In its situation it somewhat
resembled
Madrid.
Waley - 170 Chinese Poems
She lets fall her hand white like the colour of jade.
She rolls up the awning, she sees the wide sky,
And the sea-water waving its vacant blue.
"The sea shall carry my dreams far away,
So that you shall be sorry at last for my sorrow.
If the South wind--only knew my thoughts
It would blow my dreams till they got to the Western Island. "
SONG
By Tsang Chih (sixth century)
I was brought up under the Stone Castle:
My window opened on to the castle tower.
In the castle were beautiful young men
Who waved to me as they went in and out.
SONG OF THE MEN OF CHIN-LING
(MARCHING BACK INTO THE CAPITAL)
By Hsieh T'iao (fifth century A. D. )
Chiang-nan is a glorious and beautiful land,
And Chin-ling an exalted and kingly province!
The green canals of the city stretch on and on
And its high towers stretch up and up.
Flying gables lean over the bridle-road:
Drooping willows cover the Royal Aqueduct.
Shrill flutes sing by the coach's awning,
And reiterated drums bang near its painted wheels.
The names of the deserving shall be carved on the Cloud Terrace. [34]
And for those who have done valiantly rich reward awaits.
[34] The Record Office.
THE SCHOLAR RECRUIT
By Pao Chao (died A. D. 466)
Now late
I follow Time's Necessity:[35]
Mounting a barricade I pacify remote tribes.
Discarding my sash I don a coat of rhinoceros-skin:
Rolling up my skirts I shoulder a black bow.
Even at the very start my strength fails:
What will become of me before it's all over?
[35] _I. e. _, "enlist. "
THE RED HILLS
By Pao Chao
Red hills lie athwart us as a menace in the west,
And fiery mountains glare terrible in the south.
The body burns, the head aches and throbs:
If a bird light here, its soul forthwith departs.
Warm springs
Pour from cloudy pools
And hot smoke issues between the rocks.
The sun and moon are perpetually obscured:
The rain and dew never stay dry.
There are red serpents a hundred feet long,
And black snakes ten girths round.
The sand-spitters shoot their poison at the sunbeams:
The flying insects are ill with the shifting glare.
The hungry monkeys dare not come down to eat:
The morning birds dare not set out to fly.
At the Ching river many die of poison:
Crossing the Lu one is lucky if one is only ill.
Our living feet walk on dead ground:
Our high wills surmount the snares of Fate.
The Spear-boat General[36] got but little honour:
The Wave-subduer[37] met with scant reward.
If our Prince still grudges the things that are easy to give,[38]
Can he hope that his soldiers will give what is hardest to give? [39]
[36] Hou Yen (first century B. C. ).
[37] Ma Yuan (first century A. D. ).
[38] Rewards and titles.
[39] Life.
DREAMING OF A DEAD LADY
"I heard at night your long sighs
And knew that you were thinking of me. "
As she spoke, the doors of Heaven opened
And our souls conversed and I saw her face.
She set me a pillow to rest on
And she brought me meat and drink.
* * * * *
I stood beside her where she lay,
But suddenly woke and she was not there:
And none knew how my soul was torn,
How the tears fell surging over my breast.
THE LIBERATOR
A POLITICAL ALLEGORY
By Wu-ti, emperor of the Liang dynasty (A. D. 464-549)
In the high trees--many doleful winds:
The ocean waters--lashed into waves.
If the sharp sword be not in your hand,
How can you hope your friends will remain many?
Do you not see that sparrow on the fence?
Seeing the hawk it casts itself into the snare.
The fowler to catch the sparrow is delighted:
The Young Man to see the sparrow is grieved.
He takes his sword and cuts through the netting:
The yellow sparrow flies away, away.
Away, away, up to the blue sky
And down again to thank the Young Man.
LO-YANG
By the Emperor Ch'ien W? n-ti (sixth century)
A beautiful place is the town of Lo-yang:
The big streets are full of spring light.
The lads go driving out with harps in their hands:
The mulberry girls go out to the fields with their baskets.
Golden whips glint at the horses' flanks.
Gauze sleeves brush the green boughs.
Racing dawn, the carriages come home,--
And the girls with their high baskets full of fruit.
WINTER NIGHT
My bed is so empty that I keep on waking up:
As the cold increases, the night-wind begins to blow.
It rustles the curtains, making a noise like the sea:
Oh that those were waves which could carry me back to you!
