The ambivalence of eulogy : a study of the Chinese sòng genre's evolution from seminal verse form to independent literary genre

Abstract

Among the many genres in classical Chinese literature, sòng 頌 (eulogy) was a staple that remained prominent and potent throughout Imperial China but has been marginalized in modern scholarship. Previous scholars often dismissed it as mere sycophancy or a means of personal advancement without recognizing its cultural significance as a time-honored literary tradition and social implications as a politically-driven genre in Chinese belles lettres. It is refreshing to see a recent revival of scholarly interest in sòng, subtly reflecting the social milieu of our time. Ever since the Han, the sòng has long been regarded as a signpost to Great Peace, a symbol of Pax Sinica. For an understudied text type like sòng, it is fraught with unasked questions and unresolved problems. The major challenge in studying Chinese eulogistic writings is their origin. While it is convenient to claim all literary genres were derived from the Five Classics, the tracing of the origin of sòng back to the Shijing (Classic of odes) is not speculative, or at least does not need to be proven, unlike the case of fu 賦 (rhapsody). One of the three sections in the collection is called Sòng or the Eulogia (a “eulogium” when referring to an ode in that section) and comprised of liturgical hymns and other uneasily categorized odes, making it a poetic grouping no less heterogeneous than their derivatives. But an obvious origin actually makes it harder for a reader to reconcile the discrepancy between the “proto-sòng” as a seminal verse form written only in the Zhou dynasty and the later sòng as an independent literary genre, continued to be composed from the Qin and Han dynasties onwards. The fact that the later sòng was as diverse and inclusive as a genre can further confound matters. Its various mutations include suburban sacrificial songs, verse on a single object, appraisals of historical figures, portrait encomia to commemorations of a military feat or inspection tour and ultimately laudations of the ruling house and the reigning dynasty. The question of how the Shijing-type of ode evolved into a type of half-prose, half-verse composition has not been properly addressed or even raised in recent scholarship. This study thus attempts to address the research gap by first proposing a “Double origin” theory of the genre, grounded in early literary criticism. It then discusses the keyword sòng and four other characters that were considered by different scholars as its original form by borrowing an etymological and semantic perspective. With reference to the rich scholarship on the Shijing and excavated texts, the discussion moves on to the Eulogia and tries to summarize the elusive qualities that made an eulogium stand apart from an ode. Finally, the study traces the evolutionary trajectory of sòng becoming a literary genre of its own, while retaining in its core certain characteristics of its antecedents. This study marks the first important step towards the rediscovery of a eulogistic tradition in Chinese literature that never ceases to evolve, especially in a time of peace and prosperity.