Chapter 10 Ornamental Forms (Part One): Elaborateness
Within paragraphal and sentential rhetoric, “ornamental forms” stand in a mutually opposing position to “elliptical forms,” whose purpose is conciseness. In terms of the function of form, such devices as “repetition,” “parallelism,” “gradation,” and “palindrome” are intended to make sentences move toward elaborateness and diversification. In terms of the actual rhetorical operation within sentences themselves, making meaning move toward elaborateness and diversification depends upon “elaborateness,” “embellishment,” and “iterative appearance.” In works of modern poetry, the importance of elaborateness and embellishment far exceeds such rhetorical devices as “antithesis” and “palindrome.” Because modern poetry is unlike regulated verse, which is formally constrained and restricted in line count and character count, poets may write freely and let the pen follow the mind. Wherever emphasis is necessary, they may employ elaborateness, embellishment, and iterative appearance to enrich the imagery. Therefore, the frequency with which these rhetorical devices are used in modern poetry is considerably high.
Section One: Elaborateness
- The Definition and Function of Elaborateness
“To modify and restrict the characteristics, behaviors, or movements of things from many aspects and many angles, words are intentionally linked together and used in succession to form a complex modifier.”1 “Elaborateness is also called compound phrasing, repeated statement, or layered writing. It means selecting two or more synonymous words or sentences and using them together to repeatedly describe or state the same meaning.”2 “Elaborateness means employing numerous modifying and descriptive phrases to describe the same object or meaning meticulously and intensively, thereby making expression detailed, thorough, compact, and coherent.”3
Elaborateness is “to expand an idea that could be expressed in one or two sentences into several sentences or an entire passage, in order to fully highlight the meaning, while also implying inexhaustible meanings beyond the words.” “On the surface, it seems to suffer from faults such as piling up ornate diction or producing verbose sentences, appearing to be flaws in expression, yet in reality it harmonizes with the mood, theme, and style of the work, thereby producing a distinctive expressive effect.”4
The rhetorical functions of elaborateness are: (1) to make meaning concentrated and thorough, leaving readers with a striking impression or feeling; (2) to make tone compact and coherent; (3) to endow discourse with a luxuriant beauty.5 When using elaborateness, attention should be paid to “organization, hierarchy, and restraint.” That is, when organizing these modifiers or predicates within a sentence or a longer group of sentences, the levels must be clear, the meaning lucid, and the tones harmonious, so that listeners or readers feel that the discourse is smooth and pleasing to the ear, and are willing to patiently continue reading or listening in one breath. Secondly, even when using elaborateness, restraint must still be exercised. It should be employed according to necessity within passages that require heavier elaboration, and must not be allowed to overflow excessively.
- The Historical Origins and Development of Elaborateness
Ancient Chinese literary critics mostly held negative or reserved views toward “ornamentation,” believing that excessive modification and over-carved phrasing, as well as these gorgeous rhetorical embellishments, could easily bewilder the senses and often “allow the guest to usurp the host,” thereby obscuring the theme. However, the ancients did not completely oppose prose possessing diction and emotional brilliance appropriate to its substance. In Liu Xie’s The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons — Emotion and Literary Grace, he said: “Cosmetics are used to adorn the face, yet charming glances arise from natural beauty; literary embellishment is used to adorn language, yet eloquence and splendor fundamentally originate from human emotion and nature.” He acknowledged that such “cosmetics” indeed possess the function of beautifying appearance, just as ornate diction beautifies language. Yet he insisted that literary grace derived from “adorned language” is merely accessory in nature, and that literary grace must be a projection of genuine emotion and character. Therefore, he advocated “creating literature for the sake of emotion,” believing that writing must chant and express genuine feeling and nature, while opposing the artificial “creating emotion for the sake of literature.” Thus he put forward the principle: “Emotion is the warp of literature; diction is the woof of principle. Only when the warp is correct can the woof be completed; only when principle is settled can diction flow freely. This is the fundamental source of literary creation.”
