Narrative Elements in Traditional Chinese Poetics

Questions of the nature of narrative in the Chinese tradition—its techniques and forms of expression—are of increasing interest to scholars of Chinese literature and art, but are still defined only hazily by scholars of Chinese poetry. The three main criteria for the analysis of narrative expression as distinct from lyrical expression—point of view, characterization, and sequence—are familiar from European works of narrative theory. The same criteria are present in traditional Chinese poetics, though they manifest themselves very differently from their Western counterparts. Although Chinese narrative poetry may not be formally distinct from other modes of poetic expression as developed in various genres, the earliest extant texts of Chinese poetry and poetic criticism nevertheless show a clear awareness of the potential and utility of narrative expression. For an understanding of the functions of point of view, characterization, and sequence in traditional Chinese poetics we must consider the characteristics of Chinese poetic language as well as the documents of literary criticism in terms of the fundamental units of style which allow for narrative expression.

The earliest extant works of Chinese literature provide the basis for the formative statements of the nature of literary art and the general nature of the Chinese poetic language. The very term that we translate as "poetry," shih, serves as an example of some of the peculiar characteristics of Chinese critical discourse. The first documents of Chinese poetics, as they have come down to the present day, are based on the Shih Ching anthology, probably first compiled around 600 B.C., although many of its three hundred or so poems may date from centuries earlier. The word shih has its earliest usage in three of the poems in the ya (odes or elegantiae) section of this anthology. These usages of the term shih have been interpreted to indicate the existence of a conception of "poetry" as a literary art, definable by name and recognizable by nature in its application, as early as the sixth century B.C., and this definition of poetry is common in works of criticism. The term is also used just as frequently to refer to that first anthology, the Shih Ching, and to the genre of poetry which is said to derive from the models of the Shih Ching. The interdependence of these uses of the term shih is readily apparent, and yet their precise relation and distinctions may seem baffling. Furthermore, Chinese criticism shows a tendency to define concepts either in terms of particular examples from the tradition or metaphorically, in terms of their effects. This makes the task of defining the abstractions which form the basis of Chinese critical terminology difficult in Western languages. Considering that the sources of the Chinese poetic tradition are lyrical, we can see that such terminology will also inevitably reflect the problems of describing the aesthetics of a lyric tradition and lyrical quality in art generally.

Another important feature of the Chinese critical tradition which bears significantly on the development of a distinction between narrative and lyric modes of expression is the emphasis on the role of intent (chih) as crucial to the understanding of a work of art. The importance of authorial intention has already been implied in the introductory discussion of T'ao Ch'ien's and Wang Wei's versions of the legend of Peach Blossom Spring. Much of the significance of Wang Wei's poem derives from his shared interpretation of T'ao Ch'ien's purpose in composing his preface and poem. This is only a specific instance of the importance of the perception and understanding of authorial intention. In practical terms artistic emphasis on the perception and understanding of authorial intention is an integral aspect of Chinese literary criticism, a precept which was amply confirmed in Confucian doctrine, especially in interpretations of particular works of literature and statements on the nature of literary art. The early Confucian impulse was to interpret shih in terms of their value for learning, if not precisely for their didactic content. What ultimately emerged was a bias toward political and social rhetoric, with literary language regarded as a means to various ends. The role of literature in such a system of social thought is as a medium through which one may acquire learning that may in turn stir and edify others; this is regarded as the proper end or use of learning.

The Confucian emphasis on the ends of learning would seem to place as much importance on the act of reading as on the act of writing: what matters is the successful communication of the author's intent, and this requires a receptive audience. This purposive attitude toward literary criticism is evident from early statements on the nature of the arts in texts which express Confucian values. The Classic of History (Shu Ching), for example, attributes to Emperor Shun an admonition regarding the proper uses of poetic expression, as part of his charge to his new minister of music, the T'ai-ssu yüeh: "Poetry expresses intention (inclination, determination, or will) in words, songs prolong the sounds of words for chanting, and the pitch-pipes harmonize the notes. Make the eight kinds of musical sounds in accord and let them not interfere with each other, so that spirits and men may be brought into harmony."

