Chapter Fourteen Mutual Referential Imagery: Intertextuality (互文)


Section One: Definition and Function of Intertextuality
I. Intertextuality: Mutual Participation in Forming Text

“Intertextuality,” also called “mutual diction,” “mutual meaning,” or “mutual reference,” refers to “mutually forming a text and jointly revealing meaning.” Specifically, it refers to “a rhetorical device in which, within contexts of identical or similar structure, the preceding passage implicitly contains words that appear in the following passage, and the following passage implicitly contains words that appear in the preceding passage; through mutual reference the text is formed, and through synthesis meaning is revealed.” 1. “Intertextuality is an expressive technique that achieves conciseness through omission. In coherent sentences with continuity between the preceding and following context, words appearing in the preceding (or following) passage are omitted, so that the preceding and following passages, depending on contextual conditions of meaning, complement each other, echo each other, and unite as one to jointly express a complete meaning.” 2.

“Intertextuality” means “mutual textual formation,” referring to the intentional splitting of “a complete meaning, according to expressive needs, and distributing it into two sentences.” “Intertextuality” uses the method of “mutual reference to reveal meaning” to economize wording under contextual relational conditions between sentences. The so-called “mutual reference to reveal meaning” refers to “mutually forming text and jointly revealing meaning,” that is, words appearing in the preceding passage are omitted where they appear in the following passage, and words appearing in the following passage are omitted where they appear in the preceding passage; the preceding and following passages mutually reference each other, and together their meanings complement one another.

II. Historical Origin of Intertextuality

As a rhetorical term, “mutual reference to reveal meaning” first appears in Tang dynasty Jia Gongyan’s “Commentary and Subcommentary on the Yili”: Jia Gongyan of the Tang dynasty, in his “Subcommentary on the Yili,” states: “Whenever one speaks of intertextuality, it is when two things each present one side and omit the text, therefore it is called intertextuality,” giving a concise definition of “intertextuality.” Qing scholar Yu Yue, in “Examples of Doubtful Meanings in Ancient Books,” calls this linguistic phenomenon “mutual reference to reveal meaning,” proposing that “ancient texts have cases where meaning is formed through mutual arrangement.” Combining the theories of the two schools yields a summary of the full scope of “intertextuality”: when separated it is “intertextuality,” when combined it “reveals meaning.”

“Mutual reference to reveal meaning” is abbreviated as intertextuality, or mutual speech, mutual complement, mutual structure, mutual reference, etc. It refers to a rhetorical device in classical poetry and prose in which semantically related clauses (or two related parts within a single sentence) contain mutually associated words that can be interpreted through mutual reference and mutually supplement each other.

This rhetorical device enables concise and meaningful writing: stating A already includes B, and stating B already includes A; the meanings of the upper and lower clauses mutually complement each other. For example: “Be close to virtuous ministers and distant from petty men; this is why the Former Han prospered; be close to petty men and distant from virtuous ministers; this is why the Later Han declined.” (“Chu Shi Biao”). This sentence is generally understood as: being close to virtuous ministers and distancing oneself from petty men was the reason for the prosperity of the Former Han; being close to petty men and distancing oneself from virtuous ministers was the reason for the decline and failure of the Later Han. In these two structurally identical sentences, the upper sentence mentioning “Former Han” already includes the “Later Han” of the lower sentence, and the lower sentence mentioning “Later Han” already includes the “Former Han” of the upper sentence; “Former Han” and “Later Han” mutually contain and complement each other in meaning.

