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The Singing Sage: rhymes in Confucius dialogues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2016

Oliver Weingarten
Oliver Weingarten*
Affiliation:
Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences
*
weingarten@orient.cas.cz
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Abstract

The present article explores uses of verse in direct speech attributed to Confucius (551–479 bce) within works compiled mainly during the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). Analysing short prose narratives and dialogues, the article investigates a poeticized debate, in which versified proverbs or apothegms are employed as tools of argumentation. In addition I examine the mnemonic function of reiterated rhymes on politics, and emotive song as an expression of thwarted ambition, purportedly revealing glimpses at Confucius's inner life; and libretto-like records of dramatic encounters whose participants exchange verse. The goal of the investigation is twofold. First, it demonstrates how, in early imperial China, the image of Confucius was remoulded to fulfil different functions and satisfy diverse needs beyond his by now familiar role as philosopher and as patron saint of an intellectual tradition and state ideology. Second, it draws attention to the riches of stylistic nuance and functional variety exhibited by early Chinese writings, which have so far hardly been tapped.

Keywords

ConfuciusRhetoricMemorySongsEarly Chinese literature
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , October 2016 , pp. 581 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2016 

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References

1 See Weingarten, Oliver, “The sage as teacher and source of knowledge: editorial strategies and formulaic utterances in Confucius dialogues”, Asiatische Studien / Études asiatiques 68/4, 2014, 1175–1223 Google Scholar. Portrayals of the relationship with disciples differ across texts, and possibly within texts. According to David Elstein, “deference to the master is not a defining feature of the Analects”, unlike the depictions of Confucius “as an authoritarian master in later texts such as the Liji”. See Elstein, , “The authority of the Master in the Analects ”, Philosophy East and West 59/2, 2009, 144 Google Scholar.

2 Lunyu 2.5, 4.14, 6.27. Throughout the article, all references to the Lunyu are to Lunyu zhuzi suoyin 論語逐字索引, ed. D.C. Lau [Liu Dianjue 劉殿爵], ICS Concordance Series (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1995).

3 Harbsmeier, Christoph, “ Confucius Ridens: Humor in the Analects ”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 50/1, 1990, 131–61Google Scholar.

4 On the structure of Shiji 47, “Kongzi shijia” 孔子世家, see Esther Klein, “Sima Qian's Kongzi and the Western Han Lunyu”, in Martin Kern, Michael J. Hunter and Oliver Weingarten (eds), The Lunyu: A Western Han Text? (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

5 Schaberg, David, “Song and the historical imagination in Early China”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 59/2, 1999, 310 Google Scholar, 313.

6 Schaberg, “Song and the historical imagination”, 325, 327.

7 Schaberg, “Song and the historical imagination”, 321, 323.

8 See Debon, Günther, “Konfuzius ein Dichter?”, Hefte für ostasiatische Literatur 37, 2004, 97–104 Google Scholar.

9 Kern, Martin, “The poetry of Han historiography”, Early Medieval China 10–11/1, 2004, 60Google Scholar.

10 Kern, “Poetry of Han historiography”, 51.

11 See the contributions to the special issue of Behr, Wolfgang and Gentz, Joachim (eds), Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 29, 2005 Google Scholar, entitled “Komposition und Konnotation – Figuren der Kunstprosa im alten China”; see also Kern, Martin, “Creating a book and performing it: the ‘Yao lüe’ chapter of the Huainanzi as a Western Han Fu ”, in Queen, Sarah A. and Puett, Michael (eds), The Huainanzi and Textual Production in Early China (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014), 124–50.Google Scholar Note further Gentz, Joachim and Meyer, Dirk (eds), Literary Forms of Argument in Early China (Leiden: Brill, 2015)Google Scholar.

12 Richter, Matthias, Guan Ren: Texte der altchinesischen Literatur zur Charakterkunde und Beamtenrekrutierung (Bern: Lang, 2005), 80–81, 90–107, 305Google Scholar. See also Stumpfeldt, Hans, “Gesänge vom Staate?”, Drachenbote 6, 1990, 47–53 Google Scholar (circulated internally at the Chinese Department of the University of Hamburg). On rhymes in Han Fei zi 韓非子 see 馬世年, Ma Shinian, Han Fei zi de chengshu ji qi wenxue yanjiu 韓非子的成書及其文學研究 (Shanghai: Guji, 2011)Google Scholar, ch. 6.3, “Yunwen” 韻文, 191–203, esp. 200, where Ma explains that Han Fei zi chapters 5, “Zhu dao” 主道, and 8, “Yang quan” 揚權, use aural and syntactic patterning in order “to facilitate recollection and recitation by a ruler of state”. On rhymes in military writings see Ding Zhongshan 丁中山, “Xian-Qin bingshu de yunyu yanjiu” 先秦兵書的韻語研究, unpublished MA thesis (Lanzhou: Xibei shifan daxue, 2011).

