司馬相如列傳（下）

Xiangru was appointed Superintendent of the Park of Emperor Wen. The Emperor had already admired the Zixu rhapsody. Xiangru, seeing that the Emperor was interested in the way of immortals, said: “The Shanglin composition does not quite reach the mark — there is something even more splendid. I once began a Rhapsody of the Great Man but did not finish it. Allow me to complete and present it.” Xiangru reflected that the traditions of the immortals placed them in mountains and marshes, gaunt and wasted in appearance — this was not the kind of immortality befitting an emperor. He therefore composed the Rhapsody of the Great Man. Its text read:

“In the world there is a Great Man, dwelling in the Central Land. His dwelling spans ten thousand li, yet this is not enough for the briefest sojourn. ... Even if one were to live forever like this without dying, though ten thousand generations passed, it would not be cause for joy.”

When Xiangru presented the Rhapsody of the Great Man, the Emperor was greatly pleased and felt as though he were borne aloft on clouds, as though wandering between Heaven and Earth.

Xiangru retired from office due to illness and lived at home in Maoling. The Emperor said: “Sima Xiangru is gravely ill. Send someone to collect all his writings, lest they be lost after his death.” He dispatched the official Suo Zhong to go. But Xiangru had already died, and there were no writings in his home. His wife was asked, and she replied: “Changqing never actually kept a library. He would write from time to time, but people would take the manuscripts away, and the shelves would be empty. Before he died, he wrote one scroll and said that if a messenger came asking for his writings, this should be presented. There are no other manuscripts.” The scroll contained an essay on the Feng and Shan sacrifices. It was presented to Suo Zhong, who submitted it to the Emperor. The Emperor was greatly struck by it.

The Grand Historian remarks: The Spring and Autumn Annals proceeds from the visible to the hidden; the Changes begins from the hidden and makes it manifest. The Greater Odes address kings and great men while their virtue reaches down to the common people; the Lesser Odes criticize the small self’s gains and losses, and their influence extends upward. Though the forms of expression are outwardly different, their moral convergence is one. Xiangru may be full of empty rhetoric and extravagant language, but in essence his works lead back to frugality — how does this differ from the remonstrance tradition of the Odes? Yang Xiong thought that ornate rhapsodies ‘encourage a hundred and warn against one’ — like letting the licentious music of Zheng and Wei play on until the piece finally turns to the classical airs at the very end. Is this not a flaw? I have selected from his writings those passages that merit discussion and recorded them here.