Specifically, intertextual mutual reference has three situations:

(1) In order to avoid monotony in expression or to meet certain stylistic requirements, the ancients intentionally divided a semantically complex sentence into two (or sometimes three) structurally identical (or roughly identical) sentences with interwoven wording. These sentences mutually imply, penetrate, echo, and complement each other in meaning and content. For example: “Fight at South of the City, die at North of the City; those who die in the fields are not buried, so that crows may eat them.” (Han Yuefu “Fighting South of the City”). In this line, “Fight at South of the City, die at North of the City” is symmetrical in structure and suits the Yuefu poetic form; however, it should not be mechanically understood as fighting only in the south of the city and dying only in the north of the city. “Fight at South of the City, die at North of the City” is intertextual: “fight” and “die” complement each other, and “south of the city” and “north of the city” complement each other; it actually means: “fought in the south and north of the city, and died in the south and north of the city.” Some divide a complete meaning into separate parts so that words that should be connected appear separately in different clauses, omitting one (or two), while the meanings always mutually include and complement each other. For example: “When occupying a high position in the temple, one worries about the people; when living far away in the rivers and lakes, one worries about the ruler.” (Song dynasty Fan Zhongyan, “Record of Yueyang Tower”).

(2) From the perspective of meaning, the front and back meanings of “intertextuality” mutually imply, penetrate, contain, and complement each other. In intertextuality, the upper sentence always implies the lower sentence, and the lower sentence implies the upper sentence; they form a semantic whole, a so-called phenomenon of linguistic cross-reference in which “you are in me, and I am in you.” For example: “Morning sunlight and evening gloom, with myriad changes of atmosphere” (“Record of Yueyang Tower”). In this sentence, “sunlight” and “gloom” are intertextual and mutually complementary in meaning, referring to mornings and evenings, sometimes bright with sunlight and sometimes overcast. Another example: “I was entrusted with a mission at the time of a defeated army, and I received orders in times of crisis” (“Chu Shi Biao”). If interpreted as: “at the time of this military defeat I accepted the late emperor’s entrusted responsibility; at this most critical moment I was ordered to go to Wu,” the explanation is redundant and unclear. In fact, “receiving trust” and “receiving orders,” as well as “time of defeat” and “time of crisis,” are mutually referential. The correct translation is: “(I) at the critical moment of military defeat, received orders to be sent on an envoy mission (to Wu).” From the above examples it can be seen that the upper and lower sentences of intertextual structures always mutually include and complement each other. Sometimes, for the sake of expressing meaning or brevity, intertextuality is used, and this phenomenon is difficult to recognize without careful attention.

(3) Some instances of “intertextuality” appear within a single sentence, but their semantic characteristics are the same as those appearing across two sentences above. For example: “Day and night singing and playing string instruments, serving as palace women of Qin.” (Du Mu, “Ode to the Afang Palace”). In this line, “day singing night playing strings” is intertextual, meaning singing and playing music at all times, morning and evening. If “day singing night playing strings” is understood as singing only in the morning and playing strings only at night, it would be an error of being bound strictly to the literal wording. Another example: “Mist envelops the cold water, and moonlight covers the sand; at night I moor at Qinhuai near a wine shop.” (Du Mu, “Anchoring at Qinhuai”). In this line, “mist envelops the cold water and moonlight covers the sand” is also intertextual, meaning that mist and moonlight envelop the cold river water and sandbank. Thus, whether intertextuality appears in the form of sentences or words, and whether it appears across clauses or within a single sentence, the related words always mutually form text and jointly reveal meaning.

“Intertextuality is ‘mutually forming text and jointly revealing meaning.’ Specifically, mutually complementary and implicitly interrelated words in intertextuality can be (1) ‘understood separately’ and (2) ‘comprehended synthetically.’ When understood separately, the words can be interchanged; when comprehended synthetically, the words are added together.” 3.

In classical poetry and prose, the use of “intertextuality” has many functions, including: (1) it makes language concise and allows the meaning of the context to be fully complemented; (2) it helps express ideas from both positive and negative perspectives, achieving the effect of repeated exposition; (3) it helps fully express the attributes of things; (4) it strengthens expressive function and highlights emphasis; (5) it links several things together to express shared emotions and thoughts.