THE REJECTED WIFE
By Yuan-ti (508-554). See page 15.
Entering the Hall, she meets the new wife:
Leaving the gate, she runs into her former husband.
Words stick: she does not manage to say anything:
She presses her hands together and hesitates.
Agitates moon-like fan--sheds pearl-like tears--
Realizes she loves him just as much as ever:
That her present pain will never come to an end.
PEOPLE HIDE THEIR LOVE
By Wu-ti
Who says
That it's by my desire,
This separation, this living so far from you?
My dress still smells of the lavender you gave:
My hand still holds the letter that you sent.
Round my waist I wear a double sash:
I dream that it binds us both with a same-heart knot.
Did not you know that people hide their love,
Like a flower that seems too precious to be picked?
THE FERRY
By the Emperor Ch'ien W? n-ti, of the Liang dynasty, who reigned
during the year A. D. 500.
Of marsh-mallows my boat is made,
The ropes are lily-roots.
The pole-star is athwart the sky:
The moon sinks low.
It's at the ferry I'm plucking lilies.
But it might be the Yellow River--
So afraid you seem of the wind and waves,
So long you tarry at the crossing. [40]
[40] A lady is waiting for her lover at the ferry which crosses a small
stream. When he does not come, she bitterly suggests that he is as
afraid of the little stream as though it were the Yellow River, the
largest river in China.
THE WATERS OF LUNG-T'OU
(THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER)
By Hsu Ling (A. D. 507-583)
The road that I came by mounts eight thousand feet:
The river that I crossed hangs a hundred fathoms.
The brambles so thick that in summer one cannot pass!
The snow so high that in winter one cannot climb!
With branches that interlace Lung Valley is dark:
Against cliffs that tower one's voice beats and echoes.
I turn my head, and it seems only a dream
That I ever lived in the streets of Hsien-yang.
FLOWERS AND MOONLIGHT ON THE SPRING RIVER
By Yang-ti (605-617), emperor of the Sui dynasty
The evening river is level and motionless--
The spring colours just open to their full.
Suddenly a wave carries the moon[41] away
And the tidal water comes with its freight of stars. [41]
[41] _I. e. _, the reflection in the water.
TCHIREK SONG
Altun (486-566 A. D. ) was a Tartar employed by the Chinese in
drilling their troops "after the manner of the Huns. " He could not
read or write. The "Yo Fu Kuang T'i" says: Kao Huan attacked Pi,
king of Chou, but lost nearly half his men. Kao Huan fell ill of
sadness and Pi, to taunt him, sent out a proclamation, which said:
Kao Huan, that son of a mouse
Dared to attack King Pi.
But at the first stroke of sword and bow,
The aggressor's plot recoiled on himself.
When this reached Kao Huan's ears, he sat up in bed and tried to
comfort his officers. All the nobles were summoned to his room, and
Altun was asked to sing them a song about Tchirek, his native land.
He sang:
Tchirek River
Lies under the Dark Mountains:
Where the sky is like the sides of a tent
Stretched down over the Great Steppe.
The sky is gray, gray:
And the steppe wide, wide:
Over grass that the wind has battered low
Sheep and oxen roam.
"Altun" means "gold" in Tartar. No one could teach him to write the
Chinese character for _gold_, till at last some one said: "Draw the
roof of your house and then put a few strokes underneath. " He thus
learnt, in a rough fashion, to write his own name.
CHAPTER V
BUSINESS MEN
By Ch'? n Tz? -ang (A. D. 656-698)
Business men boast of their skill and cunning
But in philosophy they are like little children.
Bragging to each other of successful depredations
They neglect to consider the ultimate fate of the body.
What should they know of the Master of Dark Truth
Who saw the wide world in a jade cup,
By illumined conception got clear of Heaven and Earth:
On the chariot of Mutation entered the Gate of Immutability?
TELL ME NOW
By Wang Chi (_circa_ A. D. 700)
"Tell me now, what should a man want
But to sit alone, sipping his cup of wine? "
I should like to have visitors come and discuss philosophy
And not to have the tax-collector coming to collect taxes:
My three sons married into good families
And my five daughters wedded to steady husbands.
Then I could jog through a happy five-score years
And, at the end, need no Paradise.
ON GOING TO A TAVERN
By Wang Chi
These days, continually fuddled with drink,
I fail to satisfy the appetites of the soul.
