Thesis/Chapter Two(continued)

2.3 Figurative Use of Plant-Names

 

The occurrence of a large number of plant-names constitutes a third feature of Chu Ci. At the time Qu Yuan was alive, China consisted of seven states fighting for dominance of the known civilized world. The Sate of Chu was the southernmost state, located in the Yangtze Valley. It lay on the southern fringe of Chinese culture of the time, being located in an area of exotic plants and shamanistic religion. In this land of wonder, Qu Yuan developed depth of feeling and a wealth of imagination as well as an intense love for Nature. So he loved and praised the orange tree, and was fond of all fragrant plants and tried to cultivate them. He was attached to the scenery of the south, feeling himself one with it. Following the popular beliefs he personified streams and hills and other natural objects, investing them with an infinite charm. In his poems Wu Mountain （巫山） has its nymph, the Xiang River its goddess, while sun and clouds all have their male or female deities; and these spirits are often made to fall deeply in love with each other or with human beings. So the figurative use of plant-names is a natural growth from the local cultural tradition of Chu.

According to the statistics done by Cao Dazhong 7（曹大中1935-）in his book Qu Yuan’s Thoughts and His Literary Arts  （《屈原的思想和文学艺术》）， Qu Yuan has mentioned followers, grass and trees for about 235 times in his works. Huang Bosi （黄伯思）points out:“兰，茝，藥，蕙，若，蘅者，楚物也。” For example, the plants involved in Li Sao including: 江离， 辟芷，木兰，宿莽，申椒，菌桂，蕙，茝，留夷，揭车，芳芷，秋菊，木根，薜荔，胡绳，芰荷，芙蓉，幽兰，琼枝，藑茅，萧艾，樧 and so on. And many plant-names can also be found in other poems of Qu Yuan such as Shan Gui which mentions the following plants: 薜荔，石兰，杜衡，三秀，杜若，女萝 and so on.

Usually, these plants are symbols that stand for or represent something else beyond it. For example, in Chu Ci, Qu Yuan often uses xiangcao （香草）to symbolize virtuous persons, and xiaoai（萧艾）to denote base persons. Within the discussion of literature, some symbols are “conventional” or “public”: thus “the Cross”,” the Red, White, and Blue,” and “the Good Shepherd” are terms that refer to symbolic objects of which the further significance is determinate within a particular culture. However, many poets like Qu Yuan use “private” or “personal” symbols whose significance they largely generate themselves, and these pose a more difficult question in interpretation.

As I have expounded at the beginning of this chapter, the term ‘culture’ addresses three salient axis: the diachronic axis of time, the synchronic axis of time and the metaphoric axis of the imagination. As an inevitable consequence of the previous statement, these plant-names are meaningless until they are placed into the historical and social contexts and linked to the individual who manoeuvre them. So what kind of association between the symbol and the object it stands for varies from culture to culture or even person to person.

And most of these plants are lexical items of whose referents lie outside the experience of the western reader, the flower ‘lan’ is case in point. So one of the difficulties in translating Chu Ci is the translation of these symbolic plants. In order to preserve this feature of the original and at the same time make the translated test accessible to the target reader, the translator has to choose proper rendition techniques. Arthur Waley remarks that “in a translation like mine that aims at giving as far as possible an impression of the literary quality of the original, one must try to use English words, even if they are only makeshifts. ”8

 

2.4 Allusions and References

 

In addition to the formal properties and the plant-names, allusion and reference is another challenge to the translators of Chu Ci.

To begin with, it is necessary to define the term for the sake of argumentation. In A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams defines the term as “a passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Since allusions are not explicitly identified, they imply a fund of knowledge that is shared by an author and the audience for whom the author writes. Most literary allusions are intended to be recognized by the generally educated readers of the author’s time, but some are aimed at a special coterie.” 9 The definition is similar to that given in Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms:

 

Allusion, an indirect or passing reference to some event, person, place, or artistic work, the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned. 10

 

Again, the perception of the meaning of an allusion is weighed through the historical, social contexts and even individual experience, and therefore the meaning of an allusion cannot be perceived by the readers from different historical and social contexts and with different individual experience since it is completely built on the basis of three axis of culture.

Qu Yuan used many allusions in his poetry, which can be illustrated by Tian Wen. Tian Wen is considered to be one of the most unusual and baffling texts in all of Chinese literature. It consists entirely of a long series of mysterious and essentially unanswered queries concerning the origin and nature of the universe, founding of civilization by various semidivine beings, and the complicated affairs of the rulers of the legendary and historical kingdoms right up to the time of poet himself. Most of the questions are of such maddening obscurity that they are extremely difficult to interpret, let alone answer. Tian Wen is the locus classicus for much of the lore that it mentions. Qu Yuan uses one Chinese character 曰 (‘Tis said) to introduce 172questions, concerning cosmology, geography, mythology and history. D. Hawkes realized this feature of Tian Wen and remarked:

 

Heavenly Questions (Tian Wen) is in some ways the most fascinating of the seventeen works in the Chu Ci anthology. From it we were able to gain a comprehensive picture of the world and its history as seen through the eyes of a Chinese living in about the fourth century B. C. At the same time its style is so cryptic, the text is in so confused a state, and the traditions referred to in it so often irrecoverably lost, that we are frequently left in infuriating uncertainty as to its real meaning.11

 

Only a few lines from Tian Wen will suffice to exemplify this:

 

中央共牧，后何怒？

蜂蛾微命，力何固？

惊女采薇，鹿何祐？

北至回水，萃何喜？

兄有噬犬，弟何欲？

 

2.5 Summary

 

The term “culture” constitutes itself along three axes: the diachronic axis of time, the synchronic axis of space, and the metaphoric axis of the imagination. And a phenomenon is made meaningful only when it is placed into the historical and social contexts and linked to the individual experience. Chu Ci contains three categories of cultural implication, namely, the formal property, the figurative of the plant-names, as well as the use of allusions and references.

Special attention has been given to the reason why the xi-sentence pattern is viewed as a cultural sign. In addition, the meaning of these cultural components is built on the basis of historical and social contexts and the individual experience, and the perception of it is nearly impossible for the readers from a different culture. These are major difficulties that a translator of Chu Ci will encounter.

 

Notes:

1.      Nostrand, Howard, “Authentic texts and cultural authenticity: An editorial”, Modern Language Journal, 73(1), 1989, pp. 49-52.

2.      Sun Dayu, Tran. Selected Poems of Chu Yuan, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1996, p.76.

3.      姜亮夫，“《九歌》“兮”字用法释例”，《 楚辞学论文集》，上海：上海古籍出版社, 1984年，第65页

4.      林庚，“楚辞里 “兮”字的性质”，《时人屈原及其作品研究》，上海：上海古籍出版社, 1981年，第83页

5.      郭建勋，《先唐辞赋研究》，北京：人民出版社，2004年版，第 87页

6.      闻一多，《诗与歌》，《闻一多全集第一卷》，第468页。

7.      参见曹大中，《屈原的思想与文学艺术》，湖南出版社，1991年。

8.      A. Waley, Chiu Ko-The Nine Songs, p. 17.

9.      M. H. Abrams，A Glossary of Literary Terms, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2004, p.43.

10.  Chris Baldick, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000, p.132.

11.  D. Hawkes, Ch’u Tz’u: The Songs of the South, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1959, p.44.