Reexamining Han Dynasty Poetry Through Wei Hong's Great Preface

A Second Look at the Great Preface on the Way to a New Understanding of Han
Dynasty Poetics
Author(s): Martin Svensson
Source: Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) , Dec., 1999, Vol. 21 (Dec.,
1999), pp. 1-33
Published by: Chinese Literature: essays, articles, reviews (CLEAR)
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A Second Look at the Great Preface on the Way to a
New Understanding of Han Dynasty Poetics1
Martin Svensson
Stockholm University
Introduction
This article concerns itself with the following questions: First, how was poetry
read in early Han Dynasty China (second century B.C.) and, according to the ancients,
how was it produced? Second, what answer to this enquiry does sinology-as a
contemporary, Occidental discourse on China-provide us with?2 With reference to
the latter question, it is possible to pinpoint the locus classicus which in fact determines
all sinological discussions on early poetry. I am referring to the Great Preface 7 , a
short but immensely influential treatise on the origin and function of poetry probably
written, or compiled, by the Confucian scholar Wei Hong W in the first century
B.C.3
Wei Hong's Preface opens with a description, almost hypnotic in its intensity, of
1 A first draft of this article was presented as "The Waving of Hands and the Stamping of Feet:
Toward a New Understanding of Ancient Chinese Poetics" to the Centre of Asian Studies, University of
Hong Kong. It was brought to its present state at the Asian Languages and Studies Department at the
University of Queensland. I should like to express my gratitude to the following scholars for invigorating
conversations on Chinese poetry and poetics: Umberto Ansaldo, Rod Bucknell, Hans van Ess, Lothar von
Falkenhausen, Hikan Friberg, Gao Jianping, Chad Hansen, Perry Johansson, David Keightley, Torbj6rn
Loden, Kam Louie, Roland Lysell, Joachim Mittag, Stephen Owen, Simon Patton, Bengt Pettersson, G6ran
Sommardal, Steven Van Zoeren, and Zhang Longxi. Thanks also to CLEAR's two anonymous reviewers for
their insightful comments. I am especially grateful to Haun Saussy for always being a passionate, careful,
and patient reader. For any shortcomings in the present work, I am to blame.
2 For an excellent historical overview of the notion of "China" in Western thought, see Zhang
Longxi's "The Myth of the Other: China in the Eyes of the West," Critical Inquiry 15 (Autumn 1988): pp.
108-31. For discussions of Western and Chinese poetry and poetics from a comparative perspective, see the
following important works: John B. Henderson, Scripture, Canon, and Commentary: A Comparison of Confucian
and Western Exegesis(Priceton: Princeton University Press, 1991); Francois Jullien, La valeur allusive: des categories
originales de l'interpretation poetique dans la tradition chinoise (Paris: Ecole Franlaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1985);
James L.Y. Liu, Chinese Theories of Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975); Stephen Owen,
Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992); Hermann-Josef
Rollicke, Die FFihrte des Herzens - Die Lehre von Herzensbestreben (zhi 1) im Grossen Vorwort zum Shijing; Haun
Saussy, The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993); Ferenc T6kei, Naissance
de l'eligie chinoise: K'iu Yuan et son epoche (Paris: Gallimard, 1967); Pauline Yu, The Reading of Imagery in the
Chinese Poetic Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987); Zhang Longxi, "The Tao and the Logos.
Notes on Derrida's Critique of Logocentrism," Critical Inquiry 11 (March 1985); Steven Van Zoeren, Poetry
and Personality: Reading, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional China (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1991).
3 Cf. Hou han shu (Peking: Zhonghua, 1965), vol. IX, pp. 2575-6.
?Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 21 (1999)

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2 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 21 (1999)
how poetry (94 shi) emerges from the poet.
Poetry is the place where intention [2 zhi] goes. In the heart it is intention, when
expressed in words, it is poetry. Emotions ['Ir qing] are stirred within and take shape
in words. When words are no longer enough [to express the emotions], they are
expressed in sighing. When sighing is not enough, they are expressed in singing.
When singing is no longer enough, the hands unconsciously dance them and the feet
stamp them.4
For the reader weary of Western mimesis-abstract and thrice removed from
reality-this paragraph paints a delightful picture of spontaneity, directness and poetic
inspiration. Moved, the Chinese poet overflows with emotions which relentlessly seek
an outlet in the unconscious fusion of lyrics, singing and dance that is shi, Chinese
"poetry."5
In the interpretation of this passage, the sinological community has stood
surprisingly united. It is the core locus, both of the Preface in particular and of ancient
poetics in general, and it sets forth the "affective-expressive" theory of shi-poetry.6
According to this theory, poetry is generated in the poet when he is affected by
external matters. He then, almost automatically, expresses himself in a poem that
reflects that particular situation. Consequently, the series of events that eventually
lead to poetic expression is better described as a process than as a creation and the
poet, similarly, is to be understood rather as a passive medium for powers external to
him than as a conscious creator of a work.
Such a view of the "creative process," naturally, has its consequences for the
interpretation of Chinese poetry. If the Chinese bard is an emotional creature whose
feverish inspiration can only find adequate expression in bodily movements, then we
are unlikely to find, in the Chinese poem, the deliberated, "cold" tropes and rhetorical
tricks allegedly characteristic of the Western poet.7 And indeed, in his lengthy and
4 All translations of the Great Preface follow Li Zehou's and Liu Gangji's reconstructed version, as
found in their Zhongguo meixue shi ~r ~ P (Peking: Zhonghua, 1987), vol. II, p. 572. Although their
hypothesis that what they distinguish as the Great Preface was originally a large external fragment incorporated
into the Minor Prefaces is questionable, it does not affect the present discussion. I have consulted and had
great help from Owen's, Saussy's and Van Zoeren's careful translations of the Great Preface. In the translation
of this particular passage, the passive mode ("they are expressed in sighing . . . ") has been used in order to
retain the undetermined subject of the clause. For the unabridged text, see Shisan jing zhushu +- itir
(Peking: Zhonghua, 1981), vol. I, pp. 269-72; hereafter abbreviated SSJZS. Cf. R61licke's (p. 47) discussion of
the difference between "heart" and "within" (mitte lit. "middle").
5 Liu, pp. 69-70.
6 Yu, pp. 32-33. See also Paula M. Varsano, "Getting There from Here: Locating the Subject in Early
Chinese Poetics," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 56 (1996), p. 387.
7 Cf. Yu's (p. 33) comment on the Great Preface: ". .. the connections between subject and object or
among objects, which the West has by and large credited to the creative ingenuity of the poet, are viewed in
the Chinese tradition as already pre-established" (italics added). In China, therefore, poetry is merely a literal
reflection of a world full of cosmological correspondences, a "metaphorical" world. Cf. also Jullien's very
similar East/West dichotomy (p. 297) that identifies "symbolization" as the typical Western mode of
representing the world in abstract language, as a contrast to the Chinese allusion, which occurs as an

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SVENSSON A Second Look 3
sophisticated analysis of the Great Preface

phrase that we should keep at the back of o
"spontaneous and unmediated by artistry o
unlikely that such a poem is wholly rational
held together by one single, coherent th
sinological work speaks of the "wild" image
ad hoc creation of a poem: he adorns the "p
least partly - selected at random from a com
China, apparently, poetic imagery is catach
since tenor and vehicle seldom or never coin
Finally, and corresponding to the idea of
there is the claim that the Great Preface i
contemporary treatises on music, dance an
an illogical and incoherent text." Thus, it i
depiction of poetic inspiration, of a hand-w
by a few minor contradictions that must be
a systematic poetics.12
What I will do here is precisely to focus o
it as the pathway to a new understanding
interpretation that will display the text's
how it is organized in full accordance with
Superior Man: the junzi A#; and, most impo
of the spontaneous bard is fundamentally in
activity that we get from those intertexts
indulge in a short but necessary discussion of
a few basic principles of interpretation. To
irascible, objections that may be voiced b
made clear that I am concerned exclusively
Han, and not with that of the Wenxin diao
Tang Dynasty "Preface" to the Odes. If an
article could problematize the sinologist's (a
habit of projecting much later conceptions o
"external correlative connection" (my italics) in a langua

[re-actualiser] the correlative structure of its world."
8 Van Zoeren, p. 110.
9 C.H. Wang, The Bell and the Drum (Berkeley: Un
also p. 72 where Wang implicitly claims that ambig
composed poems. He continues: "A poet composing sp
the Odes] makes use of traditional, vague, and sometim
are capable of eliciting a fixed response from the audi
10 This assertion presupposes, of course, that the
supposed to mean. Wang assumes that textual meaning
11Liu, pp. 119-21, 69-70.
12 Cf. note 29 below.

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I will end this section by introducing the four key concepts which, according to
the hypothesis which underlies my discussion, organize the Great Preface by forming a
set of dichotomies that permeate the text. These concepts (three of which we have
already encountered) are: shi 9, zhi , qing '[R, and min X. A makeshift translation,
transposing these ancient Chinese notions into what may resemble their modem Western
counterparts, could be: "poetry," "intention," "emotion(s)," and "the people." We
shall discuss the problems of such a rendition in greater detail in just a moment.
The Great Preface and Its Intertexts

Let us start our discussion by posing and answering a few relevant questions. In
what context does the Great Preface appear? Which are what I have called its "closest"
intertexts? And, the most obvious question, what is it a preface to?
Wei Hong's text served as an introduction to the Mao School edition of the Book
of Odes
last three(Shijing ,V),B.C.,
centuries a collection of several
there were 305 of such
China's most ancient
"schools," poems.13
differing in theirDuring the
interpretation of the Odes and struggling to be recognized as providers of the canonical
version. During the reign of Ping Di (1 B.C.-6 A.D.), the Mao group finally won the
battle, and the Odes were incorporated with the Great Preface, as well as with two other
"Maoist" exegetical texts, the Minor Prefaces /Ji and the Mao Commentary {. 14 If
the Great Preface gives an account of how poetry (or, rather, shi) originates and of the
role that it plays in the world, the Minor Prefaces take on a quite different task. They
inform the reader of the situation in which each individual poem was created and of
its author. Finally, the Mao Commentary, written by the second century scholar Mao
Heng (after whom the Mao school was named), has two functions that set it apart
from the two prefaces. It supplies glosses to arcane or ambiguous characters and,
more importantly, it determines whether a certain word, phrase or line is to be taken
literally or in a figural sense.
However, today's sinologist argues that these three exegetical texts also made
possible a strategic misreading of those odes that, taken literally, must have seemed
incompatible with Confucian moral dogma. And, indeed, there is often a huge gap
between text and commentary. A poem in which an anonymous female voice tells of
13 The Shijing is a heterogeneous collection of love poems, epic-like poems about the founding
fathers of the Zhou dynasty, plain songs describing everyday life at the royal court as well as among the
common people, and hymns performed at various rituals during the Zhou. All citations from the Odes are
taken from the SSJZS. I will also give the titles in Chinese and their sequential numbers as given in
Bernhard Karlgren, The Book of Odes (Rpt. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950).
14 The interrelation and order of appearance of these hermeneutical texts are disputed. It is likely
that the Great Preface and the Minor Prefaces were both written by the same author (Wei Hong?), a fact which
would further strengthen the joint reading of these two texts that will be performed below. However, I will
here refrain from making any such assumptions, instead taking the two texts only as two closely related
texts on poetry that form a coherent traditional poetics. For discussions on the authorship of the Prefaces, cf.
the detailed catalogue of different explanations in the Siku quanshu zongmu (Peking: Zhonghua, 1965), 15:1
(p. 119) and Van Zoeren, pp. 90-91.

