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

6. Body and Heart: T’ang and Sung Imitations

∫ Chapter 6 Body and Heart: T’ang and Sung Imitations Establishing the Body at the Risk of the Body: T’ang Imitations Three T’ang Shih-shuo imitations are found in various bibliographic records: Wang Fang-ch’ing’s (d. 702) Continuation of the Shih-shuo hsinshu , Feng Yen’s (fl. 742–800) Memoirs, and Liu Su’s New Account of the Great T’ang. Wang’s work is not extant today. Feng’s Memoirs, written in the early ninth century, mainly covers a broad range of encyclopedic entries . Only chapters 9 and 10 consist of thirty-seven T’ang historical anecdotes , divided into thirty-six imitative Shih-shuo categories. Liu Su’s work, compiled in 807, follows the Shih-shuo scheme in a more rigorous way. It collects around 380 episodes about T’ang political and intellectual life under thirty imitative Shih-shuo categories.1 Liu Su’s own preface and epilogue clearly state his purpose and principles of compilation, making this work a very coherent and pointed piece. The writing style of A New Account of the Great T’ang also follows its model work, as the late Ch’ing scholar Yeh Te-hui attests: “Since Prince Lin-ch’uan compiled the Shihshuo hsin-yü, later imitators have emerged from every dynasty. The T’ang dynasty inherited the aura of six dynasties, and its writing style more or less continued the fashion of the south of the Yangtze. Reading this book makes one feel that the Chin winds and currents [feng-liu] have not faded away from us.”2 In this section, I shall focus on Liu’s New Account of the Great T’ang, while using Feng’s Memoir as a supportive reference. These early Shih-shuo imitations immediately introduced strong ethical overtones into the genre, as typified in Liu Su’s summary of Confucius ’s principle for historical writing, “to hail the ruler and to humble the subject, and to expel heterodoxy and to return to rectitude.” From the Shihshuo ’s neutral classification of human character types to its early imitations ’differentiation between “rectitude” (cheng) and “heterodoxy” (hsieh), this movement marked a shift from aesthetic to ethical concerns. In this sense, T’ang Shih-shuo imitations changed the original genre from the character writing of the gentry into didactic writing for the gentry—from gentry self-appreciation into gentry self-cultivation—what Liu Su termed lishen (establishing oneself). Nonetheless, as we shall discover later, this desire for establishing oneself in ethical terms was, ironically, often founded on the necessity of “risking oneself [lit. risking one’s body]” (weishen ).3 Such was the tenor of T’ang politics. expelling heterodoxy and returning to rectitude To follow what they believed to be Confucius’ guidelines, both Liu Su and Feng Yen structured their imitative works through a thorough revision of the Shih-shuo scheme. Liu Su first elaborated what he considered as categories of cheng—rectitude—into a much more detailed system of classification. He expanded chapter 10, “Kuei-chen,” of the Shih-shuo into three: 1. K’uang-tsan (Rectification and assistance) 2. Kuei-chien (Advice and admonition) 3. Chi-chien (Intense admonition) Chapter 5, “Fang-cheng” (Squareness and correctness), became two: 4. Kang-cheng (Inflexibility and correctness) 5. Kung-chih (Fairness and strictness) Chapter 3, “Cheng-shih” (Affairs of government), was expanded into three: 7. Ch’ih-fa (Handling the law) 8. Cheng-neng (Ability of governing) 22. Li-ko (Revision and reform) Chapter 1, “Te-hsing” (Te conduct), became five, all Confucian moral categories: 2 1 2 Pa r t 3 6. Ch’ing-lien (Purity and incorruptibility) 9. Chung-lieh (Loyalty and heroism) 10. Chieh-i (Integrity and righteousness) 11. Hsiao-hsing (Filial behavior) 12. Yu-t’i (Brotherly love) Moreover, chapter 7, “Shih-chien” (Recognition and judgment), which referred to the practice of character appraisal in a neutral sense, was expanded into two: 13. Chü-hsien (Selecting the worthy) 14. Shih-liang (Capacity of judgment) Chü-hsien (Selecting the worthy) pointed explicitly to the moral purpose of character appraisal during the T’ang period. Liu Su expelled categories he considered “heterodox” from the original Shih-shuo hsin-yü scheme, including the following: 24. Chien-ao (Rudeness and arrogance) 25. P’ai-t’iao (Taunting and teasing) 26. Ch’ing-ti (Contempt and insults) 27. Chia-chüeh (Guile and chicanery) 28. Ch’u-mien (Dismissal from office...