Trading
Poetry
the
Chinese
Metaphors:
and
Twentieth
the
Reperiodization
Prose
of
Century
NickAdmussen
1Genre
isdiscussed
in
asmetaphor
Rosmarin
1986.
Monte
(2000:
Stephen
ofEnglish
andAmerican
24),critic
prose
writes
that"genre
ismuch
poetry,
more
aninterpretive
framework
thana
ofclassification."
category
is at bestan explanatory
periodization,likegenreclassifications,
Literary
It
in
and exploratory
uses
metaphor.1
adjacencies timeand contextto help
us see connectionsbetween literary
works:it is usefulnot just because
it offersa shorthandfortalkingabout groupsof works,but because it
workor groupof works.This
givesus new waysto understanda literary
is similarto the sensationwe mighthave,whentold a particular
subway
offillingout the detailsofthe analogy- the
lineisa city's"majorartery,"
thingsfromone place to another,the healthof
subwaycarriesimportant
the citydepends on it,it branchesand divides,it lies out of sightof the
city'ssurface.Callinga subwaysystema "web," on the otherhand,allows
as if on a map,
us to visualizethe strandsof its connections,statically,
and emphasizethe way a subwaygivesa citycohesion.Each metaphor
provokesobservationsthat are true; each has limits;the limitsof each
are recouped,to some extent,bythe presenceof other,equally useful
period
metaphors.Justlikesubwaymetaphors,a good literary-historical
shouldbe apt, namelya timecategorizationthatgroupstogetherworks
Alsolikemetaphor,
therecan be multipleways
possessingrealsimilarities.
work:forinstance,much
to understand
one particular
to use periodization
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hascenteredon readinglateQingliterary
recentworkon Chineseliterature
back
worksas partofthe modernperiod.2Theseworksextendmodernity
as
and use thatmodernity
beforethe overthrow
ofthe Qinggovernment,
of some kinds
an interpretive
metaphorto cometo richerunderstandings
The perceptionsof
literature.
of nineteenthand earlytwentieth-century
occasionedbya modernperiodthatisnotdemarcatedbythefall
similarity
and readerslearnfroma
of a dynasty
critics,
supplementwhat historians,
thatdividesworksof
history
metaphoricperiodizationof Chineseliterary
the late Qingfromthose of the earlyRepublicanperiod.
The other boundaryof the modernperiod, its end, has not been
consideredas deeplyas itsbeginning.Overthe pasttwentyyears,a rough
consensushas appeared among some Westernscholarsregardingthe
intohistorical
Chineseliterature
divisionoftwentieth-century
periods.One
representative
exampleof thisconsensusis The ColumbiaAnthologyof
whichis dividedintothreepolitical/historical
ModernChineseLiterature,
periods:1918-1949,1949-1976,and "Since 1976." The worksfromthe
are almostexclusively
middleperiod,1949-1976,inbothfictionand poetry,
fromTaiwan.3The introduction
compellingly
justifiesthisstructure,
citing
was "burdenedwith.
the factthatduringthisperiodMainlandliterature
. . ideologicalexpectations"and thatthe societyofthetimewas "a closed
stifled"(Lau/Goldblatt
worldin whichindividualvoiceswere summarily
1995:xviii).Inthisanthology,
worksfromTaiwanfilla blankcreatedbythe
ofinferior
orcensoredmainlandwork,andthispracticeprovides
perception
a feelingoftemporalcontinuity
(because itincludesworksinChinesefrom
at theexpenseoftheculturaland spatial
all partsofthetwentieth
century)
of the 1949-1976 period.4In puttingthis periodizationinto
continuity
practice,TheColumbiaAnthologymayhave been influencedbyideas like
thoseadvancedinFromMayFourthto JuneFourth,a volumefocusedon
the mainlandand centeredon "thequestionofwhetherand how Chinese
with
literature
sincethe CulturalRevolution(1966-1976) showscontinuity
what is commonlyknownas 'May Fourth'literature"(Widmer1993: ix).
2Someexamples
rich
literature
ofa very
Link
include
onthisinterstitial
period
and
Pollard
1998,
1981,
1997,
Wang
2001.
Gimpel
3Theonly
inTheColumbia
exception
isthework
ofMuDan,whose
Anthology
in1976and
final
werecomposed
poems
of
whomaybemore
representative
earlier.
There
"since
1976"
than
poetry
thatperiodize
with
arealsotwoworks
С.
careful
a particularly
eyetohistory:
AHistory
ofModem
T.Hsia's
(1961)
divisions
atthe
Chinese
Fiction
creates
oftheNationalist
government
founding
in1928andthestart
oftheSinoWarin1937,
andMcDougall
Japanese
of
andLouie's
(1997)TheLiterature
intheTwentieth
creates
China
Century
ofthewar,
as
divisions
atthestart
oftheCultural
wellasthebeginning
in1965.Each,
Revolution
however,
works
stresses
thatvery
different
inthesamehistorical
periods,
appeared
intoliterary
Hsiabysubdividing
groups
andLouie
andtrends,
andMcDougall
direct
forexample
mention,
through
isdrawn
onpage5where
attention
intheliterary
world
ofthe
tochanges
inthebook's
1970s
thatarenotreflected
chapter-level
periodizations.
4There
isalsoanargument
tobemade
of
thatthispractice
theliterature
pulls
Taiwan
outofcontext,
Taiwanese
typifies
asfully
with
literature
contiguous
underestimates
the
mainland
literature,
native
Taiwanese
and
ofprewar
impact
wartime
literature,
Japanese-language
1976asa year
andartificially
establishes
ofsignificance
toTaiwan.
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 89
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of
CoeditorEllenWidmergoes on to pointout,though,that"thefindings
boththe conferenceas a whole and of severalindividualpapersare that
theseapparentcommonalities
need carefulqualificationbeforetheycan
sustainmeaningful
comparisonsand thatin manywaysitis discontinuity,
not continuity,
that prevails"(ix). To reinterpretthis assessment,the
ofthe conferenceshowthatto definemodernity
as a periodthat
findings
proceedsfromthe late Qing to the end of the May Fourthmovement,
and can
and thenrecurssomehowduringthe Deng period,is interesting
be meaningful,
but thismetaphorneeds to be balanced byotherlenses
and otherperiodizations,
especiallythosethatacknowledgeand attempt
in literaturebetween May Fourthand later
to chartthe discontinuities
work.
Some Chinese criticsalso practice a literaryperiodization that
betweenMayFourthwritingand literature
after
emphasizescontinuities
1976. Theirworksare more likely,however,to be completehistoriesof
such as Zhu Donglin's(1999)
baihua literaturein the twentiethcentury,
fromthe
Thispracticeis different
Historyof ModernChineseLiterature.
Westernperiodizationjust mentionedin that it includesand describes
the earlyCommunist
and CulturalRevolutionperiod,butthe two create
a similarcontinuity
between May Fourthand the present.Significantly,
and otherslikeit,tendto dividemodern
however,Zhu Donglin'shistory,
intotwovolumes,and thedividinglinetheymostoftenuse
literary
history
difference
betweenliterature
is 1949,indicatingsome kindof important
writtenbeforeand afterthe foundingof the PRC.
theirworkswithoutrecourseto periodizations
Manycriticsstructure
that draw strongconnectionsbetween workswrittenbeforeand after
1949: a listof such workswould includethose organized by thematic
content,byregion,and byideology,all ofwhichavoida nationalhistorical
In
tailoredperiodizations.
infavorofindividual,
idiosyncratic,
periodization
nationaltemporaldivision:
I examineone long-standing
thisessay,however,
literaryhistorianHong Zicheng'sargumentthat the divisionof Chinese
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literatureinto modern(xiandai,pre-1949)and contemporary
(dangdai,
commonintheChineseacademysincethe late 1950s,is"stillan
post-1949),
inChinaduringthis
efficacious
viewingangle on thesituationof literature
century"(Hong2007:xvi).Thisis identicalto the practicein TheColumbia
Anthologyjust described,except that by refusingto create a period
boundaryin 1976,it arguesor allows the argumentof a certainlevelof
betweenMao-eraworksand thosethatcameafter.Somescholars
similarity
of Chineseliterature
writingin Englishhave also begunto read worksin
a way that makesconnectionsbetween pre-1976and post-1976:Yibing
ChineseLiterature:
Fromthe Cultural
Huang,whose book Contemporary
theyearsbeforeand
Revolutionto theFuture,does someworkinknitting
after1976 (Huang2007); MichelleYeh findsmainlyMao-periodoriginsin
whatshe callsthe "cultofcontemporary
poetry"(Yeh 1996:57 et passim);
inpost-MaoChina"
and KamLouie's(1983)articleon "literary
doublethink
beginswithMao Zedong's"Yan'anTalks,"whichbecamea partof national
foundedthe Republicin 1949. These
literary
policywhenthe Communists
kindsofworks,whichfocuson literary
historical
oraestheticnarratives
that
begin in or around 1949,are roundlyoutnumbered,however,byworks
that startwitheitherMay Fourthor 1976. Withthe understanding
that
these periodizations,
likemetaphors,are intendedto be descriptive
and
are thereforenotmutually
exclusive,inthe nexttwo sectionsofthisessay
I examinethe utilityand explanatorypower of applyingHong Zicheng's
of mainlandChinese
periodizationto the history
"modern/contemporary"
shi
a
has
prosepoetry(sanwen ), literary
genrethat
spannedthetwentieth
and
all
of
but
which
has
not
century
regions China,
yetbeenfullyintegrated
intomultigenre
histories
oranthologiesliketheonesalreadylisted.5
literary
In the finalsection,I ask how the modern/contemporary
periodization
limit
or
block
our
of
Chinese
might
perception
prose poetryand reflect
on the benefitof lookingat the practiceof periodizationas an organizing
metaphorratherthana canonicaltraditionto be upheldor overthrown.
5Oneofthemore
of
striking
pieces
evidence
ofthewidespread
reach
of
inthetwentieth
is
prose
poetry
century
a sprawling
eleven-volume
Feng1992,
ofprose
divided
anthology
poetry
by
andincluding
volumes
from
province
Inner
andTibet;
ifthereader's
Mongolia
time
islimited,
a more
choice
is
practical
a two-volume
of
2008,
Wang
anthology
andprose
criticism
prose
poetry
poetry
thatstretches
from
1918to2007.
LauandGoldblatt
Meanwhile,
however.
oneprose
(1995:
542)produce
poem
only
intheir
"Salt,"
anthology:
byTaiwanese
which
poetYaXian,
they
incorrectly
break
intopoetic
lines.
