1、. 1 SETTING PATTERNS: Songs (and Documents) You cant trace Chinese literature back much farther than the Songs; they apparently coalesced into largely fixed form by the seventh century BC. Many Songs owe their provenance to oral transmission from the mists of Chinas pretextual era. This first, most

2、influential Chinese anthology offers 395 distinct chiasmi in 305 poems, most densely in its Greater Royal Odes (雅). Some simple Songs do not feature chiasmus, but nearly every more complex, sophisticated song does. Often one chiastic pattern organizes all stanzas within a Song (counted as one instan

3、ce); some longer Court Songs雅 feature a different chiastic pattern in nearly every stanza. Hence, you can characterize Songs counterchange as pervasive and highly productive. Moreover, Songs cluster counterchange at poetic peaks; chiastic rhetoric highlights and fulfills central cultural and literar

4、y values, setting fundamental patterns we shall examine one by one: 1 Reciprocal relations between man-woman, parent-child, lord-vassal, heaven-human, etc.Reciprocity pervades and underpins so much of traditional Chinese thought and appears in concert with so many other features to examine below, we

5、ll restrict ourselves to illuminating the dual nature of Chinese 報: requital and retribution. Song #64 succinctly illustrates requital; all three stanzas follow the same mold, with incremental rhymeword changes:*(S)he tossed me a quince, I requited (her) with a fine gem; Not to make a requital, no:

6、Always to betoken our love!1 Rouzer 2000:16 ingeniously deconstructs “normal” readings Pace Chinese commentators, #64s threefold love-token exchange did not necessarily follow fixed social convention for wedding gifts, though these tokens may foreshadow the geese, quilts, and so forth that later aff

7、ianced couples exchanged. If anything, #64 reacts against fixed social norms of reciprocity, trumping convention by protesting genuine affection. Woman-man exchange finds a vividly appropriate figure in the give-and-take of a-b-b-a counterchange. When women fear lack of reciprocity in love, they cha

8、llenge, as in 73.1:*How could I not yearn for you: I fear you wont dare! She frames with anxious negations; we call such this “valence chiasmus,” a very common variety. When reciprocity fails and men betray them, women turn to lamenting; #201s refrain unfolds typically:*Come fear and dread, “Just me

9、 and you.” Come peace and joy, you turn and discard me.Her decussation, which slyly twists referents for “you” and “me,” indicts his turncoat infidelity. In many Songs, a womans need for reciprocal conjugal bonds gets bound together with exogamy pathos. Chinese married their young women out and saw

10、a daughters marriage journey as a “homecoming” to her “true” family; they called her trip歸. Chinas common wedding formula went: The girls going home之子于歸.Often this meant crossing a river; thus arousals/evocative images in which a woman crosses her personal “Rubicon” evoke her marital trials. Nuptial

11、 journeys, with concomitant separation from her natal home to an unknown new “home,” meant tremendous emotional upheaval and wrenching dislocation. Among dozens of Songs expressing such exogamy distress criss-cross, #188 puts a brides protest most forthrightly: *For this wedding of families, Ive com

12、e to live with you; If you wont keep me, Ill return to my native kin!#58 provides Songs most famous and best-polished example of bridal chiasmus. A barrage of threefold repetitions poem outlines her growing disillusion; for example, she crosses (and, at poems end, recrosses) the Marriage River 3 tim

13、es. #58 also features 3 antimetaboli; we shall examine its first below. Its second cautions against fickle males:*Alas, maidens! Dont dally with men! When men dally they can talk their way out; When a maiden dallies, she cant talk her way out. (#58.3)Her chiasmus highlights a stark inequity in male-

14、female relations; it laments lack of reciprocity in treating young women and suggests how much more easily men can “back out”反. She pivots on her mans fickleness, betrayals (also反), and reversals of character反復無常); “backing out” itself repeats three times. Such repetitions climax with her closing at

15、tack, when she recalls their wedding vow (#58s third vow), claims that even the Marriage River and their dismal swamp of a union have their banks, and concludes with a devastating antimetabole2 for more complete discussion, see McCraw 1996:14-5.: *I never thought youd “turn back”反; Youd turn back?I