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youthful and passionate love may very wel

minister's expression of "love"-or loyalty
tied the poem to a specific historical conte
into a aristocratic discourse concerned with
there is, of course, the possibility that the
allegory, used by the upper classes in ritua
will see in a moment, this is precisely the cont
We will now turn to the question of whic
the poetics of the Great Preface. In accordan
that the Preface is a patch-work of heterog
on music and the musical performance of t
the text's ancestry, tracing those "fath
incomprehensible and contradictory spots.
the ancient bard as an automaton we see th
by references to older texts such as the
the "Yueji" (OE "Notes on Music").'5 These a
philosophical tradition as the Preface, althou
remarkably neglected, aspect: they deal not
Nonetheless, an eclectic reading of the "Y
the poet as a medium between the world
opening lines.
As for the emergence of tones, they are born

heart is stirred is due to the influence of the e
It could be assumed, then, that poetry--sh

material world (wu) stirs the human mind w
tones (yin ').
Again, that the "Yueji" is referring to music, rather than poetry, is seen as no
obstacle. As I said in the introduction, it has been presumed that the famous lines in
the Preface describing the stamping of feet and the waving of hands are evidence of
the fusion of music, song and dance that constituted both the earliest form of artistic
expression at the dawn of the Chinese civilization, and the ritual performance of the
Odes during the Zhou Dynasty.17 And, according to the sinologist, this mixture of
musicology, cosmology, and the idea of poetry as an auto-generated art form - this
was the conceptual horizon against which the Great Preface and the notion of shi were
understood by the Preface's Han Dynasty readers.
15 Owen, pp. 50-56; Liu, pp. 19, 63-64.

16 SSJZS, vol. II, p. 2527.
17 Liu, p. 19; Chen Shih-hsiang, "The Shih Ching: Its Generic Significance in Chinese Literary History
and Poetics" in Cyril Birch, ed. Studies in Chinese Literary Genres (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1974), pp. 8-41.

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Now, if this theory is correct, we must acknowledge that our own Occidental
bias has perverted our enquiry from its very beginning. Thus far, we have translated
"shi" into the Western concept of "poetry." But "poetry," remarks Stephen Owen in
his monumental and insightful Readings in Chinese Literary Thought, is a conventiona
but highly misleading translation.'" Etymologically as well as conceptually, it is
misnomer that perverts the Chinese concept of "shi." The word "poetry," we remembe
is derived from the Greek word poiesi, "making." The Western poet is thus a "maker,
a "fabricator," someone who works and controls the raw material out of which he or
she forms a poem. And it is precisely this that Owen seizes upon as the fundamenta
difference between Occidental poetry and Chinese shi: the concepts of "artistic control
of the Western poet's "distance" to his poem, of the "masks" or "personae" that he
creates. Although a shi, again in Owen's words, "can be worked on, polished, an
crafted," the writer holds no absolute control over it. He is not the maker of the shi - in
fact, he is the shi. Similarly, according to Owen, zhi should not be rendered as
"intention," since that word implies that the person "who intends" has a choice. The
writer of a shi, by stark contrast, manifests his zhi in a text because he has no alternative:
he simply re-acts to a stirring of his heart that forces itself upon him from the outside.19
The crucial lines of the Preface describing a person overwhelmed with emotions Owen
interprets as saying that "poetic expression" is "involuntary" (a variation of Van
Zoeren's adjective "spontaneous").20
We can let a pathological analogy illustrate the relationship between the Chinese
"poet," his "work" and the mysterious act of influence that makes the latter emerg
from the former. Imagine a virus-infected patient whose feverish body contracts as h
throws up. Metaphorically, this body belongs to the Chinese "poet." The virus that
causes these bodily activities corresponds to the material world (wu) which stirs the
human heart into activity, and the spastic contractions are the involuntary "poetic
activity" that forces itself on the individual as a result of the world's influence. Finally
the substance ejected from inside the body and spewed out through the mouth answer
to the "poetry" (read: shi) that is the wholly unplanned result of the Chinese poetic
influenza. Just like a virus and its symptoms, the Chinese shi runs through the body
regardless of human intention. This sickly simile allows us to see how utterly
inappropriate the Western concepts of creation, poem (an entity "created") and poet
("poetry-worker") are in the context of Chinese shi. To endow the sinological lexicon
with the proper connotations of spontaneity these words should be replaced by
"process," "result" and "medium" respectively. A shi, the sinologist concludes, possesse
a unique sense of concretion. It is the direct imprint of the world at a specific moment.
Unfortunately, this paraphrase of early Han Dynasty poetics is a gravely distorted
one. Attractive as the anti-humanist image of the Chinese poet (a non-subject passivel
18 Owen, p. 27.
19 Ibid., pp. 27-28. Note that Owen, p. 51, speculates on the mind's disposition before it is moved by
the external world, and how this predisposition colors the (artistic) response.
20 Ibid., p. 42.

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moved about by external forces) may be to t

it with a much more prosaic one: that of the
work full of clear and readily interpretable m
Zoeren and Owen are right in stressing the lin
idea plays a crucial role in Chinese poetics.21 A
of the Minor Prefaces is precisely to forestall
presenting each Ode as a response to a cert
movement very aptly named "contextualizati
here that we will find the key to the contemp
poetics. For what is a poetry like that is, i
artistry or calculation"? A poetry that is so cl
it that poem and poet, the emotions that prod
it, are all one and the same? A poetry, finally,
Obviously, it is a poetry whose directness a
rhetorical artifices. It is a poetry whose m
semantic element is downplayed. Using an Occ
inspired modem sinology, it is a poetry that c
the Apollonian. And this hatred of abstraction
sinology.23
21 Yu, p. 76.
22 Ibid.
23 Cf. note 6 above. Yu's attempt to rid Chinese poetics and hermeneutics of metaphoricity (and,
thus, abstraction) is perhaps the boldest of several similar endeavors.
Marcel Granet, on the other hand, in his influential Fetes et chansons anciennes de la Chine (2d ed.
Paris: Leroux, 1929 [1919]), tries to do away with Chinese abstraction in its entirety by tracing the key
concepts of yin and yang back to what I will call an Ur-scene. In the ancient vernal mating rites to which
Granet alludes in the book's title, a group of young men standing in the sunny part of a "sacred" valley
faced a group of young women who, correspondingly, was standing in the shade on the other side of the
river. The separation and placement of the sexes were determined by the fact that men worked in the sunny
fields in summer, while women worked in their dark houses in winter. The men and women then formed
two choirs that alternated in singing the love songs later incorporated in the Book of Odes. The basic
meaning of yin (north of a hill, south of a river) and yang (south of a hill, north of a river) was thus derived
from the concrete placement of the two groups. Slowly, these conceps evolved into a comprehensive, more
abstract and symbolic thought-pattern where yin designated darkness, female passivity, the underworld
(the Dionysian) and yang clarity, male activity, the world of the living (the Apollonian).
In "The Shih Ching: Its Generic Significance in Chinese Literary History and Poetics," in Cyril
Birch, ed., Studies in Chinese Literary Genres (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), pp. 4-41, Chen
Shih-hsiang undertakes another nostalgic project as he traces the art of shi to the very dawn of civilization,
when the world was "fresh" and "innocent" and when "to speak was to be a poet." According to Chen, the
charactershi ("poetry") consists of "foot" ' and "speech" , referring to the primeval fusion of poetry
with music and dance: a foot "beating rhythm" on the ground. At this rather primitive stage, the (true)
meaning of a poem was completely derived from the concrete situation out of which it grew as the poet was
"inspired by immediate objects or contingent events symbolic of the feeling of the whole occasion" (italics
added). This was the beginning of the poetic technique that the Mao Commentary, in the early Han, was to
name "xing" R and, Chen continues, the "distinct identity" of the xing survives in Mao's Confucian
exegesis. The idea that the Odes can only be fully understood with reference to a specific, concrete situation
is repeated and modified in The Bell and the Drum by Chen's disciple C.H. Wang (cf. note 8, above).
Ironically, since both Chen and Wang write in opposition to Confucian hermeneutics, this stubborn insistence

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But, in the final analysis, can we really accept a reading of the Great Preface that
takes its decisive arguments from a discourse on music? Could it be that modern
sinology has so embraced the modem Chinese rejection of the Confucian allegorical
tradition that it has read the ancient texts against the grain and found "spontaneity,"
"concretion" and "involuntary poetic expression" where these topics are not being
spoken of? Therefore, we end up with two questions: What are we to make of the
relationship between two texts, such as the "Yueji" and the Great Preface, that obviously
originate in the same tradition (and thus constitute what Michael Riffaterre calls
"compulsory intertexts")?24 And what would happen to our understanding of Wei
Hong's Preface if we changed intertexts? As for the former question, I would claim
that although Text and Intertext may originate in one and the same tradition, they do
not necessarily constitute a continuum. They are not what we, succumbing to a politically
incorrect pun, may call "homotexts" but, rather, Gegen-Texts (in the double sense of
"gegen": "toward" and "against"). "Homotextuality" entails a static and fruitless
reiteration of similar ideas expressed in different texts with only minimal changes in
form. By contrast, the intertextual field is one of permutation and transformation. In
other words: our focus should principally be on the difference between Text and Intertext
and the changes of concepts that the process of decontextualization brings.
Let me clarify my point of view by approaching the question from another
perspective. Postmodem theory claims that a text is a configuration (a bringing-together)
of textual fragments, and the goal of the postmodemist is to show that a text-indeed
any text-lacks a centre and a closure. Therefore, intertextual analysis often seizes
upon obscure and elusive passages, claiming that they are pieces of other texts, or of
other discourses, that have been ripped from their original contexts and displaced into
a strange text. Consequently, all texts are penetrated by other texts and can only be
understood with reference to them. All this sounds quite reasonable, yet there is one
oddity about this interpretational technique: it actually reverses the textual movement.
The text is by definition a gathering-together of heterogeneous textual fragments into
a new context. But the postmodernist panics at the thought of such promiscuity and
violently forces the strayed fragments back into their original places. In this respect,
the intertextual critic is conservative, forever looking back toward a meaningful self-
presence that used to be. I would claim that this unfortunate phenomenon occurs in
sinology too, as the sinologist fails to read the Preface both in its own right, and as a
on the incomprehensibility of the Odes as read in isolation (without either Confucian dogma or misplaced
theories of oral literature) is characteristic of both Chen and Wang, as well as of the Minor Prefaces.
Finally, Gu Jiegang's article "Qi Xing" R$., in Gu shi bian W- F (Rpt. Taipei: Minlun, 1970), vol.
III, pp. 673-77, holds that the natural description (e.g., Quack, quack go the ospreys /on the islet in the river) that
so often constitutes the opening lines of an Ode, did not contain any abstract metaphoricity (as Mao Heng
would later claim), but was chosen by the ancient poet as a smooth way of starting his poem. Instead of
bluntly relating the poem's "plot," the bard chose two lines, whose last word(s) happened to rhyme with the
last word(s) of the following lines. Hence, the "xing" is not only not metaphorical, but literally meaningless.
For a more comprehensive critique of contemporary theories on Confucian hermeneutics and the
Book of Odes, see Martin Svensson, What Happened When Mao Heng Read the Odes: Confucian Exegesis in Early
Han Dynasty China (Stockholm University Press: forthcoming), chapter one.
24 Michael Riffaterre in Mary Ann Caws, ed., Textual Analysis: Some Readers Reading (New York, N.Y.

