How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

r Hy tHm, s y n taX , anD v ision oF C H i ne s e P oe t ry 387

Tang regulated verse presents us with topic + comment constructions of varying
degrees of complexity. Du Fu’s poem “The Jiang and Han Rivers” (C8.2) features
a relatively simple topic + comment construction in which the topic (disyllabic
segment) is a noun binome depicting a broad scene and the comment (trisyllabic
segment) is a mini subject + predicate depicting the poet’s physical and emotional
conditions. As I have already discussed the aesthetic effect of this construction
in that poem in chapter 8, let me consider a complex twin topic + comment con-
struction, in which both the topic and the comment are mini subject + predicate
constructions:

feel time flower◦ shed tear 感時花濺淚 (găn shí huā jiàn lèi)
hate separation bird◦ startle heart 恨別鳥驚心 (hèn bié niăo jīng xīn )

In this famous couplet from Du Fu’s “Spring Scene” (C8.1), each line contains
two subjects: an implied subject (who “feels time” and “hates separation”) in the
initial disyllabic segment and an explicit nonhuman subject (that “sheds tears”
and “startles heart”) in the ensuing trisyllabic segment. As I have explained in
chapter 8, the omission of the first subject gives rise to a syntactic ambiguity that
allows for four different readings of the couplet (see pp. 165–167). This couplet
also invites a fifth reading as a complex topic + comment:

Feeling time—flowers shed tears,

Hating separation—a bird startles the heart.

This reading is contingent on a deliberately prolonged pause (as indicated by the
dashes) that breaks the spatiotemporal-logical link between the disyllabic and tri-
syllabic segments. When so separated, the disyllabic segments (“feeling time” and
“hating separation”) become the topics being contemplated by the poet; and the
trisyllabic segments (“flowers shed tears” and “a bird startles the heart”) become
the poet’s comments on his own emotional state. These comments may be taken
as flashes of mental images in the poet’s mind that reveal his otherwise indescrib-
able feelings. Indeed, they enable us to reexperience the montage-like leaps of his
mind during his intense self-reflection.

Heptasyllabic Shi Poetry
“Upper 4 and lower 3’’ (shang si xia san) is the phrase frequently used by tradi-
tional Chinese critics to characterize the rhythm of heptasyllabic poetry. In tradi-
tional Chinese writing, words are arranged vertically from top to bottom and lines
from right to left on a page. So “upper 4” denotes the initial tetrasyllabic segment
and “lower 3” the ensuing trisyllabic segment. Together the two segments form a
4 + 3 rhythm. To many modern critics, however, 2 + 2 + 3 is a preferable descrip-
tion of this rhythm because it better reveals heptasyllabic poetry’s inherent bond
with, if not genesis in, pentasyllabic poetry, whose rhythm is 2 + 3. Wang Li, for
example, considers a heptasyllabic line as essentially a two-character extension