Since horses had all been requisitioned for
military
use, Du Fu wrote the poem to General Li Siye, asking to borrow a horse.
Du Fu - 5
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Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Returning Home On Foot: A Ballad 323 I suffer being tied down by a minor post, 8 lowering my head, I am shamed before men of the wilds.
5.
21 Returning Home On Foot: A Ballad1 In years of your prime Your Excellency has met with perilous times, running the state depends indeed on the qualities of a hero.
Since the dynasty?
s altars of Earth and Grain are as they are right now, 4 who but you, sir, by martial measures can quell ruin and rebellion?
The thousand officials at Fengxiang for now are all well fed, but no more can their clothes be light and their horses sleek.
Of the courtiers in gowns of blue, the one in the hardest straits2 8 is this white-haired Reminder going home on foot.
Friendships formed in human life take no account of age, in considering association why need one put sameness of temper first?
In the mountains my wife and children weep facing the heavens, 12 from your stables I need the wind-chasing brown charger.
The minister Fang Guan, whose military ineptness had led to the defeat of�the imperial army at Chentao and Changban, fell from Suzong?
s favor.
Du Fu was a friend and strong supporter of Fang Guan, and he spoke up in Fang Guan?
s defense, which weakened Du Fu?
s own position at court.
This speaks well of Du Fu?
s loyalty to friends, but very poorly of his judgment in political matters.
Du Fu asked Suzong to ?
ignore small things and note greater things.
?
Losing a very large imperial army to a scholar?
s folly is hard to forgive as a ?
small thing.
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Guo Ziyi, by contrast, lost many battles and, deservedly, retained the emperor?
s support.
Fang Guan?
s usefulness in the crisis was a delusion that Suzong could not afford to entertain.
Du�Fu?
s politically stupid protest was initially forgiven on the grounds that one should not stifle protest.
It was forgiven but not forgotten.
Du Fu never 1 Original note: ?
Presented to Li [Siye], Lord Specially Advanced; composed on the�way from Fengxiang to Fuzhou, my route passing through Binzhou?
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2 The blue gown is simple garb of commoners or students.
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Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Jiucheng Palace 325 realized that he was essentially wrong in his support of Fang Guan; he saw himself as the principled minister who risked all to speak the truth.
In this context Du Fu asked for and was granted permission to visit his family in Fuzhou, several hundred miles from Fengxiang.
According to the original note, this poem was composed in Binzhou, after Du Fu had gone about one-third of the way on foot (and no doubt realized how difficult it would have been to make the entire journey on foot).
Since horses had all been requisitioned for military use, Du Fu wrote the poem to General Li Siye, asking to borrow a horse. 5. 22 Jiucheng Palace1 I went into gray-green mountains a hundred leagues, the cliff was broken, like a mortar. This layered palace lies against whirling gusts, 4 looming at the mouth of a hole in the earth. Gods were placed to support its rafters and beams, they bored into azure foliage to open doors and windows. The sunlit southern slopes produce numinous mushrooms; 8 on shadowy north slope rest Oxherd and Dipper Fanning out, tall pines hang inverted, jutting jagged, weird rocks rush. Mournful gibbons give a single cry, 12 and the traveler? s tears gush in woods and bog. Ungoverned indeed? that Sui emperor, constructing this, now fallen and rotting. Had he then not caused his domain to be destroyed, 16 how could it have become the possession of the mighty Tang? Even though there are no recent additions or repairs, they still assign an officer to guard it. 1 Jiucheng Palace, so called because it was built on nine levels on a mountain, was originally the Renshou Palace of the Sui. It was refurbished in the reign of Taizong and served as a summer palace during his reign and that of his successor Gaozong. Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM 326 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 24 ? ? ? ? ? ? 5. 23 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 8 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 12 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Yuhua Palace 327 Imperial expeditions went not so far as Alabaster Pool,1 20 his traces are here in the aftermath of carved walls. 2 My travels belong to perilous times, I look up and gaze at this, sighing long. Our divine king holds a winter hunt on Mount Taibai,3 24 I halt my horse and still scratch my head. 5. 