Regarding literary grace and ornate diction, Liu Yongji’s Annotations and Explanations on The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons provides an even more penetrating explanation: “Thus, to spread literary brilliance and establish ornate diction is merely to depict the objects contained within the realm of our emotions and to portray the objects transformed by our emotional consciousness, and therein lies inexhaustible subtlety and ingenuity. The things contained within our emotional realm and transformed by emotional consciousness may be plain or splendid, strange or orthodox, and our literary brilliance correspondingly differs according to them. This alone is true literature and proper literary grace.” He also said: “The existence of literary grace in literature is not deliberate carving and polishing. Human emotions and the appearances of things are often deep, obscure, and subtle, beyond the full expressive capacity of ordinary speech. Therefore, one must rely upon the art of elaboration, just as jade craftsmen must depend upon the benefits of carving and polishing, and painters rely upon the skill of shading and coloring.”6 He pointed out that: (1) literary grace is used to write about things imbued with the author’s emotional coloring, and this emotional coloring itself constitutes literary grace. In other words, literary grace is not externally added, nor is it merely an accessory attached to ornate diction. Literary grace is closely integrated with emotion and principle, merely rejecting meaningless decoration. This supplements Liu Xie’s statement that “literary grace adorns language,” and remedies the inadequacy of his metaphor comparing it to cosmetics adorning the face. (2) Literary grace is used to express emotional coloring. Emotional coloring may differ as plain, splendid, strange, or orthodox, and literary grace should correspondingly harmonize with these emotions. Just as craftsmen carving jade rely upon repeated polishing, and painters must use pigments of varying shades to render a picture, these are all natural modes of expression. Literary grace should possess richness and delicacy in proper proportion, without deliberately rejecting rhetorical ornamentation.
Secondly, regarding the luxuriance and conciseness of diction, Liu Xie’s The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons — Forging and Cutting says: “Refined arguments and essential words represent the utmost form of brevity; roaming thoughts and proliferating sentences represent the utmost form of elaborateness. Elaborateness and brevity each follow the preferences of different dispositions. … Those rich in thought excel at expansion; those rigorous in talent excel at deletion. Those skilled in deletion remove words while preserving meaning; those skilled in expansion use differing diction while clarifying meaning. If words are deleted and meaning is thereby lost, then the writing becomes deficient and lacks rigor; if diction is expanded and speech becomes repetitive, then it becomes overgrown and filthy rather than abundant.” He pointed out that the ancients mostly used elaborateness in ceremonial prose and prose writings possessing argumentative and narrative qualities. Poetry and lyrics also employed it, but its importance there was not as great as in prose. For example, Yan Yu’s Canglang’s Discussions of Poetry states: “Thus its marvelous quality is crystalline and exquisite, impossible to grasp, like sounds in empty space, colors within appearances, the moon in water, images in mirrors, where words may end but meaning remains inexhaustible.” Taking “its marvelous quality” as the central phrase, it successively presents four metaphorical “vehicles” through parallel structure. Its nature belongs to “lexical elaborateness,” “parallel elaborateness,” and “modifying elaborateness” (see discussion below).
Ancient-style poetry, Song lyrics, and Yuan drama songs were formally more lively and diverse than regulated verse, and authors used the rhetorical device of “elaborateness” with greater frequency. For example, Li Bai’s Hard Is the Road of the World: “Having ears, do not wash them in the waters of Yingchuan; having mouths, do not eat the ferns of Shouyang. To conceal one’s brilliance and mingle with the world, valuing namelessness — why compare solitary loftiness to clouds and moon? I observe that since ancient times, worthy and accomplished men who did not withdraw after success all perished. Zixu was abandoned upon the Wu River; Qu Yuan ultimately cast himself into the Xiang waters. How could Lu Ji’s heroic talent preserve himself? Li Si regretted not withdrawing earlier. Can one still hear the cranes crying at Huating? Of what worth are the gray hawks of Shangcai? Do you not see Zhang Han of Wu, famed for understanding life? When autumn winds arose, he suddenly longed to return eastward. Better to enjoy one cup of wine while alive than seek a reputation lasting a thousand years after death.” Taking “all who achieve success without withdrawing perish” as the central phrase, the poem unfolds sequentially in parallel form, moving from “Zixu,” “Qu Yuan,” and “Lu Ji” to “Li Si.”