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 91
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MostChinesecritics
and literary
historians
todayreadmainlandChinese
6Inthisessay,
i borrow
most
heavily
from
twoliterary
histories
oftheprose
2006andWang
1987.
poem-Huang
inemphasis
havedifferences
and
They
andthey
different
analysis,
pursue
andworks,
authors
butboth
include
Idiscuss.
NoWestern
thebasic
works
author
hasyetwritten
a literary
history
ofprose
studies
havebeen
poetry;
limited
toeither
orpostMayFourth
1980works.
sanwen shi in 1918 in the translationof an articlefromVanityFairand
histories
thentranslatedseveralprose poems by IvanTurgenev.Literary
7This
madebyGuo
callismost
firmly
whoconsiders
Moruo,
pieces
byQu
andtherhyme-prose
Yuan,
Zhuangzi
ofa longtradition
orfutobeproof
ofChinese
Seea reprint
prose
poetry.
ofhisessay"Lun
shi"inWang
2008:
1243-1248.
of the PRC.Inthe 1940s,
ResistanceAgainstJapanand the establishment
Guo Feng publishedmanywell-receivedprose poems,and in the 1950s,
Ke Lan and Guo Feng both publishedprosepoetrycollections.Afterthe
prose poems as part of a traditionthat spans the twentiethcentury.6
Generallyresistingcalls to place the originsof Chineseprose poetryin
classicalliterature,7
theystartwithLiuBannong,who firstused the term
recountthatthe practiceof composingprosepoetrythen
conventionally
spread throughMay Fourthpoets and prose writersalike, reachingits
heightwithLu Xun's WildGrass(Ye cao)#publishedin 1927. AfterWild
Grass,productiongraduallydiminisheduntilafterthe end of the Warof
1950s,perhapsas a resultof the end of the HundredFlowersMovement
critics
leveledat bothKe and Guo,there
and politicalaccusationsthatleftist
was verylittleprosepoeticcompositionuntilthe end of the Mao period.
Severalinfluential
prosepoems,includingsome affixedto the monument
in Tiananmento commemoratethe death of Zhou Enlai in 1976,were
writteninthe late 1970s;bythemiddleofthe 1980s,a "prosepoetryfever"
of magazines,and critical
(sanwenshire) began thatledto a proliferation
works,whose influencecontinuestoday.Thisis a usefulliterary
history,
one thatwilldoubtlesspersistwell intothe future:bybeginningwithLiu
Bannong'sadoptionoftheconceptand theformfromEnglishand Russian,
and transnational
the narrative
emphasizesprosepoetry'stransplantation
of Lu Xun's
character;byconceptualizinglaterprose poets as inheritors
practicein WildGrass,it leads us to lookforthe qualitiesof WildGrassin
laterworks- forexample,the mood that Lu Xuncalled tuifei(depressed
or dispirited)(Lu Xun2005: 4: 224) or hisinterestin Baudelaire,who as a
studiedbyChinesescholarsand authors.Unlike
resulthas been carefully
which
histories
and anthologies,
thepreviously
mentionedWesternliterary
ignoremostworkbetween1949 and 1976,these historiesalwaysinclude
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prose poetryof the 1950s,though liketheirWesterncounterparts
they
focusmostlyon the MayFourthand the 1980s.
Historicalnarrativesof Chinese prose poetrythat begin with May
Fourthand includethe restof the twentiethcenturymake assumptions
aboutthenatureofprosepoetrythatcancreatesignificant
confusion
when
applied to individualpoems writtenduringthe May Fourthperiod.This
is a workbyShenYinmothatsome criticsconsiderto be the firstoriginal
prosepoem writtenin Chinese8:
MoonlitNight
A frosty
windwhistlesas it'sblowing,
the moonlightshiningso brightly.
A toweringtreeand I standside byside,
butwithouttouching.
m
шшшш,
пяжтш
шъпш.
о
9
When read as a prosepoem,what is striking
about thispoem is that it is
lineateci
: thereare line breaksafterthe commasin linesone and three,
somethingthat would of course neverhappen in prose.This lineation,
is nota mistakeor the resultof a prosesentencebeingforcedto
further,
fitintoa particularcolumnwidth;each line in the originalChineseends
inthe particlezhe/zhao,whichprovidesa kindof sonicand visualreturn
similarto rhyme.The use of the particlechanges in the last line:zhe in
the firstthree lines indicatesa continuingaction,but in the finalline,
because it appears aftermeiyou,a past action is implied.As such,the
indicator
ofa
particleislikelypronouncedzhao and servesas a grammatical
completedaction,givingthe poema conclusionthatisat once decisiveand
8Forinstance,
ZouYuehan
identifies
this
astheearliest
poembyname
attempt
attheform
2008:12),
(inWang
Fuming
asdoesHuang
(2006:
10).After
Yongjian
LuXunatthebeginning
ofhis
putting
because
ofhisstature
as
anthology,
likely
a writer,
(2008:
13)starts
Wang
Fuming
hismostly
of
chronological
procession
with
a version
of"Moonlit
works
Night"
from
which
thefree-verse
linebreaks
havebeendeleted.
DuRonggen
(1993:
theview,
which
a plurality
85)traces
ofChinese
scholars
seemtohold,
that
thispoemisthefirst
true
Chinese
prose
toa 1922essaybyKang
poemback
inthatyear's
Yearbook
ofNew
Baiqing
Duhimself
with
this
Poetry.
disagrees
andinstead
chooses
view,
poetry
byLiu
onwhom
more
later
Bannong,
appears
intheessay.
Hisanalysis
islikely
drawn
from
SunYushi
228-229;
(2006:
largely
in1982).
written
originally
9Zhang
77.Mytranslation.
1998:
Foran
alternate
seeHockx
1994:
31.
translation,
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 93
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unequivocalas well as detachedand modern;the breakingof the rhyme
withnature
schemeinthefinallinesuggeststhatthisrefusalto intermingle
isan intentionalrevoltagainstthethemeof unitywithnatureso common
to classicalChinesepoetry.Viewingthisworkas a prosepoem,whichisto
lineationand itsrhymeplayinfavorof a focus
say ignoringitsfree-verse
on itsprosesentencesand paragraphs,however,suppressesthispossible
qualities,and makestheworklook
reading,ignoresthe poem'sfree-verse
likea pairof oddlybalanced but ultimately
repetitiveprosesentences.
exampleof the prose
Considering"MoonlitNight"as a prototypical
thepoem'spalpableclassicalheritage:likeclassical
poemalso de-emphasizes
ofeitherfive-orseven-character
lines,itquickly
jueju, quatrainsconsisting
and challenging
turnimbuesthe
sketchesa scene,and thenina mysterious
thispoem
scene withthe expressionof a personalemotion.Additionally,
hingeson an allusionto Du Fu'spoemofthesametitle,whichends:"When
shallwe lean togetherinthe emptywindow,/brighttwintracesof tears
counters
driedup?" "MoonlitNight"both belongsto and intentionally
the unanswerablequestionfrom
itslyrictradition,not least byrewriting
the end of Du Fu'spoemwitha strong,cold declarationof independence.
It makessense,then,that the editorsof Shen Yinmo'sCollectedPoems
categorizeitas a "new poem" (x/nshi) (Shen1982: 1). Althoughnotevery
thepoemstrictly
readerunderstands
accordingto itsgenericstatus- Wang
Guangming(1987: 13) believesitisa lineatedpoem,and Luo Kuang(1986)
- itsdesignationas a prose
leaves itout of hisanthologyof prosepoetry
poem has led Wang Fuming(2008: 13) not onlyto includeit earlyin his
prosepoetryanthology,butto reprintitwithoutitslineation.In fact,all
of Shen Yinmo'spoems that were originallyprintedin New Youth(Xin
almosthaphazardlineation:the poems'lines,
qingnian)had idiosyncratic,
likethoseofclassicalpoems,are alwaysend-stopped(thereispunctuation
afterthe lastword in the line,creatinga pause), althoughShen Yinmo
uses the fullrange of modernpunctuationto stop his lines,ratherthan
relyingon the rhymeto indicatean end-stop,as inthe classicaltradition.
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no otherruleisfollowedreliablyenoughto givethe impression
Virtually
ofthe qualitiesand limitations
ofthefree-verse
of a formalconsciousness
- important
line.10
Thatconsciousness
notbecause itdefinesprosepoetry,
but because it gave the forma particularcharacterextremelycommon
to prosepoetrytoday- was extremelyrarebefore1949 but increasingly
widelysharedafter.
the prosepoetryof the MayFourthperiodmorecritically
Examining
revealsdozens, if not hundreds,of similarconfusions.Two typesseem
to predominate:(1) certainworksidentifiedby prose poetrycriticsand
oftheir
as prosepoemswhentheirauthors,and the majority
anthologists
forms;and (2) the
readers,considerthemto be examplesof otherliterary
sanwen
used
to
label
shi)
somethingotherthana
phrase"prosepoetry"(
poemwritteninthe formof prose.When MayFourth-eraworksin prose
educated readers,editors,
poetryanthologiesare examinedindividually,
and scholarsfrequently
considerthemto be examplesofotherforms.Bing
who
is
often
considered
a prose poet, places in the prosesectionof
Xin,
her CompleteWorks(BingXin 1982) the pieces that Wang Fumingand
as prose poems in theirrespectiveanthologies.That
Luo Kuang identify
BingXinherselfwrotea prefaceto the CompleteWorksindicatesa certain
10See,forexample,
"Naked"
Shen's
poem
inXinQingnian
vol.6,
(1918:
(Chiluoluo)
lineisshort
andendswith
no.4).Itsfirst
isextremely
a comma,
andthesecond
oftwosentences,
longandconsists
tothebottom
almost
margin,
stretching
comma.
andthen
onanother
breaking
characters
Line
three
isjustfour
longand
from
seems
almost
tobetheoverflow
ita strong
linetwo,giving
syntactical
onthe
andrhythmic
dependence
line
line;bothitandthefinal
previous
None
of
endonrhetorical
questions.
thetechniques
from
Chinese
free
verse
- enjambment,
inShen's
work
use
appear
ofthelinebreak
asa kind
ofunstated
control
over
dramatic
punctuation,
theimpressions
thatcanbemadeby
- butthepoems
lines
longandshort
inletter
or
cannot
becalled
prose,
seeminstead
tobeclassical
spirit.
