Ten Thousand Leaves: Love Poems from the Japanese by Harold WrightReview by: Richard L. SpearJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 102, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1982), pp. 427-428Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602581 .

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Reviews of Books 427

receive priority consideration by the Princeton Advisory Committee.

The volume under review consists of an introduction and eleven chapters on individual thinkers who made contribu- tions to Chinese political thought, from Confucius to the Buddhists in the fifth century. According to Professor Hsiao's own periodization, the development of political thought in China can be divided into four periods:

1) the Period of Creativity, from the birth of Confucius (551 B.C.) to the unification of the First Emperor of the Ch'in (221 B.C.); 2) the Period of Continuation, from Ch'in-Han to the Sung-Yuan dynasties (221 B.C.-A.D.

1367); 3) the Period of Change, from the beginning of the Ming to the late Ch'ing (1368-1898); and 4) the Period of Fruition, namely the appearance of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Peoples' Principles.

His book, however, does not include discussions of the third or fourth periods because the original manuscript was lost

during the Second World War years. (The volume under review covers only the first period and the early half of the second period.) Professor Hsiao synchronizes his four periods in the history of political thought with three periods of historical background: (1) the thought of the feudal world, coinciding with the first period; (2) the thought of the authoritarian empire, which lasted throughout two millennia of Chinese dynasties, coinciding with the second period and much of the third period; and (3) the thought of the modern nation-state, coinciding with the last phase of the third period and the whole fourth period. A puzzling choice, of course, is the partition of the third period into the two periods of authoritarian empire and nation-state. The problem seems to arise because Professor Hsiao attributes the changes which began in the third period to the confrontation between a Sino- centric cultural world and the new multi-system, modern world of nation-states. The real impact of the Western world, however, was not very visible until the late Ch'ing dynasty. Since the fourth period is not included in the original Chinese text, what appears in this book, more realistically divided, is one prologue (i.e., the first period), a main body treating the history of political thought in the Chinese authoritarian empire (i.e., the second period and early part of the third period), and an epilogue in which some critics of established Chinese political institutions started to air their protests (i.e., the last phase of the third period).

The text seems to focus, as we might expect, on the gradual establishment of Confucian dominance from the initial era of pre-Ch'in Confucian thought to the final triumph of Confucian orthodoxy in the Han period. The other major schools of thought, namely Mohism, Taoism, and Legalism, appear only

as challengers and critics of Confucianism. Even after the Han authoritarian empire was consolidated, the Legalists did not gain the dominant position. Instead, a Confucian rhetoric and Legalist practice in combination provided the Han empire with a humanistic and bureaucratic structure that survived for two thousand years as the mainstay of Chinese political learning. Taoism, ironically, because of its negativism, could stay in force as the most thoroughgoing protest against the authoritarianism of a Chinese autocratic empire; thus Taoism waxed and waned in complement with Confucianism.

The translator concludes Volume One with Chapter 11, which is devoted to the resurgence of Taoism during the decline of the Han authoritarian empire. He thus has bril- liantly grasped the main themes of Professor Hsiao's study, because at that point Professor Hsiao indeed concludes the first period of Confucian domination.

Professor Mote should be applauded for having given the reader a very faithful translation and a work of elegant style that matches the subtlety and clarity of the original Chinese text. Anyone who has some experience in translation will appreciate that such an accomplishment is by no means easy. The translator also adds much to the original by verifying the sources cited, by identifying the other available English translations of Chinese sources, and by inserting discussions which can be regarded as translator's comments. For illustra- tion, a lengthy quotation of Professor Hsiao's discussion of characteristics of Chinese political thought is inserted (pp. 7-9, note 13) to add much clarity to the original text. Again for illustration, a discussion of contemporary Western scholarship on Confucianism is inserted (p. 92, note 32 and p. 98, note 43) in order to bring the reader up to date. Professor Mote's annotations in square brackets should be very helpful for readers who do not command a thorough knowledge of Chinese classics. (In rare cases, the brackets are not closed, and that sometimes may create confusion. See for instance p. 45, note 37). This reviewer congratulates Professor Mote for his excellent job and anxiously anticipates the publication of Volume Two of Professor Hsiao's masterpiece.

CHO-YUN Hsu

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Ten Thousand Leaves: Love Poems from the Japanese. By HAROLD WRIGHT. Pp. 94. Boulder, Colorado: SHAM-

BHALA PUBLICATIONS. 1979.

Mr. Wright, well-known for his excellent translations of modern Japanese verse, has in this volume turned his atten- tion to the most ancient poetry of Japan. He presents here 136 love poems from the Man 'vshui, together with an introduc- tion, illustrations, and notes.