Section Two: Semantic Structure of Intertextuality

In the West, the concept of “intertextuality” was adopted by post-structuralists in the 1960s, but it has already gone beyond its original meaning in rhetoric. “Intertextuality” (intertexuality) has become a new term in Western cultural discourse.

Form of intertextuality and “cross-complementarity”

“Intertextuality” is “mutually forming text and jointly revealing meaning.” Taking “couplet intertextuality” as an example, its form is:
A A1………BB1………→AB………A1B1………

From a structural perspective, intertextuality is a process in which the meaning of a word in the preceding structure extends to the following structure; the corresponding word in the following structure simultaneously refers back to the preceding structure, forming a cross-complementary relationship. For example: “The general dies in a hundred battles, the strong soldiers return after ten years.” (“Ballad of Mulan”). In “hundred battles die,” both generals and soldiers are implied; in “ten years return,” both soldiers and generals are implied. The upper and lower sentences form a “cross-complementary” structure. The internal structure of this intertextual sentence can be represented diagrammatically as a cross-network form:

General Hundred battles die

Strong soldiers Ten years return

Intertextuality within a single sentence or phrase is of the same structural type. For example: “The bright moon of Qin times and the passes of Han times” (Wang Changling, “Out of the Frontier”), meaning the bright moon of Qin and Han times, and the passes of Qin and Han times. From this we can clearly see that “intertextuality” is a sentence pattern in which semantic relations between two clauses in a compound sentence, or between two parts of a single sentence, mutually cross, penetrate each other, and form a network-like structure. This is what the ancients called “omitting words, mutually forming text and revealing meaning.” Therefore, we must grasp this feature of intertextuality and examine such words within their specific linguistic context, avoiding fragmentary interpretation or reading meaning directly from the surface wording. It can thus be seen that the characteristic of intertextual mutual reference is not merely mutual supplementation of words, but more importantly, mutual implication and penetration of meaning.

Distinguishing “intertextuality” from “parallel construction”: many people mistakenly regard “parallel construction” sentences as “intertextuality” sentences, which is entirely incorrect. Parallel construction refers to a sentence pattern in which two clauses with related meanings and similar or identical syntactic structures contain corresponding words that can mutually verify and explain each other in meaning.

Section Three: Manifest Forms of Intertextuality

The expressive types of “intertextuality” can be classified and discussed from two aspects: sentence quantity (formal appearance) and structure:

I. Classification by Number of Sentences

In terms of sentence form, “intertextuality” can be divided into: “single-sentence intertextuality” (continuous-type intertextuality), “couplet intertextuality” (symmetrical-type intertextuality), and “multi-sentence intertextuality” (multi-layered intertextuality). In classical poetry, in order to accommodate more imagery and refer to more things within a limited number of characters (five-character or seven-character lines), authors often employ this method of “mutually forming text and jointly revealing meaning” within single or paired sentences. 4

1. Single-sentence intertextuality (continuous-type intertextuality)

“Intertextuality that appears in single sentences or compact sentences is formed by two structurally identical or similar phrases placed consecutively, with no punctuation separating them.” 5; “it refers to the existence of intertextuality within a single sentence; such sentences naturally contain two things or two situations.” 6 In classical poetry, this kind of single-sentence intertextuality formed by “two structurally identical or similar phrases placed consecutively” is quite common. For example, in late Tang Wei Zhuang’s “Parting from Li Xiucai in Jiangshan”:

Thousand mountains red trees, ten thousand mountains clouds; raising wine and looking at each other, the sun again grows dim; one tune of farewell song, two lines of tears, not knowing where again to meet you.

