Chapter Four

Chapter Four Wen’s Marriage--A Case of Scandal

Since he was Tingyun’s uncle and foster-father, and also as an official of considerable political influence, Wen Zao had been kind to Tingyun. But he could at most recommend him to other influential ministers for a local subordinate post, and was not able to introduce him directly into officialdom within the central bureaucracy, as Tingyun had hoped. There are no clear records of what resulted from his audience with his uncle. Soon afterwards, Wen Zao died (835), and by that time, Tingyun had traveled back to Huainan. There he began his more troubled years, and the most notorious affair in Wen’s life, the Jianghuai Incident, took place.

Relationship with Wang Ya

One of the victims of the tragic “Sweet Dew Incident”(835), Wang Ya, ¹ had been Wen’s guardian. Under the general situation of the time, the Jianghuai Incident, which involved the person of Wen Tingyun in a scandal, is only a small aftermath of the Sweet Dew Incident, which precipitated the clan extermination of more than ten court ministers, including Wang Ya, who plotted the annihilation of the eunuchs. Most probably, it was immediately before the Jianghuai Incident and the Sweet Dew Incident that Wen had served under Wang’s jurisdiction. Since the two men were on friendly terms, when we examine Wen’s tribulations in the Jianghuai Incident, we have every reason to set them against the background of the Sweet Dew Incident. We must also consider both the overwhelming power of the eunuchs and Wen’s hostility towards them. We will first study Wen’s relation with Wang using the following poems:

Two Poems written in the Forest Pavilion of Prime Minister

Wang in Feng’an Alley (題豐安里王相林亭, j. 7, WFQ)

The poet’s note: His Excellency is conversant with the Taixuan Scripture. (原注: 公明太玄經)

In the filmy dust of flowers and bamboo, 花竹有薄埃,

At exquisite parties once gathered talented men. 嘉游集上才,

Either on Anshi’s Isle amidst the white duckweeds 白蘋安石渚,

Or at Ziyun’s Terrace with the red leaves. 紅葉子云臺,

By the vermilion door, one sets sparrow-nets, 朱戶雀羅設,

While the Yellow Gates come along in their carriages. 黃門馭騎來,

Alas you did not know the Huai River grew turbid, 不知淮水濁,

Now for whom does the pink lotus flourish? 丹藕為誰開?

In the “Records of Art and Literature” of XTS (59:1512) are recorded “Six juan of the Taixuan Scripture annotated by Wang Ya”. In Wang Dang’s Tangyulin (1:18) are similar records: “Prime Minister Wang Ya annotated the Taixuan scripture, and often used it to augur, saying it worked better than the divination in the Book of Changes”. Thus, from the title and Wen’s note, we know the Prime Minster in question must be Wang Ya who had special study on Yang Xiong’s Taixuan Scripture. The following key points in this poem deserve our special attention.

First, the second couplet implies important information. It is composed after the fashion of Liu Yuxi’s aphorism in his “Inscriptions to My Humble Study”(陋室銘): ² “[It is like] either Zhuge [Liang]’s cottage in Nanyang, or [Yang] Ziyun’s Study in Xishu” (南陽諸葛廬, 西蜀子雲亭). Liu compares his own residence with those of Zhuge and Yang Xiong³ (揚雄, 53-18, BC, style Ziyun), exhibiting a sense of self-pride. Wen’s replication of Liu’s couplet, in a way more refined than Liu’s and meant to pay his homage to Wang, likens Wang to Xie An (style Anshi) and Yang Xiong (style Ziyun), with the implication that Wen had access to Wang both in the Shu region and in Huainan. “Anshi’s Isle”, believed to be Xie An’s hermitage, was close to Yangzhou, ⁴ where Wang Ya performed his official duty as Salt and Iron Commissioner from 830 to 835.⁵ “Ziyun’s Terrace” was in Yang Xiong’s homeland, Chengdu of the Shu region, a place where Wang Ya also had held office for several years.⁶ Next, the third couplet tells us that, after Wang Ya’s clan extermination during the Sweet Dew Incident, few dared to visit his old residence, ⁷ and only those eunuchs, referred to as the “Yellow Gates” (see what follows), exerted power there. Then the last couplet alludes to Wang Dao’s (王導, 267-330) divination ⁸ and Guan Fu’s (灌夫,? -131 BC) clan extermination, ⁹ lamenting that Wang Ya was unaware of the impending disaster. “For whom does the pink lotus flourish”, besides being an empathic scenic depiction, indicates that, as Wang’s retainer, Wen was overcome with affliction at the late Prime Minster’s death.

Poem Two

By chance I betook myself to Raven Robe Alley, 偶到烏衣巷,

With emotion unexpressed, I feel all the more dismal. 含情更惘然,

Finding the Western Prefecture: willows at the curved bank, 西州曲堤柳,

Pondering over the Eastern Mansion: lotus in the old pond. 東府舊池蓮,

The star crashes down to lament the senior statesman, 星坼悲元老,

Clouds gather to see off the “ink immortal”. 雲歸送墨仙,¹⁰

Who would have thought the river-crossing boat, 誰知濟川楫,

Today becomes a rustic’s skiff? 今作野人船?

Because of the information provided in Poem One, Poem Two needs only a brief explanation. At the “Raven Robe Alley”, ¹¹ where Wang Ya lived, Wen ponders the incident in which Wang lost his life. In the “Western Prefecture”, the “willow along the curve-bank” could serve as a reminder of the appalling way in which Wang Ya died-he was cut in half under the Isolated Willow (獨柳). Thus it is a heartrending object for Wen Tingyun-the “lotus in the old pond” of the “Eastern Mansion” (conventionally Prime Minister’s mansion)-an old retainer of the murdered Prime Minster. In his sad recollection of the Wang’s person and his tragic death, Wen mournfully asks: who would have known that an important minister of the state dynasty, a “river-crossing boat”, ¹² would become a “rustic’s skiff”, a wronged and wretched man?

The two poems contribute much to our understanding of Wen’s relations with Wang Ya. Wang Ya was Wen’s Taiyuan fellow townsman and was enfeoffed as Viscount of Qingyuan County, place of the Wen clan’s origin. Very possibly, Wen may have been Wang Ya’s kinsman and Wang Ya may be the very Prime Minister hinted by the poem “Passing the Residence of the Late Hanlin Academician Yuan” (discussed in Chapter One). Their connection probably began early in Wen’s years, continued in the Shu region, and was sustained up to the time of Wang’s death. It was probable that Wang’s support enabled Wen to maintain his living in Huainan. For a time, Wen might have been counted among the “talented men” gathered at the “exquisite parties”. Wen held Wang’s political statecraft, literary attainments and fortune-telling lore in high esteem, hence his comparison of Wang to Yang Xiong and Xie An. When Wen revisited the remains of Wang’s residence in Huainan, he could not hold back his deep sorrow for and fond memory of the deceased man. Against the dark backdrop of the political upheavals of the time, scarcely anyone dared speak on Wang Ya’s behalf after the extermination of his clan. However, Wen’s poems boldly protest the injustice Wang suffered. Each of his two poems ends with a rhetorical question, by means of which Wen appears to grieve over Wang’s inability to foresee and avoid disaster, despite his familiarity with the fortune-telling skills of the Taixuan classic. He expresses poignantly a profound insight into his age, a time when even the life of a veteran minister like Wang Ya might hang in the balance at any moment. Very naturally, along with Wen’s somber reflections on Wang’s death, his bitter hatred of the eunuchs manifests itself between and behind the lines.

