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25 2 Precursors The chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes ¶owed from the same principle—their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favorite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings. —Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2.120 The peculiar combination of love, politics, history, and moral remonstration found in the Ruyijun zhuan is not unique to this work or to the ¤ction of the late Ming dynasty. This combination is found, as well, in early Chinese poetry like the Shi jing (Book of poetry). It is perhaps more accurate to say that many of the poems found in the Shi jing are about love and that later commentators ¤nd, or add, the politics, history, and morals. In the Mao commentary to the Shi jing, the earliest extant systematic interpretation of that text, even simple love poems contained in the Airs of the States (Guofeng) are interpreted as illustrations of court intrigue.1 Thecommentary assertsthatthe songsare about politicsand relate tospeci¤c historical persons or events. Poems that express satisfaction and social order are about a good ruler; poems that express the opposite are about a bad ruler. In poems of dissatisfaction, the ruler is often an absent lover, and his minister, the poet, an abandoned woman. Such poems,the commentary says, are metaphors for an unappreciated of¤cial who is remonstrating with an immoral ruler. Descriptions of love, courtship, and feminine beauty are interpreted in political terms and ultimately seen as criticism of the ruler. Such allegorical or metaphorical readings of Shi jing love poems are sometimes hard to accept.2 Traditional commentators often ignore a poem’s literal meaning and seem oblivious to its beauty. Even if there is no reference to historyin apoem,they try to setitin a speci¤chistoricalcontext—andwhen it is mentioned in an early history like the Zuo zhuan, they argue that it should be read as a historical document. Sometimes traditional commentaries read 26 Context and Analysis groups of poems as if they were miniature histories of the states in which they originated.3 Although allegorical interpretations of Shi jing love poems might seem unnatural to a modern reader, there is ample evidence that these poems were commonly interpreted in such a fashion long before the Mao commentary . In time the poems of the Shi jing, particularly the love poems, acquired a set of political connotations and these formed the basis of Mao’s interpretations .4 When a ruler or an of¤cial quotes a line from a Shi jing poem in the Zuo zhuan, it is a means of expressing an opinion with diplomatic discretion. A meeting of a ruler and his senior advisers can hinge on brief allusions to love poetry; the poems are quoted out of context and mobilized to express ideas about politics, morality, and history that are quite foreign to the original poem.5 Huang Xun’s “Du Ruyijun zhuan” quotes the Shi jing in such a fashion, as does the Ruyijun zhuan itself. The combination of love, politics, history, and morals contained in fu poetry is not, however, the product of later commentators. Fu poetry, which dates to approximately the middle of the second century b.c., is known for its ornate style, hyperbole, and rich description. Many of the descriptive Han fu were written by court poets and submitted directly to the emperor. Although the beautiful language and attractive scenes were meant to delight the emperor , some authors claim that the fu could also contain elements of indirect remonstration (fengjian). But such a claim, when made about a genre that appears totally devoted to the pleasure of the reader, gives rise to deep suspicions ; there is a discrepancy between the professed moral content and the sensuous manner in which it is delivered. Contemporaries sometimes describe the fu as seduction under the guise of moral instruction.6 An interesting example of a sensuous situation leading directly to thoughts of politics and morality occurs in the “Shanglin fu” (Rhapsody on Shanglin Park) by Sima Xiangru (179–117 b.c.), the most famous author of fu poetry and the model for many later imitators. The prospect of feminine beauty...

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