Zuiweng Ting Ji(Zui Weng Yin)

Contemporary writers from Milan Kundera to Chinua Achebe, from Octavio Paz to Wang Shuo, have exploited humor as a weapon against authoritarian governments. Though practically no one writes about humor in contemporary PRC literature, anyone with a Chinese friend will recognize the carefully veiled barb, the sarcastic "apology," the bitter "poor mouth," and the detached self-mockery that convey alienation and resistance to political tyranny.

Not so many Chinese today, however, remember that all these humorizing tropes¨Cand others¨Chave a long tradition in Chinese letters. Modern satires and jests in self-defense filiate strongly to the wit of traditional literati in adversity. By considering several verses written by Su Shi (1037-1101), we can demonstrate this debt and recover for modern eyes an important ancestor of contemporary wit.

Our anatomy of Su Shi¡¯s humor will include pointed satires against greedy officials and misguided policies, deadpan punchlines, tongue-in-cheek caricatures, and Su¡¯s inimitable "dry mock." The Soong dynasty (976-1279) under which Su served marked an era of increasing centralized and "absolutist" government (T.C. Liu 1959:85-95). Literati had less freedom to speak frankly than in Tang times, and the accelerating and increasingly bitter factional strife from 1068-1100 made it even more dangerous for a man to speak his mind. Su Shi, most powerful and untrammelled of commentators, soon ran afoul of the reigning regime and nearly lost his head in 1079 (Hatch 1976: III,900-968). While Su plunges into hotter and hotter water as government critic and internal exile, we can observe him employing laughter as best defense against despair and discontentment; humor helps him outshout a grumbling empty belly or a "bellyful of discontent" (in his legendary self-descriptive epithet). In a few remarkable poems, humor even catalyzes an epiphany that transcends political oppression and personal suffering. These readings confirm Su Shi as prime exemplar of Soong literati¡¯s "philosophy of resistance"1 in traditional Chinese letters.

We may divide Su Shi¡¯s comic verse roughly into two categories; one that attacks a target, and one that erects a defense against the world¡¯s stresses and pressures.