1 Imitations of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in Ming and Qing Literature

Zhang Ruoxu’s 張若虛 (660–720) poem “Chunjiang huayue ye” 春江花月夜 (Spring Blossoms on a Moonlit River) is a classic of East Asian literature: it has been called “the poem of poems, the supreme of supremes,”¹ and it has been said of Zhang Ruoxu that “[his] poem was the only one, and yet it was for everyone.”² Zhang Ruoxu has no individual poetry collections. “Chunjiang huayue ye” has survived thanks to its inclusion in general poetry anthologies. It was first seen in Volume 47 of the Yuefu shiji 樂府詩集. However, for hundreds of years, “Chunjiang huayue ye” did not received the attention it deserved in terms of literary value. Cheng Qianfan 程千帆 (1913–2000) believes that the Jiajing 嘉靖 (1522–1566) period of the Ming (1368–1644) dynasty was a turning point for the fate of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in the literary world. Li Panlong 李攀龍 (1514–1570) chose this poem to be included in his Gujin shishan 古今詩刪, and many anthologies of Tang (618–907) poetry compiled during the Ming also selected it.³ At the same time, Hu Yinglin’s 胡應麟 (1551–1602) notes on poetry Shisou neibian 詩藪·內編 called this poem “smooth and graceful”⁴ and praised it highly. The poem’s literary value was gradually being recognized. “Chunjiang huayue ye” became a classic of East Asian literature, and it connects closely to the spread of book culture and literary thought in East Asia during the Ming dynasty. Cheng Qianfan points out that the reason why the poem was selected for both Li Panlong’s Gujin shishan and Tangshi xuan 唐詩選 is related to the changes in literary thought in the mid and late Ming dynasty:

Zhang Ruoxu’s work belongs to the same style as the Four Paragons of the Early Tang (Wang Bo 王勃, Yang Jiong 楊炯, Lu Zhaolin 盧照鄰, and Luo Binwang 駱賓王). Therefore, in the history of literature, it has shared the same fate with the Four Paragons, rising and falling the same way. As the status of the Four Paragons improved, their works were also taken more seriously. This is precisely why Zhang Ruoxu’s “Chunjiang huayue ye” appears in many anthologies, starting from Li Panlong’s Gujin shishan. This poem is in the style of Wang, Yang, Lu, and Luo, and so its historical destiny has fluctuated along with theirs. This is our starting point for understanding this poem.⁵

With the “re-discovery” of “Chunjiang huayue ye,” a series of imitation poems emerged from the mid to late Ming period onwards.⁶ Gong Xiuling’s 貢修齡 (1574–1641) “Chunye you huai ci Zhang Ruoxu qiyan guyun” 春夜有懷次張若虛七言古韻 is one of these early response poems that maintained the same rhyme scheme (ciyun shi 次韻詩):

Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 (1558–1639) commented: “Zhang Ruoxu’s work shows the same literary talent of this poem, but in comparison has weaker style, and so this poem can be considered superior.”⁷

Gong excelled at political affairs, and most of his poems are entertainment pieces with little artistic value. Compared with Zhang’s poems, Gong’s poems have similar vocabulary and imagery, but their moods are very different. The beauty of Zhang’s work lies in its subtlety. Under the veil of feelings and separation, it conveys a sense of impermanence in life and the powerlessness of human beings in the face of the infinite universe. This kind of thought is transcendent and has universal significance. Such emotions are conveyed through an overall artistic conception interwoven with images of spring, a river, flowers, the moon, and the night. The universality of Zhang’s poems also reflects in the lyrical subject. Although references to a person such as “人” and “君” also appear in the poem, it is obvious that the “人” in the poem does not refer to a specific individual, but rather to people more universally. The lyrical perspective is also a transcendent perspective on the universe; while the “person” in Gong’s poem can be understood from the context to be missing a woman, the lyrical perspective is specific, which limits the universality of lyricism. Gong’s poem also strives to embed spring, a river, flowers, the moon and the night throughout the poem, but the whole poem is intended to exaggerate the idea of separation, which is a trait inferior to Zhang’s work. Rhyme changes in Zhang’s poem make the levels of lyric more distinct, and thoughts of sorrow, passion, and separation are naturally displayed in the poem through the flow of meaning. Gong’s poem is like a handcuffed dancer: it is restricted by response poems and poem titles, so there is relatively little room for expression. Moreover, the poem uses a high amount of vocabulary from the original poem (such as “white sand” 白沙, “flat boat” 扁舟, “moon blossom” 月華 etc.), which also means the poem cannot extend and grow. Zhang’s poem ends with “the setting moon shakes off the emotions of separation to fill the woods along the river,”⁸ with a lingering aftertaste, while the response poem seems to want to create a glorious ending, which nevertheless is too ordinary. The aftertaste of the original work lingers, but the response poem fails to create a glorious ending. Nevertheless, some lines in Gong’s poem are also praiseworthy, such as “How can there be no moon when there is love in life? The moon is also similar to our emotions.” It is not surprising that people are born with love, but the poet says that the moon also has love, just as the Tang dynasty people said: “the moon still shines on fallen flowers in the courtyard for those who have parted.”⁹ Overall, though, the poem is relatively mediocre.

