Chapter Fifteen Imagistic Transformation — Hyperbole (誇飾)

Section One: Definition and Function of Hyperbole

I. Hyperbole: Transformation of Imagery

In the short story “Su Xiaomei Tests the Groom Three Times” in Feng Menglong’s Stories to Caution the World of the Ming dynasty, there is a passage depicting playful teasing between Su Dongpo and his younger sister Su Xiaomei:

Su Dongpo, the scholar, often teased and joked with his younger sister. Dongpo had a beard full of facial hair; Xiaomei mocked him, saying:

“Corners of the mouth searched many times but nowhere to be found; suddenly I hear a sound coming from within the hair.”

Xiaomei had a protruding forehead; Dongpo replied in mockery:

“Not yet taken three to five steps out of the courtyard, the forehead has already arrived at the hall.”

Xiaomei again mocked Dongpo’s long chin, saying:

“A single drop of love-sickness tears from last year, until now it still has not reached the cheek.”

Dongpo, seeing Xiaomei’s slightly sunken eyes, responded again:

“Many times I wipe my face but still cannot reach it; leaving behind two gushing springs.”

The brother and sister each used the rhetorical device of “hyperbole” in their poetic lines to tease and “fix” each other. Dongpo said that his younger sister’s forehead protruded so much that “not yet taken three to five steps out of the courtyard, the forehead has already arrived at the hall,” which humorously describes her appearance. Xiaomei, unwilling to be outdone, retorted and mocked Dongpo’s chin as so long that “a single drop of love-sickness tears from last year, until now it still has not reached the cheek.” She is relatively more gentle; although still exaggerated, her words are not as malicious.

“Hyperbole” is a “transformative description” of “exaggeration beyond reality”¹. In language, it refers to “a rhetorical device in which, in order to express strong emotion or to leave a vivid and deep impression on the listener or reader, the shape, quantity, characteristics, function, or degree of things are deliberately enlarged or reduced”². “The subjective factor of hyperbole is the author’s intention to astonish the audience with striking expression; the objective factor is the reader’s psychology of curiosity.”³

The function of hyperbole includes: (1) highlighting a certain characteristic of things, revealing their features or essence, leaving a vivid and deep impression on the audience; (2) expressing strong emotions of the writer, used for satire or praise, thereby moving the audience; (3) arousing readers’ associations, reflection, and resonance.⁴

II. Historical Origin of Hyperbole

In Chinese classical texts, the earliest attention to and discussion of “hyperbole” is said to be found in Wang Chong’s Lunheng (“Discourses Weighed in the Balance”), “Chapter on Artistic Amplification”: “What the world suffers from is that in speaking of things, people exaggerate reality; in writing and composing texts, words overflow beyond truth; in praising goodness, they go beyond merit; in criticizing evil, they suppress its crimes. Why is this so? Because common people love novelty; if it is not strange, their words will not be used. Therefore, if praise does not exaggerate goodness, listeners will not feel satisfied; if criticism does not increase evil, listeners will not be pleased in their hearts.”⁵ This argues that the phenomenon of “words exceeding reality and expressions overflowing truth” arises from “the common people’s love of novelty,” as “those with superficial cleverness are moved by ornate writing, and those who love strangeness are startled by bizarre expressions.”⁶ (Wenxin Diaolong, “Understanding Tone”). Thus, in order to leave a deep impression on readers and listeners, one must speak in striking and surprising ways. The poet Du Fu wrote: “Throughout my life I am fond of fine lines, and if my words do not startle people, I will not rest,” which can serve as an annotation of poets’ fondness for hyperbole and striking expression.

In Chinese classical texts, a more systematic discussion of hyperbole is found in Liu Xie’s (Yanhé) Wenxin Diaolong, “On Hyperbole”: “Therefore, from heaven and earth onward, when entering into sound and appearance, wherever literature and language extend, hyperbole always exists.” This points out that hyperbole has long been a method of literary expression. Examples from classics such as the Book of Songs and the Book of Documents include: “Thus when speaking of greatness, Mount Song reaches the heavens; when speaking of narrowness, the Yellow River cannot contain a boat; when speaking of abundance, descendants number in the thousands and hundreds of millions; when speaking of scarcity, the people leave no survivors; floodwaters reach the heavens when dikes collapse, and overturned weapons can float logs.” These show that even in revered classical texts considered “elegant speech,” hyperbolic expression is still used as a necessary rhetorical device. It is said that in such texts, “although the wording is excessive, its meaning is not harmed.”⁷

Liu Yanhé advocates controlled hyperbole: “exaggerate with restraint, embellish without falsification,” and “when embellishment reaches its essential point, the voice of thought becomes sharp and vigorous,” avoiding “exaggerating beyond reason, thereby causing name and reality to diverge.” He also cites Mencius (Wan Zhang) to remind readers that when facing hyperbolic expressions, one should “not let words harm phrases, nor phrases harm meaning; using meaning to reverse and seek intention is the correct way.” In other words, readers must understand flexibility and variation, not cling rigidly to literal meaning and thereby obstruct sentence meaning; nor should they be bound by sentences and thereby obstruct the author’s intention.

Yu Zhi of the Eastern Jin dynasty, in “On the Varieties of Literary Styles,” criticized the extravagant and ornate style of parallel prose at the time: “If fabricated images are excessively grand, they become distant from categories; if extravagant diction is excessive, it becomes inconsistent with affairs; if rhetorical argument exceeds reason, it loses meaning; if ornate embellishment is excessively beautiful, it becomes contrary to emotion—these four faults are what cause deviation from the overall principle and harm governance and instruction.”⁸ The author believes that this “theory of four faults” can serve as a standard for examining whether writers excessively misuse hyperbole.

