Chinas erste Poetik: Das Shipin (Kriterion Poietikon) des Zhong Hong (467?-518) (review)

112 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. i, Spring 1999 Bernhard Fuehrer. Chinas erste Poetik: Das Shipin (Kriterion Poietikon) des ZhongHong {467Ì-S18). Edition Cathay, vol 10. Dortmund: ProjektVerlag , 1995. ix, 578 pp. Paperback DM 44.00, isbn 3-928861-43-3. Bernhard Fuehrer's Chinas erste Poetik, a revised version ofhis Ph.D. dissertation (Vienna, 1994), is a complete and extensively annotated translation ofthe Shipin mtm (Classification ofpoetry) by Zhong Hong WM. (also known as Zhong Rong1), a scholar-official at the Qi and Liang courts of the Southern Dynasties. In the Shipin, Zhong Rong classifies 123 poets into an upper, a middle, and a lower rank according to the quality oftheir pentasyllable poems (wu yan shi SWlxr). Together with the Wenxin diaolong^C'\jMM (The literary mind and the carving ofdragons [—rendering by V. Shih] ), the Shipin is among the foremost theoretical works on poetry in China. Fuehrer's book is divided into five parts: (1) a preface, (2) an introduction, (3) Zhong Hong's preface to the Shipin, (4) the appraisal of the poets in the Shipin, and (5) an appendix. 1.The preface begins with a discussion ofthe translator's difficulties in reading the text, followed by a general introduction to Zhong Hong's work, which covers the problem of different editions and the Shipin's particular diction and includes an impressive "abstract" ofthe history ofresearch on the subject (pp. 12-20). 2.The introduction contains a discussion ofZhong Hong's life and work, the time in which the Shipin was written, and the reasons why it was written. It further deals with the structure ofthe work and the principles of evaluation that it uses, including a presentation ofwhat Fuehrer terms Zhong Hong's "derivation model." According to this model, Zhong Hong, by distinguishing between "source OiHtB), ancestor (ffl.8), and model or example (SPÌE)" (Fuehrer's translation), introduces lines of derivation ofpoetic development for at least one third of the poets covered in the Shipin. A chart at the end illustrates the reconstructed family tree of poets. 3.The preface to the Shipin itself consists of a translation of its three sections. Since, based on the content of the Shipin, Fuehrer doubts that these sections were originally meant as the respective introductions to each of the three chapters of the Shipin, he bases his translation on the version contained in the Lidai shihua fi?fCl#lS (published in 1770), where He Wenhuan M^t^ combined the three sections of the preface and put them at the head ofthe entire work. Fuehrer's© 1999 by University translation is divided into small sections printed in bold typeface. Between these ofHawai iPresssections Fuehrer adds his own commentary, which has the triple function ofilluminating Zhong Hong's words, establishing the theoretical background ofthe poetry in the texts by pointing to parallel quotations and expressions, and guiding Reviews 113 the reader through the multifarious contents ofa preface that covers almost one third ofthe entire Shipin. Footnotes deal mainly with the difficulties oftranslation . Here Fuehrer eagerly lists textual parallels to support his translations. His diligence manifests itselfclearly when we see how twelve pages ofChinese text (six A/B pages with 324 characters each) are transformed into 164 pages ofdensely packed German text. 4.The appraisal ofthe poets in the Shipin contains the complete translation ofZhong Hong's judgments on the literary quality ofthe poets that he has selected; they are ranked into three chapters, each chapter representing a different rank. Translation and commentary are arranged in a manner identical to part 3. Since Zhong Hong quotes particular lines and expressions from the poems he has selected, Fuehrer takes great pains in identifying these quotations and discussing them in relation to Zhong Hong's arguments. 5.The appendix consists ofa copy ofthe original text and Fuehrer's translation, which appear on opposite pages. The original text is a copy ofthe punctuated edition contained in the Suoyin ben Heshi Lidai shihua YJfà I^M-KlSftlnflrj (Index ofthe Ho collection oftwenty-eight shihua), edited by Helmut Martin (Taibei: Chinese Materials, 1973). This is followed by a large bibliography in three sections and an index. Two sections ofthe bibliography deal with works in Asian...