Although “Chunjiang huayue ye” 春江花月夜 by Li Wen 李雯 (1607–1647) from the Ming and Qing era is not a response poem to Zhang’s poem, it completely imitates it in terms of contents and form:

Looking at the end-rhymes of this poem, clearly it is also divided into nine rhyme types, like Zhang’s poem. Likewise, it also uses the Xizhou 西洲 style, and makes use of a continuous couplet pattern in many places. The sense of this poem is relatively clear: it is a female lovesickness complaint poem. Through the word qie 妾 (concubine), we learn that the lyrical protagonist is the yuexi nü 越溪女, and the poem tells of her yearning for chang gan’er 長干兒 during a moonlit night on the spring river. She and chang gan’er face each other across the river, but the spring river keeps the two from meeting. The word yuan 怨 (resentment, lament) shows the intensity of their emotions. The “the flowers on the river are beautiful” line not only describes the beauty of the river blossoms under the bright moon, but also expresses the girl’s sorrow for herself as she crosses the stream. Expressions such as “faint mist” form a contrast in the ancient style, describing the hazy beauty of the moon wrapped in smoke and water. The joy of the spring travels of the three women evokes the sadness of the protagonist, and the beauty of the river also hints at her loneliness. The line “the moving silk and green flowers are full of sorrow” is very well written, and the sentence “sorrow is about to come” intensifies the melancholy. It is therefore logical that the protagonist leans on a green tent and boards the magnolia boat alone, hoping to relieve her inner sorrow. There is no possibility to meet one another in reality, so one can only “dream of Zhuyu Bay.” Zhuyu Bay is often mentioned in Tang poetry, and it is frequently associated with lovesickness. After dreaming of Zhuyu Bay, the protagonist realizes that “you” is being a guest in Qiantang again. Towards the end, the poem returns to the theme of lovesickness, and the five images of spring, river, flower, moon, and night all appear in the last few lines. The “bright moon” at the very beginning of this poem has now become a “dark moon,” symbolizing the inner gloom of the protagonist; the originally “beautiful” river flowers have also become “wandering thoughts,” symbolizing the emotional decline of the protagonist. It is dark, and the “thoughts of parting” in the last sentence expresses the loss and disappointment of the man being missed.

The fifteenth volume of Li Wen’s Liao zhai ji 蓼齋集 is all in seven-character ancient style, divided into nigu 擬古 (imitating the classics) and shugan 述感 (expressing feelings). “Chunjiang huayue ye” is the first poem in “imitating the classics.” Li Wen appears to prefer writing poems that imitate ancient poetry. Volumes 3 to 8 of his collection are all yuefu 樂府 poems. The first subcategory in five-character poems in Volume 9 is also “imitating classical poetry.” Li Wen wrote many ersatz ancient poems, which may have been influenced by the style of the Ming dynasty, in addition to Li’s literary practice. Li’s poems do not use the original rhymes of Zhang’s poems, so they can move away from the original rhymes of Zhang’s poems and gain some room for expression. Li’s poetry shows an improvement from Gong Xiuling’s poetry, with increased lyrical depth and image density. Li Wen’s work can stand on its own, but the imitation traces in this poem are too heavy, and it is still far removed from the charm of Zhang’s poems. Zhang’s work deals with family resentment, but it does not reflect on life and the universe at all.

