Liu Tsung-yuan
Liu Tsung-yuan was one of China’s greatest literary figures. One of the short prose pieces he wrote is still memorized by school children in China: “The countryside around Yungchou is home to a most unusual snake. It’s black with white markings, and any plant it touches dies, and no one it bites survives. But its dried flesh can cure leprosy, paralysis, tumors, and sores and get rid of gangrene and parasites. Hence, it was decreed that anyone who sent two to the royal physician every year would be exempt from public work projects and taxes. The people of Yungchou vied with each other to catch these snakes, and there was a man surnamed Chiang whose family had specialized in this work for three generations. When I asked Mister Chiang about this, he said, ‘My grandfather died from snake bite, and my father too. For the past twelve years, I’ve followed the family trade and have nearly died several times.’ As he said this, he looked forlorn.
Feeling sorry for him, I said, ‘If you hate it so much, I can ask the authorities to change your public work assignment and you can pay taxes. How would that be?’ Mister Chiang looked even more forlorn. With tears in his eyes, he said, ‘Show me some pity, sir. Even though such work is miserable, it’s not as miserable as having to pay taxes again. If I didn’t do this, I would have come to a bad end long ago. For sixty years three generations of our family have lived in this county, while the lives of our neighbors have gotten worse, with their fields failing to produce enough to keep them from hunger and want. They complain then leave and collapse of hunger and thirst on the roadside. Or they endure the wind and the rain, and the heat and the cold, and they cry out and die of starvation. Their corpses form piles. Of my grandfather’s generation, there’s not one person in ten of whom this isn’t true, and of my father’s generation, not three in ten. And in the twelve years I’ve been doing this there’s not five in ten. Those who haven’t died have left. I’ve only survived by catching snakes. When government lackeys come to our county, they shout at us and bully us and make such a racket even the dogs and chickens are afraid. Meanwhile, I get up at night and tip toe to my pots to see if my snakes are still there, then I lay back down and feel relieved. I feed them and turn them over at the appointed time then return home to enjoy my fields and garden and to live out my years. Twice a year I risk death, but I’m as happy as I dare be – unlike my neighbors, who have to risk death every day. If I should die right now, I will still have outlived most of them. Why should I hate my trade?’ Hearing this, I felt even sorrier for the man. I used to doubt Confucius’ statement, ‘A voracious government is worse than a tiger.’ But having met Mister Chiang, I believe it now. Alas, who would have guessed that people’s hatred of taxation would be greater than their hatred of snakes? Thus I have written this down for those who might be concerned about people’s welfare.” Liu titled this “The Story of the Snake Catcher” 捕蛇者說.
永州1之2野3产4异5蛇，黑质而白章6，触7草木，尽8死；以啮9人，无御10之11者。然12得而腊之13以为饵14，可以15已大风、挛踠、瘘、疠16，去死肌17，杀三虫18。其始19太医以王命聚之20，岁赋其二21；募22有能捕之者23，当其租入24。永之人争奔走25焉26。
有蒋氏者，专其利27三世矣。问之，则28曰：“吾祖死于是29，吾父死于是，今30吾嗣31为之32十二年，几33死者34数35矣。”言之36，貌若甚戚者37。
余悲之38，且39曰：“若毒之乎40？余将41告于42莅事者43，更若役44，复若赋45，则何如46？”
蒋氏大47戚，汪然48出涕49曰：“君将哀而生之50乎？则吾斯51役之不幸，未若52复吾赋不幸之甚53也。向54吾不为55斯役，则久已病56矣。自57吾氏三世居58是乡，积于今59六十岁矣。而乡邻之生60日61蹙62，殚63其地之出，竭64其庐65之入。号呼而转徙66，饥渴而顿踣67。触风雨，犯68寒暑，呼嘘毒疠69，往往而死者相藉70也。曩71与吾祖居者，今其室72十无一焉。与吾父居者，今其室十无二三焉。与吾居十二年者，今其室十无四五焉。非死则徙尔73。而吾以捕蛇独存。悍吏之来吾乡，叫嚣74乎东西，隳突75乎南北；哗然而骇76者，虽77鸡狗不得宁焉。吾恂恂78而起，视其缶79，而吾蛇尚存，则弛然80而卧。谨食之81，时82而献焉。退83而甘84食其土之有85，以尽吾齿86。盖87一岁之犯88死者二焉，其余则熙熙89而乐，岂若吾乡邻之旦旦90有是哉91。今虽死乎此，比吾乡邻之死则已后矣，又安敢毒耶92？”
余闻而愈悲，孔子曰：“苛93政猛于94虎也！”吾尝疑乎95是，今以蒋氏观之，犹信。呜呼！孰知赋敛之毒有甚是蛇者乎！故96为之说，以97俟98夫观人风99者得焉。[1-2][3][4]
The allegory about the snake catcher was but one of dozens written by Liu Tsung-yuan (773-819) during his exile in Yungchou. It was a rude awakening for him to see how the court at which he served and of which he thought so highly oppressed the people who supplied it with the means to engage in its various excesses. In 780 Emperor Te-tsung ascended the throne. It was Te-tsung’s reign that dominated the city in which he grew up and the court at which he eventually served.
