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diff --git a/42290-0.txt b/42290-0.txt index 38afe1b..d50c6d0 100644 --- a/42290-0.txt +++ b/42290-0.txt @@ -1,40 +1,4 @@ -Project Gutenberg's A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - -Author: Various - -Translator: Arthur Waley - -Release Date: March 10, 2013 [EBook #42290] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - - - - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42290 *** A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY CHINESE POEMS @@ -5307,362 +5271,4 @@ p. 141 “village of Hsin-fēng?” End of Project Gutenberg's A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, by Various -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - -***** This file should be named 42290-0.txt or 42290-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/9/42290/ - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - -Author: Various - -Translator: Arthur Waley - -Release Date: March 10, 2013 [EBook #42290] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - - - - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY - CHINESE POEMS - - TRANSLATED BY - ARTHUR WALEY - - [Illustration] - - LONDON - CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD. - 1918 - - - - - PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - - -PRELIMINARY NOTE - - -In making this book I have tried to avoid poems which have been -translated before. A hundred and forty of those I have chosen have not -been translated by any one else. The remaining thirty odd I have -included in many cases because the previous versions were full of -mistakes; in others, because the works in which they appeared are no -longer procurable. Moreover, they are mostly in German, a language with -which my readers may not all be acquainted. - -With some hesitation I have included literal versions of six poems -(three of the "Seventeen Old Poems," "Autumn Wind," "Li Fu-jen," and "On -the Death of his Father") already skilfully rhymed by Professor Giles in -"Chinese Poetry in English Verse." They were too typical to omit; and a -comparison of the two renderings may be of interest. Some of these -translations have appeared in the "Bulletin of the School of Oriental -Studies," in the "New Statesman," in the "Little Review" (Chicago), and -in "Poetry" (Chicago). - - - - -CONTENTS - - -PART I - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 3 - - THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION 19 - - BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 21 - - - CHAPTER I: - - Battle 23 - - The Man-Wind and the Woman-Wind 24 - - Master Teng-t'u 26 - - The Orphan 27 - - The Sick Wife 29 - - Cock-Crow Song 30 - - The Golden Palace 31 - - "Old Poem" 32 - - Meeting in the Road 32 - - Fighting South of the Castle 33 - - The Eastern Gate 34 - - Old and New 35 - - South of the Great Sea 35 - - The Other Side of the Valley 36 - - Oaths of Friendship 37 - - Burial Songs 38 - - Seventeen Old Poems 39-48 - - The Autumn Wind 48 - - Li Fu-jen 49 - - Song of Snow-white Heads 50 - - To his Wife 51 - - Li Ling 52 - - Lament of Hsi-chn 53 - - Ch'in Chia 53 - - Ch'in Chia's Wife's Reply 54 - - Song 55 - - - CHAPTER II: - - Satire on Paying Calls in August 57 - - On the Death of his Father 58 - - The Campaign against Wu 59 - - The Ruins of Lo-yang 60 - - The Cock-fight 61 - - A Vision 62 - - The Curtain of the Wedding Bed 63 - - Regret 63 - - Taoist Song 64 - - A Gentle Wind 64 - - Woman 65 - - Day Dreams 66 - - The Scholar in the Narrow Street 66 - - The Desecration of the Han Tombs 67 - - Bearer's Song 68 - - The Valley Wind 69 - - - CHAPTER III: - - Poems by T'ao Ch'ien 71-79 - - - CHAPTER IV: - - Inviting Guests 81 - - Climbing a Mountain 81 - - Sailing Homeward 82 - - Five "Tzu-yeh" Songs 83 - - The Little Lady of Ch'ing-hsi 84 - - Plucking the Rushes 84 - - Ballad of the Western Island in the - North Country 84 - - Song 86 - - Song of the Men of Chin-ling 86 - - The Scholar Recruit 87 - - The Red Hills 87 - - Dreaming of a Dead Lady 88 - - The Liberator 89 - - Lo-yang 89 - - Winter Night 90 - - The Rejected Wife 90 - - People hide their Love 91 - - The Ferry 91 - - The Waters of Lung-t'ou 92 - - Flowers and Moonlight on the - Spring River 92 - - Tchirek Song 93 - - - CHAPTER V: - - Business Men 95 - - Tell me now 95 - - On Going to a Tavern 96 - - Stone Fish Lake 96 - - Civilization 97 - - A Protest in the Sixth Year of - Ch'ien Fu 97 - - On the Birth of his Son 98 - - The Pedlar of Spells 98 - - Boating in Autumn 99 - - The Herd-boy 99 - - How I sailed on the Lake till I came - to the Easter Stream 100 - - A Seventeenth-century Chinese Poem 100 - - -PART II - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 105 - - BY PO CH-I: - - An Early Leve 115 - - Being on Duty all night in the - Palace and dreaming of the - Hsien-yu Temple 116 - - Passing T'ien-men Street in Ch'ang-an - and seeing a distant View of - Chung-nan Mountain 116 - - The Letter 117 - - Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch'en - Hsiung 118 - - Golden Bells 119 - - Remembering Golden Bells 120 - - Illness 120 - - The Dragon of the Black Pool 121 - - The Grain-tribute 123 - - The People of Tao-chou 123 - - The Old Harp 125 - - The Harper of Chao 125 - - The Flower Market 126 - - The Prisoner 127 - - The Chancellor's Gravel-drive 131 - - The Man who Dreamed of Fairies 132 - - Magic 134 - - The Two Red Towers 135 - - The Charcoal-seller 137 - - The Politician 138 - - The Old Man with the Broken Arm 139 - - Kept waiting in the Boat at Chiu-k'ou - Ten Days by an adverse Wind 142 - - On Board Ship: Reading Yan Chen's - Poems 142 - - Arriving at Hsn-yang 143 - - Madly Singing in the Mountains 144 - - Releasing a migrant "Yen" (wild Goose) 145 - - To a Portrait Painter who desired him - to sit 146 - - Separation 147 - - Having climbed to the topmost Peak of - the Incense-burner Mountain 148 - - Eating Bamboo-shoots 149 - - The Red Cockatoo 149 - - After Lunch 150 - - Alarm at first entering the Yang-tze - Gorges 150 - - On being removed from Hsn-yang and - sent to Chung-chou 151 - - Planting Flowers on the Eastern - Embankment 152 - - Children 153 - - Pruning Trees 154 - - Being visited by a Friend during - Illness 155 - - On the way to Hangchow: Anchored on - the River at Night 155 - - Stopping the Night at Jung-yang 156 - - The Silver Spoon 156 - - The Hat given to the Poet by Li Chien 157 - - The Big Rug 157 - - After getting Drunk, becoming Sober in - the Night 158 - - Realizing the Futility of Life 158 - - Rising Late and Playing with A-ts'ui, - aged Two 159 - - On a Box containing his own Works 160 - - On being Sixty 161 - - Climbing the Terrace of Kuan-yin and - looking at the City 162 - - Climbing the Ling Ying Terrace and - looking North 162 - - Going to the Mountains with a little - Dancing Girl, aged Fifteen 163 - - Dreaming of Yan Chen 163 - - A Dream of Mountaineering 164 - - Ease 165 - - On hearing someone sing a Poem by - Yan Chen 165 - - The Philosophers 166 - - Taoism and Buddhism 167 - - Last Poem 168 - - - - -PART I - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -PRINCIPAL CHINESE DYNASTIES - - Han, 206 B.C.--A.D. 220. - Wei, 220-264. - Chin, 265-419. - (Northern Wei, ruled over the North of China, 386-532.) - Liang, 502-556. - Sui, 589-618. - T'ang, 618-905. - Sung, 960-1278. - Yan (Mongols), 1260-1341. - Ming, 1368-1640. - Ch'ing (Manchus), 1644-1912. - - -THE LIMITATIONS OF CHINESE LITERATURE - -Those who wish to assure themselves that they will lose nothing by -ignoring Chinese literature, often ask the question: "Have the Chinese a -Homer, an Aeschylus, a Shakespeare or Tolstoy?" The answer must be that -China has no epic and no dramatic literature of importance. The novel -exists and has merits, but never became the instrument of great writers. - -Her philosophic literature knows no mean between the traditionalism of -Confucius and the nihilism of Chuang-tzu. In mind, as in body, the -Chinese were for the most part torpid mainlanders. Their thoughts set -out on no strange quests and adventures, just as their ships discovered -no new continents. To most Europeans the momentary flash of Athenian -questioning will seem worth more than all the centuries of Chinese -assent. - -Yet we must recognize that for thousands of years the Chinese maintained -a level of rationality and tolerance that the West might well envy. They -had no Index, no Inquisition, no Holy Wars. Superstition has indeed -played its part among them; but it has never, as in Europe, been -perpetually dominant. It follows from the limitations of Chinese thought -that the literature of the country should excel in reflection rather -than in speculation. That this is particularly true of its poetry will -be gauged from the present volume. In the poems of Po Ch-i no close -reasoning or philosophic subtlety will be discovered; but a power of -candid reflection and self-analysis which has not been rivalled in the -West. - -Turning from thought to emotion, the most conspicuous feature of -European poetry is its pre-occupation with love. This is apparent not -only in actual "love-poems," but in all poetry where the personality of -the writer is in any way obtruded. The poet tends to exhibit himself in -a _romantic_ light; in fact, to recommend himself as a lover. - -The Chinese poet has a tendency different but analogous. He recommends -himself not as a lover, but as a friend. He poses as a person of -infinite leisure (which is what we should most like our friends to -possess) and free from worldly ambitions (which constitute the greatest -bars to friendship). He would have us think of him as a boon companion, -a great drinker of wine, who will not disgrace a social gathering by -quitting it sober. - -To the European poet the relation between man and woman is a thing of -supreme importance and mystery. To the Chinese, it is something -commonplace, obvious--a need of the body, not a satisfaction of the -_emotions_. These he reserves entirely for friendship. - -Accordingly we find that while our poets tend to lay stress on -physical courage and other qualities which normal women admire, -Po Ch-i is not ashamed to write such a poem as "Alarm at entering -the Gorges." Our poets imagine themselves very much as Art has portrayed -them--bare-headed and wild-eyed, with shirts unbuttoned at the neck as -though they feared that a seizure of emotion might at any minute -suffocate them. The Chinese poet introduces himself as a timid recluse, -"Reading the Book of Changes at the Northern Window," playing chess with -a Taoist priest, or practising caligraphy with an occasional visitor. -If "With a Portrait of the Author" had been the rule in the Chinese -book-market, it is in such occupations as these that he would be shown; -a neat and tranquil figure compared with our lurid frontispieces. - -It has been the habit of Europe to idealize love at the expense of -friendship and so to place too heavy a burden on the relation of man and -woman. The Chinese erred in the opposite direction, regarding their -wives and concubines simply as instruments of procreation. For sympathy -and intellectual companionship they looked only to their friends. But -these friends were bound by no such tie as held women to their masters; -sooner or later they drifted away to frontier campaigns, remote -governorships, or country retirement. It would not be an exaggeration to -say that half the poems in the Chinese language are poems of parting or -separation. - -Readers of these translations may imagine that the culture represented -by Po Ch-i extended over the whole vast confines of China. This would, -I think, be an error. Culture is essentially a metropolitan product. -Ch-i was as much _dpays_ at a provincial town as Charles Lamb would -have been at Botany Bay. But the system of Chinese bureaucracy tended -constantly to break up the literary coteries which formed at the -capitals, and to drive the members out of the little corner of Shensi -and Honan which to them was "home." - -It was chiefly economic necessity which forced the poets of China into -the meshes of bureaucracy--backed by the Confucian insistence on public -service. To such as were landowners there remained the alternative of -agricultural life, arduous and isolated. - -The poet, then, usually passed through three stages of existence. In the -first we find him with his friends at the capital, drinking, writing, -and discussing: burdened by his office probably about as much as Pepys -was burdened by his duties at the Admiralty. Next, having failed to -curry favour with the Court, he is exiled to some provincial post, -perhaps a thousand miles from anyone he cares to talk to. Finally, -having scraped together enough money to buy husbands for his daughters, -he retires to a small estate, collecting round him the remnants of those -with whom he had shared the "feasts and frolics of old days." - -I have spoken hitherto only of poets. But the poetess occupies a place -of considerable importance in the first four centuries of our era, -though the classical period (T'ang and Sung) produced no great woman -writer. Her theme varies little; she is almost always a "rejected wife," -cast adrift by her lord or sent back to her home. Probably her father -would be unable to buy her another husband and there was no place for -unmarried women in the Chinese social system. The moment, then, which -produced such poems was one of supreme tragedy in a woman's life. - -Love-poetry addressed by a man to a woman ceases after the Han dynasty; -but a conventional type of love-poem, in which the poet (of either sex) -speaks in the person of a deserted wife or concubine, continues to be -popular. The theme appears to be almost an obsession with the T'ang and -Sung poets. In a vague way, such poems were felt to be allegorical. Just -as in the Confucian interpretation of the love-poems in the Odes (see -below) the woman typifies the Minister, and the lover the Prince, so in -those classical poems the poet in a veiled way laments the thwarting of -his own public ambitions. Such tortuous expression of emotion did not -lead to good poetry. - -The "figures of speech," devices such as metaphor, simile, and play on -words, are used by the Chinese with much more restraint than by us. -"Metaphorical epithets" are occasionally to be met with; waves, for -example, might perhaps be called "angry." But in general the adjective -does not bear the heavy burden which our poets have laid upon it. The -Chinese would call the sky "blue," "gray," or "cloudy," according to -circumstances; but never "triumphant" or "terror-scourged." - -The long Homeric simile, introduced for its own sake or to vary the -monotony of narrative, is unknown to Chinese poetry. Shorter similes are -sometimes found, as when the half-Chinese poet Altun compares the sky -over the Mongolian steppe with the "walls of a tent"; but nothing could -be found analogous to Mr. T. S. Eliot's comparison of the sky to a -"patient etherized on a table." Except in popular poetry, puns are rare; -but there are several characters which, owing to the wideness of their -import, are used in a way almost equivalent to play on words. - -Classical allusion, always the vice of Chinese poetry, finally destroyed -it altogether. In the later periods (from the fourteenth century -onwards) the use of elegant synonyms also prevailed. I have before me a -"gradus" of the kind which the later poet used as an aid to composition. -The moon should be called the "Silver Dish," "Frozen Wheel," or "Golden -Ring." Allusions may in this connection be made to Y Liang, who rode to -heaven on the crescent moon; to the hermit T'ang, who controlled the -genius of the New Moon, and kept him in his house as a candle--or to any -other of some thirty stories which are given. The sun may be called "The -Lantern-Dragon," the "Crow in Flight," the "White Colt," etc. - -Such were the artificialities of later Chinese poetry. - - -TECHNIQUE - -Certain elements are found, but in varying degree, in all human speech. -It is difficult to conceive of a language in which rhyme, stress-accent, -and tone-accent would not to some extent occur. In all languages some -vowel-sounds are shorter than others and, in certain cases, two -consecutive words begin with the same sound. Other such characteristics -could be enumerated, but for the purposes of poetry it is these elements -which man has principally exploited. - -English poetry has used chiefly rhyme, stress, and alliteration. It is -doubtful if tone has ever played a part; a conscious use has -sporadically been made of quantity. Poetry naturally utilizes the most -marked and definite characteristics of the language in which it is -written. Such characteristics are used consciously by the poet; but less -important elements also play their part, often only in a negative way. -Thus the Japanese actually avoid rhyme; the Greeks did not exploit it, -but seem to have tolerated it when it occurred accidentally. - -The expedients consciously used by the Chinese before the sixth century -were rhyme and length of line. A third element, inherent in the -language, was not exploited before that date, but must always have been -a factor in instinctive considerations of euphony. This element was -"tone." - -Chinese prosody distinguishes between two tones, a "flat" and a -"deflected." In the first the syllable is enunciated in a level manner: -the voice neither rises nor sinks. In the second, it (1) rises, (2) -sinks, (3) is abruptly arrested. These varieties make up the Four Tones -of Classical Chinese.[1] - -[1] Not to be confused with the Four Tones of the Mandarin dialect, in -which the old names are used to describe quite different enunciations. - -The "deflected" tones are distinctly more emphatic, and so have a faint -analogy to our stressed syllables. They are also, in an even more remote -way, analogous to the long vowels of Latin prosody. A line ending with a -"level" has consequently to some extent the effect of a "feminine -ending." Certain causes, which I need not specify here, led to an -increasing importance of "tone" in the Chinese language from the fifth -century onwards. It was natural that this change should be reflected in -Chinese prosody. A certain Shen Yo (A.D. 441-513) first propounded the -laws of tone-succession in poetry. From that time till the eighth -century the _L-shih_ or "strictly regulated poem" gradually evolved. -But poets continued (and continue till to-day), side by side with their -_l-shih_, to write in the old metre which disregards tone, calling such -poems _Ku shih_, "old poems." Previous European statements about -Chinese prosody should be accepted with great caution. Writers have -attempted to define the _l-shih_ with far too great precision. - -The Chinese themselves are apt to forget that T'ang poets seldom obeyed -the laws designed in later school-books as essential to classical -poetry; or, if they notice that a verse by Li Po does not conform, they -stigmatize it as "irregular and not to be imitated." - -The reader will infer that the distinction between "old poems" and -irregular _l-shih_ is often arbitrary. This is certainly the case; I -have found the same poem classified differently in different native -books. But it is possible to enumerate certain characteristics which -distinguish the two kinds of verse. I will attempt to do so; but not -till I have discussed _rhyme_, the other main element in Chinese -prosody. It would be equally difficult to define accurately the -difference between the couplets of Pope and those of William Morris. But -it would not be impossible, by pointing out certain qualities of each, -to enable a reader to distinguish between the two styles. - -_Rhyme._--Most Chinese syllables ended with a vowel or nasal sound. The -Chinese rhyme was in reality a vowel assonance. Words in different -consonants rhymed so long as the vowel-sound was exactly the same. Thus -_ywet_, "moon," rhymed with _sek_, "beauty." During the classical period -these consonant endings were gradually weakening, and to-day, except in -the south, they are wholly lost. It is possible that from very early -times final consonants were lightly pronounced. - -The rhymes used in _l-shih_ were standardized in the eighth century, -and some of them were no longer rhymes to the ear in the Mandarin -dialect. To be counted as a rhyme, two words must have exactly the same -vowel-sound. Some of the distinctions then made are no longer audible -to-day; the sub-divisions therefore seem arbitrary. Absolute homophony -is also counted as rhyme, as in French. It is as though we should make -_made_ rhyme with _maid_. - -I will now attempt to distinguish between _Ku-shih_ (old style) and -_L-shih_ (new style). - -_Ku-shih (Old Style)._ - -(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century -critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used. They were, indeed, assonances -of the roughest kind. - -(_b_) "Deflected" words are used for rhyming as freely as "flat" words. - -(_c_) Tone-arrangement. The tones were disregarded. (Lines can be found -in pre-T'ang poems in which five deflected tones occur in succession, an -arrangement which would have been painful to the ear of a T'ang writer -and would probably have been avoided by classical poets even when using -the old style.) - -_L-shih (New Style)._ - -(_a_) The rhymes used are the "106" of modern dictionaries (not those of -the Odes, as Giles states). Rhymes in the flat tone are preferred. In a -quatrain the lines which do not rhyme must end on the opposite tone to -that of the rhyme. This law is absolute in _L-shih_ and a tendency in -this direction is found even in _Ku-shih_. - -(_b_) There is a tendency to antithetical arrangement of tones in the -two lines of a couplet, especially in the last part of the lines. - -(_c_) A tendency for the tones to go in _pairs_, _e.g._ (A = flat, B = -deflected): AA BBA or ABB AA, rather than in _threes_. Three like tones -only come together when divided by a "cesura," _e.g._, the line BB / AAA -would be avoided, but not the line BBAA / ABB. - -(_d_) Verbal parallelism in the couplet, _e.g._: - - After long illness one first realizes that seeking medicines is - a mistake; - In one's decaying years one begins to repent that one's study of - books was deferred. - -This device, used with some discretion in T'ang, becomes an irritating -trick in the hands of the Sung poets. - - -THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF CHINESE POETRY - -_The Odes._--From the songs current in his day Confucius (551-479 B.C.) -chose about three hundred which he regarded as suitable texts for his -ethical and social teaching. Many of them are eulogies of good rulers or -criticisms of bad ones. Out of the three hundred and five still extant -only about thirty are likely to interest the modern reader. Of these -half deal with war and half with love. Many translations exist, the best -being those of Legge in English and of Couvreur in French. There is -still room for an English translation displaying more sensitivity to -word-rhythm than that of Legge. It should not, I think, include more -than fifty poems. But the Odes are essentially _lyric_ poetry, and their -beauty lies in effects which cannot be reproduced in English. For that -reason I have excluded them from this book; nor shall I discuss them -further here, for full information will be found in the works of Legge -or Couvreur. - -_Elegies of the Land of Ch'u._--We come next to Ch' Yan (third century -B.C.) whose famous poem "Li Sao," or "Falling into Trouble," has also -been translated by Legge. It deals, under a love-allegory, with the -relation between the writer and his king. In this poem, sex and politics -are curiously interwoven, as we need not doubt they were in Ch Yan's -own mind. He affords a striking example of the way in which abnormal -mentality imposes itself. We find his followers unsuccessfully -attempting to use the same imagery and rhapsodical verbiage, not -realizing that these were, as De Goncourt would say, the product of -their master's _propre nvrosit_. - -"The Battle," his one thoroughly intelligible poem, has hitherto been -only very imperfectly translated. A literal version will be found on p. -23. - -His nephew Sung Y was no servile imitator. In addition to "elegies" in -the style of the Li Sao, he was the author of many "Fu" or descriptive -prose-poems, unrhymed but more or less metrical. - -_The Han Dynasty._--Most of the Han poems in this book were intended to -be sung. Many of them are from the official song-book of the dynasty and -are known as Yo Fu or Music Bureau poems, as distinct from _shih_, which -were recited. Ch'in Chia's poem and his wife's reply (p. 54) are both -_shih_; but all the rest might, I think, be counted as songs. - -The Han dynasty is rich in Fu (descriptions), but none of them could be -adequately translated. They are written in an elaborate and florid style -which recalls Apuleius or Lyly. - -_The Chin Dynasty._ - -(1) _Popular Songs_ (Songs of Wu). The popular songs referred to the Wu -(Soochow) district and attributed to the fourth century may many of -them have been current at a much earlier date. They are slight in -content and deal with only one topic. They may, in fact, be called -"Love-epigrams." They find a close parallel in the _coplas_ of Spain, -_cf._: - - _El candil se esta apagando, - La alcuza no tiene aceite-- - No te digo que te vayas, ... - No te digo que te quedes._ - - The brazier is going out, - The lamp has no more oil-- - I do not tell you to go, ... - I do not tell you to stay. - -A Han song, which I will translate quite literally, seems to be the -forerunner of the Wu songs. - - On two sides of river, wedding made: - Time comes; no boat. - Lusting heart loses hope - Not seeing what-it-desires. - -(2) _The Taoists._--Confucius inculcated the duty of public service. -Those to whom this duty was repulsive found support in Taoism, a system -which denied this obligation. The third and fourth centuries A.D. -witnessed a great reaction against state service. It occurred to the -intellectuals of China that they would be happier growing vegetables in -their gardens than place-hunting at Nanking. They embraced the theory -that "by bringing himself into harmony with Nature" man can escape every -evil. Thus Tao (Nature's Way) corresponds to the Nirvana of Buddhism, -and the God of Christian mysticism. - -They reduced to the simplest standard their houses, apparel, and food; -and discarded the load of book-learning which Confucianism imposed on -its adherents. - -The greatest of these recluses was T'ao Ch'ien (A.D. 365-427), twelve of -whose poems will be found on p. 71, _seq._ Something of his philosophy -may be gathered from the poem "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit" (p. 73), -his own views being voiced by the last speaker. He was not an original -thinker, but a great poet who reflects in an interesting way the outlook -of his time. - -_Liang and Minor Dynasties._--This period is known as that of the -"Northern and Southern Courts." The north of China was in the hands of -the Tungusie Tartars, who founded the Northern Wei dynasty--a name -particularly familiar, since it is the habit of European collectors to -attribute to this dynasty any sculpture which they believe to be earlier -than T'ang. Little poetry was produced in the conquered provinces; the -Tartar emperors, though they patronized Buddhist art, were incapable of -promoting literature. But at Nanking a series of emperors ruled, most of -whom distinguished themselves either in painting or poetry. The Chinese -have always (and rightly) despised the literature of this period, which -is "all flowers and moonlight." A few individual writers, such as Pao -Chao, stand out as exceptions. The Emperor Yan-ti--who hacked his way -to the throne by murdering all other claimants, including his own -brother--is typical of the period both as a man and as a poet. A -specimen of his sentimental poetry will be found on p. 90. When at last -forced to abdicate, he heaped together 200,000 books and pictures; and, -setting fire to them, exclaimed: "The culture of the Liang dynasty -perishes with me." - -_T'ang._--I have already described the technical developments of poetry -during this dynasty. Form was at this time valued far above content. -"Poetry," says a critic, "should draw its materials from the Han and Wei -dynasties." With the exception of a few reformers, writers contented -themselves with clothing old themes in new forms. The extent to which -this is true can of course only be realized by one thoroughly familiar -with the earlier poetry. - -In the main, T'ang confines itself to a narrow range of stock subjects. -The _mise-en-scne_ is borrowed from earlier times. If a battle-poem be -written, it deals with the campaigns of the Han dynasty, not with -contemporary events. The "deserted concubines" of conventional -love-poetry are those of the Han Court. Innumerable poems record -"Reflections on Visiting a Ruin," or on "The Site of an Old City," etc. -The details are ingeniously varied, but the sentiments are in each case -identical. Another feature is the excessive use of historical allusions. -This is usually not apparent in rhymed translations, which evade such -references by the substitution of generalities. Poetry became the medium -not for the expression of a poet's emotions, but for the display of his -classical attainments. The great Li Po is no exception to this rule. -Often where his translators would make us suppose he is expressing a -fancy of his own, he is in reality skilfully utilizing some poem by T'ao -Ch'ien or Hsieh Ti'ao. It is for his versification that he is admired, -and with justice. He represents a reaction against the formal prosody of -his immediate predecessors. It was in the irregular song-metres of his -_ku-shih_ that he excelled. In such poems as the "Ssech'uan Road," with -its wild profusion of long and short lines, its cataract of exotic -verbiage, he aimed at something nearer akin to music than to poetry. Tu -Fu, his contemporary, occasionally abandoned the cult of "abstract -form." Both poets lived through the most tragic period of Chinese -history. In 755 the Emperor's Turkic favourite, An Lu-shan, revolted -against his master. A civil war followed, in which China lost thirty -million men. The dynasty was permanently enfeebled and the Empire -greatly curtailed by foreign incursions. So ended the "Golden Age" of -Ming Huang. Tu Fu, stirred by the horror of massacres and conscriptions, -wrote a series of poems in the old style, which Po Ch-i singles out for -praise. One of them, "The Press-gang," is familiar in Giles's -translation. Li Po, meanwhile, was writing complimentary poems on the -Emperor's "Tour in the West"--a journey which was in reality a -precipitate flight from his enemies. - -_Sung._--In regard to content the Sung poets show even less originality -than their predecessors. Their whole energy was devoted towards -inventing formal restrictions. The "tz'u" developed, a species of song -in lines of irregular length, written in strophes, each of which must -conform to a strict pattern of tones and rhymes. The content of the -"tz'u" is generally wholly conventional. Very few have been translated; -and it is obvious that they are unsuitable for translation, since their -whole merit lies in metrical dexterity. Examples by the poetess Li I-an -will be found in the second edition of Judith Gautier's "Livre de Jade." -The poetry of Su Tung-p'o, the foremost writer of the period, is in its -matter almost wholly a patchwork of earlier poems. It is for the musical -qualities of his verse that he is valued by his countrymen. He hardly -wrote a poem which does not contain a phrase (sometimes a whole line) -borrowed from Po Ch-i, for whom in his critical writings he expresses -boundless admiration. - -A word must be said of the Fu (descriptive prose-poems) of this time. -They resemble the _vers libres_ of modern France, using rhyme -occasionally (like Georges Duhamel) as a means of "sonner, rouler, quand -il faut faire donner les cuivres et la batterie." Of this nature is the -magnificent "Autumn Dirge" (Giles, "Chinese Lit.," p. 215) by Ou-yang -Hsiu, whose lyric poetry is of small interest. The subsequent periods -need not much concern us. In the eighteenth century the garrulous Yan -Mei wrote his "Anecdotes of Poetry-making"--a book which, while one of -the most charming in the language, probably contains more bad poetry -(chiefly that of his friends) than any in the world. His own poems are -modelled on Po Ch-i and Su Tung-p'o. - - * * * * * - -This introduction is intended for the general reader. I have therefore -stated my views simply and categorically, and without entering into -controversies which are of interest only to a few specialists. - -As an account of the development of Chinese poetry these notes are -necessarily incomplete, but it is hoped that they answer some of those -questions which a reader would be most likely to ask. - - - - -THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION - - -It is commonly asserted that poetry, when literally translated, ceases -to be poetry. This is often true, and I have for that reason not -attempted to translate many poems which in the original have pleased me -quite as much as those I have selected. But I present the ones I have -chosen in the belief that they still retain the essential -characteristics of poetry. - -I have aimed at literal translation, not paraphrase. It may be perfectly -legitimate for a poet to borrow foreign themes or material, but this -should not be called translation. - -Above all, considering imagery to be the soul of poetry, I have avoided -either adding images of my own or suppressing those of the original. - -Any literal translation of Chinese poetry is bound to be to some extent -rhythmical, for the rhythm of the original obtrudes itself. Translating -literally, without thinking about the metre of the version, one finds -that about two lines out of three have a very definite swing similar to -that of the Chinese lines. The remaining lines are just too short or too -long, a circumstance very irritating to the reader, whose ear expects -the rhythm to continue. I have therefore tried to produce regular -rhythmic effects similar to those of the original. Each character in the -Chinese is represented by a stress in the English; but between the -stresses unstressed syllables are of course interposed. In a few -instances where the English insisted on being shorter than the Chinese, -I have preferred to vary the metre of my version, rather than pad out -the line with unnecessary verbiage. - -I have not used rhyme because it is impossible to produce in English -rhyme-effects at all similar to those of the original, where the same -rhyme sometimes runs through a whole poem. Also, because the -restrictions of rhyme necessarily injure either the vigour of one's -language or the literalness of one's version. I do not, at any rate, -know of any example to the contrary. What is generally known as "blank -verse" is the worst medium for translating Chinese poetry, because the -essence of blank verse is that it varies the position of its pauses, -whereas in Chinese the stop always comes at the end of the couplet. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES - - -1. H. A. Giles, "Chinese Poetry in English Verse." 1896. 212 pp. -Combines rhyme and literalness with wonderful dexterity. - -2. Hervey St. Denys, "Posies des Thang." 1862. 301 pp. The choice of -poems would have been very different if the author had selected from the -whole range of T'ang poetry, instead of contenting himself, except in -the case of Li Po and Tu Fu, with making extracts from two late -anthologies. This book, the work of a great scholar, is reliable--except -in its information about Chinese prosody. - -3. Judith Gautier, "Le Livre de Jade." 1867 and 1908. It has been -difficult to compare these renderings with the original, for proper -names are throughout distorted or interchanged. For example, part of a -poem by Po Ch-i _about_ Yang T'ai-chen is here given as a complete poem -and ascribed to "Yan-Ta-Tchen" as author. The poet Han Y figures as -Heu-Yu; T'ao Han as Sao Nan, etc. Such mistakes are evidently due to -faulty decipherment of someone else's writing. Nevertheless, the book is -far more readable than that of St. Denys, and shows a wider acquaintance -with Chinese poetry on the part of whoever chose the poems. Most of the -credit for this selection must certainly be given to Ting Tun-ling, the -_literatus_ whom Thophile Gautier befriended. But the credit for the -beauty of these often erroneous renderings must go to Mademoiselle -Gautier herself. - -4. Anna von Bernhardi, in "Mitteil d. Seminar f. Orient. Sprachen," -1912, 1915, and 1916. Two articles on T'ao Ch'ien and one on Li Po. All -valuable, though not free from mistakes. - -5. Zottoli, "Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae." 1886. Chinese text with Latin -translation. Vol. V deals with poetry. None of the poems is earlier than -T'ang. The Latin is seldom intelligible without reference to the -Chinese. Translators have obviously used Zottoli as a text. Out of -eighteen Sung poems in Giles's book, sixteen will be found in Zottoli. - -6. A. Pfizmaier, two articles (1886 and 1887) on Po Ch-i in "Denkschr. -d. Kais. Ak. in Wien." So full of mistakes as to be of very little -value, except in so far as they served to call the attention of the -European reader to this poet. - -7. L. Woitsch, "Aus den Gedichten Po Ch-i's." 1908. 76 pp. A prose -rendering with Chinese text of about forty poems, not very well -selected. The translations, though inaccurate, are a great advance on -Pfizmaier. - -8. E. von Zachs, "Lexicographische Beitrge." Vols. ii and iv. -Re-translation of two poems previously mistranslated by Pfizmaier. - -9. S. Imbault-Huart, "La Posie Chinoise du 14 au 19 sicle." 1886. 93 -pp. - -10. S. Imbault-Huart, "Un Pote Chinois du 18 Sicle." (Yan Mei.) -Journ. of China Branch, Royal As. Soc., N.S., vol. xix, part 2, 42 pp. - -11. S. Imbault-Huart, "Posies Modernes." 1892. 46 pp. - -12. A. Forke, "Blthen Chinesischer Dichtung." 1899. Rhymed versions of -Li Po and pre-T'ang poems. - -A fuller bibliography will be found in Cordier's "Bibliotheca Sinica." - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -BATTLE - -By Ch' Yan (332-295 B.C.), author of the famous poem "Li Sao," or -"Falling into Trouble." Finding that he could not influence the -conduct of his prince, he drowned himself in the river Mi-lo. The -modern Dragon Boat Festival is supposed to be in his honour. - - "We grasp our battle-spears: we don our breast-plates of hide. - The axles of our chariots touch: our short swords meet. - Standards obscure the sun: the foe roll up like clouds. - Arrows fall thick: the warriors press forward. - They menace our ranks: they break our line. - The left-hand trace-horse is dead: the one on the right is smitten. - The fallen horses block our wheels: they impede the yoke-horses!" - - They grasp their jade drum-sticks: they beat the sounding drums. - Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry. - - The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field. - They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return. - The plains are flat and wide: the way home is long. - - Their swords lie beside them: their black bows, in their hand. - Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed. - They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of - "Wu."