Qiu Lian of the Qing dynasty wrote in “Fu de chunjiang huayue ye” 賦得春江花月夜:

This poem also alternates nine rhymes and uses a “thimble grid,” similar to Zhang’s poem. Some terminology in the poem (such as xiaoxiang 瀟湘) also form an intertextuality with Zhang’s poem. This poem captures the essence of Zhang’s poetry. Although it writes of feelings and of lovesickness, it also contains reflections on time and on life. How many people who have seen the moon and how many others have become people of the past in the flow of time? The same moon is watched by different people, and people today cannot see the people who lived earlier. Zhang’s poem tells us of the tranquillity under the moonlight, but Qiu’s poem breaks this tranquillity and creates artistic imagery such as “suddenly, a bright moon emerges from the river, and the flood dragons hidden in the river dance in the water” and writes about the dynamics of moonrise in the Eastern mountains. Qiu also creates imagery of “falling flowers”: not only does this echo the title of the poem; it also connects with the lines that follow. The theme of the impermanence of life is intensified through these falling flowers: “Once flowers bloom and fade, those who look at them cannot bring them back.” The flowers bloom and fall, and the people who look at the flowers never return, which seems to imply a fate that no one can escape, echoing the idea of “watching the moon” above. The text that follows returns to the theme of “guest sorrow” and lovesickness, but the ending is slightly weak and lacks rhyme. Qiu’s poem says, “It is just a waste of time” and “in the moonlight, the river sounds regretful.” Although these two sentences refer to a woman in her abode, are they not also comparisons to the self? This “regret” is not only the sorrow of the lovesickness, but also the poet’s own regret. According to Volume 26 of Yongzheng Ningbo fuzhi (雍正) 寧波府志, Qiu Lian was “extremely talented” and passed the imperial examinations at the age of seventy-two. Therefore, the poem also reflects the author’s sense of life experience. In terms of writing style, Qiu’s poems can indeed be considered superior to Zhang’s poem, and both show relatively profound content.

2 “Chunjiang huayue ye” and Sinographic Literature in Japan

The earliest appearance of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in Japan’s Chinese literature is in Kanen ihou 翰苑遺芳 compiled by Shusu Taigaku 大岳周崇 (1345–1423) in the Muromachi period (1336–1573). In Japan’s Edo period (1603–1868), the Ming scholar Gao Bing’s 高棅 (1350–1423) Tangshi pinhui 唐詩品彙 and Li Panlong’s Gujin shishan spread eastwards to Japan and it was through Tang poetry anthologies such as these that the Japanese literati were exposed to “Chunjiang huayue ye.” However, the real spread of this poem on a large scale in Japan should be linked to the popularity of Li Panlong’s Tangshi xuan. “Chunjiang huayue ye” was included in this collection. Tangshi xuan was revised and published by the poet Hattori Nankaku 服部南郭 (1683–1759) in the ninth year (1724) of the Kyōho era to then become the most popular reader of Tang poetry in the Edo period.¹² The popularity of Tangshi xuan is closely connected to the admiration of the Kobunjigaku School (古文辭學派) represented by Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠 (1666–1728) for the Later Seven Masters, represented by Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen 王世貞 (1526–1590).¹³ There was a series of annotated editions in Chinese of Tangshi xuan in the Edo period, many of which contained commentaries on “Chunjiang huayue ye.” The one with relatively high value in terms of literary criticism is Tangshi jujie 唐詩句解 by Irie Nanmei 入江南溟 (1678–1765).

