Animals and Aquatic Vegetation representing courtship in Ancient Chinese Poetry

Stephen Dwyer

October 13, 2014

Animals and Aquatic Vegetation representing courtship in Ancient Chinese Poetry.

The quest for romance and partnership has been discussed, idealized, and debated for thousands of years. Modern day people use books, dating websites, and media to try to understand what it means to successfully search for and attain a mate. Back in Ancient China, when these resources were unavailable, poetry was commonly used to elaborate on this ubiquitous topic. While some poems, such as “Fishhawk” from the Classics of Poetry, aim to teach people what an ideal courtship consists of, others, such as “South of the River” from the Han yueh-fu, simply describe the actions and emotions associated with searching for a partner. In this essay, I will analyze the purpose of the two poems mentioned above and explain how imagery of animals and cultivating aquatic vegetation represents searching for and courting a mate in these two ancient Chinese poems. In addition, I will also analyze why Confusion scholars, who cherished poems of the Classics of Poetry, such as “Fishhawk,” would go on to disestablish the yueh-fu and its poems, such as “South of the River.”

The first poem in Confucius’ Classics of Poetry, “Fishhawk,” uses the images of a fishhawk, watercress, and instruments to teach commoners of the delight and sorrow of searching for a harmonious relationship. The first two lines establish the setting and tone of the poem. Line two establishes that the poem takes place at a stream, while line one uses the image of a fishhawk to establish the tone. Chinese poetry often uses the image of a fishhawk, or more commonly known as an osprey, to represent the ideal relationship between a man and a woman. When mating, the female osprey stays in her nest while the male osprey performs a long mating dance for the female while loudly crying guan guan from afar. This long act of foreplay, which is followed by a very short sexual encounter, idealizes the value of long and formal courtship in ancient China. Therefore, this poem, which opens with the crying of the fishhawk, suggests that it will contemplate the mating behavior of these creatures. Lines three and four introduce a fair maiden and a prince, whose mating behavior will be compared to and represented by the ospreys. Already, after only sixteen Chinese characters, the reader has an idea of what the poem will focus on and an understanding of its tone.

Stanza two progresses this poem to the image of watercress. While some may interpret the watercress as representing fertility, I argue that instead the repetition of cultivating watercress in three out of five stanzas signifies the passing of time. Therefore, stanza two only serves to establish the image of gathering watercress and also to establish the prince’s desire for the fair maiden. This desire grows more and more by stanza three, which further describes the Prince’s pain from his patience. Finally, stanza four and five build on each other and both seem to have similar meanings and messages. The first two lines of each stanza continue the image of the watercress to show the continuation of time, while the other lines display the images of harps, bells, and drums, which all represent the human equivalence of the guan guan cry and dance. The end of stanza five clearly displays the maiden’s delight with the prince’s courtship, both in his patience and his display. Especially considering the title of the poem, I assert that ospreys represent the ideal courters in ancient Chinese culture, the guan guan cry and dance represents the prince’s instruments, and the long and abstinent courtship that the fishhawk and the prince both share represents the ideal, methodical method for searching for a mate in ancient Chinese culture. Though sorrow fills the poems second and third stanza, the delight of its beginning and ending stanzas truly encourage readers and listeners to follow the fishhawks’ way.

The folksong from the Han yueh-fu, “South of the River,” uses the images of fish and watercress to simply describe and intensify the joyous emotions of searching for romance. From a strictly historical point of view, this poem is simply a work song, such as those found in the intro to movies such as Dreamworks’ The Prince of Egypt or Universal Studios’ Les Miserables, which are sang in unison while men or women pick lotus. Yet, from an analytical and critical point of view, the poem holds a much deeper meaning.

In ancient times, Chinese people often associated the lotus plant to love. So, in “South of the River,” the lotus leaves represent love. The fish in this poem simply represent people. Therefore, the image of fish swimming in the lotus leaves represents and celebrates the act of people searching for a mate. The choice of the word “play” instead of “swim” in this seven line, single stanza, pentactic poem establishes a happy tone throughout.

Like many other pentasyllabic poems of the Han music bureau collection, this impersonal poem provides a universal and stereotyped characterization of a familiar topic in society, searching for love. While “South of the River” displays no didactic properties, and only descriptive ones, it did serve a purpose for its time. For this poem, or commonly called folksong, Chinese men and women would chant it together while cultivating lotus leaves, reminding themselves of the joys of searching for love, and even amplifying their joyous emotions through their repetitive chant.

“Fishhawk” and “South of the River” share many broad similarities. Most notably, both “Fishhawk” and “South of the River” share similar fascinations with the theme of courtship and searching for a mate. In addition to this, each poem establishes a joyous tone. Also, the settings of each poem are similar, with both established near bodies of water, the former on the bank of a stream and the latter south of a river. This setting correlates strongly with the poems’ themes of courtship. Not only do bodies of water generally imply life and home, but these two bodies of water, a stream and a river, are flowing, which implies change, such as the change that comes with finding a mate and ultimately finding marriage. Finally, both “Fishhawk” and “South of the River” display the images of animals and aquatic vegetation. In each, the animals in the poem represent people who are searching for love. This imagery makes it easier for common people to understand these poems because birds and fish mate so simply and so often. So if these two poems share so many similarities, why would the Confucian scholars despise those of the yueh-fu?