[2] - Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted. - Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality-- - Captains among the ghosts, heroes among the dead. - -[2] _I.e._, military genius. - - -THE MAN-WIND AND THE WOMAN-WIND - -A "fu," or prose-poem, by Sung Y (fourth century B.C.), nephew of Ch' -Yan. - -Hsiang, king of Ch'u, was feasting in the Orchid-tower Palace, with Sung -Y and Ching Ch'ai to wait upon him. A gust of wind blew in and the king -bared his breast to meet it, saying: "How pleasant a thing is this wind -which I share with the common people." Sung Y answered: "This is the -Great King's wind. The common people cannot share it." The king said: -"Wind is a spirit of Heaven and Earth. It comes wide spread and does not -choose between noble and base or between high and low. How can you say -'This is the king's wind'?" Sung answered: "I have heard it taught that -in the crooked lemon-tree birds make their nests and to empty spaces -winds fly. But the wind-spirit that comes to different things is not the -same." The king said: "Where is the wind born?" and Sung answered: "The -wind is born in the ground. It rises in the extremities of the green -p'ing-flower. It pours into the river-valleys and rages at the mouth of -the pass. It follows the rolling flanks of Mount T'ai and dances beneath -the pine-trees and cypresses. In gusty bouts it whirls. It rushes in -fiery anger. It rumbles low with a noise like thunder, tearing down -rocks and trees, smiting forests and grasses. - -"But at last abating, it spreads abroad, seeks empty places and crosses -the threshold of rooms. And so growing gentler and clearer, it changes -and is dispersed and dies. - -"It is this cool clear Man-Wind that, freeing itself, falls and rises -till it climbs the high walls of the Castle and enters the gardens of -the Inner Palace. It bends the flowers and leaves with its breath. It -wanders among the osmanthus and pepper-trees. It lingers over the -fretted face of the pond, to steal the soul of the hibiscus. It touches -the willow leaves and scatters the fragrant herbs. Then it pauses in the -courtyard and turning to the North goes up to the Jade Hall, shakes the -hanging curtains and lightly passes into the inner room. - -"And so it becomes the Great King's wind. - -"Now such a wind is fresh and sweet to breathe and its gentle murmuring -cures the diseases of men, blows away the stupor of wine, sharpens sight -and hearing and refreshes the body. This is what is called the Great -King's wind." - -The king said: "You have well described it. Now tell me of the common -people's wind." Sung said: "The common people's wind rises from narrow -lanes and streets, carrying clouds of dust. Rushing to empty spaces it -attacks the gateway, scatters the dust-heap, sends the cinders flying, -pokes among foul and rotting things, till at last it enters the tiled -windows and reaches the rooms of the cottage. Now this wind is heavy and -turgid, oppressing man's heart. It brings fever to his body, ulcers to -his lips and dimness to his eyes. It shakes him with coughing; it kills -him before his time. - -"Such is the Woman-wind of the common people." - - -The following is a sample of Sung Y's prose: - -MASTER TENG-T'U - -By Sung Y (third century B.C.) - -One day when the Chamberlain, master Teng-t'u, was in attendance at the -Palace he warned the King against Sung Y, saying: "Y is a man of -handsome features and calm bearing and his tongue is prompt with subtle -sentences. Moreover, his character is licentious. I would submit that -your Majesty is ill-advised in allowing him to follow you into the -Queen's apartments." The King repeated Teng-t'u's words to Sung Y. Y -replied: "My beauty of face and calmness of bearing were given me by -Heaven. Subtlety of speech I learnt from my teachers. As for my -character, I deny that it is licentious." The King said: "Can you -substantiate your statement that you are not licentious? If you cannot, -you must leave the Court." Sung Y said: "Of all the women in the world, -the most beautiful are the women of the land of Ch'u. And in all the -land of Ch'u there are none like the women of my own village. And in my -village there are none that can be compared with the girl next door. - -"The girl next door would be too tall if an inch were added to her -height, and too short if an inch were taken away. Another grain of -powder would make her too pale; another touch of rouge would make her -too red. Her eyebrows are like the plumage of the kingfisher, her flesh -is like snow. Her waist is like a roll of new silk, her teeth are like -little shells. A single one of her smiles would perturb the whole city -of Yang and derange the suburb of Hsia-ts'ai.[3] For three years this -lady has been climbing the garden wall and peeping at me, yet I have -never succumbed. - -[3] Fashionable quarters in the capital of Ch'u state. - -"How different is the behaviour of master Teng-t'u! His wife has a wooly -head and misshapen ears; projecting teeth irregularly set; a crook in -her back and a halt in her gait. Moreover, she has running sores in -front and behind. - -"Yet Teng-t'u fell in love with her and caused her to bear him five -children. - -"I would have your Majesty consider which of us is the debauchee." - -Sung Y was not dismissed from court. - - -THE ORPHAN - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - To be an orphan, - To be fated to be an orphan. - How bitter is this lot! - When my father and mother were alive - I used to ride in a carriage - With four fine horses. - - But when they both died, - My brother and sister-in-law - Sent me out to be a merchant. - In the south I travelled to the "Nine Rivers" - And in the east as far as Ch'i and Lu. - At the end of the year when I came home - I dared not tell them what I had suffered-- - Of the lice and vermin in my head, - Of the dust in my face and eyes. - My brother told me to get ready the dinner. - My sister-in-law told me to see after the horses. - I was always going up into the hall - And running down again to the parlour. - My tears fell like rain. - - In the morning they sent me to draw water, - I didn't get back till night-fall. - My hands were all sore - And I had no shoes. - I walked the cold earth - Treading on thorns and brambles. - As I stopped to pull out the thorns, - How bitter my heart was! - My tears fell and fell - And I went on sobbing and sobbing. - In winter I have no great-coat; - Nor in summer, thin clothes. - It is no pleasure to be alive. - I had rather quickly leave the earth - And go beneath the Yellow Springs.[4] - The April winds blow - And the grass is growing green. - In the third month--silkworms and mulberries, - In the sixth month--the melon-harvest. - I went out with the melon-cart - And just as I was coming home - The melon-cart turned over. - The people who came to help me were few, - But the people who ate the melons were many, - All they left me was the stalks-- - To take home as fast as I could. - My brother and sister-in-law were harsh, - They asked me all sorts of awful questions. - Why does everyone in the village hate me? - I want to write a letter and send it - To my mother and father under the earth, - And tell them I can't go on any longer - Living with my brother and sister-in-law. - -[4] Hades. - - -THE SICK WIFE - - She had been ill for years and years; - She sent for me to say something. - She couldn't say what she wanted - Because of the tears that kept coming of themselves. - "I have burdened you with orphan children, - With orphan children two or three. - Don't let our children go hungry or cold; - If they do wrong, don't slap or beat them. - When you take out the baby, rock it in your arms. - Don't forget to do that." - Last she said, - "When I carried them in my arms they had no clothes - And now their jackets have no linings." [_She dies._ - - I shut the doors and barred the windows - And left the motherless children. - When I got to the market and met my friends, I wept. - I sat down and could not go with them. - I asked them to buy some cakes for my children. - In the presence of my friends I sobbed and cried. - I tried not to grieve, but sorrow would not cease. - I felt in my pocket and gave my friends some money. - When I got home I found my children - Calling to be taken into their mother's arms. - I walked up and down in the empty room - This way and that a long while. - Then I went away from it and said to myself - "I will forget and never speak of her again." - - -COCK-CROW SONG - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - In the eastern quarter dawn breaks, the stars flicker pale. - The morning cock at Ju-nan mounts the wall and crows. - The songs are over, the clock[5] run down, but still the feast - is set. - The moon grows dim and the stars are few; morning has come to - the world. - At a thousand gates and ten thousand doors the fish-shaped keys - turn; - Round the Palace and up by the Castle, the crows and magpies are - flying. - -[5] A water-clock. - - -THE GOLDEN PALACE - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - We go to the Golden Palace: - We set out the jade cups. - We summon the honoured guests - To enter at the Golden Gate. - They enter at the Golden Gate - And go to the Golden Hall. - In the Eastern Kitchen the meat is sliced and ready-- - Roast beef and boiled pork and mutton. - The Master of the Feast hands round the wine. - The harp-players sound their clear chords. - - The cups are pushed aside and we face each other at chess: - The rival pawns are marshalled rank against rank. - The fire glows and the smoke puffs and curls; - From the incense-burner rises a delicate fragrance. - The clear wine has made our cheeks red; - Round the table joy and peace prevail. - May those who shared in this day's delight - Through countless autumns enjoy like felicity. - - -"OLD POEM" - - At fifteen I went with the army, - At fourscore I came home. - On the way I met a man from the village, - I asked him who there was at home. - "That over there is your house, - All covered over with trees and bushes." - Rabbits had run in at the dog-hole, - Pheasants flew down from the beams of the roof. - In the courtyard was growing some wild grain; - And by the well, some wild mallows. - I'll boil the grain and make porridge, - I'll pluck the mallows and make soup. - Soup and porridge are both cooked, - But there is no one to eat them with. - I went out and looked towards the east, - While tears fell and wetted my clothes. - - -MEETING IN THE ROAD - - In a narrow road where there was not room to pass - My carriage met the carriage of a young man. - And while his axle was touching my axle - In the narrow road I asked him where he lived. - "The place where I live is easy enough to find, - Easy to find and difficult to forget. - The gates of my house are built of yellow gold, - The hall of my house is paved with white jade, - On the hall table flagons of wine are set, - I have summoned to serve me dancers of Han-tan.[6] - In the midst of the courtyard grows a cassia-tree,-- - And candles on its branches flaring away in the night." - -[6] Capital of the kingdom of Chao, where the people were famous for -their beauty. - - -FIGHTING SOUTH OF THE CASTLE - -Anon. (_circa_ 124 B.C.) - - They fought south of the Castle, - They died north of the wall. - They died in the moors and were not buried. - Their flesh was the food of crows. - "Tell the crows we are not afraid; - We have died in the moors and cannot be buried. - Crows, how can our bodies escape you?" - The waters flowed deep - And the rushes in the pool were dark. - The riders fought and were slain: - Their horses wander neighing. - By the bridge there was a house.[7] - Was it south, was it north? - The harvest was never gathered. - How can we give you your offerings? - You served your Prince faithfully, - Though all in vain. - I think of you, faithful soldiers; - Your service shall not be forgotten. - For in the morning you went out to battle - And at night you did not return. - -[7] There is no trace of it left. This passage describes the havoc of -war. The harvest has not been gathered: therefore corn-offerings cannot -be made to the spirits of the dead. - - -THE EASTERN GATE - -Anon. (first century B.C.). - -A poor man determines to go out into the world and make his fortune. -His wife tries to detain him. - - I went out at the eastern gate: - I never thought to return. - But I came back to the gate with my heart full of sorrow. - - * * * * * - - There was not a peck of rice in the bin: - There was not a coat hanging on the pegs. - So I took my sword and went towards the gate. - My wife and child clutched at my coat and wept: - "Some people want to be rich and grand: - I only want to share my porridge with you. - Above, we have the blue waves of the sky: - Below, the yellow face of this little child." - "Dear wife, I cannot stay. - Soon it will be too late. - When one is growing old - One cannot put things off." - - -OLD AND NEW - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs; - She came down the mountain and met her former husband. - She knelt down and asked her former husband - "What do you find your new wife like?" - "My new wife, although her talk is clever, - Cannot charm me as my old wife could. - In beauty of face there is not much to choose. - But in usefulness they are not at all alike. - My new wife comes in from the road to meet me; - My old wife always came down from her tower. - My new wife is clever at embroidering silk; - My old wife was good at plain sewing. - Of silk embroidery one can do an inch a day; - Of plain sewing, more than five feet. - Putting her silks by the side of your sewing, - I see that the new will not compare with the old." - - -SOUTH OF THE GREAT SEA - - My love is living - To the south of the Great Sea. - What shall I send to greet him? - Two pearls and a comb of tortoise-shell: - I'll send them to him packed in a box of jade. - They tell me he is not true: - They tell me he dashed my box to the ground, - Dashed it to the ground and burnt it - And scattered its ashes to the wind. - From this day to the ends of time - I must never think of him, - Never again think of him. - The cocks are crowing, - And the dogs are barking-- - My brother and his wife will soon know.[8] - The autumn wind is blowing; - The morning wind is sighing. - In a moment the sun will rise in the east - And then _it_ too will know. - -[8] _I.e._, about her engagement being broken off. - - -THE OTHER SIDE OF THE VALLEY - - I am a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, - Enduring the shame of captivity. - My bones stick out and my strength is gone - Through not getting enough to eat. - My brother is a Mandarin - And his horses are fed on maize. - Why can't he spare a little money - To send and ransom me? - - -OATHS OF FRIENDSHIP - -In the country of Yeh when a man made friends with another they set up -an altar of earth and sacrificed upon it a dog and a cock, reciting this -oath as they did so: - -(1) - - If you were riding in a coach - And I were wearing a "li,"[9] - And one day we met in the road, - You would get down and bow. - If you were carrying a "teng"[10] - And I were riding on a horse, - And one day we met in the road - I would get down for you. - -[9] A peasant's coat made of straw. - -[10] An umbrella under which a cheap-jack sells his wares. - -(2) - - Shang Ya! - I want to be your friend - For ever and ever without break or decay. - When the hills are all flat - And the rivers are all dry, - When it lightens and thunders in winter, - When it rains and snows in summer, - When Heaven and Earth mingle-- - Not till then will I part from you. - - -BURIAL SONGS - -(1) - -"The dew on the garlic-leaf," sung at the burial of kings and -princes. - - How swiftly it dries, - The dew on the garlic-leaf, - The dew that dries so fast - To-morrow will fall again. - But he whom we carry to the grave - Will never more return. - -(2) - -"The Graveyard," sung at the burial of common men. - - What man's land is the graveyard? - It is the crowded home of ghosts,-- - Wise and foolish shoulder to shoulder. - The King of the Dead claims them all; - Man's fate knows no tarrying. - - -SEVENTEEN OLD POEMS - -The following seventeen poems are from a series known as the Nineteen -Pieces of Old Poetry. Some have been attributed to Mei Sheng (first -century B.C.), and one to Fu I (first century A.D.). They are manifestly -not all by the same hand nor of the same date. Internal evidence shows -that No. 3 at least was written after the date of Mei Sheng's death. -These poems had an enormous influence on all subsequent poetry, and many -of the habitual _clichs_ of Chinese verse are taken from them. I have -omitted two because of their marked inferiority. - -(1) - - On and on, always on and on - Away from you, parted by a life-parting.[11] - Going from one another ten thousand "li," - Each in a different corner of the World. - The way between is difficult and long, - Face to face how shall we meet again? - The Tartar horse prefers the North wind, - The bird from Yeh nests on the Southern branch. - Since we parted the time is already long, - Daily my clothes hang looser round my waist. - Floating clouds obscure the white sun, - The wandering one has quite forgotten home. - Thinking of you has made me suddenly old, - The months and years swiftly draw to their close. - I'll put you out of my mind and forget for ever - And try with all my might to eat and thrive.[12] - -[11] The opposite of a parting by death. - -[12] The popular, but erroneous, interpretation of these two lines is: - -"That I'm cast away and rejected I will not repine, But only hope with -all my heart you're well." - -(2) - - Green, green, - The grass by the river-bank. - Thick, thick, - The willow trees in the garden. - Sad, sad, - The lady in the tower. - White, white, - Sitting at the casement window. - Fair, fair, - Her red-powdered face. - Small, small, - She puts out her pale hand. - Once she was a dancing-house girl. - Now she is a wandering man's wife. - The wandering man went, but did not return. - It is hard alone to keep an empty bed. - -(3) - - Green, green, - The cypress on the mound. - Firm, firm, - The boulder in the stream. - Man's life lived within this world, - Is like the sojourning of a hurried traveller. - A cup of wine together will make us glad, - And a little friendship is no little matter. - - Yoking my chariot I urge my stubborn horses. - I wander about in the streets of Wan and Lo. - In Lo Town how fine everything is! - The "Caps and Belts"[13] go seeking each other out. - The great boulevards are intersected by lanes, - Wherein are the town-houses of Royal Dukes. - The two palaces stare at each other from afar, - The twin gates rise a hundred feet. - By prolonging the feast let us keep our hearts gay, - And leave no room for sadness to creep in. - -[13] High officers. - -(4) - - Of this day's glorious feast and revel - The pleasure and delight are difficult to describe. - Plucking the lute they sent forth lingering sounds, - The new melodies in beauty reached the divine. - Skilful singers intoned the high words, - Those who knew the tune heard the trueness of their singing. - We sat there each with the same desire - And like thoughts by each unexpressed: - "Man in the world lodging for a single life-time - Passes suddenly like dust borne on the wind. - Then let us hurry out with high steps - And be the first to reach the highways and fords: - Rather than stay at home wretched and poor - For long years plunged in sordid grief." - -(5) - - In the north-west there is a high house, - Its top level with the floating clouds. - Embroidered curtains thinly screen its windows, - Its storied tower is built on three steps. - From above there comes a noise of playing and singing, - The tune sounding, oh! how sad! - Who can it be, playing so sad a tune? - Surely it must be Ch'i Liang's[14] wife. - The tranquil "D" follows the wind's rising, - The middle lay lingers indecisive. - To each note, two or three sobs, - Her high will conquered by overwhelming grief. - She does not regret that she is left so sad, - But minds that so few can understand her song. - She wants to become those two wild geese - That with beating wings rise high aloft. - -[14] Who had no father, no husband, and no children. - -(6) - - Crossing the river I pluck hibiscus-flowers: - In the orchid-swamps are many fragrant herbs. - I gather them, but who shall I send them to? - My love is living in lands far away. - I turn and look towards my own country: - The long road stretches on for ever. - The same heart, yet a different dwelling: - Always fretting, till we are grown old! - -(7) - - A bright moon illumines the night-prospect: - The house-cricket chirrups on the eastern wall. - The Handle of the Pole-star points to the Beginning of Winter. - The host of stars is scattered over the sky. - - The white dew wets the moor-grasses,-- - With sudden swiftness the times and seasons change. - The autumn cicada sings among the trees, - The swallows, alas, whither are they gone? - - Once I had a same-house friend, - He took flight and rose high away. - He did not remember how once we went hand in hand, - But left me like footsteps behind one in the dust. - - In the South is the Winnowing-fan and the Pole-star in the North, - And a Herd-boy[15] whose ox has never borne the yoke. - A friend who is not firm as a great rock - Is of no profit and idly bears the name. - -[15] Name of a star. The Herd-boy, who is only figuratively speaking a -herd-boy, is like the friend who is no real friend. - -(8) - - In the courtyard there grows a strange tree, - Its green leaves ooze with a fragrant moisture. - Holding the branch I cut a flower from the tree, - Meaning to send it away to the person I love. - Its sweet smell fills my sleeves and lap. - The road is long, how shall I get it there? - Such a thing is not fine enough to send: - But it may remind him of the time that has past since he left.