In “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, we can pick out some narrative threads that may shed light upon Wen’s relationship with Wang Ya; there is, for example, the following couplet:

56 I venerated the august bearing of General Big Tree, 威名尊大樹,

And tried to shun Autumn-Tu, the law and penalty. 刑法避秋荼, ¹³

In Wen’s wanderings over the country, it was after having taken shelter under the protection of a “Big Tree” (serving in the secretariat of a patron) that he committed some “misconduct” and evaded the penalty by fleeing to the capital (by 837). Evidently, the “Big Tree” must have fallen. In view of Wen’s long friendship with him, “General Big Tree” very possibly refers to Wang. If so, “Autumn-Tu, the law and penalty” indirectly satirizes the eunuchs’ brutal abuses of the law in order to purge their opponents after the Sweet Dew Incident.

Wen’s subsequent return to the capital is related in “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” directly after the couplet we have just quoted:

57 From afar I gazed back beyond a thousand leagues, 遠目窮千里, And my returning heart flew to the Nine Highways. 歸心寄九衢,¹⁴

Since, at the latest, the year of Wen’s return to the capital was the second year of Kaicheng (837), Wen’s stay in Huainan must have ended prior to that year, possibly in 836. But what happened in Huainan that forced him to flee to the capital? Of all the events in Wen’s life, this is one of the most noteworthy and complicated; without its clarification, no lucid account of his life is possible.

An Initial Investigation of the Jianghuai Incident

The Jianghuai Incident occurred while Wen was in Huainan. On one occasion he was whipped and seriously injured. The incident itself is rather confusing, and fraudulent accounts of it in various sources have been frequently cited to disparage Wen’s personality. Since even the early records in the Tang and the Song anecdotal literature are contradictory and misleading, we shall examine them carefully one by one, and using comparison and contrast to distinguish truth from fallacy, we will establish the time, the place, the cause and the result, and the interested parties-all the particulars of the event.

In Tongxin (桐薪, quoted in WFQ, 257) by an unknown Tang author, we read:

Wen Qi in his young days was whipped in the Jianghuai river valleys by a senior relative, hence he changed his name to Tingyun (雲), with the style name Feiqing. But some other books refer to him as Tingyun (筠). I really cannot understand what sense there is in referring to him like this (溫岐少曾于江淮為親表賈楚, 故改名庭雲, 字飛卿, 而他書或作庭筠, 不曉所謂)

While Sun Guangxian’s Beimeng Suoyan (4: 29) says the following about the same event:

Shen Hui of Wuxing said: My maternal uncle Wen once was whipped in the Jianghuai valleys by one of his senior relatives, and thereafter changed his name” (吳興沈徽曰：溫舅曾于江淮為親表 楚, 由是改名焉).

The Tongxin and the Beimeng Suoyan records indicate:

(1) that the event happened perhaps when Wen was as yet “young”;

(2) that it happened in the Yangtze-Huai river valleys, i. e., the Jianghuai region;

(3) that Wen was whipped;

(4) that his senior relative whipped him;

(5) that no reason was given for the whipping;

(6) and that the incident might have had something to do with Wen’s change of his name to Tingyun (庭筠) or Tingyun (庭雲).

In Yuquanzi (11) by another unknown writer of the Late Tang period, the story becomes longer and more details are provided:

Wen Tingyun had great renown for composing poems and rhapsodies. At an earlier time, when he was about to follow the local recommendation, he went traveling between the valleys of the Yangtze and the Huai Rivers. Yao Xu (姚勖, fl. 830-850), the imperial representative of Yangtze Office [of the Salt and Iron Monopoly Commission], offered him a handsome sum of money. Tingyun, still a young man at the time, however, squandered the money in the brothels. Yao, enraged with Tingyun for this, gave him a good whipping and drove him away. Subsequently, Wen could not pass the Presented Scholar examination, in spite all his efforts. His elder sister, who was the wife of Zhao Zhuan, often gnashed her teeth and blamed Yao for this. One day there was a guest at the district office, and she happened to ask who it was. When the servants told her it was Yao Xu, Madame Wen burst into the office, took hold of Yao’s sleeve, and cried loudly. Yao was more startled than confused. What is more, she grasped his sleeve so tightly that he could not get free, and was at a loss for what to do. It was some while before Madame Wen found her tongue: “My younger brother was young, and it is a common human desire to indulge in pleasure-seeking. How could you, just for that reason, flog him? Is it not you who caused him to have been unsuccessful up to now?” Then, she wept loudly again. Only after a long time did Yao manage to free himself. Yao went home enraged and bewildered; he fell ill on account of this and died (溫庭筠有詞賦盛名. 初, 將從鄉里舉, 客游江淮間. 揚子留後姚勖厚遺之. 庭筠年少, 所得錢帛多為狹邪所費. 勖大怒, 笞且逐之, 以故庭筠卒不中第. 其姊, 趙顓之妻也. 每以庭筠下第, 輒切齒于勖. 一日, 庭有客, 溫氏偶問客姓名. 左右以勖對. 溫氏遂出廳事前, 執勖袖大哭. 勖殊驚異; 且持袖牢固不可脫, 不知所為. 移時, 溫氏方曰: 我弟年少宴游, 人之常情, 奈何笞之? 迄今無有所成, 得不由汝致之? 復大哭. 久之, 方得解. 勖歸憤訝, 竟以此得疾而卒).

The Yuquanzi record includes the following points:

(1) The event happened right before Wen was about to follow the local recommendation, when he was “young”;

(2) It took place in the Jianghuai region;

(3) Wen was given a good whipping and driven from the Yangzi County Salt and Iron Monopoly Commissioner’s Office;

(4) It was Yao Xu, the imperial representative of Yangzi, who punished Wen;

(5) The reason Yao punished Wen is that Wen squandered in the pleasure quarters the money Yao bestowed on him, money that was likely bestowed to facilitate Wen’s studies for a Presented Scholar degree;

(6) According to the author, the resulting scandal also accounts for Wen’s life-long failure to attain a Presented Scholar degree, although the account of Madame Wen’s performance could be distorted by Late Tang factional prejudices and fabrications.

