Teaching Classical Chinese Poetry through Reception Studies

This paper discusses the contribution reception studies can make to the pedagogy of Chinese poetry. It introduces the major theoretical concepts of reception studies, and then demonstrates how those concepts can be applied in and incorporated into courses on Chinese poetry, using examples of “poetry of fields and garden” and “poems on history” drawn from the author’s own experience teaching courses in Chinese poetry in the U.S. and Canada. Finally, it provides a selected bibliography of works on reception studies, translations of Chinese poetry, and scholarship which uses reception studies to research Chinese poetry and culture. Teaching classical Chinese poetry through reception studies helps students better understand the way the significance of Chinese poetry changes over time. It also aids students to further develop their critical thinking and analytical writing skills as they work to compare the reception of certain poems or poets in different periods.

Students who take courses in Chinese literature in the United States do so for an eclectic assortment of reasons. They might be required to take such a course in order to major in Chinese and/or East Asian Studies; or (as is the case at the liberal arts college where I teach) to fulfill a humanities or cultural diversity requirement; or they might simply be students of modern China seeking to broaden their understanding of Chinese culture. Catering to the needs and interests of these different groups in a single course can be challenging. The most popular approach to teaching such courses is to move chronologically from the pre-modern period into the contemporary era, but my approach, influenced by reception studies, has been instead to focus on the reception of key pieces and stories over the course of Chinese literature's long and continuous tradition. This approach has been particularly useful for teaching classical Chinese poetry, which was practiced and appreciated, both publicly and privately, by scholar-officials in pre-modern China. This article begins with a basic introduction to reception studies and its application to Chinese poetry. It then describes courses I have taught and course materials I have used that incorporate reception studies.

Hans Robert Jauss's Reception Studies and Its Application to Chinese Poetry
My pedagogical approach is mainly informed by "Rezeptionsästhetik," a critical lens pioneered by Hans Robert Jauss and his colleagues at the University of Konstanz, Wolfgang Iser and Jurij Striedter. "Rezeptionsästhetik"-usually rendered in English as "aesthetics of reception" or occasionally as "reader-response criticism" or "affective 1 I would like to thank the journal editors Marsha Smith and Hong Zhang, the two anonymous reviewers, and Dylan Suher and Amanda S. Robb for their comments. I am also grateful for the Visiting Scholar Fellowship I received from the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University and for the Young Scholars' Visiting Fellowship I received from the Asia-Pacific Center for Chinese Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong, which enabled me to complete this research. Part of this article is based on my Ph.D. dissertation completed at the University of Toronto.

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stylistics"-challenges conventional author-centered hermeneutics and methods for writing literary history. The approaches of Jauss, Iser, Streidter, and others connected with the "aesthetics of reception" school all differ from one another in subtle ways. I find Jauss's approach most useful for the classroom, because, as the literary critic and theorist Terry Eagleton points out: Iser is aware of the social dimension of reading, but chooses to concentrate largely on its aesthetic aspects; a more historically-minded member of the school of Constance is Hans Robert Jauss, who seeks in Gadamerian fashion to situate a literary work within its historical horizon, the context of cultural meanings within which it was produced, and then explores the shifting relations between this and the changing horizon of its historical readers (Eagleton 2008, 72).
Thus, Jauss's method, with its greater awareness of the function of history, is most relevant to a course on literary history. Jauss saw literary history as a way to draw the reader into the work of interpretation. As Jauss commented in his 1967 speech "Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory," "The historical life of a literary work is unthinkable without the active participation of its addressees" (Jauss 1982, 19). Jauss's goal in promoting the aesthetics of reception was to establish a new model for literary theory and criticism, centered on an aesthetics of reception and influence that accounted for readers' active participation in understanding and interpreting literary works. According to Jauss, readers do not passively accept the meaning of a literary work, but rather, their interpretations enrich and diversify its intended connotations.
Furthermore, Jauss felt that the meaning of a literary work can only be fully appreciated by those readers who are familiar with the author's other works or with similar authors' works. For this reason, literary history was a central and complex component of Jauss's hermeneutic framework: "The historicity of literature rests not on an organization of 'literary facts' that is established post festum, but rather on the preceding experience of the literary work by its readers" (Jauss 1982, 20). Jauss felt that the extent to which a reader understands a literary work is determined by that reader's "horizon of expectation," a baseline of knowledge formed by familiarity with similar works, shared diction, figures of speech, allusions, and other aspects of a literary tradition. Paul H. Fry explains that Jauss's "horizon of expectation" is an effort to apply a dynamic, diachronic understanding of Hans-Georg Gadamer's "merger of horizons" to literary studies: What Jauss has to say about horizons of expectation is a way of thinking through the conditions in which Gadamer's "merger of horizons" is possible. But for Jauss it's not just one reader's horizon and the horizon of the text that need to meet halfway in mutual illumination. Such mergers take place or fail to do so along a succession of horizons that change as modes of aesthetic and interpretive response to texts are mediated by historical circumstances (Fry 2012, 216-217).
It is, in other words, a multidimensional process, in which the meaning of the text and the reader's horizon of expectation transform in response to each other and to a changing historical context. Even if a reader cannot readily assimilate a text into a familiar interpretive framework, that very aesthetic distance can expand that readers' horizon of expectations either "through negation of familiar experiences or through raising newly articulated experiences to the level of consciousness" (Jauss 1982, 25  Although the audiovisual materials are a useful supplement for readings which can sometimes be dense or alien, reading the primary sources is still essential, so I explicitly emphasize the importance of reading the primary sources, and during lectures I lead discussions based on questions for both the written and audiovisual materials.

