an anthology of chinese verse: han wei chin and the northern and southern dynastiesby j. d....

An Anthology of Chinese Verse: Han Wei Chin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties byJ. D. Frodsham; Ch'eng HsiReview by: Ronald C. MiaoJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 89, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1969), pp. 231-239Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/598323 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 23:40

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.185 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 23:40:32 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos

http://www.jstor.org/stable/598323?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Reviews of Books 231

tate a work simply because it has been important for seven centuries, unless we are also content to climb mountains simply because they are there. If scholarship in Chinese studies is to live and be fruitful, and if translation is to be either scholarly

or popular, we might reflect on these things at hand.

JOHN W. HAEGER

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

An Anthology of Chinese Verse: Han Wei Chin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Trans- lated by J. D. FRODSHAM AND CH'ENG Hsi. (Oxford Library of East Asian Literatures, 1.) Pp. xxxix + 198. Oxford: OXFORD UNI- VERSITY PRESS, 1967.

The present anthology covers Chinese poetry from roughly the end of the Western Han (207 B.C.-A.D. 25) through the Northern and Southern dynasties (A.D. 317-618). The impor- tance of these six hundred years to the development of pentasyllabic verse is well known, though in fact the period as a whole is understudied. From the viewpoint of literary history and criticism this was also the period in which the thematic cate- gories of Chinese verse became recognizably dis- tinct and questions of authorship, affiliation and style became a focus of scholarly attention. At the same time it cannot be overemphasized that, apart from its intrinsic value, the poetry of the Han, Wei, Chin and Six Dynasties periods affords an important perspective for the understanding of subsequent Chinese poetry, particularly that of the T'ang. The present anthology fills, in short, an important hiatus in sinological literature; its method of organization, that of accepted literary periodization, is also one that is meaningful, both to the comparativist and the specialist in Chinese poetry.

The selections are, on the whole, extremely well chosen. In terms of quantity and quality the shih and yiteh-fu composed during these periods con- stitute a veritable embarras de richesse; the problem of what to include or exclude must have posed special difficulties to the authors. Professor Ch'eng Hsi, to whom the chief credit of selection is given (p. vii), has solved this problem in a sensible way: he has relied mainly on Chinese anthologies both past and present. The resulting selections may

therefore be regarded as a reflection of traditional literary tastes as well as that of the authors. Re- grettably, however, some of the material in this volume has appeared in previous translations. Perhaps it would have been better if this "old" material had been relegated to a list of suggested readings and, in its place, some poems had been included by Hsieh Chuang (421-466), T'ao Hung-ching (452-536), Hsiao Yen (464-549) and Yen Chih-t'ui (?529-591), to name a few possible omissions. At the same time this reviewer does not feel that three or so examples of kung t'i shih ("palace style poems") does justice to this important verse category. Among the practitioners of kung t'i shih during the Ch'i and Liang dynasties the Liang emperor Chien-wen merits special attention. However, these suggestions may be asking the compilers to "gild the lily." The special distinction of this anthology is, of course, the large number of poems previously untranslated into English.

There is a brief Preface (pp. vii-ix) in which Professor Frodsham discusses the method of selection and translation adopted. This is followed by a long, excellent Introduction (pp. xix-xxxix) in which the author gives a resum6 of the cultural background of the periods concerned and discusses the major poetic themes to be found therein. The author's remarks on the formal aspects of poetry are excellent but do not tell us more than we have already known.' In particular there is the need to relate the generic and structural features

1 See Arthur Waley, "Notes on Chinese Prosody," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1918), pp. 249-261; James R. Hightower, Topics in Chinese Literature (Cam- bridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 61-63; James J. T. Liu, The Art of Chinese Poetry (Chicago, 1962), pp. 20-26; David Hawkes, A Little Primer of Tu Fu (London, 1967), pp. 10-11 and thereafter in subsections entitled "Form."