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transformation of other texts formed into a

logic of intertextual theories themselves, it
be studied is the new constellation, and the
consists.
Now then, if the first rule is to respect the boundaries of a text, how are we to
deal with all those other textual pieces, the uncles, cousins and nephews of our Primary
Text? My answer is that we should act with caution and establish an intertextual
hierarchy. In the case of the Great Preface, to rely primarily on the works that constitute
its closest family: the Minor Prefaces, the Mao Commentary and the Odes themselves; to
treat more distant family members, such as the musicological chapters of the Xunzi
and the "Yueji", attentively but with a pinch of suspicion. Finally, a corollary of
intertextual theories is that the given text changes with the intertexts with which it is
read. Thus, if we choose to regard the Great Preface in the light of the Minor Prefaces (its
closest and most reliable intertexts) and draw our conclusions from that source we
will find a different Preface from that which would appear with the "Yueji" and the
Xunzi as privileged intertexts. Although a "prismatic" text such as the Preface will
resist the positivist's attempt to eradicate totally its ambiguities, contradictions and
hermeticisms, it is nonetheless possible to find, within its own tradition, a reading that
presents itself as an alternative to (or improvement on) previous theories.
We shall read this complex text as a whole, but having learnt the lesson of
intertextuality, we will take into consideration the transformation of earlier works that
it performs. There is little doubt that poetry, music and dance were once closely
united. Prestigious and trustworthy documents such as the "Yiwenzhi" E, , the
"Yueji", the Mozi and the Xunzi all bear testimony to this fact. Yet, the Preface is
not merely a carbon copy of the "Yueji" with the word "poetry" substituted for "music."
A comparison with the "Yueji" should be based principally on what the Preface leaves
out. And a juxtaposition of the two documents quickly discloses fundamental differences,
on both a factual and a metaphorical level. Not unimportantly, we observe that the
Great Preface actually lacks idea that artistic expression-whether manifested as poetry
or as music-is stimulated from the outside. Furthermore, the Xunzi and the "Yueji"
both oppose music (yue) to rites (, li). This has no counterpart in the Preface. Second,
music and its hierarchy of tones are themselves used as symbols of the social order,
where high tones correspond to high social standing and low tones to society's lower
strata.25 The shi of the Great Preface and the Minor Prefaces, on the other hand, completely
lacks such symbolic value, and is chiefly considered a medium of ritual communication
and a means to social change. Third, music (yue) is divisible into the lower substrata of
tones (yin) and sounds ( sheng), whereas the division of the Odes into the genres of
feng M), ya f and song , is based on no value judgment. Fourth, music is a pure
manifestation of power that can be directly applied on the people (min), whereas shi
has to rely on semantics (or, more accurately, rhetorics) to effectuate a change in
society. Fifth, the most immediate and palpable difference between the two texts is
: Modem Language Association of America, 1986).

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perhaps the sheer impossibility of grafting "Yueji"'s slogan "Music unites, the Rituals
separate" on to the Preface.26 In that system, shi would take the place of the Rituals, not
that of music, for it presupposes and maintains a rigorous distinction between addresser
and addressee. I suggest, therefore, that the musicological treatises mentioned above
can only be regarded as the background noise against which the "aufgehoben," new
discourse on poetry took place.
Let us turn now, at last, to the Preface itself. The contemporary consensus, as we
have seen, is that the Great Preface describes poetry (or shi) as an unconscious and
spontaneous expression of emotions set in motion by external stimuli. This reading
hinges on the first lines quoted above and the equation of "emotions" (qing) with
"intention" (zhi)-and thereby, shi which by definition is made up of zhi.27 One prominent
modem commentator, Stephen Owen, following a time-honored tradition that began
no later than with Kong Yingda (TAR 574-648), suggests that zhi is the "accumulation"
of qing.28 Let us therefore have a look at what the Preface says about spontaneity and
emotions. If the first line describes a causal-temporal chain that goes from the initial
intention (zhi) via words (- yan) to the end-product poetry (shi), the following paragraph
provides a parallel series consisting of emotions (qing), words (yan) and, the final
result, hand-flapping and feet-stamping. Furthermore, these bodily movements are
explicitly bu zhi 71t1, "unconscious" or "spontaneous."29 The Preface thus speaks of
spontaneity and of the immediate expression of feelings, but how is this description
related to shi, to poetry?
"Emotions" (which is the translation of qing that I will continue to use) are
discussed four times by the Preface. Toward the end the text says that "to start from
emotions is the nature of the people [ 'I' Z f]". Let us take this phrase as
the gateway leading to a radically new understanding of the text. While Li Zehou and
Liu Gangji claim that the sentence expresses the "humanism" of pre-Qin Confucian
"aesthetics" (in stark contrast to the Preface's own talk of "rites and righteousness"
which contradicts the early Confucian "democratic spirit"), Stephen Owen tries to
make it consistent with the poetics of emotions and spontaneity.30 Owen's translation
25"Yueji", SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1528: WhR, ..

26 SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1529: J WAMHI. ,,. ~ hXIMm . ,lCJR . "Music unites, the Rites separate.
Where there is unity there will be mutual affection. Where there is separation, there will be mutual respect."
27Liu, p. 75; Van Zoeren, 110; Yu, pp. 32-33.
28Cf. Kong Yingda's comment on the expression liu zhi -, in Zuozhuan, "Zhao" 25 (SSJZS, vol. II,
p. 2108): "This is what the Li ji [$M- Books of Rites] calls the "six qing" 'M. When within oneself, it is called
qing. When the qing is stirred it is called zhi. Qing and zhi are one and the same." However, the Great Preface
does not follow the "Yueji" in discoursing on the six qing. See also Zhu Ziqing's critique of Kong Yingda's
blurring between
out that Kong's qing and stems
(mis)reading zhi (Shi yanthe
from zhipoetics
bian ?of
#4,-F J,-Dynasties
the Six [Taiwan:(third
Kaiming, 1964],
to sixth pp. 39-40).
centuries A.C.) Zhu
and points
its slogan "shi yuan qing" ( M "poetry originates in emotions").
29 See Xunzi, "Jie bi" NfN& (Xunzi jijie, p. 395) where Xun Qing connects xin-zhi (M1 knowledge) -zhi (
2 aim). If something is buzhi, then, it cannot belong to the realm of the peaceful, intellectual and poetic
heart. See also Halls & Ames, p. 342 n. 37 where the authors describe the connotations of zhi as being "to
do," "to administer," "to determine." They also speak of the "active and creative dimensions" of zhi.

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of min zhi xing t' is "human nature./"31 Th

Min is not a neutral word simply denoting Ho
derogatory connotations. Already in the Confuci
passivity and plasticity.32 For sure, min can b
"base," but it can also refer, by way of extension
who is the exact opposite of the Confucian S
comes quite close to the concept of xiao ren 'JIX
Classics the min have one distinctive feature:
action. This undistinguished mass of non-i
never appear as agents. Furthermore, they ar
only the most basic needs, such as those of f
rain. When these necessities are not met, as
migrate to another state, led by their groan
Man who travels from state to state in desper
primitive way, the min do not lift their voic
communicate with their feet. From the perspect
inclined aristocrat, the min are barometers, w
pure and unadulterated signs of their ruler's
interpretation, very much like the "happy"
states described in the "Yueji." And, logica
discourse on min, some texts subtly (indirectly
idea that the min are to be regarded precisel
dumb strength can be consumed just like the fru
A few quotations from philosophical tex
about the usage of min in early texts. In the A
Those who are born with knowledge are the h

learning are next. Those who toil painfully to
painfully but can not learn are the min.35
Min is here a human raw material totally unsu

It is, however, important to note that the h
30 Li Zehou & Liu Gangji, p. 577.

31 Owen, p. 47.
32 See the excellent discussion of the concept min
Roger T. Ames, Thinking Through Confucius (New York
138-46.
33 Cf. Lun yu 12.19 where min and xiao ren seem to be interchangable. See D.C. Lau & Chen Fong
Ching eds., A Concordance to the "Lunyu" (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1995), p. 32.
34 Cf. Mao Heng's comment on ode 109, "Yuan you tao" 5/IfR , the first stanza of which goes: The
garden has a peach-tree / Its fruits, them [one takes as] meat. The Mao Commentary: "The garden has a peach-tree,
its fruits one eats. The state has the min, and uses its [physical] strength [ f ii]."
35 Lun yu, 16.9. Trans. modif. Bernard Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 88. For a slightly different translation of the same passage, see

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based on social position or on the distribution of money and power. Rather, he talks of
the different levels of an ethico-intellectual hierarchy, of people of all classes who
possess or lack knowledge and morals. Logically, then, even a king could be min, and
in spite of his noble origin be marred by un peu du plebe.
The character min, as observed by David L. Hall and Roger T. Ames, is also used
as a radical (the part of a Chinese character which usually indicates its meaning) in a
whole group of cognate characters sharing the basic meaning of "blindness and
confusion" and, indeed, the earliest appearance of the graph "min" in Zhou inscriptions
has been interpreted as an image of a eye that is blind because it lacks a pupil.36 A
remarkable passage in Dong Zhongshu's (I~fi c. 179-104 B.C.) Chunqiufanlu Vtk
Y elaborates on the conceptual origin of "min."
Thealready
are designation [hao should
good, why V] for"closed
the min is derived
eyes" be taken from "closed
as their eyes"[t, ming]. If the min
designation?37
That Dong, whose teachings on cosmological correspondences most probably were of

a later date than the Preface and who certainly was not a follower of the Xunzi, shared
this interpretation of min suggests that there must have been a consensus on the
connotations of the concept among the different philosophical schools in the second
century B.C.
However, for our present purposes, the Xunzi is perhaps the most relevant
philosophical work. This is so not only because its author, Xun Qing ( OP c. 335-238
B.C.), allegedly was the teacher of Mao Heng but, more importantly, because
reverberations of its praise of the Superior Man and its contention that man's natural
emotions are evil and must be brought under control by something which Xun Qing
calls the "man-made" (wei M) can be clearly perceived everywhere in the Mao School
texts. In the Xunzi, "min" refers to the lowest social stratum, a passive and plastic
entity.
The ruler is the sundial; [the min are his shadow]. If the form is upright, then the
shadow will be upright. The ruler is the bowl, the min the water. If the bowl is round,
the water will be round. If it is square, then the water will be square.The lord is the
wellspring of the min. If the wellspring is pure, then the outflow will be pure. If the
wellspring is muddy, then the outflow will be muddy.38
This is perhaps the clearest expression of Xunzi's theory on min. The ruler is variously
described as a sundial, a bowl, a wellspring. Correspondingly, the populace is the
Hall & Ames, p. 142.