Ancient literary writers widely used hyperbole in various forms and functions. Even in the most common types—such as the “expansion and enlargement” or “condensation and reduction” of imagery—we find the following classical examples:

(1) Expansion and Enlargement Type

1. Spatial expansion hyperbole

Zhuangzi · Free and Easy Wandering: “In the northern darkness there is a fish, its name is Kun. The Kun is so vast that no one knows how many thousand li it spans. It transforms into a bird, its name is Peng. The back of the Peng is so vast that no one knows how many thousand li it spans. When it rises in fury and flies, its wings are like clouds hanging from the sky.”

Li Bai, “Song of Autumn Pool”: “White hair three thousand zhang long, caused by sorrow as if so long.”

Liu Zongyuan, “River Snow”: “A thousand mountains, no birds in flight; ten thousand paths, no human trace.”

Li Shangyin, “Untitled Poem”: “Liu Lang already lamented the distance of Peng Mountain, yet it is further separated by ten thousand layers of Peng Mountain.”

All of these are spatial hyperboles (volume, length, area) applied to objects.

2. Temporal extension hyperbole

Bai Juyi, “Yanzi Tower”: “In Yanzi Tower on a frost-moon night, autumn arrives only for one person and becomes long.” The cold frost of autumn night penetrates the body, the moonlight is lonely and desolate; after parting, the poet feels that reunion is distant, making time seem especially long at the moment of separation. Other examples include “resonant sound lingers around the beam for three days” (Liezi · Tangwen), and “not seeing for one day feels like three seasons” (Book of Songs · Wang Feng · Cai Ge), all of which are temporal hyperboles.

3. Object expansion hyperbole

Wang Wei, “Sending Magistrate Li of Zizhou”: “Ten thousand ravines with trees reaching the sky; a thousand mountains echo with cuckoos; one night of rain in the mountains; at treetops, a hundred layers of springs.” The cuckoo is a bird with a clear cry; the first two lines expand space, while the latter two expand objects (trees and springs), describing vast forests covering mountains and ravines, and after night rain, water dripping from treetops like layered waterfalls.

Luo Binwang, “A Proclamation on Behalf of Xu Jingye against Empress Wu”: “The sound of military drums stirs and the northern wind rises; sword energy surges and the Southern Dipper is leveled. In dark roaring, mountains collapse; in sharp shouting, wind and clouds change color.”

4. Human emotion expansion hyperbole

Qu Yuan, Li Sao: “My heart has what it loves; though I die nine times, I still will not regret.” A person has only one life—how can there be “nine deaths”? “Nine” here is an indefinite number, meaning extremely many. Although not literal, it emphasizes the author’s resolve to die without regret.

Gao Zhuwu, “Ode to Plum Blossoms on Golden Tray”: “New sorrow of ten thousand hu, making one wither for spring, yet fearing spring knows.” Here, sorrow is quantified and materialized using “ten thousand hu,” a capacity measure, giving abstract emotion tangible form.

Huang Tingjian, “Writing Poem for Nephew Jia”: “Anyone learning to compose poetry must memorize it in the heart, imagine the person; even those immersed in worldly affairs, if they gather its remaining fragrance, can immediately sweep away three dou of vulgar dust from their faces.”

Du Fu, “Presenting to Wei Eight Recluses”: “Human lives do not meet each other; movement is like Shen and Shang.” Shen and Shang are constellations that appear in different seasons and cannot be seen together, just as friends once separated rarely meet again. This is metaphorical hyperbole, more vivid and imaginative than simple lyric expression.

Du Fu, “Drunken Song to Bid Farewell to Nephew Qin on His Failure in the Examination”: “His source of literary thought flows backward like the water of the Three Gorges; his brush formation alone sweeps away a thousand armies.”

5. Quantitative expansion hyperbole

Bai Juyi, “Song of the Pipa”: “After a thousand calls and ten thousand summons she finally comes out, still holding the pipa half-covering her face.” This emphasizes the extreme popularity of the pipa performer at the time.

(II) Condensation and Reduction Type

To describe the characteristics of people or things by strongly tending toward small, few, low, short, light, thin, slow, etc., in a direction of reduction and contraction.

1. Spatial Reduction Hyperbole

The Book of Songs, “Wei Feng, He Guang”: “Who says the river is wide? A single reed can ferry it; who says Song is far? I rise on tiptoe and can see it. Who says the river is wide? It does not even contain a small boat; who says Song is far? It does not even take a full morning.” The author of this poem is a person from the state of Song living in the state of Wei, expressing his intense longing for his homeland. Although the Yellow River lies between Song and Wei, the yearning to return home cannot be blocked by geography. A single reed leaf, a small boat shaped like a blade, is enough to cross the Yellow River; how can the river be said to be vast? It is also said that by standing on tiptoe one can see the homeland, and it does not take even one morning to arrive; how can Song be said to be distant? Likewise, Su Shi’s “Poem on the Tongchao Pavilion at Chengmai Post Station”: “In the distant sky where the wild geese disappear, the green mountains are like a single strand of hair that is the Central Plains.” Using “a single strand of hair” to describe green mountains is spatial reduction hyperbole. Between green mountains and a single hair, the contrast in size and weight is extremely vast; the imagination is transcendent and extraordinary, and the brushwork is forceful and vigorous.

2. Temporal Reduction Hyperbole

Lu Ji, “Rhapsody on Literature”: “To observe ancient and present within a moment, to grasp the four seas in a single blink.” “A moment” is a short while; “a blink” is the time of a wink of the eye, describing extreme brevity of time. Likewise, Li Bai’s “Bring in the Wine”: “Do you not see in the hall before the bright mirror the sorrow of white hair, which in the morning is like black silk and by evening turns to snow,” and Bai Juyi’s “The Pipa Song”: “My younger brother went off to military service and my aunt died; from evening to morning appearance has already changed.” These two examples both compress time to depict the poet’s extraordinary emotional shock, expressing the poet’s subjective realization of the impermanence of life and the deep awareness of separation and death of relatives in turbulent times, thereby highlighting the poet’s profound sorrow.

