Table Of Content/ Word, Image, and Deed
in the
Life of Su Shi
C.
RONALD EGAN
Published by the Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University,
and the Harvard-Yenching Institute
and distributed by the Harvard University Press,
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 1994
Copyright 1994 by
The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard-Yenching Institute, fo~nded in 1928 and headquartered at Har
vard University, is a foundation dedicated to the advancement of higher educa
tion in the humanities and social sciences in East and Southeast Asia. The In
stitute supports advanced research at Harvard by faculty members of certain
Asian universities, and doctoral st~?ies at Harvard and other universities by
junior faculty at the same universmes. It also supports East Asian studies at
Harvard through con.tributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library and publica
0/
tion of the Haruard Journal Asiatic Studies and books on premodern East
Asian history and literature.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to use
quotations or reproduce illustrations: Oxford University Press, for James R.
Hightower's translations of Tao Qian in Chapter Eight; The Research Center
for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, for D. C. Lau's transla
tion of Yan Shu in Chapter Ten; James R. Hightower, for his translations of
Liu Yong in Chapter Ten; and The National Palace Museum, Taipei, for
Figures 1, 3, 4, and 5.
Endpapers: Su Shi, attrib., Tree, Rock, and Bamboo. Handscroll. Location un
known. From Zhongguo gudai huihua xuanji (Beijing: Renmin meishu chu
banshe, 1963), fig. 37.
Index by Susan Stone
Library of Congress Catalogibg-in-Publication Data
Egan, Ronald c., 1948-
Word, image, and deed in the life of Su Shi / Ronald C. Egan.
p. cm.-(Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series; 39)
Texts of Su Shi's poems in Chinese and English.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-95598-6
1. Su, Shih, 1036-1101.-Criticism and interpretation. I. Su,
Shih,1036-1101. Poems. English and Chinese. Selection~. 1994.
II. Title. III. Series.
PL2685.Z5E34 1994
895.1'142-dc20 93-46196
CIP
For Susan and Louisa
L
Contents
, ;'I
Preface Xlll
Chronology of the Life of Su Shi XVlll
I. FIRST FAME AND REMONSTRATIONS: THE DECREE EXAM 3
On Rites, Human Nature, and Governance 8
On Historical Figures. 16
The Essay on Zhang Liang 2 I
2. NATIONAL POLITICS: OPPOSITION TO THE NEW. POLICIES 27
Initial Dissent 33
Protest Poetry from the Provinces 39
Arrest and Trial 46
3. TOWARDS THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE AND SELF 54
On the New Learning and Other Fallacies 56
Commentaries on the Changes and Documents 68
4. NATIONAL POLITICS AGAIN: YUANYOU-PERIOD
FACTIONALISM 86
The Split with Sima Guang
VB
.
~
L
b
CONTENTS
The ~isput~ with Cheng Yi 93 "
"Saymg White Is Black and West is East 9
8
5· PROVINCIAL ACTIVISM I~ AND OUT OF OFFICE
108
Famine Relief in Hangzhou _ 108
Other Undertakings as Prefect 122
Private Initiatives
127
6. A THOUSAND ARMS AND EYES: BUDDHIST INFLUENCES 134
The Centrality of Compassion 135
Chan, Pure Land, BOdhisattvas 142
No-Mind and Responding to Things 15
0
Non-Attachment 157
Lingering Reservations 162
7· THE MIRROR IN THE MI~D: POETRY IN THE SHI FORM 9
16
The Uses of Play i69
Imaging the Poet in the World 179
The Problem of the Emotions_ 197
8. THE LITERATURE OF EXIl~ 7
20
The Cirumstances of Exile 208
Philosophy and Its Limitations 221
East Slope, Tao Qian, Determined Contentment
229
Transcending the WOrld of Men 237
Poetry of Resentment and Defiance 25
0
9· CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTi~G
BROADENING Guwetz Views on Calligraphy
Expressing New Meaning 27
2
The Moment of Execution 27
6
Two Approaches to Painting 28 I
Signification of the Painted Subject 5
28
Pattern, Lodging, Kno'Vledge 293
Painting and Poetry 29
6
The Question of Motivation 299
Vlll
CONTENTS
10. WASHING AWAY THE SILKS AND PERFUMES: SUBJECTIVITY
IN THE SONG LYRIC (C/) 310
Reasons for a New Style 317
Xiaoling: Abroad in the World 330
Manci: Fading Visions, Fleeting Thoughts 338
II. CONCLUSIONS 352
Early Appraisals 352
Ambivalence over Aesthetic Pursuits 363
The Meanings of Wen 369
The Utility of a Multidimensional View 374
Abbreviations Used in the Notes 384
Notes 385
List of Works Cited 433
Chinese Title Index 453
Glossary-Index 457
lX
Figures
I. Illustration by Wu Yuanzhi of Su Shi's "Rhapsody on Red
Cliff " 225
2. "Plum Blossoms" in calligraphy of Su Shi 252
3· "Cold Food Festival" in calligraphy of Su Shi 255
4· Painting of bamboo by Wen Tong 286
5· "Rhapsody on Red Cliff" in calligraphy of Su Shi 307
I
f Preface
I
Su Shi peers over the edge of a boat to see the reflection of his face in
the water. Suddenly, waves disturb the image, and he watches as it
spreads outward and multiplies, creating the illusion of a hundred Su
Shis. But abruptly these disappear and a single face forms again in the
stilled water, staring up at him.':- Readers of Su Shi's works are likely to
feel that they are witness to similar dazzling transformations. Given
that Su was so broadly accomplished across separate fields (a fact that
is invariably mentioned regarding him), he speaks with an array of dis
tinct voices. Even a short list would have to include statesman, Bud
dhist, gastronome, alchemist, classicist, dissident, hydrology engineer,
philosopher, and, above all, poet, calligrapher, and connoisseur of the
arts. What, then, is the balance among these many Su Shis and how are
they connected? The problem, moreover, goes beyond this multiplicity
of voice and role. On many particular subjects Su Shi's writings are so
voluminous and, given the conventions of his day, so occasional and
piecemeal that divergences and apparent contradictions are numerous.
