Better Than Starbucks!

PREFACE ( in unrhymed prose)

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1. Each time I study the works of great writers, I flatter myself I know how their minds worked.

2. Certainly expression in language and the charging of words with meaning can be done in various ways.

3. Nevertheless we may speak of beauty and ugliness, of good and bad [in each literary work].

4. Whenever I write myself, I obtain greater and greater insight. 

5. Our constant worry is that our ideas may not equal their objects and our style may fall short of our ideas.

6. The difficulty, then, lies not so much in knowing as in doing.

7. I have written this rhymeprose on literature to expatiate on the consummate artistry of writers of the past and to set forth the whence and why of good and bad writings as well.

8. May it be considered, someday, an exhaustive treatment.

9. Now, it is true, I am hewing an ax handle with an ax handle in my hand: the pattern is not far to seek. However, the conjuring hand of the artist being what it is, I cannot possibly make my words do the trick.

10. Nevertheless, what I am able to say, I have put down here.

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TEXT

 

A.  PREPARATION

1. Taking his position at the hub of things, [the writer] contemplates the mystery of the universe; he feeds his emotions and his mind on the great works of the past.

2. Moving along with the four seasons, he sighs at the passing of time; gazing at the myriad objects, he thinks of the complexity of the world.

3. He sorrows over the falling leaves in virile autumn; he takes joy in the delicate bud of fragrant spring.

4. With awe at heart, he experiences chill; his spirit solemn, he turns his gaze to the clouds.

5. He declaims the subperb works of his predecessors; he croons the clean fragrance of past worthies.

6. He roams in the Forest of Literature, and praises the symmetry of great art.

7. Moved, he pushes his books away and takes the writing-brush, that he may express himself in letters.

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B. PROCESS

8. At first he withholds his sight and turns his hearing inward; he is lost in thought, questioning everywhere.

9. His spirit gallops to the eight ends of the universe; his mind wanders along vast distances.

10. In the end, as his mood dawns clearer and clearer, objects, clean-cut now in outline, shove one another forward.

11. He sips the essence of letters; he rinses his mouth with the extract of the Six Arts.

12. Floating on the heavenly lake, he swims long; plunging into the nether spring, he immerses himself.

13. Thereupon, submerged words wriggle up, as when a darting fish, with the hook in its gills, leaps from a deep lake; floating beauties flutter down, as when a high-flying bird, with the harpoon-string around its wings, drops from a crest of cloud.

14. He gathers words never used in a hundred generations; he picks rhythms never sung in a thousand years.

15. He spurns the morning blossom, now full blown; he plucks the evening bud, which has yet to open.

16. He sees past and present in a moment; he touches the four seas in the twinkling of an eye.

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C. WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

17. Now he selects ideas and fixes them in their order; he examines words and puts them in their places.

18. He taps at the door of all that is colorful; he chooses from among everything that rings.

19. Now he shakes the foliage by tugging the twig; now he follows back along the waves to the fountainhead of the stream.

20. Sometimes he brings out what was hidden; sometimes, looking for an easy prey, he bags a hard one.

21. Now, the tiger puts on new stripes, to the consternation of other beasts; now, the dragon emerges, and terrifies all the birds.

22. Sometimes things fit together, are easy to manage; sometimes they jar each other, are awkward to manipulate.

23. He empties his mind completely, to concentrate his thoughts; he collects his wits before he puts words together.

24. He traps heaven and earth in the cage of form; he crushes the myriad objects against the tip of his brush.

25. At first they hesitate upon his parched lips; finally they flow through the well-moistened brush.

26. Reason, supporting the matter [ of the poem], stiffens the trunk; style, depending from it, spreads luxuriance around.

27. Emotion and expression never disagree: all changes [in his mood] are betrayed on his face.

28. If the thought touches on joy, a smile is inevitable; no sooner is sorrow spoken of than a sigh escapes.

29. Sometimes words flow easily as soon as he grasps the brush; sometimes he sits vacantly, nibbling at it.

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D. VIRTUE

30. There is joy in this vocation; all sages esteem it.

31. We [poets] struggle with Non-being to force it to yield Being; we knock upon Silence for an answering Music.

32. We enclose boundless space in a square foot of paper; we pour out a deluge from the inch-space of the heart.

33. Language spreads wider and wider; thought probes deeper and deeper.

34. The fragrance of delicious flowers is diffused; exuberant profusion of green twigs is budding.

35. A laughing wind will fly and whirl upward; dense clouds will arise from the Forest of Writing Brushes.

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E. DIVERSITY

(i) The Poet's Aim

36. Forms vary in a thousand ways; objects are not of one measure.

37. Topsy-turvy and fleeting, shapes are hard to delineate.

38. Words vie with words for display, but it is mind that controls them.

39. Confronted with bringing something into being or leaving it unsaid, he grons; between the shallow and the deep he makes his choice resolutely.

40. He may depart from the square and deviate from the compasses; for he is bent on exploring the shape and exhausting the reality.

41. Hence, he who would dazzle the eyes makes much of the gorgeous; he who intends to convince the mind values cogency.

42. If persuasion is your aim, do not be a stickler for details; when your discourse is lofty, you may be free and easy in your language.

(ii)  Genres

43. Shih (lyric poetry) traces emotions daintily; Fu (rhymeprose) embodies objects brightly.

44. Pei (epitaph) balances substance with style; Lei (dirge) is tense and mournful.

45. Ming (inscription) is comprehensive and concise, gentle and generous; Chen (admonition), which praises and blames, is clear-cut and vigorous.

