The Chinese Literary Canon : Exploring 3000 Years of History and Culture by Yu Quiyu

Author:Yu Quiyu [Quiyu, Yu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

In the Garden Far Away

Culture is a complex phenomenon. At any given time, there are multiple levels in simultaneous development. This makes it much more difficult to evaluate than any other human activity.

Take our efforts to compare the cultural excellence of Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang, for example. How much easier it is to determine their relative levels of military skill: Just look at who won and who lost, but, with their markedly different cultural styles, it is very difficult to find a single scale on which we can compare their literary achievements. However, we can at least see that these two are closer to each other than they are to the men of letters in the subsequent Wei and Jin Dynasties, with their chatter, their drinking, their fascination with potions and forging iron. It is worth imagining what would have happened if Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang had lived a few years longer. They would certainly have been bemused by the gossiping of the next generation of writers, and I rather think that both these old rivals might have cast a sidelong glance and a shrug at each other. Old soldiers are the same: Faced with the rock music of their grandchildren, they suddenly find common ground with the very men they fought against.

If we cast our net of comparison a little wider still, we may yet find Cao and Zhuge making common cause with the writers of the Wei and Jin. At the very least, all of them knew what it was to be a man of importance. They all knew how to stand up for their beliefs. They were all sociable, and worked with others. Our next object of comparison was the complete opposite: He despised fame, aspired to relinquish all beliefs in favor of Daoist inaction, and lived a solitary life. He was Tao Yuanming.

So we have a sequence of writerly personas before us:

Type one: the righteous hero

Type two: the playful rebel

Type three: the detached observer

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