Analyze on Chinese literature. Cao Zhi’s Gong Yan poem. Do a critical analysis on an article that analyze the Cao Zhi’s 公宴诗(Gong Yan Poem). 3 pages. Analyze how Cutter analyze the Cao Zhi’s article and also do some criticism

cutter__joe___cao_zhi_s__192_232__symposium_poems
 

Analyze on Chinese literature. Cao Zhi’s Gong Yan poem.

Do a critical analysis on an article that analyze the Cao Zhi’s 公宴诗(Gong Yan Poem).

3 pages.

Analyze how Cutter analyze the Cao Zhi’s article and also do some criticism

Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems
Author(s): Robert Joe Cutter
Source: Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), Vol. 6, No. 1/2 (Jul., 1984), pp.
1-32
Published by: Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR)
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Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

ROBERT JOE CUTTER
University of Wisconsin

One of the first incidents related in Cao Zhi’s VW standard biography in the Records

of the Three Kingdoms is an excursion Cao Cao Wl (155-220) led to Bronze Bird Terrace.

1

He took his sons along and commanded them to write rhapsodies, presumably to
commemorate the occasion and to extol his creation of that marvelous scenic spot.2
The rhapsody Cao Zhi wrote on that day in 212 A.D. follows here. We are told that
Cao Cao marveled at the speed with which Cao Zhi wrote it. We might also infer that
he was mightily pleased with its contents, for while the first half of the piece is a not

very original description of the scene from Bronze Bird Terrace, the second half is fully
given over to a eulogy of Cao pere.

Ascending the Terrace

3

Accompanying our enlightened lord we wander happily,
And mount awhile this terrace to gladden our feelings.
We see the Storehouse of Heaven open wide,4

‘This article is a revised version of a part of chapter two of my dissertation “Cao Zhi (192-232) and His

Poetry,” diss., U of Washington, 1983, 67-193. An early version was presented at the Western Branch Meeting
of AAS in Boulder, Colorado, September 18-19, 1982. The editors of CLEAR have requested that the Chinese
texts of the poems translated herein not be included.

2San guo zhi E_.,I (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959) 19:557. On Bronze Bird Terrace, see note 52.

3″Deng tai fu’ RV ; see Jean-Pierre Dieny et al., comps., Concordance des oeuvres completes de Cao Zhi

(Paris: l’Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, College de France, 1977) 2:20. The Concordance, as it shall
henceforth be called, is based on and includes Ding Yan Ti (1794-1875), ed., Cao ji quan ping ITf4i

(Beijing: Wenxue guji kanxing she, 195

7

rev. ed.). Ding used the version of the fu found in Yin Dan’s 1t
Wei ji 1a3 to collate the one in the Ming edition of Cao’s works that served as his base text. The Wei ji
version comes from Pei Songzhi’s OiS,Z (373-451) commentary in San guo zhi 19:558. On the dating of
the rhapsody to 212, see Cutter, “Cao Zhi (192-232) and His Poetry” 507-08.

Since the completion of this article a very valuable new tool has appeared, an annotated version of Cao’s

complete works. It is Zhao Youwen MJ $J, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu W i M Ai (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chuban

she, 1984). Although not perfect, this work is a boon to students of Cao Zhi.
4″Storehouse of Heaven” (tian fu 5kH ) is a term that refers to a place, or even a person, in which everything

is to be found. Sometimes it means a region of great natural richness. See, for example, Wang Xianqian
:E- (1842-1918), comp., Xun ziji shi 4:3~WS 19:332, Xinbian Zhuzijicheng irWsTXh; Guo Qingfan

1IU (1844-1896), comp., Zhuang zi ji shi i:-TfW 2:42, Xinbian Zhuzi jicheng; Burton Watson, trans.,
The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New York: Columbia U P, 1968) 45; Zhan guo ce @1~ (Shanghai:
Shanghai gu ji chuban she, 1978) 3:78; and the biography of Zhuge Liang tI$M (181-234) in San guo zhi
35:912. But Cao Zhi may very well be alluding to Wenchang 3H, the principal palace of Ye X, in which

city the terrace was located. The reason this is possible is that Wenchang, “Literary Glory” in Edward Schafer’s
translation, is also the name of an asterism; see Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the
Stars (Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1977) 121. And when we look into Sima Zhen’s WIl et

Tang dynasty commentary to Shi ji Ei , we find him quoting a work entitled Apocryphon to the Spring and
Autumn Annals: The Patterned and Radiant Hook (Chun qiu: wen yao gou Vt l*1 ), which says, “Literary
Glory is the Storehouse of Heaven.” See Shi ji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959) 27:1294.

1

2 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

View all his sage virtue has built.
He raised lofty basilicas jagged and peaked,5 5
Floated twin watchtowers in the Greatest Clarity,
Reared floriate lodges that surge to the sky,
Linked flying galleries to the west city wall.6
I overlook the Zhang River’s long course,
Gaze afar at the burgeoning splendor of untold fruits, 10
Lift my face to the softness of the spring breeze,
Hear the sad cry of a hundred birds.
The efforts of heaven will perpetuate what he has built;
The wishes of his house, attained, achieve display.
He spreads his humanizing influence in the world,

15

Is totally reverent and solemn toward the capital.
Even the way Dukes Huan and Wen prospered.
Cannot compare with his sage enlightenment.
O excellent, 0 beautiful,
His kind favor extends afar. 20
He aids our august house,
Pacifies the four directions.
His compass equals heaven and earth,
His brilliance matches the sun and moon.

May he ever be esteemed and honored without limit,

25

And live as long as the King of the East.7

One writer thinks this rhapsody, though still not free of the epideictic tendencies
characteristic of many Han rhapsodies, shows talent.8 Whether or not that is true, it is

significant as a kind of introductory piece to a Jian’an phenomenon. Like many poems

5Instead of “lofty basilicas” (gao dian i ) one edition has “tall gates” (gao men i r! ); see Zhu Xuzeng
? :9M (fl. 1837), ed., Cao ji kao yi

–
-^ 3:14b, Jinling congshu 4M . Notes on Things in Ye (Ye

zhong ji I4Od ), a work recovered from the Yongle dadian 7-kAL, says:

To the south side of Ye palace were three gates. Fengyang II li, the westernmost one, was twenty-
five zhang [60.3 m] tall. Above there were six levels. The upturned eaves faced the sun. Below two
gateways opened. Furthermore, a great bronze phoenix was set on top and reared its head one zhang
six chi [3.9 m]. … While yet seven or eight li from Ye, one saw this gate in the distance; Ye zhong ji
1, Congshu jicheng H l: .

The Water Classic Commentary (Shui jing zhu *k*l ) says that this gate was thirty-five zhang, the dis-
crepancy apparently resulting from an addition carried out in the Later Zhao (319-351). See Wang Xianqian,
ed., Wang shi he jiao Shui jing zhu IFt;*ffSt 10:8b, SPPY. This discrepancy might be even larger than
it looks due to the tendency of units of measure to increase in size during the period; see William Gordon
Crowell, “Government Land Policies and Systems in Early Imperial China,” diss., U of Washington, 1979,
404-10.

6The existence of at least a partial western city wall is implied in Shui jing zhu. See Wang, Wang shi he jiao
Shui jing zhu 10:8b. See also Miyagawa Hisayuki ‘JIfii,t^, Rikucho shi kenkya: seiji shakai hen AUSfR
‘ : i iiM (Tokyo: Nihon gakujutsu shinkokai, 1956) 537.
7Dong wang EI (King of the East), also known as Dong fu ~3, Dong wang gong &, and Dong wang fu,

etc., is a deity associated with immortality. He appears in iconography of Han and Three Kingdoms date
together with the Western Queen Mother (Xi wang mu iE a ). See Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The
Chinese Quest for Immortality (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1979) 121-26; Yang Lien-sheng, “A Note on
the So-called TLV Mirrors and the Game Liu-po A P,” HJAS 9 (February 1947): 206 and plate I; Yang Lien-
sheng, “An Additional Note on the Ancient Game Liu-po,” HJAS 15 (June 1952): 138-39; and Stephen Shih-
tsung Wang, “Tsaur Jyr’s Poems of Mythical Excursion,” M.A. thesis, U of California, 1963, 108-09.

8Huang Ruhui tltl-, Zhongguo lidai jiu shiren o4f~jELS,AJ (Hong Kong: Shanghai shuju, 1976) 17.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

of the period, it is an occasional poem. As was often the case, others wrote pieces on
the same theme at the same time. And furthermore, Cao’s fu adopts a eulogistic tone
that is seen again and again in works of that age. The nature of the occasion is also

significant; excursions and symposia (convivial gatherings for drinking, conversation,
and so forth) were often a time for rhapsodies and poems. In fact, the poets who lived

during the Jian’an period (196-219) spent a fair amount of time feasting and drinking
and going on entertaining little excursions through beautiful gardens and parks. So

many poems were written either as a result of these occasions or refer to them that
the most important early Chinese literary critic mentions them among the characteristics
of Jian’an verse:

Lingering over “wind” and “moon,” dallying by ponds and gardens, telling of the glory
of princely favor, describing wine-flowing banquets, the poets were unrestrained in giving
rein to their ch’i, openhearted in displaying their talents.9

This aspect of their social life is also expressed in prose of the period. Letters by Cao
Pi WS (187-226) and by Cao Zhi himself to Wu Zhi MW (177-230) speak of the

pleasures of eating, drinking, and touring with friends. Sometime after the year 212
Cao Pi wrote the following letter to Wu Zhi:

Letter to Wu Zhi, Prefect of Zhaoge’1
Fifth month, the eighteenth
From Pi,

I trust you are well. Though the road there is near, official duties are confining. My
feelings of longing for you truly are unbearable.” The place you administer is out of the
way and our correspondence has dwindled, so I am increasingly troubled.’2

I often think of our past outings in Nanpi.

13

They were genuinely unforgettable. We
wonderfully contemplated the Six Classics and loitered among the hundred philosophers.

9The statement is from Liu Xie’s 0J1 (ca. 465-ca. 520) Wen xin diao long C,’1JUE, and the translation is
from Daivd Pollard, “Ch’i in Chinese Literary Theory,” Chinese Approaches to Literature from Confucius to
Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton: Princeton U P, 1978) 47. The passage is in Fan Wenlan
fi?C ed., Wen xin diao long zhu C,,0’J0 (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chuban she, 1978 rpt.) 2:66 (see
also 9:673-74). See also Ronald Miao, “Literary Criticism at the End of the Eastern Han,” Literature East and
West 16.3 (September 1972): 1014-15.

‘?The letter is in Xiao Tong’s mi (501-531) Wen xuan )P?. See Xiao Tong, comp., Wen xuan, comm. Li
Shan -* (d. 689) (Taipei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1971) 42:7b-8b. Subsequent references to Wen xuan, unless
otherwise specified, are to this edition. On this edition, see David R. Knechtges, trans., Wen xuan, or Selections
of Refined Literature (Princeton: Princeton U P, 1982), 1: 59-60, 524. The letter also appears in Yu Huan’s
AV (fl. third century) Wei liie SkB, quoted in Pei Songzhi’s commentary in San guo zhi 21:608. There are
minor textual variants.

Zhaoge ~4W was to the west of modem Jun Ni County, Henan. The year is not given. Liu chen zhu Wen
xuan /ES- ̂it (Taipei: Guangwen shuju, 1964 rpt.) 42:784 has “twenty-eighth day.” The Wei lie omits
any date at all. The letter must come from a few years after the death of Ruan Yu V^ in 212. See Li Baojun

t A, Cao shi fu zi he Jian’an wenxue WftA,- U25 3 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962) 30.
“Cf. Mao shi 30/4. On yuan yan IM, see Bernhard Karlgren, Glosses on the Book of Odes (Stockholm:

Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964) nos. 81 and 126.
‘2A fragment of a letter attributed to Du Yu tIf (222-284) is in the early Song calligraphic compilation

Chunhua ge tie (E~* ~. I quote from this fragment as it appears in Chunhua ge tie shiwen IIZ, a recension
of the Song work done in response to an imperial command of 1769: “The year is suddenly at its end. The
length of our separation increases its misery. The road is far and our correspondence, moreover, has dwin-
dled”; Chunhua ge tie shiwen 2:21, Congshu jicheng.

‘3Nanpi Pik was a prefecture in Bohai iMJ Commandery in what is now Henan. There is a modem
county by the same name.

3

4 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

Pellet chess was set up at intervals, and we finished with liubo.14 Lofty conversation glad-
dened the heart, and the mournful music of zithers was pleasing to the ear. We galloped
the fields to the north and feasted in the lodges south,’5 floated sweet melons on clear

springs and sank red plums in cold waters. When the white sun disappeared, we carried
on by the bright moon. Riding together we roamed the rear gardens. The carriage wheels
moved slowly, and the entourage was silent. Cool breezes arose in the night, and a sad
reed whistle softly moaned. Happiness left and sorrow came, leaving us woeful and mel-

ancholy. I would look back and say that such joy cannot endure. You and the others

thought I was right.
Now we are really apart, each in a separate place. Ruan Yu has eternally gone, translated

to something other.16 Every time I recall these things-but when will it be possible to speak
with you? Just now it is the season of the ruibin note.

17

A southerly breeze fans everything.
The weather is pleasantly warm, and the many kinds of fruit are thriving. Sometimes I
harness up and take an excursion. To the north I skirt the edge of the river. Attendants
sound reed whistles to clear the way, and my Literary Scholars ride in carriages behind.
The season is the same, but the time is another; the externals are right, but the people are

wrong. How disturbed I am!’8
At present I am sending a rider to Ye and, so, will have him detour by you. Go, and

take care of yourself.

19

Pi

In another letter to Wu, this one datable to March 18, 218, he wrote in part:

In last year’s epidemic many of our friends and family met with disaster. Xu Gan tk

(171-218), Chen Lin K (d. 217), Ying Yangm A (d. 217), and Liu Zhen PJ] (d. 217)

‘4On “pellet chess” (tan qi l ), see Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1962) 4.1: 327. Pellet chess was a favorite game of Cao Pi’s. See Cao Pi, Wei
Wendi ji IN &fi 1:4b, 24a, Han Wei Liu chao baisan ming jia ji^lAA _.’ t^, ed. Zhang Pu i
(1602-1641) (Taipei: Wenjin chuban she, 1979 rpt.). See also Richard B. Mather, trans., Shih-shuo hsin-yii:
A New Account of Tales of the World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976) 363-64.

On liubo, see the two articles by Yang Lien-sheng, “A Note on the So-called TLV Mirrors and the Game
Liu-po” 202-06 and “An Additional Note on the Ancient Game Liu-po” 124-39. See also Needham, Science
and Civilisation in China 4.1: 327.

‘Lui shi St, which I have translated as “feasted,” is a term that appears in Yi li H 4, where its basic
meaning is, according to Zheng Xuan OA (127-200), “eat (or feast) in a group.” See Yi li Zheng zhu
USI 6:lb-2a, SPPY. See also John Steele, trans., The I-li or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial (1917; rpt.

