Rediscovering Ying Qu and His Poetic Relationship to Tao Qian (clik ...

Ying Qu and His Poetic Relationship to Tao Qian 63
揚 雄 “Zhupin fu” 逐 貧 賦 and Cai Yong’s “Jiu wei” 九 惟 .95 As far as I
know, Ying Qu is the first to write extensively on poverty, as witnessed
in these letters.
It was only some ten to twenty years after Ying Qu’s death that appropriating
earlier gestures and stances to describe one’s own impoverishment
became widespread among poets. Like Ying Qu, Jin writers
borrowed many tropes of the impoverished gentleman from earlier
texts (for instance the Lunyu and the Han shu); as with Ying Qu, these
writers alluded to poverty but not necessarily as accurate reflections of
their own lives. The two extant Western Jin poems on living an impoverished
life are by Jiang You 江 逌 and Zhang Wang 張 望 , who once
served as lower ranking officials, with positions similar to that held by
Tao Qian. Jiang You wrote a “Yongpin shi” (On poverty) that depicts
the familiar abode of the poor: “The thatched gate does not open, /
The surrounding walls are covered with weeds and foliage. / A ladle
lies turned against the wall, / While dust collects in the rice bin” 蓽 門
不 啟 扉 , 環 堵 蒙 蒿 榛 . 空 瓢 覆 壁 下 , 簞 上 自 生 塵 .96 These lines display
the attri butes of the impoverished gentleman (the unused ladle and the
bin gathering dust) that Ying Qu mentioned in his letters. The images
also appear later in Tao Qian’s poetry: the thatched gate that shuts out
un invited visitors, the natural growth surrounding his house, and the
empty rice bin.97
Zhang Wang, a near contemporary of Jiang You and an administrator
under General Huan Wen 桓 溫 (canjun 參 軍 , a position comparable
to one held by Tao Qian), likewise wrote a “Pinshi shi” (Poem
on the impoverished gentleman). His poem shares many of the tropes
on poverty seen in Ying Qu’s letter to Cao Changsi. Where Ying says of
his quiet life in retirement, “there are no tracks of carriages outside my
gate” and “no curious students in my hall,” Zhang Wang writes: “Few
traces are there of human beings in this abandoned village, / Secluded
and distant, from the neighbors far removed. / [My] rush fences crumbling
/ While I am inside the dilapidated rooms it is open and vast,
bare and empty” 荒 墟 人 迹 稀 , 隱 僻 閭 鄰 闊 . 葦 籬 自 朽 損 , 毀 屋 正 寥
95
Both are included in Yiwen leiju, 35.29b–31a, 33a.
96
Yiwen leiju, 35.29a.
97
See Lu Qinli, 2:991; 978, 991, 1010; 980, respectively.