But seeing men all behaving like drunkards,[42]
How can I alone remain sober?
[42] Written during the war which preceded the T'ang dynasty.
STONE FISH LAKE
By Yuan Chieh (flourished _circa_ A. D. 740-770).
Yuan Chieh, a contemporary of Li Po, has not hitherto been mentioned
in any European book. "His subjects were always original, but his
poems are seldom worth quoting," is a Chinese opinion of him.
I loved you dearly, Stone Fish Lake,
With your rock-island shaped like a swimming fish!
On the fish's back is the Wine-cup Hollow
And round the fish,--the flowing waters of the Lake.
The boys on the shore sent little wooden ships,
Each made to carry a single cup of wine.
The island-drinkers emptied the liquor-boats
And set their sails and sent them back for more.
On the shores of the Lake were jutting slabs of rock
And under the rocks there flowed an icy stream.
Heated with wine, to rinse our mouths and hands
In those cold waters was a joy beyond compare!
* * * * *
Of gold and jewels I have not any need;
For Caps and Coaches I do not care at all.
But I wish I could sit on the rocky banks of the Lake
For ever and ever staring at the Stone Fish.
CIVILIZATION
By Yuan Chieh
To the south-east--three thousand leagues--
The Yuan and Hsiang form into a mighty lake.
Above the lake are deep mountain valleys,
And men dwelling whose hearts are without guile.
Gay like children, they swarm to the tops of the trees;
And run to the water to catch bream and trout.
Their pleasures are the same as those of beasts and birds;
They put no restraint either on body or mind.
Far I have wandered throughout the Nine Lands;
Wherever I went such manners had disappeared.
I find myself standing and wondering, perplexed,
Whether Saints and Sages have really done us good.
A PROTEST IN THE SIXTH YEAR OF CH'IEN FU (A. D. 879)
By Ts'ao Sung (flourished _circa_ A. D. 870-920)
The hills and rivers of the lowland country
You have made your battle-ground.
How do you suppose the people who live there
Will procure "firewood and hay"? [43]
Do not let me hear you talking together
About titles and promotions;
For a single general's reputation
Is made out of ten thousand corpses.
[43] The necessaries of life.
ON THE BIRTH OF HIS SON
By Su Tung-p'o (A. D. 1036-1101)
Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.
THE PEDLAR OF SPELLS
By Lu Yu (A. D. 1125-1209)
An old man selling charms in a cranny of the town wall.
He writes out spells to bless the silkworms and spells to protect
the corn.
With the money he gets each day he only buys wine.
But he does not worry when his legs get wobbly,
For he has a boy to lean on.
BOATING IN AUTUMN
By Lu Yu
Away and away I sail in my light boat;
My heart leaps with a great gust of joy.
Through the leafless branches I see the temple in the wood;
Over the dwindling stream the stone bridge towers.
Down the grassy lanes sheep and oxen pass;
In the misty village cranes and magpies cry.
* * * * *
Back in my home I drink a cup of wine
And need not fear the greed[44] of the evening wind.
[44] Which "eats" men.
THE HERD-BOY
By Lu Yu
In the southern village the boy who minds the ox
With his naked feet stands on the ox's back.
Through the hole in his coat the river wind blows;
Through his broken hat the mountain rain pours.
On the long dyke he seemed to be far away;
In the narrow lane suddenly we were face to face.
* * * * *
The boy is home and the ox is back in its stall;
And a dark smoke oozes through the thatched roof.
HOW I SAILED ON THE LAKE TILL I CAME TO THE EASTERN STREAM
By Lu Yu
Of Spring water,--thirty or forty miles:
In the evening sunlight,--three or four houses.
Youths and boys minding geese and ducks:
Women and girls tending mulberries and hemp.
The place,--remote: their coats and scarves old:
The year,--fruitful: their talk and laughter gay.
The old wanderer moors his flat boat
And staggers up the bank to pluck wistaria flowers.
A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE POEM
Ch'? n Tz? -lung was born in 1607. He became a soldier, and in 1637
defeated the rebel, Hsu Tu. After the suicide of the last Ming
emperor, he offered his services to the Ming princes who were still
opposing the Manchus. In 1647 he headed a conspiracy to place the
Ming prince Lu on the throne. His plans were discovered and he was
arrested by Manchu troops. Escaping their vigilance for a moment, he
leapt into a river and was drowned.
The following song describes the flight of a husband and wife from a
town menaced by the advancing Manchus. They find the whole
country-side deserted.