232 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 89.1 (1969)

of ku t'i shih to the gradual development of "modern" five-word and seven word shih. This would in turn provide the reader with a useful perspective for the understanding of the poetry repre- sented in the present anthology. On the other hand a detailed exposition of the prosody of ku shih, the elaboration of tonal euphony during the Yung- ming period and related questions would have re- quired lengthy treatment, and for this reason the author no doubt refrained from expanding on these points. Perhaps it would have been helpful to the reader if some bibliographic guidance had been offered instead.

The author's brief discussion of the Chinese script as a vehicle for poetry (pp. xxxiv-xxxv) seems to be primarily directed against the ex- cesses committed by Pound, Lowell and Ayscough. This is possibly anachronistic; in any event, the interesting problem of parallelism in pre-T'ang poetry, whether occurring spontaneously, by con- scious design, or for isolated effect should have invited attention. Other important areas that await discussion are the use of modal binoms2 and allusions. The latter feature is especially note- worthy. Allusions appear with seemingly predict- able frequency in certain thematic poems, e.g., "Poems of History" (Yung shih shih), "Presenta- tion" and "Response" poems (Tseng ta shih) and poems "Expressing Personal Thoughts" (Yung huai shih). It would be instructive to know not only the expressive possibilities latent in the use of allusions, but also the manner in which individual poets adapted them to their personal styles. The relation of allusion to such devices as symbol, metaphor and allegory is also one that awaits in- vestigation. To be sure, a study of allusion along the lines proposed, no less than the equally com- plicated problems of figurative language and stylistic affiliation, would require time and effort, and an Introduction of twenty pages may not be the place to pursue them in detail. But there re- mains the very real need to break fresh ground, to pursue new lines of inquiry.

This anthology follows on the whole a chrono-

2 By modal binom I mean those words glossed by the formula ". . . mao yeh" ("it is the appearance of . . . ").

logical method of arrangement, but there are in- consistencies. Why, for example, should the poem attributed to Chu-ko Liang (181-234) be placed in the "List of Contents" (pp. xi-xvii) before the selections by Ts'ao Ts'ao (155-220) and Wang Ts'an (177-217)? Similarly Miu Hsi (186-245) is placed after Juan Chi (210-263), Hsi K'ang (223- 262), Chang Hua (232-300); Yu Hsin (513-581), the penultimate poet in the List, appears after Chiang Tsung (518-590) while Ku Yeh-wang (519-581) appears before Wen Tzu-sheng (495- 546), etc.

Professor Frodsham writes in a lively, rhetori- cal style. At the same time his penchant for dra- matic expression may be the root cause of certain inaccuracies in the translations. Here are two random examples of the author's style drawn from the Introduction; in the first instance he reminds us of the need to present the poets under review as living men, rather than as depersonalized figures to be manipulated by the cultural historian.

Yet in the discussion of these "vast, impersonal forces" we must not lose sight of the men themselves, the individual poets whose work is the substance of this anthology. But can these bones live? Can we resurrect, after so many centuries, those vanished lineaments from their dust? (p. xxiv)

In the second example the author comments on the effect which the fusion of Buddhist and Taoist thought had on Chinese poetry and painting during the post-Chin periods:

From the fifth century onwards the old note of anguish lessens in pitch and intensity: death is stripped of its dark terrors in the light of the Dharma. Man's life is no longer a brief soj ourn between womb and tomb, but an episode in a universal drama in which he will appear again and again, in a variety of roles. Because of this, desire loses its urgency: the poet does not have to cry out in anguish and delight before his mouth is stopped with dust. (pp. xxix-xxx)

From these examples one can perhaps feel the passion and energy with which the author invests his subject; certainly the ability to enliven ex- pository passages serves as a welcome counter- poise to heavy handed scholarship. It is only when this ability is lavished too freely on the task of translation that the results can be less than satis-




fying. For example the author translates the opening lines of Wang Ts'an's "Seven Sorrows" as

When wild disorder gripped the Western Capital, Tigers and wolves added to our despair. (p. 26)

More accurately the meaning of this couplet is

The Western Capital is chaotic, without semblance of order,

Dholes and wolves are now creating havoc.

