1: The Opacity of Humor: Du Renjie's Expressing Feelings

     Du Renjie 杜仁傑 (c. 1208 -1290) is well known among authors of early sanqu songs 散曲 for his particular penchant for banter and wit.  But one of the poet’s lesser known song suites, a piece about which critics are notably silent, presents an interpretive problem. While exuberant language play in Expressing Feelings 喻情 introduces the expectation of humor, the more serious theme of disappointed romantic entanglement coupled with an intensity of emotion and poetic image defy any easy humorous read. 
     Playful language and conspicuous verbal contrivance are embraced in dramatic and art song to a greater degree than in other traditional poetic forms.  But in this work the dense layering of wordplay and allusion, with puns, folk simile, and anecdotal reference in nearly every line, focuses the reader’s attention instead on the language surface. Though taking the song as remonstrance would situate Du’s poem in a stream of ethical critique also reflected in other sanqu, the complex surface of Du’s piece blocks this approach by interrupting sympathetic identification with the narrator or any sustained engagement with the song’s emotional content.  In an effort to recover humorous strands in Du's elaborate language, this project works against efforts to interpret the composition as a reflection of social or moral standards and relocates the song suite in poetic and performative contexts.