How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

260 t He F i v e Dy na s t i e s anD t He s ong Dy na s t y

vice versa. In the manci, these shifts become more complex. Early literati ci may

betray the influence of shi aesthetics in their use of juxtaposed scenes and states;

although the ci allows more elaboration of the relationship between them than

does the shi, it remains for the manci to take this elaboration further, incorporating

descriptive and narrative sequences that the xiaoling could never accommodate.

Thematically, the xiaoling tends to restrict itself to subjects involving the delicate

and personal emotions surrounding love, abandonment, separation, or nostal-

gia, treating these subjects with a characteristic allusiveness that accords with its

brevity and concision. The manci came to accommodate a broader variety of sub-

jects and a greater range of emotion, which its length and complexity allowed it to

treat in a more exhaustive manner. But the xiaoling set the stage for the manci and

the development of the haofang (heroic) style by adapting a popular medium for

literati use and carving a niche for it in the hierarchy of literary forms that were

acceptable for intellectual pursuit.

Maija Bell Samei

notes

1. My approach in this chapter is certainly informed by these perspectives, although it is by no
   means strictly feminist.


2. Shuen-fu Lin, “The Formation of a Distinct Generic Identity for Tz’u,” in Voices of the Song
   Lyric in China, ed. Pauline Yu (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 21.


3. The wutong is the Chinese parasol tree (Firmiana simplex).


4. Shuen-fu Lin, The Transformation of the Chinese Lyrical Tradition: Chiang K’uei and Southern
   Sung Tz’u Poetry (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978), 106–107.


5. Other manuscripts have a closely related character meaning “monkey” in place of “child.”


6. The character sì is read here with the fourth tone because the pattern for this tune title re-
   quires an oblique tone rhyme in this position.


7. Zhangtai was a street in Han dynasty Chang’an that became a euphemism for the brothel
   district.

suggest eD reaDings

e ng l i sH

Bryant, Daniel, ed. and trans. Lyric Poets of the Southern T’ang: Feng Yen-ssu, 903–960, and Li Yü,

937–978. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1982.

Chang, Kang-i Sun. The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry: From Late T’ang to Northern Sung.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Egan, Ronald C. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu (1007–72). Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1984.

Fusek, Lois, trans. Among the Flowers: The “Hua-chien chi.” New York: Columbia University Press,

1982.

Lin, Shuen-fu. The Transformation of the Chinese Lyrical Tradition: Chiang K’uei and Southern Sung

Tz’u Poetry. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978.

Liu, James J. Y. Major Lyricists of the Northern Sung, a.d. 960–1126. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton

University Press, 1974.

Rouzer, Paul F. Writing Another’s Dream: The Poetry of Wen Tingyun. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford

University Press, 1993.