THE LITTLE CART
The little cart jolting and banging through the yellow haze of dusk.
The man pushing behind: the woman pulling in front.
They have left the city and do not know where to go.
"Green, green, those elm-tree leaves: _they_ will cure my hunger,
If only we could find some quiet place and sup on them together. "
The wind has flattened the yellow mother-wort:
Above it in the distance they see the walls of a house.
"_There_ surely must be people living who'll give you something
to eat. "
They tap at the door, but no one comes: they look in, but the
kitchen is empty.
They stand hesitating in the lonely road and their tears fall
like rain.
PART II
PO CHU-I
(A. D. 772-846)
INTRODUCTION
Po Chu-i was born at T'ai-yuan in Shansi. Most of his childhood was
spent at Jung-yang in Honan. His father was a second-class Assistant
Department Magistrate. He tells us that his family was poor and often in
difficulties.
He seems to have settled permanently at Ch'ang-an in 801. This town,
lying near the north-west frontier, was the political capital of the
Empire.
In its situation it somewhat resembled Madrid. Lo-yang, the
Eastern city, owing to its milder climate and more accessible position,
became, like Seville in Spain, a kind of _social_ capital.
Soon afterwards he met Yuan Ch? n, then aged twenty-two, who was destined
to play so important a part in his life. Five years later, during a
temporary absence from the city, he addressed to Yuan the following
poem:
Since I left my home to seek official state
Seven years I have lived in Ch'ang-an.
What have I gained? Only you, Yuan;
So hard it is to bind friendships fast.
We have roamed on horseback under the flowering trees;
We have walked in the snow and warmed our hearts with wine.
We have met and parted at the Western Gate
And neither of us bothered to put on Cap or Belt.
We did not go up together for Examination;
We were not serving in the same Department of State.
The bond that joined us lay deeper than outward things;
The rivers of our souls spring from the same well!
Of Yuan's appearance at this time we may guess something from a picture
which still survives in copy; it shows him, a youthful and elegant
figure, visiting his cousin Ts'ui Ying-ying, who was a lady-in-waiting
at Court. [45] At this period of his life Po made friends with
difficulty, not being, as he tells us, "a master of such accomplishments
as caligraphy, painting, chess or gambling, which tend to bring men
together in pleasurable intercourse. " Two older men, T'ang Ch'u and T? ng
Fang, liked his poetry and showed him much kindness; another, the
politician K'ung T'an, won his admiration on public grounds. But all
three died soon after he got to know them. Later he made three friends
with whom he maintained a lifelong intimacy: the poet Liu Y? -hsi (called
M? ng-t? ), and the two officials Li Chien and Ts'ui Hsuan-liang. In 805
Yuan Ch? n was banished for provocative behaviour towards a high
official. The T'ang History relates the episode as follows: "Yuan was
staying the night at the Fu-shui Inn; just as he was preparing to go to
sleep in the Main Hall, the court-official Li Shih-yuan also arrived.
Yuan Ch? n should have offered to withdraw from the Hall. He did not do
so and a scuffle ensued. Yuan, locked out of the building, took off his
shoes and stole round to the back, hoping to find another way in. Liu
followed with a whip and struck him across the face. "
[45] Yuan has told the story of this intrigue in an autobiographical
fragment, of which I hope to publish a translation. Upon this fragment
is founded the famous fourteenth-century drama, "The Western Pavilion. "
The separation was a heavy blow to Po Chu-i. In a poem called "Climbing
Alone to the Lo-yu Gardens" he says:
I look down on the Twelve City Streets:--
Red dust flanked by green trees!
Coaches and horsemen alone fill my eyes;
I do not see whom my heart longs to see.
K'ung T'an has died at Lo-yang;
Yuan Ch? n is banished to Ching-m? n.
Of all that walk on the North-South Road
There is not one that I care for more than the rest!
In 804 on the death of his father, and again in 811 on the death of his
mother, he spent periods of retirement on the Wei river near Ch'ang-an.
It was during the second of these periods that he wrote the long poem
(260 lines) called "Visiting the Wu-ch? n Temple. " Soon after his return
to Ch'ang-an, which took place in the winter of 814, he fell into
official disfavour. In two long memorials entitled "On Stopping the
War," he had criticized the handling of a campaign against an
unimportant tribe of Tartars, which he considered had been unduly
prolonged. In a series of poems he had satirized the rapacity of minor
officials and called attention to the intolerable sufferings of the
masses.