They
inbaihua,
with
an
rendered
poems
and
attendant
ofallmetrical
rejection
thatclassical
rhyme
expectations
poetry
entailed.
level of editorialcontrolover its organization,and we can thus infer
thatshe did not considertheseworksto be poems.Ba Jinand Mao Dun,
bothfamousfortheirprose and fiction,appear in multipleanthologies
of prose poetry,but Mao Dun's putativeprose poems appear neitherin
:
his CollectedPoems nor in the poetryvolume of his Collected Works
theyappear insteadinthe prosevolumes,alongsidehisessaysand other
prosecompositions(Mao Dun 1985,Mao Dun 1982: 11: 61, 207, 276, 305;
12: 34). Worksanthologizedas Ba Jinprose poems come fromhis book
to the collection,
Dragon, Tiger,Dog (Long,hu,gou); in his introduction
he callsthemduanwen- shortpieces- as wellas wenzhang,essays(Ba Jin
1990:343-344).Qu Qiubai'sprosepiece "ThatCity"(Nage cheng),which
appearsin prosepoetryanthologiesas a prosepoem,iscategorizedin his
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 95
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collectedworksas an essayon literature,
or wenyizazhu (Qu 1985).I have
foundno substantialevidencethat any of these authorshad read other
worksthatwe todayconsiderprosepoemswithanyparticular
attentionto
theirformas prosepoems,thattheythemselvesset out to composeprose
poems,or thattheymade any attemptto conveyto readersthatanyof
theirworkswere prosepoems (in the way thatwe understandthe term
of prosepoemsthatbeginwith
today).Thismeansthatalthoughhistories
the MayFourthperiodmayhelp us understandlaterauthorswho might
have understoodMayFourthworksas prosepoems,classification
ofthese
worksas prosepoemsdoes littleto helpus understand
thesepiecesintheir
original,MayFourthcontext.
SomeMayFourthauthorsdidusethetermsanwenshi: ZhengZhenduo
and Guo Moruo both wrote criticalessays that featuredthe phrase,
and both advocatedforwhat theyconsideredto be prose poetry.Their
fromwhat
ofthe literary
form,however,is quite different
understanding
is representedin morecurrentworksof and about prosepoetry.In "On
Prose Poetry"(Lun sanwenshi,1922), Zheng consistently
opposes prose
poetrywithrhymedpoetry,as, forexample,when he writes:"The works
11Carpenter
refers
toEdward
possibly
andHenley
(1844-1929),
Carpenter
ismost
William
Ernest
likely
Henley
(1849-1903).
of manyprosepoets have alreadyshatteredthe articleof faiththatis 'no
poetrywithoutrhyme'"(Wang Fuming2008: 1197). He goes on to argue
that"ifan expressionmusthave rhyme
to be considereda poem,thencan
the worksof poets Whitman,Carpenter,Henley,11
Wilde,and
Turgenev,
AmyLowellbe consideredpoems?"Wildeand Turgenevwroteworksthat
could,ina verystrict
sense,be consideredprosepoems;Lowellwrotewhat
she called "symphonic
prose,"whichis verysimilarto what we consider
prose poems; Carpentercalled hisworksprose poems,but theyfeature
some lineation;Henleyseemsto be a metricalpoet withstrongfree-verse
tendencies,and Whitmanhas mostlybeen considereda free-verse
poet.
ThatZhengZhenduo'sdefinitionof poetryis not based on the presence
or absenceof lineationmakesperfectsense in hismilieu:classicalChinese
lines
withcarefulrespectto theend ofindividual
poemswererarelyprinted
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of verse,and itwas insteadrhyme,
or occasionallyrhythm,
thatindicated
the end of one poetic phraseand the startof another.The difference
between freeverseand prose poetry,highlyvisibleto Westernreaders
used to Westernlineationpracticesin the publicationof poetry,would
have been less important
to ZhengZhenduo.Whereasothercriticsused
the termsziyoushi,freeverse,or xinshi,new verse,to indicatemodern
poetryunfetteredbytraditionalrules,Zheng used sanwen shi. Chinese
writinghas long been dividedintoyunwen(withrhyme)and wuyunwen
(withoutrhyme)or sanwen (metrically
disorganizedwriting)categories,
and itisreasonableto thinkthatZhenghasappliedthetermsanwenshito
mean"poetrywithoutrhyme."12
Infact,inthiscontext,prosepoetryseems
to be definedagainstyunwen- to be the polaroppositeofyunwen- and
to have few ifany positivelydefinedqualitiesthat are not termsin an
argumentagainstthe hegemonyofyunwen.
Guo Moruohad a similarattitude,buthe applieditevenmorebroadly
to worksoriginally
intendedas prose.He advocatedforprosepoetryand
of end-rhyme
inthe introduction
to histranslation
of
againstthestricture
TheSorrowsof YoungWerther,
whichhe considersa prosepoem:"Recently
some of mycountrymen
have been discussingpoetry;what issurprising
is
thatthedebate overrhyme
has been especiallyfierceand thatprosepoems
have been slanderedas somehow unsound"(in Denton 1996: 204-205).
Prosepoetryintheseformulations
is the poeticnatureof all exceptional
prose,as set againstrhymedverse:it is identicalto the termwuyunshi
in the case of both Guo Moruo and
verse).13Appropriately,
(rhymeless
ZhengZhenduo,worksselectedas prosepoemsbyeditorsof prosepoetry
as suchor distinguished
fromproseintheir
anthologiesare notidentified
CollectedWorks
; additionally,
althoughZheng Zhenduo'sworks"Briar"
and
(Jingji)
"Suffering"
(Tongku)are collectedas poems in his Collected
hispieceentitled"WalkingTowardsBrightness"
Works,
(Xiangguangming
zouqu),anthologizedas a prosepoeminWangFuming's
anthology,
appears
as a shortstoryin his CollectedWorksand a prose essay in hisSelected
12Parts
theZhuangzi,
oftheDaodejing,
inrhyme;
andtheGuanzi
arewritten
intheWenxin
LiuXiedivides
diaolong,
literature
intoseventeen
rhyming
types
hecallswen,literature),
and
(which
seventeen
(which
non-rhyming
types
notall
hecallsbi,writings).
Although
therhyming
areobviously
poems,
types
considered
or
most
ofthose
poems
types
- thisisthetraditional
dorhyme
songs
andGuo
stricture
which
against
Zheng
arepitting
their
energy.
13Michel
thisargument
as
Hockx
makes
wellinHockx
1994:
66,asdoesHuang
(2006:
43).
Yongjian
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 97
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Works(ZhengZhenduo1998: 1: 382; 1990:2: 249).
- essays, short prose works
Because these types of compositions
sometimescalledzawen, meiwen,orxiaopinwen,shortstories,and prose
each beingessentiallya few
poems- are so visuallyand sonicallysimilar,
paragraphs'worthof proseintendedto createan aestheticreaction,and
becausetheboundariesbetweenthemseemeitherarbitrary
ornonexistent,
one mayaskwhycategorizationof an individualpiece is important
at all.
The answeristhat,at leastformanyMayFourthartists,
categorizationof
a piece as a prosepoem is not important.
Zhou Zuoren,in introducing
his
poem "Rivulet"(Xiao he), pointedout that a thingsuchas prosepoetry
existsbutthathisown lineatedcomposition
was probablynotprosepoetry,
and thenthrewhis handsup at the entirequestion:"perhapsit doesn't
countas poetry,
we'll neverknow;butthisis irrelevant"
(inJia1986:443).
In fact,identifying
individualworksfromthe May Fourthas the origin
of the streamof prose poetry'shistoryobscuresone of theirimportant
functionsin the May Fourthcontext:a rebellionagainst the literary
As
tradition,in general,and the rulesof classicalprosody,in particular.
14Itisnotable
that
thisisnotthesame
inwhich
hebegins
tousethe
period
2000points
outthatLiu's
term:
Hockx
inVanity
first
useoftheterm
Fairis
inseveral
mistaken
andthat
ways,
ofTurgenev's
hisfirst
translations
ina fiction
arepublished
prose
poems
magazine.
withmanyrebellions,it maybe moreinstructive
to definetheminterms
of whattheyare pittedagainst,whattheyare not,thanwhattheyare. It
was important
to writersand readersinthe MayFourthperiodthatthese
verse.Whethertheyare prosepoems
poemswere nottraditionalrhymed
definitions
isarguable- a relativelackofauthorial
bymorecontemporary
intentioncertainlydoes not rule out the possibility
that an authorhas
writtensomethingwe can calla prosepoem- butto imposethatlabel on
themcan distractattentionfromsomethingthat May Fourthwritersdid
seem to wantto do: smashthe ancienttraditionof rhymedpoetry.
AmongMay Fourthwriterswho wrote in the form,thereare those
who calledtheircompositions
"prosepoetry"and didnotdefinethatprose
poetry:Liu Bannong,Xu Zhimo,and Lu Xun.
poetrysolelyas rhymeless
MichelHockx(2000: 105) showsthatat least by 1920 LiuBannonghad a
oftheterm"prosepoetry."14
graspofTurgenev's
understanding
Although
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the prose poetrycommunity
calls his work prose poetry,contemporary
editorswho republishLiu's shorterworks call them jingdao xiaopin
sketches)(Liu 1995) or simplyxinshi(new poetry)(Liu 1987),
(penetrating
and Liuhimself
mixeslineatedand unlineatedpoemsfreelyinhisself-edited
collections.Xu Zhimois the authorof a 1929 essayon AloysiusBertrand,
whoseworkBaudelaireclaimedwas theprimeinspiration
fortheinvention
of prosepoetry(Xu 2005: 3: 295-298). His1924 collection,Zhimo'sPoems
(Zhimode shi),has fourprose-poeticcompositions
groupedtogetherinto
a seriesthatshowshisparticularawarenessof the formaldetourhe was
makingaroundhisusual metricaland sonicrigor.He does not,however,
call these worksprose poems,even thoughtheymeet both May Fourth
and morerigorouscontemporary
standardsforcategorizationas such.Of
"Poison"(Duyao),he writes,"I have a poem called "Poison"- a formless,
cursingpoem,thatventedall mypent-upfeelings"(Xu 1987: 139). Instead
of usingthe phrasesanwenshi,he uses bu chengxingde shi,literally"a
poem that has not achieved form."Because of Xu Zhimo'sexperience
withforeignprose poetry,hisformalbrilliance,and his laterwritings,
it
seemsinthiscase notthat he was uninterested
in or uninitiatedintothe
worldof prosepoetry,butthathe chose,on accountof hisreaders,to use
ratherthantaxonomicalterminology.
descriptive
LuXun,whose WildGrassisstillconsideredthe masterwork
ofChinese
familiarwithprose poetryof other
prosepoetry,was also demonstrably
nations.He had read and translatedBaudelaire,15
and in describingWild
Grassinan introduction
to hisselectedworks,he wrote,"I had some little
emotionalimpressions,
so I wroteshortpieces,to exaggeratea bitthey
were sanwen shi,and latertheywere printedintoa book I called Wild
Grass"(Lu 2005: 13: 469). LikeXu Zhimo,Lu Xun here uses descriptive
terminology,firstcalling the pieces in Wild Grass "little emotional
impressions"(xiao ganchu),and onlythen,almost mysteriously,
saying
that one would have to "exaggerate" in orderto considerthem prose
poems.Thisphraseindicates,especiallywhen read inthe contextof May
15When
hetranslated
Kuriyagawa
Hakuson's
ofMental
Symbols
Anguish.
