Preface

IN A BOOK ON SO ELUSIVE A SUBJECT AS THE SENSE OF humor some short comment or even apology may be desired as preface or foreword. In the present instance the prime factor is that the book deals with the Chinese, a people undeniably possessing a deep-seated humor. They smile in their own way yet without too great an effort the world smiles with them. We should recall that much of their most admired poetry has strong humorous properties, even when present in overtones. For centuries their theatre has been marked by a peculiar gusto and gaiety. Their fiction incorporates to an exceptional degree a wide range of comedy, from blithe fantasy to dry and insinuating observations on life. Their art abounds in the fantastic or even in the bizarre. Their religious and philosophical visions of life have been distinctly favorable to humor. The Taoist or Buddhist was disciplined to retire from the world, or at least from the heat of its contentions, nevertheless placing himself in a position from which he might smile at what appeared to him the human comedy. The complacent Confucian possessed singularly firm guidelines for good conduct and good manners, finding deviations in many cases amusing. Whoever makes even the most casual approach to traditional Chinese civilization must be struck by these pervasive qualities. Surely, humor is one of its finest flowers.

It is not, of course, to be presumed that all pages of Chinese literature are intended to evoke smiles or that all Chinese works of art are in any reasonable sense of the word humorous. Excessive claims in this regard should be avoided. Yet the vein unquestionably runs through a surprisingly large part of Chinese imaginative productions. These conditions have, doubtless, been observed but it will, I think, be admitted that they have too seldom been closely examined. This book proposes at least an introduction to the subject.

Acknowledgment must be made of help and advice given me by many scholars not only in Chinese fields themselves but in the closely related Japanese and Indian as well. It would have been a rather grim experience to have laughed alone. My dependence on friends and predecessors in this area has been all the greater in that I myself have concentrated my thoughts on Asian matters only after retirement from a considerable period of teaching and writing on the ample fields of British, American, and comparative literatures, with attention to both the medieval and the modern. The half-dozen books which I have written on Asian topics have all appeared since the termination of my conventional teaching career. I can only hope that my too belated concentration on these topics and a consequent deficiency in linguistic study are in some respects offset by these relatively extended perspectives. As this book shows, I have given special attention to making translations of my own into English verse. I have leaned heavily on the works of Osvald Siren, Bernhard Karlgren, Arthur Waley, and, occasionally, even on the much earlier researches of Herbert Giles. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Alfred A. Knopf for permission to quote from Translations from the Chinese by Arthur Waley (1941). For cordial assistance from William Hung, Wu-chi Liu, Shih Shun Liu, Friedrich Bischoff, James Crump, C. T. Hsia, and far too many scholars to mention here I am most grateful. To museums, both here and abroad, I am also thankful for substantial aid, especially in the preparation of my chapter dealing with the fine arts. Perhaps I may appreciate such assistance all the more, since for many years I have myself served as a museum curator. Finally, I am especially indebted to the University of South Carolina Press for use in this book of my verse translations that appeared in my anthology, Ancient Poetry from China, India, and Japan. Sources of translations other than my own are indicated in the notes.

All such comments must be brief. Just as a long introduction to a jest is especially odious, an extended or formal preface to a book on humor would be signally misplaced. Some preface is required, for humor is a singularly personal commodity, but required also to be brief. I trust the reader will wish to hasten into what I take to be the unusually attractive fields that comprise the subject-matter of this introductory study.

HENRY W. WELLS

September, 1970