Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge by Wai-yee Li

Author:Wai-yee Li
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

YOU TONG, “ON THE MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS OF THE PLANK BRIDGE”

Yu Huai showed me The Miscellaneous Records of the Plank Bridge, which he authored, so that I could write a preface for it. I took the time to read it and find it to be of the same ilk as Accounts of the Northern Ward and Records of Pingkang Lane.395 The mist and flowers of Southland are palpably within purview—those who saw them were without exception filled with envy and longing. But before a hundred years passed, beauties had turned into dust. Looking back at the splendor of dreams, how can one not be overcome with melancholy? Someone said, “When Yu Huai was young, he was close to being a heartless lover in the pleasure quarters. As he grows older he delights in writing—his interest in that has not abated at all. But you, sir, have at this point cleansed your heart in order to learn the Way. Why would you keep such a thing on your desk?”396 I smiled and said, “In the old days Cheng Hao had courtesans in front of his eyes but had no courtesans in his heart, and Cheng Yi had no courtesans in front of his eyes but had courtesans in his heart: on this basis we determine the merits and flaws of the Cheng brothers. Now Yu Huai has courtesans on paper, but You Tong has in any case no courtesans under his brush.397 What harm is it to write a preface?” (YH 2:439).

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