Prolix as the second translation may be it is more in keeping with the historical circumstances of the poem: Wang Ts'an wrote it shortly after he had fled Ch'ang-an, a city wrecked by the internecine struggles of Li Chtieh and Kuo Fan, two field commanders of the assassinated tyrant, Tung Cho.3 In a similar vein the author translates the last line of Ts'ao Chih's "Six Miscellaneous Poems" (No. 5) as "It gladdens my heart to rush to my country's aid" (p. 47), whereas in the original the sentiment is hardly as rousing: "With a willing heart I go to my country's distress"; Juan Chi's line "Its dying rays burn dully on my robes" (p. 57) might read more precisely "Its residual light glows upon my robes"; the passive tone of the suggested translation appears to be more in keeping with the "sun is sinking" of the poem's first line. Examples such as these could be multiplied at random; at stake is not so much the question of whether the translator "really under- stands the line" as the question "should the translator not strive more precisely to render the dic- tion-and by extension, the imagery-of the original?"

In general Professor Frodsham's translations are both accurate and eminently readable. The latter quality is not to be undervalued as my own clumsy attempts at a more literal translation in the above paragraph clearly show. The reader is directed particularly to the section entitled "Southern yileh-fu" (pp. 99-110) for consistently

5 For the background of this poem see Hou-Han shu (Peking, 1965), ch. 9, pp. 351-352; Tzu-chih t'ung-chien (Peking, 1963), ch. 61, pp. 1959 ff.; Miao Yueh, "Wang Ts'an hsing nien k'ao," Tu-shih ts'un-kao (Peking, 1963), p. 117.

fine examples of the translator's art; no one who has any knowledge of Chinese can fail, for example, to appreciate the skill with which Professor Frodsham has translated the following poem:

Today I parted from my love, When will we meet again? The bright lamp shines on the empty chess-board- So long and still no mate. (p. 100, No. 9)

Such examples can be multiplied at random; many poems in the Juan Chi (pp. 53-67), Tso Ssu (pp. 94-97), T'ao Ch'ien (pp. 113-122) and Pao Chao (pp. 142-156) sections, to name but a few of the more brilliant highlights, might easily serve as model examples of contemporary translation.

Inevitably, however, in a volume of this scope there will be room for differences. The following long list of suggested corrections, encompassing both translation and annotation, is given with a view to supplying alternative interpretations, and should not be regarded as a reflection of the book's overall excellent standard. Such differences as exist can usually be attributed to a varying edition or commentary consulted.

(Pp. 1-2) Dreaming, it seemed he stood right by my side, But suddenly I awoke in another place. In another place and in a different country, Time passes by and we are still apart.,

The translation reads fluently but does not quite capture the intensely personal feeling of the original; in Chinese the imagery is more specific:

In a dream I see him by my side ... Suddenly I awaken in another place, Another place, in separate districts: I toss and turn, but no longer do we see each other.

The quatrain evokes the girl's unrequited longing for her beloved; once the dream fabric is disrupted the vicarious reunion of the lovers gives way to restlessness, a desire to re-enter the dream world.4 The binom chan chuan does not mean "time passes by" but should be understood in the context of the

4 Cf. Ting Ying, comp., Chung-kuo li-tai shih-hstian (Hong Kong, 1964), I, pp. 144-145.




"Osprey" ode (Mao No. 1) from which it is quoted.5 In the same poem the author has translated (lines 11-12):

Homecoming travellers are only concerned for their own,

And no one has a word to spare for me.b

Again, the tenor of this couplet is more personal; the persona, a girl, is musing here:

Those who enter my gate think only of their own, Who will be willing to commune on our behalf?

Most commentators miss the significance of the hsiang in the second line and interpret the yen as only a one-sided inquiry.6

(P. 3, No. 3) "Far behind him now lie the gate- towers of Lo-yang."c

(Read: "Distantly he gazes at Loyang city."