Further, Li Bai’s “Early Departure from Baidi City”: “In the morning I leave Baidi amid colored clouds; a thousand li to Jiangling is returned in a single day. The cries of monkeys on both banks cannot cease, yet the light boat has already passed ten thousand layers of mountains.” In this poem, the second line contrasts temporal compression with spatial expansion to express the speed of the boat: “a thousand li in one day.” The third line, “the monkey cries cannot stop,” expresses the speed of the boat through sound movement; “already passed ten thousand layers of mountains” expresses the speed through the movement of scenery.

3. Spatial Reduction of Objects

For example, Bai Juyi’s “Poem on Drinking”: “What is there to contend for on the tip of a snail’s horn? In the spark of flint fire, one’s life is contained.” “On the tip of a snail’s horn” extremely emphasizes the smallness of space; “flint fire”—the spark produced when striking stone—extremely emphasizes the brevity of time. It means that human beings are insignificant; there is no need to struggle with one another; human life in the world is as brief as a spark from striking stone, and there is no need for mutual competition.

Further, Li He’s “Dream of Heaven”: “Yellow dust and clear waters beneath the Three Mountains; a thousand years change like a galloping horse. From afar I look at Qi Prefecture, nine dots of smoke; a pool of sea water poured into a cup.” “A thousand years like a galloping horse” is an extreme temporal condensation; “nine dots of smoke of Qi Prefecture” is an extreme spatial condensation; “a pool of sea water poured into a cup” is an extreme condensation of object imagery. Beneath the Three Mountains, a thousand years becomes an instant like a galloping horse; the vastness of the nine states and the boundless sea, when viewed from afar, becomes nothing more than dots of smoke and a cup of water. This poem’s imagination is grand and strange, and its artistic conception is expansive. Its language embodies “exaggeration with restraint, embellishment without falsehood,” showing the author’s extraordinary breadth of mind and far-sighted vision. In four lines, three use hyperbole, showing the astonishing power of the author’s imagination.

Further, Liu Yuxi’s “Viewing Dongting”: “The lake light and autumn moon harmonize with each other; the surface of the lake is without wind, like an unpolished mirror. From afar I look at the colors of Dongting’s mountains and waters; a green snail lies in a white silver plate.” The final line uses reduction hyperbole, transforming the Dongting landscape under the autumn moon—the lake surface and Junshan—into an image of “a green snail in a silver plate,” like a finely crafted artwork, creating a unique scene and giving great aesthetic pleasure.

4. Reduction Hyperbole of Human Emotion

“Death is heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than a feather” uses both expansion and reduction forms, expressing the value of life through contrast: Mount Tai and a feather differ sharply in weight.

Zhuangzi, “Journey to the North of Knowledge”: “Life between heaven and earth is like a white horse passing a crack, gone in an instant.” Using metaphor, it extremely emphasizes how quickly time passes, like a white horse flashing through a gap.

5. Quantifier Reduction Hyperbole

Li Shangyin, “Visiting the Mountain”: “From ancient times there has been no long rope to bind the sun; waters pass and clouds return, sorrow is endless. If I go to Madame Ma Gu to buy the vast sea, a single cup of spring dew is as cold as ice.” Ancient people attempted to stop time with the fantasy of binding the sun with a long rope, yet “waters pass and clouds return,” and time still flows away. The poet uses bold and novel imagination to condense the vast sea into a single cup of spring dew; such imagination borders on contradiction with reason. Yet precisely within such seemingly absurd imagery, the poem uses boundless imaginative writing to reveal the uncontrollable nature of the world, the ruthlessness of time, and the poet’s resulting helpless emotions.

Section 2: Theoretical Foundations of Hyperbole

How have foreign writers historically viewed “hyperbole”? Russian writer Maxim Gorky (Максим Горький, 1868–1936) said: “The purpose of art is to exaggerate the good aspects so that they appear better; to exaggerate harmful things to humanity so that people find them repulsive.” This statement is based on a teleological perspective: the function of art is to subtly transform people’s minds, close in meaning to Confucius’ saying “gentle and honest, this is the teaching of poetry.” Literature is not an objective record of reality but addresses subjective feeling. Rhetoric, as in “rhetoric establishes sincerity,” is responsible only for the sincerity of subjective feeling, not objective truth.

“People like to use hyperbole for profound reasons. In real life, some things and phenomena are difficult to describe, and some thoughts and emotions are difficult to express. At such times, if hyperbole is appropriately used, it can achieve far better effects than straightforward description.” Literary authors, through the intensification of images of people and things, deeply express emotional attitudes toward things, aiming to stimulate readers’ rich imagination and strong resonance. However, if pushed beyond the limits of most people’s experience and imagination, it may not be accepted and may instead be dismissed as absurd. Chen Wangdao proposed two constraints on hyperbole: (1) subjectively, it must arise from natural emotional expression; (2) objectively, it must not be mistaken for fact. In essence, this corresponds to Liu Xie’s “exaggerate with measure, embellish without falsehood.”

Modern psychology points out “curiosity psychology,” emphasizing that salient stimuli more easily attract attention. Curiosity is precisely the psychological basis of hyperbole. When two or more stimuli appear simultaneously, those that are larger (in area or volume), stronger (such as sound), repeated (such as neon lights), clearly outlined, brightly colored, or in contrast with others (such as one black chess piece among many white ones) are more likely to attract attention. This is a common human experience. The “curiosity drive” has long been regarded as the most primitive internal motivation of human cognition, and psychologists also believe curiosity is innate and does not require learning.