The above-cited works certainly have their merit as historical data, if we read them with a historical perspective. Similar statements can also be found in most of the later “poetry talks” or other anecdotal literature. Particulars concerning Wen’s flogging contained in them both differ from and agree with what we already know. As an echo of the early accounts, these works often epitomize the political fallacies of Wen’s lifetime, although they may suggest the truth in one way or another. Wang Dingbao’s Tangzhiyan (11: 121), Ji Yougong’s Tangshi Jishi (54: 822) and You Mao’s Quantang Shihua (4: 36), are just such later examples. Comparison of the contradictory pictures of the Jianghuai Incident, which they provide, will enable us to discover some grains of truth. A thorough study of all this anecdotal literature will bear fruit. As we will point out later, gossip about Wen’s scandal in Jianghuai finds its most absurd expression in Wen’s biographies in the standard histories, the two Tang Histories.

The assertion that Wen was whipped by Yao Xu (Yuquanzi) refers to the same whipping by one of his senior relatives (Beimeng Suoyan)-even though we have no evidence that Yao was one of his senior relatives. Wen could not have undergone such a notorious scandal a second time, even though for the time being we must accept “the first time” as our starting point for further research. We can, however, employ our sources to elicit further basic points.

We are given to understand that Wen involved himself in a scandal of the pleasure quarters, most probably brought about by his relationship with a singer, or courtesan, and that he was badly lashed as a result. But the facts relevant to the fictions are of greater intricacy than the fictions suggest, and require further investigation before we can arrive at any conclusion. We must regard many details of the narratives as questionable; we must also ask: did Wen spend his money in the pleasure quarters just to satisfy his sexual desire? Using Tang moral standards as a basis for our judgment, what was wrong with Wen’s consuming his money in this way? Why did Yao Xu first give Wen money and then chastise him so seriously? How much credibility can we expect of Yuquanzi and like sources?

That above sources state that as a result of the whipping, Wen was forced to change his name-this, too, sounds extremely doubtful, and we need to gather more evidence to clarify what is meant here. What would a change of his name do for him-would it salvage his reputation or indicate a determination on his part to change his ways? Neither alternative seems plausible. The statement that attributes all of Wen’s failures in the Presented Scholar examination to this whipping also needs explanation. As for the story’s minor plots-both that Shen Hui called Wen (maternal) uncle, and that Wen’s elder sister held Yao Xu to blame–they need not concern us. In fact, since Wen for a time became the target of much vilification, it was only natural that he was subjected to all kind of hearsay. Although we have no reason to question the relationship between Shen and Wen, it is difficult to give full credence to Madame Wen’s performance, which is too theatrical to be credited as fact.

Notwithstanding the uncertain nature of the materials in hand, we are able to believe that the Jianghuai Incident took place just before Wen first “followed the local recommendation”, i. e., before his first participation in the Presented Scholar examination. To judge by his extant works and other sources, Wen’s first participation in the Metropolitan Prefecture examination took place in the fourth year of Kaicheng (839). The incidents we are concerned with, therefore, could have happened no later than 839.

Information concerning Yao Xu’s official career in the corresponding period compels the same conclusion. Yao “was repeatedly recommended by the local commis-sioners or magistrates and promoted to Investigating Censor before he took to assisting in the affairs of the Salt and Iron Commissioner;”¹⁵ “In the fifth month of the fourth year of Kaicheng, Yao Xu, the Assistant Commissioner in the Salt and Iron Monopoly, thanks to his capability in dealing with difficult lawsuits, was promoted to the position of Honorary Bureau Director of the Ministry of Ritual, Concurrent with the Previously-held Title of Assistant Commissioner in the Salt and Iron Monopoly” (檢校禮部郎中依前鹽鐵推官);¹⁶ “The Assistant Commissioner in the Salt and Iron Monopoly, Yao Xu, as the director of the Heyin Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau, excelled in rehabilitating wronged cases; the Salt and Iron Commissioner Cui Gong (崔珙) reported this to the throne, to reward and encourage him for his merits” ¹⁷ We thus know that up to fifth month of the fourth year of Kaicheng (839), Yao Xu was continuing to assist in the affairs of the Salt and Iron Commissioner, and as director of the Heyin Salt and Iron Bureau, he had been advancing well in his official career. Subsequently, in the Huichang era (840-846) and after, Yao Xu “assumed the posts of magistrate of Hu and Chang Prefectures”, and according to Tan Yao’s Jiatai Wuxingzhi, “Yao Xu was appointed magistrate [of Wuxing Commandery–Hu Prefecture in Tang Dynasty] in the third year of Huichang (843) from his former post, Left Bureau Director of the Department of State Affairs (尚書左司郎中); later he was promoted to Bureau Director of the Ministry of Personnel” (吏部郎中). These records help reaffirm that it must have been during Yao’s tenure as Assistant in the Yangzi Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau (揚子鹽鐵院)--several years before the fourth year of Kaicheng--that he bestowed money on Wen. Once again we come to the conclusion that the Jianghuai incident happened some time before 839.

We shall expose the truth of a matter which has been obscured in various confusing records composed after (though in a sense, before) Wen’s death-all of which reflect the gossip and rumors fabricated either by eunuchs or by pro-eunuch literati. In fact, the Jianghuai Incident presents itself as political persecution entangled with a private affair, a tangled skein of eunuch interference during a time when Wen’s affections were set on a singer from the pleasure quarters. As for the political background, we should remember Wen’s words in his “Epistle Presented to Prime Minister Pei”: when he “traveled to the valley of the Huai River”, he “had not expected that Du Zhi was to make a false charge and Zang Cang harbor a bitter hatred against” him. As we have demonstrated, “Zang Cang” and “Du Zhi” were Wen’s life-long enemies-the eunuchs who had played a leading role in spreading rumors and fomenting trouble for him. Owing to the fact that the histories have recorded few substantial details concerning the behind-the-scenes activities of the eunuchs during the Kaicheng era, the case at hand is made all the more difficult to resolve. Moreover, researching Wen’s private life can never be a simple and straightforward task. However, an exhaustive examination of all the exact details concerning the Jianghuai Incident is called for. Without such an examination, Wen’s subsequent behavior recorded in the standard histories, together with his posthumous reputation, will not do him justice.

In order to find the solution to these difficulties, we must provide a thorough explanation of the following epistle, which will not only support our inference that Wen Tingyun traveled to the Huai River valley several years previous to 839, but will also provide a complete solution to the whole puzzle.

Epistle Presented to the Bureau Director Han

of the Ministry of Personnel (上吏部韓郎中啟) Epistle Presented to the Bureau Director

My wisdom is different from comprehensive mastery, and my ability lacks proficiency in any particular line. Fortunately I took over the great instruction [of my forefathers], so as not to lose the pure fragrance [of our ancestral glory]. But when the beam of the wagon is closer to the yoke, ¹⁸ I am sadly on the downslope and if I cannot take a look at the string and the bow, is my case different from what happened in the former era of our dynasty? ¹⁹ Like Guo Fan, I have not inherited land in “Jianye”, ²⁰ and like Ji Shao, I have an old mansion in “Xingyang”. A burden to friends of old, I am offered barely a piece of pig liver; my poor skill survives, to become the rib of a chicken ²¹ (某識異旁通, 才無上技, 幸傳丕訓, 免墮清芬, 衡軛相逢, 方悲下路; 弦弧未審, 可異前朝？ 郭翻無建業先疇, 嵇紹有滎陽舊宅, 故人為累, 僅得豬肝; 薄技斯存, 殆成雞肋).