The first line “thousand mountains red trees, ten thousand mountains clouds” is an example of “single-sentence intertextuality.” It should be understood as containing two situations: both the thousand mountains and the ten thousand mountains have red trees, and both have clouds; that is, the words in the first half and the second half mutually complement each other to form the original meaning. The author deliberately separates “thousand mountains” and “ten thousand mountains,” also highlighting an effect of exaggeration. This line vividly expresses the late autumn season; on the road of farewell, everything within sight is filled with red leaves. It deliberately constructs an atmosphere, implying that the two people about to part, while raising their wine and looking at each other, have inner feelings of separation and sorrow like thousands of mountains and ten thousand mountains of red leaves burning fiercely, and like clouds surging across thousands and ten thousand mountains.

Another example is Wang Changling’s “Out of the Border”:

Bright moon of Qin times, frontier pass of Han times; a long march of ten thousand li, the man has not yet returned. If only the Dragon City Flying General still existed, he would not let the enemy horses cross the Yin Mountains.

This is a famous representative of Tang frontier poetry, yet it is narrated from the perspective of a woman in the Guanzhong region; its gentle and tender emotional tone within a grand atmosphere makes it even more moving. The woman in the inner chamber, sleepless on a moonlit night, looks at the moon and thinks of her husband who has gone to the frontier. The opening line begins with scenery and is a famous intertextual line: “Bright moon of Qin times, frontier pass of Han times.” It does not mean “only the moon existed in Qin times, and only the pass existed in Han times,” but rather “the moon of Qin and Han times, the passes of Qin and Han times.” The two situations must be “combined to reveal meaning,” and only when combined does the meaning become complete.

In modern poetry, single-sentence intertextuality is relatively rare, but examples still exist:

Zhang Cuo, “Entrustment” 7

Only between affection and lack of affection

is a kind of exhausted space

like a flight competing with the sky

beyond layers of water and layers of mountains,

still there remains the desolate sky

“Beyond layers of water and layers of mountains” is a sentence of single-sentence intertextuality; its meaning should also include the implicit reverse phrase: “beyond layers of mountains and layers of water,” that is, “mountains” and “water,” together with “layers” and “ten thousand layers,” mutually refer to each other, producing two similar parallel meanings.

In addition, there is a form I call “parallel phrase intertextuality,” whose structural form can be annotated as: Phrase A + Phrase B / intertextual explanatory sentence. See the following poetic example:

Luo Qing, “The Shell Family” 8

(ship sails sink, white gulls rise)

my speech my thinking

yet becomes silent colored patterns

slowly flowing outward from inner rotation

beautiful, free, and also hidden

“My speech my thinking” consists of two phrases, which together with the subsequent image of “colored patterns” form a metaphorical linkage between upper and lower context, producing the intertextual structure of “Phrase A + Phrase B / intertextual explanatory sentence.” That is, the first two lines can be expressed as: “my speech” + “my thinking” = “yet becomes silent colored patterns,” and semantically it includes both “my speech becomes silent colored patterns” and “my thinking becomes silent colored patterns,” with the two forming a parallel coexistent structure.

Luo Qing, “Practice of Dreams” 9

Cloud passes, rain passes

who is it? whose delicate hand

so mischievous, secretly

reaching from behind me, reaching again

covering my eyes

embracing me into sleep, sleeping me into dreams

dreaming me into scattered petals

sleeping me into fading rainbow

The syntax of the latter three lines is: “embracing me into sleep” + “dreaming me into scattered petals” + “sleeping me into fading rainbow,” and “sleeping me into dreams” + “dreaming me into scattered petals” + “sleeping me into fading rainbow.” These three lines form a set of “parallel phrase intertextuality,” whose structural form is: Phrase A (embracing me into sleep) + Phrase B (sleeping me into dreams) / intertextual explanatory sentence A (dreaming me into scattered petals) + intertextual explanatory sentence B (sleeping me into fading rainbow). The semantics present a cross-referential structure, as follows:

Phrase A Phrase B

Intertextual explanatory sentence A
Intertextual explanatory sentence B

Such a form presents a cross-referential plural mapping in semantic structure; its semantic level is doubled compared with ordinary “parallel enumerative sentences.”

