Woman in the Tower: “Nineteen Old Poems” and the Poetics of Un/concealment

Abstract

This paper examines a group of anonymous poems thought to date from the second century AD. Ostensibly straightforward and transparent, the poems tantalize the reader with a protean quality, for it is often difficult to determine who is speaking what to whom. This impression is confirmed by the diverse and often conflicting interpretations made by late imperial Chinese commentators. How do the poems do this? What are the possible consequences for the later development of classical Chinese poetry? These are the questions I address in this paper, with particular attention to the poems' ambiguous personae and incomplete narratives.