The Southern Garden Poetry Society: Literary Culture and Social Memory in Guangdong

1. The Southern Muse

Chapter One The Southern Muse Locality gives art. —Robert Frost Six poets from Guangzhou are enshrined in the historical records as having notable reputations during the Han and Six Dynasties periods. Our chief guide in these matters is that master of Cantonese culture and clime, the early Qing poet Qu Dajun 屈大均 (1630–1696) from Panyu 番禺.1 The title of his great work on local history and lore, New Tales of Guangdong 廣東新語, in 28 lengthy chapters, recalls Liu Yiqing’s 劉義慶 (403–444) New Tales of the World 世說新語. In matters of content, however, Qu expands beyond Liu’s seamless and uni-dimensional preoccupation with personalities and interpersonal encounters. The world in the tales of Liu Yiqing is the world of human affairs.2 The world encompassed by Qu is limited to Guangdong, but, happily, it gains in fullness because of this geographical limitation. Plants and local products, rivers and recreation, foodstuffs and holiday frolics, animals and aromatics all contextualize the many personalities in the work.3 It is as if the selected characters in “god’s plenty,” as Dryden described the Canterbury Tales, were to be placed in a fully material context so that readers were able to follow not only their movements but also to appreciate the setting in which the action takes place. The inn, the utensils used to banquet and carouse, the weave of the fabrics that clothe the travelers, the accouterments that adorn the horses, and the precise topographical features of the route and historical sites, shrines, and edifices along the way would all be described in intimate detail. Qu’s great opus infuses a human presence into such works of economic geography, natural ecology, and ethnobotony of the south as Zhou Qufei’s 周去非 (ca. 1178) Lingwai daida 嶺外代答, or the earlier Nanfang caomu zhuang 南方草木狀 of Ji Han 嵇含 (ca. 300).4 Such a guide, allencompassing as it is in a material and tactile sense, is also well-rounded in a historical sense. Therefore, this work will benefit from the company of Qu Dajun and his book as it surveys Cantonese literati and will benefit greatly from his guidance. A modern student of the Chinese and Southeast Asian tropics, Edward Schafer, has written widely and deeply on the material culture, natural ecology, and literary images of Guangdong and parts of southwest China. His magnificent study, The Vermilion Bird, provides a modern perspective based on both rigorous science and sensitive literary appreciation.5 Qu’s essay on the genealogy of Cantonese poets is entitled “Poetry Commenced with Yang Fu” 詩始楊孚.6 It identifies four early versifiers: At the time of Emperor He of Han (r. 89–106), Yang Fu of Nanhai, by-name of Xiaoxian, wrote the Study of the Strange Creatures of the Southern Border, which was a variant form of poetry. Still, did poetry on Guangdong start with Fu? Rather, at the time of Emperor Hui the Filial (r. 194–87), Zhang Mai of Nanhai, while waiting upon the emperor on a tour of the imperial parks and ponds, hummed a southern tune while beating on an oar in order to admonish His Highness. During the Jin, Feng Rong of Gaozhou attracted a literary gathering and composed poetry and songs. During the Liang, the Marquis of Qujiang, Andou, wrote pentasyllabic verse with refined sounds and sentiments. He frequently invited over men of letters such as Yin Keng and Zhang Zhengjian, commanded them to compose poems and rhapsodies, ranked them, and rewarded them accordingly.7 All of these men were pioneers who initiated literary refinement in Guangdong. By the time of Zhang Jiuling, poetry was in a flourishing state. 漢和帝時，南海楊孚字孝先，其為南裔異物贊。亦詩之流也。然則 廣東之詩，其始於孚乎？而孝惠時，南海人張買侍遊苑池。鼓棹為 越謳，時切諷諫。晉時，高州馮融汲引文華士與為詩歌。梁曲江侯 安都為五言詩。聲情清靡。數招眾文士，如陰鏗、張正見之流，命 以詩賦，第其高下，以差次賞賜之。此皆開吾粵風雅之先者。至張 子壽而詩乃沛然矣。 The work Yang Fu is credited with is more commonly referred to as the Yiwu zhi 異物志, or Monograph on Strange Products.8 Perhaps Qu Dajun felt some sympathetic resonance with this earliest ethnobotanist of the south. After all, Yang Fu displayed a kindred spirit and the same intense interest in the local culture; hence Qu assigned him primacy of place in the genesis of Cantonese poetics. But one certainly cannot assess Qu’s literary judgment, for, despite the preservation of a handful of prose pieces by Yang Fu, none of his poetry is now extant, nor, strangely enough, does Qu claim that he 4 The Southern Garden Poetry Society ever wrote any. Nevertheless, the “appraisals” zan 贊 that adorn each entry of Yiwu zhi were composed in four-character lines, the earliest poetic meter which, admittedly, is not the best vehicle...