13 Zonglu, Xiang 向宗魯, Shuoyuan jiaozheng 說苑校證 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1987), 3.71Google Scholar; cf. the parallel in Chen Shike 陳士珂, Kongzi jiayu shuzheng 孔子家語疏證 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1987), juan 5, ch. 19 (“Zilu chu jian” 子路初見), 129.

14 Here and below, all reconstructions are Axel Schuessler's Minimal Old Chinese from his Minimal Old Chinese and Later Han Chinese: A Companion to Grammata Serica Recensa (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009).

15 On “quotationality”, the “aura of a quotation” conjured up by an utterance, see Morson, Gary Saul, The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011)Google Scholar, ch. 1.2, “Quotationality and former quotations”, 37–68; quote: 37 (italics in the original).

16 See, e.g., Guanzi 35, “Chi mi” 侈靡, “On extravagance in spending”, a dialogue between Master Guan and Duke Huan 桓 of Qi (685–643 bce). The translation in Rickett, W. Allyn, Guanzi: Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), v. 2, 304–36,Google Scholar marks rhymed verse. Rickett considers the rhyming passages to be somewhat out of character and suspects that they may “constitute later insertions” (p. 303).

17 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 2, 314, contains a sequence of rhymed responses by Master Guan which each form distinct units in terms of style, content, and rhyme.

18 Xiang, Shuoyuan jiaozheng, 7.151.

19 Here and throughout, curly brackets {} indicate the reconstructed pronunciation of the last full word before any grammatical particles at the end of a line, in this case zhi ye 之也.

20 Xiang, Shuoyuan jiaozheng, 7.151.

21 See Xifei, Wu 鄔錫非, Xinyi Liu tao duben 新譯六韜讀本, second ed. (Taibei: Sanmin, 2013 [2009]Google Scholar), ch. 3, “Guo wu” 國務, 14–15; Shengchun, Zhou 周生春, Wu Yue chunqiu jijiao huikao 吳越春秋輯校匯考 (Shanghai: Guji, 1997)Google Scholar, ch. 8, “Goujian gui guo wai zhuan” 勾踐歸國外傳, 268–9.

22 Xiang, Shuoyuan jiaozheng, 7.163–4.

23 Xiang, Shuoyuan jiaozheng, 7.153; note the parallel in Chen, Kongzi jiayu shuzheng, juan 3, ch. 13 (“Xian jun” 賢君), 86–7. The anachronism in the Shuoyuan version was pointed out by Yu Yue 俞樾 (1821–1907). In Kongzi jiayu, the interlocutor is a ruler of Song 宋.

24 Schaberg, “Song and the historical imagination”, 313, 331.

25 Lunyu 2.4.

26 Lunyu 9.5, 14.35.

27 Lunyu 11.9.

28 See Mao Shi 詩 no. 222, “Cai shu” 采菽; James Legge, The She King (The Chinese Classics, 4. Taipei: Southern Materials Center, 1994), 404. According to received orthography, this should translate as “How joyous, how happy!” In the given context, this reading does not make much sense. The usage is probably ironic and builds on the homophony you 優 [*ʔu] ~ 憂 [*ʔu], thus: “Sorrowful, I will travel!”

29 Kametarō, Takigawa 龍川龜太郎, Shiki kaichū kōshō 史記會注考證 (Taibei: Da'an, 1998)Google Scholar, 47.35; cf. Chen, Kongzi jiayu shuzheng, juan 5, ch. 19 (“Zilu chu jian”), 133.

30 See Vogelsang, Kai, “Schlechte Leute und gute Musikantinnen: Über Stoffe, Motive und die Konstruktion von Geschichte im alten China”, in Jianfei Kralle and Dennis Schilling (eds), Schreiben über Frauen in China (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004), 111–47Google Scholar.

31 Yashu, Fu 傅亞庶, Kong congzi jiaoshi 孔叢子校釋 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2011)Google Scholar, 5.97; translation modified from Ariel, Yoav, K'ung-Ts'ung-Tzu: The K'ung Family Masters’ Anthology. A Study and Translation of Chapters 1–10, 12–14 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 101Google Scholar.

