Li Bai’s “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light”: A Singular Vision of Cosmic Order
In: T'oung PaoLi Bai’s “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light” offers a grand tour and exuberant depiction of the Mingtang, an edifice central to traditional theories of government and ritual. The poem has often been dismissed as belonging to the poet’s juvenilia, but more likely reflects the ambition and self-confidence of his youthful prime. It has also been viewed with suspicion because of the Mingtang’s associations with the interregnum of Empress Wu, but this only increases its interest for the modern reader. Comparison with its primary models, the epideictic fu of the Han dynasty, shows Li Bai’s ability to transform his sources. He inserts his own flourishes within the cosmic order that the Mingtang represents, while recasting the edifice as a symbol of his own creative prowess. The article concludes with the first complete English translation of the “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light.”
La “Rhapsodie du Palais de lumière” de Li Bai nous fait visiter un édifice jouant un rôle essentiel dans les théories traditionnelles du gouvernement et du rituel, le Mingtang, et en propose une description exubérante. Cette pièce a souvent été rejetée comme œuvre de jeunesse, alors qu’elle reflète plutôt l’ambition et l’assurance d’un jeune poète en pleine possession de ses moyens. La “Rhapsodie” a aussi été considérée avec suspicion en raison de l’association du Mingtang avec l’interrègne de l’impératrice Wu, alors que pour le lecteur moderne cela en accroît plutôt l’intérêt. La comparaison avec ses principaux modèles, les fu épidictiques de l’époque des Han, révèle la capacité de Li Bai à transmuer ses sources. Il intègre sa propre ornementation à l’ordre cosmique représenté par le Mingtang, tout en transformant l’édifice en un symbole de ses propres pouvoirs créatifs. L’article se conclut avec la première traduction intégrale de l’œuvre en anglais.
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7
C.P. Fitzgerald, The Empress Wu (London: Cresset Press, 1968), 131–32.
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25
Arthur Waley, The Poetry and Career of Li Po (London: Allen and Unwin, 1950), 1.
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26
Arthur Waley, The Poetry and Career of Li Po (London: Allen and Unwin, 1950), 3.
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27
Arthur Waley, The Poetry and Career of Li Po (London: Allen and Unwin, 1950), 3–4.
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37
See James Legge, The Lî Kî (The Book of Rites) (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1885), 2 vols., 1: 28.
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45
See Tang Jinyu 唐金裕, “Xi’an xijiao Han dai jianzhu yizhi fajue baogao,” Kaogu xuebao 2 (1959): 45–55.
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48
Fang Xiangdong, Da Dai Li ji huijiao jijie, 67.853. The Da Dai Li ji text overlaps with another influential version, the “Mingtang wei” 明堂位 (Orientation of the Hall of Light) chapter of the Li ji 禮記. See Li ji zhengyi 禮記正義 (Shisanjing zhushu), j. 31; translation in Legge, Book of Rites 2: 29–39.
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61
With minor modifications, from Soothill, The Hall of Light, 34.
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65
Maspero, “Le Ming-t’ang et la crise religieuse chinoise avant les Han,” 31.
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87
See Isabelle Robinet, La Révélation du Shangqing dans l’histoire du taoïsme (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1984), 125–26, on the Mingtang and “la topologie du cerveau.”
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89
Seidel, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha,” in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honor of R.A. Stein, 2 vols., ed. Michel Strickmann (Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1983), 2: 371.
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118
For instance, Yang Xiong, “Plume Hunt,” Wen xuan 8.398/271–313.
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158
Cf. Jiang Yan 江淹, “Parting,” Wen xuan 16.753/62, describing the “vaulting contour” of the sun.
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177
Cf. Zhang Heng, “Western Metropolis,” Wen xuan 2.61/325, tr. Knechtges, 1: 203: “The imperial arms of the Arsenal...” 武庫禁兵.
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185
The couplet is inspired by Zuo Si, “Shu Capital,” Wen xuan 4.178/82, where the Sun’s Crow is forced to turn away by the excessive height of the Sichuanese forests. Qian Zhongshu mentions the trope in Guan zhui bian 管錐編 (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 1824, citing also John Donne, “An Anatomie of the World,” in Complete Poetry and Selected Prose, ed. John Hayward (Bloomsbury: Nonesuch, 1939), 204: “Doth not a Tenarif, or higher Hill / Rise so high like a Rocke, that one might thinke / The floating Moone would shipwrack there, and sinke?” Allusion ought always to be understood in conjunction with the power of shared poetic fancy.
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203
Cf. Zhang Heng, “Western Metropolis,” Wen xuan 2.77/741: “Suddenly, they threw themselves upside down, catching themselves with their heels” 突倒投而跟絓. This passage is describing one of various acrobatic entertainments.
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223
Cf. translation in Mather, “Wang Chin’s ‘Dhūta Temple Inscription as an Example of Buddhist Parallel Prose,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (1963): 350, and 350, n. 132. From the Xiaojing 孝經 (Sibu congkan), 9.9a: “Of all natures in Heaven and Earth man’s is the noblest, and of all man’s acts none is greater than filial devotion, and of [acts of] filial devotion none is greater than honoring one’s father, and of [ways of] honoring one’s father none is greater than pairing him with Heaven. Such a man was the Duke of Chou! In antiquity the Duke of Chou made the Suburban Sacrifice to Hou Chi in order to pair him with Heaven, and he made the Founder’s Sacrifice to King Wen in the Hall of Splendor in order to pair him with the Supreme Sovereign.”
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Li Bai’s “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light”: A Singular Vision of Cosmic Order
In: T'oung PaoLi Bai’s “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light” offers a grand tour and exuberant depiction of the Mingtang, an edifice central to traditional theories of government and ritual. The poem has often been dismissed as belonging to the poet’s juvenilia, but more likely reflects the ambition and self-confidence of his youthful prime. It has also been viewed with suspicion because of the Mingtang’s associations with the interregnum of Empress Wu, but this only increases its interest for the modern reader. Comparison with its primary models, the epideictic fu of the Han dynasty, shows Li Bai’s ability to transform his sources. He inserts his own flourishes within the cosmic order that the Mingtang represents, while recasting the edifice as a symbol of his own creative prowess. The article concludes with the first complete English translation of the “Rhapsody on the Hall of Light.”
La “Rhapsodie du Palais de lumière” de Li Bai nous fait visiter un édifice jouant un rôle essentiel dans les théories traditionnelles du gouvernement et du rituel, le Mingtang, et en propose une description exubérante. Cette pièce a souvent été rejetée comme œuvre de jeunesse, alors qu’elle reflète plutôt l’ambition et l’assurance d’un jeune poète en pleine possession de ses moyens. La “Rhapsodie” a aussi été considérée avec suspicion en raison de l’association du Mingtang avec l’interrègne de l’impératrice Wu, alors que pour le lecteur moderne cela en accroît plutôt l’intérêt. La comparaison avec ses principaux modèles, les fu épidictiques de l’époque des Han, révèle la capacité de Li Bai à transmuer ses sources. Il intègre sa propre ornementation à l’ordre cosmique représenté par le Mingtang, tout en transformant l’édifice en un symbole de ses propres pouvoirs créatifs. L’article se conclut avec la première traduction intégrale de l’œuvre en anglais.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 301 | 60 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 66 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 78 | 11 | 0 |