Li Shangyin’s The Brocade Zither: “The brocade zither inexplicably has fifty strings; each string and each bridge recalls glorious years. Zhuang Zhou’s dawn dream became lost in butterflies; Emperor Wang’s spring heart entrusted itself to cuckoos. In the bright moon upon the azure sea, pearls seem to weep tears; beneath the warm sun at Lantian, jade gives rise to mist. Can these feelings await becoming recollections? Even at the time, there was already bewilderment.” After the central phrase “glorious years,” four successive allusions appear. Formally, they adopt paired antithesis, reflecting one another before and after. Although their sentence meanings differ slightly, all revolve around the theme of “glorious years” swiftly passing and “these feelings” no longer existing. This poem employs the rhetorical device of “elaborateness,” layering four homogeneous allusions to express the poet’s tangled and complicated emotions. Within regulated verse, such examples are actually quite rare.
Another example is He Zhu’s Song dynasty lyric Green Jade Table: “Her graceful steps no longer pass along Hengtang Road; I can only watch the fragrant dust depart. With whom shall the splendid years of the brocade zither be spent? Moonlit bridges, flowered courtyards, latticed windows, crimson doors — only spring knows the place. Floating clouds slowly drift as evening falls over the fragrant banks; with painted brush I newly inscribe heartbreaking lines. I ask, just how much is this idle sorrow? A river plain of misty grass, a city full of windblown catkins, rain during the season when plums turn yellow.” After the central phrase “idle sorrow,” three successive short phrases all revolve around the central phrase, carrying out “imagistic” depiction.
Another example is the final suite of Guan Hanqing’s Yuan dynasty Nanlü — One Branch Flower — Refusing to Submit to Old Age: “I am a copper pea that cannot be steamed rotten, boiled soft, pounded flat, stir-fried apart, or exploded — a resounding little copper pea! Which young fellows taught you to drill yourselves into this brocade trap that cannot be hoed apart, chopped down, untied, shaken loose, or slowly escaped from? I delight in the moon of Liang Garden, drink the wine of Eastern Capital, admire the flowers of Luoyang, and pluck the willows of Zhangtai. I can play weiqi, kick cuju, hunt, perform comic interludes, sing and dance, play instruments and sing ballads, compose chants, write poetry, and play backgammon. Even if you knock out my teeth, silence my mouth, lame my legs, or break my hands — Heaven has bestowed upon me these several wretched ailments, and still I refuse to stop! Only when the King of Hell personally summons me, spirits and ghosts themselves render judgment, my three souls return to the underworld and my seven spirits perish in dark oblivion — only then, Heaven! only then shall I cease wandering the roads of pleasure quarters!” Before and after, the piece successively employs six groups of “elaborateness.” Within each group, synonymous phrases respectively modify the “central phrase” at the beginning of the sentence. Among them are “modifying elaborateness,” such as “I am a copper pea that cannot be steamed rotten, boiled soft, pounded flat, or stir-fried apart,” as well as “declarative elaborateness,” such as “I delight in the moon of Liang Garden, drink the wine of Eastern Capital, admire the flowers of Luoyang, and pluck the willows of Zhangtai.” For detailed explanation, please refer to Section Four.
Section Two: The Formal Aesthetics of Elaborateness
- The Foundation of Formal Beauty
(1) The Beauty of Imagery and the Beauty of Ornamentation
“Ornamentation” originates from humanity’s emphasis upon and pursuit of the “beauty of imagery.” The aesthetician George Santayana (1863–1952) pointed out: “Works of art possess two independent sources of effect: the first is useful form. This form produces types, and when these types are finally idealized through emphasizing their internally pleasurable characteristics, this leads to the beauty of imagery. The second is the beauty of decoration, which arises from sensation, imagination, and the coloring of details, requiring excitement rich in delicacy.” He also said: “Aesthetic pleasure lies in richness of material, luxuriance of ornamentation, and the significance of form — it lies in various things, not in form itself.”7 Ornamentation strengthens the beauty of imagery, and the arrangement of ornamentation becomes an aesthetic element that reinforces imagery.
(2) The Integration of Ornamental Beauty with Expressive Content
“Decorativeness is the reflection, within material production and artistic activity, of humanity’s psychological fondness for the beauty of intuitive form.” “The fundamental aesthetic characteristic of decorativeness is formal beauty, yet whether in material production or artistic production, one must not pursue decorativeness alone. Rather, it should be integrated with the practical purpose of the product and the expressive content of the artwork, becoming one organic component among them.”8 That is to say, decorativeness naturally emerges during the process of content expression. It is neither an “attached ornament” adhering to the surface of the work, nor can it exist independently outside the content. Naturally, it also cannot usurp the host’s role and obscure or crowd out the theme within the content.