[16] - -[16] _I.e._ (supposing he went away in the autumn), remind him that -spring has come. - -(9) - - Far away twinkles the Herd-boy star; - Brightly shines the Lady of the Han River. - Slender, slender she plies her white fingers. - Click, click go the wheels of her spinning-loom. - At the end of the day she has not finished her task; - Her bitter tears fall like streaming rain. - The Han River runs shallow and clear; - Set between them, how short a space! - But the river water will not let them pass, - Gazing at each other but never able to speak. - -(10) - - Turning my chariot I yoke my horses and go. - On and on down the long roads - The autumn winds shake the hundred grasses. - On every side, how desolate and bare! - The things I meet are all new things, - Their strangeness hastens the coming of old age. - Prosperity and decay each have their season. - Success is bitter when it is slow in coming. - Man's life is not metal or stone, - He cannot far prolong the days of his fate. - Suddenly he follows in the way of things that change. - Fame is the only treasure that endures. - -(11) - - The Eastern Castle stands tall and high; - Far and wide stretch the towers that guard it. - The whirling wind uprises and shakes the earth; - The autumn grasses grow thick and green. - - The four seasons alternate without pause, - The year's end hurries swiftly on. - The Bird of the Morning Wind is stricken with sorrow; - The frail cicada suffers and is hard pressed. - Free and clear, let us loosen the bonds of our hearts. - Why should we go on always restraining and binding? - In Yen and Chao are many fair ladies, - Beautiful people with faces like jade. - Their clothes are made all of silk gauze. - They stand at the door practising tranquil lays. - The echo of their singing, how sad it sounds! - By the pitch of the song one knows the stops have been tightened. - To ease their minds they arrange their shawls and belts; - Lowering their song, a little while they pause. - "I should like to be those two flying swallows - Who are carrying clay to nest in the eaves of your house." - -(12) - - I drive my chariot up to the Eastern Gate; - From afar I see the graveyard north of the Wall. - The white aspens how they murmur, murmur; - Pines and cypresses flank the broad paths. - Beneath lie men who died long ago; - Black, black is the long night that holds them. - Deep down beneath the Yellow Springs, - Thousands of years they lie without waking. - - In infinite succession light and darkness shift, - And years vanish like the morning dew. - Man's life is like a sojourning, - His longevity lacks the firmness of stone and metal. - For ever it has been that mourners in their turn were mourned, - Saint and Sage,--all alike are trapped. - Seeking by food to obtain Immortality - Many have been the dupe of strange drugs. - Better far to drink good wine - And clothe our bodies in robes of satin and silk. - -(13) CONTINUATION OF (12) - - The dead are gone and with them we cannot converse. - The living are here and ought to have our love. - Leaving the city-gate I look ahead - And see before me only mounds and tombs. - The old graves are ploughed up into fields, - The pines and cypresses are hewn for timber. - In the white aspens sad winds sing; - Their long murmuring kills my heart with grief. - I want to go home, to ride to my village gate. - I want to go back, but there's no road back. - -(14) - - The years of a lifetime do not reach a hundred. - Yet they contain a thousand years' sorrow. - When days are short and the dull nights long, - Why not take a lamp and wander forth? - If you want to be happy you must do it now, - There is no waiting till an after-time. - The fool who's loath to spend the wealth he's got - Becomes the laughing-stock of after ages. - It is true that Master Wang became immortal, - But how can _we_ hope to share his lot? - -(15) - - Cold, cold the year draws to its end, - The crickets and grasshoppers make a doleful chirping. - The chill wind increases its violence. - My wandering love has no coat to cover him. - He gave his embroidered furs to the Lady of Lo, - But from me his bedfellow he is quite estranged. - Sleeping alone in the depth of the long night - In a dream I thought I saw the light of his face. - My dear one thought of our old joys together, - He came in his chariot and gave me the front reins. - I wanted so to prolong our play and laughter, - To hold his hand and go back with him in his coach. - But, when he had come he would not stay long - Nor stop to go with me to the Inner Chamber. - Truly without the falcon's wings to carry me - How can I rival the flying wind's swiftness? - I go and lean at the gate and think of my grief, - My falling tears wet the double gates. - -(16) - - At the beginning of winter a cold spirit comes, - The North Wind blows--chill, chill. - My sorrows being many, I know the length of the nights, - Raising my head I look at the stars in their places. - On the fifteenth day the bright moon is full, - On the twentieth day the "toad and hare" wane.[17] - A stranger came to me from a distant land - And brought me a single scroll with writing on it; - At the top of the scroll was written "Do not forget," - At the bottom was written "Goodbye for Ever." - I put the letter away in the folds of my dress, - For three years the writing did not fade. - How with an undivided heart I loved you - I fear that you will never know or guess. - -[17] The "toad and hare" correspond to our "man in the moon." The waning -of the moon symbolizes the waning of the lover's affection. - -(17) - - The bright moon, oh, how white it shines, - Shines down on the gauze curtains of my bed. - Racked by sorrow I toss and cannot sleep. - Picking up my clothes, I wander up and down. - My absent love says that he is happy, - But I would rather he said he was coming back. - Out in the courtyard I stand hesitating, alone. - To whom can I tell the sad thoughts I think? - Staring before me I enter my room again; - Falling tears wet my mantle and robe. - - -THE AUTUMN WIND - -By Wu-ti (157-87 B.C.), sixth emperor of the Han dynasty. He came to the -throne when he was only sixteen. In this poem he regrets that he is -obliged to go on an official journey, leaving his mistress behind in the -capital. He is seated in his state barge surrounded by his ministers. - - Autumn wind rises: white clouds fly. - Grass and trees wither: geese go south. - Orchids all in bloom: chrysanthemums smell sweet. - I think of my lovely lady: I never can forget. - Floating-pagoda boat crosses Fen River. - Across the mid-stream white waves rise - Flute and drum keep time to sound of the rowers' song; - Amidst revel and feasting, sad thoughts come; - Youth's years how few! Age how sure! - - -LI FU-JEN - - The sound of her silk skirt has stopped. - On the marble pavement dust grows. - Her empty room is cold and still. - Fallen leaves are piled against the doors. - Longing for that lovely lady - How can I bring my aching heart to rest? - -The above poem was written by Wu-ti when his mistress, Li Fu-jen, died. -Unable to bear his grief, he sent for wizards from all parts of China, -hoping that they would be able to put him into communication with her -spirit. At last one of them managed to project her shape on to a -curtain. The emperor cried: - - Is it or isn't it? - I stand and look. - The swish, swish of a silk skirt. - How slow she comes! - - -SONG OF SNOW-WHITE HEADS - -Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju was a young poet who had lost his position at court -owing to ill-health. One day Cho Wen-chn, a rich man's daughter, heard -him singing at a feast given by her father. She eloped with him that -night, and they set up a wine-shop together. After a time Hsiang-ju -became famous as a poet, but his character was marred by love of money. -He sold love-poems, which the ladies of the palace sent to the emperor -in order to win his favour. Finally, he gave presents to the "ladies of -Mo-ling," hoping to secure a concubine. It was this step that induced -his mistress, Cho Wen-chn, to write the following poem. - - Our love was pure - As the snow on the mountains: - White as a moon - Between the clouds-- - They're telling me - Your thoughts are double - That's why I've come - To break it off. - To-day we'll drink - A cup of wine. - To-morrow we'll part - Beside the Canal: - Walking about - Beside the Canal, - Where its branches divide - East and west. - Alas and alas, - And again alas. - So must a girl - Cry when she's married, - If she find not a man - Of single heart, - Who will not leave her - Till her hair is white. - - -TO HIS WIFE - -By General Su Wu (_circa_ 100 B.C.) - - Since our hair was plaited and we became man and wife - The love between us was never broken by doubt. - So let us be merry this night together, - Feasting and playing while the good time lasts. - - * * * * * - - I suddenly remember the distance that I must travel; - I spring from bed and look out to see the time. - The stars and planets are all grown dim in the sky; - Long, long is the road; I cannot stay. - I am going on service, away to the battle-ground, - And I do not know when I shall come back. - I hold your hand with only a deep sigh; - Afterwards, tears--in the days when we are parted. - With all your might enjoy the spring flowers, - But do not forget the time of our love and pride. - Know that if I live, I will come back again, - And if I die, we will go on thinking of each other. - - -LI LING - -(Parting from Su Wu) - - The good time will never come back again: - In a moment,--our parting will be over. - Anxiously--we halt at the road-side, - Hesitating--we embrace where the fields begin. - The clouds above are floating across the sky: - Swiftly, swiftly passing: or blending together. - The waves in the wind lose their fixed place - And are rolled away each to a corner of Heaven. - From now onwards--long must be our parting. - So let us stop again for a little while. - I wish I could ride on the wings of the morning wind - And go with you right to your journey's end. - -Li Ling and Su Wu were both prisoners in the land of the Huns. After -nineteen years Su Wu was released. Li Ling would not go back with him. -When invited to do so, he got up and danced, singing: - - I came ten thousand leagues - Across sandy deserts - In the service of my Prince, - To break the Hun tribes. - My way was blocked and barred, - My arrows and sword broken. - My armies had faded away, - My reputation had gone. - - * * * * * - - My old mother is long dead. - Although I want to requite my Prince - How can I return? - - -LAMENT OF HSI-CHN - -About the year 110 B.C. a Chinese Princess named Hsi-chn was sent, for -political reasons, to be the wife of a central Asian nomad king, K'un -Mo, king of the Wu-sun. When she got there, she found her husband old -and decrepit. He only saw her once or twice a year, when they drank a -cup of wine together. They could not converse, as they had no language -in common. - - My people have married me - In a far corner of Earth: - Sent me away to a strange land, - To the king of the Wu-sun. - A tent is my house, - Of felt are my walls; - Raw flesh my food - With mare's milk to drink. - Always thinking of my own country, - My heart sad within. - Would I were a yellow stork - And could fly to my old home! - - -CH'IN CHIA - -Ch'in Chia (first century A.D.) was summoned to take up an appointment -at the capital at a time when his wife was ill and staying with her -parents. He was therefore unable to say goodbye to her, and sent her -three poems instead. This is the last of the three. - - Solemn, solemn the coachman gets ready to go: - "Chiang, chiang" the harness bells ring. - At break of dawn I must start on my long journey: - At cock-crow I must gird on my belt. - I turn back and look at the empty room: - For a moment I almost think I see you there. - One parting, but ten thousand regrets: - As I take my seat, my heart is unquiet. - What shall I do to tell you all my thoughts? - How can I let you know of all my love? - Precious hairpins make the head to shine - And bright mirrors can reflect beauty. - Fragrant herbs banish evil smells - And the scholar's harp has a clear note. - The man in the Book of Odes[18] who was given a quince - Wanted to pay it back with diamonds and rubies. - When I think of all the things you have done for me, - How ashamed I am to have done so little for you! - Although I know that it is a poor return, - All I can give you is this description of my feelings. - -[18] Odes, v, 10. - - -CH'IN CHIA'S WIFE'S REPLY - - My poor body is alas unworthy: - I was ill when first you brought me home. - Limp and weary in the house-- - Time passed and I got no better. - We could hardly ever see each other: - I could not serve you as I ought. - Then you received the Imperial Mandate: - You were ordered to go far away to the City. - Long, long must be our parting: - I was not destined to tell you my thoughts. - I stood on tiptoe gazing into the distance, - Interminably gazing at the road that had taken you. - With thoughts of you my mind is obsessed: - In my dreams I see the light of your face. - Now you are started on your long journey - Each day brings you further from me. - Oh that I had a bird's wings - And high flying could follow you. - Long I sob and long I cry: - The tears fall down and wet my skirt. - - -SONG - -By Sung Tzu-hou (second century A.D.) - - On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yang - At the edge of the road peach-trees and plum-trees grow; - On the two sides,--flower matched by flower; - Across the road,--leaf touching leaf. - - A spring wind rises from the north-east; - Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway. - Up the road somebody's daughter comes - Carrying a basket, to gather silkworms' food. - - (_She sees the fruit trees in blossom and, forgetting about her - silkworms, begins to pluck the branches._) - - With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree; - The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind. - -_The tree says:_ - - "Lovely lady, I never did you harm; - Why should you hate me and do me injury?" - -_The lady answers:_ - - "At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moons - When the white dew changes to hoar-frost, - At the year's end the wind would have lashed your boughs, - Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long. - Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground, - When spring comes, your gay bloom returns. - But in men's lives when their bright youth is spent - Joy and love never come back again." - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -SATIRE ON PAYING CALLS IN AUGUST - -By Ch'eng Hsiao (_circa_ A.D. 250) - - - When I was young, throughout the hot season - There were no carriages driving about the roads. - People shut their doors and lay down in the cool: - Or if they went out, it was not to pay calls. - Nowadays--ill-bred, ignorant fellows, - When they feel the heat, make for a friend's house. - The unfortunate host, when he hears someone coming - Scowls and frowns, but can think of no escape. - "There's nothing for it but to rise and go to the door," - And in his comfortable seat he groans and sighs. - - * * * * * - - The conversation does not end quickly: - Prattling and babbling, what a lot he says! - Only when one is almost dead with fatigue - He asks at last if one isn't finding him tiring. - (One's arm is almost in half with continual fanning: - The sweat is pouring down one's neck in streams.) - Do not say that this is a small matter: - I consider the practice a blot on our social life. - I therefore caution all wise men - That August visitors should not be admitted. - - -ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER - -By Wei Wen-ti, son of Ts'ao Ts'ao, who founded the dynasty of Wei, and -died in A.D. 220. (The poem has been wrongly attributed to Han Wen-ti, -died 157 B.C.) - - I look up and see / his curtains and bed: - I look down and examine / his table and mat. - The things are there / just as before. - But the man they belonged to / is not there. - His spirit suddenly / has taken flight - And left me behind / far away. - To whom shall I look / on whom rely? - My tears flow / in an endless stream. - "Yu, yu" / cry the wandering deer - As they carry fodder / to their young in the wood. - Flap, flap / fly the birds - As they carry their little ones / back to the nest. - I alone / am desolate - Dreading the days / of our long parting: - My grieving heart's / settled pain - No one else / can understand. - There is a saying / among people - "Sorrow makes us / grow old." - Alas, alas / for my white hairs! - All too early / they have come! - Long wailing, / long sighing - My thoughts are fixed on my sage parent. - They say the good / live long: - Then why was he / not spared? - - -THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WU - -TWO POEMS - -By Wei Wen-ti (A.D. 188-227) - -(1) - - My charioteer hastens to yoke my carriage, - For I must go on a journey far away. - "Where are you going on your journey far away?" - To the land of Wu where my enemies are. - But I must ride many thousand miles, - Beyond the Eastern Road that leads to Wu. - Between the rivers bitter winds blow, - Swiftly flow the waters of Huai and Ssu. - I want to take a skiff and cross these rivers, - But alas for me, where shall I find a boat? - To sit idle is not my desire: - Gladly enough would I go to my country's aid. - -(2) - -(_He abandons the campaign_) - - In the North-west there is a floating cloud - Stretched on high, like a chariot's canvas-awning. - Alas that I was born in these times, - To be blown along like a cloud puffed by the wind! - It has blown me away far to the South-east, - On and on till I came to Wu-hui. - Wu-hui is not my country: - Why should I go on staying and staying here? - I will give it up and never speak of it again,-- - This being abroad and always living in dread. - - -THE RUINS OF LO-YANG - -By Ts'ao Chih (A.D. 192-233), third son of Ts'ao Ts'ao. He was a great -favourite with his father till he made a mistake in a campaign. In this -poem he returns to look at the ruins of Lo-yang, where he used to live. -It had been sacked by Tung Cho. - - I climb to the ridge of Pei Mang Mountain - And look down on the city of Lo-yang. - In Lo-yang how still it is! - Palaces and houses all burnt to ashes. - Walls and fences all broken and gaping, - Thorns and brambles shooting up to the sky. - I do not see the old old-men: - I only see the new young men. - I turn aside, for the straight road is lost: - The fields are overgrown and will never be ploughed again. - I have been away such a long time - That I do not know which street is which. - How sad and ugly the empty moors are! - A thousand miles without the smoke of a chimney. - I think of the house I lived in all those years: - I am heart-tied and cannot speak. - -The above poem vaguely recalls a famous Anglo-Saxon fragment which I -will make intelligible by semi-translation: - - "Wondrous was the wall-stone, - Weirdly[19] broken; - Burgh-steads bursten, - Giants' work tumbleth, - Roofs are wrenched, - Towers totter, - Bereft of rune-gates. - Smoke is on the plaster, - Scarred the shower-burghs, - Shorn and shattered, - By eld under-eaten. - Earth's grip haveth - Wealders[20] and workmen." - -[19] By Fate. - -[20] Rulers. - - -THE COCK-FIGHT - -By Ts'ao Chih - - Our wandering eyes are sated with the dancer's skill. - Our ears are weary with the sound of "kung" and "shang."[21] - Our host is silent and sits doing nothing: - All the guests go on to places of amusement. - - * * * * * - - On long benches the sportsmen sit ranged - Round a cleared room, watching the fighting-cocks. - The gallant birds are all in battle-trim: - They raise their tails and flap defiantly. - Their beating wings stir the calm air: - Their angry eyes gleam with a red light. - Where their beaks have struck, the fine feathers are scattered: - With their strong talons they wound again and again. - Their long cries enter the blue clouds; - Their flapping wings tirelessly beat and throb. - "Pray God the lamp-oil lasts a little longer, - Then I shall not leave without winning the match!" - -[21] Notes of the scale. - - -A VISION - -By Ts'ao Chih - - In the Nine Provinces there is not room enough: - I want to soar high among the clouds, - And, far beyond the Eight Limits of the compass, - Cast my gaze across the unmeasured void. - I will wear as my gown the red mists of sunrise, - And as my skirt the white fringes of the clouds: - My canopy--the dim lustre of Space: - My chariot--six dragons mounting heavenward: - And before the light of Time has shifted a pace - Suddenly stand upon the World's blue rim. - The doors of Heaven swing open, - The double gates shine with a red light. - I roam and linger in the palace of Wen-ch'ang,[22] - I climb up to the hall of T'ai-wei.[22] - The Lord God lies at his western lattice: - And the lesser Spirits are together in the eastern gallery. - They wash me in a bath of rainbow-spray - And gird me with a belt of jasper and rubies. - I wander at my ease gathering divine herbs: - I bend down and touch the scented flowers. - Wang-tzu[23] gives me drugs of long-life - And Hsien-men[23] hands me strange potions. - By the partaking of food I evade the rites of Death: - My span is extended to the enjoyment of life everlasting. - -[22] Stars. - -[23] Immortals. - - -THE CURTAIN OF THE WEDDING BED - -By Liu Hsn's wife (third century A.D.). - -After she had been married to him for a long while, General Liu Hsn -sent his wife back to her home, because he had fallen in love with a -girl of the Ssu-ma family. - - Flap, flap, you curtain in front of our bed! - I hung you there to screen us from the light of day. - I brought you with me when I left my father's house; - Now I am taking you back with me again. - I will fold you up and lay you flat in your box. - Curtain--shall I ever take you out again? - - -REGRET - -By Yan Chi (A.D. 210-263) - - When I was young I learnt fencing - And was better at it than Crooked Castle.