A New Aesthetics of Tz'u

By the beginning of the Sung dynasty, then, a distinctive tz'u aesthetics had already appeared, different from that of shih poetry in both formal and thematic aspects. The popular song lyrics from Tun-huang can still be subsumed under the broad, traditional definition of the function of poetry—shih yen chih , or "poetry expresses what preoccupies the mind"—but the function of the newly established literati song lyrics are perhaps better, and more narrowly, defined by the phrase tz'u yen ch'ing , "song lyrics express a person's innermost feelings." Traditionally, the

[52] Many scholars have commented on these characteristics of early tz'u , but the most comprehensive review is perhaps that found in Yang Hai-ming, T'ang Sung tz'u feng-ko-lun , esp. pp. 12–29.

[53] See Kang-i Sun Chang's discussion "The Rhetoric of Tz'u : Implicit Meaning versus Explicit Meaning" in her Evolution of Chinese Tz'u Poetry , pp. 35–62.

[54] Yeh Chia-ying, T'ang Sung ming-chia tz'u shang-hsi , vol. 1, Wen T'ing-yün , Wei Chuang , Feng Yen-ssu , Li Yü (Taipei: Ta-an ch'u-pan-she, 1988), p. 175.

concept of chih —"what preoccupies the mind"—actually included ch'ing and referred to the entire spectrum of a person's inner life. In the context of the song lyric, however, ch'ing usually refers to the delicate and more subtle, complex and private aspects of a person's thoughts and feelings, of which the tender emotions associated with the experiences of love are most representative.^[55] With the increasing sophistication of the song lyric form in the Northern Sung, a division of labor gradually came about. The song lyric was widely considered to be the appropriate form in which a poet's tender and subtle states of emotion and awareness could be expressed, while shih poetry continued to be the form employed for the expression of chih , or all the other aspects of a person's emotional and intellectual life.^[56] This division of labor was related not only to the fundamental differences between the forms, but also to the special direction in which literati tz'u had been developing since the late T'ang.

Sung poets of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, such as the hsiao-ling masters Chang Hsien (990–1078), Yen Shu (991–1055), Sung Ch'i (998–1061), and Ou-yang Hsiu (1007–72), essentially continued the tradition established for the song lyric by the late T'ang and Five Dynasties poets. As in the earlier periods, with some exceptions, the song lyrics of the early Sung were considered primarily as works composed for the purpose of entertaining guests at banquets, rather than as poetry written for the purpose of self-expression.^[57] To be sure, these early Sung poets refined the language of the song lyric while they infused it with a certain degree of philosophical depth. Nonetheless, "boudoir sentiments" and "amorous and sensual feelings" remained the dominant subject matter of song lyrics of the ling type, and early Sung tz'u consequently continued to be characterized by softness, sensuality, and ornateness. The mutability of life and things, lovesickness, resentment against separation from one's beloved and the desire for reunion, lamentation for the passing of spring or of joyful events were common themes found in early Sung song lyrics,^[58] themes that were treated in a gentle, delicate, intimate, subtle, or indirect manner.^[59]

In the "hierarchy" of literary forms in Northern Sung times, tz'u was

[55] Yang Hai-ming has discussed this in his T'ang Sung tz'u feng-ko-lun , pp. 37, 137.

[56] Ibid., pp. 136–37.

[57] Kao Chien-chung, "Shih-lun liang Sung wan-yüeh-tz'u ti li-shih ti-wei," p. 131.

[58] Feng Ch'i-yung has provided an excellent discussion of the common characteristics of early Sung tz'u poetry in his article "Lun Pei-Sung ch'ien-ch'i liang-chung put'ung ti tz'u-feng," in Tz'u-hsüeh yen-chiu lun-wen-chi , ed. Hua-tung ta-hsüeh Chung-wen-hsi ku-tien wen-hsüeh yen-chiu-shih (Shanghai: Shang-hai ku-chi ch'u-pan-she, 1982), esp. p. 188.

[59] Ibid.

ranked lower than both shih and wen (prose). The genre was usually referred to as hsiao-tz'u or hsiao ko-tz'u , that is, with the somewhat pejorative adjective hsiao , "little" or "trivial," added to the appellation tz'u , "song lyric."^[60] Interestingly, because of this low position tz'u occupied in the literary hierarchy, scholars were not always severely frowned upon for writing sentimental and sensual song lyrics. Within certain reasonable limits, it was acceptable for a prominent scholar-statesman such as Yen Shu to "speak like a woman" sometimes in his tz'u poetry.^[61] This could not have been the case unless "femininity" and "sensuality" were regarded, even if only unconsciously at this stage, as intrinsic properties of the genre.^[62]