- The Psychological Foundation
“The multidimensionality and complexity of things constitute the objective foundation for the existence of elaborateness. In carefully describing a certain thing or expressing a certain meaning, one may either unfold it calmly and unhurriedly, or speak of it in a compact and coherent concentration. When organized into sentences, or larger linguistic units such as sentence groups, the sudden transmission of certain dense information or complicated feelings to readers and listeners often more effectively draws human attention, causing people to generate the intention of probing to the root and refusing to stop. This constitutes the psychological foundation for the existence of elaborateness.”9 When human beings encounter dense and complicated information sources within a short period of time, it indeed compels people to concentrate their attention and engage in the work of reception and analysis. However, this kind of dense stimulation should not continue for too long; otherwise, people’s reactions will gradually become “dulled,” and may even produce fatigue and resistance.
Section Three: The Formal Structure of Elaborateness
- The Linguistic Units of Elaborateness: Synonymous Terms
“Synonymous terms” are the linguistic units upon which the rhetorical device of elaborateness depends for its establishment. Semantically, these synonymous terms possess a relatively high degree of “homogeneity.” Their forms (vocabulary) differ, while their meanings are roughly equivalent, though slight differences still remain. “Therefore, when used consecutively, they can intensify and emphasize meaning, and can also complement one another, expressing thoughts and feelings in an even more meticulous and genuine manner. Especially in sentential elaborateness, whose structural variations are multifarious, it is often used together with rhetorical methods such as metaphor, personification, exaggeration, rhetorical question, posed question, parallelism, and antithesis, thereby possessing extremely strong expressive power.”10 When employing elaborateness, one must carefully distinguish both the similarities and differences among synonymous characters, terms, and phrases. Without similarities, they cannot be used consecutively; without differences, they lose the expressive force of meticulous genuineness and formal diversity.
- Central Terms and Modifiers
The formal structure of ornamentation includes one central term serving as the object being described or modified, together with two or more predicates or modifiers. Their combinatory patterns include the following three types:11
(1) Parallel Elaborateness
Elaborateness in which short phrases or sentences are listed sequentially or separately. The structures of the parallel portions are mostly identical, and no modifying relationship exists among them.
(2) Centripetal Elaborateness
Elaborateness in which the listed portions possess similar meanings and identical structures, jointly modifying another component. On the surface, it appears to be mere piling up of ornate diction, yet it possesses the positive function of collective modification.
(3) Repetitive Elaborateness
Elaborateness in which the listed portions are a series of transformed forms of one term.
Section Four: The Manifestational Forms of Elaborateness
According to differing standards of classification, the manifestational forms of elaborateness include:
- Structural Classification: (1) Parallel Elaborateness, (2) Centripetal Elaborateness, and (3) Repetitive Elaborateness (see previous section).
- Functional Classification:
(1) Modifying Elaborateness: the described object or meaning occupies the position of the central term, while the elaborate portions function as modifiers.
(2) Declarative Elaborateness: the described object or meaning occupies the position of that which is being stated, while the elaborate portions function as predicates.
- Lexical and Sentential Classification: (1) Lexical Elaborateness and (2) Phrasal Elaborateness.13
The author takes lexical and sentential classification as the guiding framework, while structural and functional classifications serve as subordinate categories, proceeding systematically to analyze poetic examples.
- Lexical and Sentential Classification
- Lexical Elaborateness
Xiao Xiao, “Nine Lines at the Grass Pavilion”14
Behind the poem inscribed upon the wall, there is
the sighing of the young lady, the sighing of the moss, the sighing of the wind
After “there is,” three concrete lexical terms follow respectively: “young lady,” “moss,” and “wind.” These function adjectivally to modify the central term “sighing.” This is “lexical elaborateness.”
- Phrasal Elaborateness
Zhang Xu, “River Water”15
(2) Cipher
If I were to play the role of a lighthouse
sending out secretive and unspoken symbols
please gather some grains of sand, or fragments of pebbles
perhaps the sound of wind, even abandoned bee stings
someone once dredged up moonlight between fish tails
as for the secrets within my heart. Symbols are torches
symbols are bones, symbols are patterns upon the water’s surface
scars upon the palm, shadows within the pupils
I am a cipher, the wild night wind crashing against the city
scraped knees running in circles across the square
a woman carrying garbage contemplating perfume
a man recalling sweat and tides
: If I were to play the role of a candle
symbols revealing darkness within brightness, like a face without pupils
“As for the secrets within my heart. Symbols are torches / symbols are bones, symbols are patterns upon the water’s surface / scars upon the palm, shadows within the pupils” — after the central term “secrets within my heart,” five successive modifying phrases are employed, presenting the abstract “heart’s secrets” through concrete and colorful imagery. This is elaborateness through the use of short phrases.