1. Couplet intertextuality (symmetrical-type intertextuality)

“Couplet intertextuality” refers to cases where “between two lines there exists an intertextual form, mutually echoing and complementing each other, so that meaning is complete.” 10; “it often appears in compound sentences composed of two clauses with symmetrical structures. This type of intertextuality is essentially an extension of continuous-type intertextuality, where the structural units are clauses rather than phrases.” 11

In classical poetry, this type of intertextuality formed by “two symmetrically structured clauses” is very common. Taking Du Fu’s “Madman” as an example: “Wind contains green bamboo, fresh and pure; rain moistens red lotus, gradually fragrant.” The two clauses share identical structure; “wind contains” in the first line and “rain moistens” in the second line can be interchanged. The poet uses intertextuality to depict a lively scene: green bamboo sways gently in the breeze, moist branches appear pure and beautiful; red lotus becomes especially radiant in the rain, its fragrance carried by the wind, intoxicating and delightful.

“The flower path has never been swept for guests; the humble gate now opens for you.” (Du Fu, “Guest Arrival”)

These two lines also possess the formal structure of parallelism, but in terms of poetic interpretation, they should be understood from the perspective of intertextuality: “The flower path has never been swept for guests; now it is swept for you; the humble gate has never been opened for guests; now it is opened for you.” Through omission and mutual implication, the author employs the grammatical feature of intertextuality—mutual reference and mutual supplementation—omitting “the flower path is now swept for you” and “the humble gate has never been opened for guests” in the surface text, while these meanings are implicitly present. This creates suspense and a graceful circular rhythm, with a fresh and open artistic realm, subtly expressing Du Fu’s sincere joy at the visit of Cui Mingfu during his reclusive life at the thatched cottage and his relatively distant contact with the outside world.

In addition, in lines such as “Written poetry startles wind and rain; completed verse makes ghosts and spirits weep” (“Twenty Rhymes Sent to Li Twelve Bai”), and “Thinking of home, I stand in the moonlit night; missing my brother, I sleep under clouds in daylight” (“Regretful Separation”), Du Fu similarly uses intertextuality to express layered meanings within limited words.

Luo Qing, “Crossing the Aegean Sea – Departing from Athens” 12

The breeze is a fragrant breath

The dew is a pearl of coughing and spitting

The seaweed is flowing soft hair

The rainbow is a casually hung belt

In front and behind, dolphins carefully escort

On the left and right, seagulls gently accompany

In this section, the first four lines are parallel sentences, while the last two are parallel couplet sentences. From a semantic perspective, the third and fourth lines and the fifth and sixth lines are examples of couplet intertextuality. The first and second lines are only parallel structures; semantically, interpreting “breeze is fragrant pearls / dew is coughing-and-spitting breath” makes the association between “breeze” and “pearls” too distant; treating it as intertextuality would therefore be forced.

Luo Qing, “Flying from Baekje through Silla, Overnight in Hanseong – Gazing at Mount Tai and Mount Tian from a Dream” 13

And I am nothing more than a young man from Chu who loves wandering the world

likes breaking pine branches into long swords in heavy snow

likes striking dragon pillars into short songs in night fire

and even more likes, while biting pears

casually spitting seeds like spitting out fresh lines of poetry

The latter four lines are a “stretching transformation” within a “disordered structure,” expanding what was originally a three-line parallel structure into a longer fourth line, breaking the formal pattern of parallelism and forming a “disordered” structure. The second and third lines are formally a parallel couplet, but semantically they are couplet intertextuality.

1. Multi-sentence intertextuality (multi-layered intertextuality)

Intertextuality of three or more sentences is called “multi-sentence intertextuality” or “multi-layered intertextuality.” “It often appears in multi-layered compound sentences and is an extension and expansion of symmetrical intertextuality. The corresponding structural forms across layers are often identical or similar. Sometimes many words are implicit; some phrases or even clauses are omitted.” 14

In classical poetry, this kind of intertextuality with corresponding structural layers is also common. For example, in the Yuefu Poetry Collection, “The Wife of Jiao Zhongqing”:

Two families seek joint burial, joint burial beside Mount Hua. East and west plant pine and cypress, left and right plant paulownia; branches cover each other, leaves interconnect with each other.