SeeLuXun1959:
3:48-49.
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 99
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Fourthauthors'poeticand prosaicpracticeand theiruse of terminology,
that modernliteraryhistoriansshould not unequivocallyconsiderWild
Grassthe exemplarytextof Chineseprose poetry.It tellsus firstthat Lu
Xunhimself
did notunequivocally
considerWildGrassa collectionofprose
poems:indeed,WildGrasscontainsone lineated,rhyming
poemcalled"My
LostLove" (Wo de shilian)and one piece inthe formof a playcalled "The
16See,forexample,
2006:6Ф-65,
Huang
where
almost
Huang
Yongjian
wishfully
removes
thelineation
from
"MyLost
Love"
andtries
toreaditasa prose
poem.
be calledprosepoetrybyany
(Guoke).Neithercan comfortably
Passer-By"
but the mostnebulousmoderndefinitions,
and moderncriticsspend no
smalleffortarguingthattheyeitherare or are not prosepoems.16More
however,Lu Xun'sown assessmentof WildGrasstellsus that
important,
he did not care enough about categorizingthe worksto be particularly
he seemsto interpret
use ofsanwenshias
explicitor precise.Ifanything,
a kindof overblowntermof flattery,
insteadof as a literary
genreworth
examiningor talkingabout. As MichelleYeh writes,Lu Xun's"choiceof
prosepoetrywas haphazardratherthanconscious;itwas morea matterof
conveniencethana consciousformalexperiment"(Yeh2000: 120).Itisnot
- Wild
so muchthatLuXunwas notmakingconsciousformalexperiments
- it is that our current
Grassis fullof new and innovativeliterary
forms
of the book as a collectionof prosepoems is a side effect
interpretation
of the innovationshe was making.Inthe absence of authorialinterestin
the genre,the motivationforcriticsto expend energyon debates over
the statusof WildGrassas prosepoetrycomes,at least in part,fromthe
ofthe narrative
thatclaimsthatwhatwe considerChineseprose
strength
on the conceptand practiceof prosepoetry
poetrytoday is builtfirmly
between 1910 and 1940.
Thestrongest
advocateofthisnarrative,
and insomewaysitsinnovator,
is Sun Yushi,whose Researchinto WildGrassis a fundamentaltextfor
thosewho read and appreciateLu Xun's1927 work.He writes,"Because
oftheappearanceof WildGrass,modernand contemporary
Chineseprose
poetrybegan itsmarchtowardthesummitof matureindependence"(Sun
2006: 22). He also writesthat WildGrass"no longerdrewon the support
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of poetry'send rhyme,
makingprosepoetrycompletelyindependentfrom
identifies
LuXunas a
new poetry"(251).Sunisthecriticwho moststrongly
foundingfigureofChineseprosepoetry.Butthecontentof Sun'sanalysis,
centeredina chaptercalled"WildGrassand ModernChineseProsePoetry,"
is almostentirelyabout the influenceof previousMay Fourthpoets and
prosewriterson WildGrass,and the book'slaterinfluenceon the socialist
struggleand youthculture.Not onlydo no authorswritingafter1949
appear inthe chapter- raisingthe questionof whetherWildGrassreally
did have an influenceon writersof prose poetryafterthe foundingof
the PRC- butonlyone authoris citedas havingreceivedclearinspiration
What
fromLu Xun'sWildGrassin the entirethirty-eight-page
chapter.17
Sunfocuseson insteadisthe notableabsenceof prosepoeticworksinthe
of the
thirty
yearsafterthe publicationof WildGrass: "In the territory
numerousartisticformsopened to cultivationbyChina'sNew Literature,
prosepoetrycountsas some of the mostbarrenland. Evenafterhaving
yearshave
undergonethe diligentadvocacyand practiceof many,thirty
not yet borne more plentifulor substantialfruit"(256). The problemis
- he sees, as do many
notwithSun'sreadingof poems or in his research
tied to or
othercritics,
thattherehas been no spate of worksintimately
even inthe generalformof the extremely
unique WildGrass but inthe
Lu
underlyingnarrativethat May Fourthprose poetry,and specifically
Xun's,had a directbearingon whatprosepoetrywould laterbecome.The
narrative
thereforecomesto centeron the obstaclesfacingprosepoetry,
and the questionbecomeswhythese poemsdid not appear,whichleads
and readersfarafieldfromreadingthe poems
historians,
critics,
literary
thatactuallyhave appeared.
Inthisway,linkingprosepoeticpracticefrombeforeand after1949
relevantto the appreciationof
raisesquestionsthatmightnot be strictly
individualpoems.Itcan also, however,lead readersto overlooktheterms
bywhichindividualpoemsoperate. Hereis a piece byLiuBannongthatis
oftenanthologizedas a prosepoem:18
17Ibid.,
258.ThepoetisTang
Tao,who
readtoday,
butwasinfact
a
islittle
hewas
ofSun's
when
contemporary
in1981(making
asSun
him,
writing
a "contemporary
poet"by
prose
says,
hebegan
oneestimation,
eventhough
hiscareer
before
1949).
Huang
Yongjian
wastoo
(2006:
80-81)
saysthathiswork
of
toreally
touch
thespirit
idiosyncratic
such
thatsomecritics
hisage,andnotes
him
consider
asWang
don't
Guangming
asa true
"school"
andhiscontemporaries
ofprose
{liupai)
poetry.
18Itappears
inWang
2008:20,Luo1986:
asa "penetrating
15,andiscollected
inLiu1995:
9.
sketch"
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 101
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Rain
Thisisall inXiaohui'swords,Ijusttook itdownforherand linked
ittogether,that'sall.
Ma! TodayI want to sleep- snuggleclose to mymotherand go
to bed early.Listen!On the lawn behindyou,there'snot even a
whisper;it'smyfriends,all snuggledup withtheirmothersand
gone to bed early.
Listen!On the backlawn,there'snotevena whisper;nothingbut
inkydarkness!Scary!Wilddogs and catscryfromfaroff,don'tlet
of rain,whyis itstillpattering
themcome! Justthe pitter-patter
out there?
Ma! I wantto sleep! The rainthat'snotafraidofwilddogs orcats,
it'sstillon thedarklawn,pitter-pattering.
Whydoesn'titgo home?
it
with
its
isn't
mother,
goingto bed early?
Why
snuggledup
Ma! Whyare you laughing?You say it doesn't have a home?
Yesterdaywhen it wasn't raining,the lawn was all moonlight,
- didn'tyousayyesterday,
wherediditgo? Does ithavea mother?
the darkcloudsinthe sky,that'sitsmother?
Ma! I wantto sleep! Closethe window,don't letthe rainin and
makethe bed wet. Givemyrainjacketto the rain,don't let the
rainget the rain'sclotheswet.
в»й*-Т<Ш7.
n !
m ! ШШ±,
m ! ш ! ятяшш&шщ,
м, й^&йшщпттп*п*юий?
ват о пя ' тш±,
ж
' Я&ЯШ№
Я&ЛШШ
ŘT*S*ih i ЯЛЯ&ПТПТР*Р*Й
102 • TradingMetaphors
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Й ! ШШ 7 ! ШШШШШ,
&ШЖ№Ш±,
ПТЩРШ
йрйо
ЪМ^'ашшъш,
тшшчы
- №**TMWW«,
Ä ! föÄft&g? шшщжы
ěujípsítpji?
Ш"еа*гя&?
^±ÉňHž,
ШпШШуА?
*»±
Щ ! ШМТ
ШЖ
! Ш£±
7®, ^SihW*fî®7»inWÂ.
*ЮШГГШ7
МЙ*Ж.
This piece clearlyhas manyqualities of a prose poem#includingprose
of language;
margins,organizationby paragraph,and a certainlyricism
moreover,it was writtenby someone who was conversantwith prose
and appeared inone of hispoetrycollectionsalongsidefree-verse
poetry,
poems.Ifwe read it as a prosepoem contiguouswithlaterworksinthis
we are likely
to lookforaspectsthatdifferentiate
thework
genre,however,
fromregularprose an irony,perhaps,or a particular
strainof musicality
thattransforms
the narrative,prosaicstoryintosomethingelse. For Liu
were against
Bannong,though,set as he and hisMayFourthcompatriots
the poetictradition,
the poem'svalue maylie in otherdimensions.In his
prefaceto the collectioninwhich"Rain"appears,Liuwrites:"I am nota
itjustmeanta personwho makespoems.
poet.Thisword'poet,'originally
Buteversince it became a name, it hasn'tbeen able to avoid acquiring
the stenchof 'professionalism.'"
Lateron inthe preface,he describeshis
attentionto formwitha dismissiveness
that is similarto Lu Xun'sand Xu
Zhimo'streatmentoftheirown poems:"In regardsto the formof poetry,
I am one who is mostcapable of playingfreshtricks.
The rhymeless
poetry
of the time,the prosepoetry,and the use of dialectto imitatefolksongs
thatcame later... all thesewere thingsI attemptedfirst."The idea that
LiuBannong'spiece was notthe startof a longtraditionof prosepoetry
- that itwas not an attempt,forexample,to use
butwas a "freshtrick"
heightenedprose to get insidethe mindof a child and describethat
mentalworld,butthe separateobservationthateverydaylanguage and
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 103
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experiencecan be as poetic as heavilyworkedregulatedverse- would
allow us to see the poem as a compositiondirectedagainstformalpoetry
and the Chinesepoetictradition,ratherthana revolutioninthe use and
the poemas an argumentforthe poeticity
spiritof prose.Conceptualizing
and
of proseemphasizesthe realityof the poem's leaps- notas artificial
inventedlanguage,but as those naturallyproducedbya child'smindon
the edge of sleep- and the simple,dailytranscendencethat Liu,who
19Asadditional
circumstantial
evidence,
hada daughter
LiuBannong
really
wrote
a book
named
Xiaohui.
Shelater
aboutherfather
2000).
