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

Ying Qu and His Poetic Relationship to Tao Qian 39
However, no explicit disagreement with Zhong Rong’s assertion
can be found in any of the extant materials predating the Song dynasty.
The early Tang pastoral poet Wang Ji 王 績 (590–644) even mistook
lines from Ying Qu as being by Tao Qian. Wang writes, “I used to love
Tao Yuanming, / Ladling the lees and charring up a bony fish” 嘗 愛 陶
淵 明 , 酌 醴 焚 枯 魚 .7 Here, Ying Qu’s famous lines from the “Baiyi shi”—
“Ladling the lees and charring up a bony fish”—and Ying’s evocation of
a retired life are linked with and even (mis)attributed to Tao Qian, indicating
that the two were perceived as being in close literary relationship
during the Tang. The Song debate over these literary bloodlines
was to continue into the Ming and Qing dynasties, but cooled off in
the twentieth century, as modern Chinese critics came to view their
obvious differences as a given.8 The dispute over the veracity of Zhong
Rong’s claim coincided with the rise in popularity of Tao Qian’s poetry
and the gradual loss of Ying Qu’s collection. Comparisons between the
two poets—whether challenging Zhong Rong or agreeing with him—
came to be based on comparing the few extant poems by Ying Qu (primarily
from his famous “Baiyi shi”) with the entire oeuvre of Tao’s
works.
人 玉 屑 , SKQS, 13.12a–b; Xie Zhen 謝 榛 (1495–1575), Siming shihua 四 溟 詩 話 (Beijing:
Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1961), 2.43; Wang Shizhen 王 士 禎 (1634–1711), Yuyang shihua
漁 洋 詩 話 ( Jiayi: Jianguo shudian, 1956), xia.4a. The Ming scholar Xu Xueyi 許 學 夷
(1563–1633) suggested that Tao Qian and Ying Qu had a common predilection for yu 魚
and yu 虞 rhymes, rhymes that, as Ruan Tingyu 阮 廷 瑜 has noted, Zuo Si also liked to
use. The modern scholar Wang Guiling 王 貴 苓 argues that both Ying Qu and Tao Qian
use plain language and show a sense of humor. See Xu Xueyi, Shiyuan bianti 詩 源 辯 體 ,
ed. Du Weimo (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1987), 6.35; Ruan Tingyu, Tao Yuanming
shilun ji youguan ziliao fen ji 陶 淵 明 詩 論 暨 有 關 資 料 分 輯 (Taibei: Guoli bianyi
guan, 1998), 1:10–16; and Wang Guiling, “Taoshi yuanchu Ying Qu shuo tantao” 陶 詩 源
出 應 璩 說 探 討 , in Tao Yuanming jiqi shi de yanjiu 陶 淵 明 及 其 詩 的 研 究 (Taibei: Wenshi
cong kan, published by Guoli Taiwan daxue, 1966).
7
Wang Ji, “Xue Jishi you guo zhuang jianxun shuaiti guyi yizeng” 薛 記 室 遊 過 莊 見
尋 率 題 古 意 以 贈 , in Wang Ji shiwen ji jiaozhu 王 績 詩 文 集 校 注 , ed. Jin Ronghua 金 榮 華
(Taibei: Xin wenfeng chuban gufen youxian gongsi, 1998), p. 130. On Wang Ji’s works, see
Ding Xiang Warner, A Wild Deer Amid Soaring Phoenixes: The Opposition Poetics of Wang Ji
(Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2003).
8
For modern scholarship on the literary relationship between Tao Qian and Ying Qu,
see Yuan Xingpei 袁 行 霈 , “Zhong Rong Shipin Taoshi yuanchu Ying Qu bianxi,” 鍾 嶸 詩
品 陶 詩 源 出 應 璩 辨 析 , in his Tao Yuanming yanjiu 陶 淵 明 研 究 (Beijing: Beijing daxue
chubanshe, 1997), pp. 136–61. On Ying Qu’s works in relation to their place in the Shipin,
see: Gu Zhi’s 古 直 , “Introduction,” in Gu Zhi, ed., Zhong ji shi Shipin jian 鍾 記 室 詩 品 箋
(Taibei: Guangwen shuju, 1968); Lu Qinli 逯 欽 立 , “Zhong Rong Shipin,” in his Han Wei
Liuchao lunji 漢 魏 六 朝 詩 論 集 (Shanxi: Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1984), p. 482.