(P. 6) The title of the poem on the lower half of the page has been omitted; it is "Chi ming"d ("The Cock Crows").7

(P. 7) "At Fifteen I Went for a Soldier'le does not quite translate the title of this Han yileh-fu; (read): "At Fifteen I Joined the Army on Cam- paign." The following minor points should be raised with respect to the poem's translation: (line 4) "And asked him who was living in my house"'-this is clearly the persona speaking to the "fellow villager" of line 3; thus line 4 should be set off by quotation marks, e.g., "Who's there in my house now?";8 (line 6) "Pine and cypress grow on the serried graves"g-this is an impossible line for a "fellow villager" to utter and should not be set off by quotes;9 (line 14) "There was no one left for me to serve with food"h might simply be

6 Mao-shih cheng-i (Hong Kong, 1964), I, ch. 1, pp. 12a-15b.

6 For interpretations of this couplet see P'an Chung- kuei, Yieh-fu shih sui chien (Kowloon, 1963), pp. 31-32; Yu K'uan-ying, Yiieh-fu shih hsuan (Hong Kong, 1955), p. 32; Ting Ying, op. cit., p. 145, n. 7.

7 Kuo Mao-ch'ien, Yiieh-fu shih-chi, Kuang-wen shu- chu edition (Hong Kong, 1964), II, p. 865; Chu Chien- hsin, Yieh-fu shih hsuan, p. 19.

8 See Ting Ying, Chung-kuo li-tai shih hsuan, p. 185. 9Ibid., p. 186.

rendered "I don't know with whom to share it"- the "it" is clarified by the preceding line.

(P. 8) "The lotus leaves afloat like little boats"' -According to most commentators the modal binom t'ien t'ien describes the luxuriant appearance of the lotus leaves on the water;10 a possible translation is "The lotus leaves, how fully spread."

(P. 22) "When icy blasts... "i appears a bit strong for lang feng which means simply "chill breezes."

(P. 23) The author states that "nothing is known of the author" Liang Hung, but in the very text cited there is some information given on him.

(P. 24) It would be interesting to know why the author says here "But it is doubtful whether the following poem ['Liang-fu Lament'], commonly attributed to him [Chu-ko Liang], is in fact his work." The sources which I have checked do not seem to contest the attribution.11

(P. 26, n. 1) Regarding the title of Wang Ts'an's poem the author states that ch'i ai ("Seven Sorrows") is the name of a yileh-fu which appeared at the end of the Later Han. He writes:

The T'ang commentator, Lu Hsiang, says that this yaeh-fu got its name from the fact that all the seven senses . . . were afflicted by the break-up of the Han society.

However, we find that what Lu Hsiang actually said (under Ts'ao Chih's poem of the same title) was

Tzu-chien went on campaign at the end of Han. He lamented the fact that he was separated from his wife; thus he gave vent to this poem.12

It was not Lu Hsiang but his fellow commentator, Li Chou-han, who stated that Wang Ts'an's "Seven Sorrows" " . . . lamented the disorders of Han. 13

10 Liang-Han wen-hsaeh-shih ts'an-k'ao tzu-liao (Hong Kong, 1961), p. 509, n. 2; Chu Chien-hsin, op. cit., p. 17, n. 1.

"E.g. Liang-Han wen-hsaeh-shih, p. 534. 12 Liu-ch'en-chu Wen-hstian, Kuang-wen shu-chti

edition [reprint of the SPTK] (Taipei, 1964), VI, ch. 23, p. 19a.

13 Ibid., p. 19b.




Secondly, whether the "Seven Sorrows" is a yiieh- fu title is another question. Since the author cites the Wen hsiian it cannot have escaped his attention that Wang Ts'an's poem is listed in the shih section.'4 The other criticisms are: (P. 26) I know of no evidence in the dynastic histories or else- where to support the author's statement that Wang Ts'an "eventually attained the rank of President of the Imperial Chancellery." Under Ts'ao Ts'ao's regime the poet was eventually raised to the title of Shih chung, "Attendant of the Inte- rior."'5 (P. 27, n. 2). The poet alludes to the hsia ch'iian jen (cf. Mao no. 153) in order to ex- press the persona's longing for the worthy rulers of the past, in contrast to the "dholes and wolves'8)6 (line 2 of poem) who are wrecking the Han empire. To merely cite four lines from the Shih Ching without explication de texte is to leave the allusion unclarified.

