Sh i P oe t ry : anC i e n t anD r e C e n t s t y l e s 317The language appropriated in line 4 of the poem is an actual phrase, drawn
also from a passage in the History of the Han Dynasty (also found in the parallel
chapter in the Shiji [Records of the Grand Scribe], an earlier text).6 Some years after
Emperor Gaozu (Han Gaozu, r. 206–194 b.C.e.) founded the Han dynasty, one of
his generals, Ying Bu (d. 196 b.C.e.), revolted. Gaozu was seriously ill at the time
and secluded himself in the palace, attended by only a single eunuch. Gaozu gave
orders that no one else be allowed to come to him. Other of his ministers abided
by the emperor’s wishes, but the impetuous Fan Kuai (d. 189 b.C.e.) could not tol-
erate the prospect of being separated from his lord in his time of need. Fan Kuai
went up to the room where Gaozu was staying and “burst open the door and went
straight in” (pai ta zhi ru). Gaozu’s self-isolation was thus ended, and the emperor
quickly recovered.
Allusion is a very common device in Chinese poetry, and it exists in many dif-
ferent types and degrees of reference to the earlier text(s). Sometimes the language
of an allusion does not make sense in the line it appears in unless the allusion is
recognized and the relevance of the source passage accurately perceived. That is
not the case with Wang Anshi’s two allusions. The lines make perfectly good sense
even if the reader misses the fact that the two phrases are drawn from earlier texts.
The reader will still perceive that the lines present clever matching personifica-
tions: the river “guards the fields,” and the two mountains “shove [or burst] open
the doorway” to deliver their image of greenery inside. But, of course, the clever-
ness is enhanced if the allusions are recognized. First, recognition creates a new
layer of communication between poet and reader, the latter now understanding
that he has espied a tidbit of meaning deliberately secluded in the poetic line; his
discovery likewise shows that, in this instance at least, his erudition lives up to the
poet’s expectations about his readers. Poet and reader now share a secret about
the line that less-informed readers will miss. Second, the phrases that constitute
the allusions are seen to be all the more ingenious because the personification
aspect of both of them is the poet’s special addition to the earlier phrase. Origi-
nally, there was no personification involved. The supervising officers were literally
appointed to guard (or oversee) the soldiers in the agricultural colonies. Similarly,
Fan Kuai literally burst through the door to get access to his ailing ruler. Wang An-
shi’s appropriation of these unremarkable earlier uses and transformation of them
by making the grammatical subject of each inanimate—indeed, each a part of the
landscape—is an instance of the poetic ideal, first identified in his own age, of
“touching iron and transforming it into gold” (diantie cheng jin), an ideal inspired by
the alchemist’s alleged ability to change ordinary metals into life-sustaining gold.
C 1 5. 5
As Dawn Approached on an Autumn Night, I Went Out My Bramble Gate and,
Met by Chilly Air, Was Moved to Write This, No. 2Across ten thousand miles the Yellow River
flows eastward into the sea,