Chang gives a
detailed analysis of tz'u poetry, explaining the development of the
art form using five poets: Wen T'ing-yun, Wei Chuang, Li Yu, Liu Yung,
and Su Shih. Li Ch'ing-Chao is mentioned only three times in passing.
This is a good source for understanding the conventions and characteristics
of this poetic form, but only indirectly helpful in understanding
Li Ch'ing-Chao's poetry.
chapter, "The Snares of Memory," concentrates on Li Ch'ing-Chao's
Afterward to Records on Metal and Stone. He believes that Chao's account
is filled with memories of her happy times in her married life and
her tremendous bitterness toward her husband for the excessive value
he placed on this material collection.
Chao opens the
afterward with a comparison of two men, Ch'ang-yu and Yuan-k'ai, deluded
by the importance of their possessions. She refers to their love of
collecting as "hoarding," as a "disease." Using
this as a backdrop, a reader can understand Chao's ambivalent feelings
toward her husband's love for his collection of the inscriptions and
In relating their
experience of collecting their treasures, Chao initially emphasizes
the experience of sharing their passion for knowledge and beauty.
She relates how Chao Te-fu brought home the rubbings and fruit and
they would then sit together and munch on the fruit and admire his
latest find. They would savor the treasure, the fruit, and their time
One of the few
works Chao mentions by name is the painting of peonies by Hsu Hsi.
Yet this is the work they could not afford to purchase. Owen calls
attention to the idea that by not acquiring this work, it is recorded
in memory. The possessions they acquired are left unmentioned.
As Chao records
the details of their growing library and museum, she also records
their losses. She must reduce the amount of meat in their meals and
do away with all the "finery" in her dress. The result of
her husband's passion for acquisition is that a "nervousness
and anxiety" enters their life. Chao's resentment toward her
husband's growing passion for acquiring material possessions is by
Owen details the
importance of the Chinese inclusion and omission of the personal pronoun.
By excluding the pronoun, Chao sometimes covers the different values
she and her husband place on their growing collection. However, when
she includes her comment, "I could not bear it," she leaves
no doubt that her dedication to their pastime is more casual than
After Chao Te-fu
dies, Li Ch'ing Chao experiences the dissolution of their treasure
as their collection is burned and stolen. The transitory nature of
possessions acquired on this earth is never more apparent.
Li Ch'ing Chao
ends her afterward much as she began, with the remembrance of their
collection as a living experience. She speaks of how her husband would
edit the collations and write a colophon. The importance for her is
not to view their collection as possessions but to view them as events,
similar to their eating the fruit as they used to look over their
acquisitions. These actions serve to retain in her memory their love
for each other and their love for knowledge and beauty.