The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays (New York Review Books Classics) (75 page)

1
.  The view that human beings, as sexual creatures, are essentially incomplete belongs to Western culture; the Chinese view is that every individual contains in himself both yin and yang elements, and therefore should be able to achieve his own perfection in isolation.

2
.  
Confessions
, Vol. 1, 3: “When Ambrose was reading, his eyes ran over the page and his heart perceived the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent. He did not restrict access to anyone coming in, nor was it customary even for a visitor to be announced. Very often, when we were there, we saw him silently reading and never otherwise . . . We wondered if he read silently perhaps to protect himself in case he had a hearer interested and intent on the matter, to whom he might have to expound the text being read if it contained difficulties . . . If his time were used up in that way, he would get through fewer books than he wished. Besides, the need to preserve his voice, which used easily to become hoarse, could have been a very fair reason for silent reading. Whatever motive he had for his habit, this man had a good reason for what he did.” (I am quoting here the beautiful translation by Henry Chadwick, Oxford University Press, 1991.)

3
.  Boswell,
Life of Samuel Johnson
, entry of 8 May 1778.

4
.  See “Arrêt, vision et language,” in
Philosophies
, No. 44 (December 1994).

5
.  In a book recording a series of dialogues with François Mitterrand,
Mémoire à deux voix
(Paris: Odile Jacob, 1995), which, for the rest, is unfortunately without interest.

1
.  On these problems of chronology and textual analysis, see E. Bruce Brooks,
The Original Analects
(Columbia University Press, 1998).

2
.  Julien Gracq,
Les carnets du grand chemin
(Paris: José Corti, 1992), pp. 190–91.

3
.  The earliest images of the cross discovered by archaeology were
anti-Christian
graffiti, whereas the art of the Catacombs only used abstract symbols to represent Christ. The cross was a hideous instrument of torture, a reminder of abject humiliation and death; it is only in the time of Constantine that it began to be displayed as a triumphant symbol of victory over evil; and yet it still took nearly another thousand years before medieval artists dared to represent
the dead Christ hanging on it
.

4
.  Elias Canetti,
The Conscience of Words
(New York: Seabury Press, 1979), pp. 171–5.

1
.  Quoted by Monica Furlong,
Merton: A Biography
(London: Collins, 1980), p. 266.

2
.  
Lie Zi
(Peking: Wenxue guji kanxingshe, 1956), Book 8, pp. 10–11.

3
.  It may be amusing to note in passing that the latest discoveries of modern physics seem to verify the oldest notions of Chinese cosmology. Discarding the theory according to which the universe was the product of an explosion, some scientists are now propounding the theory of an original “bubble”; according to these views, as a cosmologist from MIT put it, “it is very tempting to assume that the universe emerged from nothing . . . Possibly the most far-reaching recent development . . . in cosmology is [the] realisation . . . that the universe is a free lunch.” (
Newsweek
, 7 June 1982, p. 83.)

4
.  On this question, one should read the masterful essay by A.C. Graham, “Being in Western Philosophy Compared with
Shih/fei
and
Yu/wu
,”
Asia Major
, VII (1959): pp. 79–112.

5
.  The best study on this subject is still Qian Zhongshu’s “Zhongguo shi yu Zhongguo hua” in
Kaiming shudian ershi zhou nian jinian wenji
(Shanghai: Kaiming Shudian, 1947). I have briefly outlined Qian’s theory in
Les Propos sur la peinture de Shitao
(Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1970), pp. 98–9 (new edition:
Les Propos sur la peinture du Moine Citrouille-amère
, Paris: Plon, 2007). A new version
of Qian’s essay can be found in
Jiu wen si pian
(Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1979).

6
. This phenomenon was analysed with great perception and subtlety by François Cheng in his book
Chinese Poetic Writing
(Indiana University Press, 1982)—an admirable work to which I shall never adequately acknowledge all my debts. Later on in this essay, I also borrow freely from James J.Y. Liu,
The Art of Chinese Poetry
(University of Chicago Press, 1962).