The "Great Preface" to the Shih Ching (Shih ta hsü), from the Mao edition of the anthology, dates from perhaps the first century A.D. and is attributed to Wei Hung. This enigmatic text presents a complex statement on the nature of poetic expression which has proved to be perhaps the most tenacious and influential in Chinese criticism. This preface marks the foundation of Chinese literary criticism as a form of discourse in its own right. Incorporating the late Han revivals and reforms in Confucian doctrine, it attempts to formulate the process whereby poetry combines aesthetic quality and ethical substance. The preface reflects a background of Confucianism, grounded as it is in the pragmatic principle of the necessity of ethical purpose in literature, and this principle is in turn grounded in a conception of the nature of literature that makes the processes of writing and reading virtually inseparable. The relation of "intent" to "poetry" is part of a spontaneous creative process which proceeds from internal, individual response to the external world:

Poetry is the fulfillment of intent; what dwells in the mind is intent, what comes forth in words is poetry. Emotions move in the core of one's being and take form in words. When speaking them does not suffice, then one sighs them or chants them; if sighing and chanting do not suffice, then one sings them; if singing them does not suffice, then unconsciously one taps them out with the hands, dances them, treads them and stamps them.

Emotions come forth in sounds, and when the sounds fulfill patterns they are called musical tones. The musical tones of an age of peace are tranquil and incline to joy; their regulation is harmonious. The musical tones of an age of disorder are dissonant and incline to anger; their regulation is perverted. The musical tones of a kingdom in ruins are mournful and incline to nostalgia; their people are suffering. Therefore, to keep order in success or failure, to move Heaven and Earth, to touch the feelings of ghosts and spirits, nothing can approach poetry. The former kings used these means to guide the conduct of husband and wife, to inspire filial piety and generosity, to enrich social relations, to enhance education and culture, and to develop manners and customs.

The significance of chih, or intent, in relation to poetry is to establish the purpose of expression; one intends, in response to the stimulation of inspiration, to express oneself in order to communicate this emotion (ch'ing). With ethical purpose an underlying assumption of poetic expression, the critic here attempts to formulate a statement on the nature of artistic inspiration ("in the mind"), the process of expression ("if one does not suffice"), and the response of the audience. In order to achieve expression of inspiration the artist may call upon all his resources, verbal and physical. While expression in words must adjust to the limits of language, meaning lies under no such constraint; meaning may go beyond the literal level of the text—literally, "beyond words" (yen-wai)—and is limited only by the reader's imagination or capacity for understanding.

The concept of intent is central in the mainstream of Chinese literary criticism. This emphasis on the expressive quality of art is the basis of the Chinese lyric aesthetic. In practical terms emphasis on the perception and understanding of authorial intent is integral to Chinese literary criticism. Again, it must be stressed that this statement from the "Great Preface" remained a crucial tenet of literary theory, and the primary statement of the significance of the relation of "intent" to artistic creation in the Chinese tradition, whatever the moral, philosophical, or political biases of the critic. Kao Yu-kung comments at length upon the formula:

In its usual straightforward interpretation, this formula is close to a doctrine of didacticism: "to express through verbalization the poet's immediate message." Its purpose is clearly communication, its direction toward the external world. However, in early Chinese history the intrinsic distrust of discursive communication, and the absolute importance based on inner experience, prompted a subtler amplification of the same dictum, so here the word "to express" came to mean "total realization," embracing both semantic representation and formal presentation. Given this amplification in meaning, the word "intent" is no longer sufficient to encompass the object of poetic vision, and it is expanded to mean an integral part of the total experience, including all mental activities and attributes, of a particular person at a particular moment. Within this frame of reference, "intent" can be identified as the "meaning" of one moment in an individual's life, while "vision" becomes the realization of this meaning in its totality.

According to the passage from the "Great Preface" quoted earlier, the poetic act implicitly has two parts: perception and expression. These two parts in turn determine the relationship between the acts of composition and reading. The act of reading implies the re-creation of the original act of perception, but the method employed by the artist to ensure this re-creation will to a large extent define the mode of expression and thus the experience of the reader. Lyrical experience fosters the illusion of reproducing the act of perception exactly as it was experienced by the artist. Narrative experience, on the other hand, invokes a vicarious perception, a sympathetic response tempered by awareness of the separation of the reader from the experience of perception. These two conventions of literary experience may also be seen as contrasting implicit and explicit expressions of meaning: implicit in fostering the illusion of precise reproduction of experience, explicit in the direct expression of particularized experience beyond the reader's immediate context.

In Chinese poetry these two kinds of literary experiences reflect not only fundamental differences in expressive intent, but also conventions and innovations in Chinese poetic language. On the most general level lyrical experience and narrative experience reflect the expressive tendencies of two basic conventions of syntax in Chinese poetry, as described by Kao Yu-kung and Mei Tsu-lin in "Syntax, Diction, and Imagery in T'ang Poetry." The first convention is imagistic language, which requires no specific agent or context and exploits discontinuous syntax to produce arresting effects of rhythm and a vivid sense of perception. The second is propositional language, which implies the presence of an agent, perhaps indicated by a pronoun or other reference, and evokes action. In this case the syntax tends to a more continuous rhythm, and the presence of an agent determines the nature, intention, or result of action. The imagistic and propositional conventions of expression coexist in Chinese poetic language and can even occur in the same poem:

Adopting a theory developed by Ernst Cassirer in his Language and Myth, we will propose a distinction of language into two poles, the imagistic pole and the propositional pole....