36 Hall & Ames, pp. 140-41. Cf. Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm: Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities, 1972), pp. 125-26.
(Taipei: 37 Chunqiu
Shangwu, 1984),fanlu
p. 267. jinzhu jinyi OfA%'I7a-, annotated and translated by Lai Yen-yuen VA)H,
38 "Zheng ming" IE:, Xunzi jijie, p. 422, John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the

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sundial's shadow, the water in the bowl and, in

spring. In each of these similes the min have n
assume the shape of whatever influences or hold
the min constitute natural and non-arbitrary sig
spontaneously and without distortion mimic the
We can also find echoes of the Analects pass
"Li lun"-chapter r' comments on the differenc
gentleman:
The scholar and the Superior Man are those men who live within the confinements of
ritual principles. Those who live without are the min.39
Again, wealth and social position are not primarily what separate the superior from
the inferior man. According to this account, there is no innate difference between the
min and the junzi. Both are "men" (ren X), but the Superior Man is he who can
restrain and transform his raw nature by means of ritual principles (1i). Now, if the
junzi finds himself within the ritual territory, what characterizes the lesser man? The
Xunzi answers this question by mapping the uncultivated waste land that lies beyond
the Rites. The inner landscape of the inferior man is governed by the untamed and
terrifying
(qing R).40
forces of human nature (xing 'It), human desire (yu W,), and human emotions
What is despised about . . . the petty man is that he follows his nature [xing iI],
indulges his emotions [qing Mi], is content with unrestrained passion and an
overbearing manner, which results in grasping avarice, fighting, and theft.
Therefore it is plain that human nature is evil [e N] and that any good in
humans is man-made [wei ].41
Anything good in humans is man-made. It has often been noted that by defining wei as a
necessary refinement of man's given nature, Xun Qing used the concept in a new and
quite unconventional way. Before, wei was surrounded by negative connotations,
referring to an unnatural and man-made falsification of something natural, spontaneous
Complete Works (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), vol. III, p. 132.
39 "Li lun" 4f, Xunzi jijie, p. 358. Cf. also Mengzi, "Li ii xia" 1VT, SSJZS, vol. II, p. 2727: K2F/r~
lose,,ift:;
it, the@W-;$28 "That
Superior Man which
conserves it."distinguishes man from beast is minimal; the myriad min
40 That these three "forces" are closely connected is made quite clear by Xun Qing. Cf. Xunzi jijie
(Peking: Zhonghua, 1988), vol. II, p. 434 ("Xing e"): "Man's nature is evil. Whatever good therein is man-made";
p. 428 ("Zheng ming"): "The emotions are the essence (zhi j) of [human] nature. Desire is the natural
companion [ying f] of the emotions."
41 Xunzi jijie, p. 442. Knoblock, vol. III, p. 158. Cf. also Xunzi jijie, vol. II, p. 366 ("Li lun"): "Nature is
the unwrought material of the original. What is man-made is the accomplishment and refinement brought
about by culture (wen) and the Rituals (i). Without nature, there would be nothing that could be (wei:
man-made) manipulated. Without manipulation (wei), nature could not become beautiful of itself" (transl.
modif. H.H. Dubs, The Works of Hsiintze [London: Probsthain, 1928], p. 234).

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and pure.42 But with Xun Qing, what nature spontaneously and generously gives is no
longer considered good enough. Instead, entrance into the ritual realm of the Superior
Man presupposes a certain amount of "unnaturalness": education is fabrication. It is
very likely that this, rather than the time-honored discourse on music, is the philosophical
background that we should read the Preface against. Now, one ought to remember
that Xun Qing did not advocate a total eradication of human emotion, only that it be
brought into balance by the Rites. The Superior Man is he who can combine his
emotional nature with cool ritualism into a perfect harmony.43 The min, however, fails
miserably in this pursuit. In the Great Preface, the motto "To start from emotion yet
stop within Rites and Righteousness" (fa hu qing, zhi hu li yi ) is given as "To start
from emotion is the nature of the min: to stop within Rites and Righteousness is the grace
of the former kings." (. . . min zhi xing ye . . . gu wang zhi ze ye). From a Xunzian
perspective, this very clearly places min and emotions within a realm of evil and
crudeness. The min act spontaneously according to their given nature and their emotions
without man-made, cultured refinement.
Having established the contemporary connotations of min, we can now return to
the phrase that instigated this detour and revise our initial rendering of the concept,
as borrowed from Stephen Owen. Min zhi xing is more accurately translated as "the
nature of the populace [as contrasted to that of the Superior Man]." Min is thus not to
be rendered as "humans," or even as "people," but rather as "populace" or even
"plebs." That such a translation is preferable is made clear by the subsequent phrase,
which puts min in opposition to the "former kings," those paragons of virtue and
ritualism that in Confucian mythology were hailed as the inventors and instigators of
the Chinese civilization. In other words: the Preface introduces a dualistic polarization
of high and low.
The focus on min enables us to close in on the Preface from a slightly unusual
angle. Instead of the conservative and nostalgic quest for intertextual influences on
the text, we can now ask ourselves: What constitutes the relation between the populace
and shi? How and by what social class were the Odes made? And why is a poem
made? Is it really, as the conventional sinologist would have it, only an expression of
the poet's spontaneous sentiments about the external world? The answer to these
seemingly innocent questions will reveal the ideological presumptions (of a moral
42 The characters qing M' and wei fA are, in classical texts, fundamentally ambiguous. The basic
meaning of qing is "[actual or true] circumstance" which in the terminology of the Xunzi is extended to
mean "[man's actual nature, i.e. his] emotions." Wei's basic meaning is, as we know, "man-made," often
referring to something originally pure and natural that has been falsified by man. In the Xunzi, however,
this artificial alteration is wholly benevolent since man's original nature is considered evil. Much later, in
Wang Bi's (3E 226-249) exegesis of the Book of Changes (Yijing 99), the two concepts appear in a entirely
different conceptual context where the "innate tendency of things" (qing) is distinguished and put in sharp
opposition to "their countertendency to spuriousness" (wei). With Wang Bi, what is contra naturam, is
considered inferior. Cf. Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa, pp. 27, 215; A.C. Graham, Disputers of the Dao (La
Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1989), 244-51; Richard John Lynn, transl., The Classic of Changes (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1994), p. 39 n. 5.
43 Xunzi jijie ("Li lun"). p. 366: "When [human] nature and the man-made [Rituals] are brought
together the world is orderly."

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hierarchy) that permeate and structure the Pref

Our intertextual companions Confucius,
sustained our suspicion that the Preface's lin
and unrefined realm of the populace who "sta
But do "passivity," "plasticity" and "herdlike
min and its function in the Preface as a whole? A
and the passive plebs consistent throughou
affirmative. A passage at the beginning states
Emotions are manifested in ... tones ... the

peaceful and happy. . . those of a state in decl
populace [min] is troubled. Thus, when it comes
moral character], to move heaven and earth, to s
comes close to poetry. The ancient kings used i
husband and wife, to make perfect the respect
depth to human relations, to beautifully teach
change local customs.
According to the Preface, emotions go togeth

reflect the external world.44 In this context w
and emphatically distinguishes between the
known only by the Superior Man, and the lo
sophisticated level.45 Similarly, in the Preface
that it is active and can be used to change
kings") used it to exert their influence on
tones-simply reflect the external situation:
stark contrast to the popular world of spont
within a second realm that consists of activi
that the Preface places poetry and, therefore, al
If we then return to the famous second pa
."), we find that our intratextual reading of the
reconstruction of the text's philosophical b
sinological reading crumble under enormous
overwhelmed with feelings, a person who, in
emotions." He reacts spontaneously and uncon
44 Cf. Zhu, p. 21, "[By the time of the Preface] po

Preface] stresses meaning and downplays music."
45 "Yueji" , SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1528.

46Note, however, that Xun Qing ("Yue lun" MA, Xun
tones do influence man.
47 One of the most terrific passages in "Yueji" (SSJZS, vol. II, p. 152) describes how a man stirred by
the external world, and having no ritual immune system against such an emotional overflow, himself turns
into an object ()4\LA).

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without restraint until his body shakes and flaps. If we were to classify this description
according to the two categories-inferior and passive versus superior and active-that
split the Great Preface in half, it fits only the former. The "emotions" expressed never
reach "shi": they are manifested directly in the body.48 It is at this point, having read
the Preface in its entirety and grasped the linkage between min and emotions, that we
reach a critical juncture. Does the Preface describe shi as an activity that comprises both
popular, passive emotions and aristocratic, active intention (zhi)? Is the poet both a
sentimentalist and a rationalist?
Let us postpone this question for a moment and return to the discussion about
intertextuality. I argued above that our focus should be on the function of the intertextual
fragment in its new context. Differently put: we should concentrate on how an intertextual
fragment is transformed in the passage from one context to another. Now, the lines
about the unconscious expression of emotions are extracted from (or possibly repeated
by) the very last part of the "Yueji." In its original context it is part of a discussion
about the singing of the Odes.
The object of singing is for one to make himself right, and then to display his virtue.
When he has thus put himself in a position to act, Heaven and Earth respond to him,
the four seasons revolve in harmony with him, the stars and constellations observe
their proper laws, and all things are nourished and thrive [ ... ]
Hence, singing means the prolonged expression of words, there is the utterance of
the words, and when the simple utterance is not enough, the prolonged expression of
them. When this is not sufficient, then come the sigh and exclamation. When these
are insufficient, there come the motions of the hands and the stamping of the feet.49
Surprisingly, this is not at all a description of the creation of shi but of the musical
performance of poetry that already exists. The stress is on the musical aspect of the
Odes, and how musical performance puts the singer in harmony with the cosmological
forces. But the Great Preface and, as we soon shall see, the Minor Prefaces, are less
concerned with man's relation to the ineffable Cosmos, turning their attention instead
to the pragmatic and rational. When the "Yueji" passage is reiterated in the Preface, it
is placed within the conceptual realm of emotions and min (which is absent from the
"Yueji") and thereby given a totally different position and meaning as compared with
its original locus. From the wholly positive description of singing in the "Yueji," this
48 Kenneth DeWoskin suggests that the second paragraph describes how the shift from words to
bodily movements is accompanied by an increase in the faculty of expression. However, it might as well be
interpreted as an increase infrustration, as words gone wrong, missing their aim. See Kenneth DeWoskin, A
Song for One or Two (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, 1982), p. 20.
49 SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1545. Transl., modif., James Legge, Sacred Books of the East (Oxford: Clarendon
press, 1882-99), vol. XXVIII, Li Ki, "Yo ki" (Li ji, "Yueji"), pp. 129-31. In Kong Yingda's view, the "Yueji" and
the Preface are totally contingent, supporting and illuminating each other. In his comment to this passage
(SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1546), Kong alludes to the Preface and, like DeWoskin, claims that the movements of hands
and feet help (M zhu) the words gain expressive momentum.

