Parodies of the “Tangshi xuan”

As urban culture continued to mature, we have comic versions of the poems of the Tangshi xuan.

Tsūshisen shōchi (A Humorous Tōshisen)

^{Fig.1 Tsūshisen shōchi (A Humorous Tōshisen), Tenmei 3 (1783) edition You can find the poem introduced in this step at the pink bar indicated on the above image
Click to take a closer look, full text is available (See [1][2]).}

The design of the page mimics that of the Tōshisen shōko (Step 4.5), with commentary “wrapped around” the original poems. The word shōchi in the title is also very similar to shōko. Next, let us look at one of the poems.

Hekusai (Stinky bottom)

Let’s take a look at one example from this book.

The original poem is “Deer Enclosure” by the Tang poet Pei Di (J. Haiteki). It describes the deer enclosure at Wang Wei’s Wang River villa (Wang Wei is another famous Tang poet).

Rokusai (Deer Enclosure)

Commentary

Wang Wei’s “Deer enclosure” (which is part of a sequence with Pei Di’s poem) also appears in the Tangshi xuan and, like Pei Di’s poem, paints a quiet sunset scene. In the parody, this delicate, melancholic world is turned into a toilet humor laugh fest. Although the same rhyme words (seki, kyaku) are used, and many words in the parody sound similar to words in the original (kanzan > kanzamashi; koto > oto), the end result could not be more different.

The authors were a close-knit group of comic verse enthusiasts. The main member was Ōta Nanpo (1749-1823), who was also a poet of the Writing in the Ancient Style school. Of good social position, samurai in the government’s service or wealthy merchants by trade, in their literary pursuits they let go of the restraints of official life and composed poems in this vein.

To fully appreciate the text, some familiarity with Edo humorous literature and social customs is required. A detailed commentary can be found in Satake Akihiro ed. Neboke Sensei bunshū; Kyōka saizōshū; Yomo no aka (See Also[3]).