(P. 28) The author's translation of Ts'ao Ts'ao's "Hao li hsing" (translated as "Graveyard Song") would have profited from a close comparison with D. von den Steinen's English translation of the same poem. Despite a certain heaviness of touch von den Steinen's translation is the more accurate of the two as the following comparison shows:

(Frodsham)

East of the Passes, there were loyal knights, Who rose in arms to crush all wickedness. They were meant to meet together in Meng-chin,

4 To set their hearts on getting to Hsien-yang. Yet the allied armies would not pull together, But marched about like lines of aimless geese. A lust for power led them at last to wrangle,

8 In a little while they were at each other's throats.k

(v. d. Steinen)

East of the Pass there were righteous warriors, They levied soldiers to punish the flock of villains,

14 Wen hsuan, Commercial Press edition (Hong Kong, 1960), I, ch. 23, p. 498. I am, however, inclined to agree with Frodsham that it is a yfieh-fu title; see Wu Ching, Yaeh-fu ku-t'i yao-chieh, in Ting Fu-pao, Hsu li-tai shih-hua (Taipei, n.d.), I, (hsia), p. 7b.

16 San-kuo chih, ch. 21, pp. la-2b, SPPY ed.; Ronald C. Miao, "Wang Ts'an's wu yen shih," unpubl. thesis (Berkeley, 1967), p. 54, n. 47.

16 See Mao-shih cheng-i, I, ch. 2, p. 658.

When they started, they assembled at Meng-chin 4 Then their hearts were in Hsien-yang.

The army gathered; its strength was not even, They wavered back and forth and walked (like) geese. Power and gain sent the men to fight,

8 In a continuous circle they killed one another.'7

(P. 31, n. 1) The information supplied here does not really clarify the allusion in Liu Cheng's poem. See Wei Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao wen-Hsiieh-shih ts'an-k'ao tzu-liao (Peking, 1963), I, pp. 144-145, n. 2 for a fuller elucidation.

(P. 32) I called to the mourner, begged him to come out, And asked him what had brought him to this place.'

The second line is a direct question and means "How is it you are like this?"-referring to the orphan's crying.'8 I have found no evidence to support the author's statement that Juan Yii "had once been secretary to the great scholar Ts'ai Yung." The sources merely say that "in his youth he studied with Ts'ai Yung."'9

(P. 33) "Ts'ao P'i (187-226), eldest son of Ts'ao Ts'ao . . . " should be emended to read " ... eldest surviving son." (Line 7 of poem) "You have left me here in solitude, Keeping these empty rooms."m The interpolation "You have left me .. . " seems unnecessary; the whole line might be rendered "Your humble concubine, all alone, keeps the empty chambers."

(P. 34) "The night is half-way done. .. ".n (read) "The night is not yet half over . . . "

(P. 37, i) "Over the endless fells the cloud-veiled sun went stalking"O.

This is quite imaginative, but the Chinese line merely has "The long slopes extend up to the clouds and sun."20

17 Diether von den Steinen, "Poems of Ts'ao Ts'ao," Monumenta Serica, IV (1939), 136.

18 See Wei Chin Aan-pei-ch'ao wen-hsaeh shih, I, p. 140.

19 E. g., San-kuo chih, ch. 21, p. 3b; Ting Fu-pao, Ch'uan San-kuo shih, ch. 3, p. 9a.

20 See 1t6 Masafumi, ed., So Shi, Chflgoku shijin senshra, 3 (Tokyo, 1958), 85-86; Hans H. Frankel, "Fif- teen Poems by Ts'ao Chih: An attempt at a New Ap- proach," JAOS, 84 (1964), 4 (poem 4, 1.7).




