pseudo subject + predicate and a genu-
ine topic + comment. They focus, too, on exploiting what is often called the verse
eye—an animating and often logically impossible verb that engenders, as in Xie
Lingyun’s couplet, an enchanting perceptual illusion.