Spirit and Self in Medieval China: The Shih-shuo hsin-yu and Its Legacy

5. Using Body to Depict Spirit: The Shih-shuo Characterization of “Persons”

∫ Chapter 5 Using Body to Depict Spirit: The Shih-shuo Characterization of “Persons” Along with its chapter title, each Shih-shuo episode comes to illustrate the human type represented by that title.Apart from its chapter title, each Shihshuo episode presents a portrayal of a particular character. Over six hundred Shih-shuo characters freely traverse different chapters, establishing their identities through the presentation of various aspects of their lives. When we read about their loves, their sorrows, their arguments, or their rivalries, we feel transported to a real human world, where each person projects his or her unique personality. No matter how hard we try to identify all of the trait names associated with each character—and we may succeed to some extent—we can never exhaust this totality.A Shih-shuo character , like any person in life, is more than a mere numerical accumulation of personality traits. Meanwhile, we may wonder: How can we regard these characters, whose identities are just clusters of words, as real people? What bridges the gap between a series of linguistic signs and a living person? Or, to put the matter more precisely, what strategies does the author employ to induce the reader to take, or mistake, characters in literature for people in life?1 The Shih-shuo author seems fully aware of the difference between linguistic signs and real people. He consciously responds to the challenge of coalescing the two, solidly rooting the creation of Shih-shuo characters in Wei-Chin character appraisal and its interactions with Wei-Chin selfawareness and Hsüan-hsüeh. Focusing primarily on the idea of ch’uan-shen (transmitting the spirit) of his characters, the Shih-shuo author adapts the complementary relationship between shen (spirit) and hsing (form or body) to the dialectic between yen (word) and i (meaning). He thus develops a unique mode of characterization—i-hsing hsieh-shen (using the body to depict the spirit). Here the body refers to both the human body and that of an anthropomorphized natural object or natural scene. Such “bodies” are never depicted in a static, isolated status but always in motion and in relation to others. By describing a person’s body movements, gestures, postures, facial expressions , and speeches, vis-à-vis the movements of the other entities in the universe—either people or things—the author manages to transmit that person’s spirit. In the following discussion, I shall first introduce the Shihshuo theory of characterization, centered on a discourse of “transmitting the spirit.” Then I shall discuss how the author transmits a character’s spirit by depicting his or her body in two relations—that with other human beings and that with Nature. In Relation to Others: The Shih-shuo Theory of Characterization shen, or spirit, the essence of character appraisal Character appraisal, as demonstrated in the previous chapters, is mainly a verbal practice, in which evaluators use words to express evaluatees ’ personalities. Among the numerous terms devoted to this practice, a most significant and widely applied notion is shen, or “spirit.” Throughout the Shih-shuo hsin-yü, shen frequently appears in character appraisals: On the eve of Hsi K’ang’s execution in the Eastern Marketplace of Loyang (in 262), his spirit and bearing [shen-ch’i] showed no change. (6/2) In the headquarters of the grand tutor, Ssu-ma Yüeh, were many famous gentlemen, the outstanding and unique men of the entire age. Yü Liang once said, “Whenever I saw my father’s cousin,YüAi, in their midst, he was always naturally exhilarated in spirit [shen-wang].” (8/33) Wang Tun once praised his (adopted) son, Wang Ying, with the words, “The condition of his spirit [shen-hou] seems to be on the point of being all right.” (8/49) 1 5 2 Pa r t 2 Wang Hsi-chih . . . in praise of Chih Tun, said, “His capacity is brilliant , his spirit keen [shen-chün].” (8/88) In his “Memorial [on the Pacification of Lo-yang]” (in 356), Huan Wen wrote: “Hsieh Shang’s spirit and thought [shen-huai] stand out above the crowd, and from his youth he has enjoyed an excellent reputation among the people.” (8/103) In various works previous to the Shih-shuo hsin-yü, shen had several different meanings,2 but as employed in the Shih-shuo it usually conforms to the usage in the Chuang-tzu. For example, the phrase...