Section 3: Semantic Structure of Hyperbole

“Hyperbole is inseparable from imagination. Rich imaginative depiction is an important means of hyperbolic art. The author relies on imagination to discover the essential characteristics of objective things, and also relies on imagination to process objective things, so as to artistically express their essential characteristics.” Hyperbole, on the basis of fact, uses “creative imagination” to enlarge or reduce the image, quantity, characteristics, function, or degree of people or things. The images expressed through hyperbole are called “deformed images,” while the images serving as the factual basis are called “base images.” Between deformed images and base images there must exist a corresponding psychological association; these associations are the psychological relations of “free association,” such as similarity, contiguity, contrast, and causality, and are often realized through metaphor, metonymy, comparison, presentation, contrast, parallelism, and enumeration.

Section 4: Forms of Expression of Hyperbole

The forms of expression of hyperbole, based on a synthesis of scholars’ opinions, include: (1) classification by mode of expression: 1. direct (ordinary) hyperbole and 2. indirect (special, integrated) hyperbole; (2) classification by expressive technique: 1. expansion type and 2. reduction type; (3) classification by applicable thematic objects: 1. spatial hyperbole, 2. temporal hyperbole, 3. object-image hyperbole, 4. emotional (human sentiment) hyperbole, and 5. quantitative hyperbole.

“1. Classification by mode of expression”

1. Direct hyperbole

“Refers to not relying on other rhetorical devices, but directly exaggerating or reducing facts through literal wording.” 14 “That is, exaggeration directly based on the original foundation of things, including exaggeration in terms of time, space, speed, process, realm, skill, strength, psychology, etc.” 15 “The advantage of direct exaggeration is that the tone is firm and powerful, straightforward, and easily arouses resonance in readers.” 16 For example, Du Fu’s “Spring View”: “Beacon fires have lasted for three months; a letter from home is worth ten thousand in gold.” By using “ten thousand in gold” to exaggerate the value of a family letter, it highlights that amid the war of “beacon fires for three months,” a letter from home carries immense weight in people’s hearts. This is the use of direct exaggeration.

1. Indirect hyperbole

“Refers to exaggeration achieved through other rhetorical methods, including metaphor, metonymy, personification, parallelism, antithesis, contrast, etc. This kind of exaggeration produces diverse effects and appears more vivid and more imagistic than ordinary exaggeration. When using indirect exaggeration, one must ensure that it is consistent with the rhetorical devices it depends on in expression.” 17 For example, Song Yu’s “Rhapsody on Deng Tuzi’s Lust”: “The daughter of the eastern neighbor, if increased by one degree she would be too tall, if decreased by one degree she would be too short. If powdered she would be too white, if rouged she would be too red.” This passage delicately depicts a woman of natural beauty. In terms of formal structure, the author uses paired contrast (a form of antithesis) within rhetorical juxtaposition, expressing symmetry through paired comparisons: “increase by one degree” and “decrease by one degree,” “too tall” and “too short,” to show a well-proportioned figure; likewise “apply powder” and “apply rouge,” “too white” and “too red,” to describe facial beauty, thereby highlighting her innate elegance. From the perspective of overall content, it also employs implicit suggestion through euphemism, using indirect description to indicate that her beauty is entirely natural and does not require cosmetic adornment. Another example is Chen Yuyi’s “Linjiang Xian: At Night I Ascend a Small Pavilion, Recording Old Travels in Luo”: “More than twenty years have become a dream; though I still exist, it is shocking.” Here, time is compressed through metaphor (“become a dream”), belonging to indirect hyperbole.

“2. Classification by expressive technique”

1. Expansion type

“This refers to the deliberate enlargement of things, including exaggeration in the directions of height, strength, quantity, speed, etc. The characteristic of this type of expansion is the enlargement of the image and features of things.” 18 Expansion-type hyperbole is used in positive description. For example, Cen Can’s “Song of the Running Horse River: Sent in Farewell to the Western Expedition”: “The vast sandy plains stretch endlessly, yellow reaching the sky; in the ninth month at Luntai the night wind howls. Rocks as large as buckets fill the river; they roll across the ground with the wind.” The night wind in the ninth month is described as howling like apes; stones as large as buckets roll in the wind. These images combine metaphor and expansion hyperbole, evoking auditory and visual associations, not only implying the hardship of soldiers on western expeditions, but also presenting a majestic and terrifying desert scene.

Zhou Mengdie, “Record of Broken Soul” 19

Outside the dwelling, the fresh bamboo has overnight become lush, turning into flutes, zithers, and pipes,

becoming poles, and between the peach blossoms and green waves of both banks,

with a single stroke, it has already extended as far as March.

“The line ‘with a single stroke, it has already extended as far as March’ is, from the perspective of time, an expansion-type hyperbole applied to distance. In this case, the ‘deformed image’ of the figure (time: ‘March’) and the ‘base image’ of the ontology (distance) belong to different categories, similar to synesthetic sensory crossover. The author calls this ‘transformational hyperbole’ (time-space interpenetration), whereas in ordinary hyperbole the deformed image and base image belong to the same category. This kind of transformational hyperbole can generate strange and creative associations, making the poetic realm appear ‘irrational yet wondrous.’

1. Reduction type

“This refers to the deliberate minimization of things, including exaggeration toward heightlessness, weakness, smallness, slowness, etc. The characteristic of this type of expansion is the reduction of the image and features of things.” 20 Reduction-type hyperbole is used in positive description. For example, Li Bai’s “Hard Road to Shu”: “The road to Shu is harder than ascending to the blue sky; hearing this makes one’s face wither; continuous peaks do not reach even a foot from the sky; withered pines hang upside down on sheer cliffs; rushing torrents and waterfalls compete in roaring; crashing rocks and rolling stones shake ten thousand valleys like thunder. So dangerous it is! Alas, traveler from afar, why have you come here?” The difficulty of the Shu road lies in the obstruction formed by high mountains and dangerous waters together; without towering heights there would be no danger. “Continuous peaks not reaching even a foot from the sky” is a spatial reduction hyperbole, connecting the subsequent descriptions of cliffs, rapid torrents, waterfalls, and echoing stones, allowing readers to feel as if they are personally present. “The road to Shu is harder than ascending to the blue sky” is vividly presented through the poet’s imagistic depiction.

