"I rambled and roamed together with you": (d. 217) four poems to Cao Pi.

• Author: Wu, Fusheng
• Position: Critical essay

The Jian'an [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (196-220) period witnessed a flourishing of "presentation and reply" poetry (zengda shi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). (1) Many of these poems were written between friends and colleagues, and as such they often reveal an informal and sometimes intimate relationship between the two parties. In this essay I examine a group of four poems, entitled "To the Central Commander of Five Guards" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], that Liu Zhen [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (?-217) wrote to Cao Pi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (187-226), who was named the Central Commander of Five Guards by his father Cao Cao [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (155-220) in the sixteenth year of Jian'an (212). My goal is to demonstrate that subjective quality of these hitherto little-studied texts manifests a unique relationship between Cao Pi and the members of his literary circle at the city of Ye [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] from 211 to 217, a period of vigorous poetic activity in the history of Chinese literature. Unlike the often-romanticized praises of the Caos' (Cao Cao, Cao Pi, and his brother Cao Zhi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 192-232) patronage of writers by critics and historians of later periods, (2) these contemporaneous materials provide us with an engaged and firsthand representation of certain aspects of this patronage. They shed light on an important facet of poetic production during this brief but significant era.

Liu Zhen's poems were included in the zengda section of the Wenxuan, which divided its poetic selection into twenty-three sections according to their topics and occasions. (3) Of these, the zengda section, which is made up of seventy-two poems, is the second largest next only to the "Miscellaneous Poems" zashi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] section. Jiang Yaling noted in her exhaustive but mainly formalistic study of this type of poetry that, although similar poems were written as early as the Latter Han (25-220 C.E.), Xiao Tong was entirely responsible for making it into a distinct subgenre by creating the term zengda for it. (4) All the poems in this section bear either zeng or da in their titles, but there is no evidence that a zeng or "presented" poem was always da or "replied," although the Wenxuan does include a number of paired pieces. (5) This information is important to my present discussion, because the Wenxuan does not include Cao Pi's reply poems, if he had ever written any; in writing his poems to Cao Pi, Liu Zhen might never have expected a response from him.

A brief account of Cao Pi's relationship with the writers at Ye and their poetic activities will help to contextualize Liu Zhen's "To the Central Commander of Five Guards." (6) Whereas Cao Cao and his policies were responsible for attracting many famous scholars of the time to his side, (7) Cao Pi played a crucial role in forming the literary circle at Ye, a city that Cao Cao took from Yuan Shao [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the ninth year of Jian'an (205). Between 212 and 217, several members of the "Seven Masters of Jian'an" (jian'an qizi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], (8) including Liu Zhen, Xu Gan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (170-217), and Ying Yang [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (?-17), served as Cao Pi's "Instructor" (wenxue [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), an educational position in the establishment of the Heir Apparent. In addition to the aforementioned writers, the Sanguo zhi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] also mentioned Wang Can [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (177-217), Chen Lin [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (ca. 160-217), and Ruan Yu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (?-212) as those who were befriended by Cao Pi out of his love of literature. (9) Thus, the literary circle at Ye included the entire "Seven Masters" except Kong Rong [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (153-208), who had been put to death by Cao Cao in the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208). It was during this period that Liu Zhen wrote his "To the Central Commander of Five Guards."

Cao Pi's relationship with the writers at Ye was quite different from his father's. (10) First of all, the position of the Central Commander of Five Guards, although important because it embodied Cao Cao's intention to name him Crown Prince in the future, (11) was essentially ceremonial. This freed Cao Pi from the responsibilities of actually running the state. Consequently, his relations with the writers around him were less tense and formal. Moreover, Cao Pi had a genuine interest in literature. He authored the first essay on literature in China, "Essay on Writing" ("Lun wen" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) In this essay, he eulogized literature as "a grand cause of state governance," and reiterated emphatically the ancient belief that writing is an important means to achieve immortality because contrary to our brief life-span, writing is "immortal" and "eternal." (12) This elevated view might have instilled in him more respect for writers. His treatment of Kong Rong is particularly noteworthy, because when he singled out Kong Rong's writing for praise in this essay, (13) Kong Rong had already been executed by Cao Cao for political reasons. (14) This suggests that, in Cao Pi's view, one's writing could be judged on its own ground, independent of one's political and moral stance. His comments on the writings of the Seven Masters support this argument as they focus on their formal and stylistic qualities. (15)