His enemies soon found an opportunity of silencing him. In 814 the Prime
Minister, Wu Yuan-h? ng, was assassinated in broad daylight by an agent
of the revolutionary leader Wu Yuan-chi. Po, in a memorial to the
Throne, pointed out the urgency of remedying the prevailing discontent.
He held at this time the post of assistant secretary to the Princes'
tutor. He should not have criticized the Prime Minister (for being
murdered! ) until the official Censors had spoken, for he held a Palace
appointment which did not carry with it the right of censorship.
His opponents also raked up another charge. His mother had met her death
by falling into a well while looking at flowers. Chu-i had written two
poems entitled "In Praise of Flowers" and "The New Well. " It was
claimed that by choosing such subjects he had infringed the laws of
Filial Piety.
He was banished to Kiukiang (then called Hsun-yang) with the rank of
Sub-Prefect. After three years he was given the Governorship of
Chung-chou, a remote place in Ssech'uan. On the way up the Yangtze he
met Yuan Ch? n after three years of separation. They spent a few days
together at I-ch'ang, exploring the rock-caves of the neighbourhood.
Chung-chou is noted for its "many flowers and exotic trees," which were
a constant delight to its new Governor. In the winter of 819 he was
recalled to the capital and became a second-class Assistant Secretary.
About this time Yuan Ch? n also returned to the city.
In 821 the Emperor Mou Tsung came to the throne. His arbitrary
mis-government soon caused a fresh rising in the north-west. Chu-i
remonstrated in a series of memorials and was again removed from the
capital--this time to be Governor of the important town of Hangchow.
Yuan now held a judicial post at Ningpo and the two were occasionally
able to meet.
In 824 his Governorship expired and he lived (with the nominal rank of
Imperial Tutor) at the village of Li-tao-li, near Lo-yang. It was here
that he took into his household two girls, Fan-su and Man-tz? , whose
singing and dancing enlivened his retreat. He also brought with him from
Hangchow a famous "Indian rock," and two cranes of the celebrated
"Hua-t'ing" breed. Other amenities of his life at this time were a
recipe for making sweet wine, the gift of Ch'? n Hao-hsien; a harp-melody
taught him by Ts'ui Hsuan-liang; and a song called "Autumn Thoughts,"
brought by the concubine of a visitor from Ssech'uan.
In 825 he became Governor of Soochow. Here at the age of fifty-three he
enjoyed a kind of second youth, much more sociable than that of thirty
years before; we find him endlessly picnicking and feasting. But after
two years illness obliged him to retire.
He next held various posts at the capital, but again fell ill, and in
829 settled at Lo-yang as Governor of the Province of Honan. Here his
first son, A-ts'ui, was born, but died in the following year.
In 831 Yuan Ch? n also died.
Henceforth, though for thirteen years he continued to hold nominal
posts, he lived a life of retirement. In 832 he repaired an unoccupied
part of the Hsiang-shan monastery at Lung-m? n,[46] a few miles south of
Lo-yang, and lived there, calling himself the Hermit of Hsiang-shan.
Once he invited to dinner eight other elderly and retired officials; the
occasion was recorded in a picture entitled "The Nine Old Men at
Hsiang-shan. " There is no evidence that his association with them was
otherwise than transient, though legend (see "Memoires Concernant les
Chinois" and Giles, Biographical Dictionary) has invested the incident
with an undue importance. He amused himself at this time by writing a
description of his daily life which would be more interesting if it were
not so closely modelled on a famous memoir by T'ao Ch'ien. In the winter
of 839 he was attacked by paralysis and lost the use of his left leg.
After many months in bed he was again able to visit his garden, carried
by Ju-man, a favourite monk.
[46] Famous for its rock-sculptures, carved in the sixth and seventh
centuries.
In 842 Liu Yu-hsi, the last survivor of the four friends, and a constant
visitor at the monastery, "went to wander with Yuan Ch? n in Hades. " The
monk Ju-man also died.
The remaining years of Po's life were spent in collecting and arranging
his Complete Works. Copies were presented to the principal monasteries
(the "Public Libraries" of the period) in the towns with which he had
been connected. He died in 846, leaving instructions that his funeral
should be without pomp and that he should be buried not in the family
tomb at Hsia-kuei, but by Ju-man's side in the Hsiang-shan Monastery. He
desired that a posthumous title should not be awarded.
