Li Qingzhao
A Separate Art
To say the masters got it wrong, show your standard first
Li Qingzhao, On Lyrics; Hu Zi, Tiaoxi Yuyin Conghua
The acknowledged masters of your field are doing it wrong. Do you dare say so? How did Li Qingzhao criticise Su Shi and the rest?
What actually happened?
In a short essay, On Lyrics, Li Qingzhao went through nearly every celebrated lyricist of the Northern Song. Liu Yong kept the music but his words were vulgar. Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi had vast learning, yet their lyrics were merely poems with broken lines and often off the music. Wang Anshi and Zeng Gong wrote prose like the Han, but their lyrics would make you fall over laughing. Her reason: poems mind only tones; a lyric must fit the notes, the modes and the pitches.
State the standard, then name names
She did not simply say who wrote badly. She first said how a lyric differs from a poem: a poem minds level and oblique tones; a lyric must also fit notes, modes, and clear and muddy sounds. Then she measured each master against it. To disagree, you must first refute the ruler.
You think the boss's plan is weak. Write down the test you are using first, then show which part fails it.
Judge the work, not the person
Su Shi was her father's teacher and the most famous writer alive. She still said his lyrics often missed the music. She spoke of what the lyrics were, not of the man. Criticism aimed at the work is easier to voice and easier to accept.
Reviewing a senior colleague's code, write what is wrong with this part and why, never 'you always do this'.
Accept the cost of naming names
The critic Hu Zi, who preserved the essay, complained that she picked out every master's faults and spared no one, and said he would not accept her verdict. Name your elders, and expect to be measured by the same ruler.
Point out the holes in your manager's plan in the group chat, and expect your next plan to be picked apart the same way.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: the acknowledged masters of your field are doing it wrong, and you want to say so without seeming arrogant.
Ask first: what standard am I using, and can I state it? Am I criticising the work or the person? Could I stand being measured by the same ruler?
Where it goes wrong: listing others' faults without showing your ruler. She could persuade because the standard came first; naming names without one is only abuse.
Lines to keep
The lyric is an art of its own, and few understand it.
For them, a little lyric was a gourd scooped from the sea.
Same situation, other people are asking
I've heard it so often it has started to sound true.Ten clever people in a room and the answer got worse.Everyone I know is doing it and I can't say why.Everyone has said it for years, but it's not what I saw.Everyone is saying the same thing · all 5 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.