Taipei: Cheng wen, 1966) 1: 122-23, 140.
‘”The phrase “translated to something other” (hua wei yi wu ^L e A J) also occurs, for instance, in Jia Yi’s

WAi (ca. 200-168 B.C.) rhapsody “Owl” (“Funiao fu” 1 jA, ), a work in which it may be understood to
refer to death and what comes after. See Shi ji 84:2500.

‘7Ruibin AX is one of the twelve notes of the classical Chinese gamut. See Needham, Science and Civilisation
in China 4.1: 170-71. The “Monthly Ordinances” (“Yue ling” A ‘ ) chapter of the Record of Rites says that
this note belongs to the second month of summer; see Li ji Zheng zhu imBSU3 5:1 lb, SPPY. See also James
Legge, trans., Li Chi: Book of Rites, ed. Ch’u Chai and Winberg Chai (Hyde Park: University Books, 1967) 1:
272.

“,Cf. Mao shi 230/1.
‘9The translation “Go” for xing yi f’, derives from a passage in Han shu A and the commentary to it.

The passage has to do with Emperor Wu’s (reg. 140-87 B.C.) acquisition of Wei Zifu WT5, the future

Empress Wei. She was a singer in the household of the Princess of Pingyang when the Emperor saw her.
“As Zifu got in the carriage the princess patted her back and said, ‘Go, and force yourself to eat and give
it your best. When you are esteemed, I hope you will not forget me.”‘ Yan Shigu ?gSti& (581-654) explains,
“Xing yi is like the modem hao qu kf? (“go well”);” see Han shu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962) 97A:3949-
50.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

all passed away then. How can I speak of the pain? In days past if we went roaming, we
went with our carriages one after another; if we stayed in, we sat on mats placed together.
We would not be separated for an instant. Whenever the wine goblets and ladles were

moving freely and the strings and bamboos played together, we felt tipsy from the wine
and warm about the ears and, lifting our heads, composed poems.20

Wu Zhi had an enviable correspondence. Cao Zhi’s letter to him contains the fol-

lowing:

21

From Zhi
Dear Jizhong,

Even though in days past by routine transfers22 we were able to be close companions,
and even though we spent whole days drinking and feasting, when this is put up against
our distant separation and infrequent meetings, it still does not dispel my anxieties.

With cups and ladles bobbing about in front and flutes and whistles issuing sounds

behind, you would raise your body like a hawk in flight, gaze like a phoenix and glare
like a tiger.

23

I would say that even Xiao and Cao could not have equaled you, Wei and
Hou would have been no match.24 When you looked left and glanced right, I would say
it was as if no one was about. This surely was due to your grand aspirations.25 Munching
while passing a butcher’s door: though I got no meat, I prized it and it made me happy.
At those times you wanted to pick up Mount Tai to use for meat, pour out the eastern sea
to use for wine, cut the bamboo of Yunmeng to use for flutes, chop down the catalpas on
the banks of the Si to use for zithers.26 You ate as if we were filling a great gully, drank
as if pouring into a leaky cup. From what I have said above,

27

this joy was absolutely
incalculable. It surely was the joy of a real man.

But the days are not with us, and the Radiant Numen quickens its pace.28 Our meetings
have all the speed of fleeting lights, our separation the vast distances of Triaster and Shang.

29

2″Wen xuan 42:9a. The letter is also quoted from the Wei lie in Pei’s commentary in San guo zhi 21:608-09.
The Wei lue provides the year, the Wen xuan version gives the day.

2’Cao Zhi’s letter appears in Concordance 8:147-49 and Wen xuan 42:15a-17a. Its title is “Yu Wu Jizhong
shu” 9:* .

22Cf. the explanation of Lu Xiang Jn[i, who reads chang tiao 9′-, meaning chang xi JR (“often teased”);
Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 42:790.

23Li Shan (Wen xuan 42:15a) says “phoenix” (feng l) is a symbol for what is civil or literary, and “tiger”
(hu * ) is a symbol for what is martial. I follow Concordance 8:147.10 in reading feng guan I (“gaze like a
phoenix”) instead of the feng tan OK of Li Shan’s Wen xuan.

24Xiao He Xi (d. 193 B.C.) and Cao Shen ~ (d. 190 B.C.) were famous officials. Wei Qing W* (d.
106 B.C.) and Huo Qubing IAtNM (d. 117 B.C.) were famous generals.

2VWen xuan 42:15b reads wu zi zhuang zhi -TF i (“your grand determination”) instead of the junzi ?-T
zhuang zhi of Concordance and the liu chen text of Wen xuan.

260n Mount Tai (Tai shan LU ), see Edouard Chavannes, Le T’ai chan: Essai de monographie d’un culte
chinois (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1910).

Yun W and Meng 9 were originally two marshes that straddled the Yangtze, with Yun to the north and
Meng to the south of the river. Their location was in the south of present Anlu %[* County, Hubei. See
Hu Daojing MiOI, ed., Mengxi bitan jiaozheng 4t09-AK (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1961 rpt.) 1:200 (no.
81). See also Qu Wanli ESX , Shang shu jin zhu jin yi f-‘i4E (Taipei: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1979
rpt.) 37.

The Si River (Si he 9M ) rises in Sishui 1*7 County, Shandong. Both the marshes of Yun and Meng and
the banks of the Si are mentioned in the “Yu gong” ̂ M (“Tribute of Yu”) chapter of the Classic of Documents.
See Shang shu Kong zhuan fM :[L. 3:2b, 3b, SPPY.

27Some texts, including Wen xuan, do not have this phrase.
28Cf. Lun yu 17.1. I have translated Yaoling *W (sometimes Wi ) as “Radiant Numen,” following Edward

5

6 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

I want to press down the heads of the six dragon steeds, stop the reins of Xihe, break the
blossoms from the Ruo tree, and block the valley Meng si.30 But the road in the sky is

high and far and has not been followed for a good long time. I toss and turn with nostalgic
yearnings. What shall I do? What shall I do?

These letters are quoted to dramatize the importance Jian’an writers attached to
time in convivial symposia with friends. Of course, such contact is a nearly universal

need, but that it became an integral part of Jian’an literary life is perhaps best accounted
for by the tenor of the times. A common feature of most discussions of Jian’an poetry
is the belief that the years of political disorder and military strife that characterized
the end of the Han dynasty exerted a strong influence on literature. Not only did the

general populace have a precarious hold on life in such times, but the literary figure,
whether he was Cao Cao’s son or a relatively minor official, was not immune from

danger either. This congruity of history and literature is not a fiction.

31

The last of the
Han was a dangerous time, with war, politics, and disease all taking their toll, and one
of the ways poets dealt with these stern realities was by joining together to feast and
drink. There seems to have been a genuine concern with the ephemeral and transient
nature of life, and this resulted in a kind of carpe diem mentality, which we see reflected
in the symposium poems. This attitude appears in various forms; for instance, in the
use of conventionally phrased expressions of reluctance to end the festivities.

Cao Zhi’s symposium poems seem mainly to have been written in the early half
of his life; that is, before Cao Pi formally dispatched the Han dynasty and became

emperor of the Wei in 220. By most accounts, these were happier, less trying years.32

Schafer. Hong Xingzu ^iE (1090-1155) quotes the Bo ya ~t4 (Guang ya h1 ) as saying, “Zhuming X

M, Yaoling, and Dongjun * all refer to the sun”; Chu ci bu zhu Q iS~ 5:3b, SPPY. See Zhang Ji ‘3

(fl. late fifth century), comp., Bo ya 9:4b, Zeng ding Han Wei congshu *1J40 , comp. Wang Mo IE

(Jinxi: Wang shi, 1791) ce 21. For these terms Schafer offers the translations “Vermilion Luminosity,” “Radiant
Numen,” and “Lord of the East.” See Schafer, Pacing the Void 167.

29Edward Schafer writes of Shen 0 and Shang i:

Then there were the two sons of a sky god, Shen and Shang, who have a number of distinct myths:
they are sometimes Hesperus and Lucifer, but in a different tradition they are Orion (my Triaster)
and Scorpio (Antares)-bitter rivals,each always out of the other’s sight at opposite ends of the sky;
Schafer, Pacing the Void 127.

See also Gustave Schlegel, Uranographie chinoise (1875; Taipei: Cheng wen, 1967) 1: 395-96, Joseph Needham
and Wang Ling, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1959) 3: 242, 249, 282.

30This sentence is a series of Chu ci allusions. The idea is that Cao Zhi wishes he could hold back time.
The first comes from Liu Xiang’s 2J [f (77-6 B.C.) “Jiu tan” ALt, the piece entitled “Roving Afar” (“Yuan
you” XX ); Chu ci bu zhu 16:28a. David Hawkes translates: “I drove my six dragons to the mountain of
Three Perils”; David Hawkes, trans., Ch’u Tz’u, The Songs of the South (Oxford: Oxford U P, 1959) 167. The
mountain is explained by Wang Yi _ET (ca. 89-ca. 158) as a mountain in the west.

Xihe ^U and the Ruo X tree are both mentioned, for example, in “Encountering Sorrow” (“Li sao” N
J ); Chu ci bu zhu 1:21a-b. The first passage goes, “I ordered Hsi-ho to stay the sun-steed’s gallop,” and the
second says, “I broke a sprig of the Jo-tree to strike the sun with”; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 28. See also the passage
on Xihe and the Ruo tree in “Tian wen” XRU; Chu ci bu zhu 3:7b; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 49. Cf. Sarah Allan,
“Sons of Suns: Myth and Totemism in Early China,” BSOAS 44.2 (1981): 296-301.

Meng si WE comes from “Tian wen”; Chu ci bu zhu 3:3b. Hawkes translates it as “Vale of Darkness”:
“The Sun sets out from the Valley of Morning and goes to rest in the Vale of Darkness”; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u
47. See also Allan, “Sons of Suns” 301.

3’See Liu Jihua WOEM, Han Wei zhi ji wenxue de xingshi yu neirong m ;Z~ 3fl~ ~9 (Taipei:
Shiji shuju, 1978) 121-22.

32See, for instance, Li, Cao shi fu zi he Jian’an wenxue 34-35; Huang, Zhongguo lidai jiu shiren 17; Chen

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

One is always a little suspicious of such categorizing, yet it is a fact that certain of the

symposium poems can be generally dated to that time. Although the feast figures to
a greater or lesser extent in all of the poems in this article, these compositions do not
form a strictly homogeneous group. They include some of Cao Zhi’s most and least

important poems, span the genres of fu, shi, and yuefu, and have meters ranging from
mixed line lengths to the five-word line that the Jian’an poets did so much to popularize.
One title is even in the relatively rare six-word line. The first four poems we shall
examine seem to form a special subgroup that I call eulogistic symposium poems.
Occasional poetry is functional poetry, and the eulogistic symposium poems are no

exception.33 In their case function defines form. The ingredients may include a descrip-
tion of the affair, an expression of gratitude or appreciation, and praise.

Cao Zhi’s “Lord’s Feast” (“Gong yan” f2 ) is one such poem. In Wen xuan this
title became the name of a thematic sub-genre. The “Lord’s Feast” section of Wen xuan
includes four Jian’an period poems, one each by Cao Zhi and his contemporaries Wang
Can TE (177-217), Liu Zhen, and Ying Yang.

Cao Zhi’s “Lord’s Feast” is generally accepted as having been written for a banquet
in Ye with Cao Pi, who at the time was General of the Gentlemen-of-the-Household
for All Purposes.34 We surmise the poem is addressed to Cao Pi for a couple of reasons.
First, Cao Zhi’s first line is the same as line 19 of Ying Yang’s poem in the Lord’s Feast

group,35 indicating it may have been composed on the same occasion. The title of this

poem by Ying, “In Attendance at the Jianzhang Terrace Gathering of the General of
the Gentlemen-of-the-Household for All Purposes” (“Shi wuguan zhonglang jiang
Jianzhang tai ji shi” sSi+gM ), makes it clear he means Cao Pi.36 Second,
Cao Zhi’s poem may be a matching poem to Cao Pi’s own “Written at the Lotus Pond”

(“Furong chi zuo” )tif’ ).37
Several scholars date Cao Zhi’s “Lord’s Feast” to 211, on the basis of Cao Pi’s

appointment to office.38 But it has been correctly pointed out by Xu Gongchi $,

Yicheng M1& , Han Wei Liu chao yuefu yanjiu ~MA^IMRJWi (Taipei: Jiaxin shuini gongsi wenhua

jijinhui, 1976) 129-30.
33See the entry by A. J. M. Smith in Alex Preminger, ed., Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

(Princeton: Princeton U P, 1974 enlarged ed.) 584.
34See Li Shan’s commentary (Wen xuan 20:12b). Lii Yanji ISNiM says, “The term gong yan means subjects

attend a feast at the home of the lord. This feast was at a Ye palace. He feted with his elder brother Pi”;
Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 20:368. Cao Pi was appointed to the office in Jian’an 16 (211); San guo zhu 1:34.

35Ying Yang’s poem is in Wen xuan 20:14a-15a. There are other similarities, too.

36Jianzhang Terrace has been identified as “a tall terrace of the Jianzhang Palace outside the city wall of

Chang’an and west of the Everlasting (Weiyang 3;5) Palace”; see Obi Koichi /J1q – and Hanabusa
Hideki ~ ~q, trans., Monzen Zii, Zenshaku Kambun taikei, 26-32 (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1974-1976) 3: 95.
This is doubtful for the poem. The Jianzhang Palace was built on command of Emperor Wu to replace Cypress
Beams (Bo liang t ) Terrace, which was destroyed by fire on January 15, 104 B.C.; Shi ji 28:1402; Burton
Watson, trans., Records of the Grand Historian of China, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia U P, 1961), 2: 66; Han
shu 6:199; Homer H. Dubs, trans., The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3 vols. (Baltimore: Waverly Press,

1944-55) 2: 98-99; Han shu 25B:1244-45. As we have seen, the outing that occasioned Ying’s poem some
three hundred years later was probably in Ye.

37Wen xuan 22:5b-6a. There is a translation by Ronald Miao in Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo, eds.,
Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry (Bloomington: Indiana U P, 1975) 45.