Xi Murong, “The Explanation of Wine: Fine Brew” 21

If you are pleased, please drink me.

As the moonlight drinks the tides.

I was originally prepared as fine brew for you.

Please drink me completely; I am that cup

of ocean with gently rising waves.

“I am that cup / of ocean with gently rising waves” expresses hyperbolic meaning through metaphorical form; in nature it belongs to reduction-type hyperbole. The ocean is vast and boundless, yet the poet compares herself to “a cup of ocean,” compressing the ocean entirely into a single vessel. This is both a spatial and volumetric reduction, showing considerable ingenuity.

“3. Classification by applicable thematic objects”

Among modern Taiwanese poets, those who follow surrealism tend to favor hyperbole as a rhetorical device. Poets of “Genesis,” such as Luo Fu and Ya Xian, and those of “Blue Star,” such as Lo Men, all frequently use it. Among them, Luo Fu uses hyperbole most frequently and distinctively; hyperbolic language has almost become his trademark, as in “his voice is like snow, cold without any meaning” (“Of Death in the Stone Chamber, No. 6”). In addition, poets Yu Guangzhong and Zhou Mengdie are also masters of hyperbole.

Let us examine the following examples.

1. Spatial hyperbole

Yu Guangzhong, “Olive Kernel Boat — As Seen in the National Palace Museum” 22

I cannot believe that a one-and-a-half-inch olive kernel

has been carved and engraved by divine or ghostly skill,

emptied out of nothingness

and hollowed into such an exquisite small boat,

fragile, easily broken, like a translucent cicada shell.

A mere touch of a magic finger upon the Northern Song landscape,

and how it shrank, and shrank, and shrank

into an unimaginable scale inside a crystal case.

Even under an exaggerated magnifying glass,

it remains so strangely small that it bewilders the eye.

The poet, observing the exquisitely crafted olive kernel boat through a magnifying glass, associates it with its historical context. The vast Northern Song empire seems to have been compressed into this miniature boat carved on a kernel. The poet cannot help but exclaim: “how it shrank, and shrank, and shrank / into an unimaginable scale inside a crystal case.” This is spatial reduction hyperbole.

Yugong Zhong〈Summer Intention in the Mountains Seven Types: “Pine Nut in the Empty Mountain”〉23

A single pine nut falls down
without any prior warning

Who should be sent to catch it?

The pine needles or pine roots all over the ground?
Or the chaotic rocks or moonlight over the slope?
Or the passing sound of the wind?

Speaking slowly
the moment is fast

A single pine nut falls down
and is caught by the entire empty mountain

The first half of these lines feels like a storyteller’s “deliberate smokescreen,” while “speaking slowly / the moment is fast / a single pine nut falls down / is caught by the entire empty mountain” is the sudden climactic turn of the story. A pine nut falls; the poet does not extend a hand or is unable to extend a hand to catch it, and when it rolls into the valley producing faint echoes, he then awakens and, with another kind of broad-mindedness, faces this small sudden event. The poet uses an expansive spatial hyperbole, saying that the entire empty mountain opens its palm to catch a falling pine nut. Such imagination is strange and majestic, and it strongly moves the reader.

Yugong Zhong〈Summer Intention in the Mountains Seven Types: “Sleepless Dog”〉24

Often, after the last bus has passed
the vastness of heaven and earth is nothing but
one li or half a li away
the barking of a dog from a distant house, three or two sounds
only the lamp can understand

At this time, under the lamp, the white-haired person
is also a sleepless dog
but guarding a different kind of night
barking at a different kind of shadow

If heard from a slightly farther distance
— for example, a hundred years away
it becomes heard clearly
distinctly

In these lines, the poet first uses a spatial reduction hyperbole: “the vastness of heaven and earth is nothing but / one li or half a li away / the barking of a dog from a distant house, three or two sounds,” compressing the vast space of heaven and earth toward “sound.” This is also a transformed hyperbole. Although the dog’s barking coming from a distant house is one way of measuring distance, heaven and earth cannot be condensed into “three or two sounds,” showing that it contains a qualitative transformation. Later, the poet again uses transformed hyperbole: “If heard from a slightly farther distance / — for example, a hundred years away / it becomes heard clearly,” using time (one hundred years) as a unit for measuring distance. The transformed image of the embellishment is time, while the base image is distance; these are clearly not the same kind of imagery, so this is also a technique of transformed hyperbole (time-space interweaving).

Zhou Mengdie〈Instant〉25

Eternity—

a point where the instant is frozen in “the present”;

the earth is as small as a pigeon egg
I gently pick it up
and place it in my chest.

“The earth is as small as a pigeon egg / I gently pick it up / and place it in my chest” uses a simile, comparing the earth to a pigeon egg, which is an assisted hyperbole. The earth, placed in the poet’s chest as a pigeon egg, is a spatial and volumetric reduction hyperbole. If this were filmed, what kind of scene would it become? Hyperbole often becomes a major expressive technique of surrealism, precisely because it can infinitely expand and condense objects.

2. Temporal hyperbole

Luo Fu〈The Reprint of Blood—In Mourning My Mother〉26

Mother

I truly did not cry
I only stared blankly at a mirror
staring at
a tear
hanging on the mirror surface
that only thirty years later flowed to my lips

After learning of his mother’s death in his hometown in Hunan, the author looks into a mirror and is filled with sorrow. Yet, “a man does not easily shed tears,” so he suppresses his emotions of longing for his mother over thirty years of separation, insisting he did not cry. However, thirty years earlier, when he first left home, a tear had already secretly hung at the corner of his eye, and now it is reflected in the mirror and only after thirty years flows to his lips, where he finally perceives it. This technique deliberately stretches time, exaggerating the long-term emotional suffering borne by the poet, and belongs to temporal “expansion hyperbole.”