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fragment has acquired negative connotations

the usage of shi as a means of ritualized comm
is no longer cosmology but semantics (or, rat
now saying: "Poetry is the prerogative of the
speaks of his aim (zhi), the world changes. But
their emotions, all they achieve is mere tones, wa
Preface thus breaks the ties with music and e
The fourth time the Preface discusses emot
the State Historians (guo shi KI) and the "b

or "perverted"feng.so Feng is defined as a sub
in the poetics of the Preface because it makes
inferior.
Superiors use feng to admonish those of inferior

to criticize their superiors. The speaker who em
zhu wen It-Z] and admonishes discreetly is gui
sufficiently warned.51
Obviously, the importance of thefeng-techniq

communicate without violating decorum. (It i
"those of inferior rank" does not refer to th
but to those of high and low positions within
provides valuable information about the funct
the simple, spontaneous expression of emotion
(wen) and takes as its subject the wellbeing o
urges of human nature. Poetry, therefore, be
made to bring about a change, it is made "in o
However, just after the Prefaces's solemn
the "perverted" feng. If the reading I have pr
expressed only disgust with human emotions
feelings that his body shakes and flaps uncon
to this rule is introduced:
When things got so bad that the kingly way perished, that rites and righteousness
5o Bian comprises all three nuances "changed," "mutated" or "perverted." Feng, together with Song
, andconcept,
This Ya 3, make
and itsup the threefor
significance sections into which
early Chinese poetics,the Bookwith
is dealt of Odes is divided.
by Jullien, Feng literally means "wind."
pp. 91-121.
51 Transl., modif., Saussy, p. 79.
52 Van Zoeren, pp. 112-15, presents an alternative reading of the Great Preface, based on a passage in
the Mencius, that modifies his earlier interpretation of the key concept zhi i and suggests an understanding
of the Preface that comes close to ours. And indeed, the same scholar elsewhere concludes that the Confucian
commentators of the Han saw shi as a means of effectuating change in society. See Steven Van Zoeren,
"Chinese Literature: Popular, Personal and Political" [videorecording] (Stanford: Stanford Alumni
Association, 1992).

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were neglected, that governmental tutelage was lost, that families differed in customs,
then the pervertedfeng and ya were made53
But under what circumstances and by whom were these "perverted" fengs made? The
Preface answers that the
historians of the state, who understood the traces of gains and losses [disturbing the
balance of the state] were hurt by the neglect of human ethics and disturbed by the
cruelty of governmental punishment. [Therefore, the historians] sang of emotions
and human nature [qing xing '~'Al] to influence their superiors. They were full of
longing for ancient customs because of the [recent] perverted state of things.
This passage has been a source of confusion ever since Kong Yingda's canonical-and
blinding-interpretation. Kong comments that "when despair accumulates inside [owing
to governmental disorder] one sings of one's own emotions and nature."54 Sinology
has in general agreed with Kong's reading and taken the Preface to refer to the state
historians' spontaneous reaction to a society in disarray.55 If the assumption is correct,
then the bian feng is "perverted" because it emerges from a world in disorder and
because the historians cannot help but reflect that chaos in a poetry that is irregular,
abnormal and perverse. Yet this theory presumes that the state historian, in his role as
poet, was simply a medium mirroring his immediate environment, helplessly moved
by his disgust of a world that had perverted the ancient Rites of Zhou. And this
means that our theory faces a major crisis, for traditional sinology actually transforms
the state historian, the reflective poet, into what we hitherto have assumed to be his
very opposite: the min. However, the sinological interpretation tallies badly with the
information supplied by the text itself. The state historians were men of intelligence
who could interpret society's changes, put them in historical perspective and, then,
express their opinion in verse. Such a poem is rather the outcome of meditation and
analysis than a spontaneous outburst of bodily movements. Furthermore, several of
the Minor Prefaces describe poems that were written during good and prosperous
times in order to warn this or that ruler of future dangers.56 Consequently, there is no
perfect correspondence between the contents of poetry and the time and place in
which it was written. Nor can the feng be considered perverted simply because it
includes an element of criticism, sincefeng was always used for conveying critique.
But what has been portrayed as an illogical self-contradiction is in fact the
53 For Ya, see note 48. For an extensive comment on the expression liyi, translated here conventionally
as "Rites and Righteousness," see Hall and Ames, pp. 89-110.
54 Kong, p. 272: E-7 ~t[*'W Z'NR.

55 E.g., Owen, p. 47; Van Zoeren, p. 96. Kong (SSJZS, vol. I, p. 272), however, introduced the
possibility that the historians were only the transmitters of the spontaneous poetry produced by the
men/people of the state (guoren), which was collected and then given to poets and blind musicians to be
recited.
56 E.g., odes 250, 251, 252 which, according to the Minor Prefaces, were written by Zhao Kang in order
to guide the young King Cheng when he was preparing to assume power. See Van Zoeren, p. 111.

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unfortunate consequence of a violent misreadin

says that the historians sang of "xing and qing
"nature," "passion" as well as "sexual nature"),
disciples-that the xing and qing thus sung of w
that the historians, stirred into poetic frenzy
realm of ritual communication, venturing into the
Let us therefore attempt an alternative interpr
know that poetry is supposed to express inten
intention with the bian feng: They "sang ... in
time of turmoil. Finally, we know that fen
communicate in an indirect, decorous manner.
feng is labelled "perverted" because of the rhe
state historians wanted to convey the message t
and that the moral rules inherited from the Zhou had been abandoned. But instead of
bluntly saying so, the historians took on the personae of ardent lovers and sang of unbridled
and extra-ritual passion in an artificially spontaneous way. The poets presented sinful
poems that appeared to have been taken directly from the sinners' mouths, words that
seemed to have been uttered spontaneously and that were used by the poets as indirect
critique of the regime, saying: "My Lord. You have formed the populace in your own
image. Look at these sinners and you will see yourself. Repent and revert to the Way
of Zhou." A pervertedfeng, then, is a poem that seems to be perverted but that, in fact,
stops within the ethical area staked out by the Rites (li), since it contains not spontaneous
but simulated passion. At the same time, it is a poem where the poet's intention is
invisible, illegible in the text itself and must be explained from the outside, lest the
reader take a bian feng as an actual love poem. And it is precisely from this necessity
that the puzzling passage on perverted poetry emerges.59
Consequently, we should understand the last words of the paragraph as an
explanation of the illusory phenomenon of an immoral poem that, in fact, speaks the
language of Confucian morality.
Therefore, the perverted feng originates in emotions [but] stops within the boundaries
of Rites and Righteousness. To proceed from emotions is the nature of the populace,
to keep within Rites and Righteousness is the grace of the former kings.
Thus concludes our reading of the Great Preface. We have dissected its corpus and
57 I would suggest that in these lines we can, again, discern an intertextual echo from Xunzi: he is a
petty man who "wantonly follows his human nature and his emotions [xing qing 'r?'t]" (Xunzi jijie, "Ru
xiao," p. 144).
58 For a fine demonstration of this theory, see Saussy pp. 94-95. Note also Saussy's insightful comment
(ibid.) on the hermeneutic consequences of this paragraph: "[it] seems to break away from the principles
laid down in the first part of the Great Preface."
59 As Owen remarks (pp. 47-8), this theory enabled the Confucian exegetes to explain the "immoral"
love poems included in the Book of Odes as allegories told by a moralist hiding behind a wolf's mask.

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presented the various parts in a most unnatural order. Let us, therefore, summarize,
in plain words, our interpretation of the Preface and then proceed to the Minor Prefaces
in order to substantiate our theory.
In our analysis, the Preface is a coherent text that breaks with the musicological
tradition and its cosmology.60 It is a text that establishes three dichotomies: intention
(zhi) vs. emotion (qing); poet vs. populace; and poetry vs. tones.61 All along, the Preface
favors the first term of each pair and puts the three concepts of "intention," "poet"
and "poetry" together in a conceptual realm characterized by activity, ritualism and
aristocracy. On the other side of the fence stands the populace, uncouth and passive
slaves to their emotions and the influence of all worldly phenomena. Moreover, by
appropriating the "Yueji" passage that describes how a singer of the Odes waves his
hands about and stamps his feet, and by connecting it to the lowly realm of the
populace, the Preface assumes an aristocratic posture. This paragraph, decontextualized
and displaced, now warns about emotions and spontaneity. The Preface despises them
and despises the hand-waving popular man that lacks the Confucian varnish of culture.
At the same time, by closing in onfeng as an instrument for communication rather
than as a mouthpiece for raw feelings, the Preface defines the poet as a rationalist, not
a sentimentalist.
This is, in the literal sense of the word, an exceptional reading. It eradicates the
sinological fantasy about shi as a spontaneous fusion of song, music and dance and
replaces it with an account of Confucian power structure. It is quite clear that the
Preface maintains and reflects the Xunzian, aristocratic contempt and fear for the popular
man's feelings and uninhibited behavior. Indeed, any reading that blurs the
populace/aristocracy dualism ends up an anomaly, describing poetry (the educated
man's privileged means of communication) as a soulless reflection of external matters
that "proceeds from feelings" (which is "the nature of the populace"). Shi belongs to
the Xunzian ritual realm of wei, the man-made. It is an artifact, not unlike the "fabricated"
Occidental poem.
The Minor Prefaces
60 Cf. Mao Heng's early Han dynasty comment (SSJZS, vol. I, p. 345) on "Zi jin" (fl4 ode 91) that
anciently (guzhe -A) one sang, danced, recited and plucked the string instruments in the usage of the Odes
as didactic instruction.
61 R6llicke, in his long and seminal sequel to Zhu Ziqing's work, speaks (p. 147) of the "two
legs"-namely, qing and zhi-that the corpus and philosophy of the Great Preface rest on. In contradistinction
to our synthesizing reading, however, this image depicts the Preface as wavering between the two concepts,
on the one hand describing poetry as an expression of "intent" and, on the other hand, as linked to human
emotions.