Case Studies: "Poetry of Fields and Gardens" and "Poems on History"
The course I offer on Chinese poetry begins with a broad introduction to reception studies, centering on Jauss's theoretical framework, and the ways in which scholars apply reception theory to the study of Chinese poetry. The course then focuses on some of the major genres of premodern Chinese poetry. In this section, I will briefly describe how I use reception studies to help students understand the poetic subgenres of "poetry of fields and gardens" and "poems on history".

Poetry of Fields and Gardens
The premodern Chinese genre of "poetry of fields and gardens" is a rough analogue for the Western pastoral. In my discussion-based lecture, I focus on the "poetry of fields and gardens" of Tao Yuanming, a poet of the Six Dynasties (220-589). Before the lecture, students are asked to gather information about Tao and his poetry, with the expectation that, as is often the case with the current generation of college students, they will first turn to Google. The information they find through Google or Wikipedia is, of course (and as I am careful to remind them), not reliable and can be edited or altered by anyone at any time. It does, however, give my students some This historical perspective is invaluable for making clear to students why Tao is so important to read. Instructors who teach Tao tend to focus on two poems, "Returning to Live in the Country" and "Drinking Wine," which I have provided below: Returning to Live in the Country … The confined bird longs for its old forest; The fish in the pond thinks of its former depths.
I have opened up waste land at the edge of the south wild; I have kept rusticity, returned to garden and fields.
Elms and willows give shade to the rear eaves; Peaches and plums are arrayed before the hall.

Faint are the villages of distant men;
Thick is the smoke from their houses.

Dogs bark in the depths of the lanes;
Cocks crow at the tops of mulberries (Davis 1983, 45-46). The mountains' aspect is fair at close of day; The flying birds return in flocks.
In this there is a true idea, But when I would express it, I forget the words (Davis 1983, 96).
These poems are richly resonant and are ideal for practicing close reading; students tend to appreciate them without much context. I have found, however, that although students like the poems, they struggle to understand why they have played such an important role in Chinese literary history. Students (especially those who themselves come from rural areas) can quickly discern how the straightforwardness of his style fits his material, but they often cannot understand the broader cultural significance of these poems. Introducing some of the concepts of Daoism that were current in the Six Dynasties and which likely influenced Tao can give them a synchronic context, but not a diachronic one.

