Haun Saussy is invited by the assembly of the Collège de France on the proposal of Pr Anne Cheng.
Abstract
In imperial China, the profession of letters was usually pursued alongside an administrative career. But it was not an easy job. All it took was an irritated sovereign or a few cabal-minded colleagues to banish you to the borders of the empire.
For poets, exile was certainly bitter, but not without imaginative potential. The exotic landscapes of the South and West embellished nostalgia for the capital. Encounters with " sauvages " materialized the isolation of the misunderstood poet on a new stage. Exploring remote forests and valleys gave the impression of stepping back in time. Complaints, regrets, outbursts of indignation, meditations on the age-old theme of " to serve or not to serve " : all traditional themes entered into new combinations. The heart of the poet who took his knowledge to these deserted places proved to be both encyclopedic and a recorder of new impressions. A poetic language, specific to the experience of exile, weaves itself between the déjà-dit and the jamais-vu.
It's important to make a few distinctions from the most familiar European expressions of exile. Dante, du Bellay and Hugo, to name but a few, left their homeland for another. But the Chinese empire, with its cosmic vocation, recognized no borders, only " wastelands" (ye) and " vassal states" (fanguo). Rather than exile in the strict sense of the term, it was a degradation, a rustication, in which the subject always found himself in a relationship with a sovereign who became increasingly distant according to the seriousness of the charges brought against him. This relationship, articulated by some in terms of a dependence comparable to that of Ovid towards Caesar Augustus, becomes, for others, the thread of a negotiation for personal honor and autonomy.
From Bo Yi, Confucius and Qu Yuan , thelegendary models of the good man confronted with blockage (nan), the disoriented poets draw the means for self-articulation and self-figuration. With Xie Lingyun, a poetry of hiking opens up, descriptive and dynamic, creating new ways of being in the midst of wilderness. Court poets such as Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen put all their art into recounting difficult journeys. From age to age, a poetic language of exiles takes shape, with its owntopoi, horizons and specific aspirations. In the end, it's the innovation and autonomy of this outcast voice that are at stake, and Su Shi is not shy about glorying in his successive punishments.
I will trace, through carefully commented examples, the transformation of voice extinction into creative renewal in Qu Yuan, Xie Lingyun, Shen Quanqi, Song Zhiwen and Su Shi. The historical curve extends from the third century B.C. to the twelfth century.