It has not been my goal to tie the diverse aspects of this life
neatly and systematically together. Any account of Su Shi's life and
works should accommodate a certain amount of disconnectedness and
tangential interests, which are, after all, part of his richness and uriique
appeal. At the same time, there is a need for an updated comprehen-
*See pp. 205-206 below.
Xlll
PREFACE
sive treatment of this remarkable person. The interests of history and
biography alone justify a critical survey of the entire range of this most
celebrated life, though no single volume could ever do justice to all of
it.
My approach is intended to have special utility regarding Su's
achievements in literature and the arts. This is not to deny the impor
tance of other aspects of his life (on the contrary, I stress it), nor is it to
question the usefulness of literary studies of Su that do not include the
non-literary aspects of his life. Such studies have and will continue to
enhance our appreciation of Su's poetry and its place in the literary
tradition. However, the broader treatment of Su's accomplishments, as
in this study, puts his artistic achievements in a different light. The first
and simplest contribution such a treatment makes is to remind us that
Su Shi was great not only in the field of poetry, and indeed, not only in
literature and the arts generally. Inasmuch as this fact immediately dis
tinguishes Su Shi from most earlier major poets, it deserves a place in
literary history. There are also less obvious insights to be gained.
When the critic restricts· himself to literary or stylistic analysis,
questions of motivation (e.g., why did the poet develop a particular
style or express himself a certain way?) are notoriously elusive. It hap
pens that with Su Shi, a poet who also led a prominent and controver
sial life in the divisive politics of his day, connections can be discerned
between political and intellectual disputes he engaged in and the direc
tions he took as artist. Naturally, such connections between the poet
and his times, in a vague and simple sense, may be discovered for many
writers. But with Su Shi the situation is special.
It has been observed that just as one cannot imagine Du Fu
without the An Lushan rebellion, so, too, one cannot conceive of Su
Shi without the reform movement led by Wang Anshi and Su's opposi
tion to it. But merely to say -this is to understate Su's involvement in
the momentous social and political events of his day and their rele
vance to his art. In Du Fu's case, the An Lushan rebellion is something
that befell or overtook him. He was more of a witness to than partici
pant in the military and political struggles that ensued. Su Shi, by
contrast, became an important player in the drama of the New Policies
and the struggles it brought about, which stretched over his entire .
J
career and, indeed, cast their shadow over virtually every aspect of late
Northern Song intellectual and political history. Su's poetry, more
over, became a crucial part of his public persona as it matured through
the contentious politics of the time. Su was imprisoned and brought to
trial because of the political criticism his poetry contained. Years later,
he became the leader of a political faction whose identity owed itself,
XIV
PREFACE
in part, to the special interest its members took in poetry and related
arts. As leader of this faction, Su was banished to the distant south
(eventually even "across the sea"), where he remained until just before
his death, continuing all the while to express himself in verse. There is
good reason, then, to want to bring to a reading of Su's poetry knowl
edge of the non-literary controversies of his day, which he helped to
define. That is why the chapters on Su's literature and art are saved for
the latter part of this volume. These aspects of Su Shi remain the
culmi~ation of our study of him-as they will always be--and certainly
they have value and meaning that transcend the biographical circum
stances of his life. Y ~t, his art springs from those circumstances and
is conditioned in countless ways by them, just as it, in turn, affected
them. My goal is to analyze Su's art in this larger context of his life and
thought.
The inclusive treatment of this many-faceted person also better
prepares us to appreciate the apparent divergence between our percep
tion of Su (inherited from late imperial times) and his own self-image.
We think of Su Shi first as a poet, but his own mind seems filled with
ambivalence and vacillation on this point. Occasionally, he states clear
ly that it is his achievements outside of literature and the arts that he
considers primary (and his followers reiterate this opinion concerning
him). No matter how we finally choose to think of him, the existence
of this discrepancy itself has ramifications for our conception of his
poetry. Attention to his work in non-literary fields sharpens our appre
hension of this issue.
In recent. years a prodigious amount of scholarship has appeared
on Su Shi, greatly advancing our understanding of his life, politics,
thought, and literary work. In China, five separate volumes of col
lected articles on Su have appeared, based on national Su Shi confer
ences held during the 1980s. These collections, some of which focus on
a single genre of Su's writing or a single period of his life, have raised
biographical knowledge of Su Shi and critical appreciation of his works
to new levels. Several other volumes devoted to Su have also appeared,
including biographies (e.g., by Zeng Zaozhuang), interpretative studies
(Chen Yingji, Liu Naichang, Zhu Jinghua), collections of anecdotes
and historical criticism (Yan Zhongqi,Li Fushun), and annotated
anthologies of his works (Wang Shuizhao, Wang Siyu, Yan Zhongqi),
as well as a study of the textual history of his writings (by Liu Shang
rong). Special mention should be made of major new editions of Su's
complete prose and poetry, which were published separately during
the 1980s. The complete poetry reproduces the extensive and indis
pensable commentary by the Qing scholar Wang Wen'gao. The com-
xv