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In addition to Davis's translation, students are also required to read pieces of criticism, which shaped the initial reception of Tao Yuanming during the Six Dynasties and the Tang dynasty (618-907). These include Yan Yanzhi's 顏延之 (384-456) eulogy of Tao, Xiao Tong's 蕭統 (501-531) preface to the selection of Tao's poems in the Wen xuan 文選 anthology, Zhong Rong's 鍾嶸 (ca. 468-ca. 518) evaluation of his pentasyllabic poems, and several poems which imitate Tao's style. This early reception of Tao and his works is markedly different than the simple image they have found online. I guide students through these readings with a series of study questions: What did Tao's contemporaries think of his writings and character?
Did they see Tao as a major poet? Why or why not?
What characteristics of Tao Yuanming did they praise?
How and why does the image of Tao we find in the Six Dynasties sources differ from the one we find in the standard narrative of literary history?
At the beginning of class, I usually start with Zhang Rong's comments on Tao. According to Zhong, "[Tao's] poetic form is spare and placid, with almost no excess of words. His earnest thought is sincere and classical. His verbalized inspirations are congenial and appropriate. Each time I look at his writings, I think of the virtuousness of his character" (Swartz 2008, 110). I note how Zhong seems more interested in Tao as a character than in Tao's poems, and point out how that emphasis was typical for Six Dynasties critics of Tao. Xiao was an enthusiast for Tao's writings because he felt they reflected Tao's moral values. Tao's poetry was the most effective way to connect with the man himself. In the preface, Xiao attributes an almost magical effect to reading Tao's poetry: It is said that, People who are able to read Yuanming's writings Become free of their competitive nature; Dispelled of ignoble intention.
The greedy can be made abstinent; The cowardly can be made courageous. Not only will one be able to tread the realm of benevolence and propriety; He can also relinquish his position and salary.
It is not necessary that One travels to Taihua Mountain, Or spans great distances to consult the Pillar Scribe. This is, for its part, conducive to moral teaching (Wang 2010, 214).
The significance of Tao's poetry for Xiao is that reading it has a practical effectnamely, his writings can be used to cultivate moral character. Additionally, by using the phrase "It is said" in the first line, Xiao indicates that the opinion expressed in the preface was widely shared by contemporary literati.

By reading Zhong Rong and Xiao Tong's comments, students gain an understanding of what intellectuals in the Six Dynasties felt was important about
Tao and about literature as a whole. Neither Zhong nor Xiao considered Tao a major poet. His simple language and straightforward style was an outlier in a time when most well-received literature was characterized by ornate language and parallelism.
Six Dynasties critics often enjoyed his poetry, but did not think it was particularly remarkable; Xiao Tong only included a very limited selection of Tao's poetry in his Wen xuan. Instead of celebrating Tao for his poetry, Zhong and Xiao celebrated him as a virtuous hermit who abandoned the official life for his lofty ideas, and simply happened to enjoy writing poetry.
To try to understand how Tao was eventually placed in such a lofty position within the canon, we then spend time on the reception of Tao's writings during the Tang dynasty, when they were far more appreciated than they were in Tao's own time. Tang poets borrowed and alluded to many of the archetypal images found in his poetry.
Students are asked to read the translation of Tao's poems, along with a chapter from Next, a borrowed image can be given a twist in a new context…. Furthermore, one can use two conventional images in antithesis so as to give them some fresh force" (Liu 1962, 115-117). With this background, students discuss several Tang poems which allude to Tao. I usually teach, for example, "Stopping by the Homestead of an Old We unroll our mats and face the yard and garden, Holding our wine cups, we chat of mulberry and hemp.
I'll wait for the Double Ninth, And return for the chrysanthemum blossoms! (Swartz 2008, 167) In this well-known poem, Meng uses images and themes borrowed from Tao-wine, a rustic home, mulberries, chrysanthemums-to develop his own style of writing about "fields and gardens." Readers familiar with Tao will have a deeper gesture of the persona Meng is trying to construct through this poem. The secondary scholarship on the reception of Tao, which students have already read at this point, argues that Meng borrowed from Tao to distinguish his poetry from the then-dominant style of palace poems, which were famous for their ornate diction and parallel structures.
Through these discussions, students gradually develop an image of Tao much more complex than the conventional images they might find on the web and in popular media. My hope is that my lessons on Tao will help them to understand the utility of reception studies, and, more generally, will train them to think critically about popular conventional narratives.