(P. 37, ii) "And wolves were roaming in our very road"P (more precisely): "Dholes and wolves block the thoroughfares." The wolf image is an obvious trope for predatory persons; here it is used to create a sense of impasse, of blocked roads and crossways.2'

(P. 41) The author translates pao chungP as "a stingy host," but pao here implies a general lack of ethical standard rather than niggardliness.22

(P. 44) There was a vast, great fish like a mountain cove, That breasted the waves, let them go sliding past.r

(Read) Large fish resemble sinuous mounds, Riding on the billows passing each by each.23

(P. 47, No. 4) The author correctly translates yu as "wanders" in line 3 but mistakenly repeats "wanders" for su ("passes the night") in line 4. The verbs are of course contrastive-movement vs. rest. (Line 6) "No one is there to see her dazzling smile", should be translated more precisely, "For whom should she display her pearly teeth?"24 It is clear thet "pearly teeth" conveys a stronger image than the paraphrase of it, "dazzling smile."

(P. 47, No. 5) "The road to the east is not long enough for me."t

Although yu in this context is commonly glossed hsing ("to walk, to go") I prefer to render the line "How should I be content to take the eastern road?". The understanding of this line depends upon a biographical point the gist of which is: Ts'ao Chih wished to follow along on the campaign against Sun Ch'uan of Wu; he did not want to return east to the safety of his demesne in Yung- ch'iu.26

21 Ito, So Shi, pp. 87-88; Huang Chieh, ed., Ts'ao Tzu- chien shih chu (Taipei, 1962), pp. 39-40.

22 Ito, So Shi, p. 124. 23 See Stephen S. Wang, "Tsaur Jyr's Poems of Mythi-

cal Excursion" (unpublished thesis, Berkeley, 1963), p. 140. For detailed annotations to this poem see pp. 118- 123.

24 Huang Chieh is undoubtedly right in citing the Ch'u tz'u provenance of this image. See Huang Chieh, op. cit., pp. 13-14; Ito, So Shi, p. 60.

25 Huang Chieh, op. cit., pp. 14-15, n. 5; Ito, op. cit., pp. 61-63.

(P. 48, No. 6) "My country's foes are clearly not dispersed.'u

The meaning of se is rather the opposite of "dispersed"; it means "stopped" or "contained."

(P. 48, lower poem) Far, far away the traveller has journeyed, From such a voyage he can never return.v

(Read) Distant, distant sojourns the wandering knight, From frontier service he may not return.

It is clear that shih and yao i must be accounted for in the translation. (Line 11, p. 49) "Now quite cast down. . . " does not render the meaning of k'ang k'aiw which means something like "In a dark, expansive mood . . . 1126

(P. 51) Once come of age, she is sent to the inner rooms, To hide her face ashamed to meet a man.x

(Read) Once grown up she flees to the inner rooms, Hides her head, ashamed to see people.

The author translates lines 15-18 of the same poem as follows:

Countless times she must fall on her knees and bow, Humbling herself before concubines and maids. When the love is firm as the couple's in the Milky Way, Like mallows or lophanthus she enjoys the sun of

spring.Y

This is correct in substance but not in detail. A more accurate, though still free, translation would be:

She kneels and bows innumerable times, The maids and concubines are like exalted guests. When their love merges they are as the "cloudy Han": She is the mallow or lophanthus uplifted to the sun in

spring.

The image of the girl's dependency on her hus- band (the sun) is more strongly conveyed by the conciseness of the Chinese.

(P. 55, No. 3) "People will beat a path to a lucky tree.))z

The level of usage adopted here creates an odd impression. I prefer the more staid "Under trees

26 Lien-mien tzu-tien (Taipei, 1964), II, p. 1633.




of good fortune pathways will form." (Line 12) "The year is dying-let it for all I care. laa The phrase i yiun yi probably means "and all is fin- ished."27

(P. 56, No. 5) A whole line has been omitted from this poem.28 After line 9 add: "I often suffered from too many expenses."ab

(P. 59, No. 9) "Black clouds come swagging darkly overhead."ac (Read) "Dark clouds bring on thick shadows."

(P. 60, No. 15) "It was history and poetry I held in highest esteem."ad (Read) "By inclination I was fond of History and the Odes." (Line 7) "The graves were overshadowed by the mountains.1'ae The meaning of the original is opposite: "Their grave mounds hid the mountain ridges."

