Mastering Meaning

Self-Exegesis in Medieval Chinese Poetic Writings

Abstract

Self-exegesis or auto-commentary (zizhu) represents the author’s conscious, active control over the meaning and reception of their work and blurs the boundary between author and reader, text and paratext. Although not unique to the Chinese tradition, self-exegesis has been prevalent in classical Chinese poetry from the late eighth century onward. Indeed, one of the formal features that distinguish classical poetry from modern vernacular poetry is that the latter is largely devoid of authorial annotations. This article reconstructs a history of auto-commentary in medieval poetic writings through the eighth century and examines the implications of adding exegetical notes to one’s own writings.

自註是作者對於其作品的意義和接受所作的有意識的、主動的控制，模糊了作者與讀者、文本和副文本之間的界限。自註並非中國傳統所獨有，但自八世紀晚期起，它在詩歌創作中日益流行，以致中國古典詩歌與現代白話詩歌在形式上的一個主要區別就在於後者缺乏詩人的自註。本文重構中古詩歌傳統中作者自註的歷史，並討論自註對解讀詩人作品的意義和影響。