Poems on History
While a reception-studies-informed approach is useful for teaching the poetry As the state of Qin expanded, it began to threaten Yan, prompting a senior official to mention Jing Ke as someone who might be willing to assassinate the Qin king, and so Jing Ke was eventually invited to meet the Prince of Yan. Initially, he was hesitant to undertake this mission. However, after several conversations with (and many gifts from) the prince, Jing Ke finally agreed to the task of assassination. Jing Ke nevertheless continued to drag his feet, claiming that he was waiting for a friend to assist him in the journey. The prince gradually lost patience and demanded that Jing Ke assassinate the Qin king immediately. Jing Ke finally assented and asked for two items which would be gifts so substantial that his request for a personal audience with the king of Qin might be granted: the head of General Fan Wuqi 樊於期 (d. 227 BCE), a Qin traitor, and a map of Dukang, a region of Yan, a gesture that would signify that Yan was ceding the territory to Qin. In addition to these two items, he requested a poisonous dagger, which he hid by rolling it up inside the map. With the map and the head of General Fan, Jing Ke was granted permission to enter the king's presence.

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As if there were no people around.

…
Although superiors regarded themselves valuable, He saw them as dust and dirt.
Although inferiors regarded themselves lowly, He treated them as if they were worth their weight in gold (Zhang 2017, 96 I am putting the book aside and sigh deeply, One can see the sentiments lingering throughout the ages (Pine 2008, 14). 16 Students must apply the knowledge they have developed over the course thus far to detect the subtleties of how poets framed the story of Jing Ke's biography. The in which Zuo lived. Tao Yuanming, on the other hand, highlights Jing Ke's loyalty to Prince Dan, and his heroic attack on a tyrant. Su Shi holds a more complex and ambivalent attitude towards Jing Ke than either of the earlier two poets, believing that the assassination was shortsighted and ill-planned, but nevertheless moved by Jing Ke's courage and grieved by the story's conclusion. As Pine explains, "Rationally, the plot to assassinate the king of Qin was a miserable failure, and its performers do not deserve laudations. Nonetheless, one cannot help but admire Jing Ke's integrity and commitment, which are hinted at through the reference to Tao Qian [Tao Yuanming] and to the Shiji narrative." (Pine 2008, 15) Many of these differences can be attributed to the different life experiences and historical backgrounds of the three poets, who lived during the Western Jin dynasty, the Eastern Jin (317-420)/Liu Song (420-479) dynasties, and the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) respectively. Students have read some background materials on these historical periods and so they naturally link the socio-political history of each era with the poets' different readings on the same historical figure. By studying the various interpretations of the Jing Ke story, students gain an awareness of the moral debates surrounding this well-known assassination. They also learn something about literary appropriation by seeing how each poet has adopted a different approach for using historical lore-changing a historical figure's image, adding a new plot to the existing one, or offering a new interpretation of an old story.  (1950-) Hero. The first hews relatively closely to the version provided by the Records and Strategies, while the second alters that narrative significantly. These adaptations render the poems the students have read into concrete filmic images, making these historical topics more approachable.
Teaching poems on history through the lens of reception studies reveals the intricacy and complexity of how poems use and disseminate historical lore. These lectures hopefully train students not only to critically examine the representations of history they read in poetry, but also the representations of history they find throughout the media they encounter in their daily lives. Chinese writers have adapted stories, events, and figures from history throughout the long Chinese literary tradition, right up to the present day. Such stories continue to shape national identity and character.

Conclusion
Reception studies traces developments in how readers understand poems. It is a perspective which illustrates how social, political, and intellectual environments outside of the text influence reception. This methodology reveals the complexities of how readers inherit, appropriate, or edit earlier sources, and how aesthetic tastes can change over the course of time.
This article has offered a method for using reception studies to teach classical Chinese poetry. It describes the theoretical background for such a course, the materials used in the course, and concrete examples from my experience teaching two major poetic subgenres: "poetry of fields and gardens" and "poems on history." Beyond the two examples given in this paper, the reception approach can also be used to teach other prominent Chinese poets, such as Li Bai, Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770), and Li Qingzhao 李清照 (1084-1155). As more and more English translations and secondary scholarship on the reception of these poets have been produced in recent years, a reception-studies-informed pedagogy has become increasingly viable. For the convenience of interested instructors, I have attached a short bibliography of sources that would be useful for such an approach.