(P. 61, n. 2) The reference is not to Emperor Shao (r. 254-260) but to Prince Fang of Ch'i, one of the many fei ti ("deposed emperors") of Chinese history. (The mistake occurs also on page 60, note 4.)

(P. 68) "Eighteen Poems Presented to Hsi Hsi on his Joining the Army." The actual title in my copy of Ting Fu-pao reads: "Nineteen Poems Presented to the 'Flowering Talent' on his Joining the Army," but the full title of this poem is probably "Nineteen Poems Presented to my Elder Brother the 'Flowering Talent' Kung-mu on his Joining the Army."29

(P. 69, No. 6) There should not be a period mark after "gentleman"; the last part of this line is paraphrased "Under the shadow of calamity," whereas the Chinese simply says "not far from danger."af

(P. 69, No. 7) "Man's life is short and fleeting"ag is the general sense of this line, but for the sake of the poem's movement imagery I prefer the more literal "A man's life presses ever on." (Lines 5-6)

27 For interpretations of these lines see Huang Chieh, Juan Pu-ping Yung-huai-shih chu, p. 5; Wei Chin Nan- pei-ch'ao wen-hsaeh-shih: I, p. 178.

28 See Huang Chieh, op. cit., p. 7. 29 Tai Ming-yang, ed., Hsi K'ang chi chiao-chu (Pe-

king, 1962), p. 2.

"I should like to become an Immortal,/And shun decrepitude.I ah Again, the movement imagery has been sacrificed in translation; the key verbs in this distich are obviously teng "climb" and chi "cross." Hence I prefer "I long to soar with the Tran- scendants,/And leap to immortality."

(P. 70, No. 9) In his left hand he holds Fan-jo, His right hand fits arrow to the bow.ai

Why resort to paraphrase in the second line when Wang-kuei is the name of a famous arrow, just as Fan-jo is the name of a famous bow?30

(P. 81, No. 4) "Throughout the woods the fet- tered trees are quietlai

Li Chou-han's interpretation of this line is: "The leaves have already thinned out and fallen; the lightened branches point upward, their tangled appearance resembles tied bundles."'" Perhaps the line could be translated "The overgrown woods are dense as bundled cord." (Line 10) "In this dark season ... ))ak is inaccurate; the phrase means "Late in life." (Line 12) "I shall ask Chi-chu to tell my fortune for me. "al The meaning of this line is that the poet will follow the example of Ssu-ma Chi-chu, who dwelt in reclusion and spent his time foretelling the future, hence I prefer: "I shall follow (the example) of Chi-chu, the di- viner."32

(P. 87, No. 1) Yet luckily even this must pass away, Meanwhile I beat a pot, as Chuang-tzu did.am

(Read) I hope in time it may subside, Though Chuang's vessel can still be struck.33

(P. 114) ". . . I've labored to do good"an There is a subtle difference between this and the original, which translates "... I've reflected on good deeds."

(P. 117, No. 2) "Away in the distance, strange and not of this world"ao

30 Dai kanwa jiten, entry no. 10333.15. 31 Liu-ch'en-chu Wen-hsaan, ch. 29, p. 6b. 32 Wei Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao wen-hsfieh-shih, I, p. 309, n.

7. 33 Ibid., I, p. 284, n. 13.




(Read) "I gaze into the distance: all is truly mar- velous."34

(P. 118, Preface)" ... what I write has very little sense' 'ap

The meaning here is . . . what I say follows no prescribed order."35

(P. 118, n. 3) Most commentators here identify Meng-kung not with Liu Kung of the Later Han but with Ch'en Tsun (tzu Meng-kung), the famous imbiber of the Former Han.36

(P. 119) If I do not quickly drink deep of my wine I shan't deserve to wear my scholar's cap5q

The second line requires a footnote; the fact is that T'ao Ch'ien's cap was used to strain wine rather than worn as a mark of scholarship.37 The literal meaning of the line is "I would wear my turban in vain."