Even though, at face value, the two poems seem extremely similar, further analysis shows that indeed, they have many more differences than similarities, especially those in purpose, structure, complexity, and imagery meaning. First of all, while “Fishhawk” is didactic, “South of the River” is descriptive, both which very accurately epitomize the purposes of the poems from their respective groupings: the Classics and the yueh-fu. In addition to this, scholars are unsure of the origins of “Fishhawk,” whether it was created by commoners or by educated peoples and whether it was created for commoners or for ceremonies, such as a wedding. They are sure, however, that “South of the River” was certainly a folksong created by commoners for commoners. Second, the structures of these poems are extremely different and reflect their purpose. That of the yueh-fu includes two intro lines which are distinct, and then followed by five extremely simple and repetitive lines, all seven of which are in one stanza. Most likely, a group leader would chant the first two lines and then the rest of a group would all chant the last five lines together. Therefore, “South of the River’s” structure implies an oral significance and origin. “Fishhawk’s” four-line, four-character structure, however, shows far more formality and even begs the question of whether it began as an oral or a written piece. Not only do the differing structures imply a different origin, but they even imply different purposes. The extremely simple structure of “Fishhawk” leaves little distraction from the imagery and meaning of the poem and therefore forces the audience to learn its meaning. Contrastly, “South of the River’s” intentional easy-to-remember rhyming pattern helps field workers motivate themselves to continue working. Simply stated, the first poem is more for listening and learning while the second is more for remembering and reciting. Thirdly, “Fishhawk’s” tone and meaning are much more complex than “South of the River’s.” The latter poem gives only one tone of joy and happiness, and has little meaning besides describing through imagery the joys of searching for love. There are few layers and few points of view for this folksong. The former poem, on the other hand, displays many different tones, interpretations, and points of view. While the maiden’s delight at the end of the last stanza finishes “Fishhawk” with a tone of joy, the tossing from side to side in stanzas two and three, and the passage of time in stanzas two, four, and five, both establish a tone of sadness and pain, and give the reader or listener a feeling of sorrow from the patience of the prince. In addition, while my own interpretation of the poem focuses on courtship, many scholars have also interpreted it as a representation of King Wen of Zhou’s delight upon hearing that a mate had been found for his son. Clearly, “Fishhawk,” can be analyzed from many more different angles.

Finally, even though the complexity of both poems differ, both display plenty of imagery! While each poems’ animal imagery represents people, their aquatic vegetation imagery represent completely different things. “Fishhawk’s” reoccurring image of watercress being harvested simply represents the passing of time, while “South of the River’s” lotus imagery, like many other poems in Chinese history, represents love-making and romance. Also, while the two images in the yueh-fu’s poem, the fish and the lotus, are related to show people’s search for romance, the two images in the Classic’s poem, the osprey and the watercress, are fairly unrelated. While at face value, these two poems seem similar, a deeper understanding unfolds its many underlying differences.

After thorough analysis, it becomes obvious why the Confucian scholars disestablished the yueh-fu. While “Fishhawk” aimed to teach commoners about the importance of patience and method in courtship, “South of the River” simply celebrated the universal joys of searching for love. Especially for a Confucian scholar, who may rarely have ever cultivated or farmed anything, and who cherished the virtues of method and order, a work-folksong would not only seem fanciful and purposeless, but also irritate the scholar with its uncanny and erratic image of many fish swimming around. Nowadays, we are fortunate that, in addition to the many books, dating websites, and media outlets, we are able to critically analyze ancient Chinese poetry and search for its message about searching for love.

Classic of Poetry I “Fishhawk” translated by Stephen Own

The fishhawks sing guan guan

on sandbars of the stream.

Gentle maiden, pure and fair,

fit pair for a prince.

Watercress grows here and there,

right and left we gather it.

Gentle maiden, pure and fair,

wanted waking and asleep.

Wanting, sought her, had her not,

waking, sleeping, thought of her,

on and on he thought of her,

he tossed from one side to another.

Watercress grows here and there,

right and left we pull it.

Gentle maiden, pure and fair,

with harps we bring her company.

Watercress grows here and there,

right and left we pick it out.

Gentle maiden, pure and fair,

with bells and drums do her delight.

Han yueh-fu “South of the River” from Cai Zongqi’s article “Dramatic and Narrative Modes of Presentation in Han Yueh-fu”

South of the River [we] can pick lotus,

The lotus leaves are so luscious, luscious.

Fish play among lotus leaves.

Fish play east of lotus leaves.

Fish play west of lotus leaves.

Fish play south or the lotus leaves.

Fish play north of the lotus leaves.