When the wheels of time constantly revolve, my tears of sorrow can hardly be held back. I am a Zhongxuan, a traveler constantly moving; I am a Zhuge, fearful of marrying a wife early. What I live on is but several acres of land that can hardly support my life of leisure; and my wisdom is adequate to fill one office, but I can never obtain such a favor [I resemble] a desolate oak tree standing by the village shrine²², lagging along at the dead end of my way. No longer high halls, now even a vat room is hard to sustain; poverty-stricken in the lower marsh, where I can barely maintain a life (分陰屢轉, 尺涕難收. 仲宣之為客不休, 諸葛之娶妻怕早. 居惟數畝, 不足棲遲; 智效一官, 靡能沾沃. 荒涼散社, 流寓窮途. 高堂之甕社難充, 下澤之津蹊可見).

I humbly think that a “forsaken mat” reminiscent of the past can inspire profound charity; ²³ and that “to angle together while pouring out one’s heart” can lead to a promising friendship.²⁴ That is why I venture to unfold my confidential feeling for your wise consideration. To have a recommendation letter from a Prime Minister of a time of peace would be a honor.²⁵ But the kerchief box forever conceals the secret [of his recommendation]. ²⁶ His condescension in commending and recommending me, however, will hopefully give me a chance (竊以棄茵懷舊, 尚動深仁; 投釣言情, 猶牽末契. 敢將幽懇, 來問平衡. 升平相公, 簡翰為榮, 巾箱永秘. 頗垂敦獎, 未至陵夷).

Were Your Excellency to speak my name and show consideration for me, so as to allocate me a position among the [Salt and] Iron Bureau’s minor clerks, and let me rank myself among the ordinary officials of salt and sauce, then you will not be obliged to offer me food and clothes, and I need not conceal my ability and quality. A hard-pressed monkey who finds a tree, or a fish in a dry rut, who flings itself into a stream, could not be more fortunate than this! ²⁷ Thereafter, the poor orphan will find his shelter, by always depending on the friendship of Shan Tao and never begs brazenly at the door of Cheng Xiao. ²⁸ My humble feelings are beyond expression 倘蒙一話姓名, 試令區處. 分鐵官之瑣吏, 廁鹽醬之常僚. 則亦不犯脂膏, 免藏縑素. 豈惟窮猿得木, 涸鮒投泉. 然後幽獨有歸, 永托山濤之分; 赫曦無恥, 免干程曉之門. 下情無任).

Like most of Wen’s epistles, this one is replete with allusions and hidden references, and contains textual corruptions besides. It has never received the scholarly attention it deserves, because of its archaisms and obscurity. However, we must try to understand the basic gist of the text. In it, Wen first boasts of his family’s glory and complains about his poverty, hinting at the fact that it was the constant persecution of the eunuchs that led to his disgrace. Wen’s purpose in presenting this epistle was to induce Han to recommend him as a subordinate clerk in the Salt and Iron Monopoly. In seeking to achieve his purpose, he emphasizes the hardships and misfortune of his life. Wen stresses that, once he was granted that position, he would be able to earn himself a decent living and would not be forced to curry favor with the eunuchs, a path followed by many of his contemporaries. We find in this epistle the following vitally important points:

First of all, we find from this epistle that its time and place of presentation coincide exactly with that of the Jianghuai Incident: “I am a Zhongxuan, a traveler constantly moving; and l am a Zhuge, fearful of marrying a wife early”. As cited in Chapters Two and Three, this sentence indicates that, after many years of wandering and until he was about forty of age, Wen remained unmarried, but perhaps was about to marry soon (thus he was prompted to ask Han for a post). Since Wen married several years prior to the fourth year of Kaicheng (838), and in this epistle seems to be preparing to get married, it should also be datable a few years prior to the year 838. In other words, this epistle was composed during the period of Wen’s Jianghuai stay, the time of the Jianghuai Incident.

In this epistle, Wen asks Han for a minor post in the Iron and Salt Monopoly Bureau, and there is no possibility that he could have been involved with more than one Iron and Salt Monopoly Bureau at same time. Therefore the Monopoly Bureau in question must have been the Yangzi Court located in Yangzi County of the Huainan Circuit. Yao Xu was said to have been Imperial Representative there, although it is more likely that Bureau Director Han held the post. In fact, Wen’s request of a favor from Han is a clear indication that Han must have been in charge of the Salt and Iron Monopoly in Yangzhou. This epistle must be regarded as a very important document reflecting the true character of the Jianghuai Incident. As we have scrutinized it intently, we uncover more and more substantial information.

In this situation, Wen’s declaration that “I cannot take a look at the string and the bow” implies that he did not have even the chance to sit for the civil service examinations, not to mention pass them. Indeed, Wen’s experience presents a striking contrast to what happened in “the former era” of the Tang Dynasty, the Dahe era, when Liu Fen, candidate of “Straightforward Criticism and Daring Remonstrance” (直言敢諫) leveled a drastic attack at the evil rule of the eunuchs. At the time, Liu’s memorial to the throne was widely circulated and admired, but “the Examination Administrator dared not accept him for fear of the eunuchs’ revenge”. Wen Tingyun’s case, similar to that of Liu Fen of “the former era”, was emblematic of the struggle between the southern and northern offices, and must also have been well known. As a result, he would not need to have spoken more plainly, since the rhetorical question “is it different from what happened in the former era of our dynasty?” is indication enough of the unspoken allusion to Liu Fen. Therefore we can conclude that this epistle was presented in the Kaicheng era (836-840), because only then could Wen have referred to Liu Fen’s event as have taking place in “the former era of our dynasty”. From 837 on, Wen was in Chang’an attending the Heir Apparent, and so the Jianghuai Incident under discussion most probably took place in the first year of Kaicheng (836), immediately after the Sweet Dew Incident, when every aspect of political life was completely dominated by the eunuchs.

Who was this Bureau Director? We find him to be Han Yi (韓益, fl. 820-40).

We cannot be sure that Yao Xu was the man who whipped Wen, because it is doubtful that he ever was an imperial deputy of the Yangzi Court. We know that when Yao was assisting in the affairs of the Salt and Iron Commissioner, he was steadily promoted; but a move from the post of Imperial Deputy (留後) of the Yangzi Court to that of Director of the Heyin Court was in many ways a demotion. The Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau located in Yangzi County was the national headquarters of all branch offices of the Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau.²⁹ After the An-Shi rebellion, Yangzhou became the center for the transportation of grain and other products from south of the Yangtze River, and the Salt and Iron Commissioners themselves often had to reside in Yangzhou for considerable periods of time. Yao very possibly held a post in the Yangzi Court, i. e., that of Assistant Commissioner, which the author of Yuquanzi mistook for the post of Imperial Deputy of the Yangzi Court. On the other hand, the so-called Bureau Director (upper fifth rank) Han, whose official rank was much higher than that of Yao, must have been in charge of the Yangzi Court. One reason for this inference is that it was as late as the year 839 that Yao was promoted to the post of Honorary Bureau Director of the Ministry of Ritual, a position still lower than Han’s. However, it does not seem likely that either Yao or Han would have given Wen a beating merely for squandering his money in the pleasure quarters. The inference from Wen’s own account is that it must have been the eunuchs who framed him by taking advantage of his liaison with a prostitute.