23 Yuhua Palace4 The stream valley turns, the wind steady in the pines, a gray rat scuttles under ancient tiles. I know not what royal palace this was, 4 edifice abandoned beneath the sheer cliff. In shadowy chambers ghost-fires are green,5 mournful rivulets pour over broken roadways. The myriad vents are the true ocarinas,6 8 autumn colors are at their most brisk and aloof. Its fair women have become the brown earth, still more, their artifice of powder and mascara. Waiting on the golden carriage back then, 12 of the former things there are only the stone horses. Cares come, I smooth down the grass and sit, sing out loud, tears filling my open hands. 1 This refers to the expedition of Zhou King Mu to meet the Queen Mother of the West, who feasted him at Alabaster Pool in the Kunlun Mountains. 2 That is, the extravagance of Sui Yangdi can been seen in the ornament of the ruins, which serve as evidence of why the Sui fell. 3 The ? hunt? was a euphemism for an emperor in flight from his capital. Mount Taibai was close to Fengxiang, Suzong? s temporary capital. 4 Yuhua Palace had been constructed in 647 for Taizong as a summer palace to escape the heat of Chang? an. It was later made a temple, and was clearly abandoned by the time Du Fu saw it. 5 These are will-o-the-wisps. 6 The ? myriad vents,? wanlai ? ? , are those described in Zhuangzi, the holes on the earth whose sounds are the piping of Nature. These are opposed to the ? ocarinas,? the sheng and yu, reed organs of a Chinese orchestra. Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM 328 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 16 ? ? ? ? ? ? 5. 24? 26 ? ? ? ? I ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Since horses had all been requisitioned for military use, Du Fu wrote the poem to General Li Siye, asking to borrow a horse. 5. 22 Jiucheng Palace1 I went into gray-green mountains a hundred leagues, the cliff was broken, like a mortar. This layered palace lies against whirling gusts, 4 looming at the mouth of a hole in the earth. Gods were placed to support its rafters and beams, they bored into azure foliage to open doors and windows. The sunlit southern slopes produce numinous mushrooms; 8 on shadowy north slope rest Oxherd and Dipper Fanning out, tall pines hang inverted, jutting jagged, weird rocks rush. Mournful gibbons give a single cry, 12 and the traveler? s tears gush in woods and bog. Ungoverned indeed? that Sui emperor, constructing this, now fallen and rotting. Had he then not caused his domain to be destroyed, 16 how could it have become the possession of the mighty Tang? Even though there are no recent additions or repairs, they still assign an officer to guard it. 1 Jiucheng Palace, so called because it was built on nine levels on a mountain, was originally the Renshou Palace of the Sui. It was refurbished in the reign of Taizong and served as a summer palace during his reign and that of his successor Gaozong. Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM 326 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 20 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 24 ? ? ? ? ? ? 5. 23 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 8 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 12 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM Yuhua Palace 327 Imperial expeditions went not so far as Alabaster Pool,1 20 his traces are here in the aftermath of carved walls. 2 My travels belong to perilous times, I look up and gaze at this, sighing long. Our divine king holds a winter hunt on Mount Taibai,3 24 I halt my horse and still scratch my head. 5. 23 Yuhua Palace4 The stream valley turns, the wind steady in the pines, a gray rat scuttles under ancient tiles. I know not what royal palace this was, 4 edifice abandoned beneath the sheer cliff. In shadowy chambers ghost-fires are green,5 mournful rivulets pour over broken roadways. The myriad vents are the true ocarinas,6 8 autumn colors are at their most brisk and aloof. Its fair women have become the brown earth, still more, their artifice of powder and mascara. Waiting on the golden carriage back then, 12 of the former things there are only the stone horses. Cares come, I smooth down the grass and sit, sing out loud, tears filling my open hands. 1 This refers to the expedition of Zhou King Mu to meet the Queen Mother of the West, who feasted him at Alabaster Pool in the Kunlun Mountains. 2 That is, the extravagance of Sui Yangdi can been seen in the ornament of the ruins, which serve as evidence of why the Sui fell. 3 The ? hunt? was a euphemism for an emperor in flight from his capital. Mount Taibai was close to Fengxiang, Suzong? s temporary capital. 4 Yuhua Palace had been constructed in 647 for Taizong as a summer palace to escape the heat of Chang? an. It was later made a temple, and was clearly abandoned by the time Du Fu saw it. 5 These are will-o-the-wisps. 6 The ? myriad vents,? wanlai ? ? , are those described in Zhuangzi, the holes on the earth whose sounds are the piping of Nature. These are opposed to the ? ocarinas,? the sheng and yu, reed organs of a Chinese orchestra. Unauthenticated Download Date | 10/1/17 7:36 AM 328 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 16 ? ? ? ? ? ? 5. 24? 26 ? ? ? ? I ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