(LiuXiaohui
as a nonprofessional
makerof
himself(perhapsdisingenuously)
identifies
poems,has recordedforhisreaders.19
thatcontemporary
editors
Fromone perspective,
itis understandable
includethisworkalongsideotherprose: it is possibleto read thispiece
as
thatprosecan be justas beautifuland meaningful
as a demonstration
kindof poem.Whetherwe callthis
poetry,ratherthanas a veryparticular
or any otherpiece a prose poem is, in Zhou Zuoren'swords,irrelevant.
Whenwe abandon categorizationsthat span the twentiethcenturyand
look at May Fourthas an individualand independentliterary-historical
period,though,it seems clear that writersof the timewroteformless,
the
vernacularpoemsas a wayto overthrow
prose-influenced
unrhymed,
ofgenre
andthattheylargelyescheweddiscussions
ancientpoetictradition,
will
see, is
This,as we
exceptas polemictoolsto advancetheirrevolution.
histories
different
fromliterary
practiceafter1949: literary
considerably
thattreatthetwo periodsas fullycontiguouscan suppressthatdifference
of prosepoetryspecificto the 1920sand 1930s.
as wellas maskdefinitions
that persisttoday,includingcontradictory
Criticaldifferences
positions
about who wrotethe firstprose poems,about how to categorizeshort
proseof the May Fourthmovement,and what May Fourthpoets meant
whentheysaid "prosepoetry"could be vastlysimplified
byencouraging
the morefixed
that
are
different
from
to
Fourth
definitions
specific May
of prosepoetrythatwritersand criticshavetoday.
understanding
IfMayFourthprosepoetswere interestedin revolting
againstthe poetic
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tradition,and accordinglysaw all typesof poetic or aestheticwriting
outsidethe sphereof formal,classicalverseas a way to destabilizethe
thenwe mustlooklaterforthefirstpoetswho
traditionof rhymed
poetry,
and rigorously
constructed
prosepoetryas an independent
self-consciously
genre intendedto mixqualitiesof both poetryand prose.One poet of
the 1950s,Ke Lan,is quite explicitabout these goals. Thisappears on the
firstpage, beforethe prefaceor the table of contents,of a 1981 reprint
of Ke Lan's1957 prosepoetrycollection,ShortFluteof MorningMist(Zao
xia duan di):
Thisbook is a collectionof prosepoetry.The authorhas selected
scenesfromlife,expressedhisown emotion,and with
meaningful
deep feelingsungthe praisesof the party'sleaders,the socialist
and pure
system,the magnificenceof labor,sincerefriendship
love,etc. Itslanguage is elegant,and the poems' meaningsare
(Ke 1981: np)
quite significant.
claimof Communist
Besidestheshrilland politically
orthodoxy,
protective
whichaccuratelyreflectsthe tone of muchof the work'scontentand
ideology,what is interestingabout this brief publisher'snote is its
the
ofthework:thispracticeofforegrounding
unequivocalcategorization
artis one that
betweenprosepoetryand otherliterary
formaldistinction
remainsexceptionally
populartoday,whenwe havemagazinescalledProse
of prose
Poetryand The Worldof ProsePoetry,as well as a proliferation
From
thatare devotedto thegenre.20
poetryanthologiesand organizations
thiscategorizationmayserve
of Ke Lanand hispublishers,
the perspective
a purposesimilarto the politicalclaimsalso made inthe note:a disclaimer
thatthisis aestheticizedlanguage and not,as LiuBannong'spoem seems
to argue for itself,a directreportof real-lifeevents. Contradictorily,
thenoteindicatesthatthescenesofthebookare drawnfromlife,
however,
"selected"(xuan)ratherthancreated:the overalleffectis likea tightrope
to writerealistically
and his
walk,the poet caughtbetween instructions
20Prose
shi)magazine
(Sanwen
Poetry
inYiyang,
hasbeenpublished
Henan,
andWorld
ofProse
since1985,
Poetry
and
shideshijie)
isanonline
(Sanwen
active
since
2006.Many
print
magazine
other
publications
prose
poetry-only
inthelast
andstopped
havestarted
aretoo
Anthologies
thirty
years.
someexamples
numerous
tomention;
series
of
areFeng
1992andtheyearly
Chinese
Prose
Selected
Poetry
(Zhongguo
sanwen
shixuan),
published
bythe
since
chubanshe
Changjiang
wenyi
2005.Prose
societies
(xuehui
) are
poetry
scattered
across
ofChina's
cities,
many
as
andthere
exists
anall-China
society
wellasa China-Foreign
Prose
Poetry
sanwenshi
xuehui).
Society
(Zhongwai
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 105
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own anxietyabout makingclaimsconcerningthe natureof reality.This
21Theobjective
ordocumentary
nature
ofprose
isalsofound
intheperiod's
which
fiction,
exposes
virtually
always
oreducates
about
a basic
evenif
truth,
thedetails
arefabricated.
natureofproseandtheindividual,
tippingpoint,betweenthedocumentary
is one thatthe collectiondisplaysagain and
inventedqualityof poetry,21
again,as inthispoem,whichcould almostserveas a titlepiece:
Dawn Mist
a rainbowmistappears overthe lawn. These
Springmornings,
are the
brilliantpearls,some say theyare the tears of martyrs,
source
of
pure
spirit
Looklook,the glittering
morningmist,itlookslikeeyesthatcan
have
and
inexhaustible,
speak,
unendingwords...
Ah,earlymist,youshouldstopbeingsilent!Thesunhascomeout.
The lawn'smorningcolorsimmediately
becomea millionshining
suns.The sun divesintothe dewdrops
are wipeddry.A massofcavorting
Andso thetearsofthe martyrs
childrengallops acrossthe lawn,tramplingthe millionshining
suns,and now the childrenare the morningdew, theyare the
sun
- Writtenat the Hongqiao Nursery
School
Ш
шш±шттп.
fi/1, ДЯЖЯЮ'СЛЮШк
шшшш , шштш,
шяш
&тмш,
щлшлъш
ятт^штт,
ШЩ, Т-ШШШТ ! *ЮЖ*7.
ÄÄW*PB. ±шштшш
шш±шпц±&
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-вшшт
±=^7з^шт±т,
щшшиш
(Ке 1981:209)
The fundamentalformalcharacterof thispiece is itsemphaticallyprose
structure:a straightforward
temporalnarrativeabout the sun burning
offthe dew and the beginningof a schoolday,itgoes so faras to specify,
in a kindof bylineat the end of the poem,the locationof the writerat
a nursery
school.Thisformalelement,a prosaic"writtenat" or "written
for,"is commonin Ke Lan'swork.Paragraphsare the dominantdivision
of the piece: nothingin it would be out of place in a personalletter.
Andyet,whenthispiece is placed nextto LiuBannong'swork"Rain,"its
qualitiesas a poem become moreapparent.LiuBannongreportsa child's
speech and neverreallystops reportingit: Ke Lan's writerwatchesthe
school lawn,and interactswithit,speaksto it,assessesit,names
nursery
- a shortdescription
it.The proseassumption,
the proseform
of children
comingout to the lawnto play- is investedwithpoeticqualitiesthatare
new to it,perhapswhat Ke Lan'seditorscall investment
with "his own
emotion."The Chinesetermfor "lyric,"as in "lyricpoetry"is "pouring
out emotion"(shuqing),and althoughone mightstruggleto findhow Liu
Bannongfeelsabout the contentof hispoem "Rain,"thereis no question
as to what Ke Lan feels.Hisfeelings,whichappear in everypoem in this
collection,highlightedby liberaluse of the ecstatic
three-hundred-page
exclamationpoint,are the shi,the poem oftheseworks;theirformisthe
sanwen,the prose.
Thisis nota MayFourth-eraunderstanding
oftheseterms.To readers
trainedinclassicalliterature,
"scatteredwriting"(sanwen)indicatesmany
for May
typesof writingthat do not follow regularrules.Accordingly,
Fourthauthors,it does not indicateany kindof codifiedidea of prose;
it is a blankettermto be opposed to "rhymedwriting"(yunwen
). In the
earlyCommunistperiod,however,sanwen is the officialformin which
reports,newspaperarticles,politicalpositionpapers,and lettersare all
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written:itisthe literary
formmoststrongly
assumedto directly
represent
and to imbueitwiththe lyricvoice is particularly
reality,
fraught.Thisis
whendiscussingKe Lan'swork,WangGuangming(1987: 171)writes,
whyf
"He tellsyou:thislifelessobject,really,ithas life,"or whyKe Lan himself
narrativepoem,each
says,"whetheritis a lyricpoem,or a long historical
mustpassthroughtheauthor'sabundanceofsubjectivepassioninorderto
reflect
objectivereality"(WangFuming2008: 1221-1222).HuangYongjian
formopens
(2006:99-100)writesthatthesubjectivepositioninthisliterary
whichcamefirst
up all prosepoetsofthe Mao periodto politicalcriticism,
to Xu Chengmiao,a studentof Ke Lan's,and thento Ke Lanhimself,
when
he was criticized
facthelps
byYao Wenyuaninthe late 1950s.Thishistorical
make moresense of the editorialcalisthenics
at the startof ShortFlute,
as well as the absolutelyferventpoliticalorthodoxythe book strivesfor:
the underlying
often
organizationof the formwas to filteran objectivity
suppliedbythestatethrougha subjective,individualauthor,and one safe
was to ensurethatthesubjectivity
inquestion
wayto attemptthatfiltering
was a strongproponentof the Partyline.
Critics
sincethe 1950sand 1960shave reacheda kindof consensuson
definitions
of prosepoetry.Thisis Ke Lan'sdefinition,
writtenin 1981:
To use simplelanguage,[prosepoetry]is poetrywrittenthrough
theuseofprose,and notpoetrycreatedthroughtheuseofrhymed
writing.Unrhymed
poetryis called freeverse,prose poetryis a
variantof freeverse.First,prosepoemsdon't use versesthatare
lineatedand made intostanzasaccordingto the lengthof their
phrases;instead,theyare versecompositionsthat use prose in
no matter
orderto linktogethertheirparts,and please remember,
whattheform,inthefinalanalysistheyshouldbe poems,it'sonly
ina formalwaythattheyare different
frompoems.So youcan say
thatit is an artistic
formbornfromthe schoolof poetry.
EÂffltMÂWiî,
ттшт%,
тя'щпттмшш,
ъштшштяпт&тшъ,
*
шйяммлмййй*
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ЯЙ
mmmm,
*>m
шш,
-втшшш&тш,
«ш t±T^Ťi#MSo
ш.
RTtttt,
ЖШ;- (Wang Fuming2008: 1221)
And here is the opening of Wang Guangming'sencyclopediaentryon
prosepoetry:
PROSEPOETRY.A lyricalliterary
stylepossessingspecialqualities
of poetryand of prose. It joins the expressiveness
of poetryto
thevariousqualitiesof prosenarrativity.