The interpretation of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in Tangshi jujie is profound in some lines, such as in “I don’t know who the moon on the river is awaiting, all I can see is the Yangtze sending a flow of water.” (不知江月照何人，但見長江送流水) It says:

The poem is a lament about the impermanence of life. It is intricately written, saying that when people see the moon and the moonlight shines on them, they do not know anything about the beginning. Life changes constantly, but the moon over the river has never changed, and we no longer see the people from earlier. I wonder who the moon was shining on over the river at the beginning. People go and never return; they approach the Yangtze and feel the water flowing.¹⁴

These two poems reflect a time consciousness typical of people in ancient China. Commentaries on “Chunjiang huayue ye” during the Ming and Qing Dynasties mostly stated that the poem was about “gazing at the moon and missing home,”¹⁵ or that the emotions in the poem were guisi 閨思 “yearning in the boudoir,” keqing 客情 “sentiments of travelers,” yijia 憶家 “remembering home” and so on; these are relatively superficial views. The reason why Zhang’s poem has become a literary classic lies in its ability to convey universal human emotions on top of specific emotions, which is what Irie Nanmei calls “the sense of impermanence of life.”

Given the popularity of Tangshi xuan in Japan, “Chunjiang huayue ye” was widely read, and many imitations were written in Japan. Ogyū Sorai has a version of “Chunjiang huayue ye” of his own, but this poem is a five-syllable (per line) poem and is not completely consistent with Zhang’s poem in terms of poetic style. In addition to Zhang’s seven-syllable style, the “Chunjiang huayue ye” popular in China also included two five-syllable quatrains by Emperor Yang of Sui 隋煬帝 (r. 604–618). Even though Ogyū’s poem is not an answer poem to Zhang’s work, it does derive from Zhang’s poem, and draws inspiration from Emperor Yang’s poem. The first two couplets of the poem rhyme “ming 明” with “sheng 生,” similarly to Zhang’s poem; this should therefore be a direct influence from Zhang’s work. The first half of the poem describes the scenery. The spring river and forest flowers under the moonlight are of charming beauty. “The fragrance in the shadows is fresh and light.”¹⁶ This sentence is particularly poetic, as if the sweet fragrance of forest flowers had penetrated the moon shadows, which will have been inspired by the line “the night dew contains the fragrance of flowers”¹⁷ in the poem of Emperor Yang of Sui. At the end of the poem, it says: “the moon over the river suddenly disappears, and the flowers on the river cannot bloom.”¹⁸ On the surface, this is about the moon over the river and the flowers on the river, but in fact it expresses the meaning of life: a certain sense of impermanence. The last line is: “only the tide on the river still surrounds Jiangcheng.”¹⁹ This work has the charm of a poem, with a lingering rhyme; the words used are limited, but there are no boundaries to its meaning.

Again, looking at Itō Tōgai’s 伊藤東涯 (1670–1736) “Kōjyōkagetsunouta” 江上花月歌:

Itō Tōgai was the son of Itō Jinsai 伊藤仁斋 (1627–1705), the founder of the Kogigaku School (古義學派). Both the Kogigaku School and the Kobunjigaku School, to which Ogyū Sorai was affiliated, were known for their anti-Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) ideology. Ogyū and Itō were contemporaries. They both drafted their own versions of “Chunjiang huayue ye” and may have been influenced by the popularity of Tangshi xuan. Itō’s poem is not an outright imitation of Zhang’s poem. The words chun 春 (spring) and ye 夜 (night) in the original work do not appear in the title of his poem. However, this poem continues the theme of the impermanence of life found in Zhang’s poem and Zhang is even quoted directly. The sentence “Wealth is not permanent, and people tend to pass on” is the core idea contained in this poem. Spring, river, flowers, the moon, and night are five independent and closely connected images in Zhang’s poem, and Itō highlights the two images of “moon on the river” and “flowers on the river,” which is intended to express the idea that “the moon on the river makes one feel time is fleeting and years are rushing by.” In it, a person feels powerless in grasping the passage of life, and as autumn follows spring by the river, an individual feels they are unable to restore the sequence of time. The river flowers and the river moon are originally very poetic images, but in the face of the eternal universe, their “rising and falling” are images independent of the human will, and in the poem they appear as “fierce.” Therefore, whether it is the gold ornaments in the emerald tent or the Wuling youthful spirit like a rainbow, these will eventually become rusty, or turn into dust in the face of time. As a Confucian who believes in rationalism, Itō does not believe in the existence of Danqiu 丹丘 (the land of immortals). The last two lines of this poem raise the theme of the poem to the level of the universe. In the face of the eternal universe, humans are as insignificant as ants. As a Confucian scholar, Itō thinks about how to leave his own traces in the universe, thereby overcoming the tension caused by the impermanence of the moon and the flowers. This poem by Itō not only reflects on the impermanence of wealth, but also questions the universe and life. It can be said to be a poem with considerable philosophical depth among East Asian works that imitate “Chunjiang huayue ye.”