The two distinctions, imagistic/propositional and continuous/discontinuous, are based upon two different criteria. The first answers the question, what kind of "meaning" does a verbal expression refer to and how is that meaning apprehended? That is, whether the "meaning" is primarily perceptual or conceptual. The second answers the question, what kind of rhythm does the syntax of that verbal expression create? In practice, however, these two distinctions are frequently related. If a line has minimal syntax, then its rhythm is likely to be discontinuous and its imagistic function correspondingly enhanced. If a proposition is to indicate the relations among its component parts, it has to have a more complicated syntactic apparatus, which at once weakens the image-making power of the individual words and gives the sentence a fullness that allows it to sustain a more continuous rhythm.

The interrelation of these conventions provides a means of understanding the interaction of the composition and reading of poetry which is at the heart of poetic experience in Chinese literary criticism. These same dynamics provide a key to the distinctions between lyric and narrative in Chinese poetry. While Kao and Mei focus on T'ang poetry in their study, the relation of imagistic and propositional conventions of language is significant in all phases of the tradition. Their tendencies affect the mode of expression not only according to the subject matter, but also according to the structure of an individual poem. The formal qualities of particular meters and genres of shih may largely determine the proportion of imagistic and propositional language. This in turn determines the nature of the impact of the poetic act and reveals its underlying intent. Where imagistic language dominates, the lyric mode will emerge; where propositional language dominates, the narrative mode prevails. The nature of the Chinese poetic language provides for the diversification of these modes according to authorial intent. Because of its discontinuous and objective qualities, imagistic language promotes the reader's sense of integration with the experience of the text. Propositional language, relying on the presence of an identifiable agent, and therefore more continuous in syntax and subjective in reference, promotes the empathy characteristic of narrative experience. Kao and Mei suggest the association of "objective" qualities with imagistic language and discontinuous syntax (hence with lyrical tendencies), and "subjective" qualities with propositional language and continuous syntax (hence, narrative tendencies). They explain these qualities in terms of "spatial" versus "temporal" axes. Imagistic language tends to objective expression because it is free from temporal reference, while propositional language asserts a context which implies temporal reference, and so provides a specificity which renders the expression subjective in quality. On first consideration it might seem as if lyrical expression should be subjective and narrative expression objective, because lyrical experience may vary according to the individual reader, while narrative experience seems far more set by the poet or speaker. From the perspective of the text and the functions of Chinese poetic language, however, the nontemporally referential, universalized expression of lyric is objective by virtue of its liberation from a specific context, while the grounding of narrative in a particular temporal context renders it subjective.

The presence of an agent separates the reader from the context of the experience of the poem and so allows for the development of two important features of narrative: point of view and characterization. While the presence of these features may not require formal, generic distinctions between lyric and narrative poems, the interaction of the imagistic and propositional conventions of language suggests a sense of awareness of these distinctions on the part of the author and provides the reader with some keys to their analysis.

To go further, imagistic language emphasizes quality, while propositional language emphasizes action. Imagistic language thus relies upon the topic/comment structure in syntax, and makes extensive use of stative or qualitative verbs. Propositional language relies upon the presence of an agent and can accommodate the use of performative verbs. Qualitative verbs tend to describe states of being which are not dependent on specific temporal or spatial contexts for their significance. Performative verbs, on the other hand, tend to imply concrete temporal and spatial contexts, even if these contexts are not precisely defined.

The relation between these two expressive conventions in Chinese poetic language is crucial to the understanding and appreciation of Chinese poetry. The problem of conveying their interaction is a difficult one for translators of Chinese poetry, especially lyric poetry. Given the predominance of lyrical expression, it is not surprising that Chinese literary aesthetics stress the imagistic rather than the active quality of language, and even in narrative literature it is the "lyrical" element which is elevated in criticism. This element is virtually impossible to reproduce in inflected languages without nonsensical effects. The sense of a phrase or sentence may well be conveyed, but the expressive qualities of the syntax are quite another matter. Translators of poetry overwhelmingly substitute propositional structures for phrases that in Chinese are strictly imagistic. This tendency, of course, extends beyond the realm of translation and creates serious problems for those whom James J. Y. Liu has referred to as "non-native" readers of Chinese literature.