Withregardsto itsbasic
nature,itbelongsto poetry,and has the emotionand fantasyof
poetry,it gives readersa sense of beautyand imagination,but
itscontentremainsprosaicdetailwithpoeticintent;whereform
is concerned,it has the exteriorappearance of prose,and does
notresemblepoetryin regardsto lineationand rhyme,
although
it does not lackthe beautyof internalmusicand the feelingof
rhythm.
шшшхшшшшяй.
mmm,
í; тя.±т>
ъшяшт,
Guangming1987:82)
шт
шттшттш,
и
(Wang
- one bya poet,and one bya critic
- are definitional
Thesewritings
rather
thanpolemic,a farcryfromthe mostcommonMayFourthpractice,which
generallyassertedprosepoetryas an agentinthedebate betweenrhymed
and rhymeless
poetry.One of the technicaladvancesthatcan be seen in
thesedefinitions
istheattentionto theimportance
and impactoflineation:
Fourth
those
such
as
Shen
Yinmowritingearlyin
authors,especially
May
the period,had littlepracticein the world of typographically
lineated
poems,and neverconceptualizedprosepoetryas a variationon freeverse
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thatescheweduse of the linebreak.
- developed in the 1950s and fully
definitions
These contemporary
to the literary
codifiedinthe 1980s- are applied retroactively
production
of the May Fourth;theyare the tools bywhichcriticsand anthologists
Withoutthem,therewouldbe no
havecreateda traditionof prosepoetry.
occasionto see a commongenericthreadlinkingShenYinmo's"Moonlit
Night"and LiuBannong's"Rain."However,becausetheyassumethatthey
and not creating,a traditionand a set of practices,critics
are inheriting,
sensitive
to thefactthattherealoriginsofthesedefinitions
todayare rarely
iswellaftertheMayFourth.Current
promotes
scholarship
onlyoccasionally
the notionthat writersof the 1950s and 1960swere foundersof a new
kindof prose poetry,and when it does, the discussionis usuallylimited
ofthe
to HundredFlowerspoets,especiallyKe Lan,and theirestablishing
form's"independence"(duli).Du Ronggendoes this,sayingthat"theprose
poems in ShortFluteof MorningColors,shortand flexible,mostlimited
fromlyricalprose,
have a verycleardifference
to lessthan500 characters,
to turningprosepoetryintoan independentpoeticform"
and contributed
a LiuBannongpoem as the firstprosepoem,
(Du 1993: 92). Du identifies
fromlyricalprose
and he does so on the basisof that poem'sdifference
established
sees
as
that
he
but
this
is
an
evolution
(86),
firmly
apparently
form"
onlylaterwith Ke Lan. In fact,the phrase"independentliterary
(dulide shiti),whichDu usesto referto Ke Lan'swork,appearsinthetitle
of Du's chapteron prosepoetry,even thoughpoetrywrittenbeforethat
oftheworksunderconsideration,
independencemakesupthevastmajority
includingliminalpieces by Ba Jinand Mao Dun that are today often
discussed.Thisis anothercase of a
consideredto be prose,as previously
between
thedifference
evidenceinpoems,specifically
criticencountering
Ke Lan'sprose poetryand previousworks,but being unable to respond
to thatevidencebecause of an insistenceon the notionthatprosepoetry
existsin a singlelarge periodand that worksof the 1920s have strong
connectionsto laterworks.
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The formationand particularnatureof the categorizationof prose
as such,become
poetryas an independentpoeticform,and itsdefinition
and
clearerwhen seen in a post-1949fratherthan May Fourth,historical
aestheticcontext.Inthe "Yan'anTalkson Literature
and Art,"Mao Zedong
setsup an aestheticsysteminwhichartistsare personallyresponsiblefor
ortransforming
dailylifeintoartproducts.BonnieMcDougall
transmuting
interprets:
It may be argued that in Mao's view,the mindof the writer
isinanycase determined
(consciousness)
bythesocialenvironment
the
whole
in termsof "mind"
but
issue
(being),
by discussing
ratherthan environment,Mao seems automaticallyto imply
and encouragethe personalresponseto life(the raw.material
of literature),and to allow considerableroom forthe play of
individualimaginationand technique.(McDougall1980: 19)
An emphasison the "playof individualimagination,"even in the midst
of a dramatically
limitedideologicaland aestheticstructure,
can be seen
consistent,
throughoutthe "Talks,"althoughperhapsnot inan internally
ideologicallypure way. Mao is explicitabout the individualauthor's
notjustforthe politicsina workof art,butforitseffectson
responsibility
the reader(82); in mattersof form,because "feudal"formsare improper
forsocialistart,the artistis responsiblefor"restructuring
themand filling
themwithnew content"(28-29). Thisis verydifferent
fromattitudesof
the MayFourthartistsoutlinedherewho set themselvesagainstclassical
the materialenvironment
around
forms;inMao's view,writersinternalize
them (an environment
oftenmostdirectlydescribedby prose) and use
technique to work it into "processed formsof art" (69). The poetic
transformation
of proseforms,as well as the transformation
of objective
lifethroughindividualpoeticsubjectivity,
are methodsofconceptualizing
art that are commonboth to Communistliterary
criticism
and to some
also identifiesone
post-1949Chineseprose poetry.Communistcriticism
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 111
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difference
betweencontemporary
prosepoetryand MayFourth
important
worksor worksfromotherearlierperiodsthat are highlysubjective:in
of prose poetryis expressed
the contemporary
period,the subjectivity
22Inhissearch
fora common
thread
to
tiethecollection
Wild
Grass
together,
Kaldis
Nicholas
(2000:
77)identifies
"formal
asplaying
orgeneric
qualities
inWild
role"
Grass
and
a secondary
"thepoet's
to
attempt
unceasing
andselfin
ordiscover
project
psyche
orobserved
event"
experience
every
asthecollection's
theme.
unifying
prose
poetry
mayby
Contemporary
contrast
bedescribed
asthatinwhich
formal
orgeneric
qualities
express
toobserve
events
thepoet's
attempt
andself.
thelensofpsyche
through
thetechnicalworkoftheartist.Genericand formal
through"processing,"
distinctions
and transformations
become,therefore,
important
increasingly
as an authorialmeansof self-expression.22
Byway of example,here is a prose poem writtenby Fang Wenzhu
and publishedin 2004:
Kindof LikePullingOut a Nail
Kindof likepullingout a nail,pullingout crabgrass,a flowerin
a mirror,
the darkspecksin love,the nightwalker's
lamp,brilliant
dreamsand fog,the net inthe lake,tearsin rain. . .
Kindof likepullingout a nail,gettingridof a sheetof paper,ink
and excesswords.
Chinesecharacterspushforwardtogether,we roll
Me and silvery
along.
Kindof likepullingout a nail,pullinga piece of gritfromyour
eye,a thornfromflesh,the scarsof griefinyourbones . . .
Kindof likepullingout a nail,wrenchingyourselfloose.
ттш-яя=?ш,
Й' ШШШ>
жшш,
ЙЙФЙЖ
шш-%т^тт,
т#ш,
«ФЕ,
»жюиш,
шш
шжшшт.
ЙЙшГ, ШШio
шшш-яятш,
ш
шшш *m=ř,
йфйш
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m
ттш-тяшш,
23
23InWang
2008:867.My
Fuming
translation.
Thisis clearlya modernpoem#
challenging,variable,and wide-ranging;
juxtaposingitwiththe prosaicclarityof "MoonlitNight"or "Rain" only
increasesa reader'sfeelingofdissociation
and disorientation.
Withrespects
to MayFourthpiecesofprose,itseemsreasonableto ask,forexample,what
a poem means,what itsmessageis,and how it is intendedto changethe
reader'sattitudesoractions;butthesequestionsseemsomehowirrelevant
to a poem suchas "Kindof LikePullingOut a Nail,"whichmovesfluidly
and unpredictably
fromconceptto concept,and neverletsus knowwhat,
the listof similesare referring
to. Readingit,however,alongside
exactly,
Ke Lan'sworkas a reactionto prose,as a piece of prosethat has passed
throughan individual,subjectiveprocess,makesthe poem considerably
moreinterpretable.
The idea that thisprose poem is focusedtowardor
against prose leads readersto considerwhat prose the poem answers
or reactsto. The refrainof this poem- "pulling out a nail"- derives
froman educationalparablethatwas popularon the Internet:although
versionsvarywidely,24
the basicstoryisthata fathertellsa youngboywith
uncontrollable
angerthatfromnow on, he can get intoa fightonlyafter
he poundsa nailintoa treeinthe frontyard.The boydiscoversthatafter
he poundsina nail,he no longerfeelsthe needto fight,at whichpointthe
fathertellshimhe can pullout a naileverytimehe overcomesthe urgeto
lashout at the people aroundhim.Once all the nailsare gone,the father
showsthe boythe holesthatare left,and saysthatwhat he's done to his
friends
willnevergo away."Kindof LikePullingOut a Nail"seemsto have
been writtenintandemwitha definitionof prosepoetrymuchlikethat
found in Wang Guangming'sdictionaryentry:the connectionbetween
the originalprose,the parable intendedto morallyeducate childrenand
parents,and the prose poem, the "emotionand fantasy"of a speaker
what itwould be likeforan individualto undergothe process
describing
thatthe parablesimplyreports,is the keyto understanding
the piece in
24Thebestwaytofind
versions
of
thisstory
istosearch
Baidu
for"pull
outa nail"(badiao
),but
yikedingzi
inthefollowing
canbefound
examples
blogs:
http://blog.sina.com.en/s/blog_
288301
5.
4d970ac70100dtpq.html,
http://1
blog.163.com/blog/static/31760929200
1518953/,
7881
http://wangyifeng888.
and
blog.hexun.com/24885932_d.html,
http://hi.baidu.com/www_ysping1_com
1c95834d.
013af8ea0f
blog/item/4eb791
html.
Theexamples
areeachquite
different:
sometimes
theprotagonist
is
anAmerican
sometimes
Chinese;
boy,
sometimes
thenailing
takes
placeina
inthe
treeinthecourtyard,
sometimes
wooden
Thestory
family's
doorstep.
aswell:sometimes
theboyis
changes,
allowed
toremove
a nailevery
time
he
a classmate,
butmore
often
helps
simply
incontrolling
whenheissuccessful
his
anger.
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full- muchlikeKe Lan'sprocessof passinga completelyprosaicmoment
throughhisown mindand own language,and thusmakingitintoa poem
thatis expressiveof self.
