1 - The historical background

Summary

Much of Chinese poetry deals with current events. Partly, of course, this was a result of the traditional view that literature should serve a didactic function. Partly it reflects the social situation; until fairly recent times, most Chinese writers were officials, either successful or frustrated, and they were naturally concerned with current events. Such works cannot be understood without some knowledge of the events involved; this additional information does not make them better poems, but it at least makes them intelligible, and without that no literary judgment is possible.

This is particularly true of the ‘Lament’, which deals with events on a scale never before attempted in Chinese poetry and thus requires a correspondingly greater amount of background information. Much of this would have been familiar to a contemporary audience, but it will have to be supplied to a modern reader of the ‘Lament’, who is unlikely to know much about sixth-century Chinese history. The following is intended to enable such a reader to make his way through the poem. As usual with early Chinese writers, Yü Hsin's biographies consist almost entirely of lists of official titles. Some information of general interest can be deduced from them; that is given in this chapter.

The technical details, such as arguments for dating, are given in Appendix II, which is intended for specialists.

The earliest recorded member of Yü Hsin's family is a Yü Meng, a native of Hsin-yeh hsien in Nan-yang chün, or, in modern terms, of the southwestern part of Honan.