3 “Chunjiang huayue ye” and Sinographic Literature in Korea

The spread of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in Korea is connected to the literary exchanges between China and Korea in the Ming dynasty. During the reign of King Sŏnjo 宣祖 of Chosŏn (r. 1568–1608), the works and literary thoughts of Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen had spread onto the Korean Peninsula and enjoyed a widespread influence. In Volume 34 of the Nongamjip 農巖集, Kim Ch’ang-hyŏp 金昌協 (1651–1708) says: “In the times of King Sŏnjo, literati were thriving, and many among them studied materials from the Tang dynasty. The poems of Wang and Li were gradually spreading eastwards, and people began to admire and imitate them.”²¹

Before King Sŏnjo, it was popular in Korean poetry circles to imitate the Song (960–1279) dynasty style. During the Sŏnjo period, a wave of ancestral-style Tang poetry emerged, represented by the “Three Tang” (santang 三唐) poets.²² With the arrival of the poems of Wang and Li to the east, the retrospective theory of “ancient rhetoric” (guwenci 古文辭) advocated by the mid-Ming dynasty scholars also became popular in Korea. Poetry anthologies compiled by people in the Ming dynasty, such as Gujin shishan and the Tangshi pinhui,²³ spread to Korea, and so Korean literati also read “Chunjiang huayue ye” in these anthologies. In his Namch’ŏn illok 南遷日錄, Song Sang-ki 宋相琦 (1657–1723) says: “Over the past years, I have been busy with official duties from morning to night every day, and I am exhausted. Whenever it is late at night and the moon is in the sky, I will begin to recite Tang poems such as Zhang Ruoxu’s ‘Chunjiang huayue’ and Bai Juyi’s 白居易 ‘Pipa xing’ 琵琶行 to express my feelings. These two poems are both works that I like to read.”²⁴ Clearly, “Chunjiang huayue ye” had become routine reading material for Korean literati.

Versions of “Chunjiang huayue ye” in Korea’s Chinese literature are all response poems. Kim Yang-gŭn’s 金養根 (1754–1809) “Ch’a jang yak’ŏ ch’un’gang hwawŏl ya un” 次張若虛春江花月夜韻 says:

The meaning in Zhang’s poem is relatively profound, but this poem is thematically limited to grievances between friends in the boudoir; the identity of the protagonist in Zhang’s poem is relatively vague, but the protagonist of this poem is a woman. Zhang’s poem shows clear consciousness of the universe when expressing emotions: “Who was it who first saw the moon by the river? When did the moon on the river first shine on people?”²⁶ These are questions about life and have universal significance. The rhetorical questions of this poem, however, such as “who is watching the moon with us tonight, from far away?” are limited to the author’s own personal time and space, thus seeming less grand in scope than Zhang’s poem. If we look at literary techniques, the poem introduces repetitive and progressive syntax: “The first song welcomes the man and the full moon,” “The second song welcomes the man, and the moon is like a dream,” “The third song welcomes the man as he steps on the flowers”; the poem borrows the tone of a man longing for a woman to express how the author misses a good and dear person. Write down the longing for your beloved, and the feeling of longing changes with the passage of time. At the time of the full moon, lovers made an appointment after dusk, wearing new makeup and leaning against their abode, looking sadly at people in the distance, but they could not see the person they had missed for a long time, only vines hanging from a yellow platform. The bright moon is in the sky, the moonlight is like a dream, the lotus dew is thinning, one puts their heart into music, but no one responds. The moon is setting in the west, and dawn is about to end the night. The missing woman is alone in the empty lovesickness, hugging the green cloth alone, and has not seen her beloved yet. River flowers wither easily, implying that beauty ages easily. The last couplet talks about a pair of mandarin ducks flying together, but this is really a metaphor for being alone in an empty house. In the poem, Kim Yang-gŭn uses the traditional conversive style to try and understand the thoughts of a wife. Although the feelings are sincere, they are not detailed enough in the end.