Liu was born in Ch’ang-an at a time when it was the biggest city in the world, with some two million residents. He lived with his parents in the Chinjen Ward 親仁坊 southwest of the Eastern Market until he was four. At least that was the family’s city house. They also had a modest estate along the banks of the Feng River south of the city, and whenever he thought of home, that was the placed he described. Liu had two sisters but no brothers. When he was four, his father Liu Chen 柳鎮 (d. 793) leftthe capital to take up a series of posts in the provinces. During this time, Liu lived with his mother, a daughter of the Lu 盧clan from Beijing, in the Lu family’s country residencewest of the capital. In 783, when Liu was ten, he left Ch’ang-an with his mother during an insurrection in the capital, and they joined his father at his post in Echou (Hsiakou/Hankou). When he was twelve, he accompanied his father to his post in Kiangsi province and visited some of the places he would see again during his exile. In 788, his father was appointed a palace censor, and the family returned to Ch’ang-an. Due to his opposition to an imperial favorite, his father was banished later that year to Kueichou in eastern Szechuan to serve as deputy magistrate in the Three Gorges not far from where the poet Ch’u Yuan grew up. This time Liu Tsung-yuan remained in the capital studying for the civil service exam. His first attempt in 790 was unsuccessful, as were his second and third attempts. Finally, in 793, at the age of twenty-one, he passed, as did his lifelong friend Liu Yu-hsi. In fact, Liu Tsung Yuan was among the top three candidates. The same year, his father’s nemesis was banished, and the old man was recalled. With his son’s future looking bright, Liu Chen concluded his son’s marriage to a daughter of the Yang clan of the Loyang area, a clan that had also supplied wives to Tu Fu and Pai Chu-yi. It was an arranged marriage, as the two had been betrothed as teenagers while his father was serving in Kiangsi. Unfortunately the marriage had to be postponed. His father died shortly afterward returning that year, and Liu left Ch’ang-an for Pinchou northwest of the capital to spend the customary mourning period at his paternal uncle’s home. Upon his return in 796, he married Ms Yang, and he received his first appointment, as an editor of the Imperial Diary in the Palace Library. In 798 he passed a special examination for Eruditeswhichhe had failed twice before and was assigned to the Academy of Scholarly Worthies. His wife died after giving birth to a daughter in 801. That same year he was appointed Commandant of Lantien, a plum position, southeast of the capital. In 803 he was recalled and appointedto the Censorateas an Investigating Censor, where he joined Liu Yu-hsi and other friends. The post gave him ample opportunity to aquaint himself with the corruption at court and elsewhere, and he began his relationship with others seeking to reform the government. When Emperor Te-tsung died at the beginning of 805,the crown prince Li Sung 李誦ascended the throne as Emperor Shun-tsung. Li Sun’s principal advisor during these years at court had been Wang Shu-wen 王叔文. Wang gathered a group of mostly young officials around him and arranged for Liu to be appointed as a Vice Director in the Ministry of Rites. Liu was not alone. His closest friends also became involved in Wang’s movement to reform the government. Among the policies they advocated were limiting the power of the regional governors, strengthening the power of the central government, getting rid of “palace shopping” and putting an end to the use of ruffians, dismissing and charging corrupt officials, reforming the tax code, ending collusion between local officials and local monopolies, and trying to regain military authority over the eunuchs and regional governors. The entrenched officials at court along with the eunuchs naturally opposed these policies. When Shun-tsungwas still crown prince, he suffered a stroke in late 804 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak. A few months later, Emperor Te-tsung died, and Li Sung became Emperor Shun-tsung. His reign didn’t last long. Within months, the opponents of the Wang clique forced the emperor to abdicate in favor of his son, who ascended the throne as Emperor Hsien-tsung憲宗. All the members of the reform clique were banished. In 806 Wang Shu-wen was given the option of suicide instead of execution. In the ninth month of 805, Liu headed for his new post as magistrate of Shaochou邵州(modern Shaoyang邵陽). On the way there, his appointment was changed. He was sent a bit farther south, to Yungchou永州, and demoted to the mere functionary post of deputy magistrate, instead of magistrate. It was a post that came with no real duties – not even a place to live. Hence, he had to take refuge in Lunghsing Temple. He was accompanied by his mother, his young daughter, born in 801, and two cousins. After crossing the Yangtze and Tungting Lake, he stopped in Tanchou (Changsha), where his deceased wife’s father was serving as magistrate and governor of that region (West Chiangnan). Continuing up the Hsiang River, he reached Yungchou in early 806. His mother died later that year. Once the mourning period was over, he remarried in 808. His daughter with his first wife died in 810. With his second wife, a peasant woman older than himself, he had a daughter in 811. His two cousins also accompanied him to Yungchou, and several other cousins visited during his stay. Altogether he spent ten years in Yungchou. Of his 540 surviving literary works, 317 were written there. Most of his important prose work and most of his poetry. Inspiring him were the friends who visited. Especially important was Wu Wu-ling a younger graduate of the civil service exam in 807 who was banished the following year to Yungchou. Another man was Ts’ui Min who was magistrate of Yungchoufrom 807 until 810. It was during this decade-long sabbatical that he became known for his literary art, and he received requests from far-afield to compose funeral inscriptions and rough drafts of memorials others hoped to submit to the court. Yet Liu still hoped to serve and wrote countless appeals to others hoping they might help end the disregard, if not enmity, the holders of power at court felt toward him. He identified with Ch’u Yuan during this period and even wrote sao-style and fu-style prose-poems to couch his sense of unjust banishment. Deprived of any means to help at court, he turned to literature as a means of affecting change, of illuminating the path of good government. It was his writings that elevated him to being regarded as one of the two great prose masters of the T’ang, along with Han Yu, both of whom represented a return to earlier, less ornate models of literature.