According to Wang Dang’s Tanghuiyao, after Wang Ya was killed in the Sweet Dew Incident, his position of Salt and Iron Commissioner was filled first by Linghu Chu (令狐楚, 765-836), and then, in the first year of Kaicheng, by Li Shi (李石). During Li Shi’s tenure as Salt and Iron Commissioner (836), he promoted Han Yi, the then Supernumerary of the Treasury Bureau (金部員外郎), to the post of Supervisor of Affairs for the Ministry of Revenue (判度支) in charge of financial affairs. We can thus judge that the Han addressed in this epistle is in all likelihood Han Yi.

This epistle yields more evidence of Wen’s animosity for the eunuchs. Wen likened the Bureau Director Han to Shan Tao, with the implication that his late father was like Ji Kang and he himself like Ji Shao. This hidden analogy runs through the whole epistle. When, at the very beginning, Wen says “My wisdom is different from comprehensive mastery”, he is quoting Ji Kang’s letter to Shan Tao, thus hinting that he adhered to his dead father’s political stance against the eunuchs. When referring to his financial status, Wen also expresses his idea by alluding to Ji Shao. At the end of the epistle, when voicing his purpose in presenting this epistle, he addresses Han as Shan Tao and adds one more allusion: “never brazenly begging at the door of Cheng Xiao”. As we have pointed out, the fact that for a time “Cheng Xiao assumed the official position of Minister of the Yellow Gate Ministry” is the only possible reason why Wen would make use of this name as an insinuation about the eunuchs. In Ji Kang’s “Letter for Breaking Off Relations with Shan Juyuan”, we find the following remarks: “Since I have so many diseases and ailments, I really want to get rid of [political] affairs in order to protect myself. What I lack is just this purity. How can I call myself pure after seeing the Yellow Gate” (若吾多病困, 欲離事自全, 以保 年, 此真所乏耳, 豈可見黃門而稱貞哉)? Having excused himself from seeing the “Yellow Gate”, Ji Kang finds a pretext for his reluctance to serve the usurping Sima clan, the Jin Dynasty royal family, and hope to keep his “purity”. “Yellow Gate” originally referred only to the palace gate, but the term derived from its original meaning a range of connotations: from inner palace official institutions and positions such as the Yellow Gate Ministry and Minister of the Yellow Gate, to professional positions such as Yellow Gate Director of Attendance and Palace Yellow Gate of Attendance, positions which were assumed exclusively by the eunuchs. Here “yellow gate” refers quite clearly to the eunuchs. Wen covertly employed this meaning simply because, under the despotism of the eunuchs, he could not attack the eunuchs openly. Faced the eunuchs’ rampant actions in the political arena, Wen wanted to speak out but was not able to voice his opinions freely; this is the psychogenic complexity that underlies most of his political poems. When dealing with Wen’s accounts of the eunuchs, we must pay particular attention to this point.

From “Hundred-Rhyme Poem” we know that Wen, from the very beginning of his vagrant life, was in such a predicament that “In my loves and in my hates I took precautions against Du Kui \ In my laments and sighs, I felt melancholy as did Yang Zhu”. In his “Epistle Presented to Prime Minister Pei”, he says concerning his experiences in Jianghuai: “I had not expected that Du Zhi (Kui) was to make a false charge and Zang Cang to harbor a bitter hatred against me”. When Wen presented this epistle to Han, he had not yet married or entered officialdom, or received the chance to attend upon the Heir Apparent. At this time he also had never taken the civil service examination. However, he still requested help from his late father’s friend, disdaining to seek the favor of the eunuchs. This fact adds to the persuasiveness of the argument that the eunuchs, who had caused the death of his father, were his deadly foes. Therefore the rancor that he bore against the eunuchs began early, and was not based merely on his own experiences. Had it not been for the eunuchs, there would not have been a Jianghuai Incident. It was the eunuchs who fabricated the story and publicized it, seeking to block Wen’s possible advancement.

Further Investigation and Clarification of the Incident

Now let us return to the Jianghuai Incident itself and try to discern what Wen did in the pleasure quarters, and who plotted his persecution. Because the whole event has much relevance both to his marriage and to his struggles with the eunuchs, we will proceed our search by scrutinizing the particulars of the two aspects from various angles.

In “Hundred-Rhyme Poem”, Wen confesses reluctantly that something he had done, like a flaw that obscures the whole jade, had occasioned him endless distresses from slanders. He attributed the slanders he suffered

83 By incessant aspersions, even bones are destroyed, 積毀方銷骨,

I fear that a slight blemish would spoil the whole gem. 微瑕懼掩瑜,

–to the following behavior on his part, stating the fundamental reason of his failures in the examinations, and bringing the causality of the poem into a strict logical whole:

82 Coming as a guest, I drank the green-ant, 客來斟綠蟻,

Trying for a wife, I trod the blue-beetles. 妻試踏青蚨,

-It was the eunuchs who blocked his way from the beginning to the end. Here Wen lays out the details of the event that caused him so many troubles: he was drinking in a brothel, and, squandering his money, he redeemed a singer to be his wife. Comparing this with the tale of Yuquanzi, brings the whole truth to light and breaks through the many layers of misapprehensions and misconstructions. A reading of Yuquanzi has already caused us wonders why Wen wasted his money in this manner, and to doubt that he could really be a poor but generous patron of the brothels. Now we know that what Wen did was to spend the money he acquired from the Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau on the purchase of a wife from among the singers in the brothel. This “indiscreet behavior” became the handle of a spear that Wen gave the eunuchs to be wielded against himself. The eunuchs wielded it, first to inflict a humiliating attack on Wen, and then to rain all kinds of abuse upon him, both for excluding him from any success in his official career.

That Wen had purchased a singer to be his wife can also be discerned in his “Epistle Presented to the Vice-Minister, the Salt and Iron Commissioner”, where he articulates the idea in the following unusual manner:

I tried to tame my nature of moose and deer, to emulate the character of mandarin-ducks. As a result, the solitary orchid in the nine acres (himself) had to suffer anguish for rumors and slander; and the avenue to picking one twig of the crimson osmanthus [passing the Presented Scholar examination] was unexpectedly blocked” (強將麋鹿之情, 欲學鴛鴦之性, 遂使幽蘭九畹, 傷謠諑之情多; 丹桂一枝, 竟攀折之路斷).