Cho In-yŏng 趙寅永 (1782–1850) says in his “Kajil byŏnggu bodangin jangyak’ŏ ch’un’gang hwawŏl un yŏngsang wŏnwŏl yo byŏnhaebu jisun dongbu jak shisa ilgasa yŏyŏk kujŏm hŭich’a” 家侄秉龟步唐人张若虚春江花月韵咏上元月邀卞海夫持淳同赋作诗社一佳事余亦口占戏次:

Although this poem is a response to Zhang’s poem, it is not as close to the original as the Chinese versions. The correlation between this poem and the original poem is weak. In a poem entitled “Chunjiang huayue ye,” most attention is given to the moon. The moon is in the poem’s title, while the other four key images are less prominent. The detachment and lovesickness thoughts that are found in Zhang’s poems do not appear in this poem at all. Because this poem was written for the “Poetry Society” (shishe 詩社), the poem highlights a communicative coloration. This poem also has a distinct characteristic of Chinese poetry in Korea, which is to incorporate logic into the poem. During the Chosŏn era (1392–1910), Zhu Xi’s ideology was the mainstream ideological doctrine. When Korean scholars were writing articles, they could not help but use poetry to express their reasoning. According to Yun Chong-hyŏn’s 尹定铉 (dates unknown) “Unsŏk yugo seo” 雲石遺稿序, Cho In-yŏng’s father “was proficient in studying the Book of Changes.” Cho In-yŏng may also have been influenced by his family’s studies, and this is why his poem also has lines such as “Once the moon is full, it will wane. This principle has been discussed in the Book of Changes.”²⁸ Although this poem is a “playful” response, because the author invested a lot of personal emotions in it, the meaning is relatively profound.

4 Conclusion

As a literary classic, “Chunjiang huayue ye” has had a mixed reception in the history of modern Chinese literature in East Asia. The similarity is that the canonization of “Chunjiang huayue ye” is closely related to the spread of literary ideas in East Asia by Li Panlong, Wang Shizhen and others among the Later Seven Masters (hou qi zi 後七子). Li and Wang’s ideology of returning to classical writing changed the fate of this poem, while books such as Gujin shishan and Tangshi xuan compiled by Li Panlong or published under his name promoted the reading of the poem in East Asia. The thoughts of Li and Wang spread eastward to Japan and Korea, triggering the tendency to return to classics and Tang dynasty poetry style in both countries. It was in this cultural atmosphere that “Chunjiang huayue ye” was read, understood, and imitated.

The reception of “Chunjiang huayue ye” was also very different in the three countries discussed in this paper. In the long term, from the perspective of Chinese literature, East Asian annotations, reviews, and drafts of the poem basically all appeared in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, there is a time lag in the acceptance of the poem by these same three countries. Drafts of, and commentaries on, the poem appeared in China from the mid to late Ming dynasty; Japan was influenced by the Kobunjigaku School and by Tangshi xuan about a century later, and many drafts and annotations then appeared because of this. Korea was influenced by Li and Wang’s return to the classical thought earlier, but response poems to “Chunjiang huayue ye” appeared latest in Korea. Although imitations of the poem in the history of Chinese literature within East Asia are all closely connected to Zhang’s poem, and most of them are direct response poems, the imitations are quite different in the three respective countries. The Chinese ones are relatively close to the original poem, and the imagery, vocabulary, and themes used are basically directly derived from Zhang’s work. Therefore, these works cannot escape the influence of the original poem, and consequently lack innovation in conception and technique. There are no response works in Japan, so there is no need to follow the rules of Zhang’s writing style. Many Japanese authors of imitation poems were Confucianists, and their philosophical thought runs through their work, highlighting the theme of wealth being impermanent and that of people ageing easily, thus echoing the interpretation of Edo sinologists, who say that “Chunjiang huayue ye” is about “the impermanence of life.” Although Korean response poems are like Zhang’s work in terms of sound and rhyme, they deviate from the original lyrical paradigm of Zhang’s poem. In some lines, Korean cultural elements are integrated into these works, adding Neo-Confucian elements to the poems.

Translated by Caterina Weber