Luo Fu〈Letter from Home〉27

This photograph of mother, filled with tears
I have twisted and turned it for over thirty years
and it is still wet

A photograph of the mother filled with tears, observed for more than thirty years, is subjectively regarded by the poet as never having dried. This subjective cognition, infused with strong emotional coloring, is a direct hyperbole, extending time to produce the special effect of prolonged sorrow.

Yugong Zhong〈Summer Intention in the Mountains Seven Types: “The Well-Like Night”〉28

The night is like a well

I extend my rope of thought downward
but still cannot reach the sound of water

the restless cluster of stars
climbs up along the moss-covered wall
so slowly

I fear that before reaching halfway
at the mouth of the well there will be a shout
dawn has come

“The night is like a well” is a simile, and thus also an assisted hyperbole. Through this imaginative comparison, the poet likens the deep night to a deep well. The following expressions also use transformed hyperbole: the base image is “length” (the rope), while the transformed images include “light at the mouth of the well” (dawn) and “sound” (“a shout / dawn has come”).

Yugong Zhong〈Someone Under the Pine〉29

Sitting under the pine for only half an afternoon
I feel that I have forgotten all worldly intentions

I send out a long roar
which is reflected back
by the stone wall opposite

——how shocking this echo is, listen
is it what people will hear
a hundred years from now?

why does it also seem like a prophecy
returning to my own ears?

I think the ancient pine must be laughing:
since you intend to face the wall in meditation
you should face emptiness itself
together with the fame behind you

1. In these lines, after the poet releases a long roar, the echo reflected from the stone wall shocks him. He imagines this echo as something heard “a hundred years later,” meaning he cares about how later generations will judge him. Then he turns his thought and realizes: “since you intend to face the wall in meditation / you should face emptiness itself / together with the fame behind you,” and thus attains insight. The poem also uses transformed hyperbole, shifting “sound” (the echo of the roar) and “distance” (its reflection from the opposite wall) into a temporal framework (a hundred years later). This involves a kind of prophetic manifestation, which is why the poet feels that the echo resembling “me in the ears of people” is “like a prophecy / returning to my own ears.” The passage is highly effective, with echoes moving between reality and a century later, and the final enlightenment reflects the poet’s contemplation after letting go of fame.
   Hyperbole of objects

Luo Men〈Panmunjom‧One of the 38th Parallel〉30

A knife
passes between
the two wings of a bird
the sky splits into two sides

eighteen colorful flags
are pasted in a row like adhesive bandages

should this scar be counted
as being on the face of God?

if this scar were to split again
would the fire erupting from the crater
be magnificent blood?

In these short nine lines of poetry, the author successively uses two different forms of hyperbole: (1) “a knife / passes between / the two wings of a bird / the sky splits into two sides,” where a knife possesses such enormous power that it can split the sky into two halves—this is a direct exaggerated object-image. (2) “should this scar be counted / as being on the face of God? / if this scar were to split again / would the fire erupting from the crater / be magnificent blood?” which uses a metaphorical analogy, comparing the “scar” to a volcanic crater—this is an object-image hyperbole moving toward spatial expansion. The skillful use of hyperbole makes the opening of this poem present a majestic and bizarre atmosphere.

Luo Fu〈Spring Silkworm〉31

How I want to refine the bitterness in my chest into steel, into a rope
wrapping around the earth thousands of times without end
and with what remains, to fish the Kun of the Northern Darkness
to bind the Peng of the Southern Sea

In this passage, the poet cleverly combines two allusions: Li Shangyin’s line “the spring silkworm dies before its silk is exhausted” and Zhuangzi’s〈Carefree Wandering〉, through the anthropomorphization of the spring silkworm, speaking in place of himself about the bitterness in his chest. He wishes to spin silk into steel and into ropes; and this silk-rope is not only enough to “wrap around the earth thousands of times,” but what remains can still be used to fish the Kun fish of the Northern Darkness and bind the Peng bird of the Southern Sea. It cannot be said that the poet is merely boasting, because his intention is to exaggerate “the bitterness in his chest,” and moreover he remains only at the stage of “how I want to,” staying within the realm of imagination.

Luo Fu〈Walking Toward Wang Wei〉32

a group of sleepy mountain birds
are startled awake
by you
with a moon made of manuscript paper
rustling
the sound of flapping wings
frightens all the leaves into scattering in panic

The poet uses “treating one object as another object,” hiding the effect of hyperbole within it, performing through the transformed role of the paper-moon. A moon folded from manuscript paper is able to frighten away sleepy mountain birds, and the sound of flapping wings even causes all the leaves to scatter in panic. Such “special effects” are like magic tricks; if filmed, it would be almost indistinguishable from animation or fairy tale. This passage uses an assisted form (personification) of object hyperbole; the poetic image is lively, and the narrative is highly fantastical, full of dramatic tension.

Luo Fu〈Twilight〉33

outside the window are mountains, misty rain, and April
farther away is no one
a green pine tree is straining to hold up the sky
and I hear the urgent turning of tree rings

Luo Fu〈Golden Dragon Cicada Temple〉34

if snow falls here
then one only sees
a startled gray cicada
using the lights in the mountains
one by one
to ignite them

“The green pine tree straining to hold up the sky / and I hear the urgent turning of tree rings,” and “a startled gray cicada / using the lights in the mountains / one by one / to ignite them,” both are object hyperboles produced through the fusion of personification techniques, belonging to the “personified hyperbole” within assisted hyperbole.