(P. 119, No. 1) "I was so framed ... 11ar (Read) "By nature. . . "

(P. 121, No. 4) "Delighting to roam among the forest wilds"as (Read) "Delighting in the vast expanse of . . . 38

(P. 143, No. 1) Let him listen to my songs of the weary road, Sung to the beat of the drum. You have seen the Cypress Beam and the Brazen

Bird? Where now is the pure music of those ancient flutes?at

(Read) Hear me beat the measures of the "Traveller's Road," The Cypress Beam and Brazen Bird are no longer seen,

34 See Suzuki Torao, To Emmei shikai (Tokyo, 1964), p. 176.

35 Ibid., pp. 264-265. 36 Ibid., p. 292; Ikkai Tomoyoshi, ed., To Emmei

(Tokyo, 1958), pp. 66-67; Shiba Rokuro, To Emmei shi (Kyoto, 1951), pp. 293-294, n. 77.

37 See Hsiao T'ung's biography of T'ao Ch'ien cited in T'ao Ching-chieh chi, Basic Sinological Series edition, p. 4.

38 Ikkai Tomoyoshi, To Emmei, pp. 32-33.

How can one hear the serene woodwinds of an- tiquity?39

(P. 144, No. 3) Singing to herself as she brushes away her tears, She is forever grievingu

(Read) She holds back her song and catches her tears, Steadfastly harboring her grief.

(P. 153, No. 18) "I am but twenty, freshly capped and ashamed.11av

It appears that the author has misread ch'en for ju.aw

The volume is handsome in appearance but contains a number of printing errors: e.g. (p. xxxi, n. 1), the umlaut has been omitted from Ztircher's name; (p. 2) the two poems cited are on pp. 5-6 of HWYF rather than on p. 82; (p. 26) the "c" of chien-an should be capitalized; (p. 28, n. 1) Tuan Shao should read Yuan Shao; (p. 30) "Only fourteen of his poems survive today. . . " should be emended to read "Only fifteen . . ."; (p. 60) the "J" of Juan Chi has been omitted in the upper left of the page; (p. 79) Chang Tai should be read Chang Tsai (the graphs for Tai and Tsai are of course graphically similar); (p. 169) the umlaut is missing from Hsii Ling's name. Two minor points that involve the question of consistency: Yu Hsin's poems entitled "Ni Yung Huai''ax are translated "Expressing My Thoughts" (p. 192) but several pages later it is "Expressing My Feelings" (pp. 196-197)-incidentally, why separate this suite of poems? Pagination is included in some textual references but omitted in others. Titles of poems are almost always given in translation but occasionally a poem title is romanized, e.g. "Hsia Shan P'ien" (p. 43, n. 5), "Lo Shen flu" (p. 43, n. 6).

Despite the criticisms noted above this is a volume that can be highly recommended; its appeal to those who enjoy good poetry in general and Chinese poetry in particular will no doubt be

39 The author correctly identifies the two towers but fails to point out their relevance to the present allusion. For some explanations see Wei Chin Nan-pei-ch'ao wen- hsfieh-shih, II, p. 499, n. 6; Pan Chung-ying, Chung-kuo li-tai wen-hsfeh ming-chu chiang-hua (Hong Kong, 1958), II, p. 248, n. 6.




considerable. The selections are excellent and in the case of major individual poets there are enough examples given to convey to the reader an impression of personal styles. The translations are on the whole extremely well done. In conclusion, An

Anthology of Chinese Verse promises well for the subsequent volumes that will appear in this series.

RONALD C. MIAO

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

GLOSSARY

e,. 4V. 0g Q Q 8 * . 't

<%' ; V> Ba4. t 'e w- aLg as. S8

A iS~~y?'t f ilffi Ad ft'* 19 1i g 1

a~~~~~~~~~~~~t. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ a

vx. ft~t-g@@ 1&t~s 4 . ttstkJ x. 14-

a/ 4 v~+ li T2 4e.;-$ta $ fi

4,x. 71 I



an anthology of chinese verse: han wei chin and the northern and southern dynastiesby j. d....

Documents