What Protected Early Chinese Poetry from Socratic Criticism?

Photo “A Myriad of Books” by Zhang Cheng

by Zhang Lanyue (Alice)

In The Republic, Socrates famously criticised the role and function of poetry in a just and ideal city and concluded that he “acted properly” when he gave it the sentence of exile (Plato 607b). However, around the same time as Socrates, in ancient China, the native counterpart of poetry, shi (詩), did not face a similar start during this sprouting period of literary criticism. Instead, these short Chinese verses that originated with music were held in high regard both by Confucius as an essential multi-purpose textbook, and by the “Great Preface,” the most authoritative statement on shi in traditional China since the Han Dynasty (Owen 37), as what reflected the governance and moral status of the time. Naturally, this distinct contrast brings out the question of what caused such differences. What protected early Chinese poetry, or shi, from Socrates’ criticisms and the sentence of exile?

Socrates criticized poetry from mainly three aspects: 1) misrepresentation of gods, 2) lack of truth and knowledge, and 3) corruption of the reasoning mind. He accused all poets of lying as the tales they told included unjust and evil deeds done by gods; a straightforward falsity in a religious context for it directly contradicts the very conception of a god, who is good and “the author only of good things” (Plato 380c). Thus, accepting poetry, which at the time was considered stories of the past, already poses negative influences on one’s capacity to distinguish reality and unreality (382b). Socrates went on to argue that poetry is thrice removed from the truth and contains no knowledge (597e). For he believed that poetry only imitates the appearances of the living world, a world that only consists of replicas of the transcendental, incomprehensible truth. He also believed that these illusions only appeal to emotions and desires, the irrational and inferior part of the mind (605a). It arouses strong emotional responses such as fear, sorrow and pity and impulsive desires like passion and love. Being surrounded by poetry corrupts the superior and rational part of the mind, only leading to a more miserable life.

The reason why shi did not receive such criticism has at least two layers. On the one hand, shi has distinct characteristics that differentiate itself from being the complete equivalence of poetry. The content of shi, its non-narrative nature and how the images connect to the mind diminish its potential to represent any figure, divine or mortal. On the other hand, such characteristics, combined with other historical and cultural factors, determined how shi was regarded by the earliest social elites, thinkers, and literati who existed even before the emergence of literary criticism, whose view on shi constituted the very basis of its status in the Chinese literary tradition. Shi came into being without much emphasis on its nature, meaning or values, then it was used as educational materials by the Confucians who first viewed it as a text worth analysis, and its emotional effects were recognised as appropriate and beneficial. In this sense, all three aspects of Socrates’ criticism already did not apply when shi became the foundation of the traditional Chinese literary tradition.

Shi and its Characteristics

Similar to how the concept of poetry has changed from epics, dramas and lyrics in the ancient Greek context to what we understand today as a subcategory of literature, shi has gone through similar semantic developments over time, such as adopting the role as the Chinese translation for “poetry” in the face of western influences. Even though these changes in concepts and the growth of related literary traditions can all be traced back to the original meaning and the earliest perceptions that are based on such meaning, for the sake of clarity and the purpose of this essay, hereon, the definition of shi will be limited to solely its initial form, i.e., the Book of Songs (shi jing 詩經), the earliest anonymous Chinese poetry collection and the foundation of traditional Chinese poetics.

From the start, the first point of Socrates’ criticism does not apply to shi as shi does not involve any representation or depiction of deities. The “Great Preface” describes the nature of the three sections of shi: the first section feng (風) records the affairs and social climate of a state and is connected to the experience of individuals; the second section ya (雅) talks about the affairs of the whole world (according to the recognition of the people at the time) and common customs; the last sections song (頌) praises the manifestation of full virtue and communicates these great deeds to the divine (Owen 48-49). There is no involvement of gods in the first two sections which are about the affairs and customs across the world in ancient Chinese’s eyes as their focus is on the earthly. In the only exception song, there is the existence of a non-anthropomorphous and mostly non-anthropomorphic god Heaven (tian 天), which inherently would have required a different system of representation compared to the much personified ancient Greek gods and their very active and involved presence in the epics. However, Heaven is never the direct object of praise in song. Instead, those hymns chant about the first kings’ virtues and the flourishing of the state under their reigns, only mentioning that their legitimacy is from Heaven (for example, see “Shi mai” 時邁 and “Chang fa” 長發). This divine presence only plays the role of appointing the first kings and beginning their legacy. It is the first and supposedly great kings whose names and deeds song praises.