46. Sung (eulogy) is free and easy, rich and lush; Lun (disquisition) is rarified and subtle, bright and smooth.

47. Tsou (memorial to the throne) is quiet and penetrating, genteel and decorous; Shuo (discourse) is dazzling bright and extravagantly bizarre.

48. Different as these forms are, they all forbid deviation from the straight, and interdict unbridled license. 

49. Essentially, words must communicate, and reason must dominate; prolixity and long-windedness are not commendable.

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F. MULTIPLE ASPECTS

50. As an object, literature puts on numerous shapes; as a form, it undergoes diverse changes.

51. Ideas should be cleverly brought together; language should be beautifully commissioned.

52. And the mutation of sounds and tones should be like the five colors of embroidery sustaining each other.

53. It is true that your moods, which come and go without notice, embarrass you b y their fickleness,

54. But if you can rise to all emergencies and know the correct order, it will be like opening a channel from a spring of water.

55. If, however, you have missed the chance and reach the sense b elatedly, you will be putting the tail at the head.

56. The sequence of dark and yellow being deranged, the whole broidery will look smudged and blurred.

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G. REVISION

57. Now you glance back and are constrained by an earlier passage; now you look forward and are coerced by some anticipated line.

58. Sometimes your words jar though your reasoning is sound, sometimes your language is smooth while your ideas make trouble;

59. Such collisions avoided, neither suffers; forced together, both suffer.

60. Weight merit or demerit by the milligram; decide rejection or retention by a hairbreath.

61. If your idea or word has not the correct weight, it has to go, however comely it may look.

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H. KEY PASSAGES

62. Maybe your language is already ample and your reasoning rich, yet your ideas do not round out.

63. If what must go on cannot be ended, what has been said in full cannot be added to.

64. Put down terse phrases here and there at key positions; they will invigorate the entire piece.

65. Your words will acquire their proper values in the light of these phrases.

66. This clever trick will spare you the pain of deleting and excising.

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I. FLAGIARISM

67. It may be that language and thought blend into damascened gauze -- fresh, gay, and exuberantly lush;

68. Glowing like many-colored broidery, mournful as multiple chords; 

69. But assuredly there is nothing novel in my writing, if it coincides with earlier masterpieces.

70. True, the arrow struck my heart; what a pity, then, that others were struck before me.

71. As plagiarism will impair my integrity and damage my probity, I must renounce the piece, however fond I am of it.

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J. PURPLE PATCHES

72. It may be that one ear of the stalk buds, its tip standing prominent, solitary and exquisite.

73. But shadows cannot be caught; echoes are hard to bind.

74. Standing forlorn, your purple passage juts out conspicuously; it can't be woven into ordinary music.

75. Your mind, out of step, finds no mate of it; your ideas, wandering hither and thither, refuse to throw away that solitary passage.

76. When the rock embeds jade, the mountain glows; when the stream is impregnated with pearls, the river becomes alluring.

77. When the hazel and arrow-thorn bush is spared from the sickle, it will glory in its foliage.

78. We will weave the market ditty into the classical melody; perhaps we may thus rescue what is beautiful.

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K. FIVE IMPERFECTIONS

(i) In Vacuo

79. Maybe you have entrusted your diction to an anemic rhythm; living in a desert, you have only yourself to talk to.

80. When you look down into Silence, you see no friend; when you lift your gaze to space, you hear no echo.

81. It is like striking a single chord - it rings out, but there is no music.

(ii) Discord

82.Maybe you fit your words to a frazzled music; merely gaudy, your language lacks charm.

83. As beauty and ugliness are commingled, your good stuff suffers.

84. It is like the harsh note of a wind instrument below in the courtyard; there is music, but no harmony.

(iii) Novelty for Novelty's Sake

85. Maybe you forsake reason and strive for the bizarre; you are merely searching for inanity and pursuing the trivial.

86. Your language lacks sincerity and is poor in love; your words wash back and forth and never come to the point.

87. They are like a thin chord violently twanging - there is harmony, but it is not sad.

(iv) License

88. Maybe by galloping unbridled, you make your writing sound well; by using luscious tunes, you make it alluring.

89. Merely pleasing to the eye, it mates with vulgarity - a fine voice, but a nondescript song.

90. It reminds one of Fanglu and Sang-chien, - it is sad, but not decorous.

(v) Insipidity

91. Or pershaps your writing is simple and terse, all superfluities removed--

92. So much so that it lacks even the lingering flavor of a sacrificial broth; it rather resembles the limpid tune of the 'ver-milion chord'

93. "One man sings, and three men do the refrain"; it is decorous, but it lacks beauty.

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L. VARIABILITY

94. As to whether your work should be loose or constricted, whether you should mould it by gazing down or looking up,

95. You will accommodate necessary variation, if you would bring out all the overtones.

96. Maybe your language is simple, whereas your conceits are clever; maybe your reasoning is plain, but your words fall too lightly.

97. Maybe you follow the beaten track to attain greater novelty; maybe you immerse yourself in the muddy water - to reach true limpidity.

98. Well, perspicacity may come after closer inspection; subtlety may ensue from more polishing.

99. It is like dancers flinging their sleeves in harmony with the beat or singers throwing their voices in tune with the chord.

100. All this is what the wheelwright P'ien despaired of ever explaining; it certainly is not what mere language can describe.

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