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428 Journal of the American Oriental Society 102.2 (1982)

The brief, four-page introduction sketches in the basic sociological data needed to understand love in early Japan. Regrettably, only passing notice is given the poetics of the tradition. Thus, readers unfamiliar with the kakekotoba may well wince at the lines in poem 57, "I gaze at needles of pine/ as I pine for you." Some thirty black and white illustrations have been selected to mirror the mood of the poems. If Sesson's ink paintings on page 23 succeeds in capturing "the mists of spring/ that lie in distant layers/ over the moun- tains," Harunobu's print of a courtesan and her attendant amusing their elegant patron on a fishing excursion fails to illustrate effectively the fishing girls of 8th century Naniwa. The notes supply the names of the poets and relevant biographical data. The macron, used to spell the Japanese of the introduction is unfortunately dropped for the notes.

The poems are arranged, as in the Kokinshf, more or less according to theme, giving the work a continuity not found in the original anthology. The translations are in 31 syllables, fitting the syllable count used in the composition of waka, with lines alternating in the pattern of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables. Transliterated versions might have helped to convey the texture and cadence of the original. Because Mr. Wright at times ignores the compelling influence of stress in English metrics, some translations miss the mark. Thus in verse 3:

On the hill near home waga oka no flowers of the fall bush clover akihagi no hana

soon will be scattered kaze o itami How I wish she'd seen them now chirubeku narinu before they're harmed by the wind mimu hito mogamo

the last two lines scatter the impact of the image. Elsewhere, as in verse 39 by Okura, the form permits greater success:

When I hear the news Naniwazu ni that your ship has entered mifune hatenu to

the bay of Naniwa kikoekoba I will run out to meet you Himo tokisakete without tying up my sash! tachibashirisen

The effectiveness achieved by combining syllable count with a sensitivity to stress should encourage him to continue his effort to bring the poems of the Man'Vyshi to an English speaking audience.

There will perhaps never be a translation of the Man 5ysha to suit every taste. If Mr. Wright has failed to satisfy mine fully, it may be that I am too closely attached to the mood and cadence of the original. His attempt is, however, commend- able, and his book should invite many new readers to one of the world's truly great anthologies of poetry.

RICHARD L. SPEAR

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Oracle Bones from the White and Other Collections. By HsuJ CHIN-HSIUNG. Pp. 108 + 145 plates. Toronto: THE

ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM. 1979. $20.00.

This book should be judged on skill of reproduction and accuracy of interpretation. The author, invited from Taiwan to the ROM to catalogue its oracle-bone holdings, finished what had begun with the Menzies Collection (Catalogue, 1972; Text, 1977). It is evident in all these publications that the author's workmanship in producing rubbings and draw- ings is beautifully executed, and his familiarity with oracle- bone scholarship, though confined to few words in the notes, is obvious.

The major emphasis of the book lies, however, in the problem of periodizing the inscriptions by observing the hollow sizes, shapes, and scorched marks. The author is a pioneer in applying these physical criteria to the relative chronology of the inscriptions made during the historical Shang (ca. 1339-1112 B.C., so Tung Tso-pin). There has not been much discussion of the author's findings among special- ists, and it still seems premature to judge the credibility of the criteria proposed. Although I would concede that the visible marks made on the bones will eventually provide a useful dating method, some problematical points still need to be clarified. Ideally, one dating method does not conflict with another; however, because of the frequent absence in inscriptions of unequivocal criteria (i.e. so far as is certain, the appellation of Shang ancestral titles1), one often finds oneself faced with conflicting evidence. The author dated B 1367 and B 1374 as belonging to Period-III bones, on the basis both of their hollow sizes and of the use of titles. With this I agree. Furthermore, on these pieces is an example of Wa normally transcribed Db a negative used in Period III and onwards,2 equivalent in function to D,c the negative dated to Period I. This is a case of where the two dating criteria-epigraphical evidence and hollow shape-agree. However, the author dated S 0768, on which one observes the use of Dd as a Period-I shell. A similar conflict in the same dating criteria occurs in B 1232 and B 1260, dated by the author as Period-Il bones (if one can assume that here he used the hollows as the criterion). Also, on the basis of yet another bit of epigraphical evidence, viz., the use of the graph KY equivalent to the later Df or 0,' S 14953 should

1 See David N. Keightley, Sources of Shang History (Ber- keley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 95-100. 2 Paul L-M. Serruys, "Negatives in the Language of the

Bone Inscriptions of Shang." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society, 25 March 1969, New York. 3 The author in the text (p. 81) mistranscribes the graph

Ea' as b' it should be i.c'

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