In this passage, the author uses two sets of couplet intertextuality, proceeding step by step to form a layered narrative structure. These two sets are formally parallel structures, but semantically must be understood through intertextual mutual reference and mutual supplementation. Regarding the surroundings of the tomb, not only east and west but also left and right are planted with pine, cypress, and paulownia; as these plants grow, their branches and leaves intertwine and cover one another. This symbolizes the couple’s continued intimacy and dependence even after death, forming a vivid and moving image.

Iron horses wrapped in felt, silver flowers shedding tears, spring enters a city of sorrow.
Flute melodies of foreign tunes, street drums of theater, not songs.
How can I endure sitting alone under a green lamp, thinking of my homeland, high terraces under bright moonlight.
Palace court scenery, mountain dwelling years, feelings from the sea.

(Southern Song late period, Liu Chenweng, “Willow Branches – Spring Feeling”)

The three parallel four-character phrases—“palace court scenery, mountain dwelling years, feelings from the sea”—are formally parallel constructions, specifically phrase-level parallelism and sequential parallelism. This poem was written by the author in his later years while in seclusion in the mountains; although titled “Spring Feeling,” it was actually composed on the Lantern Festival. The tone is bleak, expressing the author’s profound grief over the loss of his country and longing for the former dynasty. Liu Chenweng had served in Wen Tianxiang’s staff and participated in anti-Yuan resistance; after the fall of the Song dynasty, he wandered for many years and finally retired in the mountains. “Here, the author, while living in seclusion in the mountains, expresses complex emotions through the interaction of time and space. ‘Palace court’ refers to the past, ‘mountain dwelling’ to the present, and ‘the sea’ to the future. Now living in the mountains, he wastes his years, longs for the capital, and remembers the loyalists resisting in the southern seas. Between memories of the past, present conditions, and future imagination, his heart can never be at peace.” 15

“Palace court scenery beneath the chariot carriage,” refers to the beautiful scenery of the former capital Lin’an. The “scenery” referred to by the author should be the bustling Lantern Festival scenes in Lin’an city before the fall of the Song dynasty, as well as the peaceful and flourishing years before the downfall of the state. “Mountain dwelling years” refers to the lonely years of one’s reclusive life in the mountains. “Sea-going emotions” generally refer to the patriotic loyalists of the Song dynasty who, after the fall of Lin’an, continued resistance against the Yuan in the Fujian and Guangdong regions, as well as the author’s concern and remembrance for them. Because this ci poem was written during the period of reclusion in the “mountains,” and at that time the complete collapse of the Song dynasty was already near, the anti-Yuan struggles at “sea” no longer existed. The connotations expressed in these three lines are profound and progressively layered: “mountain dwelling years” refers to one’s own physical location; “palace court scenery beneath the chariot carriage” refers to what one’s heart is attached to; “sea-going emotions” refers to the direction of one’s aspiration. The author’s ambition is thus vividly revealed: living in seclusion without entering official service, willingly spending long years in the mountains, maintaining the identity of a surviving subject of the fallen dynasty, and constantly remembering the former capital and homeland—this is his “sea-going emotions,” which expresses his national integrity. Therefore, ending with “sea-going emotions” not only clarifies the essence of “mountain dwelling years” and “palace court scenery beneath the chariot carriage,” but is also a general summary of the entire text’s ideological and emotional content. One may even say that the author wrote this ci precisely in order to express this kind of “sea-going emotions.” However, after the fall of the former country, there was nothing left but emotional sorrow and indignation; no further action remained. This “emotion” reflects both the characteristics and the limitations of intellectuals like Liu Chenweng.