But that alone does not guarantee that shi is completely free from being criticized as misrepresenting, for it could still be misrepresenting mortal figures like the past kings and nobilities, which is also condemning in the feudalist society of the time that practices ancestor worship. Shi’s potential associations with the idea of it representing any specific figures are further severed by other characteristics. First of all, compared to epics and dramas, shi is generally non-narrative. “Shi articulates what is on the mind (zhi 志),” thus stated in the Book of Documents (Shang shu 尚書), records of words of kings and important ministers of the ancient past. It is the canonical statement on the nature of shi, almost as authoritative as if God had defined poetry in Genesis (Owen 26, 27). Shi is the manifestation of zhi; it is not a product of imitation made by a poet, nor tales about the ancient past. Zhi is a state of mind, a relation to certain things, occurrences, or possibilities in the physical world (Owen 28). It is often stirred by the encounter with an object or sight, hence many poems in shi begin with a description of natural phenomena. Zhi is involuntary in the sense that it is not under the control of one’s will (Owen 27), thus shi, the articulation of it is devoid of the same potential for artistic deliberation and narration that are essential for building a representation of a certain figure.

There is also no definitive mapping between images and their meanings in shi, which is shown in the three “modes of presentation” (Owen 45): fu (賦), bi (比), and xing (興). Fu is any unfigured sequence that directly expresses and explains zhi; bi indicates the images that play the role of metaphors and similes; xing refers to the image that stirs a kind of mood, or rather, zhi (Owen 46). The existence of any images in shi is associated with the articulation of zhi; moreover, the relationship between images and what they could indicate or evoke is not definitive nor specific. The objects described in the poems and the human situations they express are viewed as “belonging to the same category of events” (Yu 399). An image of the physical world can be compared to or naturally awaken any state of mind. Nevertheless, what kind of zhi it is trying to stir is not a consensus shared by the poet and the reader. Those links are not created or manufactured by anyone’s will (Yu 399). Thus, the images in shi essentially lack representational power, they only serve as something that speaks to the mind.

How Shi Is Regarded

The origins of shi started with court music. It was first collected and edited by the ministers of music as a part of the rites and music system (liyue zhidu 禮樂制度) in the Zhou Dynasty that helped maintain social order, emotional bonds and harmony (Hong 1). This initial role as the verses for ritualistic music in court already separated the poems themselves from the contexts and intentions behind their creation to an extent, transforming them into a relatively more neutral and flexible medium that served the zhi of who uses them, rather than of who created them.

From the records in Zuo zhuan (左傳), during the late Zhou Dynasty when both feudalism and the rites and music system were collapsing, shi had become independent from music and developed into a social language and diplomatic discourse among the ruling class and social elites through the form of quoting (Hong 49). “Unless you study the Odes [shi] you will be ill-equipped to speak” (Lau Confucius 16.13). Excerpts from shi were so frequently quoted without contexts as a vessel to express the mind of the speakers to the point that to communicate without shi would be viewed as some sort of social deficit among the higher classes. What it indicates is that around this seedling period of traditional Chinese poetics, any original values and meanings carried by shi itself were not of great concern, if any at all. What mattered was the literal meaning of each line and, more importantly, how it could be connected to the zhi of the speaker. When the verses became the shi we recognize, they already did not involve any concerns for truth and knowledge or its influences on people, for it was generally regarded as a tool and medium to articulate the zhi of the speaker. In that sense, shi was already free from the more epistemological aspect of Socrates’ criticism before traditional Chinese poetics even began to emerge.

Then came the earliest Confucians who first started to regard shi as a text worth analysis on its own and set the major tone for classical Chinese literary traditions. Similar to Socrates, the Confucians acknowledged the emotional and irrational impacts of shi, but to them, it was not worthless or damaging to one’s rationality. Confucius commented on the first poem of shi, “Guan ju” (關雎) and called the emotions it expressed “joy without wantonness, and sorrow without self-injury” (Lau Confucius 3.20). The potential negative and destructive effects emotions and desires have on people were also recognized by Confucius, yet poems like “Guan ju” were deemed as only expressing moderate and appropriate emotions, which then instead were beneficial for cultivating good morality and virtues, hence also why shi as a whole to him never “swerving from the right path” (Lau Confucius 2.3).

