The Book of Literary Design

37. Hyperbole

Hyperbole That which is above form is known as an ideal; that which is not above form is called a vessel. Ideals, being beyond humanity, can hardly be portrayed, in the sense that the finest of language cannot be expected to do them justice. Vessels, having form, can more easily be described, and well-developed language is known to have captured their essence. This is not a question ofthe individual writer's ability, but one of relative intrinsic difficulty. One consequence of this is that, since the inception ofthe world, in every incursion into shape and sound, language has had a place, and exaggerated and qualified language has always been in use. Even in the streamlined language of the Shijing and the Shujing, with the need to propagate the moral influence and pattern, there is an occasional demand to trespass the bounds. This is why the height ofthe Peak is described as "soaring up the sky",l why with the narrowness ofthe River "there is not room in it even for a skifr';2 why multitude must be "getting sons and grandsons in their thousands";3 and why desolation has to go as far as "there being not a single soul left".4 It is also why waters must rise not only to cover the mountains but also to drown the sky, why in the rebellion of your own army there is blood enough to keep the pestles afloat. Such language is indeed excessive but it does 1 SeeArthurWaley(trans.)(1937)p.133. 2 See Arthur Waley (trans.) (1937) p. 48. 3 SeeArthurWaley(trans.)(1937)p.181. 4 See James Legge (trans.) (1960) vol. 4, p. 530. 138 I The Book ofLiterary Design no violence to the sense. Similarly it is not likely for the hoot of the owl to be made pleasing by "the woods of Pan",5 or for "celery and sowthistle" to become "sweet as rice-cakes" because they grow on "the plain of Zhou".6 It is in cases where there is a strong necessity to indicate approval that language must be ameliorated and improved upon and in any case what the Great Sage considered worthy of chronicle must be exemplary for posterity. As Mencius said, "Expositors of the Shijing should do no violence to the language on account of the text; they should do no violence to the authorial intention on account of the language."7 It was in the hands of Song Yu and ling Chai that hyperbole became irrepressible. Then Sima Xiangm went beyond them in excess and monstrosity. So now the lodges of the Shanglin parks had rainbows and meteors penetrating the porches and phoenixes and wrens with little deer heads were among the game. Yang Xiong's palatial provisions drew on Sima Xiangm's plenitude: jade trees were planted for the fairyland effect, and heights were so dizzy that from their tops gods did fall. In the waters of the capitals of Ban Gu and Zhang Heng the finny tribe counted the hirame-flounder among its numbers and Poseidon-like Haimo was in evidence. Ifyou wish to prove the veracity ofsuch things it cannot be proved; and if you want to add to their ornamentation there is no limit to what you can add. In a similar vein in the hunting pieces by Yang Xiong and Zhang Heng, Fufei the maiden was flogged and Qu Yuan fed, Xuanming the sea-monster was made prisoner in the windy wilds of the north, little regarding how the goddess ofRiver Luo and the sea-monster-minister were neither hellhags nor hobgoblins, or how one might be charged with irresponsibility for such excesses of invention. Such indulgences were often motivated by the desire to magnify the high and the mighty and ran contrary to facts. In the delineation ofnot only the appearance but also the airs and graces of mountains and seas, the magnitude and majesty ofpalaces, altitudes were always unspeakable, lights were blinding and about to burst into flames and manystoreyed towers as likely as not threatened to collapse and crumble. Such specifications were mandated by the logic of hyperbole, and carried out to the marvel ofus all. Later writers, fortified by confidence and literary fame, have sometimes aimed even higher and, ashamed to mince, they bounce and leap. May flowers are not fresh enough for their beauty, nor the dark valley sufficiently chilling-5 Pan was the palace of Duke Xi of Lu who is said to be capable of exercising his civilizing...