“Nature of moose and deer” connotes a spontaneous and wild disposition; specifically, it hints at a licentious and sensual character.³⁰ “Mandarin-ducks” in Chinese tradition is the symbol of love between husband and wife. In other words, Wen stubbornly transformed his merry-making and dalliance with the singer into a serious conjugal affection. Defying the prejudices of the Tang social estate system under which men of aristocratic or gentle family never married beneath them, he took the liberty of taking for his wife a singer-prostitute, a creature who ordinarily serves merely to satisfy the sexual desire of any patron of the brothel. As a result, a “solitary orchid” in “the nine acres” suffers from “rumors and slander”. ³¹ This was the fundamental cause of the endless rumor mongering to which Wen was subjected, which, in turn, led to his numerous failures to “pick one twig of the crimson osmanthus”, that is, to pass the Presented Scholar examination.

Among the Late Tang literati, frequenting the pleasure quarters was quite common. Tang literati, in general, lacked a sense of morality in their behavior towards the opposite sex. To take a singer as a playmate, or to desert a girl after robbing her of her chastity, was regarded as something quite usual. Even serious poets such as Bai Juyi and Li Shen kept singers for private service. Du Mu, representative of his time, went so far as to boast of his sexual conquests in the well-known line: “After ten years, I awake from my dream of Yangzhou \ Only to win renown for heartlessness in the brothels” (十年一覺揚州夢, 贏得青樓薄悻名). ³² However, taking a prostitute as wife, as Wen did, is virtually without parallel. Comparing Wen’s case with the prevailing attitude expressed in The Story of Yingying (鶯鶯傳), ³³ by Yuan Zhen, we cannot but regard him as a man who bravely challenged the accepted absurdities of his time. In the story, Yingying, daughter of a distinguished lineage and a second-cousin of Scholar Zhang (張生), having been lured by Zhang into a secret rendez-vous and having lost her chastity, believes herself to be unqualified to be Zhang’s wife. At the same time, Zhang, once so intent upon his importunate infatuation with Yingying, readily finds an excuse to abandon her, even though she has offered him all she has and is waiting longingly for him. Many of Zhang’s contemporaries applaud “the skill with which Zhang extricates himself from this entanglement”. Seen in the historical context, the personalities of Scholar Zhang and Wen Tingyun stand in bold contrast to each other. For Wen, the problem was merely that he took his love affair too seriously. A son of a declined aristocratic clan, he decided to marry a singer at the expense of his reputation and in defiance of the prevailing bias in favor of family power and influence. It was precisely this unconventional behavior that brought a whole succession of troubles upon him later in his life. It is ironic that, it should have been the eunuchs, those most contemptible to convention, who took the lead in brandishing the traditional Confucian weapon against Wen.

The following is one of Wen’s poems referring to his marriage with the singer:

A Casual Encounter (偶游, j. 4, WFQ)

In a curved lane slanting over a stretch of the river, 曲巷斜臨一水間,

The small gate all day long remained unopened. 小門終日不開關,

Like a red pearl canopy–the cherries are ripe, 紅珠斗帳櫻桃熟,

With his golden-tail screen–the peacock is at leisure. 金尾屏風孔雀閑,

Butterfly on your cloud coiffure almost captivates fragrant herb, 雲髻幾迷芳草蝶,

Hill of your forehead-yellow will not limit the setting sun, 額黃無限夕陽山,

You and I are just mates like mandarin ducks, 與君便是鴛鴦侶,

So don’t seek any other companion in the human world. 休向人間覓往還,

This is one of a few of Wen’s poems expressing his true feelings for his prostitute-lover. Here Wen describes what he experienced in a brothel. The second last line reveals that Wen indeed demonstrates “the character of a mandarin-duck”, that is, a conjugal love, towards the heroine addressed in the poem. We suggest the lady addressed in this poem is Wen’s lover involved in the Jianghuai Incident, although we must explore the poem at greater length to identify her as the singer-prostitute whom he later married. Wen has been portrayed as a libertine who gave free rein to his passions and destroyed his career prospects through his unrestrained conduct, but there is no evidence that he went any further than many of his famous contemporaries, such as Yuan Zhen and Du Mu, in this respect. Quite contrary to the conventional censure of him, Wen was more faithful in his love and more extreme in his affection than many of the figures in the contemporary romances. In the matter of love he was really an exception to his times.

The following poem is his love song written for that singer.

Heartbroken Lovesickness (懊惱曲, j. 2, WFQ)

With silk of lotus root to make thread, it is hard to apply a needle,

With pollen of pistils as dye, how can the yellow become deep?

藕絲作線難勝針, 蕊粉染黃那得深 ?

Employing a pair of subtle metaphors, the first couplet ushers the reader into an agonizing and captivating world of love. The fine silk drawn from the lotus root is too fragile to be used with a needle, and pollen of pistils, unsuitable for use as a yellow dye augments the sense of impossibility. Understood literally, these images are already redolent with the depression and persistence of love. If we realize that the term “silk of lotus root” (ousi, 藕絲) and “needle” (zhen, 針) are homophonic puns for “yearning for the lover” (si’ou, 思偶) and “true [affection]” (zhen, 真), the first line means “the yearning for love is hard to bear when emotion is strong and honest”, while the dainty image of pollen in the second implies that such love is unacceptable to the conventions of the society.

If the “white jade” and the “fragrant orchid” cannot love each other, For the charming smile in the green tower I squander a thousand taels of gold.

白玉蘭芳不相顧, 青樓一笑輕千金,

Our poet and the singer fell into love with each other, but there were obstacles to overcome before they could be united in wedlock. To that end, that purpose, he spent all the money [said to have been bestowed on him] for the sake of the woman’s favor, “a smile in the green tower”. The “thousand pieces of gold [spent] for a mere smile” is an old epithet meaning that in order to win the favor of a beauty, one is willing to pay whatever price. In Wen Tingyun’s eyes, only this is true love.

Don’t say that since time immemorial, things were always like this, A sharp sword that strikes a bell can coil round a finger like a piece of lead. 莫言自古皆如此, 健劍拂鐘鉛繞指,

Such love has been praised since antiquity, but very few dare really to put it into practice. Yet even a man of iron can be softened in the face of true affection.

At the end of autumn, all the courtyard green yields to the frost,

But the lotus flower keeps its red, until death. 三秋庭綠盡迎霜, 唯有荷花守紅死.

This love will yield to no pressure, not even to death. The image of the lotus flower that keeps its red color even when withered is a symbol of such devoted feeling.

The minor clerk of Lujiang drove out his [carriage with] ruby wheels,

When the willow twigs sent forth their sprouts the fragrant jade were in spring. 廬江小吏朱斑輪, 柳縷吐牙香玉春,

To protest against the injustice of an arranged marriage by their mother, both Jiao Zhongqing (焦仲卿) and his wife died as martyrs to their love.³⁴ Wen alludes to the story to voice his determinaton to marry the singer, despite the consequent pressures he would have to confront. The two lovers, “the fragrant orchid” and “the white jade”, are enjoying the blessing of their union to the fullest.