Luo Fu〈Picking Teeth〉35

at noon
all people in the world are picking their teeth
with white toothpicks
calmly
picking
their
white teeth

a group of Ethiopian vultures
among a pile of corpses
rise up
perching in rows
on sparse dead trees
also picking their teeth
with one after another
thin ribs

The camera shifts from people in the world calmly picking their white teeth with white toothpicks, to the desert of “the Third World” Ethiopia, forming a strong contrast between “wealth, calm → poverty, misery.” In the Ethiopian desert we see “a group of vultures” and “a pile of corpses,” and the final focus of the camera is on the “thin ribs” in the vultures’ mouths. This passage combines personification and reduction hyperbole to produce a contrast effect. The vultures are also using small ribs as toothpicks, just like humans picking their teeth; this is of course a dramatic effect produced by personification, but it is extremely “dark” and not humorous, instead producing a shocking and unsettling effect.

1. Hyperbole of human emotion

Luo Fu〈The Legend of Li Bai〉36

I suddenly see you, towering and majestic
sitting alone behind a desk at the other end of history

Heaven is your countenance, the Dao your appearance
mountains are your forehead and rivers are
your blood vessels

riding the clear wind of ten thousand miles
carrying the brilliant bright moon

your flying figure moves east and west, south and north
at the center is a boundless chaos

thunder rolls in from afar
no—it is crashing waves breaking the shore

you are the sea, a sea without clothes
completely naked, rising and falling

it is between heaven and earth
a roar brewed for a thousand years

In this passage there are three groups of “indirect hyperbole,” all expressed through metaphorical “assisted hyperbole”: (1) “mountains are your forehead and rivers are your blood vessels,” which extremely emphasizes Li Bai’s broad mind and vast vision, and is spatially expansive hyperbole; (2) “you are the sea, a sea without clothes / completely naked, rising and falling,” describing Li Bai’s pure and unrestrained nature, also spatially expansive hyperbole; and (3) “it is between heaven and earth / a roar brewed for a thousand years,” praising Li Bai’s poetic talent as unmatched through the ages, his poetry shaking heaven and earth like a thousand-year-brewing roar, which is temporal expansive hyperbole.

Luo Fu〈Death in the Stone Chamber: Segment 53〉37

composed of certain sleeping postures, and a single night

you are a pearl oyster, its two shells enclosing the surging sea as it comes

This passage fuses metaphor (implicit metaphor), using indirect (assisted) expansive hyperbole, saying that the “you” trapped in the stone chamber (in fact the author himself) is a pearl oyster, whose “two shells enclose the surging sea as it comes,” making the reader seem to see waves of the sea rushing layer upon layer and hear the roaring surge of waves.

Ya Xian〈Mad Woman〉38

If you keep laughing, I will lift up the entire street
and throw it into a sky that the police cannot control, where whistles cannot reach
a sky with chaotic household registrations

Maria will tie the rainbow into a knot and hang you

In front of the statue of angry Moses, I sit
all the torrents of Africa are hidden in my hair

I sit. Let the hot wind blow me
let the noise of the city grind my exposed breasts into roundness

I sit. Maria comes to claim me
I will go with her. I am a proper woman

The beginning of this poem immediately arrests the reader’s attention. A bare-breasted “mad woman,” facing curious onlookers and mocking neighbors, loudly issues threats: “If you keep laughing, I will lift up the entire street / and throw it into a sky that the police cannot control, where whistles cannot reach / a sky with chaotic household registrations / Maria will tie the rainbow into a knot and hang you.” These “mad utterances” naturally have no real threatening effect and only attract more curiosity and ridicule. Literally, “lifting up an entire street into the sky” is a hyperbole of power, while “Maria will tie the rainbow into a knot and hang you” is the mad woman’s one-sided fantasy; both belong to hyperbole of human emotion.

“In front of the statue of angry Moses, I sit / all the torrents of Africa are hidden in my hair” — the first line is a fantasized scene belonging to emotional hyperbole; the second is a reduction hyperbole, in which the mad woman imagines all the torrents of Africa rushing and hiding within her hair. “I am a proper woman” is the mad woman’s affirmative assertion of her mental state and identity, but in the reader’s eyes it becomes ironic speech, reversing meaning through irony; the target of this irony is the street neighbors who treat her as a “mad woman,” watching and mocking her. The hyperbolic language in this passage is literally surreal, and the poet deliberately uses it to stage a public spectacle performed by the mad woman, thereby expressing an ironic intention.

Tang Juan〈Form Studies: 2. Beggar〉39

His body is lighter than his shadow
even a fly can knock him over
his future is a broken bowl

“His body is lighter than his shadow” and “even a fly can knock him over” both violate ordinary experiential logic, and therefore belong to hyperbolic language. However, readers do not feel rejection due to exaggeration, because the author’s hyperbole is used to highlight the beggar’s miserable life; the motivation is humanitarian and the sentiment is compassion. Readers need not and do not pursue factual accuracy. A sense of humor is an expected reaction, but what follows is compassion and reflection, which is the poet’s intended effect. “His body is lighter than his shadow” is a simile-based (explicit comparison) hyperbole, while “even a fly can knock him over” is direct hyperbole. The former concerns appearance, showing extreme frailty; the latter deepens expressive force through action.

5. Quantitative hyperbole

Luo Fu〈Dialectics of Love〉40

embracing the bridge pier tightly
I wait for you at a depth of a thousand fathoms
in water I wait for you in water
when fire comes
I wait for you in ashes

The story of Boya waiting for his beloved beneath the bridge comes from Zhuangzi. The poet Luo Fu, in his later years, often reinterprets classical allusions. This poem presents two modes: “I wait for you in water,” expressing the ancient ideal of unwavering love unto death; and “I wait for you under the bridge,” reflecting a modern realistic view of love. The two form a contrast. “Embracing the bridge pier tightly / I wait for you at a depth of a thousand fathoms” is a direct hyperbole of expanded space (depth). “When fire comes / I wait for you in ashes” is more unusual: once turned into ashes, how can one still wait? Though seemingly contradictory, it is in fact hyperbole of human emotion, expressing Boya’s absolute and unwavering fidelity unto death.