“Now let us see how the modern poet Luo Qing performs ‘intertextuality’:”

Luo Qing, “Crossing the Aegean Sea – Departing from Athens” 16

leading schools of fish and schools of shrimp like pupils

into the deep and uncanny seabed

passing through the keel of Athenian warships

passing through the treasures of the Persian emperor

returning to the round shields of Spartan generals

returning to the skeletons of Trojan beauties

In terms of form, the second, third, and fourth lines constitute “sequential parallelism,” while in terms of semantics they constitute “multi-line intertextuality.” The fifth and sixth lines are parallel couplet sentences, but semantically they are not “intertextuality,” because the phrase “returning to the skeletons of Spartan generals, returning to the round shields of Trojan beauties” is semantically strained; the association between “beauties” and “round shields” does not correspond naturally with the expected imagery of a beauty.

Luo Qing, “The British Museum” 17

And within the wooden box, there should be a woman

with white hair hanging down to her shoulders

a body like the shadow of a white cat

a body like a golden snake

her eyebrows like birds flying into the distance

her eyeliner like fish swimming on water

she, with palms extended flat

crossed in front of her chest

two plump lips

smiling into a crescent moon

“‘Body like the shadow of a white cat / body like a golden snake / eyebrows like birds flying into the distance / eyeliner like fish swimming on water’: the first two lines are in the form of implicit metaphor, while the latter two lines are in the form of explicit simile. The phrases ‘body like the shadow of a white cat’ and ‘body like a golden snake’ together with ‘eyebrows like birds flying into the distance / eyeliner like fish swimming on water’ jointly form intertextuality.”

II. Classification by Structure

1. Parallel-type intertextuality 18

Structurally, the upper and lower contexts are arranged in parallel; the upper text states what the lower text omits, and the lower text states what the upper text omits. The two mutually refer and together produce meaning. For example, the previously cited “The flower path has never been swept for guests; the humble gate now opens for you.” These two lines speak of the “flower path” and the “humble gate.” Both share a common relational factor: “formerly never swept (or opened) for guests, now only because of your arrival is it swept (or opened).” If the meaning of these two lines is completed, it becomes: “The flower path has never been swept for guests; now it is swept for you; the humble gate has never been opened for guests; now it is opened for you.” What one sentence does not fully state can be supplemented by the other; what one sentence leaves incomplete is already contained in the other. If “flower path” and “humble gate” are interchanged, the meaning can still be completed; the two are a relationship of mutual supplementation through omission.

Luo Qing, “Flying from Baekje through Silla, Overnight in Hanseong – Dreaming of Mount Tai and Mount Tian” 19

If a drifting cloud entering Hanseong is me

then I must come from the Qin dynasty

If a bright moon rising over the Han River is me

then I must come from the late Tang dynasty

Luo Qing, “Nüwa’s Battle with the Giant Hand – Sketches of Taiwan” 20

“If the image of a drifting cloud and the image of a bright moon, and ‘Qin dynasty’ and ‘late Tang dynasty,’ form two sets of parallel enumerative intertextual sentences. If these ‘core images’ are interchanged, two similar semantic clusters can be obtained. Multiple semantic possibilities are embedded within intertextual sentences, making meaning richer and more diverse—this is precisely the feature of multiple semantic generation in parallel-type intertextuality.”

From here

a solitary, vast courtyard house embracing itself with crossed arms

has been torn apart, missing hands, missing feet, missing a head

within the courtyard, ancient trees of elders standing their ground

in the corner, ancient vines of dragons struggling desperately

all of them, one by one, have been cruelly cut at the waist

“The phrases ‘standing their ground within the courtyard’ and ‘struggling desperately in the corner,’ together with the image groups ‘ancient trees of elders’ and ‘ancient vines of dragons,’ mutually reflect each other, forming two corresponding semantic clusters. When the components are interchanged, the meaning is completed.”

