366 chapter eleven
cult of their own, over and above what Michelle Yeh calls their anti-
cult behavior in reaction to the Elevated.^1 Han and Yu ascribe a kind
of regular-guy authenticity to the poet, but at the end of the day their
vision frequently proves to be as high-blown as that of the poetry wor-
shipers and the Intellectuals they claim to oppose. As such, this vision
constitutes a cult of ordinariness—as a positive, indeed a sacred qual-
ity of an undertaking that requires unconditional loyalty. Hence, the
question mark.
My sources are a series of publications by Han Dong and Yu Jian
that cover two decades, from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s. In com-
parison with Xi Chuan’s poetics, the phenomenon of poethood—what
a poet is, and what it means to be a poet—is highly significant to both
Han and Yu. Section 1 of this chapter examines images of the Chinese
poet as he appears in their writings, overarching other, interrelated as-
pects of their poetics. Section 2 shows that for all their poetical kinship,
Han and Yu display markedly different styles in the metatextual arena.
As before, my use of masculine pronouns reflects the male monopoli-
zation of this arena.
1. Poethood According to Han Dong and Yu Jian
As in chapter Ten, I have organized the discussion along lines sug-
gested by the material itself. Overall, the subsections move from ques-
tions concerning what we may call the ontology of poetry and the
poet toward commentary by Han and Yu on actualities of the Chinese
poetry scene that bring to mind literary-sociological issues highlighted
elsewhere in this study.
Where Does Poetry Come From?In Han Dong and Yu Jian’s “Conversation in Taiyuan” (ॳⱘ䇜
䆱, 1988), Yu asserts that what matters is not where poetry appears,
but through whom:^2
(^1) Yeh 1996a: 78.
(^2) Yu Jian & Han 1988: 77.