[24] - My spirit was high as the rolling clouds - And my fame resounded beyond the World. - I took my sword to the desert sands, - I drank my horse at the Nine Moors. - My flags and banners flapped in the wind, - And nothing was heard but the song of my drums. - - * * * * * - - War and its travels have made me sad, - And a fierce anger burns within me: - It's thinking of how I've wasted my time - That makes this fury tear my heart. - -[24] A famous general. - - -TAOIST SONG - -By Chi K'ang (A.D. 223-262) - - I will cast out Wisdom and reject Learning. - My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void (_bis_). - Always repenting of wrongs done - Will never bring my heart to rest. - I cast my hook in a single stream; - But my joy is as though I possessed a Kingdom. - I loose my hair and go singing; - To the four frontiers men join in my refrain. - This is the purport of my song: - "My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void." - - -A GENTLE WIND - -By Fu Hsan (died A.D. 278) - - A gentle wind fans the calm night: - A bright moon shines on the high tower. - A voice whispers, but no one answers when I call: - A shadow stirs, but no one comes when I beckon. - The kitchen-man brings in a dish of lentils: - Wine is there, but I do not fill my cup. - Contentment with poverty is Fortune's best gift: - Riches and Honour are the handmaids of Disaster. - Though gold and gems by the world are sought and prized, - To me they seem no more than weeds or chaff. - - -WOMAN - -By Fu Hsan - - How sad it is to be a woman! - Nothing on earth is held so cheap. - Boys stand leaning at the door - Like Gods fallen out of Heaven. - Their hearts brave the Four Oceans, - The wind and dust of a thousand miles. - No one is glad when a girl is born: - By _her_ the family sets no store. - When she grows up, she hides in her room - Afraid to look a man in the face. - No one cries when she leaves her home-- - Sudden as clouds when the rain stops. - She bows her head and composes her face, - Her teeth are pressed on her red lips: - She bows and kneels countless times. - She must humble herself even to the servants. - _His_ love is distant as the stars in Heaven, - Yet the sunflower bends toward the sun. - Their hearts more sundered than water and fire-- - A hundred evils are heaped upon her. - Her face will follow the years' changes: - Her lord will find new pleasures. - They that were once like substance and shadow - Are now as far as Hu from Ch'in.[25] - Yet Hu and Ch'in shall sooner meet - Than they whose parting is like Ts'an and Ch'en.[26] - -[25] Two lands. - -[26] Two stars. - - -DAY DREAMS - -By Tso Ssu (third century A.D.) - - When I was young I played with a soft brush - And was passionately devoted to reading all sorts of books. - In prose I made Chia I my standard: - In verse I imitated Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju. - But then the arrows began singing at the frontier. - And a winged summons came flying to the City. - Although arms were not my profession, - I had once read Jang-Chu's war-book. - I shouted aloud and my cries rent the air: - I felt as though Tung Wu were already annihilated. - The scholar's knife cuts best at its first use - And my dreams hurried on to the completion of my plan. - I wanted at a stroke to clear the Yang-tze and Hsiang, - And at a glance to quell the Tibetans and Hu. - When my task was done, I should not accept a barony, - But refusing with a bow, retire to a cottage in the country. - - -THE SCHOLAR IN THE NARROW STREET - -By Tso Ssu - - Flap, flap, the captive bird in the cage - Beating its wings against the four corners. - Depressed, depressed the scholar in the narrow street: - Clasping a shadow, he dwells in an empty house. - When he goes out, there is nowhere for him to go: - Bunches and brambles block up his path. - He composes a memorial, but it is rejected and unread, - He is left stranded, like a fish in a dry pond. - Without--he has not a single farthing of salary: - Within--there is not a peck of grain in his larder. - His relations upbraid him for his lack of success: - His friends and callers daily decrease in number. - Su Ch'in used to go preaching in the North - And Li Ssu sent a memorandum to the West. - I once hoped to pluck the fruits of life: - But now alas, they are all withered and dry. - Though one drinks at a river, one cannot drink more than a bellyful; - Enough is good, but there is no use in satiety. - The bird in a forest can perch but on one bough, - And this should be the wise man's pattern. - - -THE DESECRATION OF THE HAN TOMBS - -By Chang Tsai (third century A.D.) - - At Pei-mang how they rise to Heaven, - Those high mounds, four or five in the fields! - What men lie buried under these tombs? - All of them were Lords of the Han world. - "Kung" and "Wen"[27] gaze across at each other: - The Yan mound is all grown over with weeds. - When the dynasty was falling, tumult and disorder arose, - Thieves and robbers roamed like wild beasts. - Of earth[28] they have carried away more than one handful, - They have gone into vaults and opened the secret doors. - Jewelled scabbards lie twisted and defaced: - The stones that were set in them, thieves have carried away, - The ancestral temples are hummocks in the ground: - The walls that went round them are all levelled flat. - Over everything the tangled thorns are growing: - A herd-boy pushes through them up the path. - Down in the thorns rabbits have made their burrows: - The weeds and thistles will never be cleared away. - Over the tombs the ploughshare will be driven - And peasants will have their fields and orchards there. - They that were once lords of a thousand hosts - Are now become the dust of the hills and ridges. - I think of what Yn-men[29] said - And am sorely grieved at the thought of "then" and "now." - -[27] Names of two tombs. - -[28] In the early days of the dynasty a man stole a handful of earth -from the imperial tombs, and was executed by the police. The emperor was -furious at the lightness of the punishment. - -[29] Yn-men said to Meng Ch'ang-chn (died 279 B.C.), "Does it not -grieve you to think that after a hundred years this terrace will be cast -down and this pond cleared away?" Meng Ch'ang-chn wept. - - -BEARER'S SONG - -By Miu Hsi (died A.D. 245). _Cf._ the "Han Burial Songs," p. 38. - - When I was alive, I wandered in the streets of the Capital: - Now that I am dead, I am left to lie in the fields. - In the morning I drove out from the High Hall: - In the evening I lodged beneath the Yellow Springs.[30] - When the white sun had sunk in the Western Chasm - I hung up my chariot and rested my four horses. - Now, even the mighty Maker of All - Could not bring the life back to my limbs. - Shape and substance day by day will vanish: - Hair and teeth will gradually fall away. - Forever from of old men have been so: - And none born can escape this thing. - -[30] Hades. - - -THE VALLEY WIND - -By Lu Yn (fourth century A.D.) - - Living in retirement beyond the World, - Silently enjoying isolation, - I pull the rope of my door tighter - And stuff my window with roots and ferns. - My spirit is tuned to the Spring-season: - At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart. - Thus imitating cosmic changes - My cottage becomes a Universe. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -POEMS BY T'AO CH'IEN - - -(1) - - Shady, shady the wood in front of the Hall: - At midsummer full of calm shadows. - The south wind follows summer's train: - With its eddying-puffs it blows open my coat. - I am free from ties and can live a life of retirement. - When I rise from sleep, I play with books and harp. - The lettuce in the garden still grows moist: - Of last year's grain there is always plenty left. - Self-support should maintain strict limits: - More than enough is not what I want. - I grind millet and make good wine: - When the wine is heated, I pour it out for myself. - My little children are playing at my side, - Learning to talk, they babble unformed sounds. - These things have made me happy again - And I forget my lost cap of office. - Distant, distant I gaze at the white clouds: - With a deep yearning I think of the Sages of Antiquity. - - -(2) - - In the quiet of the morning I heard a knock at my door: - I threw on my clothes and opened it myself. - I asked who it was who had come so early to see me: - He said he was a peasant, coming with good intent. - He brought a present of wine and rice-soup, - Believing that I had fallen on evil days. - "You live in rags under a thatched roof - And seem to have no desire for a better lot. - The rest of mankind have all the same ambitions: - You, too, must learn to wallow in their mire." - "Old man, I am impressed by what you say, - But my soul is not fashioned like other men's. - To drive in their rut I might perhaps learn: - To be untrue to myself could only lead to muddle. - Let us drink and enjoy together the wine you have brought: - For my course is set and cannot now be altered." - - -(3) - - A long time ago - I went on a journey, - Right to the corner - Of the Eastern Ocean. - The road there - Was long and winding, - And stormy waves - Barred my path. - What made me - Go this way? - Hunger drove me - Into the World. - I tried hard - To fill my belly: - And even a little - Seemed a lot. - But this was clearly - A bad bargain, - So I went home - And lived in idleness. - - -(4) - -SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT - - High and low, wise and simple, all busily hoard up the - moments of life. How greatly they err! - - Therefore I have to the uttermost exposed the bitterness - both of Substance and Shadow, and have made - Spirit show how, by following Nature, we may dissolve - this bitterness. - -_Substance speaks to Shadow_: - - Heaven and Earth exist for ever: - Mountains and rivers never change. - But herbs and trees in perpetual rotation - Are renovated and withered by the dews and frosts: - And Man the wise, Man the divine-- - Shall he alone escape this law? - Fortuitously appearing for a moment in the World - He suddenly departs, never to return. - How can he know that the friends he has left - Are missing him and thinking of him? - Only the things that he used remain; - They look upon them and their tears flow. - Me no magical arts can save, - Though you may hope for a wizard's aid. - I beg you listen to this advice-- - When you can get wine, be sure to drink it. - -_Shadow replies_: - - There is no way to preserve life. - Drugs of Immortality are instruments of folly. - I would gladly wander in Paradise, - But it is far away and there is no road. - Since the day that I was joined to you - We have shared all our joys and pains. - While you rested in the shade, I left you a while: - But till the end we shall be together. - Our joint existence is impermanent: - Sadly together we shall slip away. - That when the body decays Fame should also go - Is a thought unendurable, burning the heart. - Let us strive and labour while yet we may - To do some deed that men will praise. - Wine may in truth dispel our sorrow, - But how compare it with lasting Fame? - -_Spirit expounds_: - - God can only set in motion: - He cannot control the things he has made. - Man, the second of the Three Orders, - Owes his precedence to Me. - Though I am different from you, - We were born involved in one another: - Nor by any means can we escape - The intimate sharing of good and ill. - The Three Emperors were saintly men, - Yet to-day--where are they? - P'eng[31] lived to a great age, - Yet he went at last, when he longed to stay. - And late or soon, all go: - Wise and simple have no reprieve. - Wine may bring forgetfulness, - But does it not hasten old-age? - If you set your heart on noble deeds, - How do you know that any will praise you? - By all this thinking you do Me injury: - You had better go where Fate leads-- - Drift on the Stream of Infinite Flux, - Without joy, without fear: - When you must go--then go, - And make as little fuss as you can. - -[31] The Chinese Methuselah. - - -(5) - - Chill and harsh the year draws to its close: - In my cotton dress I seek sunlight on the porch. - In the southern orchard all the leaves are gone: - In the north garden rotting boughs lie heaped. - I empty my cup and drink it down to the dregs: - I look towards the kitchen, but no smoke rises. - Poems and books lie piled beside my chair: - But the light is going and I shall not have time to read them. - My life here is not like the Agony in Ch'en,[32] - But often I have to bear bitter reproaches. - Let me then remember, to calm my heart's distress, - That the Sages of old were often in like case. - -[32] Confucius was maltreated in Ch'en. - - -(6) - -BLAMING SONS - -(AN APOLOGY FOR HIS OWN DRUNKENNESS) - - White hair covers my temples, - I am wrinkled and seared beyond repair, - And though I have got five sons, - They all hate paper and brush. - A-shu is eighteen: - For laziness there is none like him. - A-hsan does his best, - But really loathes the Fine Arts. - Yung-tuan is thirteen. - But does not know "six" from "seven."[33] - T'ung-tzu in his ninth year - Is only concerned with things to eat. - If Heaven treats me like this, - What can I do but fill my cup? - -[33] Written in Chinese with two characters very easy to distinguish. - - -(7) - - I built my hut in a zone of human habitation, - Yet near me there sounds no noise of horse or coach. - Would you know how that is possible? - A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it. - I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge, - Then gaze long at the distant summer hills. - The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day: - The flying birds two by two return. - In these things there lies a deep meaning; - Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us. - - -(8) - -MOVING HOUSE - - My old desire to live in the Southern Village - Was not because I had taken a fancy to the house. - But I heard it was a place of simple-minded men - With whom it were a joy to spend the mornings and evenings. - Many years I had longed to settle here: - Now at last I have managed to move house. - I do not mind if my cottage is rather small - So long as there's room enough for bed and mat. - Often and often the neighbours come to see me - And with brave words discuss the things of old. - Rare writings we read together and praise: - Doubtful meanings we examine together and settle. - - -(9) - -RETURNING TO THE FIELDS - - When I was young, I was out of tune with the herd: - My only love was for the hills and mountains. - Unwitting I fell into the Web of the World's dust - And was not free until my thirtieth year. - The migrant bird longs for the old wood: - The fish in the tank thinks of its native pool. - I had rescued from wildness a patch of the Southern Moor - And, still rustic, I returned to field and garden. - My ground covers no more than ten acres: - My thatched cottage has eight or nine rooms. - Elms and willows cluster by the eaves: - Peach trees and plum trees grow before the Hall. - Hazy, hazy the distant hamlets of men. - Steady the smoke of the half-deserted village, - A dog barks somewhere in the deep lanes, - A cock crows at the top of the mulberry tree. - At gate and courtyard--no murmur of the World's dust: - In the empty rooms--leisure and deep stillness. - Long I lived checked by the bars of a cage: - Now I have turned again to Nature and Freedom. - - -(10) - -READING THE BOOK OF HILLS AND SEAS - - In the month of June the grass grows high - And round my cottage thick-leaved branches sway. - There is not a bird but delights in the place where it rests: - And I too--love my thatched cottage. - I have done my ploughing: - I have sown my seed. - Again I have time to sit and read my books. - In the narrow lane there are no deep ruts: - Often my friends' carriages turn back. - In high spirits I pour out my spring wine - And pluck the lettuce growing in my garden. - A gentle rain comes stealing up from the east - And a sweet wind bears it company. - My thoughts float idly over the story of King Chou - My eyes wander over the pictures of Hills and Seas. - At a single glance I survey the whole Universe. - He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please! - - -(11) - -FLOOD - - The lingering clouds, rolling, rolling, - And the settled rain, dripping, dripping, - In the Eight Directions--the same dusk. - The level lands--one great river. - Wine I have, wine I have: - Idly I drink at the eastern window. - Longingly--I think of my friends, - But neither boat nor carriage comes. - - -(12) - -NEW CORN - - Swiftly the years, beyond recall. - Solemn the stillness of this fair morning. - I will clothe myself in spring-clothing - And visit the slopes of the Eastern Hill. - By the mountain-stream a mist hovers, - Hovers a moment, then scatters. - There comes a wind blowing from the south - That brushes the fields of new corn. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -INVITING GUESTS - -By Ch'eng-kung Sui (died A.D. 273) - - I sent out invitations - To summon guests. - I collected together - All my friends. - Loud talk - And simple feasting: - Discussion of philosophy, - Investigation of subtleties. - Tongues loosened - And minds at one. - Hearts refreshed - By discharge of emotion! - - -CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN - -By Tao-yn (_circa_ A.D. 400), wife of General Wang Ning-chih. The -general was so stupid that she finally deserted him. - - High rises the Eastern Peak - Soaring up to the blue sky. - Among the rocks--an empty hollow, - Secret, still, mysterious! - Uncarved and unhewn, - Screened by nature with a roof of clouds. - Times and Seasons, what things are you - Bringing to my life ceaseless change? - I will lodge for ever in this hollow - Where Springs and Autumns unheeded pass. - - -SAILING HOMEWARD - -By Chan Fang-sheng (fourth century A.D.) - - Cliffs that rise a thousand feet - Without a break, - Lake that stretches a hundred miles - Without a wave, - Sands that are white through all the year, - Without a stain, - Pine-tree woods, winter and summer - Ever-green, - Streams that for ever flow and flow - Without a pause, - Trees that for twenty thousand years - Your vows have kept, - You have suddenly healed the pain of a traveller's heart, - And moved his brush to write a new song. - - -FIVE "TZU-YEH" SONGS - - At the time when blossoms - Fall from the cherry-tree: - On a day when yellow birds - Hovered in the branches-- - You said you must stop, - Because your horse was tired: - I said I must go, - Because my silkworms were hungry. - - All night I could not sleep - Because of the moonlight on my bed. - I kept on hearing a voice calling: - Out of Nowhere, Nothing answered "yes." - - I will carry my coat and not put on my belt; - With unpainted eyebrows I will stand at the front window. - My tiresome petticoat keeps on flapping about; - If it opens a little, I shall blame the spring wind. - - I heard my love was going to Yang-chou - And went with him as far as Ch'u-shan. - For a moment when you held me fast in your outstretched arms - I thought the river stood still and did not flow. - - I have brought my pillow and am lying at the northern window, - So come to me and play with me awhile. - With so much quarrelling and so few kisses - How long do you think our love can last? - - -THE LITTLE LADY OF CH'ING-HSI - -(A CHILDREN'S SONG) - - Her door opened on the white water - Close by the side of the timber bridge: - That's where the little lady lived - All alone without a lover. - - -PLUCKING THE RUSHES - -(A BOY AND GIRL ARE SENT TO GATHER RUSHES FOR THATCHING) - -Anon. (fourth century) - - Green rushes with red shoots, - Long leaves bending to the wind-- - You and I in the same boat - Plucking rushes at the Five Lakes. - We started at dawn from the orchid-island: - We rested under the elms till noon. - You and I plucking rushes - Had not plucked a handful when night came! - - -BALLAD OF THE WESTERN ISLAND IN THE NORTH COUNTRY - - "Seeing the plum-tree I thought of the Western Island - And I plucked a branch to send to the North Country. - I put on my dress of apricot-yellow silk - And bound up my hair black as the crow's wing. - But which is the road that leads to the Western Island? - I'll ask the man at the ferry by the Bridge of Boats. - But the sun is sinking and the orioles flying home: - And the wind is blowing and sighing in the walnut-tree. - I'll stand