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Consulting the Minor Prefaces for evide

interpretation of the Great Preface, we should e
First, what is the relation between shi and th
the suggestion so clearly expressed in the Gr
made by the upper classes and directed towa
does the concept "shi" relate to the Western n
in contradistinction to their intertextual twin
beyond the poet's control? Is it the outcome
independently of his intellect, or is it compa
by the Great Preface? Third, what is the rel
("intention") and qing ("emotion")? Are they
density and intensity? If so, is zhi, as an "accu
inside the bard and coerces him to give voice to
First, even the most casual survey will soon
a poem written by the populace (min).62 Just
passive reflectors and not as actors. Corre
governance and is about the populace or, as in
at the min. At this point, the sinologist will say
have been written by the common people, th
Whenever a poem is not written by this or that n
said to have been "men of the state" (N)\ gu
"min." The two concepts are, as we shall see,
connotes urbanity, originally referring to th
the civilized city from the surrounding barba
human being") lacks the derogatory connotati
have expressed admiration for Pauline Yu's o
to "contextualize," i.e. they link each ode to a
unique and non-repeatable (perhaps as a react
the Odes out of context in the Warring States
said to emerge from a certain individual in a
was made spontaneously or unconsciously,
impossible to keep at bay. On the contrary,
made in order to bring about a change in the
precisely at this moment that our attention is
Prefaces refer to the creation of poetry: zuo f,?.6
62 See, however, the uniquely anomalous Preface t
seems to
renmin) suggest
felt that
for their the poem
families duringexpresses the
hard times. "conc
63 Karlgren, Grammata, p. 244. On the relationshi

Zhoudai guoye guanxi yanjiu A9-ftfJMf j iff-5 (Taipei:
127-200) definition of guo as "that within the city-wall" a
64 For a discussion about the meaning of zuo that

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It is tempting to adopt, without further ado, the conventional definition of this

character as "make" or "do," and hastily conclude that a shi is thus consciously "made."65
However, because of its crucial position in our argument, we must seek a more profound
understanding of what "zuo" means by looking into the rather complex evolution
from its alleged origin in the oracle bones "texts." Xu Shen's (F'i c 55-149) Shuowen
jiezi ARZX defines zuo as qi E which, in its turn, is defined as neng li i A, "being
able to rise" or, perhaps, "able to lift.'66 One should remember, of course, that the
Shuowen is not a dictionary of the language spoken in the Han Dynasty by Xu Shen or
the author of the Prefaces, but an idealized lexicon dedicated to the ancient, canonical
texts.67 According to several distinguished specialists, a prototype of zuo appears as
(modern pronunciation: "zha") in the inscriptions found on Shang Dynasty oracle
bones and on Zhou bronzes, and this graph has been understood as "make" or, more
specifically, "build" or "cast.'"68 While accepting these renderings, I would like to
devote some space to a hypothesis about the connotations of zha (and thereby zuo)
and the context in which it was first used.
In his extensive studies of pre-Qin characters and their meaning in different texts,
Bernhard Karlgren follows Xu Shen's entry on zuo but adds several other definitions,
among them "start."69 And it is this semantic movement that we should consider, the
progress from the physical "lifting" (of oneself or an object) to the extended and more
abstract sense of "to start" (derived, perhaps, from the idea of initiating work by lifting
a tool).70 When the oracle bone texts speak of ff "making/building" a city, ff
Michael Puett, "Nature and Artifice: Debates in Late Warring States China concerning the Creation of
Culture," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 57: no. two (Dec. 1997), pp. 471-518. The author holds that
Xu Shen's definition of zuo as "to raise" did not represent the "basic meaning" of the word (which, Puett
says, was "to create"). Rather, Xu's comment should be seen as an attempt to downplay the notion of an
active creation ex nihilo in favor of the sage's inspired discovery of nature's patterns. Puett's commendable
work, which does not take into consideration the oracle bone texts, reached the present author long after
this paper had been finished and revised, and has not influenced its argument.
65 Karlgren, Grammata, p. 213, gives the following definitions: "act," "do," "make," "work," "be in
function," "active," "perform," "to sacrifice," "compose," "to be," "rise," "stand up," "agitate," "clear
away."
66 Ding Fubao (T--M~i 1874-1952), ed., Shuowen jiezi gulin -1z (Peking: Zhonghua, 1988),
vol. IX, p. 3550; Duan Yucai (~Tli 1735-1815), ed., Shuowen jiezizhu ;A fr- (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe,
1981), pp. 374 and 65. Note that Duan holds that I' funtions as a phoneticum (i.e. the non-semantic part of a
character which merely indicates its pronunciation), whereas Ding claims that the two components which
make up zuo fI are semantically of equal importance.
67 For instance, Xu defines neng l-"be able to" in Han dynasty Chinese-as xiong f, "bear"
(Duan, p. 479).
68 Karlgren, Grammata, p. 212, somewhat carelessly equates zha with zuo and, thus, with all 14
definitions of that character. Edward L. Shaughnessey, Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze
Vessels (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), p. 48, translates zuo as "make." David N. Keightley,
Sources of Shang History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 179, 66 n 44, identifies a graph
cognate with zha as "to build."
69 Glosses on the Ta Ya and Sung Odes (Rpt. Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964), p.
96 (no. 937). Cf. also Shirakawa Shizuka nJlll (1910- ), Jito , p. 344.
70 Note the literal, metaphorical and conceptual similarity between zuo and xing Al, which is used in
the Mao Commentary to signify a word or a phrase whose contextual (metaphorical, metonymical) meaning

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"building" a qin-edifice or f 0 "building" a cit

of structures, which makes it quite possible
understand these sentences as referring to t
city-wall from the bare ground by lifting sto
with the oracle bones, zuo refers to the buil
odes.71 The distinction between "raising" and
little more than irrelevant hair-splitting. Yet
between the secular "making" of an ordinary
edifice in harmony with the cosmos. And alt
used irresponsibly to explain the most dispara
little doubt that the Shang diviner who consu
best time and place to build a city or an edif
matched a greater, extra-humane order. As P
The Pivot of the Four Quarters (1971), the Shang
emulation of Heaven (), tian).72 Somewhat

referred specifically to the casting of bronze
and an act of immense ritual importance amo
inscribed to commemorate an important even
were commonly used as sacrificial utensils
future descendants.73 It thus appears that zha
(building and casting) in a cosmologico-ritual
We will pause here and contemplate the usag
of the previous discussion. Drawing an analog
is "zuo-ed," as the Prefaces claim, this must m
from pre-existing raw material with a purpose
the skills of a craftsman. Similarly, when de
refers not to an impulsive or unconscious
law-bound act of creation, confined by strict
certain manner. Moreover, this object obvious
the dead and not-yet-born, speaking to the pa
word (zuo/zha) is used to describe the creatio
way that can only refute the delusion of a Chi
On the other hand, the analogy drawn with
problem for our interpretation of early Han
another angle, an antagonist could claim t
Shang city in that it is a simulacrum of Cosm
differs from its conventional one.
71 Cf. odes 181:2, 193:6, 241:3, 244:3. Karlgren, Grammata, p. 213. The character zuo in the Odes may
very well have been written, originally, as zha, and then changed to its present form during a time of
standardization of the Chinese script.
72 Paul Wheatley, The Pivot of the Four Quarters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origins and Character of
the Ancient Chinese City (Chicago: Aldine, 1971), Chapter 5.
73 For a commendable introduction to bronze inscription studies, see Shaughnessey.

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poet does not create a poetic order, but passively reproduces the universal Cosmic
pattern.74 Yet another problem (this time of a semantic kind) is that, if zuo exclusively
means "raise," then the Minor Prefaces' talk of zuo shi fFM could be interpreted as
referring to the performance, or the reproduction, of a pre-established corpus of poetry,
to what is calledfu shi PR, in the Zuo Commentary.
The solution to both dilemmas lies in finding a usage of zuo that refers to a
secular "making" in our modern sense of the word. Starting with the Odes themselves
we find that zuo is used in a variety of ways. As hinted above, zuo refers to the
erecting of temples7', walls76 and cities77 and these acts of creation are lauded as the
initiation of culture by the founding fathers of the Zhou. Zuo is thus used in connection
with creation on a very grand scale. Indeed, "Huang yi" ( ode 241) refers to a
divine act of creation: "Di ["God" or the Supreme Ancestor] made a state and a
counterpart [of himself]" f FI778, and in "Tian zuo" ( f ode 270) Heaven itself is
said to have "made high mountains / [and] the Great king treated them magnificently"
If ' the
how WFIL _ at-5-79
nobles Somewhat
the Zhou differently,
court "perform "Wen
libations" (f? wang"
zuo guan) (iE ode
and "Min lao" (235) describes
NW ode 253) exhorts its addressee to exert his influence and "make the reckless
careful" -W /5. In the last two examples, zuo no longer denotes the creation of
actual objects but, in a more abstract sense, ritual and moral action.
There are, however, examples of a fundamentally different usage of zuo in the
Odes. The most important case is the highly parallelistic "Zi yi" (PTi ode 75), whose
narratrix three times repeats that she will "make" a new "black robe" (zi yi) when the
old one is worn out. The three synonymous words, which in the three stanzas denote
the manufacturing of the black garment, are wei ;A, zao i and zuo M-. While wei is
somewhat ambiguous, meaning "to be" as well as "make" or "do," and zao has the
original meaning of "go to,"80 in this context the three words unquestionably refer to
the everyday, non-cosmological and quite non-ritual crafting of an object. And with
this piece of evidence, the suspicion we had that zuo (in the sense of "lift" rather than
"make") might refer to the recital-and not the creation-of poetry becomes much
less warranted. However, should we like to take our hermeneutics of suspicion to an
extreme and scrutinize the handful of odes where the verb zuo takes shi ("poem"), ge (
a "song") or song (-M "'recital" or "song") as its object we will find that they too tend
to favor the reading "create" rather than "perform." As a representative example, let
us consider "Song gao" ( ra ode 259), which is a eulogy in eight stanzas to the prince
of Shen FPM. The poem ends thus:
See footnote 7 above.
75 E.g., odes 299:5 and 237:5.

76 Ode 181:2.
77Odes 193:6, 241:3, 244:2/3.

78 Transl. modif. Karlgren, Odes, p. 194.
79 Cf. the Mao Commentary, SSJZS, vol. I, p. 585.
80 Karlgren, Grammata, pp. 372-73.

