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Abstract
Using Wang Bizhi's (1031–1097?) Record of Enjoyable Conversations at Sheng River (Shengshui yantan lu) as a case study, this essay examines the significant place leisurely gathering and bantering occupied in the lives of Song educated men. It argues that Wang's work, and that of his peers, points to a new vision of the scholar-official ideal. Time spent on chatting, gossiping, and in the company of friends and colleagues became an integral and highly esteemed element in the elite conception of scholarly and everyday life. In this process, biji, as collections of “things seen and heard,” flourished as a literature of leisure.
Notes
1 For an introduction to the establishment of a biji tradition in the Song, see James M. Hargett, “Sketches.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, edited by Victor H. Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 560–65.
2 For “things seen and heard” as sources for biji writing, see Robert Hymes, “Gossip as History: Hong Mai's Yijian zhi and the Place of Oral Anecdote in Song Historical Knowledge.” Chugoku Chigaku, 21 (2011), 1–28; Cong Ellen Zhang, “To Be ‘Erudite in Miscellaneous Knowledge’: A Study of Song (960–1279) Biji Writing.” Asia Major Third Series, 25.2 (2012), 43–77.
3 Beverly Bossler, “Shifting Identities: Courtesans and Literati in Song China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 62.1 (June, 2002), 8–28 and “Men, Women, and Gossip in Song China.” In Idle Talk: Gossip and Anecdote in Traditional China, edited by Jack W. Chen and David Schaberg (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014), 154–77; Cong Ellen Zhang, “Things Heard in the Past, Material for Future Use: A Study of Song Biji Prefaces.” East Asian Publishing and Society, 6 (2016), 22–53. The prevalence of elite social life can also be seen from contemporary poetry production. As Colin Hawes has found, a vast number of Northern Song poems was written at informal gatherings. Hawes, The Social Circulation of Poetry in Mid-Northern Song Poetry: Emotional Energy and Literati Self-Cultivation (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2005).
4 Ronald Egan has recently shown that the material for Shen Kuo's (1031–1095) Mengxi bitan “came from hearsay and informal chats he had over the years.” Egan, “Shen Kuo Chats with Ink Stone and Writing Brush.” In Idle Talk: Gossip and Anecdote in Traditional China, edited by Jack W. Chen and David Schaberg (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014), 132–53.
5 Wang Bizhi, Shengshui yantan lu (hereafter SSYTL) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 3.28, 5.36, 8.102.
6 All we know about Wang comes from the two prefaces and several entries of Enjoyable Conversations. In his long career, Wang served in modern Jiangsu, Shanxi, and Sichuan Provinces. He apparently lived a long life, as he referred to his great grandson reaching adulthood. Wang, SSYTL, prefaces, 2.11, 7.91.
7 Elsewhere, I have shown in greater detail how Song biji writers articulated the utility of their work. In addition to being used as conversational, entertaining material, Song biji writers advocated that their compilations be supplemental official records, or even the foundation of another historical narrative that was parallel to the state-sponsored one. Zhang, “Things Heard in the Past, Material for Future Use,” 22–53.
8 The organization of Wang's work varied in different Ming and Qing and modern editions. For a brief print history of the book, see the preface to SSYTL.
9 Wang, SSYTL, preface.
10 Wang, however, made no reference anywhere in the text as to whether he had intended to have his work published.
11 Wang was not the first one to see the utility of biji work in this way. Ouyang Xiu, in the preface to his biji, Guitian lu (1067), explicitly labeled his compilation as “light reading material for times of leisure.” Given the popularity of Ouyang's writing—only a few decades after the completion of Guitian lu, another biji author already considered it one of the seven well-known Tang and Song biji that could “aid in conversation”—it was possible that Wang Bizhi had been inspired by Ouyang. Ouyang, preface to Guitian lu (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981); Wu Chuhou, preface to Qingxiang zaji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997).
12 Man, preface to SSYTL.
13 Of the 375 Song titles that I have surveyed, ninety (24%) contain at least one of the following terms in their titles: tan (to talk), hua (to chat), yan (to talk or say), wen (to hear), yi (to opine or discuss), yu (to speak or say), shuo (to speak or say), bin (guest), ke (guest), fang (to visit), xun (to instruct), wen (to ask), and da (to answer). All point to the important role conversation and social interaction played in elite life.
14 Wang, SSYTL, 5.47–48.
15 Ibid., 2.19.
16 Ibid., 2.12.
17 At the same time, wine and tea shops also became very visible in elite social life. Liang Jianguo, “Beisong Dongjing de shehui bianqian yu shiren jiaoyou.” Nandu luntan, 30.3 (May, 2010), 28–33.
18 For some examples, see Wang, SSYTL, 5.42, 5.47, 5.48, 5.49, 5.50, 8.102.
19 For some examples, see Ibid., 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.22, 3.27, 3.28, 6.69, 6.73.
20 Ibid., 4.48.
21 Ibid., 2.19.
22 Ibid., 2.12.
23 Stephen Owen, “The Difficulty of Pleasure.” Extreme Oriĕnt, Extrĕme Occident, 20 (1998), 13–14.
24 Ronald Egan, The Problem of Beauty: Aesthetic Thought and Pursuits in Northern Song Dynasty China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006).