The most striking characteristic of Po Chu-i's poetry is its verbal
simplicity. There is a story that he was in the habit of reading his
poems to an old peasant woman and altering any expression which she
could not understand. The poems of his contemporaries were mere elegant
diversions which enabled the scholar to display his erudition, or the
literary juggler his dexterity. Po expounded his theory of poetry in a
letter to Yuan Ch? n. Like Confucius, he regarded art solely as a method
of conveying instruction. He is not the only great artist who has
advanced this untenable theory. He accordingly valued his didactic poems
far above his other work; but it is obvious that much of his best poetry
conveys no moral whatever. He admits, indeed, that among his
"miscellaneous stanzas" many were inspired by some momentary sensation
or passing event. "A single laugh or a single sigh were rapidly
translated into verse. "
The didactic poems or "satires" belong to the period before his first
banishment. "When the tyrants and favourites heard my Songs of Ch'in,
they looked at one another and changed countenance," he boasts. Satire,
in the European sense, implies _wit_; but Po's satires are as lacking in
true wit as they are unquestionably full of true poetry. We must regard
them simply as moral tales in verse.
In the conventional lyric poetry of his predecessors he finds little to
admire. Among the earlier poems of the T'ang dynasty he selects for
praise the series by Ch'? n Tz? -ang, which includes "Business Men. " In Li
Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "f? ng" and "ya. " The two terms are
borrowed from the Preface to the Odes. "F? ng" means "criticism of one's
rulers"; "ya," "moral guidance to the masses. "
"The skill," he says in the same letter, "which Tu Fu shows in threading
on to his _lu-shih_ a ramification of allusions ancient and modern could
not be surpassed; in this he is even superior to Li Po. But, if we take
the 'Press-gang' and verses like that stanza:
At the palace doors the smell of meat and wine;
On the road the bones of one who was frozen to death.
what a small part of his whole work it represents! "
Content, in short, he valued far above form: and it was part of his
theory, though certainly not of his practice, that this content ought to
be definitely moral. He aimed at raising poetry from the triviality into
which it had sunk and restoring it to its proper intellectual level. It
is an irony that he should be chiefly known to posterity, in China,
Japan, and the West, as the author of the "Everlasting Wrong. "[47] He
set little store by the poem himself, and, though a certain political
moral might be read into it, its appeal is clearly romantic.
[47] Giles, "Chinese Literature," p. 169.
His other poem of sentiment, the "Lute Girl,"[48] accords even less with
his stated principles. With these he ranks his _Lu-shih_; and it should
here be noted that all the satires and long poems are in the old style
of versification, while his lighter poems are in the strict, modern
form. With his satires he classes his "reflective" poems, such as
"Singing in the Mountains," "On being removed from Hsun-yang," "Pruning
Trees," etc. These are all in the old style.
[48] Giles, "Chinese Literature," p. 165.
No poet in the world can ever have enjoyed greater contemporary
popularity than Po. His poems were "on the mouths of kings, princes,
concubines, ladies, plough-boys, and grooms. " They were inscribed "on
the walls of village-schools, temples, and ships-cabins. " "A certain
Captain Kao Hsia-yu was courting a dancing-girl. 'You must not think I
am an ordinary dancing-girl,' she said to him, 'I can recite Master Po's
"Everlasting Wrong. "' And she put up her price. "
But this popularity was confined to the long, romantic poems and the
_Lu-shih_. "The world," writes Po to Yuan Ch? n, "values highest just
those of my poems which I most despise. Of contemporaries you alone have
understood my satires and reflective poems. A hundred, a thousand years
hence perhaps some one will come who will understand them as you have
done. "
The popularity of his lighter poems lasted till the Ming dynasty, when a
wave of pedantry swept over China. At that period his poetry was
considered vulgar, because it was not erudite; and prosaic, because it
was not rhetorical.
Although they valued form far above content, not even the Ming critics
can accuse him of slovenly writing. His versification is admitted by
them to be "correct. "
Caring, indeed, more for matter than for manner, he used with facility
and precision the technical instruments which were at his disposal. Many
of the later anthologies omit his name altogether, but he has always had
isolated admirers. Yuan Mei imitates him constantly, and Chao I (died
1814) writes: "Those who accuse him of being vulgar and prosaic know
nothing of poetry. "
Even during his lifetime his reputation had reached Japan, and great
writers like Michizane were not ashamed to borrow from him. He is still
held in high repute there, is the subject of a N? Play and has even
become a kind of Shint? deity. It is significant that the only copy of
his works in the British Museum is a seventeenth-century Japanese
edition.