32 It should probably be understood ying 嬰 [*ʔeŋ] ~ ying 縈 [*ʔweŋ] “entangle”.

33 Fu, Kong congzi jiaoshi, 5.96. The translation is modified from Ariel, K'ung-Ts'ung-Tzu, 100.

34 Schaberg, “Songs and the historical imagination”, 345. There is also a reference to the title in Lu Jia's 陸賈 (c. 228–c. 140 bce) Xinyu 新語; see Schaberg, Songs, 345, n. 124.

35 See the poems collected in the relevant chapters of Qinli, Lu 逯欽立, Xian-Qin Han Wei Jin Nanbeichao shi 先秦漢魏晉南北朝詩, rpt (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1998 Google Scholar [1983]).

36 See Gu, Ban 班固, Hanshu 漢書, rpt (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1964)Google Scholar, 57A.3533.

37 Zhou yi zhengyi 周易正義, juan 3, in Shisan jing zhushu 十三經注疏, ed. Ruan Yuan 阮元, rpt, 2 vols (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 1997) v. 1, 42.

38 Quoted in Fu, Kong congzi jiaoshi, 104, n. 40. See also Ariel, K'ung-ts'ung-tzu, 171, n. 17: “The hill here denotes the imperial court.”

39 Qiyou, Chen 陳奇猷, Han Fei zi xin jiaozhu 韓非子新校注 (Shanghai: Guji, 2000)Google Scholar, ch. 33: “Wai chuoshuo zuo xia” 外儲說左下, 750, calls zhiji a plant that “the noble man is cautious to plant” because it pricks people. Note that the sixth-line statement on hexagram 29, xi kan, also mentions cong ji 叢棘, “thickets of thorn bushes” (Zhou yi zhengyi, juan 3, in Shisan jing zhushu, v. 1, 42).

40 Chuci 楚辭 (Sibu congkan chubian 四部叢刊初編 ed.), 16.28a; translation by David Hawkes, The Songs of the South: An Ancient Chinese Anthology by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), 297, lines 41–2.

41 Chuci, 16.28a.

42 Quoted in Chuci, 16.28a.

43 Mao Shi no. 158; Legge, She King, 240.

44 On Mount Liangfu as seat of the God of the Dead, see Ying-shih, Yü, “‘O soul come back!’: A study in the changing conception of the soul and afterlife in pre-Buddhist China”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47/2, 1987, 388–9Google Scholar. On this, and on both mountains as sites of imperial sacrifices, see also Bujard, Marianne, Le sacrifice au ciel dans la Chine ancienne: Théorie et pratique sous les Han Occidentaux (Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2000)Google Scholar, 135, 138–9.

45 For the capture of the unicorn recorded under the year 481 bce, see Bojun, Yang 楊伯峻, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu 春秋左傳注, rev. ed. (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2000 [1990])Google Scholar, Ai 14.1, 1680 (Chunqiu), 1682 (Zuozhuan). See also Chunqiu Guliang zhuan zhushu 春秋穀梁傳注疏, juan 20, Ai 14, in Shisan jing zhushu, v. 2, 2451; Chunqiu Gongyang zhuan zhushu 春秋公羊傳注疏, juan 28, Ai 14, in Shisan jing zhushu, v. 2, 2352–4.

46 Fu, Kong congzi jiaoshi, 5.97; translation modified from Ariel, K'ung-ts'ung-tzu, 101.

47 See also Schaberg, “Song and the historical imagination”, 345–6.

48 Shumin, Wang 王叔岷, Zhuangzi jiaoquan 莊子校詮, rpt, 3 vols (Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan, 1999 [1988])Google Scholar, v. 1, ch. 4, “Ren jian shi” 人閒世, 167.

49 Shan 山 emended from mu 木.

50 Xidan, Sun 孫希旦, Liji jijie 禮記集解 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1989)Google Scholar, ch. 3, “Tan Gong shang” 檀弓上, 195. Cf. Takigawa, Shiki kaichū kōshō, 47.85–6, for a scene reminiscent of this one but without the comment by Zigong.

51 See Nienhauser, William H. Jr., “The origins of Chinese fiction”, Monumenta Serica 38, 1988–89, 201–7Google Scholar, for a discussion of intrigues at the court of Zheng recorded in Yang, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, Yin 1.4, 10–6.

52 Shouyuan, Qu 屈守元, Hanshi waizhuan jianshu 韓詩外傳箋疏 (Chengdu: Ba Shu, 1996)Google Scholar, 9.771; translation based on Hightower, James Robert, Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying's Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), 298Google Scholar. The final quote is from Mao Shi no. 55; translation from Legge, She King, 91.

