Wang Anshi and Song Poetic Culture studies Wang Anshi's 王安石 (1021–86) poetic works and activities and their interrelations with Song poetic culture. As the author indicates in the introduction, the five chapters of the book may be read independently, while together they form a mosaic of Wang's work and the literary and historical contexts that define Wang Anshi. Topics of the five case studies include Wang's influential but controversial “Song of Brilliant Lady” 明妃曲, his anthology of Tang poems – Tang baijia shixuan 唐百家詩選 (Select Poems of A Hundred Tang Masters), the critical discourse pivoting on his late poetic style, his engagement with Buddhism as seen in his imitation of Hanshan 寒山 and his descriptions of Bell Mountain 鐘山, and the political circumstances of Northern Song factional struggles that contextualized his poem “Hard to Trust You” 君難託.
Xiaoshan Yang's contribution first of all lies in that he largely deepens our understanding of Wang Anshi. Although Wang's historical significance is in general not doubted, widely known traditional labels (such as “one of the Eight Masters of Prose Writing in Tang and Song 唐宋八大家”) and frequently mentioned characteristics of Wang's literature (e.g. general recognition of Tang poetry's influence on him) often in effect conceal the fact that Wang is one of the most understudied writers of the Song dynasty, not to mention that political bias in history has directed traditional evaluation of Wang Anshi's literature towards certain peculiar directions. While the twenty-first century has witnessed remarkable progress in Wang Anshi studies exemplified by Liu Chengguo's 劉成國 Jinggong xinxue yanjiu 荊公新學研究 (Study of the New Learning of the Duke of Jing) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2006), Wang's literature has not received the attention it deserves. Yang's book makes a great contribution to both Wang Anshi studies and studies of Song poetry.
The book successfully establishes a paradigm of studying poetic culture through the prism of a representative poet. Such a methodology is especially desirable for the investigation of Song poetic culture, which is defined not only by common features of the age but also by star poets who showed different individual characteristics. While such a poetic culture is irreducible to any simplified summaries, Yang's examination of Wang Anshi provides diverse perspectives in its approach. The issues investigated include reception history (chapters 1 and 2), the Tang–Song poetic transition (chapter 2), new discourse of poetic criticism that originated in the Song (chapter 3), interplay between literature and religion (chapter 4), and tension between literature and politics (chapter 5). These issues are not picked at random, but are interrelated. For example, the political discourse discussed in chapter 5 also provides a backdrop for us to deepen our understanding of the controversial reception of “Song of Brilliant Lady” that Yang discusses in chapter 1. The way in which Yang structures the book convincingly shows that Song poetic culture is a self-contained yet open-ended system, though the reader may be curious as to whether the chapters could be arranged in a different order.
Some of the points Yang raises appear obvious at first glance, but are in fact very insightful and innovative. For example, at the end of chapter 2 (pp. 122–3), Yang points out that the truly formative forces behind the formation of Tang canons in the Song were manifested mostly in scholarly endeavours of editing and collating the collections of individual Tang authors and in conducting poetic criticism on these authors, rather than in the inclusion of these authors in anthologies. This seems to be quite straightforward once it is stated; but as soon as we consider the amount of scholarship that investigates the reception of a poet by examining the frequency that his works are selected in anthologies, we see that Yang indeed points to some serious misconceptions about anthology and reception history. Inspiring examples like this can be found in every chapter, showing potentials for further study.
To some extent, the book shows a tendency to exhaust as many materials that are related to the topic of discussion as possible, and is thus very informative. Thoughtfully organized, these materials enrich each chapter's content and effectively drive the narrative towards the theoretical consideration looming behind such narrative. For example, in the section “Toward the Wang Anshi style” in chapter 3, Yang investigates various comments on Wang's poetry and implicitly but convincingly indicates that literary style is accumulatively constructed based on layered reception of an author's work rather than being consciously created by the author himself. The discussion not only strengthens our grasp of Wang Anshi's poetry but also endorses recent scholarship on reception history studies in the field of pre-modern Chinese literature.
The book offers accurate translations of many important texts of Song poetic criticism; its extensive footnotes provide rich information for further reading. These contributions should be appreciated by any reader. Meanwhile, the book may leave some readers with the impression that it does not articulate a strong agenda about Wang Anshi and Song poetic culture. It is worth stressing that Wang, compared with other eminent Song literati such as Ouyang Xiu 歐陽脩 (1007–72) or Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101), is a complex historical figure and has been shrouded in misunderstandings throughout history. Up until now the field has not been ready to host mutually competing agendas to evaluate Wang in the historical context of Song poetry and poetics. In my opinion, Yang's approach to studying Wang Anshi is the most appropriate: it reflects Yang's caution as a knowledgeable expert on Song literature, while the book's contribution to Wang Anshi studies is beyond any doubt.
