InkAndIron, F.L
“As a representative of the bold and unconstrained school of Song Dynasty ci poetry, ‘Jiangchengzi · Hunting at Mizhou’ has become a must-learn piece in junior high school. Its final line reads: ‘I will draw my carved bow like a full moon, gaze northwest, and shoot the Celestial Wolf.’ The standard junior high school Chinese teaching supplement explains this line as: ‘It reflects the author’s eagerness to serve the country on the battlefield and achieve military glory.’ (Excerpted from 5-Year High School Entrance Exam · 3-Year Simulation.) However, is that really the case?
The present author believes that, although Su Shi was not a complete opponent of the New Policies, given that he was an intellectual trained in the traditional scholar-official tradition, and that his relationship with Wang Anshi was for most of his life less than amicable[1], it would actually be rather unusual for him to support a war against the Western Xia. Similarly, we can find historical evidence to support this. For instance, in 1077 (the tenth year of the Xining reign), Su Shi wrote a memorial titled Dai Fangping Jian Yongbing Shu (A Memorial Written on Behalf of Fang Ping Advising Against the Use of Troops), which contains the following passage:
…Since ancient times, rulers who delighted in waging war and suffered defeat and ruin are too numerous to count… Then Wang Shao stirred trouble in Xihe, and Zhang Dun sowed conflict in Hengshan… They seized empty, useless lands and paraded them as military merit…[2]
Although this memorial was ghostwritten by Su Shi, such ghostwritten submissions would certainly have been sent only after consultation between the client and the writer. Thus, through such ghostwriting, we can catch a glimpse of Su Shi’s own views on expanding into the northwest. What this passage reveals is a clear Confucian anti-militarist consciousness, rooted in the Confucian ideal that the sage ruler cultivates virtue and cares for the people, and does not contest every inch of land with foreign peoples. Regardless of whether this essay’s claims align with reality, we can indeed see the author’s strong opposition to such costly and people-exhausting expansionist campaigns. Four years later, Su Shi wrote a similar piece, Dai Tengfu Lun Xixia Shu (A Memorial Written on Behalf of Tengfu Discussing the Western Xia), in which he also stated:
…I realize that recently some officials have offered advice wishing to deploy troops in the west; they are like doctors who want to cure an illness in a single month. The situation may not necessarily fail. But ultimately, this is not the way for a subject who deeply loves his sovereign to seek a wholly safe course.
This piece was written in 1081, shortly after the Western Army had experienced what could be called a not-quite-failure—the Battle of Lingwu: the Song forces captured Lanzhou city and several strategic forts, but failed to achieve their objective of taking Lingzhou (i.e., the most important city on the southeastern flank of the Western Xia capital) and suffered considerable losses. This time, Su Shi’s tone was relatively more moderate, yet his fundamental stance against large-scale military action remained unchanged. Of course, by the first year of the Yuanyou reign, when Sima Guang proposed the astonishing policy of ceding territory on the Western Xia question, Su Shi firmly opposed it. This shows that, although anti-war, Su Shi was not a pacifist at any cost.
Jiangchengzi · Hunting at Mizhou was written in the eighth year of the Xining reign (1075). Between 1075 and 1077, there appears to have been no major event that would have drastically altered Su Shi’s worldview. Therefore, we can infer that at that time, Su Shi absolutely did not harbor the desire to personally ‘shoot the Celestial Wolf.’ With the line ‘gaze northwest, and shoot the Celestial Wolf,’ Su Shi may have been expressing a more complex sentiment. The line immediately preceding it uses the allusion of Wei Shang from the Han Wendi period to express his wish for greater recognition, but his situation was not entirely the same as Wei Shang’s. Wei Shang was not given important office because the emperor initially failed to recognize his talents. Emperor Shenzong, however, was well aware of Su Shi’s learning and abilities; he simply did not particularly favor him because Su Shi opposed the New Policies. During the trial of the Crow Terrace Poetry Case in 1079, the reason Su Shi was ultimately demoted to Huangzhou was due to Emperor Shenzong’s personal decision, not the judicial body’s punishment[3]. Under these circumstances, the final line can be seen as a rather forced attempt, through an abstract passion for serving the country, to align Su Shi himself with the emperor on the same front. What it reflects more is the helplessness of a multifaceted scholar-official rather than pure passion. When reading this ostensibly bold and uninhibited poem, if we have some understanding of Su Shi both as a literary figure and as a politician, we may perhaps perceive some deeper and more intriguing meanings.
[1] The relationship between the three Sus and Wang Anshi was strained, with significant differences in scholarship and political views. Wang Anshi once criticized Su Shi, saying, ‘Su Shi’s talent is very high, but what he has learned is not orthodox’ (Xuzizhitongjian Changbian Shibu, vol. 7, entry for the third year of Xining, third month); and even before Wang Anshi’s reforms, Su Xun wrote Bianjian Lun (On Distinguishing the Wicked) directly attacking him personally, showing how deep the enmity ran.
[2] Wang Shao was one of the principal figures in the northwestern expansion plan, leading a series of campaigns during Emperor Shenzong’s reign against the Tibetan Gusiluo regime. Zhang Dun, though not yet chancellor at the time, was also a well-known hawk.
[3] The judicial records of the Crow Terrace Poetry Case from the Court of Judicial Review state: ‘In accordance with the imperial decree, by imperial order, the defendant is sentenced as determined, and is specially demoted to the rank of Junior Officer of the Ministry of Works, with the post of Deputy Military Training Commissioner of Huangzhou, to be settled in that prefecture.’ The character ‘te’ (specially) indicates that this was a punishment outside the law—that is, a punishment personally meted out by Emperor Shenzong. We can also find this character ‘te’ in Xuzizhitongjian Changbian, vol. 301, entry for the twelfth month of the second year of Yuanfeng: ‘The memorial was submitted, and Su Shi and others were all specially demoted…’ This shows that the matter was not fabricated.”