I realized recently that once again I've gotten myself to a position of ignoring Chinese language texts. There's just so much to read, the hardest texts are the easiest to put off. I think the way to correct this problem is to remember that reading Chinese is actually quite fun. Slower than reading English, of course, but still fun.
Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, "In Sacrifice For Myself" 自祭文
'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free
In his eulogy for himself, Tao Qian expresses contentment with his removal from the world. But if he was really happy to be removed from the world, he would not have needed to express himself in this public way, with a strong level of literary self-consciousness. Reading this piece, I'm really struck by this tension, and reminded that the concern with how far removed a good intellectual should be remains a major concern in Chinese literature.
Before, and just after, I die.
The term "a traveller's inn" 旅之館 is a symbol Tao applies to his place on earth, in contrast to his "original home" which in death he will return to; Yang Jiang uses a very similar term meaning "inn" in We Three to describe her home after her daughter and husband have died. I'm thinking there's a point about timing to make here: imagining himself to be just before death, Tao Qian aims to create the environment necessary to think about Death, Life...big issues. But just after that, imagining himself to have just died, he imagines how his friends mourn him: "They offered up fine vegetables, and they hand each other clear ale." I think maybe the modern reader does not take seriously the obvious self-consolation that comes when you imagine being mourned by others. The level of material detail -- having drinks as they weep for the author -- perhaps risks making the reader consider Tao to be overly self-centered.
Tension: I am different from the others who act greedily
I'll have to direct students' attention to these points where I think Tao is maybe coming off as overly self-centered, but I'd like to do so in a way that avoids making students think there is a simple character flaw in Tao Qian here. Better, there is a paradox that will travel with us as we proceed in the course. Within this very poem, we'll probably run into some difficulty trying to connect the hope that his friends will mourn him with the broader political criticism "Being a court favorite is no honor to me/ How could the mud blacken me" 寵非己榮，/涅豈吾緇. First of all, isn't this statement of his ideal of non-participation in politics itself a major political position? How outside of the world of "court favorites" is Tao Qian, really? What is the main difference between a 寵 and a 良友? Further, how can he expect his friends to admire him if he is criticizing the basis for their own careers? When a line like 孰重後歌 "Why emphasize post-mortem songs" is itself embedded in a "post-mortem song," did any readers of the ancient world see the irony of this? Joe sort of thought this piece was "humorous," and certainly humor factors in "The Biography of the Master of Five Willows," but I have a feeling the sacrifice piece is much more an earnest attempt to fashion an attractive figure with just the right amount of removal from society, and not more.
Just Friends and Family -- no rulers, please
Miscellaneous other task to teach the kids: point out Tao's use of literary allusion. I particularly like the couplet:
奢恥宋臣 Luxury shamed Song Chen
儉笑王孫 Frugality earned mocking for Wang Sun
After going into the details and paradox of this allusion I feel like asking the students to compose some similar allusive couplet. You know, like:
Sadly timid was the Night Owl
Deathly confident was the Comedian
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