As far as I know, the idea that the two are matching poems originated with Huang Jie *1 (1874-1935),
Cao Zijian shi zhu Wf-ia (Beijing: Renmin chuban she, 1957 rev. ed.) 1:3. Others who have adopted
this idea include Ito Masafumi EXItZ, So Shoku *i (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1964) 28, and Yu Guangying
*5-, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan ^ -~E~i (Hong Kong: Daguang chuban she, 1976) 101.
38Ding, Cao ji quan ping 218; Ito, So shoku 28, 207; Uchida Sennosuke F;flIZ~A and Ami Yfiji MCA,

7

8 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

that there is no real foundation for that date.39 Because of similarities among them, Xu
thinks Liu Zhen’s “Lord’s Feast,” Cao Zhi’s poem by the same title, and Cao Pi’s
“Written at the Lotus Pond” were all done at the same time; and Liu, it will be re-
membered, died in 217.40 At any rate, it seems reasonable to assume that Cao Zhi’s

poem was composed between 2

11

and 217.41
The question then arises as to whether or not all of the Jian’an Lord’s Feast poems

in Wen xuan were, along with Cao Pi’s poem, written at the same time. I am prepared
to accept the possibility that Cao Pi’s “Written at the Lotus Pond,” Cao Zhi’s “Lord’s
Feast,” Liu Zhen’s “Lord’s Feast,” and Ying Yang’s poem were written to commemorate
the same affair. Some would go much further. Fang Zushen, for instance, thinks that
in addition to the poems by Cao Zhi and Liu Zhen, Wang Can’s “Lord’s Feast,” Ruan
Yu’s “Lord’s Feast,” and Chen Lin’s two “Sightseeing” (“Youlan” 1t) poems and
one “Feast” (“Yanhui” U*) poem all come from the same occasion and were all meant
to match Cao Pi, too.42 But it does not seem likely that Wang Can’s poem, at least,
was written at the same time as Cao Zhi’s.43 Both Li Shan and Zhang Xian ft~ say it
was written on the occasion of a feast held by Cao Cao.44 The apparently aestival

imagery of Wang Can in his lines 1-4 (“A bright, summer sky sheds rich bounties,45/
All plants erupt lush and luxuriant.46/A cool wind dispels the steaming heat,/Fresh

trans., Monzen (shihen) ~A (J i), Shinshaku Kambun taikei, 14-15 (Tokyo: Meiji shoin, 1963-1964), I, 59.
The last mistakenly converts Jian’an 16 to 221.

39Xu Gongchi, “Cao Zhi shige de xiezuo niandai wenti” 4-4: fiB f jfWtr, Wen shi i; 6 (June
1979): 156-57.

4″Liu’s poem is in Wen xuan 20:13b-14a.
4’One other opinion should be mentioned, that of Fang Zushen ;bFC. Fang also sees 217, the year both

Liu Zhen and Ying Yang died, as the latest possible date for Cao’s poem. However, Fang brings the earliest
date down to 214. According to Fang, the West Garden in Cao Zhi’s line 3 and the Jianzhang Terrace of

Ying’s title were both constructed in that year. I have not been able to verify this information. See Fang
Zushen, Han shi yanjiu 4’^FW (Taipei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1969 rpt.) 255, 257.

42Fang, Han shi yanjiu 255-56. Wang Can’s poem is in Wen xuan 20:13a-b. It is translated, discussed, and
annotated by Ronald Miao in his Early Medieval Chinese Poetry: The Life and Verse of Wang Ts’an (A.D. 177-
217) (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1982) 179-82 and his dissertation, “A Critical Study of the Life and Poetry
of Wang Chung-hsuan,” diss., U of California, 1969, 167-70, 258-62. The Ruan Yu fragment may be seen
in Ding Fubao TOMi (1874-1952), comp., Quan San guo shi 3:10b, in his Quan Han San guo Jin Nanbei chao
shi L.- E] I:–4 (Taipei: Yiwen yinshu guan, n.d. repro. of 1916 ed.). Chen’s are in Ding, Quan
San guo shi 3:5b-6a.

43See also Miao, Early Medieval Chinese Poetry 220n.
44Wen xuan 20:13b; Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 20:369.
45What I have translated as “bright, summer sky” is hao tian 9W. The term is explained by Li Shan with

a quote from Er ya: “Summer constitutes a hao tian”; Wen xuan 20:13a. See Hao Yixing ttf (1757-1825,
ed., Zuben Er ya Guo zhu yishu i- ti*S ti (Taipei: Dingwen shuju, 1972) B:4.1. Guo Pu’s W1 (276-
324) commentary says that hao tian refers to the refulgency of the atmosphere. This explanation is rejected
by Miao, who understands it to mean “the vastness of Heaven, both in a physical and cosmological sense,”
citing Mao shi 271 as an example of this usage; see Miao, “A Critical Study of the Life and Poetry of Wang
Chung-hsuan” 259. The imagery of the poem seems to support Li Shan’s interpretation, but I suspect the
full import of the term encompasses both meanings.

In the present instance I think we may ignore those sources that say hao tian refers to the sky of spring.
See Shuo wen jie zi zhu & 3WSi (Taipei: Yiwen yinshu guan, 1974 rpt.) 10OB:17a-b; Tjan Tjoe Som, trans.,
Po Hu T’ung: The Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1949-52) 2:
597.

46Weirui A (“lush and luxuriant”) appears in “When First Exiled” (“Chu fang” 1J1] ), one of the “Seven
Remonstrances” (“Qi jian” -bJ ), of Chu ci; Chu ci bu zhu 13:3a. Wang Yi’s commentary says, “Weirui is

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

clouds repulse the blazing sunlight”47) does not seem to fit with the explicit references
to autumn in Cao Zhi’s lines 7 and 14. The date of Wang’s poem, however, is about
the same. It must have been written between 208, when he became associated with
Cao Cao, and 217, the year of Wang’s death.48

Lord’s Feast49

The young lord honors and loves his guests;50
The whole feast long he does not tire.51
In the clear night we tour West Garden;52
Our flying canopies follow one another.

the appearance of luxuriance.” Hong Xingzu’s subcommentary says it is “the appearance of vegetation
hanging down.” Weirui also appears in Sima Xiangru’s J^?lS (179-117 B.C.) “Master Imaginary” (“Zixu
fu” :-3F ) (Wen xuan 7:21b). Yves Hervouet comments:

“L’expression forme un impressif a rime. Le second element est certainement significatif et donne
le sens de vegetation luxuriante; le premier caractere n’a pris de sens qu’a partir de l’expression totale.
Je pense que c’est par derivation que l’expression a servi a decrire ce qui tombe; “Yves Hervouet,
trans., Le Chapitre 117 du Che-ki (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972) 40n.

470n “blazing sunlight” (yan hui AiN) Li Shan says, “the south is fire and rules the summer. Fire by nature
blazes upwards. It is the reason he refers to the summer sky as yan hui;” Wen xuan 20:13a.

48Miao, Early Medieval Chinese Poetry 179.

4″”Gong yan & ;” see Concordance 4:35; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5:5a; Wen xuan 20:12b; Huang, Cao Zijian shi
zhu 1:1-2; Gu Zhi -:, Cao Zijian shi jian WF

–
i

–
(Taipei: Guangwen shuju, 1976 rpt.) l:la-b; Yu, Cao

Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan 37, 100-101; Ito, So Shoku 27-29.
5″Wen xuan 20:12b has “honors and loves” (jing ai t! ) instead of the ai jing in Concordance.

‘Huang Jie annotates this line with a Hou Han shu description of how Emperor Guangwu (reg. 25-57)
worked every day from dawn till dusk and often half the night. When questioned about working so hard,
the emperor replied that he delighted in it and that it was not something that fatigued him; Huang, Cao

Zijian shi zhu 1:1. See Hou Han shu M-t (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963) 1B:85. The Hou Han shu was

compiled later than the writing of the poem and the resemblance between the poem and the passage stops
at “fatigue” (pi ). What we may have here is Huang in his role as an erudite “Confucian pragmatic critic,”

exploring the moral implications of tireless devotion to public or private duty and seeing a parallel between
the Hou Han shu treatment of Guangwu, the energetic founder of the Later Han, and Cao Zhi’s line to his

brother, the future first emperor of the Wei. On Huang’s critical stance, see James J. Y. Liu, Chinese Theories

of Literature (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1975) 114-16.
52West Garden (Xi yuan NE ) is mentioned in line 2 of Cao Pi’s “Written at the Lotus Pond.” It must be

the same as Bronze Bird Garden (Tong que yuan AN, # ~I* ) and it is so identified by Huang, Cao Zijian
shi zhu 1:1 and others. Huang quotes Zhang Zai’s 5K (d. ca. 304) commentary to the “Wei du fu” “gJ

by Zuo Si I,J (250?-305?): “West of Literary Glory (Wenchang) Palace is Bronze Bird Garden;” Wen xuan
6:10b. Fang Zushen says, without citing a source, that the garden was built in 214 (see note 41). We might
assume a connection with the construction of Bronze Bird Terrace (Tong que tai a ), but the terrace was
built in 210; see San guo zhi 1:32.

Zhang Zai (Wen xuan 6:10b) says,

West of Bronze Bird Garden are the Three Terraces. In the center is Bronze Bird Terrace, with Golden
Tiger Terrace to its south and Ice Well Terrace to its north. Bronze Bird Terrace has one hundred and
one spaces, Golden Tiger one hundred and nine, and Ice Well one hundred forty-five, plus ice cham-
bers. The Three Terraces all interconnect with the principal palace by raised galleries…. Bronze Bird
Terrace was built in 210.

Zhang’s description is quite similar to the slightly later one in the Ye zhong ji 2. By that time certain
differences can be noted, due to modifications made by the rulers of the Later Zhao (319-51). The name of
Golden Tiger was changed to Golden Phoenix, no doubt to avoid the name of the ruler, Shi Hu ET (d.
349). See also Wang shi he jiao Shui jing zhu 10:7a-8a and Timoteus Pokora, “A Mobile Freezer in China in
B.C. 99?” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientarum Hungaricae 31 (1977): 331-32.

9

10 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

The bright moon purifies the clear scene; 5
The constellations are scattered.
Autumn thoroughwort blankets the long slopes;
Vermillion blossoms cover the green pond.53
Submerged fish jump from clear ripples;
Pretty birds sing from high limbs.54 10
A prodigious gust strikes the cinnabar hubs,55
And the light carts shift with the wind.56

Buoyantly we indulge our wishes and feelings,
May a thousand autumns always be this way.

This is not simply a more or less objective poem about the outing part of a feast.
In addition, it reflects the poet’s personal enjoyment of the occasion, and it serves a
social function, expressing his respect for and gratitude to the host. This was expected,
and all of the Jian’an Lord’s Feast poems do it. In Cao Zhi’s poem only the first two
lines directly praise Cao Pi, attributing to him the admirable behavior of gracious and

untiring devotion to his guests. The rest of the poem consists mainly of a description
of the outing in West Garden. What we know about the garden suggests that at least
some of what the poem describes was before the poet’s eyes,57 but he orders the reader’s

experience. The excellence of the scene works to reflect upon the host and reinforce
the direct praise and implied gratitude of the first two lines. Something striking about
this description is the repetition of the adjective qing (“clear,” “fresh,” “pure”) three
times. Now, qing is an extremely common word, and its repetition could be the result
of extemporaneous composition. But Cao Zhi was a fine poet, and we have every
reason to expect that he used this word three times because it best expressed some
image or mood he wanted to convey. I think the idea was to imbue the evening’s
outing with purity and clarity for a eulogistic purpose, a use of qing not without literary
precedent.58

5Li Shan says, “‘Red blossoms’ (zhu hua *) means the lotus”; Wen xuan 20:12b.
54In Li Zhouhan’s t*W interpretation the fish and the birds are the speaker and the clear ripples and

high limbs are the young lord; Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 20:368.
5On “cinnabar hubs” (dan gu

1
), Li Shan quotes from Yang Xiong’s NOt (53 B.C.-A.D. 18) “Jie chao”

^^ (Wen xuan 45:6b). The line reads, in David Knechtges’ translation, “‘You only want to vermillion my
wheel hubs.”‘ Knechtges notes that “vermeil cinnabar” (zhu dan *fl) was “the color of the wheel hubs of

high officials and nobility”; David R. Knechtges, The Han Rhapsody: A Study of the Fu of Yang Hsiung (53
B.C.-A.D 18) (Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1976) 98, 135. See also David R. Knechtges, trans., The Han Shu

Biography of Yang Xiong (53 B.C.-A.D. 18) (Tempe: Center for Asian Studies, Arizona State U, 1981) 47.
6The carts were nian X, what Needham and Wang call the “shafted hand-cart,” which were used primarily

within the palaces in Han times. See Joseph Needham and Wang Ling, Science and Civilisation in China

(Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1965) 4.2: 257-58.
57See Liu Weichong UJ ,i X, Cao Zhi ping zhuan W* R 4 (Taipei: Liming wenhua shiye gongsi, 1977) 28-

30.
“IC. H. Wang has noted such a use of the word qing in two of the poems from the “Eulogies of Zhou”

(“Zhou song” W1M ) section of the Classic of Songs. He thinks it is very important as an attribute of King
Wen and says,

Poem 268 … uses the word clear to praise the ordinance, hence to eulogize the charisma of King
Wen. … In Poem 266, furthermore, the temple is called the “Clear temple” NJ, which represents
the apotheosis originated in the very simple motivation of posterity to visualize and feel its glorious
ancestor”; C. H. Wang, “The Countenance of Chou: Shih Ching 266-296,” The Journal of the Institute
of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong 7.2 (December 1974): 431.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

The poem ends with a wish that such joys could last forever. This is also to the
host’s credit and is a kind of praise. But another meaning may be present. The acute
awareness in Jian’an times of life’s uncertainty and brevity has already been mentioned.
This last line hints at a theme developed more fully in other feast poems, where the

passage of time plays a major role. Here, the poet knows full well the good feeling
cannot hold, but what is important is to depict the joys and express his enjoyment of
the moment, both for himself and for his host. This concern with time is largely absent
from the next piece, a rhapsody, in which the eulogistic element is more prominent.

Entertaining Guests59

Stirred by the summer day’s blazing sunlight,
I wander in the fresh coolness of winding towers.60
I go with happy guests to join a sublime feast,
Where cinnabar curtains hang brightly on every side.
The bountiful foods of the inner kitchen are made; 5

Alluring singing girls from Qi and Zheng perform.
Writers spew their marvelous talk,
Set flying light quills and complete compositions.
We speak of the “pure winds” that blew in former times,61
And coordinate the strands and mainstays of the worthies and sages. 10
We delight in the sublime righteousness of our young lord;62
His virtue is as fragrantly perfumed as thoroughwort.
He extends his humaneness and kindness to simple homes,
And surpasses the Duke of Zhou’s missed meals.63

59″Yu bin fu” W%; Concordance 1:11-12; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 2:5a-b.
6″Lines 1-2 are not in the Concordance text. Zhu Xuzeng supplies them from Chu xue ji %s-*d!; Zhu, Cao

ji kao yi 2:5a. They do not appear with the rest of the rhapsody in Xu Jian ,E~ (659-729) et al., comps.,
Chu xue ji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962) 14:349; however, they do appear at 10:240.

“”‘Pure winds” (qing feng Afl ) here refers to moral qualities. Xue Zong’s MS commentary to Zhang
Heng’s “Dong jing fu” M,llO says, “This wind of pure kindness is the same as natural virtue (tian de X

X)”; Wen xuan 3:15a.

62″Young lord” (gong zi 2& ) refers to Cao Pi; see Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 2:5a.
6″The Shi ji has the Duke of Zhou saying:

However, every time I wash my hair I must squeeze it out three times, and every time I eat I must
spit out three mouthfuls to rise and be courteous to someone, for I still fear missing the worthy men
of the empire; Shi ji 33:1518.