Yungchou prefecture, which was about as big as Massachusetts, had a tax-paying population of 150,000. While most of that was in Yungchou and Han Chinese, the population in the surrounding counties was mostly non-Chinese, a mixture of Yao and Chuang and Tung and a dozen other hill tribes.
During his ten-year stay in Yungchou, Liu spent the first five years living at Lunghsing Temple, as his post was in name only and didn’t include government lodging. Liu spent the second five across the Hsiao River along a small tributary: the Janhsi, or Dye River, which he promptly renamed the Yuhsi, or Stupid River, to remind him of his mistaken ways.
Finally, in the first month of 815, Liu was recalled to the capital, one of five of the eight officials exiled in 805. He arrived there six weeks later, at the end of the second month. Due to the enmity of Wu Yuan-heng武元衡and others, two weeks later he and the other four members of the Gang of Eight were banished again, though elevated to posts as magistrate, rather than deputy magistrate. But their new posts were even farther away from the capital than before. In Liu’s case, his was in Liuchou. He left at the end of the month and arrived in Liuchou three months later, at the end of the sixth month. But compared to Yungchou, it was barely a town. The prefecture had a population of 7,000, compared to Yungchou’s 150,000, and there were more ethnic minorities than Han-Chinese. Child-slavery was common. Liu personally redeemed over a thousand such children, who were sold into slavery due to debts. He continued to write. He was asked to write the memorial inscription for Hui-neng in 815. His second wife gave birth to a son in 816. Finally given responsibilities, Liu devoted himself to his job. And he had the support of his regional supervisor, P’eiHsing-li, who was also magistrate of Kueichou, which oversaw the region. Unfortunately, his health was failing and he contracted cholera. In 819, Emperor Hsien-tsung recalled Liu, but before he could leave, Liu died. It was the eleventh month, and he was 47. Before he did, he asked Liu Yu-hsi, who had returned to Loyang to bury his mother, to collect his writings, and it was Liu Yu-his who put together the first collection of his poems. P’ei took care of funeral arrangements for Liu, and his cousin Lu Tsun accompanied his body back to the family cemetery on the Shaoling Plateau south of the capital. Lu also took care of Liu’s family – a second son was born shortly after Liu died.
Concerning Liu’s poems, Su Tung-p’o compared him to T’ao Yuan-ming: “of those poets who exemplify outward dryness and inner richness, who appear plain but are truly beautiful, that would be T’ao Yuan-ming and Liu Tsung-yuan.“其外枯而中膏，似淡而实美，渊明、子厚之流是也.”He is also ranked with Han Yu as one of the two greatest essayists of the T’ang dynasty. Like his contemporary, he strove to liberate writers from the formalized p'ien-wen (“parallel prose”) style which had been in vogue for nearly 1,000 years. Together with Han Yü, he was a founder of the Classical Prose Movement, and is traditionally classed as one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
While accompanying his father on assignment in the South, he was betrothed to the daughter of a man who served his father, namely the father-in-law of Yang P’ing楊凭. Liu was only twelve. They were finally married in 796.Due to a sudden illness, she died three years later.
During his exile Liu produced some of the greatest literary works in Chinese history. His essays became the model for all future writers, and his ideas have been the staple of thinkers, be they Confucian, Taoist, or Buddhist. His essays about language and its use have been especially esteemed. He is especially known for his short accounts of eight sights around his first place of exile, but he also wrote poems. The Ming-dyansty anthology Three Hundred Poems of the T’ang includes five of his verses.