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Ji Fu zuo the song [J song]. Its lyrics [ shi] ar

fine. It is presented to the prince of Shen.81
If zuo denotes the performance of a poem alr

name of the person who quotes the "Song ga
If Ji Fu is the noble man who made the poem
(but not impossible) that he should sing of
creation. If, on the other hand, we assume th
called Ji Fu82 we must presume that these fo
by Ji Fu himself. Now, since everyone of th
contains eight four-character lines, this theo
make the "Song gao" made only four lines o
lines for the performer to fill in. I would cla
Much more acceptable is the Mao Commentar
made (zuo) the "Song gao," gave it to the
performed to the prince of Shen as a tribute.83W
"Song gao" (and most likely in the other ode
means "make."
Approaching the end of this lengthy diversion, we shall look at what is perha
the most classic occurrence of zuo, namely the passage of the Analects that has Confucius
(551-479 B.C.) saying: "[I] relate but do not zuo" i*LjTJTF.84 Even here, zuo can be
translated as "start": "I relate but do not start [a new school of learning]." Yet, by
putting shu (the conservative transmission of traditional wisdom) in opposition to z
(the initiation of a new-improved or mutated-mode of thinking), Confucius implici
defines zuo as "to create": to zuo is the very antithesis of reverent repetition of a
paradisiacal past.
During the Warring States period, Confucius' saying apparently became
frequently reiterated motto of the Confucian School ({fM ru jia), for it is criticized
the earliest stratum of the Mozi ( -, c. fifth century B.C.):
[The Confucians say:] A Superior Man follows [tradition] and does not create [zuo].
[I] reply: In ancient times Yi [zuo "made"=] created the bow; Shu created the shield;
Xi Zhong created the carriage; Xiao Chui created the boat. Now if the Confucians are
81 Transl. modif., Karlgren, Odes, p. 228.

82 The orthodox tradition, represented here by Zheng Xuan, identifies Ji Fu as a high official of
Zhou. See. SSJZS, vol. I, p. 565.
83 SSJZS, vol. I, pp. 567-68: "Making this song sung by the music master" f'?I m it2. In t
context, zuo can hardly mean anything but "make." Cf. also Kong Yingda's comment (ibid.). The
Commentary defines zuo on several occasions. In its comment on "Wu yi" (.,? ? ode 133, SSJZS, vol. I,
374), zuo is defined as qi E, "rise" or "start"; on "Jiong" [!~J ode 297, SSJZS, p. 610) as shi 4n' "begin" an
commenting upon "Tian zuo" (Tf' ode 270, SSJZS, p. 585), Mao defines the meaning of zuo in the line
zuo gao shan -f fj as "give birth to" (J sheng). We should remember, however, that the words tre
by Mao were those he considered obscure and deviating from normal usage.
84 Lun yu, 7:1; Chen and Lau, p. 14.

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right, then all of today's armorers and wheelwrights are Superior Men, and all four
inventors were petty men [xiao ren].85
Mozi very effectively points out the Confucian paradox: if a Superior Man does not
create, then the so-called sages of antiquity-initiators of civilization and culture-were,
by definition, not Superior Men. However, what interests us here is not the dispute
between the ritualistic Confucians and the utilitarian Mohists, but the fact that zuo
refers to a creation ex nihilo where something hitherto unexperienced is brought into
existence by means of human and mundane creativity.
Lastly, by way of a Preface selected at random, I will show that the verb zuo can
only describe the making of a new poem. The Minor Preface to "Xin tai" (V4 "The
New Tower, ode 43) says that the poem
Criticizes duke Xuan of Wei. He pursued [his deceased son] Ji's wife. He built the
New Tower on the bank of the Yellow River and lusted for her. The Men of the State
hated it and zuo-ed this poem.86
The first stanza, describing the phallic tower and the matrimonial mismatch, goes as
follows:
Bright and clear, the New Tower

Abundant, abundant, the water of the Yellow River
A peaceful and smooth husband she sought
A freak [she found]. No good!87
The Minor Prefaces, whose perspective we are assuming in this article, contend that
this rather burlesque song is in fact a critique of the nefarious (and, apparently, ugly)
duke Xuan wooing his dead son's wife. But what strikes the reader is how perfectly
the poem fits the situation described by the Preface. All is there: the New Tower, the
young bride and her dashed hopes of a young and handsome lover. In fact, it is
wholly inconceivable that this poem could have existed in advance, waiting for such a
specific setting to occur so that the Men of the State could recite it. Therefore, in the
Minor Prefaces, zuo can only refer to the premeditated manufacturing of poetry.
Furthermore, it is significant that not one single poem is said to express its
author's emotions (qing). The only time that the character qing appears in the Odes it
has the meaning of "amorous/immoral feelings.'"88 It appears twice in the Minor Prefaces,
and at least in one instance the meaning is perfectly clear. The Preface to "Xi you chang
chu" ( , -., P ode 148) says that
Graham,8s Wu Yujiang
Disputers A-1UIl,
of the Dao (La Salle,ed.,
Ill.: Mozi jiaozhu
Open Court, --tp. i39.(Peking:
1989), Zhonghua, 1993), vol. I, p. 437. Cf. Angus
86 SSJZS, vol. I, p. 311.
87 Ibid..
88 Ode 136, following Karlgren and Zheng Xuan, SSJZS, vol. I, p. 376.

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The men of the state hated their lord's promi

lacked [qingyu wFt3] passion and desire.
The negative connotations ascribed to qing (e

stand in harmony with the Xunzian doctrine
of the Great Preface and defines the petty m
emotional nature.
As for zhi ("intention"), an off-hand reconstruction of Zhou dynasty poetic practice

will help us understand its function in the Minor Prefaces. Suppose you are a man of
education, position and noble character, and that you are upset by your king's unkingly
behavior and the havoc his influence causes in the state. You decide to remonstrate by
means of a poem that is sufficiently oblique not to violate decorum (i.e. openly insult
the king) or place you in a dangerous situation. At this point you are in possession of
two things: the subject-matter of your poem-to-be and the intention to change the
present situation. This is what the two Prefaces call zhi. This subject-matter and this
aim, moreover,
"pattern," exist
"culture") byprior to it
putting the literary
into words text; you
of such need to refinement
rhetorical formulate that
it, give
the it wen (C,
poem may ultimately border on sheer incomprehensibility. The work of expressing
this intention is, precisely, a work and not a spontaneous, automatic process. It is by no
means "unconscious" (bu zhi).
As an exemplification of this reconstruction, let us have a look at the Minor
Preface to ode 155, the "Chi xiao" 4,M. The allegorical reading of this poem is rather
complex and there seem to have been at least two contradictory interpretations in the
early Han. The full historical background is given in the "Jin Teng" ,J, chapter of
the Shang shu.89 Very briefly, these are the conditions under which the poem was
written. The duke of Zhou, who is celebrated as a paragon of virtue in the Confucian
exegesis of the Odes, had been slandered by his two brothers who had told the young
King Cheng, their nephew, that the duke was plotting against him. However, the
duke's only intention had been to save the royal house of Zhou, and to make sure that
the throne was not usurped by either of his two evil brothers. The duke, consequently,
was mortified by the allegation that he might want to hurt the throne's true successor.
At this juncture, something had to be done to inform the king about the truth of the
matter. The Minor Preface explains the "Chi xiao" by saying that its subject is "The
duke of Zhou saving the state from disorder." "Yet," the Preface continues, "King
Cheng still did not know the duke's zhi [i.e. his aim or intention]. The duke therefore
made this poem and sent it to the king. He called it 'Chi xiao'."
In the poem, the duke sets forth his zhi in a highly rhetorical piece, in which he
assumes the voice of a small bird under attack by a malevolent owl, struggling
desperately to save his nest.
Owl, owl
89 Cf. Karlgren, The Book of Documents (Rpt. Stockholm: The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities,
1950).

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You have already taken two sons

[but] you will not destroy my house
The aggressive "owl," in the allegorical reading of this poem, refers of course to the
enemies of the royal house. But what is important in this context is not the niceties of
the Confucian interpretation of the "Chi xiao," but the manner in which the poet
expresses his zhi. What immediately strikes us is the duke's rhetorical ingenuity. He
takes on the character of a bird and thus speaks from behind a mask and in a borrowed
voice. Second, it is obvious that the Minor Prefaces here contradict the definition of zhi
as accumulated qing ("affections" or, "emotions") that haunt the poet until he exorcises
them by involuntary expressing his zhi in a poem. The duke's zhi is completely
independent of the poem. No dramatic, psychological activity forces the poet to write,
automatically and unconsciously, the "Chi xiao." The Preface explicitly says that the
duke has a "zhi" - an intention, an ambition, a will, a plan - and that it is because the
king is ignorant of this "zhi" that the duke writes the poem. It is not a poem written
on the spur of a daring moment, but a piece that presupposes artistic control, the use
of a persona and thus a distance between poet and poem. And behind the Preface's
explanation of the poem's origins lies a theory of artistic creation far more sophisticated
than (and fundamentally irreconcilable with) the notion of an emotional surge that
makes the bard's hands flap and his feet stamp.
If the "Chi xiao" perfectly illustrates how "intention" relates to poetic creation,
other Prefaces help support the hypothesis that "zhi" refers to a goal that requires
careful planning to be completed. "Yun han" ( ode 258) is one poem in a group of
eleven which the Minor Prefaces claim criticize the wicked King Li, under whose rule
the state of Zhou degenerated, and celebrate his son, King Xuan, who restored the
Zhou to its former glory and harmony.90 The Preface to "Yun han" says that the poem
was made by the high official (?k daifu) Reng Shu in praise of King Xuan.91 It
continues:
King Xuan inherited the remnants of King Li's state. Within [his mind] he had the zhi
["intention"] of ending the chaos [in the state]... The Hundred Clans saw his efforts92
and made this poem.93
In order to understand better the significance of the passage, let us, once again, compar
zhi ("intention") with qing ("emotion"). In the Great Preface, qing denoted an arous
feelings that ultimately led to hand-shaking and feet-stamping, and it was said
belong to the lower-class world of the populace. Moreover, in the Minor Preface t
you chang chu" (ode 148), qing was used in a compound word (qingyu) denot
90 Cf. the Minor Prefaces to odes 253-263.
91 SSJZS, vol. I, p. 561.

92 Or "mourning" you.
93 Ibid. Bai xing (-O "the hundred clans") is defined by the Mao Commentary as "The clans
families of the Hundred Offices" (-EfT f SSJZS, vol. I, p.412).

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carnal lust. By contrast, in "Yun han" zhi ref

bringing order to his country. Zhi is thus a
moment awaiting completion in the futur
comparison, in the semiotic system that we ca
rather an immediate, ignoble and momentar
arousal and pleasure.
Similarly, the Minor Preface to "Juan er" (

tells of the "queen-consort's intention [zhi]"
zhi of filling the court with wise ministers."
refers to a concern with good government a
tian" (li-E ode 102), the Preface says that it
criticizes duke Huan. He sought big profit witho

He sought [to gather] the nobles [under his com
His zhi ["intention," "aim"] was big and his m
sought [profits] were improper.
This slightly anomalous Preface (which descr

Confucian decorum), read together with the poem
of an investment that must be properly look
first stanza goes:
Don't till the big field;

there will only grow weed
Don't think of those far away;
your heart will only be anxious and worried
To the naive and untrained eye this may see

by a woman thinking of her absent husba
Confucian interpreter hears an allegorical vo
voice subtly criticizing the immodest duke H
you can chew. Too big a field cannot be pr
therefore never give a good harvest. Too grea
Rites and Righteousness, will in the end brin
is an accumulation of things small." The meta
sowing and the care taken of the political
determines what you will reap tomorrow. Li
pursuit of political success. Start by cultivat
large and the world will eventually be at you
consisting of speculations on cause and eff
proper means to a proper end.
94 Cf. the Minor Preface to "Ge tan" (VIE ode 2), accord
"intention" to perform "women's work" so perfectly th
"transform the world."