 

The rhetorical device of hyperbole originates from imagination. Through associative processes, phenomena and experience become linked; then through strong contrast between real images and experiential images, the poetic meaning becomes rich in variation and spatial depth, opening up a vast imaginative field. Poet Luo Fu is deeply versed in this technique: he often uses hyperbole to transform ordinary images—changing their form, color, sound, and substance; or stretching and enlarging temporal-spatial depth; or deforming objects through pressure and distortion; or inflating emotional human situations. The recombined images become key turning points in poetic meaning, making his poetry physically dynamic in imagery, sometimes majestic and unrestrained, sometimes strange and fantastical, sometimes profound and emotional, continuously generating new meanings and climactic turns, leaving readers dazzled, astonished, and repeatedly contemplative.

[Annotations]

(1) “Hyperbole is a rhetorical device of ‘exaggeration beyond the truth.’ In order to highlight one’s viewpoint on things and the tendency of strong emotions, people deliberately use descriptions that exceed actual reality to depict objective phenomena, leaving a vivid impression on the listener; this is called ‘hyperbole.’ Therefore, hyperbole can be regarded as a kind of ‘lie that is accepted.’” See Huang Lizhen, Practical Rhetoric, Taipei: National, 2004, p. 231.

(2) Lu Jiaxiang, Chi Taining (eds.), Dictionary of Rhetorical Devices Explained by Examples, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education, 1990, p. 142.

(3) Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 285.

(4) Lu Jiaxiang, Chi Taining (eds.), Dictionary of Rhetorical Devices Explained by Examples, Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education, 1991, p. 142.

(5) Cited via Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 285.

(6) Liu Xie, Wenxin Diaolong, annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Taipei: Liren, 1984, p. 886.

(7) For this passage, see Liu Xie, Wenxin Diaolong, annotated by Zhou Zhenfu, Taipei: Liren, 1984, pp. 693–694.

(8) From “Chinese Parallel Prose Network: On Parallel Prose,” On Literary Style: http://72.14.235.104/.

(9) Cited via Chen Ding’an (ed.), English-Chinese Rhetoric and Translation, p. 43, Taipei: Bookman, 1996.

(10) See Huang Qingxuan, Rhetoric, Taipei: Sanmin, 2002, p. 301.

(11) Gu Yuanqing & Sun Guangxuan, Rhetoric of Poetry, Taipei: Wunan, 1997, p. 308.

(12) Chen Wangdao, An Introduction to Rhetoric, Hong Kong: Dagong, 1964, pp. 135–136.

(13) Yang Chunlin & Liu Fan (eds.), Great Dictionary of Chinese Rhetorical Art, Xi’an: Shaanxi People’s Publishing, p. 85.

(14) Gu Yuanqing & Sun Guangxuan, Rhetoric of Poetry, Taipei: Wunan, 1997, p. 289.

(15) Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Comprehensive Rhetoric Dictionary, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 681.

(16) Gu Yuanqing & Sun Guangxuan, Rhetoric of Poetry, Taipei: Wunan, 1997, p. 289.

(17) Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Comprehensive Rhetoric Dictionary, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 681.

(18) Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Comprehensive Rhetoric Dictionary, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 681.

(19) From Zhou Mengdie, Selected Century Poems of Zhou Mengdie, Taipei: Erya, 2000, pp. 144–146.

(20) Cheng Weijun et al. (eds.), Comprehensive Rhetoric Dictionary, Beijing: China Youth, 1991, p. 681.

(21) From Xi Murong, Nine Pieces of Time, Taipei: Yuan Shen, 2006, pp. 110–113.

(22) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Vol. 2): 1982–1998, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 18–21.

(23) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Vol. 2): 1982–1998, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 22–29.

(24) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Vol. 2): 1982–1998, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 28–29.

(25) From Zhang Mo (ed.), Poetry Shorts, Bedside Book, Taipei: Erya, 2007, p. 240.

(26) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Jiuge, 1983, p. 131.

(27) From Luo Fu, Wounds of Time, Taipei: China Times Publishing, 1981, pp. 219–220.

(28) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Vol. 2): 1982–1998, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 22–29.

(29) From Yu Guangzhong, Selected Poems of Yu Guangzhong (Vol. 2): 1982–1998, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 38–39.

(30) From Luo Men, Complete Works of Luomen: Volume 1, War Poetry, Taipei: Wenshizhe, 1995, pp. 50–57.

(31) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Jiuge, 1983, pp. 97–98.

(32) From Luo Fu, Snow Falls Without Sound, Taipei: Erya, 1999, pp. 1–5.

(33) From Luo Fu, Because of the Wind, Taipei: Jiuge, 1997, pp. 21–22.

(34) From Luo Fu, Magic Song, Taipei: Penglai, 1981, pp. 46–47.

(35) From Luo Fu, Because of the Wind, Taipei: Jiuge, 1997, pp. 279–280.

(36) From Luo Fu, Wounds of Time, Taipei: China Times Publishing, 1981, pp. 183–190.

(37) From Luo Fu, Death of the Stone Chamber, Taipei: Genesis Poetry Magazine Press, 1965, p. 85.

(38) From Ya Xian, Collected Poems of Ya Xian, Taipei: Hongfan, 1981, pp. 157–160.

(39) From Tang Juan, In the Dark, Taipei: Wenshizhe, 1997, pp. 147–151.

(40) From Luo Fu, The Stone That Brews Wine, Taipei: Jiuge, 1983, pp. 67–71.