All this must have affected Cao Pi's attitude toward those in his literary circle. He might still have regarded them as writing and convivial companions, but nevertheless established a mutually respectful relationship with them. His own accounts of their activities reveal a rare intimacy between them. In a letter to his friend Wu Zhi [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (177-230) in 218, Cao Pi wrote:

During the plague last year, many of our relatives and friends succumbed. Xu [Garr], Chen [Lin], Ying [Yang], and Liu [Zhen] all passed away at the same time. How pained I am to speak of this! During those old days we would go on outings together. As we traveled, our chariots touched one another; as we sat, our mats joined. We were never separated even for a moment. We passed around goblets, listened to music. Whenever our ears became hot from drinking, we would look up and compose poetry. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (16) The nostalgic tone of this passage suggests a deep personal and emotional engagement on his part. Sentences such as "as we traveled, our chariots touched one another" and "as we sat, our mats joined" suggest an intimacy that transcends the normal relationship between writers and their royal patron. One source tells us that when Wang Can died, Cao Pi led his friends to imitate the cries of a donkey at his funeral because Wang Can was fond of such sounds in his life. (17) In fact, the unconventional nature of this relationship disturbed Cao Cao, who was known equally for his contempt of Confucian rituals. (18) According to an anecdote presented in Pei Songzhi's [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (372-451) commentary to the Sanguo zhi, during a party hosted by Cao Pi for his instructors, Cao Pi asked his wife to come out to meet his guests. While all others bowed their heads in greeting her, Liu Zhen alone kept his up and looked straight at her. When Cao Cao heard of this, he ordered Liu arrested, and spared his life only after having sent him to do physical labor as punishment. (19)

This special relationship between Cao Pi and his attendant scholars must have provided a less rigid and less intimidating atmosphere for poetic composition. Furthermore, Cao Pi was a poet in his own right, and as his letter to Wu Zhi suggests, he often composed poetry together with other friends. Various sources indicate that these poetic occasions were mostly casual events such as banquets, outings, and group composition on chosen subjects. In his preface to "Manao le fu" [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ("Rhapsody on an Agate-Adorned Bridle"), Cao Pi gives the following information about one of these occasions:

Agate is a kind of jade. It comes from the Western regions. Its intertwined patterns look like the brain of a horse, hence the name given it by the people there (manao = horse brains). Some use it to decorate bridles. I have one of these bridles. In admiration I wrote a rhapsody about it. I also asked Chen Lin and Wang Can to do so. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (20) This preface, which exists in fragmentary form, makes it clear that Cao Pi was interested in the "beauty" (mei [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) of agate. His rhapsody, which is likewise fragmentary, focuses on portraying its "colorful patterns" (wencai [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]). There seems to be no attempt to instill any moral and political significance into his treatment of this object. (21)

The informal spirit that characterized the literary activities of Cao Pi's circle is perhaps best illustrated by the banquet poems that Cao Pi and others wrote together. Robert Joe Cutter has used the word "symposium" to characterize these and other poems composed at "excursions and symposia (convivial gatherings for drinking, conversation, and so forth)." (22) He suggests that "there is a connection between the troubled nature of the last years of the Han, the penchant of the Jian'an poets for convivial gatherings, and the feast poems." (23) Before examining in detail Liu Zhen's "To the Central Commander of Five Guards," I would like to take a brief look at two of these symposium poems, because they provide valuable contextual information for Liu Zhen's pieces. As we shall wee, Liu Zhen frequently evokes the atmosphere and even the details of these banquet poems. The following piece. "Composed by the Lotus Pond" (Furong chi zuo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], is by Cao Pi:

[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Riding...