1. Antithetical intertextuality

Structurally, the upper and lower lines appear parallel but are actually antithetical; each side omits meanings implicitly contained in the other. Through mutual reference, they form complete meaning. For example, “The gentleman speaks sparingly, the petty man speaks first” (“Book of Rites · Fangji”). The first clause should implicitly contain “the petty man speaks much,” but the second clause omits this implication and instead establishes a different meaning: “the petty man speaks first.” In this structure, the first clause contains the idea of “the gentleman speaks later,” and the second contains the idea of “the petty man speaks much.” Together they mutually correspond, being both concise and implicit.

“In modern poetry, the female poet Luo Ying also seems to have been influenced by Chinese ‘metrical school’ poets such as Li Jinfa and Dai Wangshu. Structurally, she also skillfully uses intertextual semantic structures. Consider her poem ‘Name’:”

Luo Ying, “Name” 21

On the leaves, using moonlight, I write your name.

On the moonlight, using tree shadows, I write your name.

On the tree shadows, using bird calls, I write your name.

Among bird calls, using singing voices, I write your name.

From a formal structural analysis, this poem combines parallelism, repetition, gradation, and anadiplosis, forming a rare multi-form structure. In terms of parallelism, it involves both clause-level and stanza-level parallel structures. In terms of repetition, “write your name” is a repeated phrase. In terms of gradation, the four lines form a descending sequence: from “leaves → moonlight → tree shadows → bird calls → singing voices,” with the focus gradually narrowing. In terms of anadiplosis, the connection between phrases is continuous: “leaves → moonlight,” “moonlight → tree shadows,” “tree shadows → bird calls,” “bird calls → singing voices,” with “write your name” inserted between them.

From the perspective of semantic structure, this poem presents a multi-layered cross-referential “antithetical intertextuality,” which can be annotated as follows:

Phrase A Phrase B  Intertextual explanatory sentence

Phrase B Phrase C  Intertextual explanatory sentence

Phrase C  Phrase D  Intertextual explanatory sentence

Phrase D  Phrase E  Intertextual explanatory sentence

Notes

(1) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Explanatory Examples of Rhetorical Devices, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p.101.

(2) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), 2004, Taipei: National Publishing, p.199.

(3) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Explanatory Examples of Rhetorical Devices, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p.102.

(4) Lu Jiaxiang et al., pp.102–103 and Huang Lizhen, pp.200–207.

(5) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Explanatory Examples of Rhetorical Devices, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p.102.

(6) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: National Publishing, 2004, p.201.

(7) Reproduced from Zhang Cuo, Fourteen Erroneous Sonnets, Taipei: China Times Publishing, 1981, pp.31–33.

(8) Reproduced from Luo Qing, The Method of Eating Watermelon, Taipei: Youth Lion Publishing, 1987, pp.90–92.

(9) Reproduced from Luo Qing, The Method of Eating Watermelon, Taipei: Youth Lion Cultural Publishing, 1984, pp.93–95.

(10) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: National Publishing, 2004, p.203.

(11) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Explanatory Examples of Rhetorical Devices, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p.103.

(12) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.74–79.

(13) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.90–92.

(14) Edited by Lu Jiaxiang and Chi Taining, Dictionary of Explanatory Examples of Rhetorical Devices, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1990, p.103.

(15) Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric (Revised Edition), Taipei: National Publishing, 2004, p.205.

(16) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.74–79.

(17) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.80–82.

(18) This classification is from Rhetorical Comprehensive Guide, see Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Rhetorical Comprehensive Guide, Beijing: China Youth Publishing, 1991, p.901.

(19) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.90–92.

(20) Reproduced from Luo Qing, Poetics of Videography, Taipei: Bookman Publishing, 1988, pp.105–109.

(21) Reproduced from Luo Ying, Catchers of Clouds, Taipei: Linbai Publishing, 1982, pp.128–129.