Among the modern poets of the preceding generation, Ya Xian excelled at using “formal design.” In particular, he most frequently employed parallelism, repetition, intertwining structures, and ornamentation, enabling his poetry to achieve superior rhythmic effects in pause rhythm, phonetic rhythm, and long-short rhythm, presenting dazzlingly varied rhythms. Consider the following analysis of poetic examples:
Ya Xian, “Theater, Farewell”16
Walking out from stacks upon stacks of scenery paintings,
walking out from ancient Chinese bronze gongs,
walking out from the velvet of rose-colored curtains,
walking out from lighting boxes storing stars, moons, suns, and lightning
walking out from paint boxes, lipstick cases, and eyebrow-pencil caps;
The first three lines constitute “grammatical intertwining,” sharing the common sentence pattern “walking out from the ※※ within □□.” The fourth line, “walking out from lighting boxes storing stars, moons, suns, and lightning,” uses “lexical elaborateness.” “Stars, moons, suns, and lightning” are four modifiers jointly modifying the central term “lighting boxes.” The fifth line uses “phrasal parallelism,” while simultaneously constituting “iterative appearance of the same category.” Paint boxes, lipstick cases, and eyebrow-pencil caps all belong in nature to the outer packaging of “cosmetics.”
My eyes say: farewell to manufactured tears.
My skull says: farewell to rhinoceros wigs and charcoal sticks for dyeing sideburns.
My face says: farewell to paints numbered 1 2 3 4 5 and prisms.
My arms say: farewell to disguised prayers and insincere courtship.
My vocal cords say: farewell to muttering lines of dialogue.
Audience members, farewell, farewell!
I once made you laugh, laughing like a Buddha.
I once made you cry, crying like a mermaid.
I once made you jump, jumping until you stepped painfully upon your neighbor’s feet.
You whistled joyfully, like an ensemble of a thousand bagpipes.
We went mad enough to throw hats, like the startled flight of a hundred thousand birds!
These two passages formally combine “parallelism” and “repeated sentence structures.”
Finally, now it is your turn; brothers, beloved brothers!
Brothers who together with me dreamed rose-colored dreams for two years,
who together wore the golden armor of the sun and the silver formal attire of the moon,
who together draped upon yourselves the great cloak of the south wind and the shattered tassels of dew,
who together went mad, performed antics, and roughhoused together,
who together, for the sake of actress after actress, plunged knives upon tavern tables,
brothers!
The formal design of this passage is clearly centered upon “ornamentation.” For example, from the fourth to the fifth line, four successive short phrases are used as modifiers: “the golden armor of the sun, the silver formal attire of the moon, the great cloak of the south wind, the shattered tassels of dew,” jointly modifying the central term “brothers.” Furthermore, the sixth line also employs “lexical ornamentation”: the three phrases “went mad, performed antics, and roughhoused together” jointly modify the central term “brothers.”
Finally, I should say to you: farewell, farewell,
pack up my small luggage for me,
bringing along Millet’s The Gleaners, Rodin’s Thinker, and Bach’s old records,
bringing along triple-time mandolins and quadruple-time five-stringed zithers,
bringing along Dajia straw hats and English hand-knives,
can-openers and medicine for toothaches.
Like an ancient wandering minstrel,
like a drifter roaming everywhere,
like a Gypsy moving house,
pack everything up!
Within this passage, the third line, “bringing along Millet’s The Gleaners, Rodin’s Thinker, and Bach’s old records,” constitutes “iterative appearance of the same category,” since the repeated materials are all famous works of art. The fourth, fifth, and sixth lines constitute “iterative appearance of differing categories.” The seventh through ninth lines successively draw out three figurative character images — “wandering minstrel,” “drifter,” and “Gypsy” — which also constitute “iterative appearance of the same category,” since all are wanderers drifting from place to place.
Farewell, farewell.
Theater, farewell.
Old Shakespeare, Marlowe, farewell.
Ibsen, O’Neill, farewell.
You Meng and Emperor Tang Ming, farewell.