7
. See Wai-lim Yip,
Ezra Pound’s Cathay
(Princeton University Press, 1969), and more specifically, the very important article by Y.K. Kao and T.L. Mei, “Syntax, Diction and Imagery in T’ang Poetry,”
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
, 31 (1971): pp. 51–136. Like François Cheng (mentioned earlier), Y.K. Kao provides us with fundamental insights on the nature of Chinese poetry. Without such guides, I would never have ventured to write this little essay. On the merits of Pound’s translations, see also some interesting examples in S.W. Durrant, “On Translating
Lun Yü
,”
Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews
, 3, No. 1 (January 1981): pp. 109–19.

8
.  On the combination of discursive and imagist modes in Chinese poetry, see the article by Kao and Mei (cited above) and also the beautiful book by Kang-i Sun Chang,
The Evolution of Chinese Tz’u Poetry from the late T’ang to the Northern Sung
(Princeton University Press, 1980).

9
.  The expression “Creator” with a capital
C
is used here as a convenient shorthand for what would otherwise require a lengthy paraphrase: “The inner driving force that moves the entire process of cosmic creation.” The notion of a personal God, exterior to His creation, is utterly foreign to Chinese cosmology. (Classical Chinese treatises do sometimes speak of the Creator in a personified way, but this is a mere literary device—similar to our metaphors the “smiles” of Spring, the “anger” of the ocean, and so on.)
Natura naturans
would probably be a more appropriate term, but since I am trying to express myself in English, I am reluctant to use it.

10
. A.D. Hope,
The Pack of Autolycus
(Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1978).

11
. Quoted by Maurice Nadeau in his introduction to the new edition of
Madame Bovary
(Paris: Folio, 1981), p. 6.

12
. P. Claudel,
Journal
1 (Paris: Pléiade, 1968), p. 473.

13
. F. Gilot,
Vivre avec Picasso
(Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1965), p. 69.

14
. Quoted by D. Kahnweiler,
Juan Gris
(Paris: Gallimard, 1946), p. 188.

15
. On this question, see D. Pollard, “Ch’i in Chinese Literary Theory,” in A.A. Rickett, ed.,
Chinese Approaches to Literature from Confucius to Liang Ch’i-ch’ao
(Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 56.

16
. Quoted by Nadeau in his introduction to
Madame Bovary
, p. 8.

17
. Or in music. A good introduction to this topic can be found in R.H. van Gulik,
The Lore of the Chinese Lute
(Tokyo: Tuttle, 1968). The melodic repertory of the zither is limited, although it presents extraordinarily rich variations and nuances of timbre: “The [zither] is not easy to appreciate, chiefly because its music is not primarily melodical. Its beauty lies not so much in the succession of notes as in each separate note in itself. ‘Painting with sounds’ might be a way to describe its essential quality. The timbre being thus of the utmost importance, there are very great possibilities of modifying the colouring of one and the same tone. In order to understand and appreciate this music, the ear must learn to distinguish subtle nuances: the same note, produced on a different string, has a different colour; the same string when pulled by the forefinger or the middle finger of the right hand, has a different timbre. The technique by which these variations in timbre are effected is extremely complicated: of the vibrato alone, there exist no less than twenty-six varieties.” (van Gulik,
The Lore of the Chinese Lute
, pp. 1–2.)

18
. M. Proust, “A propos du style de Flaubert,” in
Contre Sainte-Beuve
(Paris: Pléiade, 1971), p. 595: “To my mind, the most beautiful thing in
Sentimental Education
is not a sentence, it is a blank. Flaubert has just described in many pages the minutest moves of Frédéric Moreau. Then he tells us that Frédéric sees a policeman charging with his sword against a rebel who falls dead: ‘And Frédéric, open-mouthed, recognised Sénécal.’ Then, a ‘blank,’ a huge ‘blank,’ and without the slightest transition, suddenly time is no longer measured in quarters of an hour but in years, in dozens of years; I repeat the last words I just quoted in order to show this extraordinary shift of speed for which there was no preparation: ‘And Frédéric, open-mouthed, recognised Sénécal. He travelled. He came to know the melancholy of the steamboat, the cold awakening in the tent, etc. . . .’”