This information also appears in Han shi wai zhuan k-NFW; see James R. Hightower, trans., Han Shih Wai
Chuan: Han Ying’s Illustrations of the Didactic Applications of the Classic of Songs (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
U P, 1952) 114. Famous lines in a poem by Cao Cao also draw on the story. See Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao
Zhi shi xuan 6. In addition, there is a yuefu poem which has the lines “The Duke of Zhou went down into

simple homes,/Spit out his food with no time to eat,/Squeezed out his hair three times in one washing. . .”
This yuefu is entitled “Junzi xing” R-TF, and it appears in Concordance 5:66-67, but its authorship is in
doubt. For example, it is not in the Li Shan Wen xuan, but it is in the liu chen text and is called an anonymous
yuefu; see Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:510-11. Ding Fubao also treats it as such. See Ding, Quan Han shi 4:67-
68, in Ding, Quan Han San guo Jin Nanbei chao shi. See also Hans H. Frankel, “The Problem of Authenticity
in the Works of Ts’ao Chih,” Essays in Commemoration of the Jubilee of the Fung Ping Shan Library (1932-1982),
ed. Chan Ping-leung et al. (Hong Kong: Fung Ping Shan Library, Hong Kong U, 1982) 194-95.

Yan Shigu glosses bai wu b as follows: “Bai wu refers to the commoners’ use of floss grass (bai mao
0 ) to cover houses”; Han shu 78:3272, 99A:4059. However, Cheng Dachang ~ k;l (1123-1195) disagrees.
He says Yan Shigu was wrong to say bai wu means a house covered with floss grass. For him, the term has

11

12 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

In this air of goodwill I forget my cares; 15
The fine wine is pure and the viands sweet.

This short rhapsody is a kind of literary thank-you note, perhaps written on the

spot. The date of composition is certainly pre-220, and perhaps pre-217.64 In accordance
with its function, the fu includes a description of the feast and the obligatory good
words about the host, in this case, again, probably Cao Pi. If Zhu Xuzeng’s addition
of the first two lines is correct, then it is an apt beginning. The poet/speaker journeys
out of the heat of the day into the “fresh coolness” of the towers. We cannot say
definitely that his escape from the heat into the shade was meant as an analogy to his

being entertained by his brother, but that does not preclude our seeing the contribution
of these two lines to the overall poem in these terms.

The feast section is composed of a short description of the pleasures of the feast
and the activities of the guests. Cao Zhi used adaptations of line 5 more than once,
and these will be mentioned when we take up the poem “Harp Song” (“Konghou yin”

A 1) below. Line 6 fits in with what will be said about lines 5-6 of the poem “For

Ding Yi” (“Zeng Ding Yi” lT T ); that is, that the use of place names in this way gives
a sense of completeness to the kinds of music offered for the entertainment of the

guests. As we might expect of such an affair, the writers present turn their hands to
their craft and, in a line (8) that would do credit to any traditional Chinese biographer,
“Set flying light quills and complete compositions.”65

Lines 9-10 provide a transition between the description of the feast and the praise
of the host. But they are in themselves encomiastic, for in the very next line he is
mentioned, as though there were a natural connection between talking about the ideal
ages of the past and the kindness and virtue of Cao Pi. In lines 13-14 he is even
compared to the culture hero the Duke of Zhou. The closing lines combine the notions
of the fineness of the banquet and the goodness of the host. It is just because he is so
considerate and such a moral host that the poet is swept along by his influence and
is able to forget his cares and fully enjoy the good food and drink.

A banquet with Cao Pi was also the occasion for the next piece. It can be dated in
only a general way. Ding Yan thinks it was written in 217 (Jian’an 22), because that
was when Cao Pi was made heir apparent.66 Another writer cautiously states only that
it predates Cao Pi’s rise to emperor in 220.67 Xu Gongchi, on the other hand, argues
that the titles of some of Cao Zhi’s works were given to them after the fact. Xu believes
that since Cao Pi is called “young lord” in the poem, it must have been written before

to do with old sumptuary regulations which provided that an official who had not reached a certain level
could not use ornamentation to cover up the basic materials of his house. Such a house was a bai wu, a

plain house. See Cheng Dachang, Yan fan lu MiC 6:12a-b, Xuejin taoyuan V*N.14, comp. Zhang Haipeng
i14M (1755-1816), Baibu congshu jicheng chubian. See also Dubs, History of the Former Han Dynasty 3:

171n.
“4Li Chendong *IKt puts it before Cao Pi became emperor, on the basis of its use of the term “young

lord” in line 11, but that might also place it before Cao Pi’s appointment to the apparency. See Li Chendong,
“Cao Zhi de zuopin fenqi” W fA1nn/’I, in Li Chendong, Wenxue yanjiu xin tujing ZTVR*A

(Taipei: Qide chuban she, 1972), 56-57. Li’s piece was originally published in Dalu zazhi 15 (August 31,
1957): 9-14.

65On speed of composition, see Hans H. Frankel, “T’ang Literati: A Composite Biography,” Confucian
Personalities, ed. Arthur F. Wright and Denis Twitchett (Stanford: Stanford U P, 1969 rpt.) 73.

66Ding, Cao ji quan ping 219. Ito (So Shoku 208) also places it in 217, but adds a question mark.
67Li, “Cao Zhi de zuopin fenqi” 57.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

he became heir apparent, and the title added later. This places it in the same time
frame as “Lord’s Feast.”68

Seated in Attendance on the Heir Apparent69

The white sun lights the blue sky,70
A timely rain has settled the flying dust.
With chill ice we escape the scorching sun,
And a cool breeze ruffles our bodies.
Clear sweet wine fills bronze goblets, 5
And dishes of viands are spread all about.
Players from Qi present rare music;
The singers come from western Qin.71
Graceful is our young lord,
His nimble wit as sudden as a spirit. 10

The seventeenth-century scholar Zhu Jiazheng kg (1602-1684) understood this

piece as a veiled criticism, but that does not seem a very useful approach.72 It, too, is
a straightforward example of the eulogistic symposium poem, beginning in a description
of the feast and ending in praise of the host. The setting of the poem is a hot, dusty
day, but fortunately for the assembled company, rain has fallen to settle the dust, the
host has thoughtfully provided ice, and a comforting breeze kicks up (lines 1-4). This

opening reminds us somewhat of the first two lines of “Entertaining Guests.” That is,
just as in the rhapsody, the speaker’s escape from the heat amid tall towers perhaps
is symbolic of being entertained by the host, so the arrival of the “timely rain” and
the “cool breeze” in the present poem may perform the same function. Thus, the

opening lines contribute to the eulogistic aspect of the poem. As is common in these

pieces, the closing lines directly praise Cao Pi. On the use of the food and music imagery
of lines 6-8, see the discussions below of “Famous Towns” (“Ming du pian” lM )
and “For Ding Yi.”

So far we have seen two five-word line poems (“Lord’s Feast” and “Seated in
Attendance on the Heir Apparent”) and one fu (“Entertaining Guests”) in Sao-style
prosody. The following piece was written on the occasion of a court ceremony and the

9″Xu, “Cao Zhi shige de xiezuo niandai wenti” 157.
6″”Shi taizi zuo” 1#i*f #; see Concordance 4:35; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5:5a-b; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:2-

3; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian l:lb.
7’I do not follow the emendation of qing chun W (“green spring”) for qing tian *W (“blue sky”) suggested

in Concordance 4:35. See also Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:2 and Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5:5a. Huang seems to
believe chun is the correct reading partly because of the opening line of the “Great Summons” (“Da zhao”
*c I), which he quotes in his commentary. It contains both bai ri H] (“white sun”) and qing chun; See

Chu ci bu zhu 10:1b and Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 109. But the scene depicted in the poem seems more likely to
be set in summer. Huang also believed this, which meant he had to explain the occurrence of chun. He did
so in a rather forced way by saying, “When the sun comes out after a rain, it is lovely like spring,” and
went on to add that because the palace of an heir apparent was called both Green Palace (Qing gong W’ )
and Spring Palace (Chun gong V f), “green spring” is some kind of metaphor for the heir apparent.

7’Qi 0 and Qin X, in the east and west of northern China, often appear in connection with music. For
instance, Bao Zhao’s 1N, (ca. 412-66) “Wu cheng fu” A E, a rhapsody lamenting the destruction of

Guangling 1 [, mentions “the sounds of Wu and Cai, Qi and Qin” no longer heard there; see Wen xuan
11:12b. Li Shan points out in his commentary to Bao Zhao’s passage that the bibliographical treatise of the
Han shu lists songs from Qi and Qin. See Han shu 30:1754.

72Quoted in Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:3.

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14 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

feast that was part of that ceremony. Perhaps because of the formal nature of the affair,
“New Year’s Audience” is written in the more archaic four-word line. It was written
for the court audience and subsequent feast that occurred on the lunar New Year. Derk
Bodde writes, “The whole ceremony was political and social in its purpose: to reinforce
at the beginning of each year the ties of loyalty on the one hand and benevolence on
the other between the emperor and his subjects, and to symbolize his position at the
center of the civilized universe.”73 It isn’t clear just when this particular poem was
written, although the suggested dates all put it later than the poems we have considered
thus far: Huangchu 5 or 6 (224 or 225), or Taihe 6 (232), with the further possibilities
Huangchu 2 or 7 (221 or 226).74

New Year’s Audience75

At the year’s beginning, prime blessings!
The lucky day spells nothing but good,
So we hold a fine gathering,
And feast in this lofty hall.
The high and low sit by rank; 5

They are elegant and refined.
Their upper and lower garments are fresh and clean;
The zigzag and meander patterns are black and yellow.76
Pure wine fills their cups;77
The central seats dart forth light.78 10
Rare delicacies are heaped pell-mell;
They fill and overflow round and square dishes.
Once the mouth organs and chimes are arranged,
The small and large zithers are all displayed.
The sad songs have a shrill sound;79 15

73Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances During the Han Dynasty,
206 B.C.-A.D. 220 (Princeton: Princeton U P, 1975) 139.

74See Deng Yongkang WclJ, Wei Cao Zijian xiansheng Zhi nianpu Ili+ .t~ (Taipei: Shangwu
Yinshu guan, 1981) 44-45; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5:6b; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:5-6; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian
2:17b. Deng’s work was first published in three parts under the title “Cao Zijian nianpu xinbian” W-F
#R #;W in Dalu zazhi 34.1 (January 15, 1967): 13-20, 34.2 (January 31, 1967): 26-32, 34.3 (February 15,
1967): 30-32.
75Concordance 4:35-36; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5.6b-7a; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:5-7; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian

2:17b-18a.

76″Zigzag and meander patterns” is fu fu Hl . These two kinds of two color patterns used along the borders
of garments. The former, often described as the graphs B or i placed back-to-back in series, is the more

angular of the two. The latter was a kind of intertwined pattern, sometimes made up of S-shapes. See also

Knechtges, Wen xuan 1: 86n.
77The wine referred to here is xu l! (or i ), a wine that has had the dregs removed. See Shuo wen jie zi

zhu 11A:2.34a, 14B.40b. Cf. Mao shi 165/6.
78The meaning of this line is open to different interpretations. Huang Jie (Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:7) annotates

it with a line from the “Zhao hun” EI poem of Chu ci, in which the words teng guang WY are used to
describe the eyes of beautiful women. In Hawkes’ translation this line reads, “Mothlike eyebrows and lustrous

eyes that dart out gleams of brightness”; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 106 (my emphasis). See Chu ci bu zhu 9:8a. It

may be that Cao Zhi had the eyes of the emperor or feasters in mind when he wrote this line.
79″Shrill sound” (li xiang )X ) also appears in Cao Zhi’s “Seven Openings” (“Qi qi” -Ft ); Concordance

8:138. Liu Liang glosses that occurrence of li xiang as sheng 9, which might be rendered as “strong” or
“full”; see Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 34:647.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

We savor and chew their pure shang notes.80

Looking down, we see patterned railings;81

Looking up, we observe floriate rafters.
We want to preserve all these good things;
A thousand years to be a normal span. 20
Our joyous laughter is full of delight;
Our happiness is not ended!
The august house is glorious and noble;

Long life without end!82

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this poem is the way the four-word line

prosodic form is employed to reinforce the content to convey the impression of a more

formal gathering than we see in other feast poems. Although the refreshments, music,
and setting are all very fine (lines 11-18), and the participants are undoubtedly enjoying
themselves (lines 19-22), there is no suspicion that this is a boisterous, or even very
relaxed, affair. The description of the guests in lines 5-8 has a decorous and ceremonial

flavor that precludes the kind of free and open atmosphere we see in certain other of

Cao Zhi’s feast poems. It contrasts markedly, for example, with “I Am Unfortunate”

(“Qie bo ming” 44), below. Considering the nature of the occasion, the entire poem
is certainly meant to be eulogistic. The setting described externally symbolizes the

emperor’s virtue and power. This facet of the poem is clearest in lines 19-20, in which

the poet/speaker expresses the desire to prolong the joys of the moment. At the same

time, although there is some conventionality in this kind of expression, these lines may

imply a certain sensitivity to the uncertainties of the future, in the manner of the last

line of “Lord’s Feast.”
If the eulogistic symposium poems exhibit a certain conventionality of structure

and content, the poet had somewhat more leeway in those symposium poems in which

the eulogistic element is absent. For this reason, they cannot be as readily categorized.

For Ding Yi83

Fine guests cram between the wall’s watchtowers,
And bountiful food emerges from inner kitchens,
While myself and others

Privately feast in this corer of the city-wall.84
Zithers from Qin play western airs; 5

#”In his commentary to Zhang Heng’s “Dong jing fu” Xue Zong says that qing shang lii (“pure shang
notes”) refers to licentious music of the old state of Zheng; see Wen xuan 2:27a. But the poet’s use of the

shang note in this line is a way of reinforcing the melancholy nature of the music mentioned in the line

above, for in Chinese correlative thinking shang was the note of autumn and of sadness.
8″‘Pattemed railings” (wen xuan -ZF ) also appears in “Seven openings” (Concordance 8:136). Li Shan

explains it thus: “Wen means beautifully decorated; xuan are the palace pillars”; Wen xuan 34:21b.
82 Concordance 4:36.4-5 notes that there are the variant readings shou ruo Dong wang 9:f E (“life as

long as the Eastern King”) and shou ruo Dong huang _ (“life as long as the Eastern Sovereign).” On Dong
wang or Dong huang see note 7.

“3”Zeng Ding Yi” ST T ; see Concordance 4:45; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 5:21a; Wen xuan 24:7b-8a; Huang, Cao

Zijian shi zhu 1:44-45; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 1:7a-b; Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan 45, 115-16; Ito,
So Shoku 48-50.

‘4Cf. Zheng Xuan’s commentary to the Rites of Zhou (Zhou li iW t), where he explains cheng yu U as
“referring to a comer fousi f, .” In his subcommentary Jia Gongyan W & (fl. 627-56) says “a fousi was
a small tower”; Zhou li yishu Ait 41:16b-17a, SPPY.