Li Yu and Hong Sheng, farewell.
Within the final passage there are “repeated terms,” such as “farewell”; there is also “iterative appearance of the same category,” such as the Western playwrights “Old Shakespeare, Marlowe, Ibsen, O’Neill”; there are also Chinese ancient playwrights “Li Yu and Hong Sheng,” together with actors and emperors who delighted in drama.
- Structural Classification
Among the middle-generation modern poets, the female poet Xia Yu, who possesses a distinctly “postmodern linguistic style,” excels at using the rhetorical device of “ornamentation,” delicately expressing layered and elaborate meanings. Her poetry often dazzles readers, yet one cannot help admiring her meticulous powers of observation and her organizational ability to create order within chaos. Consider the following poetic examples:
(1) Parallel Elaborateness
Xia Yu, “The Most Familiar and Most Rotten Summer”17
Arriving in a strange city carrying a jar
at first it was nothing more than simple
pottery’s chaotic clay
soft, heavy, oppressive, kneaded
compressed, single-mindedly
wanting to become a jar — however large the opening
there is however much emptiness — how wonderful
to make a jar for the sake of
The nature of clay is successively described through “parallel elaborateness”: “soft,” “heavy,” “oppressive,” “kneaded,” and “compressed.” Among these terms there exists no mutually modifying relationship; each separately modifies the central term “pottery’s chaotic clay.”
(2) Centripetal Elaborateness
Xia Yu, “Mayfly: No. 8”18
Paint the walls well, nail the windows firmly
the clock may strike only five times, the gun has six bullets
wine is set out and flowers inserted, unreasonable
plotlines revised and corrected
a perfect
melodrama
satirical, lyrical
sentimental, comic
tightly guarding
strict proportions
The author successively employs four emotional adjectives, presenting them through “centripetal elaborateness,” jointly modifying the central term “perfect melodrama.” This enriches the nature of the central term through imagery, preventing readers from receiving an empty and thin impression.
- Repetitive Elaborateness
Xia Yu, “Dreaming of Beuys”19
But regarding boredom
ah, my boredom still
cannot compare with your boredom
because the boredom you arrived at is the boredom of
primordial beginnings and ultimate extremity —
thinking of this produces endlessly multiplied boredom
perhaps then it surpasses yours
but my boredom will very quickly again be
surpassed by that even more boring fellow behind us
finally, do you know, Beuys,
it becomes the problem of who is more annoying than whom
The central term “boredom,” through the author’s differing perspectives of “me / you / that fellow behind,” unfolds as follows: “my boredom still cannot compare with your boredom / the boredom you arrived at is the boredom of / primordial beginnings and ultimate extremity / … but my boredom will very quickly again be / surpassed by that even more boring fellow behind us.” Through repeated explanations using comparative sentences, explanatory sentences, and differing sentence structures, the poem continually circles back to repeating the semantic layer of “who is more annoying than whom.” This is the sentential form of “repetitive elaborateness.”
- Functional Classification
(1) Modifying Elaborateness
Du Shisan, “Hair”20
Once I lightly questioned with a comb
some entangled, chaotic, disheveled problems
only then did clues become traceable
“Entangled,” “chaotic,” and “disheveled” — these three adjectives possess modifying functions and jointly modify the central term “problems.” Furthermore, since the nature of these three adjectives is similar, and since they possess the common function of modifying the central term, they simultaneously constitute “centripetal elaborateness.”
Zhang Cuo, “To Mrs. Woolf No. 2”21
This is still a dark and terrifying troubled age
filled with persecution and conspiracy, traps and schemes
the only resistance is continual gloom and decadence.
He delivers speeches wearing long robes
waving his fists like you
attacking rotten-apple universities and political parties
with a magnetic voice tinged with a southern accent
at times loose, deep, languid
at times passionate and sweet
just like your charm and allure
yet before long he was executed
Within this poetic passage there are two occurrences of “elaborateness,” before and after. Because the elaborate terms differ in grammatical category, their respective natures and functions also differ. In the former, “persecution and conspiracy, traps and schemes” are presented through parallel and symmetrical short phrases. Since the “central term” is “dark and terrifying troubled age,” these following elaborate terms are nouns and verbs possessing declarative functions. The relationships among the terms are parallel and equivalent, therefore they are also “declarative elaborateness.” In the latter, the central term is “magnetic voice tinged with a southern accent.” The following elaborate phrases, “at times loose, deep, languid / at times passionate and sweet,” are adjectives modifying the noun-like central term “voice.” Therefore, they belong to “modifying elaborateness.”
