114 chapter three
Biographies?The most significant, palpable example of Haizi’s thanatography is
Liaoyuan’s 2001 monograph Leopard Pouncing on the Sun: A Critical Biog-
raphy of Haizi (ᠥ䰇П䉍: ⍋ᄤ䆘Ӵ), prefaced and hence more or
less authorized by Xi Chuan, who remarks on unpleasant memories
of other, would-be biographers of questionable intentions and style.
No one would have thought of writing Haizi’s biography if he hadn’t
killed himself. As such it makes perfect sense that Leopard starts with a
brief account of his suicide. The narrative reversal of historical chro-
nology is of course not exclusive to stories of which the end is widely
known, and a death foretold can sharpen our perception of the vital-
ity we know it will terminate, thus creating dramatic tension. This is,
however, not what happens in Leopard. While Liaoyuan consolidates
the myth of Haizi, his book is no hagiography and he commands re-
spect by the way he pulls together information on a scarcely docu-
mented life—but from start to finish the foremost level of coherence
in his account of Haizi’s life is dictated by the poet’s eventual suicide.
Liaoyuan weaves Haizi’s poetry into the rest of his life, on the explicit
assumption that his oeuvre can be taken biographically in its entirety.
In itself, certainly in light of a traditional Chinese poetics, this is a de-
fensible position, but it makes passages that may be read as pointing
toward Haizi’s death acquire disproportionate weight.
Liaoyuan’s desire for coherence combines with his regard for Haizi’s
art and a romantic vision of poethood, when he concludes that Haizi
“died for poetry” (Ў䆫㗠⅏). He bases himself on the note in which
Haizi wrote that his death had nothing to do with anybody, which
Liaoyuan says was^35
to stop us from guessing at the reason for his death from any mundane
[Ϫ֫] angle. And what he expressed about giving his poetry manu-
scripts to Luo Yihe is in fact a public authorization. On one level his will
was about dying; on another it was about poetry. From this it isn’t hard
for us to experience his words as delivering a mental note to the effect
that he cleanly died for poetry.The argument is uncharacteristically weak, if not a glaring non se-
quitur. An alternative interpretation of Haizi’s suicide note is that he
wished to make sure no one would be blamed for his death, but one
(^35) Liaoyuan 2001: 340.