Seen fromthis perspective,severalfeelingsand attitudesbecome
visiblein"PullingOuta Nail."Thefirst
paragraph'simagesaretiedtogether
25Thelocus
isa
dassicus
forthisidiom
stone
from
theTang
inscription
dynasty,
inanysuitably
andcanbefound
large
hua.
under
dictionary
jingzhong
a species
crabgrass,or morespecifically
barngrass,
looselybytheirfutility:
thatcan ruinChinesecrops,returnsalmostas fastas itcan be pulledout,
and the "flowerinthe mirror"is an idiomforthosethingsthatseem to
inwater.25
Thephrase"dark
existbutinfactdo not,likethemoonreflected
that
fromeyedisease,something
to visualimpairments
specks"oftenrefers
is
cannotbe simply"pulledout" likea piece of dirt.Thissense of futility
of
in
the
fourth
which
centers
contradicted
the
"piece grit"
paragraph,
by
on thesatisfaction
of riddingone'sselfof painfulexteriorstimuli.Netscan
be pulledfromwater,muchin the same way that excesspaper and ink
can be disposedof: thereis an ominousness,however,about removinga
submergednet fromwaterand trappingor killingan unknownnumber
of fishinside,and this matchessomewhatthe lost language, derided
as "excess" and summarily
disposedof. The tone of the poem is one of
are simultaneously
ambivalence:the dictatesof self-control
impossible,
The poemexplodesthesimple
and self-destructive.
frightening,
satisfying,
analogyofthe originalparableintoa messy,human,and lyricexperience.
Atthesametime,however,itdoes notrespondto theoriginal'sconclusion
oroppose itinthewaythata criticalpieceof prosemight,instead
directly,
oftheauthor.
theoriginalbybringingitintothesubjectivity
transforming
whatWangGuangming
Thisupholds,quitedirectly,
(inWangFuming2008:
1250) considersthe goal of Chineseprose poetry:"to make subjective
thoughtand feelingcorrespondand minglewithobjectiveimage." The
isthatwhatserves
fromWang'sdefinition
way inwhichthispoem differs
as theobjectiveimage,thesharedtruth,inthispoem isa pieceof pedantic
prose.
ThatthisDoemturnson Questionsof lanauaae underlineshow much
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has changed between certainMay Fourthconceptualizationsof prose
practice.The May Fourthwriterswho had the
poetryand contemporary
mostelaborate and studied views of prose poetrytended to describe
theirworkintermsof itsrelationship
to the worldoutsidethe poem: Lu
Xun's"emotionalimpressions"
(with"impression"heremeaning"sensory
or emotionalcontactwiththe outsideworld") or Xu Zhimo's"formless
cursing"(theinsinuated
objectofwhichistheoutsideworld).Togeneralize,
contemporary
prosepoetryis muchmorelikelyto be definedas a formin
termsof otherlanguage actsorfas Wang Guangmingputsitfa joiningof
"theexpressiveness
of poetryto thevariousqualitiesof prosenarrativity."
To use Fang Wenzhu'sworkas an example,the poem is physically
and
conceptuallycentered on "Me and silveryChinese characters."That
poets would, in additionto theirpoems,want to write
contemporary
and read about theirformalchoices,and have conversations
about their
methodsthat go past callingthem "tricks"or claimingthe discussionis
"irrelevant"
seemsdeeplyconnectedto the meditationsof contemporary
poems;the subjectand language interacting,
rollingalong.
and comparing
different
worksinthisway
Periodizing
groupsofliterary
does not proveor attemptto provethatone or anothergroupof literary
historicalperiodization
piecesare or are not prosepoems.Justas literary
is a metaphor,so are literary
genres,and thereare manyways in which
any of the pieces discussedhere can be considereda prose poem. From
the precedingcomparison,
criticism
and the
however,betweenthe literary
of
the
era
and
of
those
the
it
poetry
Republican
People'sRepublic, seems
articleiscrucial
possibleto concludethatthereisa way- and the indefinite
- inwhich
here,becausethisis one way among manyto see prosepoetry
fromthe prosepoetry
prosepoetrywrittenbefore1949 is verydifferent
writtenafter.Thisperspective
isconsistent
withHongZicheng'sestimation
that the modern/contemporary
periodizationis an "efficaciousviewing
as well as Widmer'sdiscovery
of
literature,
angle" fortwentieth-century
betweenthe MayFourthmovementand the JuneFourth
"discontinuity"
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 115
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period.Prose poetryof the May Fourthmovementis conceptualizedin
itselffrom
verse;itdoes notattemptto distinguish
oppositionto rhymed
prose by usingrhythm,
rhyme,or particularformsof syntax;it includes
bothintentionally
unlineatedpoemsas wellas poemswhosewriters
were
in poeticlineation.Prosepoetryafter1949
insensitive
to or uninterested
is conceptualizedin oppositionto the supposedobjectivity
of prose;it is
similarto prosebut itspoeticityisforegroundedbyemphasizing
formally
individualsubjectivity,
or applying
usingnonstandardlanguageor syntax,
poetictechniquessuchas repetitionand refrain.Post-1949prosepoetry
existsin a contextof broad,althoughsometimesvague, consensusas to
the natureof itsform;authorsoftenidentify
theirown worksas prose
and
works
identified
as
such
have
a
set
of predictablesimilarities.
poetry,
To generalizebroadly,May Fourth-period
worksare morelikelyto take
whereaspost-1949worksare morelikelyto buildan
apartclassicalpoetry,
independentand definableprosepoetryon thefoundationsofpoetryand
prose.Whenwe read MayFourthprosepoemsas partofa modernperiod,
we maylook firstfora poem'srelationship
and oppositionto traditional
verse;whenreadingrecentprosepoetryas partofa contemporary
rhymed
to otherproseworks,
period,we maylook firstfora poem'srelationship
forms,or language acts.
As with any metaphor of literary-historical
periodization,there are
intomodern
limitations
to thedivisionofthetwentiethcentury
important
I
(pre-1949)and contemporary(post-1949)periods am advocating.In
The Power of Genre,Adena Rosmarinwrites:"Genre,like metaphor,is
but
powerfully
persuasivenotonlybecauseitleadsusto perceivesimilarity
inthe midstof and in spite
because it leads us to perceivethatsimilarity
She
attention
to whatisexcludedby
ofdifference"
(1986:46).
encourages
as wellas whatisincluded,advocatingthat
the use ofgenreclassifications,
for
critics
shouldavoidlabels,whichthenbecometheobjectofcontestation
and insteadwriteina waythatengagesina rhythm
approvaland authority,
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of prosepoetrythat
ofschemaand correction.
Exchangingperiodizations
and
runfromMay Fourthto the present(or fromMay Fourthto 1949#
thenfromthe late 1970sto the present,as withTheColumbiaAnthology)
withthe modern/contemporary
divisiondescribedbyHongZichengis,ina
similar
vein,to tradeone metaphorforanother.Tradingmetaphors
givesus
newand, ideally,moreapt waysto conceptualizecategoriesand compare
individualworksand betterwaysto read works,but it can also resultin
the exchangeof one set of critical,
conceptual,and historicallacunaefor
another,a newlydefinedperiodor set ofworksforwhichthe prospective
metaphoris not apt. The studyof these lacunae,accordingto Rosmarin,
is an essentialpartof the powerof genrestudies,and can also be seen as
one of the waysin whichthe exerciseof periodizationteaches us about
textsand contexts.
of prose
In muchthe same way as a conceptualizationof the history
poetrythatbeginswithMayFourthand continuesto thepresentsuppresses
differences
betweenpre-1949and post-1949work,a periodicdivisionthat
to the presentsuppressesdifferences
between
beginsin1949 and stretches
workcomposedbefore1976and thatwrittenafter1976.In ThePartyand
theArty,RichardKrauswrites:
Overthe courseof a quartercentury,
a new politicsof culture
has takenshape, withgreateropenness,vastlydiminishedstate
and increasedprofessionalism
supervision,
by artists.China has
movedtowarda newculturalorderinfitsand starts,interspersed
with occasional retreats.The most obvious retreatfollowed
the BeijingMassacre,whichwas reversedequallyabruptlybya
nationwiderushtowardthe marketafterDeng Xiaoping's1992
inspectionof SouthChina.(Kraus2004: viii)
The turntowardsubjectivity
and language exemplifiedby "Kindof Like
PullingOut a Nail" is dependentin manywayson the "vastlydiminished
state supervision"that was the Deng regime's on-again, off-again
contribution
to Chineseliterature.
Worksthatexemplify
the indeterminacy
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oftheindividual
to theindeterminacy
oflanguageand itsconnection
subject
can rarelybe countedon to espouse politicalideals:undera prescriptive
are necessarily
and subjectivity
theirindeterminacy
systemof censorship,
intertwinedwith politics a fact that quite clearlymotivatesboth Ke
while
claimobjectivity
and orthodoxy
Lan and Guo Fengto energetically
workswhoseindividuality,
individualist
idiosyncratic,
composingsubjective,
Under
even ifslightand hidden,makesthem politicallyindeterminate.
a proscriptive
systemof censorshipthat only expects worksto avoid
is
undesirablepoliticalspeech, however,new space for indeterminacy
opened up. Althoughthe definitionof "undesirablespeech" could and
did changewithoutwarning,producingchillingeffectsthatdiscouraged
it
and indeterminacy,
a certainamountof innovation,experimentation,
seemsclearthatmanyprosepoemswrittenafter1976 suchas "Kindof
LikePullingOut a Nail"- could neverhave been publishedbefore1976.
Such dramaticdifferencesin the limitsof politicallyacceptable speech
kindsof reading,and
and different
criticalsensitivities,
requiredifferent
a modern/contemporary
periodizationdoes notclearlyindicatethe need
In some ways,the pre-1949/post-1976
forsuchdifference.
periodization
of Chineseliteraturepracticedby The ColumbiaAnthologycould serve
in censorshipamong
as a moreapt metaphorfordescribingdifferences
Chineseliterature,
the variouspartsof twentieth-century
althoughthe
from
wereagainquitedifferent
of MayFourthwriters
censorship
pressures
thoseexperiencedbypost-1976authors.