It is usual to close a biographical notice with an attempt to describe
the "character" of one's subject. But I hold myself absolved from such a
task; for the sixty poems which follow will enable the reader to perform
it for himself.
AN EARLY LEVEE
ADDRESSED TO CH'? N, THE HERMIT
At Ch'ang-an--a full foot of snow;
A levee at dawn--to bestow congratulations on the Emperor.
Just as I was nearing the Gate of the Silver Terrace,
After I had left the suburb of Hsin-ch'ang
On the high causeway my horse's foot slipped;
In the middle of the journey my lantern suddenly went out.
Ten leagues riding, always facing to the North;
The cold wind almost blew off my ears.
I waited for the bell outside the Five Gates;
I waited for the summons within the Triple Hall.
My hair and beard were frozen and covered with icicles;
My coat and robe--chilly like water.
Suddenly I thought of Hsien-yu Valley
And secretly envied Ch'? n Chu-shih,
In warm bed-socks dozing beneath the rugs
And not getting up till the sun has mounted the sky.
BEING ON DUTY ALL NIGHT IN THE PALACE AND DREAMING OF THE HSIEN-YU
TEMPLE
At the western window I paused from writing rescripts;
The pines and bamboos were all buried in stillness.
The moon rose and a calm wind came;
Suddenly, it was like an evening in the hills.
And so, as I dozed, I dreamed of the South West
And thought I was staying at the Hsien-yu Temple. [49]
When I woke and heard the dripping of the Palace clock
I still thought it the murmur of a mountain stream.
[49] Where the poet used to spend his holidays.
PASSING T'IEN-M? N STREET IN CH'ANG-AN AND SEEING A DISTANT VIEW OF
CHUNG-NAN[50] MOUNTAIN
The snow has gone from Chung-nan; spring is almost come.
Lovely in the distance its blue colours, against the brown of the
streets.
A thousand coaches, ten thousand horsemen pass down the Nine Roads;
Turns his head and looks at the mountains,--not one man!
[50] Part of the great Nan Shan range, fifteen miles south of Ch'ang-an.
THE LETTER
_Preface_:--After I parted with Yuan Ch? n, I suddenly dreamt one night
that I saw him. When I awoke, I found that a letter from him had just
arrived and, enclosed in it, a poem on the _paulovnia_ flower.
We talked together in the Yung-shou Temple;
We parted to the north of the Hsin-ch'ang dyke.
Going home--I shed a few tears,
Grieving about things,--not sorry for you.
Long, long the road to Lan-t'ien;
You said yourself you would not be able to write.
Reckoning up your halts for eating and sleeping--
By this time you've crossed the Shang mountains.
Last night the clouds scattered away;
A thousand leagues, the same moonlight scene.
When dawn came, I dreamt I saw your face;
It must have been that you were thinking of me.
In my dream, I thought I held your hand
And asked you to tell me what your thoughts were.
And _you_ said: "I miss you bitterly,
But there's no one here to send to you with a letter. "
When I awoke, before I had time to speak,
A knocking on the door sounded "Doong, doong! "
They came and told me a messenger from Shang-chou
Had brought a letter,--a single scroll from you!
Up from my pillow I suddenly sprang out of bed,
And threw you my clothes, all topsy-turvy.
I undid the knot and saw the letter within;
A single sheet with thirteen lines of writing.
At the top it told the sorrows of an exile's heart;
At the bottom it described the pains of separation.
The sorrows and pains took up so much space
There was no room left to talk about the weather!
But you said that when you wrote
You were staying for the night to the east of Shang-chou;
Sitting alone, lighted by a solitary candle
Lodging in the mountain hostel of Yang-Ch'? ng.
Night was late when you finished writing,
The mountain moon was slanting towards the west.
What is it lies aslant across the moon?
A single tree of purple _paulovnia_ flowers--
Paulovnia flowers just on the point of falling
Are a symbol to express "thinking of an absent friend. "
Lovingly--you wrote on the back side,
To send in the letter, your "Poem of the Paulovnia Flower. "
The Poem of the Paulovnia Flower has eight rhymes;
Yet these eight couplets have cast a spell on my heart.