To the Confucians, the stirring of emotions and desires intertwined deeply with the sprouting and cultivation of compassion. When asked about how to govern like a true king, Mencius suggested the king try and understand the needs of his people by generalizing his own fondness for materials and desires to them (Lau Mencius 1B5). The seed of benevolence lies within the very universal feelings of compassion, as basic as not being able to bear witness to the suffering of an infant (Lau Mencius 2A6). Emotions and desires are the original, natural motivations for a person to genuinely empathize with and care about others, and such actions are the core of a benevolent man and a humane king. The emotional effects shi has on people were not seen as corruptive and did not face similar accusations raised by Socrates; instead, it even gained some educational values because of such effects as it can serve as a natural guidance to cultivate better qualities.

Thus, from a Confucian perspective, emotions and desires do not innately contradict the concept of a better man; they are the soil for virtues, which requires proper guidance through education which shi is an important part of. One must be stimulated by shi, and then learn and perfect themselves through rites and music (Lau Confucius 8.8). To Confucius, aside from xing, shi can also “show one’s breeding, to smooth over difficulties in a group and to give expression to complaints”; it can serve the fathers and the lords and teach a wide knowledge about the living world (Lau Confucius 17.9). It is an educational material that can help cultivate virtues, practice social and diplomatic skills, and learn about the literary (Hong 70). Mencius frequently referenced shi to advise and educate the kings on the Confucian and humane way of ruling as shi praised the past deeds of virtuous lords and conveyed knowledge about benevolence. Verses describing the influences of setting a good example communicate the compassionate methodology of governance: “to take this very heart here and apply it to what is over there” (Lau Mencius 1A7). Lines praising the virtues of ancient kings by depicting universal submission represent the idea that people will submit willingly and sincerely to the influence of morality, but not to force (Lau Mencius 2A3). Just like this, justified by the good old days, the harmonious reigns of virtuous kings of the past, shi became a textbook about the correct paths and virtues valued by early Confucians. When such a tradition passed down to the Western Han Dynasty, the government appointed shi to be one of the official subjects with scholars and officials dedicated to the study of shi. Around the period, the “Great Preface” established its values and purposes in traditional Chinese poetics and became the starting point for every student of shi from Eastern Han to Song Dynasty (Owen 37). By the time when the foundation of traditional Chinese poetics was built around shi, it already played an essential role in social, moral, and public education through its expression of moderate emotions and desires as well as virtues from the ancient past. Such an understanding and application of shi also protect it from similar criticism of lacking knowledge or containing destructive emotional effects.

Conclusion

Many internal and external factors played into why shi did not face the similar criticism that poetry faced in its earliest period before its initial status was established in the respective literary traditions. It is not a question that can be comprehensively answered in one single essay. Many related questions are worthy of further explorations to better explain this interesting phenomenon between the two literary traditions, such as why shi did not take the form of narrative poetry that is commonly found in many oral traditions like the ancient Greek epics, why the court would want to collect them for rituals, why no one before Mencius thought about the zhi of the unknown authors, etc. Each section of the final complex explanation should hopefully present itself in the clear form of causes and effects, but the chain between certain aspects might as well be arbitrary, just happened to be the way it is, and the relevant questions might never be answered.

Nevertheless, the fact that shi is distinctively different from poetry contributes to the drastically different roles they played in the earliest social and political life of each culture. The characteristics of shi and how it was regarded originally interact with each other; both helped protect shi from criticisms similar to what was raised by Socrates around the time it became an object of study, influencing how it would develop after the foundation of a literary tradition was established.

Works Cited

Hong, Zhanhou 洪湛侯. Shi Jing Xue Shi 詩經學史 [The history of the study of shi jing]. Zhonghua Shu Ju, 2002.

Lau, D.C., translator. Confucius: The Analects. Paperback bilingual edition ed., Chinese
University Press, 2002.

—. Mencius. Revised and bilingual edition ed., Chinese University Press, 2003.

Owen, Stephen, editor. Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. Harvard University Press, 1992.

Plato. The Republic. Translated by Richard W. Sterling and William C. Scott, Norton, 1985.

Yu, Pauline R. “Allegory, Allegoresis, and The Classic of Poetry.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 43, no. 2, 1983, pp. 377–412. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2719105.