One possible motivationforthe wide acceptance of the modern/
of state
divisionin the Chineseacademyis its reification
contemporary
supportingthe
power,and the way it can be perceivedas implicitly
narrativeof New China ("old society"versus"new society")that was
after1949.The associationof postpropagatedbythe new government
and sometimes
withstatepowercreatesunpredictable
1949periodization
of textsand in authorialand
atextual positionsin the interpretations
criticalstatementsabout literaryforebears:it means, politically,
very
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different
thingsfora poet to claimor performthe literaryheritageof
May Fourth,as comparedto the literaryheritageof the Mao era, and
somethingelse entirelyforpoets to reject,eitherin word or in deed, all
influencestheyinterpret
as comingdirectlyor indirectly
fromthe state.
attitude
Maghielvan Crevelidentifiesan intentionalantiestablishment
as one of the waysinwhichcontemporary
avant-gardepoets defineand
marketthemselves:"All avant-gardepoetrysince the groundbreaking
unofficial
journalTodaycontinuesto stand moreor less in oppositionto
orthodoxy. . . butto say so has become flogginga dead horsesincethe
inthe mid-1980s."26
The
avant-gardebeganto outshinethe establishment
periodization,and the way it encouragesreaders
modern/contemporary
and writersto look forprosepoetry'sheritagein the 1950s,is forbetter
invan
or forworseintimately
connectedto the national"establishment"
Crevel'ssense. Indeed,as van Crevel(2000: 5) writeselsewhere,poets Xi
26
VanCrevel
2008:65.VanCrevel
(5,
alsopoint
75,110,411)does,however,
outthestrong
influence
ofMao-era
andideology,
which
seems
to
language
coexist
with
antiestablishment
positiontaking.
Chuanand Yu Jianpreferto call some of theirrhapsodic,unlineatedlyric
to ) ratherthan"prosepoems,"preferring
poems"longpoems"(changshi
inventnew categoriesratherthan carryon literary
traditions.Although
theirmotivationsremainunclear,theirsis a possibleexample of how a
periodizationoverlappingwith establishment
modern/contemporary
narrativescan tend to complicate,ratherthan simplify,
the readingof
individualworksand authors'own commentary
on thoseworks.
an importantlacuna in the modern/
Addingto these complexities,
fromtheway inwhichthe
periodizationarisesverydirectly
contemporary
of
the
Fourth
movement
Chinese
persistsin contemporary
heritage
May
letters.The followingare selectionsfroma piece byfamouspainterand
writerHuang Yongyu,fromhis illustratedbook-lengthcollection of
not called
aphorismsand wrydictionarydefinitions.
Theyare explicitly
but
instead
titled
Notes
and
poems,
"Reading
Wholeheartedly,
Seriously,
ReflectedUpon" (Liqiuyansurenzhensikao de zhaji). Huang's
Diligently
prefaceechoes language that is similarto Zhou Zuoren's musingson
poeticformor Liu Bannong'sdenial of the name "poet." Huang writes,
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 119
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"One day#
mybuddyZuo Houfancame by,lookingforpoemsfora poetry
magazine.Thereweren'tany poems,so he took a few dozen of these,
27Huang
1990:
alsoa
np.Compare
SunYushi
tells
(2006:
250-251)
story
aboutMayFourth
poetZhuZiqing,
whoturned
a lineateci
poemintoprose
because
hecouldn't
afford
tobuy
torecopy
itinitslonger
paper
enough
divided
intolines.
version,
28Foranarticle
ononeofhismost
famous
seeEugene
paintings,
Wang
2000.
and publishedthem,and gave themthisweirdtitle.Latertheyprobably
understandthatthey're
thought,thesecouldn'tbe poems,right?I myself
The freewheeling
approachtowardform,as well as
clearlynot poems."27
thefactthatHuang's"prosepoetry"isjustone ofthe manyartistic
genres
he practiced,has clearresonanceswiththe MayFourthtradition.Huang's
his
careerspansthetwentiethcentury;
bornin 1924,he began circulating
worksinthe 1930sand 1940sinTaiwanand HongKong,and thenreturned
to the mainlandin 1954. He was beaten and jailed duringthe Cultural
Revolution
forsubversive
contentinhisart.Morerecently,
he helpedcreate
some ofthe calligraphic
displaysat the openingofthe BeijingOlympics.28
Hislifeand workspan the two historicalperiodscreatedbythe modern/
to
divide,and Huang providesa valuablecounterexample
contemporary
the manypoets whose careerswere limitedto one or the otherperiod.
He isan artistwho isexplicitabout the importanceof ethicsand objective
and at the same timeengages insubjective
socialexperiencein literature,
transformations
of language:
Table
A tool forbringingpeople togetherin orderto consumetheir
thattormentshumanity."
youth.In Latincalled "the grindstone
жлтй-йшмкад.
ST ЛРЧЖ
.
Speed
Theformof mattermoving.Forexample,a bad personsuddenly
feelsshamed
becomesa good person,so fastthateventhelightning
and astonished.
120 • TradingMetaphors
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il®
1Я№ВРЖ.
tbíP,
ТШША,
'КШЯЕНШШ
Donkey
Whatismostlovelyabout itwas notfirst
discoveredbythe painter
HuangZhou. Earlieron#when Napoleon pushedhisarmiesfrom
EgyptintoSyria,he tookgreatcareto placetwo ofthe mostlovely
animalsin a safe positionamid the ranks.One was the scholar,
and one thedonkey.Theformer,
to appraiseculturalartifacts;
the
latter,to haulthemhome.
V
-,
-, зро тшжш,
Ignorance
No doubt about it,historyhas long sinceconcludedthat thisis
a virtue,because it impliessatisfactionand the abilityto take
pleasureinthe self.What'sbroughtus to thispointis ignorance
itself.(Huang 1990: 3, 1, 63, 31)
Ш
штт.
ш&мпшшяшжяшм.
Visiblehereare manyofthequalitiesofMayFourthprosepoetrythatpieces
suchas Ke Lan's"Dawn Mist"and FangWenzhu's"Kindof LikePullingOut
a Nail"lack.Thesepiecesresolveintolessons,experiences,
orevencomedy;
althoughtheydestabilizethemeaningsofcommonwords,theydo so inan
oftenhas a morefocused
attemptto redefinethem,and thatredefinition
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 121
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ofa poemsuchas "Pullingouta Nail"or
purposethantheexperimentation
thetranscendence
of "Dawn Mist."Intoneand intent,
theybetterresemble
theparablesinLuXun'sWildGrass,"TheDog's Retort"and "TheWiseMan,
29These
twopieces
from
Wild
Grass
are
inLu2005:2:198and217,
collected
respectively.
the Fooland the Slave": humanist,
witha senseof playthatonly
sarcastic,
Atthe
temperstheserious,sincerevaluesthatmotivatethe piece.29
lightly
sametime,though,theyinsinuatetheslipperiness
of language,thewayit
"rollsalong." The morewholeheartedly
and diligently
readingnotesare
reflectedon, perhaps,the lessthe wordsseemto resembletheirstandard
the boundarieswe expectthemto obey,
definitions,
dictionary
blurring
and becomingagain somethinglivelyand imminent.
The destabilization
intheseworks,the undoingof dictionary
and the way inwhich
certainty,
the worksself-consciously
the
name
"poem" are all qualitiesthat
deny
would be lessperceptible
to a readerwho insistedon categorizing
themas
worksbecausetheywerewritten
after1949;as EllenWidmer
contemporary
recentworkscan sustain"meaningful
writes,in certaincircumstances
comparisons"withMayFourthworks,and these comparisonsare not an
asset of a literary-historical
periodizationthatstartswith1949.
Rosmarin
thatwhenwe categorizeliterary
works,
(1986) recommends
we enterintoa rhythm
of schemaand correction.
Thisrecommendation
- inthiscase the
de-emphasizesthe need forour categorizingmetaphors
- to be singularlyapt or ideallyuseful.
metaphorthat is periodization
Hertheoryemphasizesinsteadthe act of trading,exchangingone critical
inan attempt
to artworks
constantly
categorizationforanother,referring
to create periodicand genericdivisionsthat enrichour understanding
of the poetry,prose,or prosepoetrythatwe read. Differences
between
May Fourthand post-1949prose poems,conceptsof prose poetry,and
of what workthat
definitions
of the genre,as well as an understanding
does carrythroughcertainMayFourthtraditionslookslike,all makethe
shouldconstitute
a part
case thatthemodern/contemporary
periodization
of the way we read and thinkabout Chineseprosepoetry.Categorizing
separate fromMay Fourth
prose poetryas meaningfully
contemporary
122 • TradingMetaphors
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prosepoetryallows us to see a greatdeal about the workingdefinitions
prose poets fromeach period used to compose works,theirshifting
ofand attentionto the poeticcraftand the subjectivity
conceptualization
of language, and theirattitudestoward tradition
or intersubjectivity
as well as
of these differences,
and innovation.However,the multiplicity
the factthatthe modern/contemporary
periodizationdoes not describe
that we encounterwhen we read worksfromsimilar
all the differences
shouldstrongly
contextsand periodsinthe twentiethcentury,
encourage
us to persistin engagingin and exchangingthese acts of categorization,
and recategorization.
correction,
Modern Chinese Literatureand Culture• 123
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Glossary
baihua
bi
badiao yike dingzi
bu chengxingde shi
changshi
"Chiluoluo"
dangdai
Du Fu
dulide shiti
duanwen
"Duyao"
FangWenzhu
fu
Guanzi
Guo Feng
"Guoke"
jingdao xiaopin
"Jingji"
jingzhong hua
jueju
Liqiuyansurenzhensikao de zhaji
LiuXie
liupai
Long, hu,дои
meiwen
Mu Dan
"Nage cheng"
Qu Yuan
sanwen
sanwenshi
sanwenshire
Sanwenshi de shijie
shuqing
TangTao
"Tongku"
tuifei
Wenxindiaolong
wenyizazhu
wenzhang
"Wo de shilian"
Й®
Ш
filfT-F
"iéi#
ü'K
ííâLÉfài##
ШЗС
ШШ
Ш
ffiSl'hiSi
ШШ
ÉfrS
МШ
шш
ЖЙЙ
ШШ.
SS
ifcÄi#
třtii
Ш3£
Ш=£
ШЙё
>C£^ÍI
"ScM
ífeÉfàífenk
124 • TradingMetaphors
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
wuyunshi
wuyunwen
Xi Chuan
xiandai
"Xiangguangmingzouqu"
xiao ganchu
"Xiao he"
xiaopinwen
xinshi
Xu Chengmiao
xuan
Yao Wenyuan
yunwen
Yecao
Yu Jian
zawen
zhe/zhao
Zhimode shi
Zhongguosanwenshixuan
Zhongwaisanwenshixuehui
Zhuangzi
ziyoushi
Zou Yuehan
5ÉĚ5Í#
ffijll
ijIjfc
/МШ
/''Щ
/J'pn3t
Iffit
fèJÂIfc
й
ШЗСтЬ
ŤiE
Щ
ф IH
¡± ^
g ¿it
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