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16 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

Large zithers from Qi raise an eastern song.85
When the viands come, they don’t go back empty,
But when the cups arrive, they return without a drop.
Would I act familiar with strangers?
My comrades and friends are here with me. 10
Our great country has many good, talented men
Just as the sea produces bright pearls.
The lordly man’s morality is fine and well-furnished,
But the petty man’s virtue has no store.
By amassing good deeds one has blessings to spare,86 15
And changes in fortune can be awaited any time.
Broadly affirm the great principles;87
Conventional people are too punctilious.88
The lordly man comprehends the great way,
Has no desire to be a conventional pedant.89 20

Although this poem begins as an almost prototypical feast poem, it soon devolves
into a statement of the poet’s values, in the form of advice and encouragement to Ding
Yi. The description in the first part contains parallels to other poems by Cao Zhi. If
line 2 sounds familiar, it is because it is very similar to line 5 of “Entertaining Guests”
above, and lines 5-6 contain a kind of trope often seen in feast descriptions. Cao there

employs the eastern and western place names Qi and Qin and the different music
associated with those places to show the perfection of the banquet scene. Nothing has
been left out. The feast embodies all that one could ask. This technique is not at all
unusual in Chinese poetry, nor is its use in the Jian’an limited to Cao Zhi.90 We have

85Lu Yanji says, “Girls from Qin were good at the zheng I (“zither”), and Qin is in the west, so it says
‘western airs.’ Girls from Qi were good at playing the se , (a large zither), and Qi is in the east, so it says
‘eastern song’ (dong ou M )”; Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:514. Shuo wen defines ou as a Qi song; Shuo wen

jie zi zhu 3A:18a. See also Dubs, History of the Former Han Dynasty, 1: 68n. Similarly, Zhang Xian says, “The

people of Qin were good at playing the zheng, and the people of Qi were good at playing the se”; Liu chen
zhu Wen xuan 27:514. Zhan guo ce 8:337 contains a persuasion attributed to Su Qin 4 (d. 317 B.C.) that

has the passage: “Linzi, the capital of Qi, is very wealthy and rich. Among its people there are none who

do not blow the yu ~, strum the se, strike the zhu A, pluck the qin X, fight cocks, race dogs, play liubo

and kickball (taju b 1).”
86For the origin of this familiar expression see the similar passage in the “Wen yan” t wing of the

Classic of Changes, the section dealing with the hexagram Kun J (Earth); Zhou yi yinde F,J I X!, Harvard-

Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, Supplement no. 10 (Peiping: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1935)
4. See also Richard Wilhelm, trans., The I Ching or Book of Changes, rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes,
Bollingen Series 19 (Princeton: Princeton U P, 3rd ed., 1967) 393.

87As Huang Jie points out (Cao Zijian shi zhu 1:45), taodang Ni appears in Chu ci, where Wang Yi glosses
it as “the appearance of vastness”; see Chu ci bu zhu 16:14a. Li Shan (Wen xuan 24.8a) quotes Huainan zi
i Nif (which is speaking of the zhen ren iA, the Perfected One): “He makes his spirit vast without losing

its fullness.” See Huainan zi 7:6b, SPPY. Cf. Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 1:7b; Huainan zi 8:11a.
8″Li Shan (Wen xuan 24:8a) quotes Huainan zi: “The reason why one cannot talk about the perfect way

with obscure scholars is because they are constrained by convention and tied down by education.” See
Huainan zi 1:7a.

“‘On “conventional pedant” (shi ru itI ), see Wang Chong iEt (27-97), Lun heng ti (Shanghai: Renmin
chuban she, 1974) 28.432-33; Alfred Forke, trans., Lun-Heng (New York: Paragon Book Gallery, 1962 rpt.)
2: 321-32. Wang Chong says that the conventional scholar who expounds the Classics really can’t compare,
despite what many people think, with the literary scholar (wen ru iIO ) who writes his own works.

9″Cao Pi, for instance, uses this trope in his “Bronze Bird Garden”: “Performers from Qi do an eastern

dance;/Qin zithers play western music”; see Ouyang Xun IltRi (557-641) et. al., comps., Yiwen leiju (fu
leishu shi zhong suoyin) ff)Wi ( Rft-*+b i ) (Taipei: Wenguang chuban she, 1974) 28:500.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

already seen it in lines 7-8 of “Seated in Attendance on the Heir Apparent” (“Players
from Qi present rare music;/The singers come from western Qin”). It appears again
in “Harp Song,” lines 5-6 (“Qin zithers how impassioned/Large Qi zithers mellow
and soft”), and in line 6 of “Entertaining Guests” (“Beautiful singing girls from Qi and

Zheng perform”).
Where this poem differs from some poems set against the background of the feast

is in the contrast it presents between palace feasts and the private feasting of friends.
Since this is an occasional poem, we should note here that while the Ding brothers
were friends and supporters of Cao Zhi for the heir apparency, there was no love lost
between them and Cao Pi, who became heir apparent and emperor. In fact, when Cao
Pi established the Wei in 220, the Dings were put to death.91 The privacy of the

symposium commemorated in the poem reflects the emphasis Cao Zhi places on friend-

ship (see lines 9-10). This same emphasis is seen in “Harp Song,” lines 13-14 (“Old
ties may not be forgotten:/To neglect them in the end is what friendship faults”). But

considering the last half of the poem, it may also be that Cao Zhi just doesn’t care for
the polite affectations involved in mixing with the general crowd. The second half of
the poem is addressed to Ding Yi, but it may also be read as a poetical statement of
a part of Cao Zhi’s value system. It is an exhortation towards a certain combination
of behavior and character-that of the junzi. There is also an undertone of the need
for patience. Cao’s writings abound in references to his desire to perform lasting deeds
of merit and sometimes speak of his frustration at not being given a chance to do so.
We can perhaps surmise a like ambition on the part of Ding Yi. Lines 11-12 have the

particular implication that Ding Yi is one of the “bright pearls” of his time. The rest
of the poem is given over to a description of the attributes of the junzi, which men
like Ding and Cao himself should embrace.

The junzi-petty man dichotomy posed in the poem is common in Chinese philos-
ophy and literature. Here, Cao Zhi points to the junzi (“lordly man”) as a man with
a large store of principle, which he can draw on in bad times, in contradistinction to
the small or lowly man, who has barely enough virtue to get by in the best of times
(lines 13-14). Line 15, a modification of a line from one of the “Wings” of the Classic

of Change, is still seen and heard today. Taken together with line 16, the meaning is
that if one has been given to good works, then one can withstand the fluctuations of
fortune with equanimity. The junzi, of course, will comport himself in a way that will
ensure the accumulation of good. However, Cao Zhi would not have Ding Yi or his
other readers confuse being a junzi with being a Ru-ist pedant.

Some of the most important Confucian commentators on the Classics lived in the
later Han, but at the same time Confucianism seems to have been plagued by an “empty
formalism.”92 This is what Cao Zhi is warning against in his last four lines. He advocates
holding to major principles without letting oneself be bound by minor rules of behavior
(lines 17-18), apparently a common fault. Chen Yibai 1-~ has said that Cao Zhi
seems to have believed that the junzi need not be tied down by the formal aspects of

9’San guo zhi 19:561-62 and the Wei luiie passages in Pei’s commentary. See also Hugh Dunn, Ts’ao Chih:
The Life of a Princely Chinese Poet (Taipei: China News, preface dated 1970) 70-71; Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao
Zhi shi xuan 109; and Rafe de Crespigny, The Records of the Three Kingdoms (Canberra: Australian National

University Centre of Oriental Studies, 1970) 12.

92Joseph Needham and Wang Ling, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1956) 2:
30.

17

18 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

etiquette. One might be a junzi by having the mind (xin ,,) of a junzi; but if one had
the mind of a lowly man, then all the formalities in the world would not make one a

junzi.93 What is important for the junzi is to understand the Way, and this is something
quite different from being a run-of-the-mill Confucian scholar (lines 19-20). The echo
of Wang Chong in the last line is unmistakable. Wang Chong’s biting scepticism is
well known, and the fact that his thought contains a good deal that was Confucian
did not save Confucian scholars from attack. In addition to what is mentioned in note
89, Wang Chong also critizied the word-for-word parroting of the words of former
teachers by Confucian scholars. He says, “Although they train more than one hundred

disciples and are Erudites or Literary Scholars, they still belong to the category of

postmen and doormen.”94
We can actually trace a line from Wang Chong to Cao Zhi. Cai Yong #, (133-

192) was one of the most influential learned men of Later Han, and he thought highly
of Wang Chong’s work.95 Cai, in turn, was acquainted with the teenaged Wang Can,
whom he considered very talented-so talented that he was moved to turn his library
over to the youngster.96 There existed, therefore, a channel for influence from Wang
Chong through Cai Yong to Cao Zhi by way of his associate Wang Can. It matters
little if this filiation is tenuous, because there was something in the age that made it
natural for Cao Zhi to exhibit a certain disparagement of the average Confucian pedant;
something more than the antipathy that sometimes exists between creative writers and
scholars. In Cao Zhi’s time it was abundantly clear that the Confucian scholars of the

age had no power to deal with the recurrent factionalism, governmental breakdown,
and war that dogged the land. Cao Zhi was not alone in these views. (Ronald Miao
has suggested that disillusionment with classical exegesis is one of the ideas that informs
Cao Pi’s “Lun wen.”97) This general attitude of the period toward the ineffectiveness
of current Confucian pursuits in dealing with real problems is also seen in the gov-
ernmental sphere. It led Cao Cao to go against Han tradition by calling for the re-
cruitment of officials on the basis of practical ability in certain of his orders.98 The junzi
and the Ru-ist are often thought of as being closely related concepts. “For Ding Yi”
shows that Cao Zhi labored under no such misconception.99

Near the beginning of this discussion it was suggested that there is a connection
between the troubled nature of the last years of the Han, the penchant of the Jian’an
poets for convivial gatherings, and the feast poems. Some of the poems that incorporate
the feast have a carpe diem element that seems sparked by acute sensitivity to the
impermanence of happiness and of life itself.

9Chen Yibai, Cao Zijian shi yanjiu IWI~Ft (Hong Kong: Dafang tushu gongsi, n.d.) 37-38.
94Wang, Lun heng 27:419. The Hou Han shu acknowledges Wang’s anti-pedantic views: “He considered that

while common scholars stuck to the texts, they lost much of the truth of them”; Hou Han shu 49:1629. See
also Forke, Lun-Heng 2: 143; Miao, “Literary Criticism at the End of the Eastern Han” 1023; and Liu, Han
Wei zhi ji wenxue de xingshi yu neirong 7-8.

9See Li Xian’s VT (651-684) commentary quoting Yuan Shansong’s *lt (d. 401) History of the Later
Han; Hou Han shu 49:1629.

6San guo zhi 21:597.
97Miao, “Literary Criticism at the End of the Eastern Han” 1019.
98Li, Cao shi fu zi he Jian’an wenxue 16; Miao, “Literary Criticism at the end of the Eastern Han” 1024; Paul

Kroll, “Portraits of Ts’ao Ts’ao: Literary Studies on the Man and the Myth,” diss., U of Michigan, 1976, 17-
20, 51-53.

99This distinction is reminiscent of Lun yu 6:13: “The Master said to Tzu-hsia, ‘Be a gentleman ju, not a
petty ju’ “; D. C. Lau, trans., The Analects (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1979) 83.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

Famous Towns’00

The famous towns have many bewitching girls;101
Luo capital produces its young men.
Their precious swords are worth a thousand in gold;
The clothes they wear are beautiful and fresh.

They fight cocks on the eastern suburb road; 5

They ride their horses between tall catalpas.
Before I’ve galloped half the way,
A brace of rabbits crosses in front.
I grasp my bow, nock a singing arrowhead,102
And give a long chase up the southern hills.103 10
I draw to the left and shoot to the right;
A single shot impales both the game.
With other tricks yet to be shown,
I raise my hands and hit a winging kite head on.
The onlookers all praise my skill, 15
And the archers all attribute it to my fine technique.
We return and feast at Pingle Lookout;104
The excellent wine is ten thousand a ladle.

They mince carp, stew roe-bearing globe fish,’05
Jelly turtle, broil bear paws.106 20

“””Ming du pian” 1f ti; See Concordance 5:61-62; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:5b-6b; Wen xuan 27:22b-23a; Guo
Maoqian Saf (twelfth century), comp., Yuefu shi ji fRit (Beijing: Zhonghua shufu, 1979) 63:912;
Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:71-73; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 3:4a-5a; Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan 30-
31, 92-93; It6, So Shoku 134-38.

‘”‘Cf. Zhang Xian, who says “famous towns” (ming du) refers to cities such as Handan 9W, northwest of
modem Cheng’an 6 County in Hebei, and Linzi 0 ifj; see Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:514. This explanation
is repeated in Guo, Yuefu shiji 63:912. Zhang probably had in mind the five famous royal cities (wang du
Iig ) of the Han.

“‘2Zhang Xian (Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:514) says jie I means “draw” (yin 3i ), but Karlgren notes that
jie is used as a loan word for cha A (“insert”). See Bernhard Karlgren, Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm:
Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1972 rpt.) no. 636b.

“‘3The southern hills mentioned here may be Da shi shan * ,H LI, located south of Luoyang. See Zhao,
Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:485-86.

“‘4Emperor Ming (Ming di M V; reg. 58-75) had the Pingle 1* Lookout erected outside the western gate
of Luoyang. See San fu huang tu -= id 5:8a-b, SPTK. See also Knechtges, Wen xuan 1: 260.

“‘5Xia f is another name for the fen St, a fish that is probably the same as the ban yu 3X A. See Hao Yixing
IR3fT (1757-1825), ed. Zuben Erya Guo zhu yishu Jti*;-MON (Taibei: Dingwen shuju, 1972) C:4:7b

and Xu Shen 1f, Shuo wen jie zi zhu =-5Ttt, comm. Duan Yucai RN: a (1735-1815) (Taibei: Yiwen
yinshu guan, 1974 rpt.) 11B:27b-28a, 24b. Bernard Read, Chinese Materia Medica: Fish Drugs (Taibei: Southern
Materials Center, 1977 rpt.) No. 175, identifies it as the globe fish. Note that Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:486,
says that tai af should be read tai e;. In that case, “roe-bearing globe fish” becomes “chub mackerel and
globe fish.”

‘””There is a variant here. Concordance 5:62 and Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:.514 have 1 ( f, ) gNi!n, but
Wen xuan 27:23a, Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:6b, and Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:71 all read han * instead of bao
C. Han occurs in a similar context in “Seven Openings” (Concordance 8:134 and Wen xuan 34:16a). It belongs
to the category of cooking called jiang S, or things made into a paste or jelly. See Huang, Cao Zijian shi
zhu 2:72; Wen xuan 34:16a; Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:486. Ding Yan’s authority for the reading bao is Mao
shi 177/6: M tINS. But Yang Shen W* (1488-1559) rejects this reading. He writes:

That the wu chen text recklessly changes it to bao is probably because bao bie kuai li is an old line
from the Classic of Songs, and, among those of shallow learning, who would not take han as an error

19

20 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

I call my companions and shout for my partners and mates;
We sit in a row and fill the long mat.
Then, we fly back and forth playing kickball and pegs,’07
Nimble and agile in innumerable ways.
The white sun speeds to the southwest; 25

Light and shadow cannot be held back.

Scattering like clouds, we return to the city;
In the clear dawn we will come again.

