Explication of "Let's Play a Long One — 54 Rhyming Couplets, Also in Reply to garychangguo, Xutang, et al." (For Academic Discussion Only)

Xiaoren

(The long poem above, containing English letters, caused trouble on a certain forum. I later wrote an explanation, which I'm reposting here to avoid unnecessary problems again.)

What follows is written to clear up misunderstandings, though I'm sure the misunderstandings it once caused here will not be eliminated by this. The misunderstandings may stem from a generation gap. I belong to the generation that laughs out loud at Stephen Chow's most absurdist films, while many of the gentlemen here are two to three times my age — misunderstandings are only natural. The differences in taste and thought brought about by the generation gap are already amply demonstrated in reality; in virtual space, these differences are equally pronounced.

Back to the poem itself. Though I am a know-nothing, I have a rough understanding of the didactic poetic tradition from "The Song of the Crossbow Pellet" and "The Song of Striking the Soil" onward, and am also somewhat familiar with the admonitions of the masters of every dynasty. None of this puts any pressure on me. "Tang wind linked with Song rain / A thousand years and still no clearing" — two lines I once posted on this forum, which also serve as my answer to these matters. History is a graffiti wall full of floating symbols, not a rope that binds oneself and then others.

As for moral issues, although Chinese literati have long had the tradition of "ascending the hall with Airs, Elegantiae, and Hymns; under the covers with Jin Ping Mei" (otherwise many publishers today couldn't swindle money with titles like "The N Great X Forbidden Books"), and although Allen Ginsberg's poems, filled with sexual and even homosexual descriptions, could provide me with arguments for rebuttal (disclaimer: I bear no ill will toward those of the cut-sleeve persuasion), I don't wish to expound on this. After all, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Therefore, any characters not found in the Peach Blossom Spring dictionary will be replaced with X below.

"This nature, that nature — nature is not nature / I beg the poets to look more carefully" (may I ask: is the character for "nature/sex" in your esteemed township's dictionary?) — these lines, which I once posted on the forum, already answer the question of what "sex" signifies in "Let's Play a Long One — 54 Rhyming Couplets, Also in Reply to garychangguo, Xutang, et al." (hereafter abbreviated as "Play"). Moreover, "Play" does not express the classical theme of resistance (I'm sure many readers, even if they perceive a serious theme within, will be misled by the passage before the execution. But the lines "if there's food before death / bring two catties of hawthorn fruit" — which seem like casual asides — already clearly deconstruct any such reading). If one must explicitly state its theme, a post-modern reflection and the deconstruction of the post-modern is one of its orientations (while the pseudo-clarity of the theme and the disguise of the post-modern form an ironic relationship).

"Play" — from "Xiaoren is just Xiaoren" to "any place can be home" — constitutes the first section, with the emphasis on "any place can be home." The surface-level sexuality, thanks to this line, gives the polysemy of "sex/nature" a concrete anchoring, and also foreshadows the heavenly dream to come. All words related to "sex/nature" that can be found in any dictionary outside Peach Blossom Spring — personality, self-nature, and so forth — all surface from the surface-level sex. This even includes asexual reproduction and those who sprang from stones. The relationship between surface-level sex and capital-N "Nature" was explored in the Wuliu school of Daoism, though that exploration was itself a case of the blind men and the elephant. This question constitutes a main thread in Chinese classical philosophy — nature is good, nature is evil, nature is empty — all arguing endlessly. I won't add to the noise, because all concepts will be deconstructed below. As for the descriptions of surface-level sexual organs, they may be considered superfluous, but they serve to foreshadow the later deconstruction of "has become a bean sprout." Whether it's vulgar or not is a matter of perspective. Of course, according to psychoanalytic theory, all hyperbole implies its opposite — but is that so? Unfortunately, the sole criterion for testing truth has also become virtual in virtual space.

"Vast, vast waters of the grey-green sea" through "all things like reed-grass in the wind" constitutes the second section. There are many subdivisions within, but essentially it describes a dream. And the crux of everything falls on the line "heaven and earth unite in one roar / X you X Nuwa." Without this line, there would be no need for the dream to end or the poem to be written. What Nuwa actually did in history — probably nobody is clear about — but the symbolic reference of "Nuwa" in history does have certain established meanings. The most important connection to Nuwa is the so-called mending of the sky; the other is the creation of humans. Clearly, these two are related. Leaving aside matters of mythology, in reality, mending the sky and creating humans are eternal themes of history — whether the skin is red sky or black sky, revolutionary man or economic man. "Kneading mud without water / making nothing but tofu dregs" — whether man-made or natural, what doesn't eventually become tofu dregs? Whether it was the day before yesterday, yesterday, today, or tomorrow — in the end, it just wears out your old man to death (a colloquial expression). What must come will come: "The river bursts, stars shatter / whale-waves roll without end / transforming into the fire of three realms / all things like reed-grass in the wind" — borrowing the imagery of the three catastrophes of water, fire, and wind. Since the issues involved are too numerous, I won't elaborate. Once elaborated, the offense might extend beyond just this forum's rules.

While the preceding includes both the relatively realistic and explicit "heaven above and the human world / in the end, are equally no different" and the teasing "the Goddess nowhere to be found / only crows on the treetops seen," as well as the wicked grin of "graceful immortal figures / each holding a giant X," one absolutely must not ignore the " " that does not appear. This absent figure can of course be understood in the classical sense of resistance, but should also include references to "ontology," "the capital-letter," "logic," and so on. And that's still not enough — anything behind or anything that considers itself behind, whether psychological, physiological, social, existential, conscious, subconscious, and so on — all so-called footholds, all so-called places of reliance, all that which defies reference — all fall within reference.

As for the unfolding of the plot in that section, the details, and so on — I won't discuss them, otherwise this essay would be very long (it's already very long, which I myself find deeply repulsive), and besides, that's not the key point.

"A Southern Branch dream awakens / heaven and earth are draped in gauze / the setting sun sheds red tears / wetting the loquats across the hills / beyond the smoke, village ruins are dense / among the clouds, the heavenly road is far / whimpering like autumn waters / not knowing from where the reed-pipe sounds" constitutes the final section. Every line in this section is important — otherwise the poem would die trapped in the post-modern. First, the diction of this section is the most classical (relative to what came before, creating a contrast). Second, it must be noted that the dream ends under the setting sun — it was a daydream, a post-modern daydream, ending under the setting sun. Whose setting sun? Humanity's? The universe's? Beyond the smoke, village ruins — phenomena, the this-worldly — are dense. Among the clouds, the heavenly road — essence, the other-worldly — is far away.

Xiaoren is just Xiaoren; Xiaoren is not Xiaoren. Sitting dumbly at the place where dreams come and go — truly awake? Or perhaps never having dreamed at all? But the author thinks this fellow has problems, striking a pose of "sitting alone atop the Great Heroic Peak." Whether Xiaoren or lofty scholar — first, strike him into a reed-pipe so he can't find north, then let Xiaoren's lovers don first the wedding veil, then the mourning veil. How tragic — Xiaoren's lovers stretch from Earth to the star Vega, and they're now charging in our direction. Run!