53 Hightower, Han Shih Wai Chuan, 298, fn.

54 In Lunyu 8.2 and 17.8, jiao 絞 [*krâuʔ] is presented as a flaw resulting from “straightness” (zhi 直) unrestrained by either “ritual propriety” (li 禮) or “learning” (xue 學). For 己所不欲，勿施於人, see Lunyu 12.1 and 15.24. 尊賢而容眾，嘉善而矜不能 is, furthermore, attested in Lunyu 19.3, where it is attributed to Zizhang.

55 Takigawa Kametarō, Shiki kaichū kōshō, 46.23; the character used is jiao 較 instead of jiao 絞. Chavannes, Mémoires historiques, 248, translates this as follows: “Si un grand char n'a pas été contrôlé, il est incapable de porter sa charge normale; si un luth n'a pas été contrôlé, il ne peut rendre les cinq notes musicales pour lesquelles il est fait.”

56 Qu, Hanshi waizhuan jianshu, 1.6–8; translation based on Hightower, Han Shih Wai Chuan, 13–5. See also Qingquan, Huang 黃清泉, Xinyi Lienü zhuan 新譯列女傳, second ed. (Taibei: Sanmin, 2008)Google Scholar, ch. 6.6, “Egu chunü” 阿谷處女; translation in Kinney, Anne Behnke, Exemplary Women in Early China: The Lienü Zhuan of Liu Xiang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), 117–8Google Scholar.

57 The emendation follows Hightower and Qu, Hanshi waizhuan jianshu, 13 n. 17.

58 See Xun, Jiao 焦循, Mengzi zhengyi 孟子正義 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1987)Google Scholar, 4A.17, 520, and Sun, Liji jijie, 1, “Qu li shang” 曲禮上, 43.

59 Though no variant readings to this verse seem to be attested, the emendation *不知五音 [*ʔǝm] suggests itself to restore the rhyming.

60 Hightower as well as several commentators (see Qu, Hanshi waizhuan jianshu, 15 n. 39) assume that the sentence in question is corrupt.

61 Qu, Hanshi waizhuan jianshu, 16 n. 43, referring to similar mistakes in other paragraphs of Hanshi waizhuan, states that qu 去 should be emended to zhi 至 [*tits].

62 See Zhouli zhengyi 周禮正義, juan 14, “Di guan situ” 地官司徒, Mei shi 媒氏, in Shisan jing zhushu, v. 1, 733: 入幣純帛無過五兩 “When handing in an offering of undyed silk, it may not amount to more than five lengths”. A similar stipulation is recorded in Sun, Liji jijie, 21B: “Za ji xia” 雜記下, 1125.

63 See Richter, Guan ren, ch. 3.1, esp. 189–92, 202–3, 214–5, 220–1. The last case is of particular interest in the present context, since it is Confucius who is made to pronounce a catalogue of character tests; for the original text see also Wang, Zhuangzi jiaoquan, v. 3, ch. 32, “Lie Yukou” 列御寇, 1275.

64 See Olrik, Axel, Principles for Oral Narrative Research, tr. Wolf, Kirsten and Jensen, Jody (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992 [1921]), 44–5Google Scholar, §§61–2.

65 See, e.g., Kinney, Exemplary Women, xxvi, xlii–xliv. See also Farmer, J. Michael, “Chastity, suicide, art and history: changing conceptions of female remarriage in early medieval Shu”, in Chan, Shirley, Hendrischke, Barbara and Wiles, Sue (eds), Willow Catkins: Festschrift for Dr Lily Xiao Hong Lee on the Occasion of Her 75th Birthday (Sydney: Oriental Society of Australia, 2014), 50–2Google Scholar, on Liu Xiang's and Ban Zhao's 班昭 (48–116? ce), overall, fairly atypical conservatism on the topic of female remarriage.

66 Fu, Kong congzi jiaoshi, 13.297–8; cf. the translations in Ariel, 136–7, and Hightower, 14 n. 16.

67 See Haun Saussy's observations on pervasive repetition with only restricted variation as a subtle poetic device in Shijing stanzas; see his “Repetition, rhyme, and exchange in the Book of Odes ”, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 57/2, 1997, 519–42Google Scholar.

68 On this see Csikszentmihalyi, Mark, “Confucius and the Analects in the Han”, in Norden, Bryan W. Van (ed.), Confucius and the Analects: New Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 134–62Google Scholar.