19
. Maurice Nadeau in Introduction to
Madame Bovary
, pp. 15–16. Claude Roy made similar observations on Stendhal (
Stendhal par lui-même
[Paris: Seuil, 1971], p. 47): “A novel by Stendhal is written in a way that is the exact opposite of nine out of ten of the great novelists who came before him. The narrative progresses as much through what is said as through what is omitted. There are two novels within
Red and Black
—the novel of the events that are printed, and the novel of the events that are eluded: the latter are no less important. One could write another version of Julien’s story, simply by filling in all the blanks of the narrative. Just imagine another writer describing the first night which Julien spent with Mathilde: all the things he would have to write, Stendhal puts in a semicolon: ‘Julien’s prowess was equal to his happiness; “I cannot go down the ladder,” he said to Mathilde when he saw the dawn appear . . .’ A semicolon alone accounts for a whole night, two lovers in each other’s arms, their ecstasy, their mutual love-confessions, their pleasure, etc. In
Vanina Vanini
, the entire story ends with a two-minute scene that occupies three pages of dialogue. Then, two lines only: ‘Vanina stood dumbfounded. She returned to Rome; and the newspaper is reporting that she just married Prince Savelli.’” Stendhal’s latter quote is remarkably similar to the Flaubert passage that Proust admired so much (see previous note). Strange power of litotes! Because it relies on the reader’s imagination, it is more effective than an explicit description. Claude Roy pursues: “What seems to us discretion on Stendhal’s part appeared in his time as impudence. He shocked his readers, who felt that he was telling too much.” Splendid illustration of the aesthetic principle “less is more.” If literature has its litotes, and painting its blanks, music also has its silences: it may be apposite to quote here Daniel Barenboim’s warning to the musicians of his orchestra that they should carefully observe the pauses of a score: “Silence is the paper on which all music is written.”

1
.  The words “European” and “American” are to be understood here as abstract categories, not as geographical notions. Actually, I wonder to what extent the European academic tradition can still be found in Europe. Quite recently, the dean of the Asian Studies Faculty of one of the oldest and most prestigious European universities sent me a warm and generous invitation to come and lecture on Chinese classical culture. In
his innocence, he added, “As our university has now established with the People’s Republic of China an important exchange program, which should not be put in jeopardy, it would be best if your lectures would not touch on contemporary issues.” What shocked me most was that he obviously felt this was a perfectly sensible and decent proposition.

2
.  The passages in italics summarise various points made by Said (when quotation marks are used, they reproduce his own words). Some readers may rightly feel that my approach to this serious topic is selective, arbitrary, incoherent and flippant. I could not agree more with such criticism—I merely tried to imitate Said’s method.

1
.  Roland Barthes,
Alors, la Chine?
(Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1975).

2
.  Roland Barthes,
Carnets du voyage en Chine
, ed. Anne Herschberg Pierrot (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2009). English translation by Andrew Brown:
Travels in China
(Cambridge, England, and Malden, MA: Polity, 2012).

1
.  Looking at this phenomenon from an East European angle, Kazimierz Brandys made similar observations in his admirable
Carnets
(Paris: Gallimard, 1987).

2
.  Epilogue: in 1982, a
People’s Daily
survey revealed that over 90 per cent of Chinese youth do not have an inkling of what Marxism is.

3
.  
New York Review of Books
, 26 April 1990.

1
.  
Two
books, actually; a similar (yet not identical) collection, in French, appeared earlier in 2011: Liu Xiaobo,
La philosophie du porc et autres essais
, selected, translated, and introduced by Jean-Philippe Béja (Paris: Gallimard). Since the contents of both volumes do not completely overlap, one would wish for a third collection that could combine both. For more information on Liu himself—his life, activities, arrest, and trial, see Perry Link,
Liu Xiaobo’s Empty Chair
(New York Review Books, 2011).

2
.  On December 23, 2011, the writer Chen Wei, who had been arrested in February after posting essays online calling for freedom of speech and other political reforms, was convicted of the same crime of “inciting of subversion of state power” and sentenced, following a two-hour trial, to nine years in prison.