under the tree just beside the gate: - I'll stand by the door and show off my enamelled hair-pins." - She's opened the gate, but her lover has not come: - She's gone out at the gate to pluck red lotus. - As she plucks the lotus on the southern dyke in autumn, - The lotus flowers stand higher than a man's head. - She bends down--and plays with the lotus seeds, - The lotus seeds are green like the lake-water. - She gathers the flowers and puts them into her gown-- - The lotus-bud that is red all through. - She thinks of her lover, her lover that does not come: - She looks up and sees the wild geese flying-- - The Western Island is full of wild geese. - To look for her lover she climbs the Blue Tower. - The tower is high: she looks, but cannot see: - All day she leans on the balcony rails. - The rail is twisted into a twelve-fold pattern. - 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 Yan (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 Wen-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 Yan-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 Wen-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 Hs 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'en Tzu-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 Yan Chieh (flourished _circa_ A.D. 740-770). - - Yan 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 Yan Chieh - - To the south-east--three thousand leagues-- - The Yan 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'en Tzu-lung was born in 1607. He became a soldier, and in 1637 -defeated the rebel, Hs 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 CH-I - -(A.D. 772-846) - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Po Ch-i was born at T'ai-yan 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 Yan Chen, 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 Yan 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, Yan; - 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 Yan'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' and Teng -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 Yu-hsi (called -Meng-te), and the two officials Li Chien and Ts'ui Hsuan-liang. In 805 -Yan Chen was banished for provocative behaviour towards a high -official. The T'ang History relates the episode as follows: "Yan 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-yan also arrived. -Yan Chen should have offered to withdraw from the Hall. He did not do -so and a scuffle ensued. Yan, 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] Yan 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 Ch-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; - Yan Chen is banished to Ching-men. - 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-chen 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 Yan-heng, was assassinated in broad daylight by an agent -of the revolutionary leader Wu Yan-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. Ch-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 Hsn-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 Yan Chen 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 Yan Chen 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. Ch-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. -Yan 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-tzu, 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'en 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 Yan Chen 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-men,[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 "Mmoires 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 Y-hsi, the last survivor of the four friends, and a constant -visitor at the monastery, "went to wander with Yan Chen 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 Ch-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 Yan Chen. 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'en Tzu-ang, which includes "Business Men." In Li -Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "feng" and "ya." The two terms are -borrowed from the Preface to the Odes. "Feng" 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 _l-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 _L-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 Hsn-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-y 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 -_L-shih_. "The world," writes Po to Yan Chen, "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. Yan 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 No Play and has even -become a kind of Shinto 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 LEVE - -ADDRESSED TO CH'EN, THE HERMIT - - At Ch'ang-an--a full foot of snow; - A leve 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'en Ch-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-MEN 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 Yan Chen, 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'eng. - 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. - They have taken hold of this morning's thoughts - And carried them to yours, the night you wrote your letter. - The whole poem I read three times; - Each verse ten times I recite. - So precious to me are the fourscore words - That each letter changes into a bar of gold! - - -REJOICING AT THE ARRIVAL OF CH'EN HSIUNG - -(_Circa_ A.D. 812) - - When the yellow bird's note was almost stopped; - And half formed the green plum's fruit; - Sitting and grieving that spring things were over, - I rose and entered the Eastern Garden's gate. - I carried my cup and was dully drinking alone: - Suddenly I heard a knocking sound at the door. - Dwelling secluded, I was glad that someone had come; - How much the more, when I saw it was Ch'en Hsiung! - At ease and leisure,--all day we talked; - Crowding and jostling,--the feelings of many years. - How great a thing is a single cup of wine! - For it makes us tell the story of our whole lives. - - -GOLDEN BELLS - - When I was almost forty - I had a daughter whose name was Golden Bells. - Now it is just a year since she was born; - She is learning to sit and cannot yet talk. - Ashamed,--to find that I have not a sage's heart: - I cannot resist vulgar thoughts and feelings. - Henceforward I am tied to things outside myself: - My only reward,--the pleasure I am getting now. - If I am spared the grief of her dying young, - Then I shall have the trouble of getting her married. - My plan for retiring and going back to the hills - Must now be postponed for fifteen years! - - -REMEMBERING GOLDEN BELLS - - Ruined and ill,--a man of two score; - Pretty and guileless,--a girl of three. - Not a boy,--but, still better than nothing: - To soothe one's feeling,--from time to time a kiss! - There came a day,--they suddenly took her from me; - Her soul's shadow wandered I know not where. - And when I remember how just at the time she died - She lisped strange sounds, beginning to learn to talk, - _Then_ I know that the ties of flesh and blood - Only bind us to a load of grief and sorrow. - At last, by thinking of the time before she was born, - By thought and reason I drove the pain away. - Since my heart forgot her, many days have passed - And three times winter has changed to spring. - This morning, for a little, the old grief came back, - Because, in the road, I met her foster-nurse. - - -ILLNESS - - Sad, sad--lean with long illness; - Monotonous, monotonous--days and nights pass. - The summer trees have clad themselves in shade; - The autumn "lan"[51] already houses the dew. - The eggs that lay in the nest when I took to bed - Have changed into little birds and flown away. - The worm that then lay hidden in its hole - Has hatched into a cricket sitting on the tree. - The Four Seasons go on for ever and ever: - In all Nature nothing stops to rest - Even for a moment. Only the sick man's heart - Deep down still aches as of old! - -[51] The epidendrum. - - -THE DRAGON OF THE BLACK POOL - -A SATIRE - - Deep the waters of the Black Pool, coloured like ink; - They say a Holy Dragon lives there, whom men have never seen. - Beside the Pool they have built a shrine; the authorities have - established a ritual; - A dragon by itself remains a dragon, but men can make it a god. - Prosperity and disaster, rain and drought, plagues and pestilences-- - By the village people were all regarded as the Sacred Dragon's - doing. - They all made offerings of sucking-pig and poured libations of wine; - The morning prayers and evening gifts depended on a "medium's" - advice - - When the dragon comes, ah! - The wind stirs and sighs - Paper money thrown, ah! - Silk umbrellas waved. - When the dragon goes, ah! - The wind also--still. - Incense-fire dies, ah! - The cups and vessels are cold.[52] - -[52] Parody of a famous Han dynasty hymn. - - Meats lie stacked on the rocks of the Pool's shore; - Wine flows on the grass in front of the shrine. - I do not know, of all those offerings, how much the Dragon eats; - But the mice of the woods and the foxes of the hills are - continually drunk and sated. - Why are the foxes so lucky? - What have the sucking-pigs done, - That year by year _they_ should be killed, merely to glut the foxes? - That the foxes are robbing the Sacred Dragon and eating His - sucking-pig, - Beneath the nine-fold depths of His pool, does He know or not? - - -THE GRAIN TRIBUTE - -Written _circa_ 812, showing one of the poet's periods of retirement. -When the officials come to receive his grain-tribute, he remembers that -he is only giving back what he had taken during his years of office. -Salaries were paid partly in kind. - - There came an officer knocking by night at my door-- - In a loud voice demanding grain-tribute. - My house-servants dared not wait till the morning, - But brought candles and set them on the barn-floor. - Passed through the sieve, clean-washed as pearls, - A whole cart-load, thirty bushels of grain. - But still they cry that it is not paid in full: - With whips and curses they goad my servants and boys. - Once, in error, I entered public life; - I am inwardly ashamed that my talents were not sufficient. - In succession I occupied four official posts; - For doing nothing,--ten years' salary! - Often have I heard that saying of ancient men - That "good and ill follow in an endless chain." - And to-day it ought to set my heart at rest - To return to others the corn in my great barn. - - -THE PEOPLE OF TAO-CHOU - - In the land of Tao-chou - Many of the people are dwarfs; - The tallest of them never grow to more than three feet. - They were sold in the market as dwarf slaves and yearly sent to - Court; - Described as "an offering of natural products from the land of - Tao-chou." - A strange "offering of natural products"; I never heard of one yet - That parted men from those they loved, never to meet again! - Old men--weeping for their grandsons; mothers for their children! - One day--Yang Ch'eng came to govern the land; - He refused to send up dwarf slaves in spite of incessant mandates. - He replied to the Emperor "Your servant finds in the Six Canonical - Books - 'In offering products, one must offer what is there, and not what - isn't there' - On the waters and lands of Tao-chou, among all the things that live - I only find dwarfish _people_; no dwarfish _slaves_." - The Emperor's heart was deeply moved and he sealed and sent a scroll - "The yearly tribute of dwarfish slaves is henceforth annulled." - The people of Tao-chou, - Old ones and young ones, how great their joy! - Father with son and brother with brother henceforward kept together; - From that day for ever more they lived as free men. - The people of Tao-chou - Still enjoy this gift. - And even now when they speak of the Governor - Tears start to their eyes. - And lest their children and their children's children should forget - the Governor's name, - When boys are born the syllable "Yang" is often used in their - forename. - - -THE OLD HARP - - Of cord and cassia-wood is the harp compounded: - Within it lie ancient melodies. - Ancient melodies--weak and savourless, - Not appealing to present men's taste. - Light and colour are faded from the jade stops: - Dust has covered the rose-red strings. - Decay and ruin came to it long ago, - But the sound that is left is still cold and clear. - I do not refuse to play it, if you want me to: - But even if I play, people will not listen. - - * * * * * - - How did it come to be neglected so? - Because of the Ch'iang flute and the Ch'in flageolet.[53] - -[53] Barbarous modern instruments. - - -THE HARPER OF CHAO - - The singers have hushed their notes of clear song: - The red sleeves of the dancers are motionless. - Hugging his lute, the old harper of Chao - Rocks and sways as he touches the five chords. - The loud notes swell and scatter abroad: - "Sa, sa," like wind blowing the rain. - The soft notes dying almost to nothing: - "Ch'ieh, ch'ieh," like the voice of ghosts talking. - Now as glad as the magpie's lucky song: - Again bitter as the gibbon's ominous cry. - His ten fingers have no fixed note: - Up and down--"kung," chih, and y.[54] - And those who sit and listen to the tune he plays - Of soul and body lose the mastery. - And those who pass that way as he plays the tune, - Suddenly stop and cannot raise their feet. - - Alas, alas that the ears of common men - Should love the modern and not love the old. - Thus it is that the harp in the green window - Day by day is covered deeper with dust. - -[54] Tonic, dominant and superdominant of the ancient five-note scale. - - -THE FLOWER MARKET - - In the Royal City spring is almost over: - Tinkle, tinkle--the coaches and horsemen pass. - We tell each other "This is the peony season": - And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market. - "Cheap and dear--no uniform price: - The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms. - For the fine flower,--a hundred pieces of damask: - For the cheap flower,--five bits of silk. - Above is spread an awning to protect them: - Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them. - If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud, - When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty." - Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom, - Man by man, no one realizing. - There happened to be an old farm labourer - Who came by chance that way. - He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh: - But this sigh nobody understood. - He was thinking, "A cluster of deep-red flowers - Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses." - - -THE PRISONER - -Written in A.D. 809 - - Tartars led in chains, - Tartars led in chains! - Their ears pierced, their faces bruised--they are driven into the - land of Ch'in. - The Son of Heaven took pity on them and would not have them slain. - He sent them away to the south-east, to the lands of Wu and Yeh. - A petty officer in a yellow coat took down their names and surnames: - They were led from the city of Ch'ang-an under escort of an armed - guard. - Their bodies were covered with the wounds of arrows, their bones - stood out from their cheeks. - They had grown so weak they could only march a single stage a day. - In the morning they must satisfy hunger and thirst with neither - plate nor cup: - At night they must lie in their dirt and rags on beds that stank - with filth. - Suddenly they came to the Yangtze River and remembered the waters - of Chiao.[55] - With lowered hands and levelled voices they sobbed a muffled song. - Then one Tartar lifted up his voice and spoke to the other Tartars, - "_Your_ sorrows are none at all compared with _my_ sorrows." - Those that were with him in the same band asked to hear his tale: - As he tried to speak the words were choked by anger. - He told them "I was born and bred in the town of Liang-yan.[56] - In the frontier wars of Ta-li[57] I fell into the Tartars' hands. - Since the days the Tartars took me alive forty years have passed: - They put me into a coat of skins tied with a belt of rope. - Only on the first of the first month might I wear my Chinese dress. - As I put on my coat and arranged my cap, how fast the tears flowed! - I made in my heart a secret vow I would find a way home: - I hid my plan from my Tartar wife and the children she had borne me - in the land. - I thought to myself, 'It is well for me that my limbs are still - strong,' - And yet, being old, in my heart I feared I should never live to - return. - The Tartar chieftains shoot so well that the birds are afraid to - fly: - From the risk of their arrows I escaped alive and fled swiftly home. - Hiding all day and walking all night, I crossed the Great Desert:[58] - Where clouds are dark and the moon black and the sands eddy in the - wind. - Frightened, I sheltered at the Green Grave,[59] where the frozen - grasses are few: - Stealthily I crossed the Yellow River, at night, on the thin ice, - Suddenly I heard Han[60] drums and the sound of soldiers coming: - I went to meet them at the road-side, bowing to them as they came. - But the moving horsemen did not hear that I spoke the Han tongue: - Their Captain took me for a Tartar born and had me bound in chains. - They are sending me away to the south-east, to a low and swampy - land: - No one now will take pity on me: resistance is all in vain. - Thinking of this, my voice chokes and I ask of Heaven above, - Was I spared from death only to spend the rest of my years in - sorrow? - My native village of Liang-yan I shall not see again: - My wife and children in the Tartars' land I have fruitlessly - deserted. - When I fell among Tartars and was taken prisoner, I pined for the - land of Han: - Now that I am back in the land of Han, they have turned me into - a Tartar. - Had I but known what my fate would be, I would not have started - home! - For the two lands, so wide apart, are alike in the sorrow they - bring. - Tartar prisoners in chains! - Of all the sorrows of all the prisoners mine is the hardest to bear! - Never in the world has so great a wrong befallen the lot of man,-- - A Han heart and a Han tongue set in the body of a Turk." - -[55] In Turkestan. - -[56] North of Ch'ang-an. - -[57] The period Ta-li, A.D. 766-780. - -[58] The Gobi Desert. - -[59] The grave of Chao-chn, a Chinese girl who in 33 B.C. was "bestowed -upon the Khan of the Hsiung-nu as a mark of Imperial regard" (Giles). -Hers was the only grave in this desolate district on which grass would -grow. - -[60] _I.e._, Chinese. - - -THE CHANCELLOR'S GRAVEL-DRIVE - -(A SATIRE ON THE MALTREATMENT OF SUBORDINATES) - - A Government-bull yoked to a Government-cart! - Moored by the bank of Ch'an River, a barge loaded with gravel. - A single load of gravel, - How many pounds it weighs! - Carrying at dawn, carrying at dusk, what is it all for? - They are carrying it towards the Five Gates, - To the West of the Main Road. - Under the shadow of green laurels they are making a gravel-drive. - For yesterday arrove, newly appointed, - The Assistant Chancellor of the Realm, - And was terribly afraid that the wet and mud - Would dirty his horse's hoofs. - The Chancellor's horse's hoofs - Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean; - But the bull employed in dragging the cart - Was almost sweating blood. - The Assistant Chancellor's business - Is to "save men, govern the country - And harmonize Yin and Yang."