Since the two halves of a golden hairpin were the token of mutual affection,

How could the one bear to let the other turn to dust alone and in vain?

兩股金釵已相許, 不令獨作空成塵.

This is not merely a declaration of devotion; it is Wen’s pledge of action to sustain their conjugal felicity until death. Neither will let the other die alone.

On and on goes the Chu river flowing like a galloping horse,

Grieving purples and distressed reds are spread all over the level plain.

悠悠楚水流如馬, 恨紫愁紅滿平野.

How many lovers could not marry each other, and how many tragedies constantly occurred throughout the country, to which the Chu River [Yangtze] is witness and of which the flowers on the vast plains retain sad memories!

The soil of the fields, for thousands of years bears a grudge against the injustice, And up to now, is fired into mandarin-duck tiles. 野土千年怨不平, 至今燒作鴛鴦瓦.

Generation after generation, the affection of love and its protest against injustice are undying, and the mandarin-duck tiles, its everlasting substantiation.

Reading this poem convinces us that Wen Tingyun can, at least, be regarded as a devoted lover. There are more poems attesting to this.³⁵ The profound sorrow and resolution given expression here have their basis in the reality of his anti-traditional behavior in marrying a singer with whom he had fallen deeply in love. As far as we can determine from the extant materials, Wen also ransomed another singer-prostitute. This is shown by his best friend Duan Chengshi’s (805-864) three poems “On the Occasion that Rouqing Annulled Her Registration of Prostitute, I Playfully Presented This to Feiqing” (柔卿解藉戲贈飛卿). ³⁶

Wen’s marriage with a singer-prostitute and his love for her, although not equivalent to modern conjugal affection, form a striking contrast to the prevailing norms. What Wen did was also in defiance of the Tang Dynasty penal law, which, although never forbidding a literary man from patronizing brothels, did lay down strict regulations prohibiting marriages between individuals from different social classes. Marriages between members of aristocratic families and those of the low classes of society were definitely proscribed.^{37 Wen’s} family status, although already in decline, was at least that of the “scholar class”, while a singer (courtesan) at most belonged to the category of “official household”. In a sense, Wen’s marriage to a singer can be taken as a sign of his betrayal of the privileged social stratum to which his family belonged. It must have elicited strong distaste from many powerful ministers of aristocratic origin and been one more factor in his conspicuous failure to pursue an official career. It also led some traditional Chinese critics to condemn his failure to behave as a decent man.

Nevertheless, Wen Tingyun’s love story was not completely forgotten by later Chinese, especially by discriminating scholars. It is no wonder that the great author of A Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin, once ranked Wen as one of the most anti-traditional figures in Chinese history. Cao puts forward the following theory: ³⁸

All men, apart from the very good and the very bad, are much alike. “The very good are born at a propitious time when the world is well governed, the very bad in times of calamity when danger threatens. Examples of the first are Yao, Shun, Yu and Tang, King Wen and King Wu [the sage kings], Duke Zhou and Duke Shao, Confucius and Mencius [the sages]....” Examples of the second are Kong Kong, Chieh, Chou, Chin Shihuang [the evil kings], Wang Mang, Tsao Tsao, Huan Wen, An Lushan and Chin Kuai” [conspirators or evil ministers]. But there is another kind of human being that are gifted with an ambivalent spirit of both the good and the evil. “The pure intelligence with which they are endowed sets them above their myriad fellow creatures, but their perversity and unnatural behavior sink them lower than other men too”. “Born into rich and noble families, such people will become romantic eccentric; born into poor but cultured families, they will become high-minded scholars or recluses. Even if born into luckless and humble homes, they will never grow up into yamen runners or servants at the beck and call of the vulgar--they’ll turn out celebrated actors or courtesans. “People of this type in the past were Xu [Ling], Yu [Xin], Tao Qian, Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, Liu Ling, the two families of Wang and Xie, Gu Hutou [Gu Kaizhi, the painter], Chen Shubao [Later Monarch of the Chen], the Tang Emperor Minghuang, the Song Emperor Huizong, Wen Feiqing, Mi Fei, Shi Yannian, Liu Yong and Qin Guan [high minded scholars]...All of these, in their different fields, were essentially the same”.

Cao places Jia Baoyu, the protagonist in his novel, into this category and gives the highest praise to those figures who are characteristic of Baoyu, including Wen Tingyun.

However the basic details mentioned above concerning Wen’s romance have disappeared from view after a thousand years; consequently, in this regard as in many other respects, Wen has been continually misunderstood.

Now that we are informed about Tingyun’s marriage with a singer-prostitute and his subsequent endless troubles thereafter, we have the ability to scrutinize the Jianghuai Incident in a clearer way. In Yangzhou, the biggest commercial center of the Late Tang times, the eunuchs, political representatives of the rising merchants and of miscellaneous urban residents, wielded influence and power that should on no account be under-estimated. As seen from the “Epistle Presented to the Bureau Director Han”, Wen begged Han, who was in charge of the Yangzi Court over which the eunuchs also exercised a considerable influence, for a minor post. Han, and Yao Xu as well, seemed friendly toward Wen, at least at the beginning, and they may have helped him in some way. But the eunuchs were not willing to allow Wen to procure the lucrative post so easily. At the same time that Wen was purchasing his future wife’s freedom, the eunuchs, ever alert to any opportunity, sent their agents to give Wen a warning: do not dream of laying your hand on this. Consequently, Wen suffered a beating and certainly failed to take the post.

Wen gave an account of the eunuchs’ persecution of him in the Jianghuai region, as already noted, in his “Epistle Presented to the Prime Minister Pei”. Not only was Wen’s advance by means of the civil service examination utterly blocked, but his chances of obtaining a post in the Yangzi Court were also destroyed. Thus wronged, he could not be rehabilitated, and even many powerful and sympathetic ministers to whom he appealed were not able to do anything for him. It was the eunuchs who were responsible for all Wen’s sufferings. In regard to Wen’s disastrous encounter in Jianghuai, we have no choice but to believe his own accounts; with Wen’s family background and political orientation, it is only natural that he would have been regarded by the eunuchs as an implacable enemy and have encountered their constant retaliation.

Concerning the Jianghuai Incident, we have so far succeeded in discovering the following details: Wen importuned the Yangzi Court for a post, he received money and spent it on the purchase of a singer-prostitute to be his wife, he suffered subsequent humiliation and whipping, and throughout the whole affair the eunuchs were maneuvering in the background. The event took place in the year 836. Wen suffered from the eunuchs’ vindictiveness, which was implemented by a certain official (not necessarily Yao Xu). The event was precipitated when Wen recklessly tried to obtain a lucrative post in the eunuch-controlled Yangzi Court. The result was a scandal. Many writers between the Tang and the Song dynasties believed that the scandal forced Wen to change his name and ruined his future official career.