16、never thought: Then let this be the end of it!A subtle formal chiasmus reinforces her demand. Each of #58s six stanzas has its own unique rhyme; pre-marital stanza 1 began with “schwa” rhyme, nuptial stanza 2 featured an rhyme, etc. But stanza 6 recapitulates an rhyme and then, with her climactic an

17、timetabole, reverts to initial schwa rhyme. Chiastic formal mastery amplifies a powerful conclusion. This crowns traditional Chinas strongest marital plaint, but others proceed similarly. “Gully Wind” (#35) climaxes by enjoining a disloyal mate not to molest our speakers fish-weir and lamenting:*Eve

18、n my persons not likedWhos got leisure to worry about my progeny!?Her body and her issue (後could mean “posterity,” which of course would depend on her children, anyway) provide framing terms for pivotal negative laments expressing her marital plightquite an effective protest.3 For a more savage prot

19、est, see #200.6, which lashes back at a courtiers enemies. Retribution, as many have noted, sounds a perennial theme in Chinese literature; we might venture to generalize that every example of retribution, at heart, involves chiasmus. Songs about love and marriage account for more than half the 160

20、“Airs”4 Waley, for example, includes 116 pieces under “Courtship” and “Marriage” in his thematic anthology.5 Cf. #99, draft.6 For more examples, see esp. #32, 149, 196database, and #30, discussed below. In final revision we found Haun Saussy 1997:531-2, who examines several types of correlation and

21、exchange in Songs and observes how rhyme and reason fuse to create structures of reciprocity. Among these, Saussy cites relations between xing incitation and response as a kind of “chiasmus,” in which line 1 depends on its consequent in line 4. Saussys thesis, that “formal properties of Shijing poem

22、s are inseparable from patterns of behavior” (Saussy 1992:522) supports our own and deserves endorsement (in this case, belatedly).7 Chen Mengjia and other scholars have traced elements of correlation back into Shang thinking; Pu 1998:37-8, esp. n.108 reviews relevant sources. , so chiasmi intensify

23、ing criss-cross boy-girl relations assume major importance. #118s epithalamium counterchanges to bind a couple with word-magic:*Tonightwhat a night! I see this fair one! Ah you: Ah you! What sort of fair one you are!In our Chinese original, exclamatory “whatwhat!” figure outstretched arms enfolding

24、repeated endearments to her “fair one”; #118s opening and title line ran: “Bundled tight, the firewood,” a perfect metaphor for the sweet fetters of love and marriage.5For a more troubled counterchange, consider #71: *Gone far from my brothers, I call another father/mother/elder. I call another fath

25、er But he does not care for/succor/hear me.All three stanzas begin with an arousal: “Long stretching kudzu runners, Reaching the rivers bank” This arousal customarily evokes family ties and particularly nuptial ties. #71s river, as usual, suggests barriers raised by exogamy. The proximal ends of eac

26、h chiasmus then evoke physical or emotional distance. #71 pivots on the pathos of loss and our speakers desperate, pathetic attempt to forge new bonds with strangers. Men drafted or bound in service abroad sing a similar tune; Song #110 consists entirely of chiasmi sung antiphonally by a displaced s

27、on and his kin, e.g., stanza 1:*I climb that bosky hill, And gaze toward Father. Father: Alas! My sons gone off in service: Morn and night without cease. Requital/retribution requires appropriate response to a moral or social stimulus; Songs very structure poems involves stimulus-response poetics. M

28、ost Songs begin with an initial “incitation/stimulus/arousal/evocative image” that elicits or provokes a human response. This call-response model not only formed the basis for later Chinese poetry, its incitation-response興應 or stimulus-response感應 structure came to dominate Chinese thinking about peo

29、ple and their place in the world. Well adduce just one example of this most productive pattern, which naturally bonds with chiasmus:* I climbed that high canting wall, Gazing for your Return to Gate; No sight of your “Return to Gate”; Tears trickled down. (#58.2)#58.2s speaker yearns for her fiances

30、 return. Regardless exactly what “Return to Gate復關” meanswhether its his name(?!), a place-name (!?), or simply what she longs forthe upward stimulus of that precarious wall and her low-spirited response outline a deft antimetaboleexpectations thwarted.6 Sometimes relations between “arousal” and res

