“Waiting for the Unicorn” | Open Indiana

Chiang Shih-ch’üan (Hsin-yü; CH’ING-JUNG), a native of Nanchang in the Yüan-shan district of northern Kiangsi province, was one of the foremost literary men of his time, but his lasting fame as the leading dramatist of the Ch’ien-lung period has overshadowed his contributions in the field of poetry. Chiang, Yüan Mei, and Chao Yi (qq.v.) were known to their contemporaries as the “Three Masters of Chiangtso” and were the recognized masters of poetry in South China during the reign of Ch’ien-lung (q.v.).

In spite of his early success as a dramatist, Chiang was not as successful in the capital examinations. After several failures he finally won the chin-shih degree in 1757. It has been suggested by Li T’iao-yüan (1734–1803) that the element of criticism in Chiang’s earlier plays hindered his progress in the examination system and clouded his career. Advancement within the bureaucracy may not have been foremost in his ambitions, however. After serving in successive minor positions in the capital, Chiang retired in 1763 to care for his mother. Memories of a bitter existence caused by his father’s lack of achievement as an official, and the success of his friend Yüan Mei, who had already retired from government service to devote his time to poetry, weighed heavily in Chiang’s decision to pursue a career as an educator. In 1781, however, Chiang returned to government service in the capital. He was soon stricken with partial paralysis and was forced into permanent retirement at his home in Nanchang near Lake P’o-yang.

As a poet and a critic, Chiang was a proponent of the hsing-ling school of literary theory, which emphasized one’s inner nature and true emotion or spirit as the two most essential elements in literary creation. Chiang wrote a cycle of poems criticizing the works of other poets and was especially critical of Wang Shih-chen’s (q.v.) poems, which he characterized as “empty and floating.” He also expressed little regard for those of Li Po’s poems which seemed to him to dwell on the pleasure-seeking nature of man. The subject matter of Chiang’s own poems falls largely within the realm of tradition. The central themes of conscientiousness, filiality, righteousness, and honor are frequently expressed through historical events or personalities. Chiang Shih-chüan’s collected poems, under the title Chung-ya t’ang shih chi, were published shortly after his death and reprinted in Canton in 1816.

(Coy Harmon)

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1.Lien-che Tu, ECCP, 1:141–142.

An Evening Prospect: City Lights

Market torches, boat lanterns: a jumble of fireflies.

Grasses and clouds—a trail of black ink—the night long and dark.

I imagine myself among the layered clouds,

Looking down upon the human world with its galaxy of stars.

(CYTSC, 16:10b)

(Tr. Irving Lo)

Toasting the Moon at Ten-Thousand-Year Bridge¹

A thousand paces long, the flying arch leaps the river,

Appearing at the edge of the void, people come and go.

Like a rainbow it links jumbled peaks halfway broken off.

Below lies the flood dragon, awed into submission.

From the blue sky the light of the crescent moon touches the water below;

On its glassy surface lies the brilliance of a myriad things.

Off the wind fall drops of dew; vast are the waves—

Now all between heaven and earth is cleansed of dust.

In midstream, twenty-three mirrored arches;

Up and down, reflections of the vaulted heaven in the autumn river.

Crossing the bridge the traveler feels the river winds,

Treading on cold light yet unaware of the chill.

For a thousand feet the water flows in the glimmering moonlight,

Broken now and then by the splash of a fish.

NOTES

1.Built near Hsü-men in the district of Wu, Kiangsu province, during the reign of the Ch’ien-lung emperor.

2. I.e., the poet himself.

3. The poets Ts’ui Yin (d. 92) and Ts’ao Chih, respectively.

4. Alluding to the famous metaphor found in the fifth chapter of the Tao-te ching: “Heaven and Earth are not humane./They regard all things as straw dogs.”

5. In the fifth century B.C., as a newly appointed magistrate in modern Honan, Hsi-men Pao quickly rid the area of sorcerers and prominent citizens who worked in collusion to extort sums of money from the populace by providing young girls as sacrificial wives to the River God.

6. A chicken feather shop was a place where the homeless poor could spend the night after the payment of a small fee.

Waiting for the Unicorn