A series of questions remain to be answered: Did Wen really change his name merely because he was whipped in Jianghuai? Did the event prevent him from passing the Presented Scholar examination? If so, how? If not, what happened next, after he went to the capital? These questions will occupy our subsequent discussions.

Throughout the affair, there were men who sympathized with Wen. There would also have been those who were forced to act at the eunuchs’ behest and attack Wen. There may even have been a scapegoat who had to bear the charge of unfairly insulting him. However, the eunuchs, the true culprits, always remained in the background. The true story has never been completely revealed. On the contrary, during Wen’s lifetime, the nature of the event was obscured by all kinds of rumors and gossip; after Wen’s death, it was distorted by various records based on the rumors spread while he was alive. We have already attained some understanding of Wen’s complex net of social relations, which were woven through the multiple oppositions of the Southern-Northern Offices and the Niu-Li Factions. More often than not, these complicated alliances make it difficult for us to identify many of those with whom Wen was linked. In treating Wen’s biographical materials, we must above all bear in mind the disparaging tone of the Song Dynasty historiographers. They never deigned to attempt a full and accurate record of the eunuchs’ deeds, but wantonly criticized such unorthodox figures as Wen Tingyun, and simply ignored the anti-eunuch import of many events in Wen’s life.

In order to clarify what role this event played in Wen’s whole life as a whole, and what its role has been in shaping Wen’s posthumous reputation, we must deal with Wen’s biographies in JTS and in XTS. Only after refutation of these seemingly veritable records can Wen’s true face be revealed. Records in these “standard histories” strongly influence the thinking of traditional Chinese chroniclers, and with respect to Wen’s biographical studies, these untrustworthy records have proved extremely detrimental to any reevaluation of his life. With this in mind, let us take a look at the picture of the Jianghuai Incident given by the standard histories. In actual fact, both histories depart so far from the truth, that not even the fictions composed in the Tang and Song dynasties can surpass them in absurdity. JTS says (190: 5082):

In the middle of Xiantong, frustrated and disappointed, he returned to Jiangdong by way of Guangling. ³⁹ As Wen still harbored complaints that Linhu Tao had not helped him to become a Presented Scholar during his long tenure as Prime Minister, ⁴⁰ after arrival, and in company with young parvenus, he reveled crazily in the brothels, and for rather a long while did not have audience with Linghu.⁴¹ What was worse, he begged and importuned for money in the Yangzi Court, ⁴² and violated the curfew law by going out intoxicated at night. He was attacked by the police patrol, having several of his teeth knocked out and his face disfigured. Thereupon he returned to Yangzhou to appeal his case. Linghu Tao put the police patrol on trial, but the police patrol spared no effort in speaking about Tingyun’s scandals in the brothels, and Linghu Tao had to set both sides free.⁴³ Henceforth gossip about Tingyun’s immoral behavior spread even to the capital.⁴⁴ Tingyun now personally went to Chang’an, presenting letters to various ministers in the hope of clearing himself of the false charges laid against him. ⁴⁵

While XTS records (91: 3792):

He left to return to the Jiangdong region. At this time, Linghu Tao was in charge of the garrison of Huainan Circuit. Tingyun, harboring the complaint that Linghu during his tenure as Prime Minister did not help him to become a Presented Scholar, passed by the gate of Linghu’s mansion without paying a visit. Moreover, he begged for money at the Salt and Iron Monopoly Bureau in Yangzi County, and became so drunk at night that he was beaten by the patrol soldier, and his teeth were broken before he went back to Yangzhou to appeal to Tao. For Wen’s sake, Tao accused a clerk, who in turn laid all the blame on Wen’s debauched manners. Tao had to set both of them free. The incident was heard about even in the capital, where Tingyun tried to have audience with almost all the high-ranking officials in an effort to unburden himself of the clerk’s vilification and slander.

From these narratives, other than discovering that the details in XTS are but a copy of those in JTS, we can elicit the following main points:

(1) that the event happened in the middle of Xiantong (860-73), i. e., almost thirty years after the “first” Jianghuai incident (836), and a short time before Wen’s death;

(2) that Wen returned to Huainan once more;

(3) that Wen was attacked and beaten, his face disfigured, and his teeth broken;

(4) that it was a police patrol (虞侯) or a patrol soldier (邏卒) who inflicted such rude and humiliating blows on him;

(5) that Wen, old as he was, “reveled crazily in the brothels” with young parvenus and “importuned for money in the Yangzi Court, and violated the curfew”;

(6) and that, having failed in his appeal to Linghu Tao in Huainan, Wen “personally went to Chang’an, presenting letters to various ministers in the hope of clearing himself of the wrongful charge laid against him”.

Comparing the time, place, interested parties and the causes and results of the event with those recorded in Tongxin, Beimeng Suoyan and Yuquanzi, we find:

The event happened in the same place, Huainan, and once more Wen was subjected to personal attack and injury, though this time it is a police patrol or a patrol soldier that dealt the blows to him instead of Yao Xu or a senior relative. In both versions the beating was connected with Wen’s indiscreet behavior in the pleasure quarters, as well as some matter in the Yangzi Court, where Wen was said to have brought troubles on himself. In addition to causing a name change and life-long failures in his political career, the whole affair now becomes entangled with Linghu Tao. Finally, it was after having been attacked in Huainan that Wen went to Chang’an to clear himself of the charges laid against him. Except for the statement that the incident happened in the middle of Xiantong, we can observe that the contour of the event completely conforms to that of the “first” or “earlier” account, and that there are additional concrete details supporting our conclusion that the narratives in Tongxin, Beimeng Suoyan and Yuquanzi all refer to the same event.⁴⁶ Now we must add this one further record to the chain of extant sources.

It is inconceivable that such a scandalous event should have happened to Wen twice. Judging from the internal evidence in Wen’s works and external evidence in various sources, in particular the exactly identical details recorded in them, we must point out that the two Tang Histories commit a serious mistake in their handling of the Jianghuai Incident. Misdating an event of 836 to 860s is by no means an accidental phenomenon. Rather, it is the necessary product of the combined function of rumors spread by the eunuchs, of anecdotes recording these rumors, and of prejudices cherished by undiscriminating historiographers. In other words, the Song historiographers encountered the miscellaneous anecdotes, disbelieved them, but were unable to surpass them in truthfulness, within the limitation of their own time. Only by exposing the mistakes in the standard histories, can we view the Jianghuai Incident in its true light.

How and to what a degree Linghu Tao could be involved in the Jianghuai Incident will be taken up in Chapter Eight, an account of Wen’s later life. That the aftermath of the Jianghuai Incident could extend over thirty years is sufficient to show what a far-reaching role it played in Wen’s life and how necessary it is for us to clarify this matter on his behalf, penetrating the dual obscurities of the histories and of literature.

All accounts agree that, after the Jianghuai Incident, Wen went to the capital, where more evils and further misadventures befell him, a misunderstood poet engagé in the turmoil of his times.