“Famous Towns” is not a datable poem, although Li Chendong judges from its
mood that it must have been written during the happier early years of Cao Zhi’s life.108
Whether or not this is true, I gather from it that Li’s opinion of the poem is similar to

mine; that is, that the work has no hidden meaning. Others have held different views.
One such is that the poem criticizes a tendency toward the enjoyment of sport and

play and a lack of patriotism. This was first suggested by Zhang Xian, was repeated
in Song times, and still appears from time to time.109 Another view is that the poem
is allegorical and expresses Cao’s bitterness at being denied the opportunity to perform
meritorious service for his country. This idea dates from Ming times.’10 But there doesn’t
seem to be any reason to read the poem in either of these two ways. Ignoring these

interpretations, the ballad becomes a lively depiction of a few hours in the lives of

young men of the leisured class. The narrative moves quickly, from the description of
the young men and their pursuits, through the archery exploits of one of them, and
on to an impromptu feast and the games that follow it. But at the end the speaker feels
time’s tug at his sleeve. In the last four lines of the poem we sense the inexorable

passage of time and feel something of desperation, as if the youths had heard an
admonition to “Live!” and were determined to pack their days with the only kind of

living they knew. It is a somewhat less direct expression of the same idea that infuses
the last stanza of Sir Walter Scott’s “Hunting Song”:

Louder, louder chant the lay,
Waken, lords and ladies gay!
Tell them youth and mirth and glee
Run a course as well as we;
Time, stern huntsman! who can balk,

and follow the reading bao. They don’t stop to think that the written forms of han and bao are quite
different and that the sounds are not the same. How can one make such an error? Yang Shen, Dan
qian yu lu f;i k 14:4b-5a, Siku quanshu zhen ben E] it 3, *.

I have followed the reading han on the basis of its occurrence in “Seven Openings.”
1’7Ju I (“kickball”) was a game played by kicking a wool-filled leather ball back and forth over a net. See

Zhuang Shen EE3, “Zhongguo gudai de tiyu yundong” op[1]flt.b~:, Dalu zazhi 7.2(1953): 4-6.
See also Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yu 363.

Rang * (“pegs”) was a game using two pieces of wood, broad on one end and pointed on the other. Each

piece was one chi four cun long, and three cun wide. One was put at a distance of thirty to forty paces and
the object was to hit it with the other piece. See Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan, 92-93; Beijing daxue

Zhongguo wenxue shi jiaoyan shi AM,3T7O~ ~tltlfE , eds., Wei Jin Nanbei chao wenxue shi cankao
ziliao m^iLi ~ ~i (Hong Kong: Hongzhi shudian, n.d. rpt.) 87.

“”Li, “Cao Zhi de zuopin fenqi” 58.
“‘”See Liu chen zhu Wen xuan 27:514; Guo, Yuefu shi ji 63:912; Wei Jin Nanbei chao wenxue shi cankao ziliao

85.
“””See Wei Jin Nanbei chao wenxue shi cankao ziliao 85.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

Stanch as hound and fleet as hawk;
Think of this, and rise with day,
Gentle lords and ladies gay!

Certain lines of “Famous Towns” are quite similar to lines used elsewhere in Cao’s

corpus. Food imagery can convey many meanings. In Keats (“She found me roots of
relish sweet,/And honey wild, and manna dew”) they may represent consumptive
death masquerading as true love. In the present poem, as in the case of other of the

symposium poems, they lend an atmosphere of perfection and luxury (lines 19-20).
These lines are comparable to others in Cao Zhi’s “Seven Openings,” lines where the

piling up of food images takes on an almost hypnotic effect:

Jellied turtle that nests on fragrant lotuses,
Minced flying fish from the western seas,
Soup of underwater alligator from east of the Jiang,
Stewed calling quail from south of the Han.'”

The reference to the impossibility of stopping time in lines 25-26 of “Famous Towns”
calls to mind line 18 (“And time races on its westward course”) in the next feast poem,
“Harp Song.” We also saw this same idea toward the end of the section of Cao Zhi’s
letter to Wu Zhi translated above. “Harp Song,” like “Famous Towns,” is concerned
at its end (lines 17-24) with the passage of time and with mutability. The recognition
of the bitter truth there, and its acceptance in line 24 (“Knowing fate, what more is
there to worry about?”), seems a calmer and more carefully reasoned response than
the day after day pursuit of action by the youths of “Famous Towns.” But in fact they
are both reactions to the ugly shadow that occasionally haunted the minds of Jian’an
poets, even when they wrote about festivities. Here we can see Cao Zhi’s sense of the

fitting. In “Famous Towns,” a poem about rather rowdy young men, he eschews the
ruminative and philosophical statements that are entirely appropriate to the more sedate

“Harp Song.”

Harp Song”2

We set out wine atop a lofty basilica,
And close friends rove there with me.

“‘Concordance 8:134.8-9.

“2”Konghou yin : l[; see Concordance 5:55-56; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:lb-2a; Wen xuan 27:20b-21a; Guo,

Yuefu shi ji 39:571; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:60-62; Gu, Cao Zijian shu jian 3:la-2a; Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi
Cao Zhi shi xuan 23, 77-78; Ito, So Shoku 123-26.

In Yuefu shi ji the poem follows the Jin dynasty musicians’ version under the title of that version, “Yetian
huangque xing si jie” EffEB*] fdr9. See also Song shu RX (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974) 21:620.

A story attaches to the title “Harp Song.” According to Cui Bao’s Gu jin zhu t t’, the authenticity of
which is doubtful,

“Konghou yin” was composed by Liyu iT, the wife of a Chaoxian ford guard named Huoli Zigao
IT-FTl. One morning Zigao got up, and pushing off his boat, rowed. There was a white-haired

old eccentric, with disheveled hair and carrying a wine jug, who began crossing against the current.
His wife followed, yelling to stop him, but was not in time, so he fell into the river and drowned.
Thereupon, she took up her konghou and played it, composing the song “Sir, Do Not Cross the River.”
Its sound was extremely sorrowful. When the tune came to an end, she threw herself into the river
and died. Huoli Zigao returned and told his wife Liyu about her music. Liyu grieved for her and,
drawing up the Konghou, she composed the music. Everyone who heard it wept in sorrow. Liyu
taught the music to her neighbor Lirong. Naming it “Konghou yin” comes from this. Cui Bao, Gu jin

21

22 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

The inner kitchen prepares bountiful food,
Boils lamb, cuts up a fat ox.
Qin zithers how impassioned! 5

Large Qi zithers mellow and soft.

Yang’e performs a wondrous dance,13
From Luo capital come famous songs.
We cheerfully drink more than three cups,114
Loosen our belts and empty the numerous delicacies. 10
The host says, “A gift of a thousand in gold!”’15
The guests offer a “Long life!” toast.
Old ties may not be forgotten:116
To neglect them in the end is what friendship faults.

Modesty is the lordly man’s virtue,117 15
But what is there to gain going bent like a chime?118
A startling wind whips the white sun,
And light and shadow race on their westward course.
The prime of life does not come twice,
And after a hundred years we quickly come to an end. 20

Though we may live in splendid houses,
Withered and wasted, we return to mountains and hills.
Of people in the past, who did not die?

Knowing fate, what more is there to worry about?19

We can only say that “Harp Song” is an early poem. Zhu Xuzeng points out that

during the reigns of Emperor Wen (Cao Pi, reg. 220-226) and Emperor Ming (Cao Rui
W t reg. 227-239), Cao Zhi did not have the opportunity to do any entertaining of

guests and relations.120 He goes on to say that it was written while Cao was Marquis
of Linzi or Marquis of Pingyuan, but we cannot be sure of that.121

zhu C:lb-2a, SPPY.

See also Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:60; Wei Jin Nanbei chao wenxue shi cankao ziliao 79; and Chou Ying-
hsiung, “‘Lord, Do Not Cross the River’: Literature as Mediating Process,” New Asia Academic Bulletin 1

(1978): 112-13.

“3The biography of Flying Swallow Zhao (Zhao Feiyan A^ t, d. A.D.1), the beautiful singer and dancer
who became empress dowager, says, “When she grew up, she belonged to the household of the Princess
of Yang’e, where she studied voice and dance”; Han shu 97B:3988. Another relevant association of Yang’e
lK comes from Huainan zi, where it appears in connection with dance and is glossed by Gao You Ai
(fl. 205-12) as the name of a famous entertainer; see Huainan zi 2:1b.

“4The Record of Rites prescribes that the junzi should stop drinking at a feast after three cups; see Li ji
Zheng zhu 9:4a-b.

“‘The Shi ji biography of Lu Zhonglian ,ir says:

Thereupon, the Lord of Pingyuan wanted to enfeoff Lu Zhonglian, but Lu thrice turned away envoys
and was in the end unwilling to accept. The Lord of Pingyuan then held a banquet and, when he
was feeling tipsy, rose and went forward, making a long life present of a thousand in gold to Lu
Zhonglian; Shi ji 83:2465.

“6Cf. Lun yu 14.12.
“7Cf. Classic of Changes, Hexagram 15, 6/1; Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of Changes 463-64.

I’Qing zhe Iri is a term descriptive of bending over or bowing. A qing is a stone chime, or lithophone.
It is the shape of a lithophone that inspires the term. On lithophones, see Needham et al., Science and
Civilisation in China 4.1: 145ff.

“9The “Commentary on the Appended Texts” (“Xici zhuan” V8 ) of the Classic of Changes says, “He

rejoices in Heaven and his knowledge of fate; therefore he is free of care”; Wilhelm, The I Ching or Book of
Changes 295. See Zhou yi yinde 40.

‘2’Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:2a.
2’See Xu, “Cao Zhi shige de xiequo niandai wenti” 157. He held these marquisates between 211 and 220

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

“Harp Song” is one of those symposium poems in which the description of the

symposium is interrupted by a sudden awareness of time. The change begins at line
13. This last part of the poem is philosophical in its attitude toward life and its ac-

ceptance of the inevitability of death. The poet asks what a lordly man (junzi), a type
that cultivates modesty as a matter of course, could possibly hope to gain by being
humble and subservient. Modesty is necessary, but not excessive modesty, not back-

bending modesty. After all, time is rushing onward, and at the end a man, be he ever
so great, is still laid low and returns to dust. In the last line recognition becomes

acceptance, and acceptance becomes freedom. It seems to me that the poem values

enjoyment of life and friendship over incessant striving. We may doubt the degree of
belief that the last line commands, but we need not doubt it in the same way some
have. Many scholars have been overly enthusiastic in finding interpretations of Cao’s
works that fit their conceptions of his life.122 We have already experienced this in
connection with “Famous Towns.” They often look for-and looking for, find-ulterior
motives or intents where they do not necessarily exist. In the case of “Harp Song,”
for instance, the editors of one anthology propose quite a different interpretation for
the end of the poem. They do not consider the last line a rhetorical question at all.

They say the poem has a positive meaning and that it expresses the desire to perform
some undertaking of note. They go on to say, however, that the last line is ambiguous
and can easily make people have “an unhealthy way of looking at things.”123

In “Harp Song” Cao calls on images and language that appear in other of his works
as well. We have already noted parallels to line 3 (“The inner kitchen prepares bountiful

foods”) in “Entertaining Guests” and “For Ding Yi.” In the latter (also line 3) there is
a different word order, and the word chu ff (“come out,” “issue”) is substituted for
ban 0 (“prepare”). In the former the same basic line is couched in Sao-style prosody
(line 5). The use of the place names Qi and Qin with reference to music has already
been discussed under “For Ding Yi.”

Lines of Cao Zhi’s that are often praised include the opening lines of “For Xu Gan”
(“Zeng Xu Gan” IR&i): “A startling wind whips the white sun,/And sends it suddenly
back to the western hills.”124 The similarity to lines 17-18 of the present poem is

apparent. The speaker, so sensitive to time, sees the sun (day) hurtling through the
sky on a strong wind. Further discussion of the time element in “Harp Song” may be
found in my earlier remarks on “Famous Towns.”

Up to this point, with the exception of the four-word line shi poem “New Year’s
Audience,” the three shi poems (“Lord’s Feast,” “Seated in Attendance on the Heir
Apparent,” and “For Ding Yi”) and two yuefu poems (“Famous Towns” and “Harp
Song”) that we have considered have all been in five-word lines. Here we will take
up two yuefu poems in mixed meter. The first has line lengths of 3-3-7-3-3-4-4-4-4-4-
4-4-4 and the second line lengths of 4-4-4-4-5-5-5-5.

‘2’See Xu, “Cao Zhi shige de xiequo niandai wenti” 157. He held these marquisates between 211 and 220
or 221. See San guo zhi 19:557, 561; Cutter, “Cao Zhi (192-232) and His Poetry” 481-83.

’22Hans H. Frankel, “Fifteen Poems by Ts’ao Chih: An Attempt at a New Approach,” JAOS 84.1 (January-
March 1964): 1-14, was an important attempt to correct this, though a little-too sweeping, perhaps, in its

rejection of extra-literary data.
’23Wei Jin Nanbei chao wenxue shi cankao ziliao 81.
’24See Shen Deqian kfIf (1673-1769), Shuo shi suiyu &94 “-t i h, quoted in Hebei Shifan yuan Zhongwen

xi gudian wenxue jiaoyan zu inJit B ?l +: X A-Z M I * , eds., San Cao ziliao huibian _ W*^ 8
(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980) 182.

23

24 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

To “In Days to Come of Great Trouble”125

The day is painfully short
And our enjoyment too great,

So jade tumblers are set, preparations made in the east kitchen.
We open our true feelings,126
Our hearts are close. 5

We set out wine behind closed doors,
And are cordial and merry.’27
Set the horses to roam and bring them back late,
Tip the carriages poles up and take off their wheels.’28

Today we share the same hall, 10
But once out the door, we scatter to different places.
Parting is all to easy, meeting is hard,
So let’s all empty our cups and goblets.

The opening couplet complains that the day is too short to contain the happy mood
of the group. This is reminiscent of other Jian’an symposium literature, such as the

opening lines of Liu Zhen’s “Lord’s Feast.” As in Liu’s poem, the activities spill over
into the night. The participants drink wine and call for food (line 3). Indoors and relaxed

by alcohol, they are able to open up and reveal their true feelings, to draw close together
in a “cordial and merry” atmosphere (lines 4-7). Although the poem emphasizes the
notion of being alone together with close friends that we have already seen in “For

Ding Yi,” it seems to me that here it has an added meaning in the context of the entire

poem. It is almost as if privacy and enclosed space are prerequisites for this process,
as though time and open space are threats that need to be walled out. In fact, the
threats become explicit in lines 11-12 (“But once out the door, we scatter to different
places./Parting is all too easy, meeting is hard”). One might nearly as well treat this
as a poem on parting, one of the most common themes in all Chinese literature. But
we now know that an awareness of the fleeting nature of good times and of life itself
is fairly common in Jian’an symposium poems. The poem is about a party, and those
present are hoping to make the most of their time. The speaker even wants to use
unusual means to delay the departure of the guests in the delightful eighth and ninth
lines (“Set the horses to roam and bring them back late;/Tip the carriages poles up
and take off their wheels”). But he has already shown what he knows all along; despite

12′”Dang lai ri da nan”
*

E]-k; see Concordance 5:66; Zhu, Cao ji kao yu 6:16a; Guo, Yuefu shi ji 36:540-
41; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:97-98; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 3:2a-b; Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan
26, 83-84; Ito, So Shoku 179-82.