(2) Declarative Elaborateness
Zhe Ming, “Experiment”22
She placed the sunset of childhood into
a beaker
adding: baking soda, water, the papaya tree behind the old home
mountains, Tze-Chiang express trains, the sea
hydrogen peroxide, lemons
teeth, gray hair
flashlights, the sorrow of three centimeters of light
loneliness, two drops of tears
Xia Yu, “Dreaming of Beuys”23
This afternoon is rare, when I
stand within the light leaking through a large window and
encounter all your belongings
I admit I truly was bewildered. These stones and wooden boards
candles bottles tin cans electric wires batteries sleds
hay hemp ropes. Transformers. Telephones.
cloth dolls. Tripods. Buckets. Violins.
In these two poetic examples, the elaborate terms employed function as follows: in the former, most grammatical categories are nouns, with only “sorrow” and “loneliness” functioning as substantivized adjectives; in the latter, all grammatical categories are nouns, successively stating the visible objects as though a camera lens were sweeping across them one by one. The elaborate terms all point toward concrete objects, each existing independently among the others, without the intention of modifying a central term. Their functions all belong to “declarative elaborateness.”
Section Five: The Distinction Between Elaborateness and Similar Rhetorical Devices
- Elaborateness and Parallelism
(1) Similarities: Attributive parallelism and adverbial parallelism, like elaborateness, are both used as modifying components.
(2) Distinguishing Features: Parallelism is limited to sentences or phrases possessing identical or similar structures, and generally possesses a common leading phrase; elaborateness, however, not only contains the characteristic of parallelism, but may also consist of phrases and sentences whose words or structures differ.24
- Elaborateness and Consecutive Usage
(1) Similarities: Both involve strings of words used consecutively with coherent meaning and unified tone.
(2) Distinguishing Features: Those serving as principal components within a sentence belong to consecutive usage; those serving as modifying or restrictive components belong to elaborateness.25
- Elaborateness and Repetition
Elaborateness: the consecutive use of linguistic units (synonymous terms) differing in vocabulary but identical in meaning.
Repetition: the reduplicated use of the same linguistic unit.26
Notes
- Edited by Tang Songbo and Huang Jianlin, Comprehensive Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Devices, Taipei: Jianhong, 1996, p. 374.
- Edited by Yang Chunlin and Liu Fan, Comprehensive Dictionary of the Art of Chinese Rhetoric, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1991, p. 563.
- Edited by Cheng Weijun and two others, General Mirror of Rhetoric, Taipei: Jianhong, 1998, p. 618.
- Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Illustrated Dictionary of Rhetorical Methods, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p. 66.
- Same as note 3, p. 618.
- Written by Liu Xie, annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Annotations on The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, Taipei: Liren, 1984, p. 624.
- Translated by Wang Jichang, Annotated Aesthetics of Santayana, Taipei: Yeqiang, 1986, p. 139.
- Edited by Wang Shide, Dictionary of Aesthetics, Taipei: Muduo, 1987, p. 53.
- Same as note 3, p. 618.
- Same as note 2, p. 563.
- Same as note 4, pp. 67–68.
- Same as note 3, p. 618.
- Same as note 2, p. 564.
- Recorded from Xiao Xiao, Affinity and Non-affinity, Taipei: Erya, 1996, p. 33.
- Recorded from “Xi Han Literary Website.”
- Recorded from Ya Xian, Collected Poems of Ya Xian, Taipei: Chiuko, 1986, pp. 200–201.
- Recorded from Xia Yu, Ventriloquism, downloaded online.
- Recorded from Xia Yu, Memorandum, downloaded online.
- Recorded from Xia Yu, Salsa, downloaded online.
- Recorded from Du Shisan, Notebook of Sighs, Taipei: China Times Publishing, 1990, p. 143.
- Recorded from Zhang Cuo, Chanting Objects, Taipei: Bookman Books, 2008, p. 72.
- Recorded from Zhe Ming, White Warehouse, Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau, Huangxi Literature, Vol. 14, 2006, p. 84.
- Recorded from Xia Yu, Salsa, downloaded online.
- Same as note 1, p. 376.
- Same as note 1, p. 375.
- Same as note 2, p. 563.