31、ponse remain mysterious, e.g., #160: *Wolf-cub treads on his dewlap, Then trips on his own tail; Lordling tall and plump, Red sandals thump and thud. Wolf-cub trips on his own tail, Then treads on his dewlap; Lordling tall and plump, His fine reputation flawless.#160s two stanzas invert their 興incit

32、ation, creating a “topsy-turvy” structural counterchange. How does this upside-down figure relate to #160s portly hero? On the surface, our speaker calls his reputation “flawless.” But by juxtaposing his sandaled feet with clumsy canid paws #160 makes you wonder if it hasnt “inverted” praise, too; a

33、lthough Maos Commentary, typically, called this a paean, you might well wonder if it doesnt damn by incitation (cf. Zuo Xuan 4). As these arousals demonstrate, correlations and interrelations between the natural surround 天and the human realm 人 even if they did form two realms rather than larger and

34、smaller domains within one realmremain a paramount Chinese concern.7 Nearly every Song embodies this relation; certainly every stimulus-response figure examined above does. 天人interactions occur ubiquitously, so we explore less-known interactions from the Court Songs and Hymns. The Greater Court Song

35、s begin by apotheosizing a king (#235.1):*King Wen rests on High; How he shines up in Heaven! Zhou, though an ancient state, has had its mandate renewed. He of the Zhouhow resplendent: Gods Mandatehow fine! King Wen rises and descends, Staying by Gods left or right.8 Cf. #242: draft.On the other han

36、d, a kings pleasure jaunt may seem to yield a “purely natural” counterchange, as in 252.9* Phoenixes singingOn that high ridge. Paulownia trees growingOn that dawn sunslope. Burgeoning densely, lush and luxuriant; In consonant concord, sweetly harmonious.Only when stanzas done do we realize that com

37、mutated phoenixes and paulownia trees symbolize sagely advisors, implicit frame for its “natural” criss-cross. Compare this singular passage, whose double chiasmus inverts usual興應“arousal” sequence to remind how human and natural interpenetrate even in unlikely settingslike at work: *Dawn and dark w

38、e stay at the office, Stay at the office burning lights: Upward soar those egrets, Egrets drifting on down (#298.1)A powerful and unexpected avian “arousal”bright birds against a dark sky?provides a delightful correlative complement that doubles the bureaucrats own chiasmus. Largely on the strength

39、of this twin counterchange the egret became Chinas stock symbol for minor officials. Chiasmus, by contrast, also dramatizes adversative relations. Perhaps the Songs feistiest boy-girl conflict involves a young lady who claims her fiances inadequate and wrongheaded, in 17.2: *Who says you have no fam

40、ily? How could you press this case? But though you press this case, Your familys not enough!Stanza 3 runs parallel; in each verse she compares his “attack” to a bird or rat boring a hole in her own house, then clobbers him with chiasmus. She ends stanza 3 resoundingly: But though your press this law

41、suit, Ill never follow you!#17 challenges readers: do we read her defiance as earnest defense, or as teasing badinage? Its evidence does not allow certainty; for now we concur with an earlier judgment that #17 may offer a particularly witty example of pre-nuptial sparring.9 See Women and Old Chinese

42、 Poetry:6, citing Marcel Granet. If so, its deft deployment of chiasmus proves a powerful weapon. For different chiastic conflict, consider battle poems like #168, which includes this rhetorical climax10 For many chiastic conflicts, see the Royal Courtsongs “dirty decad,” poems about battle, and the

43、 Greater Courtsong protests (esp. 254.3, 256.11, 257.14see database). Among battle poems, consider also #177 and #156database.:*Kings businessmuch trouble; No chance to rest in peace. How could we not yearn for home? We fear His bamboo writs! (#168.4)Counterchange intensifies this officers conflict

44、between fearsome kingly duties and the siren song of peace at home; pivotal negatives add a layer of valence chiasmus. Typically, Songs warriors fight reluctantly. Though Michael Puett has recently argued for a cult of “agonism” in early Zhou 天人relations11 Puett 2002, passim., Songs dont celebrate p