[61] - Whether the bull's neck is sore - Need not trouble him at all. - -[61] The negative and positive principles in nature. - - -THE MAN WHO DREAMED OF FAIRIES - -This poem is an attack on the Emperor Hsien-tsung, A.D. 806-820, who -"was devoted to magic." A Taoist wizard told him that herbs of longevity -grew near the city of T'ai-chou. The Emperor at once appointed him -prefect of the place, "pour lui permettre d'herboriser plus son aise" -(Wieger, Textes III, 1723). When the censors protested, the Emperor -replied: "The ruin of a single district would be a small price to pay, -if it could procure longevity for the Lord of Men." - - There was once a man who dreamt he went to Heaven: - His dream-body soared aloft through space. - He rode on the back of a white-plumed crane, - And was led on his flight by two crimson banners. - Whirring of wings and flapping of coat tails! - Jade bells suddenly all a-tinkle! - Half way to Heaven, he looked down beneath him, - Down on the dark turmoil of the World. - Gradually he lost the place of his native town; - Mountains and water--nothing else distinct. - The Eastern Ocean--a single strip of white: - The Hills of China,--five specks of green. - Gliding past him a host of fairies swept - In long procession to the Palace of the Jade City. - How should he guess that the children of Tzu-men[62] - Bow to the throne like courtiers of earthly kings? - They take him to the presence of the Mighty Jade Emperor: - He bows his head and proffers loyal homage. - The Emperor says: "We see you have fairy talents: - Be of good heart and do not slight yourself. - We shall send to fetch you in fifteen years - And give you a place in the Courtyard of Immortality." - Twice bowing, he acknowledged the gracious words: - Then woke from sleep, full of wonder and joy. - He hid his secret and dared not tell it abroad: - But vowed a vow he would live in a cave of rock. - From love and affection he severed kith and kin: - From his eating and drinking he omitted savoury and spice. - His morning meal was a dish of coral-dust: - At night he sipped an essence of dewy mists. - In the empty mountains he lived for thirty years - Daily watching for the Heavenly Coach to come. - The time of appointment was already long past, - But of wings and coach-bells--still no sound. - His teeth and hair daily withered and decayed: - His ears and eyes gradually lost their keenness. - One morning he suffered the Common Change - And his body was one with the dust and dirt of the hill. - Gods and fairies! If indeed such things there be, - Their ways are beyond the striving of mortal men. - If you have not on your skull the Golden Bump's protrusion, - If your name is absent from the rolls of the Red Terrace, - In vain you learn the "Method of Avoiding Food": - For naught you study the "Book of Alchemic Lore." - Though you sweat and toil, what shall your trouble bring? - You will only shorten the five-score years of your span. - Sad, alas, the man who dreamt of Fairies! - For a single dream spoiled his whole life. - -[62] _I.e._, the Immortals. - - -MAGIC - - Boundless, the great sea. - Straight down,--no bottom: sideways,--no border. - Of cloudy waves and misty billows down in the uttermost depths - Men have fabled, in the midst there stand three sacred hills. - On the hills, thick growing,--herbs that banish Death. - Wings grow on those who eat them and they turn into heavenly "hsien." - The Lord of Ch'in[63] and Wu of Han[64] believed in these stories: - And magic-workers year by year were sent to gather the herbs. - The Blessed Islands, now and of old, what but an empty tale? - The misty waters spread before them and they knew not where to seek. - Boundless, the great sea. - Dauntless, the mighty wind. - Their eyes search but cannot see the shores of the Blessed Islands. - They cannot find the Blessed Isles and yet they dare not return: - Youths and maidens that began the quest grew grey on board the boat. - They found that the writings of Hs[65] were all boasts and lies: - To the Lofty Principle and Great Unity in vain they raised their - prayers. - Do you not see - The graves on the top of Black Horse Hill[66] and the tombs at - Mo-ling?[67] - What is left but the sighing wind blowing in the tangled grasses? - Yes, and what is more, - The Dark and Primal Master of Sages in his five thousand words[68] - Never spoke of herbs, - Never spoke of "hsien," - Nor spoke of soaring in broad daylight up to the blue heaven. - -[63] The "First Emperor," 259-210 B.C. - -[64] Wu Ti, 156-87 B.C. - -[65] = Hs Shih. Giles, 1276. - -[66] The burial-places of these two Emperors. - -[67] _Ibid._ - -[68] Lao-tzu, in the Tao Te Ching. - - -THE TWO RED TOWERS - -(A SATIRE AGAINST CLERICALISM) - - The Two Red Towers - North and south rise facing each other. - I beg to ask, to whom do they belong? - To the two Princes of the period Cheng Yan.[69] - The two Princes blew on their flutes and drew down fairies from the - sky, - Who carried them off through the Five Clouds, soaring away to Heaven. - Their halls and houses, that they could not take with them, - Were turned into Temples planted in the Dust of the World. - In the tiring-rooms and dancers' towers all is silent and still; - Only the willows like dancers' arms, and the pond like a mirror. - When the flowers are falling at yellow twilight, when things are sad - and hushed, - One does not hear songs and flutes, but only chimes and bells. - The Imperial Patent on the Temple doors is written in letters of - gold; - For nuns' quarters and monks' cells ample space is allowed. - For green moss and bright moonlight--plenty of room provided; - In a hovel opposite is a sick man who has hardly room to lie down. - I remember once when at P'ing-yang they were building a great man's - house - How it swallowed up the housing space of thousands of ordinary men. - The Immortals[70] are leaving us, two by two, and their houses are - turned into Temples; - I begin to fear that the whole world will become a vast convent. - -[69] 785-805. - -[70] Hsien Tsung's brothers? - - -THE CHARCOAL-SELLER - -(A SATIRE AGAINST "KOMMANDATUR") - - An old charcoal-seller - Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forests of the Southern - Mountain. - His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the colour of - smoke. - The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are - black. - The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go? - It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth. - Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining. - He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of - coal! - Last night, outside the city,--a whole foot of snow; - At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts. - Oxen,--weary; man,--hungry: the sun, already high; - Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in - the mud. - Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can it be coming? - A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt. - In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues--the - words of an order; - They turn back the wagon and curse the oxen, leading them off to the - north. - A whole wagon of charcoal, - More than a thousand pieces! - If officials choose to take it away, the woodman may not complain. - Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask, - The Courtiers have tied to the oxen's collar, as the price - of a wagon of coal! - - -THE POLITICIAN - - I was going to the City to sell the herbs I had plucked; - On the way I rested by some trees at the Blue Gate. - Along the road there came a horseman riding; - Whose face was pale with a strange look of dread. - Friends and relations, waiting to say good-bye, - Pressed at his side, but he did not dare to pause. - I, in wonder, asked the people about me - Who he was and what had happened to him. - They told me this was a Privy Councillor - Whose grave duties were like the pivot of State. - His food allowance was ten thousand cash; - Three times a day the Emperor came to his house. - Yesterday he was called to a meeting of Heroes: - To-day he is banished to the country of Yai-chou. - So always, the Counsellors of Kings; - Favour and ruin changed between dawn and dusk! - Green, green,--the grass of the Eastern Suburb; - And amid the grass, a road that leads to the hills. - Resting in peace among the white clouds, - At last he has made a "coup" that cannot fail! - - -THE OLD MAN WITH THE BROKEN ARM - -(A SATIRE ON MILITARISM) - - At Hsin-feng an old man--four-score and eight; - The hair on his head and the hair of his eyebrows--white as the - new snow. - Leaning on the shoulders of his great-grandchildren, he walks in - front of the Inn; - With his left arm he leans on their shoulders; his right arm is - broken. - I asked the old man how many years had passed since he broke his arm; - I also asked the cause of the injury, how and why it happened? - The old man said he was born and reared in the District of Hsin-feng; - At the time of his birth--a wise reign; no wars or discords. - "Often I listened in the Pear-Tree Garden to the sound of flute and - song; - Naught I knew of banner and lance; nothing of arrow or bow. - Then came the wars of T'ien-pao[71] and the great levy of men; - Of three men in each house,--one man was taken. - And those to whom the lot fell, where were they taken to? - Five months' journey, a thousand miles--away to Yn-nan. - We heard it said that in Yn-nan there flows the Lu River; - As the flowers fall from the pepper-trees, poisonous vapours rise. - When the great army waded across, the water seethed like a cauldron; - When barely ten had entered the water, two or three were dead. - To the north of my village, to the south of my village the sound of - weeping and wailing. - Children parting from fathers and mothers; husbands parting from - wives. - Everyone says that in expeditions against the Min tribes - Of a million men who are sent out, not one returns. - I, that am old, was then twenty-four; - My name and fore-name were written down in the rolls of the Board of - War. - In the depth of the night not daring to let any one know - I secretly took a huge stone and dashed it against my arm. - For drawing the bow and waving the banner now wholly unfit; - I knew henceforward I should not be sent to fight in Yn-nan. - Bones broken and sinews wounded could not fail to hurt; - I was ready enough to bear pain, if only I got back home. - My arm--broken ever since; it was sixty years ago. - One limb, although destroyed,--whole body safe! - But even now on winter nights when the wind and rain blow - From evening on till day's dawn I cannot sleep for pain. - Not sleeping for pain - Is a small thing to bear, - Compared with the joy of being alive when all the rest are dead. - For otherwise, years ago, at the ford of Lu River - My body would have died and my soul hovered by the bones that no one - gathered. - A ghost, I'd have wandered in Yn-nan, always looking for home. - Over the graves of ten thousand soldiers, mournfully hovering." - So the old man spoke. - And I bid you listen to his words - Have you not heard - That the Prime Minister of K'ai-yan,[72] Sung K'ai-fu, - Did not reward frontier exploits, lest a spirit of aggression should - prevail? - And have you not heard - That the Prime Minister of T'ien-Pao, Yang Kuo-chung[73] - Desiring to win imperial favour, started a frontier war? - But long before he could win the war, people had lost their temper; - Ask the man with the broken arm in the village of Hsin-feng? - -[71] A.D. 742-755. - -[72] 713-742. - -[73] Cousin of the notorious mistress of Ming-huang, Yang Kuei-fei. - - -KEPT WAITING IN THE BOAT AT CHIU-K'OU TEN DAYS BY AN ADVERSE WIND - - White billows and huge waves block the river crossing; - Wherever I go, danger and difficulty; whatever I do, failure. - Just as in my worldly career I wander and lose the road, - So when I come to the river crossing, I am stopped by contrary winds. - Of fishes and prawns sodden in the rain the smell fills my nostrils; - With the stings of insects that come with the fog, my whole body is - sore. - I am growing old, time flies, and my short span runs out. - While I sit in a boat at Chiu-k'ou, wasting ten days! - - -ON BOARD SHIP: READING YAN CHEN'S POEMS - - I take your poems in my hand and read them beside the candle; - The poems are finished: the candle is low: dawn not yet come. - With sore eyes by the guttering candle still I sit in the dark, - Listening to waves that, driven by the wind, strike the prow of - the ship. - - -ARRIVING AT HSN-YANG - -(TWO POEMS) - -(1) - - A bend of the river brings into view two triumphal arches; - That is the gate in the western wall of the suburbs of Hsn-yang. - I have still to travel in my solitary boat three or four leagues-- - By misty waters and rainy sands, while the yellow dusk thickens. - -(2) - - We are almost come to Hsn-yang: how my thoughts are stirred - As we pass to the south of Y Liang's[74] tower and the east of - P'en Port. - The forest trees are leafless and withered,--after the mountain - rain; - The roofs of the houses are hidden low among the river mists. - The horses, fed on water grass, are too weak to carry their load; - The cottage walls of wattle and thatch let the wind blow on one's - bed. - In the distance I see red-wheeled coaches driving from the town-gate; - They have taken the trouble, these civil people, to meet their new - Prefect! - -[74] Died A.D. 340. Giles, 2526. - - -MADLY SINGING IN THE MOUNTAINS - - There is no one among men that has not a special failing: - And my failing consists in writing verses. - I have broken away from the thousand ties of life: - But this infirmity still remains behind. - Each time that I look at a fine landscape: - Each time that I meet a loved friend, - I raise my voice and recite a stanza of poetry - And am glad as though a God had crossed my path. - Ever since the day I was banished to Hsn-yang - Half my time I have lived among the hills. - And often, when I have finished a new poem, - Alone I climb the road to the Eastern Rock. - I lean my body on the banks of white stone: - I pull down with my hands a green cassia branch. - My mad singing startles the valleys and hills: - The apes and birds all come to peep. - Fearing to become a laughing-stock to the world, - I choose a place that is unfrequented by men. - - -RELEASING A MIGRANT "YEN" (WILD GOOSE) - - At Nine Rivers,[75] in the tenth year,[76] in winter,--heavy snow; - The river-water covered with ice and the forests broken with their - load.[77] - The birds of the air, hungry and cold, went flying east and west; - And with them flew a migrant "yen," loudly clamouring for food. - Among the snow it pecked for grass; and rested on the surface of the - ice: - It tried with its wings to scale the sky; but its tired flight was - slow. - The boys of the river spread a net and caught the bird as it flew; - They took it in their hands to the city-market and sold it there - alive. - I that was once a man of the North am now an exile here: - Bird and man, in their different kind, are each strangers in the - south. - And because the sight of an exiled bird wounded an exile's heart, - I paid your ransom and set you free, and you flew away to the clouds. - Yen, Yen, flying to the clouds, tell me, whither shall you go? - Of all things I bid you, do not fly to the land of the north-west - In Huai-hsi there are rebel bands[78] that have not been subdued; - And a thousand thousand armoured men have long been camped in war. - The official army and the rebel army have grown old in their opposite - trenches; - The soldier's rations have grown so small, they'll be glad of even - you. - The brave boys, in their hungry plight, will shoot you and eat your - flesh; - They will pluck from your body those long feathers and make them into - arrow-wings! - -[75] Kiukiang, the poet's place of exile. - -[76] A.D. 815. His first winter at Kiukiang. - -[77] By the weight of snow. - -[78] The revolt of Wu Yan-chi. - - -TO A PORTRAIT PAINTER WHO DESIRED HIM TO SIT - - _You_, so bravely splashing reds and blues! - Just when _I_ am getting wrinkled and old. - Why should you waste the moments of inspiration - Tracing the withered limbs of a sick man? - Tall, tall is the Palace of Ch'i-lin;[79] - But my deeds have not been frescoed on its walls. - Minutely limned on a foot of painting silk-- - What can I do with a portrait such as _that_? - -[79] One of the "Record Offices" of the T'ang dynasty, where meritorious -deeds were illustrated on the walls. - - -SEPARATION - - Yesterday I heard that such-a-one was gone; - This morning they tell me that so-and-so is dead. - Of friends and acquaintances more than two-thirds - Have suffered change and passed to the Land of Ghosts. - Those that are gone I shall not see again; - They, alas, are for ever finished and done. - Those that are left,--where are they now? - They are all scattered,--a thousand miles away. - Those I have known and loved through all my life, - On the fingers of my hand--how many do I count? - Only the prefects of T'ung, Kuo and Li - And Feng Province--just those four.[80] - Longing for each other we are all grown gray; - Through the Fleeting World rolled like a wave in the stream. - Alas that the feasts and frolics of old days - Have withered and vanished, bringing us to this! - When shall we meet and drink a cup of wine - And laughing gaze into each other's eyes? - -[80] Yan Chen (d. 831), Ts'ui Hsan-liang (d. 833), Liu Y-hsi -(d. 842), and Li Chien (d. 821). - - -HAVING CLIMBED TO THE TOPMOST PEAK OF THE INCENSE-BURNER MOUNTAIN - - Up and up, the Incense-burner Peak! - In my heart is stored what my eyes and ears perceived. - All the year--detained by official business; - To-day at last I got a chance to go. - Grasping the creepers, I clung to dangerous rocks; - My hands and feet--weary with groping for hold. - There came with me three or four friends, - But two friends dared not go further. - At last we reached the topmost crest of the Peak; - My eyes were blinded, my soul rocked and reeled. - The chasm beneath me--ten thousand feet; - The ground I stood on, only a foot wide. - If you have not exhausted the scope of seeing and hearing, - How can you realize the wideness of the world? - The waters of the River looked narrow as a ribbon, - P'en Castle smaller than a man's fist. - How it clings, the dust of the world's halter! - It chokes my limbs: I cannot shake it away. - Thinking of retirement,[81] I heaved an envious sigh, - Then, with lowered head, came back to the Ants' Nest. - -[81] _I.e._, retirement from office. - - -EATING BAMBOO-SHOOTS - - My new Province is a land of bamboo-groves: - Their shoots in spring fill the valleys and hills. - The mountain woodman cuts an armful of them - And brings them down to sell at the early market. - Things are cheap in proportion as they are common; - For two farthings, I buy a whole bundle. - I put the shoots in a great earthen pot - And heat them up along with boiling rice. - The purple nodules broken,--like an old brocade; - The white skin opened,--like new pearls. - Now every day I eat them recklessly; - For a long time I have not touched meat. - All the time I was living at Lo-yang - They could not give me enough to suit my taste, - Now I can have as many shoots as I please; - For each breath of the south-wind makes a new bamboo! - - -THE RED COCKATOO - - Sent as a present from Annam-- - A red cockatoo. - Coloured like the peach-tree blossom, - Speaking with the speech of men. - And they did to it what is always done - To the learned and eloquent. - They took a cage with stout bars - And shut it up inside. - - -AFTER LUNCH - - After lunch--one short nap: - On waking up--two cups of tea. - Raising my head, I see the sun's light - Once again slanting to the south-west. - Those who are happy regret the shortness of the day; - Those who are sad tire of the year's sloth. - But those whose hearts are devoid of joy or sadness - Just go on living, regardless of "short" or "long." - - -ALARM AT FIRST ENTERING THE YANG-TZE GORGES - -Written in 818, when he was being towed up the rapids to Chung-chou. - - Above, a mountain ten thousand feet high: - Below, a river a thousand fathoms deep. - A strip of green, walled by cliffs of stone: - Wide enough for the passage of a single reed.[82] - At Ch-t'ang a straight cleft yawns: - At Yen-y islands block the stream. - Long before night the walls are black with dusk; - Without wind white waves rise. - The big rocks are like a flat sword: - The little rocks resemble ivory tusks. - -[82] See Odes, v, 7. - - * * * * * - - We are stuck fast and cannot move a step. - How much the less, three hundred miles?[83] - Frail and slender, the twisted-bamboo rope: - Weak, the dangerous hold of the towers' feet. - A single slip--the whole convoy lost: - And _my_ life hangs on _this_ thread! - I have heard a saying "He that has an upright heart - Shall walk scathless through the lands of Man and Mo."