In the same section of Yuefu shi ji (36:535-36) is an anonymous yuefu in four-word lines entitled “Shan
zai xing” H Ak F that begins: “In days to come of great trouble/Our mouths and lips will be parched
and dry.” This poem, too, has a feast as its setting, and it is to this poem that Cao Zhi’s title refers. “Shan
zai xing” is included in Concordance 5:65-66, but Ding quite rightly doubts that it can be by Cao Zhi. See
also Frankel, “The Problem of Authenticity in the Works of Ts’ao Chih” 193-94. Xu Gongchi places “To ‘In
Days to Come of Great Trouble'” in Cao’s early period in Ye, on the basis of theme and content; see Xu,
“Cao Zhi shige de xiezuo niandai wenti” 157.

‘2^Here I follow Gu Zhi (Cao Zijian shi jian 3:2b) in understanding qinggu KAt as equivalent to qingsu tN
#(“true feelings”). See also Ito, So Shoku 181 and Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan 84.
’27For the use of “cordial” (hele uID ) and “merry” (xinxin ffJi ) in banquet poems in the Classic of Songs

see Mao shi 161/3, 164/6, 7, and 248/5.
’28Following the interpretation offered in Yu, Cao Cao Cao Pi Cao Zhi shi xuan 84.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

any attempt to squeeze the most from the feast, it will end and the guests all go their

separate ways. The same determination to get the fullest possible enjoyment from the

gathering is reflected in the second of these mixed meter yuefu.

To “The Carriages are Hitched”’29

Happily seated in a jade basilica,
Bringing together all the honored guests.
Servants pass goblets;
The host leaves his place.

Turning to look in the east and west chambers, 5
There are strings and woods, drums and bells.’30

They won’t go home until they’re drunk,’31
And carry on the night with bright lanterns.

Several by now obvious conventions have gone into making up this very conven-
tional and rather undistinguished poem. It leaves the scholar or critic rather little to
talk about, although Huang Jie is concerned lest we misread the poet’s stance regarding
drinking because of this piece. More than one literary scholar has quoted from Cao
Zhi’s “Wine Rhapsody” (“Jiu fu” iAR) to show that the poet knew the harmfulness of

drinking. Huang Jie does so with regard to “To ‘The Carriages Are Hitched”‘ to show
that its last two lines are not really representative of Cao Zhi’s attitude.132 Such ar-

guments are unnecessary and seem forced. The first thing to remember is that there
is ample evidence of Cao Zhi’s fondness for wine.’33 Furthermore, as he states in his

preface to it, the “Wine Rhapsody” was inspired by Yang Xiong’s somewhat playful
work by the same title.134 Thus, it may have been as much a literary exercise as anything.
We know, for instance, that Wang Can also wrote a “Wine Rhapsody.”’35

In groping for an understanding of historical figures there is often a tendency to

oversimplify, to impose consistency on the memory where none existed in the man.
Here we have x number of poems that Cao Zhi wrote about drinking and having a

good time. Here we have a fu in which he may be warning about the bad effects of
alcohol. The apparent contradiction, if it exists, ought not to be overly emphasized and
should not cause us to misread “To ‘The Carriages Are Hitched.’ ” Critics like Huang
Jie were unable to refrain from imputing what they considered acceptable moral stan-
dards to Cao Zhi. In fact, “To ‘The Carriages Are Hitched’ ” is distinctly about a group

’29″Dang ju yi jia xing” atJUf,y; see Concordance 5:72; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:18b-19a; Guo, Yuefu shi ji
61:888-89; Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:104-5, Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 3:2a.

‘”Pi ” and duo I may also refer to the dances in which those instruments were used. See, for instance,
Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:462.

‘”‘This line is an adaptation of a line found in Mao shi 174/1. Other Jian’an symposium poems that use

adaptations of the Classic of Songs line include Wang Can’s “Lord’s Feast” (line 12, Wen xuan 20:13a) and

Ying Yang’s “In Attendance at the Jianzhang Terrace Gathering of the General of the Gentlemen-of-the-
Household for All Purposes” (line 26, Wen xuan 20:15a).

‘2Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:105. Others who use “Wine Rhapsody” in this way are Liu, Cao Zhi ping
zhuan 53, 55 and Ding Yan in his marginalia (Concordance 3:32-33).

‘”San guo zhi 19:557-58.
‘4Concordance 3:32. For a discussion and translation of Yang Xiong’s piece see David R. Knechtges, “Yang

Shyong, the Fuh, and Hann Rhetoric,” diss., U of Washington, 1968, 69-72, 371-72. See also David R.

Knechtges, “Wit, Humor, and Satire in Early Chinese Literature,” MS 29 (1970-1971): 79-98.
“‘See Yiwen leiju 72:1249.

25

26 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

feasting together and the reluctance of the host to let them depart. As Xu Gongchi has
observed, “This is an unadulterated feasting song.”’36

In sharp contrast to the conventionality and simplicity of “To ‘The Carriages Are
Hitched'” stands Cao’s “I Am Unfortunate.” This is one of the most intriguing and

problem-laden sets of verses in Cao Zhi’s corpus. There has not even been agreement
on how many poems the lines comprise, the numbers ranging from one to three.137 In
addition, there are several loose lines attributed to the title in other places. These are

appended to the text in Concordance 5:60, but I have not attempted to deal with them
here.

I Am Unfortunate’38
I

I hold the jade white hand, happily share a carriage,139
Side-by-side climb soaring steps to a cloud-high gallery.’40
Angler’s Terrace is tall and serene,’41
The pools and ponds, lodges and meres are pleasant.

Looking up, we drift dragon boats on green waves; 5
Looking down, we pluck branches and stalks of divine plants.142

‘”Xu, “Cao Zhi shige de xiezuo niandai wenti” 156.
’37See Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:65-66 and Ito, So Shoku 191. Yiwen leiju 41:741-43 makes it one poem

(the text there is incomplete). Yuefu shi ji 62:902 makes it two poems. Yu tai xin yong Ti*Si contains

only the second poem; see Jianzhu Yu tai xin yong AI, comm. Wu Zhaoyi AjAI (fl. ca. 1672), ed. Cheng
Yan V. (Taipei; Guangwen shuju, 1967 photo rpt.) 9:8a-b.

‘3″Qie bo ming” iib; see Concordance 5:59-60; Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:3b-5a; Guo, Yuefu shi ji 62:902-3;
Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:65-69; Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 4:la-2b; Ito, So Shoku 190-201.

‘”The line reads xi yu shou xi tong ju ^t,-SH . Mao shi 41/1, 2, 3, respectively, contain the following
lines: xi shou tong xing fi, xi shou tong gui mB, xi shou tong ju. Cao Zhi uses the first of these verbatim in
“Seven Openings” (Concordance 8:138.4).

‘4″Note that in the “Seven Openings” line immediately following the one mentioned in the preceding note,
“soaring steps” (fei chu YR ) appears. Li Shan (Wen xuan 34:22a) explains it there by quoting Sima Biao’s
MACh (240-306) commentary to the “Imperial Park” to the effect that chu refers to the steps of a multi-

storied building.
One edition of Cao’s works has bei At (“north”) instead of bi (“side-by-side” ); see Cao Zhi, Chen Si Wang

ji
,

E,
t 2:6a, Han Wei Liu chao baisan ming jia ji. This is followed by Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:66 and

K. P. K. Whitaker, “Tsaur Jyr’s Song of the Ill-fated Lady,” BSOAS 17 (1955): 528. On rather flimsy evidence

Huang suggests the place in the poem is the Phoenix Gate Tower of the Jianzhang Palace, for which see
Shi ji 12:482 and Laurence Sickman and Alexander Soper, The Art and Architecture of China (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1978 rpt.) 377-78. But Zhang Pu’s text is not always reliable, and I seriously
doubt this identification. For a more plausible identification of the sites mentioned and alluded to in the

poem, see Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:480.
‘4’Jianchan .t appears in Zhang Heng’s “Xi jing fu,” where Xue Zong glosses it as being descriptive of

form; see Wen xuan 2:1 la. Huang Jie (Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:66) calls attention to the discussion in Hu Shaoying’s
~M (1791-1860) Wen xuan jian zheng -itl. Hu says that jianchan is also written 1 .tl, as in Dongfang

Shuo’s *t7 (ca. 161-ca. 87 B.C.) “Seven Remonstrances.” The pertinent line is in Chu ci bu zhu 13:17a,
and Hawkes translates it “I gazed on the rugged peaks of the high mountains”; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 131.
Jianchan is applied to things that are lofty and things that are curving. The term is used in Sima Xiangru’s
“Imperial Park,” and Pei Yin’s H (fl. 465-72) gloss quotes the Han shu yin yi AMH -3 A as saying, “Jianchan
means quzhe )i* (“curving”)’; Shi ji 117:3022-23. In the present poem it must, as Huang observes, be

descriptive of height.
’42According to Huang Jie, “divine plants” (shen cao tiN ) may refer to the lotus; see Huang, Cao Zijian

shi zhu 2:66. But Zhao Youwen suggests that it may mean the magic mushroom (ling zhi i d ); see Zhao,
Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:481.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

We think of Fu Fei on the Luo River;

Returning, sing of Han Girls and the Fair One of the Xiang.’43

II
The sun and moon have gone and hid in the west.144
But still we gather in fragrant rooms and secluded chambers.’45
Colorful lanterns and movable screens scatter light,’46
Brightly, like the sun rising from the Fusang tree.147
Round crowded cups and close set mats we pass wine vessels. 5

’43Fu Fei ,E is mentioned from time to time in early literature. She appears in Chu ci in “Encountering
Sorrow” and “Roving Afar.” See Chu ci bu zhu 1:24b, 5:96; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 29, 86. Wang Yi’s commentary
identifies her as the goddess of the Luo; Chu ci bu zhu 5:9b. Ru Chun’s 1gi (fl. 189-265) commentary in
Shi ji 117:3040 says that she was the daughter of the legendary ruler Fuxi fiA and that she drowned in
the Luo and became its goddess.

Wandering girls (you nii X ) of the Han River are first mentioned in Mao shi 9/1, but the meaning there
is not supernatural. At some point the story of a supernatural girl or girls of the Han (Han nui i H ) devolved.
We see it in effect in the present poem and in Cao’s “Luo shen fu” Ai lt, but its existence is apparent
earlier, as in Yang Xiong’s “Barricade Hunt Rhapsody” (“Jiao lie fu” &kR ). See Han shu 87A:3550; Knechtges,
The Han Rhapsody 70, 133. One story has it that one day when Jiaofu Mi of Zheng was strolling by the
Han River, he encountered two girls. He requested a token from them and got it, but after he had gone only
ten paces he no longer saw the token, and when he turned to look at the two girls, they suddenly disappeared.
See Lie xian zhuan N4LA A:llb-12a, Dao zang (H-Y 138).

The Fair One(s) of the Xiang seems to refer to one or both of the wives of Shun. The “Annals of the First

Emperor of Qin” (“Qin shi huang ben ji” h0 iik ) says:

Travelling in a southwesterly direction he crossed over the R. Huai and came at length to Heng-
shan. At Nan-chiin he took a boat and was sailing down the river to the Hsiang-shan shrine when
a great wind arose and nearly prevented his getting to land. The emperor inquired of his wise men
who Hsiang-chun was. They replied, “According to our information, Hsiang-chuin are the daughters
of Yao and the wives of Shun who are buried in this place; David Hawkes, “The Quest of the Goddess,”
Studies in Chinese Literary Genres, ed. Cyril Birch (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: U of California P,
1974) 56.

See Shi ji 6:248.
The usual formulation is that the first-rank wife was called Ehuang ̂ _ and the second-rank wife was

called Niiying *A. See Bernhard Karlgren, “Legends and Cults in Ancient China,” BMFEA 18 (1946): 296;
Albert Richard O’Hara, trans., The Position of Women in Early China (Taipei: Mei Ya, 1978 rpt.) 13-17; Lie nil
zhuan jiao zhu Akf,as l:la-2a, SPPY.

’44Cf. Lun yu 17.1. For another interpretation based on a variant reading of this line, see Zhao, Cao Zhi ji
jiao zhu 3:482.

’45″Fragrant rooms” (lan shi k_~ ) and “secluded chambers” (dong fang 7i1pI) refer to the living quarters
of beautiful women. One of Zhang Hua’s 5# (232-300) poems, entitled “Qing shi” MJ, has the line “His
face is absent from the fragrant room”; Wen xuan 29:18b.

46Buzhang tW (“movable screens” or “wind screens”) apparently were used as protection from wind,
cold, and dust. But they were decorative as well. Shi shuo xin yu says,

Wang K’ai used to warm the cauldron by burning fried rice cakes (i-pu), while Shih Ch’ung would
cook roasts over beeswax candles (la-chu). K’ai constructed a purple silk windbreak for walking (pu-
chang), with dark blue-green silk gauze lining, forty li long, to do him one better”; Mather, Shih-shuo
Hsin-yai 459.

See Yang Yong NI, Shi shuo xin yu jiao jian f-i&ihW (Hong Kong: Da-zhong shuju, 1969) 30:658.
See also Jin shu E (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974) 33:1007. Cf. Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:482, who
would adopt a variant reading here.

’47According to myth, the sun (or suns) climbed the Fusang MA tree in rising. See Sarah Allan’s article
“Sons of Suns,” especially 293-301.

27

28 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

The host rises and dances, whirling.’48
The skilled ones lean and touch, part and straighten.’49
Lifted cups and flying goblets go back and forth.
Measure for measure, we equally color, the same in countenance.
We freely mingle with those we enjoy. 10
Their red faces showing outwardly, the girls have forms like thoroughwort.150

Sleeves trailing, their formal appearance is full of feeling.
In marvelous dance they soar, their bodies light.
Clothes loosened and sans shoes, we laugh our caps off.’51

Looking up and down, we laugh and shout with abandon. 15

One embraces and holds a pretty girl’s jade-white face;
All raise gold goblets and halycon-blue dishes in toast.
For her hand to show its shape through the gauze sleeve is quite hard;
The wrist is so frail it cannot bear its pearl bracelet.
The seated guests sigh and smile. 20

A woman serves a towel and moistens powders by her lord.’52

Among them are betony-moss and thoroughwort,
Clove, schizandra, and mixed perfumes.
Who offers them but Lady Jiang of Qi,’53
Her devotion so strong and love so deep they’re unforgettable. 25

He has invited good friends to a lay feast.’54
All they sing is “What’s keeping the wine?”’55
The guests chant, “Only when we’re drunk will we go home.”156

‘480On suopan ?’ (“whirling,” used in reference to dance) see Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 4:2a; Huang, Cao
Zijian shi zhu 2:67; Hao, Zuben Er ya Guo zhu yishu A:3.30b.

’49That xue 7 means “lean,” “wry,” “bend to one side” is supported by Er ya and Guo Pu’s commentary;
see Hao, Zuben Er ya Guo zhu yi shu B:8.1b.

‘5″A line from the “Zhao hun” poem of Chu ci (Chu ci bu zhu 9.11a) reads, “The lovely girls are drunk
with wine, their faces flushed and red”; Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u 107.