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Much in the same manner, the Preface to "Heng men" (~r3 ode 138) explains the
poem as "a guidance of duke Xi," describing the duke as "willing but lacking an
established zhi."95 The poem is thus conceived of as a guide to ideal statesmanship,
made for the instruction of an inexperienced ruler. And, indeed, the very phrase
"established [or 'well-founded' or 'erect'] zhi" A~It suggests that "intention" is not
given naturally or spontaneously, but is a trait that must be balanced, well maintained
and constitute a means to an end. Lastly, the Preface explains "Kai feng" (Njf ode 32)
as a celebration of seven filial sons who, despite troublesome times, take good care of
their mother and so "bring their zhi to perfection." More so than elsewhere in the
Minor Prefaces, the linkage between zhi and the Confucian Rites, in the guise of "filial
piety" (xiao t), is here quite clear. The Confucian "intention" is an ideal that can (and
should) be brought to completion through ritual action.
Finally, we must elaborate on what we said above concerning the crucial difference
between the "men of the state" (guoren) and the populace (min). If the two concepts
guoren and min had been used interchangeably, i.e. if the "men of the state" had been
simultaneously identified as the (creative) authors of a poem and been identical to the
passive and emotional plebs, then our theory would have disintegrated. However, the
distinction between the two groups is never blurred. For instance, the Minor Preface to
"Zai qu" (RAN ode 105) says:
[This is a poem in which] the men of Qi criticize the Duke of Huan. [The duke]
completely lacked [the sense of] rites and righteousness. Extravagant were his carriages
and clothes. In high speed he drove his carriage in the public streets of the capital. He
engaged in licentious behavior with Wen Jiang. [His] evil spread to the myriads of
the populace.
Here the "populace" and the composers of poetry stand in complete opposition. There
is a world of difference between the righteous "Men of Qi" who, disgusted with the
immoral conduct of duke Huan, express their resentment in a poem and the wild
populace who cannot but automatically copy the duke's behavior.
Another candid example of the conceptual relationship between "the men of the
state" and the min is the Minor Preface to the "Ju xia" (-$ ode 218 ):
[This is a poem in which] high officers criticize King You [of the state of Zhou].
[You's queen] Bao Si was jealous and envious. She had risen to a high position
without knowing the Way. Slander and intrigues were ruining the state and no
virtue or grace was bestowed on the populace. The men of Zhou considered getting a
virtuous and able girl to be the lord's mate. Therefore, they made this ode.
Two conclusions can be drawn with regard to this Preface. First, it is quite clear that
the authors - the "men of Zhou" - did not belong to the populace, they were explicitly
"high officers." The notions of "populace" and "men of the state" are hereby put in
95 Cf. "Bei men" (ILrE ode 40), which the Minor Preface describes as a lament made by an unemployed
scholar whose former master misunderstood his intention (zhi).

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diametrical opposition. As always, the high of

action ("bestowing virtue and grace") wher
this action is directed. Second, "Ju xia" is
situation but with a special purpose, namely t
by way of allegory, that he should get a vir
unmeditated response to a political situation
situation. It is a poem written by men who kn
the ritualized mode of discourse named shi and who would never have resorted to the
shouting and hand waving of the popular man.

As our discussion draws to a close let us recall the old proverb that connects the
sun and the Orient, the law and the West into two mutually exclusive domains (ex
oriente lux, ex occidente lex). Have we not, in the strange asymmetry of this saying, a
striking manifestation of the thought pattern that also determines the sinological
construction of Han poetics? The sun (immediate, warm and sensuous) that nature
gives is here put in diametric opposition to the man-made law (abstracted from past
experiences to be used in the future, civilized and rigid). Conversely, the adage makes
us construe the Orient as lawless, lacking the notion of cause-and-effect so typical of
the coolly rational Occidental spirit. Thus transposed into the present context, the
ancient notion of the sun's quotidian journey from East to West, from dawn till dusk,
symbolizes the alleged immediacy, concretion and youthfulness of the Orient and its
absolute antithesis: the abstraction and the thoughtfulness of das Abendland. It is against
this background that we have sought the truth of Han dynasty poetry and poetics.
And reading the Great Preface through the Minor Prefaces brings us closer to that truth,
for it requires that we accept the Han dynasty notion of "shi": an aristocratic, oblique
and highly metaphorical idiom, a practice of communication where the poet's
personality is always subjected to a concern with proper governance and the perfection
of the Confucian Rites. At the same time, it makes us rethink and, subsequently,
abandon the assumption (commonly accepted as correct and truthful) that the Great
Preface holds that poetry is an "unmediated and spontaneous" expression of human
emotions.
Perhaps the origin of sinology's wry interpretation of the Preface lies in the
between the poems themselves and the meaning they acquire from the Conf
exegete. Maybe, in a century in which scholars of ancient China have tried to disassocia
themselves from the "absurdness" of Confucio-ideological exegesis and have trie
brush off the thick film of allegorical meaning that conceals the simple, vital a
straight-forward poem that rests thereunder - maybe these scholars have seized u
the passage of the Great Preface describing the gradual development from emotion
feet-stamping in the hope of having found a vestige from pre-Confucian times w
shi truly was a mouthpiece for spontaneous emotion.
It has been our ambition to prove the conventional reading of the Preface wr
As students of early Han dynasty hermeneutics we must recognize that t
interpretational model advocated by both Prefaces is rather the inverted version of
used by the modern sinologist: a Confucian reader should distrust the text's sur

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and realize that its banal descriptions of passion, menial labor and everyday worries
must be allegorized to reveal their hidden significance. As we remember, "Juan er"
(ode 3) was said to describe a queen-consort's intention (zhi) to fill the royal court with
wise men. In the first stanza, a worried voice is raised:
Picking and picking the curly-ear plant

But still can't fill a slanted basket
Is this not a vox populi expressing the everyday concern of the lowly populace, as a
casual reading would suggest? Is the anonymous narratrix not merely voicing her
own, private emotions (qing), or could we perhaps find a nobler meaning in those
simple words, a concern with statesmanship, a zhi? The first stanza continues (and
ends) with two lines whose radical ambiguity stages the conflict between populace
and aristocrat, between qing and zhi, between literal speech and metaphor. First the
plebeian version:
Oh! The man of my heart!

I put that [basket] down on the road to Zhou.96
At this stage, the poem is a plain love song uttered by a lowly woman engrossed in
menial labor, her husband being far away. She is picking and yearning, yearning and
picking. No mask hides the face of this loving, mourning woman: her words
communicate directly, without detours, her emotions (qing). From the opposite
perspective, these words have no meaning beyond their conventional signata. No
metaphoricity, no symbolism, no metonymies are at work. But to the Confucian
ideologue this is an utterly worthless, and even dangerous, poem. It is represents
everything he despises: the populace, emotions, manual labor. Yet, it is part of the
Confucian Canon, a fact that makes the hermeneuticist look for the allegorical, "deep"
meaning that must lie hidden under the text's surface. Hence the aristocratic version of
the very same lines:
Oh! The men I long for!

They established those [royal] ranks of Zhou.
And all of a sudden, everything is different. The speaker is no longer a love-sick

woman toiling in the fields, but a queen-consort using the oblique language of shi.
Rhetoric, in the form of a far-fetched simile, is brought into play. A slanted basket, the
Confucian commentaries say, is easy enough to fill and the curly-ear is a plant easy to
pick. But if one does not focus on one's task, the basket will remain empty. Similarly, a
ruler not fully bent upon ruling is unable fully to realize the Way.97 Therefore, the
royal narratrix with the intent (zhi) that wise men be employed at court, longs for (huai
'I) the ancient kings of the Zhou dynasty who knew how to recognize and use such
virtuous men. The ambiguity of the last line, and thus of the whole poem, hinges on
96
97 Following Mao, Zhe

Taipei: Mingwen, 1988), vo

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the character (T (xing or hang), meaning bo

Confucian commentator takes command of the
the whole stanza. The lowly peasant woman
plants is now a metaphor for the "picking" of
state of Zhou (Zhou xing )J9W) is now the
plebeian poem has been made to speak Confucian
In the terminology of the Great and Minor Pref
shift from the literal to the metaphorical, fr
descriptions of labor to descriptions of governmen
emotions (qing) to the Superior Man's intent
reading is typical of the Han dynasty project of
Han dynasty theory of poetic creation.

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Reexamining Han Dynasty Poetry Through Wei Hong's Great Preface

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Reexamining Han Dynasty Poetry Through Wei Hong's Great Preface

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A Second Look at the Great Preface on the Way to a New Understanding of Han

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?Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 21 (1999)

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how poetry (94 shi) emerges from the poet.

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sophisticated analysis of the Great Preface

"external correlative connection" (my italics) in a langua

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The Great Preface and Its Intertexts

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youthful and passionate love may very wel

As for the emergence of tones, they are born

It could be assumed, then, that poetry--sh

15 Owen, pp. 50-56; Liu, pp. 19, 63-64.

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moved about by external forces) may be to t

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transformation of other texts formed into a

: Modem Language Association of America, 1986).

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25"Yueji", SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1528: WhR, ..

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of min zhi xing t' is "human nature./"31 Th

Those who are born with knowledge are the h

Min is here a human raw material totally unsu

30 Li Zehou & Liu Gangji, p. 577.

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That Dong, whose teachings on cosmological correspondences most probably were of

Hall & Ames, p. 142.

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sundial's shadow, the water in the bowl and, in

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hierarchy) that permeate and structure the Pref

Emotions are manifested in ... tones ... the

According to the Preface, emotions go togeth

44 Cf. Zhu, p. 21, "[By the time of the Preface] po

45 "Yueji" , SSJZS, vol. II, p. 1528.

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fragment has acquired negative connotations

the State Historians (guo shi KI) and the "b

Superiors use feng to admonish those of inferior

Obviously, the importance of thefeng-techniq

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54 Kong, p. 272: E-7 ~t[*'W Z'NR.

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unfortunate consequence of a violent misreadin

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The Minor Prefaces

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Consulting the Minor Prefaces for evide

62 See, however, the uniquely anomalous Preface t

63 Karlgren, Grammata, p. 244. On the relationshi

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It is tempting to adopt, without further ado, the conventional definition of this

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"building" a qin-edifice or f 0 "building" a cit

emulation of Heaven (), tian).72 Somewhat

differs from its conventional one.