25 Liang Jianguo, “Chaotang neiwai: Beisong Dongjing de shiren jiaoyou.” Wen shi zhe, 5 (2009), 113–20.
26 SSYTL, 2.14.
27 SSYTL, 5.40.
28 Ibid., 5.40.
29 Michael Fuller, The Road to East Slope: The Development of Su Shi's Poetic Voice (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990); Ronald Egan, The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu (1007–72) (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984) and Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994); Colin Hawes, “Mundane Transcendence: Dealing with the Everyday in the Poetry of Ouyang Xiu.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, 21 (1999), 99–129 and “Meaning Beyond Words: Games and Poetry in the Northern Song.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 60.2 (2000), 355–83.
30 Hawes, “Meaning Beyond Words,” 378, 383.
31 Egan, The Problem of Beauty, 64–65.
32 Wang, SSYTL, 8.102.
33 In fact, as Christoph Harbsmeier argues, “The Analects describe Confucius as an impulsive, emotional, and informal man, a man of wit and humor, a man capable of subtle irony with an acute sensibility for subtle nuances.” Harbsmeier, “Confucius Ridens: Humor in the Analects.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 50.1 (1990), 131.
34 Shirley Chan, “Identifying Daoist Humor: Reading the Liezi.” In Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches, edited by Jocelyn Chey and Jessica Milner Davis (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 74–75.
35 David R. Knechtges, “Wit, Humor, and Satire in Early Chinese Literature.” Monumenta Serica, 29 (1970–1971), 82. Sima's biographies of these humorists can be found in chapter 126 of Shiji.
36 Yiqing Liu, A New Account of Tales of the World, translated with introduction and notes by Richard B. Mather (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2002).
37 Karin Myhre, “Wit and Humor.” In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, edited by Victor Mair (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 132, 138.
38 James Hightower, “Han Yu as a Humorist.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 44.1 (1984), 22.
39 Wang, SSYTL, 10.123.
40 One li is a third of a mile.
41 Wang, SSYTL, 10.123.
42 Ibid., 10.125.
43 This is an allusion to the Han founding emperor Liu Bang's (256–195 B.C.E.) poem, “Song of the Great Wind.” Liu's original poem reads: “A great wind rises, the clouds fly high; having conquered the realm, I return home; where will I find brave warriors to guard the four corners of my empire?”
44 Both were disciples of Confucius.
45 Wang, SSYTL, 10.125.
46 Liu Gongfu was featured in at least a dozen similar accounts in Ding Chuanjing, Songren yishi huibian (Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 9.433–38.
47 Wang, SSYTL, 9.117, 10.122, 10.124, 10.125, 10.126.
48 Using epitaphs, poetry, personal correspondence and other types of material, scholars have demonstrated the complexities of elite social networking, especially in terms of the strategies used to perpetuate the fortune of a family. For some in-depth studies, see Deng Xiaonan, “Beisong Suzhou de shiren jiazu jiaoyouquan: yi Zhu Changwen jiaoyou wei hexin de kaocha.” In Guoxue yanjiu, vol. 3 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1996), 451–87 and “Gong Mingzhi yu Songdai Suzhou de Gongshi jiazu: jiantan Nansong qianqi Kunshan shiren jiazu de jiaoyou yu chenfu.” In Zhongguo jinshi jiazu yu shehui xueshu yantaohui lunwen ji (Taibei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1998), 81–109; Beverly Bossler, Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1998); Huang Kuanzhong, “Songdai Siming shizu renji wangluo yu shehui wenhua huodong: yi Loushi jiazu wei zhongxin de kaocha.” Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan, 70.3 (September, 1999), 627–69; Liang Jianguo, “Chaotang neiwai, Chaotang zhiwai: Beisong Dongjing shiren zoufang yu yaji.” Lishi yanjiu, 2 (2009), 21–37 and “Beisong Dongjing de shiren baiye: jianlun mensheng guanxi de shengcheng.” Zhongguoshi yanjiu, 3 (2008), 67–90.
49 For a study of the interaction between Hong Mai, a major Southern Song (1127–1279) biji writer, and his informants, see Alister Inglis, “Hong Mai's Informants for the Yi jian zhi.” Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 32 (2002), 83–125.
50 Su Shi, for example, spent many years in exile and articulated the humiliation he had endured in poetry, essays, letters, and memorials. Yet, he eventually came to terms with his suffering and wrote about enjoying life in Hainan. James Hargett, “Clearing the Apertures and Getting in Tune: The Hainan Exile of Su Shi (1037–1101).” Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 30 (2000), 141–67. For an in-depth study of factionalism in the Northern Song, see Ari Levine, Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conflict in Late Northern Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008).
Additional information
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Cong Ellen Zhang
Cong Ellen Zhang is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the political and social elites, travel culture, and women and the family in the Song Dynasty. She is the author of Transformative Journeys: Travel and Culture in Song China (University of Hawaii Press, 2011).