45、eople fighting against gods and heavens. Instead, when heaven disappoints dreadfully, people protest like this (#258.1):* Heaven flings down death and disorder; Famine and dearth doubly befall. No spirit we havent offered up to, No sparing our sacrificial kine. Jade tablets and disks we have used al

46、l upHow can Heaven not heed us!?Here we find desperation and indignation, but no “agonism.” People shake their heads and fists and say (#191.5-6):* High Heavens insentient You no-good High Heaven!But, as Qian Zhongshu chiastically remarks, people “who rankle against heaven, curse it, and question it

47、 still believe in (a benevolent) heaven; if they no longer believed in (such a) Heaven, they wouldnt bother to rankle, curse, and so on.”12 Qian Zhongshu 1.144. Now consider this pivotal apostrophe from #200.5, as strong a jeremiad as you can find in Songs:*Those high-horsey ones so smugly pleased;

48、Our toiling folk so woebegone. Blue heavens! Blue heavens! Observe those high-horsey ones, Pity our toiling folk!Even desperate Songs cannot help but conceive 天as fulcrum for human relations, no matter how that pivot wobbles. Chiasmi that describe transgressions or protest against sins of commission

49、過 proceed similarly, as in #256.3:*Youve turned your virtue upside-down, Besotting yourself in brew; You just soak yourself with gusto; Letting go, you fail to recall your heritage, Fail to hearken after your ancestor kings! (cf. #254.4)Chiasmus beautifully suits a “fall from virtue” motif, here viv

50、idly embodied in the drunkards deep tankards.13 Cf. similar #101, #264.,1 and exuberant #76draft. Chiasmus frequently figures moral and other disorders in “topsy-turvy” 顛倒tropes. These epitomize counterchanges ability to embody see-saw downside-up changes, as in #100.1-2: *In the East, still not lig

51、ht, topsy-turvy gown and skirt; Wear em up, wear em down: Summons from the office. In the East, still not light, topsy-turvy skirt and gown; Wear em down, wear em up: Orders from the office.This classic aubade depicts a frantic furtive lover pulling on his clothes willy-nilly as he tries to escape d

52、etection. Chiasmus beautifully underscores an ungainliness as comical as his untimeliness. We remark in passing that at least 18 Songs invert an “a-b” line in a subsequent stanza to change rhyme.14 For memorable examples, see #18,24,184, etc. For a more serious顛倒, consider #193.3: *High bluff turned

53、 to gully, Deep gully turned into ridge.#193 limns devastation from an earthquake and landslides, which it links with human misgovernment, as in stanza 2:*Sun & moon announce ill omen, They dont use their Paths. The 4 realms, misgoverned, Dont use men of honor. For Moon to eclipse: thats common;

54、 For Sun to eclipse: How bad things have gotten!15 Cf. 193.1, which opens with a double sun-moon topsy-turvy passage prefiguring #193s catalogue of hypallage. The ten “Deviant Royal Odes” highlight hypallage; #195 includes 3 “topsy-turvy” indictments involving policy disputes: *When plans are good y

55、ou wont follow them, When theyre no good, you turn and use them! (195.1)16 Cf. #195.2,195.5, etc.database. Valence counterchanges sharpen our speakers assault. Negations enhance chiastic inversion; this climax from a song indicting drunkards provides a vivid example (#220.4):* Those drunkardsno good

56、; Non-drunks contrarily反they deem shameful!17 For more vivid valenced counterchanges, see particularly #35.5, 119, 183, 192.10, 195.5, 241.5, etc. Chiasmus proves ideal for embodying betrayals, turnabouts, and reversals 反 of all kinds. Romantic betrayals provide our richest source for Songs reversio

57、n; aside from passages like #58.6 above, add this disaffected outsider (perhaps a bride) who throughout #187 counterchanges abuse with this refrain:* With folk of this land, One may not dwell! Then turn back! Then go home! Back to my own kinfolk.Her indictment charges that the people of this strange

58、 land have failed to reciprocate, have mistreated her and so reneged on a social contract that allows her an “escape clause,” figured by chiastic reversal. Chinese literature will soon witness the establishment and hegemony of a correlative ideology. Even at this early stage, however, you glimpse moments when the central value placed on reciprocal relations suggests that paired opposites engender and rely on each otheras Chinese say: 相反相成. Chias