‘”What I have translated as “laugh our caps’ off” is literally “break our capstrings” (jue ying 4 ). A
sentence from the Shi ji says of Chunyu Kun 1:4, “Kun looked up to Heaven and laughed so hard that
his capstrings were completely broken”; Shi ji 126:3198.

1521 follow Gu Zhi and Zhao Youwen, who define yu IN as jin X- (“to present,” “to offer”); Gu, Cao Zijian
shi jian 4:2b; Zhao, Cao Zhi ji jiao zhu 3:483. Cf. Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:68 and Ito, So Shoku 199. The
words yi fen ]-

e
are another difficulty. In his notes to a poem by Tao Qian Ni (365-427), Li Shan says,

“The Wen zi ji luie -IFZ B says, ‘Yi ben A
i

means clothes perfumes (yi xiang ~ )’ “; Wen xuan 30:3b.
Huang Jie, Gu Zhi, and Zhao Youwen all accept this explanation for yi fen. However, I have taken yi in
another well-established meaning, “to moisten” or “to soak.” This is also the way the term is understood
by Whitaker, “Tsaur Jyr’s Song of the Ill-fated Lady” 529. Cf. Ito, So Shoku 199.

’53The ruling house of the large Zhou state of Qi was surnamed Jiang s. The term “Lady Jiang of Qi,” as
used in Mao shi 138/2, for instance, may mean an exquisite bride. Here it may simply mean a beautiful
woman. See Ito, So Shoku 199.

’54Cf. Mao shi 209/5; “All the fathers and brothers/Have a lay feast together.”
’55Similar lines appear in Wang Can’s “Lord’s Feast” (Wen xuan 20:13a) and Cao Zhi’s “Great Wei” (“Da

wei pian” -JMH, Concordance 5:77.1).
‘5Cf. Mao shi 298/2: “The drums (sound) iwen-iwen; When drunk they will go home”; Bernhard Karlgren,

trans., The Book of Odes (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1974 rev. rpt.) 254.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

The host replies, “The dew is not yet dry.”157

Along with Ding, Huang Jie, and Ito Masafumi, I prefer to follow early editions of
Cao’s works and the Yuefu shi ji and take the title as two poems. As Ito points out,
there is another reason for supposing that the second poem existed as a separate entity,
at least in Tang times. The Yuefu jieti fffi~, compiled by Liu Su A1J, dates from
that period, and under the title “Qie bo ming” Liu quotes the first line of the second

poem, presumably as a way of identifying which “Qie bo ming” he is talking about.
He goes on to say, “It seems to regret that the happiness of the private feast is not a

long-time thing.”158 This statement is an attempt to explain the significance of the title.
The speaker is unfortunate because of the passing of time, and with it, the feast. If the
title has any relationship at all to the contents of the poem, it is a relationship such as
that indicated by Liu. Unfortunately, some later writers have gone farther afield in

seeking a connection between title and content.
The phrasing of the title seems to derive from a statement in a memorial submitted

to Emperor Cheng (reign 32-7 B.C.) by Empress Xu.159 This has led to several theories
about what the poem really means. Although it is always difficult to disprove such

interpretations, these seem to be built mainly on flimsy or non-existent evidence or on
dubious readings. Zhu Qian i; thought that the first poem deals with the imper-
manence of beauty. Although he admitted it is not spelled out, he believes the second
is the sad story of a noble beauty whose looks have faded and who is no longer loved.
Now she has to act as a performer and entice her lord’s guests to drink.160 This inter-

pretation was already doubted by Zhu Xuzeng in his variorum edition of Cao’s works.161
K.P.K. Whitaker rejects it also, but her reasons for doing so have more to do with her
own attempts to assign a specific identity to the woman than with the weakness of
Zhu Qian’s theory.162

Zhu Jiazheng took “I Am Unfortunate” as a kind of personal allegory, wherein Cao
Zhi complains about not encountering an age when his abilities would be recognized
and used in service to his country. He warns that this is not a feast poem.163 Zhu

Jiazheng’s theory is also dismissed by Whitaker.164 Her own idea is that the poems are
about two stages in the life of an identifiable person. In the first poem “her lord

appreciates her company in the palatial dwelling and in a number of his leisurely and

pleasurable pursuits in a quiet and cultured atmosphere.” The second deals with a later

period, when the noble lady “has to serve among all the frivolous young women far
beneath her in position and in breeding, to a number of drunken guests at the height
of their jollities.”165 The lady in question is, in Whitaker’s opinion, Empress Zhen %,
Cao Pi’s wife, and the poem is to be taken as a condemnation of Cao Pi’s behavior

’57Cf. Mao shi 174/1: “The dew is heavy/And will not dry without the sun./Peacefully drinking by night,/
We won’t go home until we’re drunk.”

‘”Quoted in Guo, Yuefu shi ji 62:902.
‘”See Han shu 97B:3977.

.'”Zhu Qian (Qing dynasty), Yuefu zheng yi VJ ETX, quoted in San Cao ziliao huibian 200-01. See also

Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:66, 69.
lb’Zhu, Cao ji kao yi 6:4b.
‘ 2Whitaker, “Tsaur Jyr’s Song of the Ill-fated Lady” 530-31.
‘”lQuoted in Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:68-69.
’64Whitaker, “Tsaur Jyr’s Song of the Ill-fated Lady” 531-32.
JfsIbid. 532.

29

30 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

towards her. I think we may best be served by laying aside Whitaker’s interpretation.
There is no evidence that the poem has anything to do with Empress Zhen.

Despite Zhu Jiazheng’s admonition, we can safely take these two pieces to be poems
of joy and feasting.’66 It may be that, as Gu Zhi says, the poems are a product of the
visit Emperor Wen paid to Cao Zhi at his fief in Yongqiu in Huangchu 6 (225). This
visit is mentioned in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, as well as in Cao Zhi’s “Order
Dated Huangchu 6.”’67 Gu’s dating, however, cannot be considered as a definitely
established fact. He is on safer ground when he addresses the contents of the poems
by saying, “The first poem describes an outing, and the second describes a feast.”’68

The first poem is fairly straightforward. Gu thinks that such language as “jade white
hand” (“yu shou”), “happily share a carriage” (“xi tong ju”), “magic pool” (“ling zhao”
gm, a variant in line 4), and “dragon boats” (“long zhou” l- ) is especially appropriate
if the poem is addressed to the emperor,’69 but that, of course, is not proof that it was.
There is probably no need to read any special meaning into the last two lines, for when

thinking of water, it would be natural for Cao Zhi’s mind to turn to such goddesses.
He is, after all, the author of the famous rhapsody “Goddess of the Luo River.”

The second poem is more complex. It is a stirring description of a feast. Although
both are ballads in the relatively rare six-graph line, the use of this prosody in the
second makes for an almost cinematic presentation of images. In fact, the poem divides

nicely into “scenes” or stanzas on the basis of rhyme. The rhyme scheme is A-A-A-
A-A, B-B-B-B-B-B-, C-C-C-C, B-B-B-B-B, A-A-A-A-A, D-D-D-D. Each change of rhyme
marks a stage in the feast, and within the rhymed sections there may be one or more
shifts of the poet’s mental lens. Within the individual lines the six-word form sometimes
seems to blur the relationships between words so that there is a good deal of gram-
matical parataxis. Such a line becomes a montage of images, and the grouping of several
lines by rhyme makes a larger montage.

Scene one gives the time and setting of the feast. The first line not only tells the
reader it is night, but also imparts a sense of passing time. The two poems may very
well be related, the first describing an excursion during the day and the second, in
lines 1-2, introducing the fact that the festivities are being carried into the night. The
setting is a pleasant one; the women’s quarters of a palace, where bright lanterns and
screens have been set up. The guests sit close together and begin to drink.

In the second section there is dancing; not only dancing by entertainers, but also
by the host. Then in lines 8-12 the poet’s focus shifts to the drinking of the general
company and the open conviviality among them. The young women, perhaps the
entertainers, are red from drinking and seem to have the grace of thoroughwort, a
numinous plant (line 11). In this line Cao has reversed the normal word order of the
last two words, to get the rhyme.170

The third scene (lines 12-15) describes the grace and skill of the young women
dancing, and, in a striking juxtaposition, then depicts the increasingly boisterous and
free enjoyment of the guests, clothes loosened and looking all around, laughing and
shouting uproariously. Attention is directed in part four to one of the delicate women

‘6Fang Zushen agrees, but would make it one poem. See Fang, Han shi yanjiu 208.
’67Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 4:la-b, 2b. See San guo zhi 19:565 and Concordance 8:129.
’16Gu, Cao Zijian shi jian 4:2b.

9Ibid., 4.lb.

‘7″Huang, Cao Zijian shi zhu 2:68.

Cutter, Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems

present. In lines 16-17, one of the guests is holding her face in his hand and all the
others toast her. Lines 18-20 move in still closer to show the girl’s fragile wrist, so
small and weak it can scarcely hold her pretty bracelet. The men can only sigh and
smile in admiration.

The main figure in scene five is a very special woman, a “Lady Jiang of Qi” (line
24), who stands by the side of her lord, offering perfumes to refresh him. She is praised
for her devotion and love (line 25). I believe this is her first appearance in the poem
and that we should not identify her as one of the women already alluded to.

The concluding section deals with the reluctance of those present to call a halt to
the festivities. As is pointed out in the notes, the language in this section is not entirely
original to the poem.

Modern works that include selections from Cao Zhi do not as a rule incorporate
these two poems. Huang Jie and Gu Zhi have them, of course. It6 Masafumi probably
recognized their special qualities-the second has a challenging strangeness that grows
on a reader-and so chose to include them in his book. There are several places where
we must make educated guesses about who is doing what. Nevertheless, the poems
show superb skill at using imagery and at guiding the reader’s attention first to one
detail of the feast and then to another. It is as though the reader were an observer

glancing here and there, or a participant looking at the party through a vinous haze,
or as though he were viewing the feast through the moving eye of a camera.

The difficulty and obscurity of certain lines is only one reason these pieces are not

anthologized much. Another, perhaps more important, reason is that they are not
considered to be very representative of either Cao Zhi or Jian’an literature as a whole.
I am not talking here only of prosodic form, for it is true that the six-word poem is
not common. Something more is at play, and that something more is the whole back-
ground in which the Jian’an symposia were held and the symposium poems written.
In addition to its original audience, any old poem has had a large number of later
audiences comprised of individual readers, whose responses to the poem have been
influenced by a bewildering assortment of factors. It is a mark of how good good poetry
is that it passes through all these hands unscathed. But sometimes even good poetry
is denigrated or ignored because it is alien to modern sensibilities, or because a modern
reader has not done his homework, has not read well. Sometimes cultural, social, or
political considerations interfere with our appreciation of old poetry. In the case of the
symposium poems, one influential work on Cao Zhi says,

… Cao Zhi also wrote some poems on the way of life of the nobility (like “Ming du Pian”
and “Konghou yin”) and party poems exchanged with the writers in Ye (like “Shi taizi
zuo” and “Gong yan”). In his later period are some poems written directly to the emperor
(like “Ze gong shi” and “Ying zhao shi”). Some of them reflect a spiritless and uninteresting
sentiment, some are deficient in honest emotion. Speaking for most, their relative impor-
tance is not great. . .171

And an earlier critic wrote,

The Lord’s Feast poems by the Wei poets are all quite mediocre. The party poems (yingchou
shi iSHS ) by later poets derive from them. The use of a wild goose as a voice in Ying’s
poem, and the sadness of its tone make it different from the bulk of such works.172

‘7’Li, Cao shi fu zi he Jian’an wenxue 45 (see also 10).
’72Shen Deqian, comp., Gu shi yuan ti~ (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977 rpt.) 6:132. See also Fang, Han

shi yanjiu 288.

31

32 Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 6 (1984)

The idea behind these criticisms seems to be that this kind of poetry fails to exemplify
the “realism” for which Jian’an verse is applauded; a feeling that the more the reflections
of the troubled world in which the poet lived, the better the poetry.

Now it is true that some of the poems presented in this article are immediately
approachable, while with others we soon reach that “place where the critic and scholar
in us may legitimately part company.” But while tastes may differ, we should try to
understand the motives that inform the poems.173 It isn’t that these pieces fail to present
a vision of the poet’s society; it is that they present a slice too thin and narrow, too

privileged, for some tastes.
I have called the first four pieces eulogistic symposium poems. The eulogistic sym-

posium poems are closely connected to a specific event and structured with the functions
of description, gratitude, and praise in mind. In these four works and in the Wen xuan
Lord’s Feast poems there was a good deal of latitude in how the individual poet
accomplished these tasks, but the underlying motives seem to have been the same.
The remaining symposium poems are more heterogeneous, but I have noted certain
conventions and similarities. Several of them show a concern for the passage of time,
a kind of carpe diem mentality combined with a twinge of sadness. Perhaps, as Joyce
has Gabriel say,

there are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds:
thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss.. .174

But that Cao Zhi’s feast poems so often contain some degree of this sentiment is

probably the reflection of a truly felt conviction of the age. We may prefer the robustness
of “Famous Towns,” the philosophy of “Harp Song,” or the technique of “I Am Un-
fortunate,” but we will have a better understanding of all the feast poems if we keep
in mind his contemporary audience, the intensely literary environment in which the

symposium poems were written, and the turbulent historical context.

’73Richard D. Altick, The Art of Literary Research (New York: Norton, 1963) 112.
74James Joyce, Dubliners (New York: Viking, 1962 rpt.) 204.

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• Issue Table of Contents

Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), Vol. 6, No. 1/2 (Jul., 1984), pp. i-v+1-209
Front Matter [pp. i – 150]
Editorial [pp. iii – v]
Cao Zhi’s (192-232) Symposium Poems [pp. 1 – 32]
Classical Sources and Vernacular Resources in “Xuanhe Yishi”: The Presence of Priority and the Priority of Presence [pp. 33 – 52]
Yüan-pen as a Minor Form of Dramatic Literature in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries [pp. 53 – 75]
Three Readings in the “Jinpingmei cihua” [pp. 77 – 99]
The Paradigm of the Iron House: Shouting and Silence in Lu Hsün’s Short Stories [pp. 101 – 119]
Scholarly Note
Tan-ci, Wen-ci, Chang-ci [pp. 121 – 124]
Review Articles
The Difficult Guest: May Fourth Revisits [pp. 125 – 149]
Soviet Scholarship on Chinese Literature of the Ming and Qing Dynasties [pp. 151 – 178]
The Panda Books Translation Series [pp. 179 – 182]
Book Reviews
untitled [pp. 183 – 185]
untitled [pp. 185 – 191]
untitled [pp. 191 – 195]
untitled [pp. 196 – 197]
untitled [pp. 197 – 200]
untitled [pp. 200 – 202]
Short Notices
untitled [pp. 203 – 204]
untitled [p. 204]
untitled [p. 204]
untitled [p. 205]
untitled [p. 205]
untitled [p. 205]
untitled [pp. 205 – 206]
untitled [p. 206]
untitled [p. 206]
untitled [p. 207]
untitled [p. 207]
untitled [pp. 207 – 208]
Addenda et Corrigenda [p. 209]
Back Matter