[84] - How can I believe that since the world began - In every shipwreck none have drowned but rogues? - And how can I, born in evil days[85] - And fresh from failure,[86] ask a kindness of Fate? - Often I fear that these un-talented limbs - Will be laid at last in an un-named grave! - -[83] The distance to Chung-chou. - -[84] Dangerous savages. - -[85] Of civil war. - -[86] Alluding to his renewed banishment. - - -ON BEING REMOVED FROM HSN-YANG AND SENT TO CHUNG-CHOU - -A remote place in the mountains of Pa (Ssech'uan) - - Before this, when I was stationed at Hsn-yang, - Already I regretted the fewness of friends and guests. - Suddenly, suddenly,--bearing a stricken heart - I left the gates, with nothing to comfort me. - Henceforward,--relegated to deep seclusion - In a bottomless gorge, flanked by precipitous mountains, - Five months on end the passage of boats is stopped - By the piled billows that toss and leap like colts. - The inhabitants of Pa resemble wild apes; - Fierce and lusty, they fill the mountains and prairies. - Among such as these I cannot hope for friends - And am pleased with anyone who is even remotely human! - - -PLANTING FLOWERS ON THE EASTERN EMBANKMENT - -Written when Governor of Chung-Chou - - I took money and bought flowering trees - And planted them out on the bank to the east of the Keep. - I simply bought whatever had most blooms, - Not caring whether peach, apricot, or plum. - A hundred fruits, all mixed up together; - A thousand branches, flowering in due rotation. - Each has its season coming early or late; - But to all alike the fertile soil is kind. - The red flowers hang like a heavy mist; - The white flowers gleam like a fall of snow. - The wandering bees cannot bear to leave them; - The sweet birds also come there to roost. - In front there flows an ever-running stream; - Beneath there is built a little flat terrace. - Sometimes I sweep the flagstones of the terrace; - Sometimes, in the wind, I raise my cup and drink. - The flower-branches screen my head from the sun; - The flower-buds fall down into my lap. - Alone drinking, alone singing my songs - I do not notice that the moon is level with the steps. - The people of Pa do not care for flowers; - All the spring no one has come to look. - But their Governor General, alone with his cup of wine - Sits till evening and will not move from the place! - - -CHILDREN - -Written _circa_ 820 - - My niece, who is six years old, is called "Miss Tortoise"; - My daughter of three,--little "Summer Dress." - One is beginning to learn to joke and talk; - The other can already recite poems and songs. - At morning they play clinging about my feet; - At night they sleep pillowed against my dress. - Why, children, did you reach the world so late, - Coming to me just when my years are spent? - Young things draw our feelings to them; - Old people easily give their hearts. - The sweetest vintage at last turns sour; - The full moon in the end begins to wane. - And so with men the bonds of love and affection - Soon may change to a load of sorrow and care. - But all the world is bound by love's ties; - Why did I think that I alone should escape? - - -PRUNING TREES - - Trees growing--right in front of my window; - The trees are high and the leaves grow thick. - Sad alas! the distant mountain view - Obscured by this, dimly shows between. - One morning I took knife and axe; - With my own hand I lopped the branches off. - Ten thousand leaves fall about my head; - A thousand hills came before my eyes. - Suddenly, as when clouds or mists break - And straight through, the blue sky appears; - Again, like the face of a friend one has loved - Seen at last after an age of parting. - First there came a gentle wind blowing; - One by one the birds flew back to the tree. - To ease my mind I gazed to the South East; - As my eyes wandered, my thoughts went far away. - Of men there is none that has not some preference; - Of things there is none but mixes good with ill. - It was not that I did not love the tender branches; - But better still,--to see the green hills! - - -BEING VISITED BY A FRIEND DURING ILLNESS - - I have been ill so long that I do not count the days; - At the southern window, evening--and again evening. - Sadly chirping in the grasses under my eaves - The winter sparrows morning and evening sing. - By an effort I rise and lean heavily on my bed; - Tottering I step towards the door of the courtyard. - By chance I meet a friend who is coming to see me; - Just as if I had gone specially to meet him. - They took my couch and placed it in the setting sun; - They spread my rug and I leaned on the balcony-pillar. - Tranquil talk was better than any medicine; - Gradually the feelings came back to my numbed heart. - - -ON THE WAY TO HANGCHOW: ANCHORED ON THE RIVER AT NIGHT - - Little sleeping and much grieving,--the traveller - Rises at midnight and looks back towards home. - The sands are bright with moonlight that joins the shores; - The sail is white with dew that has covered the boat. - Nearing the sea, the river grows broader and broader: - Approaching autumn,--the nights longer and longer. - Thirty times we have slept amid mists and waves, - And still we have not reached Hang-chow! - - -STOPPING THE NIGHT AT JUNG-YANG - - I grew up at Jung-yang; - I was still young when I left. - On and on,--forty years passed - Till again I stayed for the night at Jung-yang. - When I went away, I was only eleven or twelve; - This year I am turned fifty-six. - Yet thinking back to the times of my childish games, - Whole and undimmed, still they rise before me. - The old houses have all disappeared; - Down in the village none of my people are left. - It is not only that streets and buildings have changed; - But steep is level and level changed to steep! - Alone unchanged, the waters of Ch'iu and Yu - Passionless,--flow in their old course. - - -THE SILVER SPOON - - While on the road to his new province, Hang-chow, in 822, he sends a - silver spoon to his niece A-kuei, whom he had been obliged to leave - behind with her nurse, old Mrs. Ts'ao. - - To distant service my heart is well accustomed; - When I left home, it wasn't _that_ which was difficult - But because I had to leave Miss Kuei at home-- - For this it was that tears filled my eyes. - Little girls ought to be daintily fed: - Mrs. Ts'ao, please see to this! - That's why I've packed and sent a silver spoon; - You will think of me and eat up your food nicely! - - -THE HAT GIVEN TO THE POET BY LI CHIEN - - Long ago to a white-haired gentleman - You made the present of a black gauze hat. - The gauze hat still sits on my head; - But you already are gone to the Nether Springs. - The thing is old, but still fit to wear; - The man is gone and will never be seen again. - Out on the hill the moon is shining to-night - And the trees on your tomb are swayed by the autumn wind. - - -THE BIG RUG - - That so many of the poor should suffer from cold what can we do to - prevent? - To bring warmth to a single body is not much use. - I wish I had a big rug ten thousand feet long, - Which at one time could cover up every inch of the City. - - -AFTER GETTING DRUNK, BECOMING SOBER IN THE NIGHT - - Our party scattered at yellow dusk and I came home to bed; - I woke at midnight and went for a walk, leaning heavily on a friend. - As I lay on my pillow my vinous complexion, soothed by sleep, grew - sober; - In front of the tower the ocean moon, accompanying the tide, had - risen. - The swallows, about to return to the beams, went back to roost - again; - The candle at my window, just going out, suddenly revived its light. - All the time till dawn came, still my thoughts were muddled; - And in my ears something sounded like the music of flutes and - strings. - - -REALIZING THE FUTILITY OF LIFE - -Written on the wall of a priest's cell, _circa_ 828 - - Ever since the time when I was a lusty boy - Down till now when I am ill and old, - The things I have cared for have been different at different times, - But my being _busy_, _that_ has never changed. - _Then_ on the shore,--building sand-pagodas; - _Now_, at Court, covered with tinkling jade. - This and that,--equally childish games, - Things whose substance passes in a moment of time! - While the hands are busy, the heart cannot understand; - When there are no Scriptures, then Doctrine is sound.[87] - Even should one zealously strive to learn the Way, - That very striving will make one's error more. - -[87] This is the teaching of the Dhyana Sect. - - -RISING LATE AND PLAYING WITH A-TS'UI, AGED TWO - -Written in 831 - - All the morning I have lain perversely in bed; - Now at dusk I rise with many yawns. - My warm stove is quick to get ablaze; - At the cold mirror I am slow in doing my hair. - With melted snow I boil fragrant tea; - Seasoned with curds I cook a milk-pudding. - At my sloth and greed there is no one but me to laugh; - My cheerful vigour none but myself knows. - The taste of my wine is mild and works no poison; - The notes of my harp are soft and bring no sadness. - To the Three Joys in the book of Mencius[88] - I have added the fourth of playing with my baby-boy. - -[88] "Mencius," bk. vii, pt. i, 20. - - -ON A BOX CONTAINING HIS OWN WORKS - - I break up cypress and make a book-box; - The box well-made,--and the cypress-wood tough. - In it shall be kept what author's works? - The inscription says PO LO-T'IEN. - All my life has been spent in writing books, - From when I was young till now that I am old. - First and last,--seventy whole volumes; - Big and little,--three thousand themes.[89] - Well I know in the end they'll be scattered and lost; - But I cannot bear to see them thrown away - With my own hand I open and shut the locks, - And put it carefully in front of the book-curtain. - I am like Teng Pai-tao;[90] - But to-day there is not any Wang Ts'an.[91] - All I can do is to divide them among my daughters - To be left by them to give to my grandchildren. - -[89] _I.e._, separate poems, essays, etc. - -[90] Who was obliged to abandon his only child on the roadside. - -[91] Who rescued a foundling. - - -ON BEING SIXTY - -Addressed to Liu Meng-te, who had asked for a poem. He was the same -age as Po Ch-i. - - Between thirty and forty, one is distracted by the Five Lusts; - Between seventy and eighty, one is a prey to a hundred diseases. - But from fifty to sixty one is free from all ills; - Calm and still--the heart enjoys rest. - I have put behind me Love and Greed; I have done with Profit and - Fame; - I am still short of illness and decay and far from decrepit age. - Strength of limb I still possess to seek the rivers and hills; - Still my heart has spirit enough to listen to flutes and strings. - At leisure I open new wine and taste several cups; - Drunken I recall old poems and sing a whole volume. - Meng-te has asked for a poem and herewith I exhort him - Not to complain of three-score, "the time of obedient ears."[92] - -[92] Confucius said that it was not till _sixty_ that "his ears obeyed -him." This age was therefore called "the time of obedient ears." - - -CLIMBING THE TERRACE OF KUAN-YIN AND LOOKING AT THE CITY - - Hundreds of houses, thousands of houses,--like a chess-board. - The twelve streets like a field planted with rows of cabbage. - In the distance perceptible, dim, dim--the fire of approaching dawn; - And a single row of stars lying to the west of the Five Gates. - - -CLIMBING THE LING YING TERRACE AND LOOKING NORTH - - Mounting on high I begin to realize the smallness of Man's Domain; - Gazing into distance I begin to know the vanity of the Carnal World. - I turn my head and hurry home--back to the Court and Market, - A single grain of rice falling--into the Great Barn. - - -GOING TO THE MOUNTAINS WITH A LITTLE DANCING GIRL, AGED FIFTEEN - -Written when the poet was about sixty-five - - Two top-knots not yet plaited into one. - Of thirty years--just beyond half. - You who are really a lady of silks and satins - Are now become my hill and stream companion! - At the spring fountains together we splash and play: - On the lovely trees together we climb and sport. - Her cheeks grow rosy, as she quickens her sleeve-dancing: - Her brows grow sad, as she slows her song's tune. - Don't go singing the Song of the Willow Branches,[93] - When there's no one here with a heart for you to break! - -[93] A plaintive love-song, to which Po Ch-i had himself written words. - - -DREAMING OF YAN CHEN - -This was written eight years after Yan Chen's death, when Po-Ch-i -was sixty-eight. - - At night you came and took my hand and we wandered together in my - dream; - When I woke in the morning there was no one to stop the tears that - fell on my handkerchief. - On the banks of the Ch'ang my aged body three times[94] has passed - through sickness; - At Hsien-yang[95] to the grasses on your grave eight times has - autumn come. - You lie buried beneath the springs and your bones are mingled with - the clay. - I--lodging in the world of men; my hair white as snow. - A-wei and Han-lang[96] both followed in their turn; - Among the shadows of the Terrace of Night did you know them or not? - -[94] Since you died. - -[95] Near Ch'ang-an, modern Si-ngan-fu. - -[96] Affectionate names of Li Chien and Ts'ui Hsan-liang. - - -A DREAM OF MOUNTAINEERING - -Written when he was over seventy - - At night, in my dream, I stoutly climbed a mountain. - Going out alone with my staff of holly-wood. - A thousand crags, a hundred hundred valleys-- - In my dream-journey none were unexplored - And all the while my feet never grew tired - And my step was as strong as in my young days. - Can it be that when the mind travels backward - The body also returns to its old state? - And can it be, as between body and soul, - That the body may languish, while the soul is still strong? - Soul and body--both are vanities: - Dreaming and waking--both alike unreal. - In the day my feet are palsied and tottering; - In the night my steps go striding over the hills. - As day and night are divided in equal parts-- - Between the two, I _get_ as much as I _lose_. - - -EASE - - Congratulating himself on the comforts of his life after his - retirement from office. Written _circa_ 844. - - Lined coat, warm cap and easy felt slippers, - In the little tower, at the low window, sitting over the sunken - brazier. - Body at rest, heart at peace; no need to rise early. - I wonder if the courtiers at the Western Capital know of these - things, or not? - - -ON HEARING SOMEONE SING A POEM BY YAN CHEN - -Written long after Chen's death - - No new poems his brush will trace: - Even his fame is dead. - His old poems are deep in dust - At the bottom of boxes and cupboards. - Once lately, when someone was singing, - Suddenly I heard a verse-- - Before I had time to catch the words - A pain had stabbed my heart. - - -THE PHILOSOPHERS - -LAO-TZU - - "Those who speak know nothing; - Those who know are silent." - These words, as I am told, - Were spoken by Lao-tzu. - If we are to believe that Lao-tzu - Was himself _one who knew_, - How comes it that he wrote a book - Of five thousand words? - -CHUANG-TZU, THE MONIST - - Chuang-tzu levels all things - And reduces them to the same Monad. - But _I_ say that even in their sameness - Difference may be found. - Although in following the promptings of their nature - They display the same tendency, - Yet it seems to me that in some ways - A phoenix is superior to a reptile! - - -TAOISM AND BUDDHISM - -Written shortly before his death - - A traveller came from across the seas - Telling of strange sights. - "In a deep fold of the sea-hills - I saw a terrace and tower. - In the midst there stood a Fairy Temple - With one niche empty. - They all told me this was waiting - For Lo-t'ien to come." - - Traveller, I have studied the Empty Gate;[97] - I am no disciple of Fairies - The story you have just told - Is nothing but an idle tale. - The hills of ocean shall never be - Lo-t'ien's home. - When I leave the earth it will be to go - To the Heaven of Bliss Fulfilled.[98] - -[97] Buddhism. The poem is quite frivolous, as is shown by his claim to -Bodhisattva-hood. - -[98] The "tushita" Heaven, where Bodhisattvas wait till it is time for -them to appear on earth as Buddhas. - - -LAST POEM - - * * * * * - - They have put my bed beside the unpainted screen; - They have shifted my stove in front of the blue curtain. - I listen to my grandchildren, reading me a book; - I watch the servants, heating up my soup. - With rapid pencil I answer the poems of friends; - I feel in my pockets and pull out medicine-money. - When this superintendence of trifling affairs is done, - I lie back on my pillows and sleep with my face to the - South. - - - THE END - - - CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber's Note - -The half-title page has been removed from the text. - -The following printed errata have been incorporated into the text: - - P. 21, heading, for BIOGRAPHICAL read BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. - P. 27, l. 7 " _single of_ " _single one of_. - P. 29, l. 9 " _eat_ " _ate_. - P. 32, l. 23 " _houses_ " _house_. - P. 65, l. 3 " _standing_ " _stand_. - P. 88, l. 15 " _pillar_ " _pillow_. - P. 109, l. 22 " _Memories_ " _Mmoires_. - P. 116, last line, " _Turn_ " _Turns_. - P. 134, l. 10 " _and of Wu_ " _and Wu_. - P. 165, l. 13 " _the things_ " _these things_. - -The following additional errors have been corrected: - -p. v "Fu jen" changed to "Fu-jen" - -p. v "Chicago)" changed to "(Chicago)" - -p. 21 "Two articles of" changed to "Two articles on" - -p. 23 ""Li Sao," changed to ""Li Sao,"" - -p. 26 "next door" changed to "next door." - -p. 33 "the night." changed to "the night."" - -p. 56 "again." changed to "again."" - -p. 62 "Hsien-men" changed to "Hsien-men[23]" - -p. 106 "as he tells us" changed to "as he tells us," - -p. 118 "wrote your letter" changed to "wrote your letter." - -p. 131 "Yin and Yang."" changed to "Yin and Yang."[61]" - - -The following are used inconsistently in the text: - -forename and fore-name - -fourscore and four-score - -goodbye and good-bye - -hairpins and hair-pins - -Hangchow and Hang-chow - -Hsan-liang and Hsuan-liang - -lifetime and life-time - -roadside and road-side - -sicle and Sicle - -Yangtze and Yang-tze - - -Some lines have been left as printed, with no end punctuation: - -p. 49 "mid-stream white waves rise" - -p. 78 "over the story of King Chou" - -p. 121 ""medium's" advice" - -p. 122 "The wind stirs and sighs" - -p. 156 "which was difficult" - -p. 160 "them thrown away" - -p. 167 "disciple of Fairies" - - -Other possible errors have been left as printed: - -p. 117 "And threw you my clothes" - -p. 143 (note) "Giles, 2526" - -p. 141 "village of Hsin-feng?" - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - -***** This file should be named 42290-8.txt or 42290-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/9/42290/ - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily -keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: - - www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42290 ***</div> </body> </html> diff --git a/42290.txt b/42290.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b230c20..0000000 --- a/42290.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5669 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - -Author: Various - -Translator: Arthur Waley - -Release Date: March 10, 2013 [EBook #42290] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - - - - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY - CHINESE POEMS - - TRANSLATED BY - ARTHUR WALEY - - [Illustration] - - LONDON - CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD. - 1918 - - - - - PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN. - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - - -PRELIMINARY NOTE - - -In making this book I have tried to avoid poems which have been -translated before. A hundred and forty of those I have chosen have not -been translated by any one else. The remaining thirty odd I have -included in many cases because the previous versions were full of -mistakes; in others, because the works in which they appeared are no -longer procurable. Moreover, they are mostly in German, a language with -which my readers may not all be acquainted. - -With some hesitation I have included literal versions of six poems -(three of the "Seventeen Old Poems," "Autumn Wind," "Li Fu-jen," and "On -the Death of his Father") already skilfully rhymed by Professor Giles in -"Chinese Poetry in English Verse." They were too typical to omit; and a -comparison of the two renderings may be of interest. Some of these -translations have appeared in the "Bulletin of the School of Oriental -Studies," in the "New Statesman," in the "Little Review" (Chicago), and -in "Poetry" (Chicago). - - - - -CONTENTS - - -PART I - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 3 - - THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION 19 - - BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 21 - - - CHAPTER I: - - Battle 23 - - The Man-Wind and the Woman-Wind 24 - - Master Teng-t'u 26 - - The Orphan 27 - - The Sick Wife 29 - - Cock-Crow Song 30 - - The Golden Palace 31 - - "Old Poem" 32 - - Meeting in the Road 32 - - Fighting South of the Castle 33 - - The Eastern Gate 34 - - Old and New 35 - - South of the Great Sea 35 - - The Other Side of the Valley 36 - - Oaths of Friendship 37 - - Burial Songs 38 - - Seventeen Old Poems 39-48 - - The Autumn Wind 48 - - Li Fu-jen 49 - - Song of Snow-white Heads 50 - - To his Wife 51 - - Li Ling 52 - - Lament of Hsi-chuen 53 - - Ch'in Chia 53 - - Ch'in Chia's Wife's Reply 54 - - Song 55 - - - CHAPTER II: - - Satire on Paying Calls in August 57 - - On the Death of his Father 58 - - The Campaign against Wu 59 - - The Ruins of Lo-yang 60 - - The Cock-fight 61 - - A Vision 62 - - The Curtain of the Wedding Bed 63 - - Regret 63 - - Taoist Song 64 - - A Gentle Wind 64 - - Woman 65 - - Day Dreams 66 - - The Scholar in the Narrow Street 66 - - The Desecration of the Han Tombs 67 - - Bearer's Song 68 - - The Valley Wind 69 - - - CHAPTER III: - - Poems by T'ao Ch'ien 71-79 - - - CHAPTER IV: - - Inviting Guests 81 - - Climbing a Mountain 81 - - Sailing Homeward 82 - - Five "Tzu-yeh" Songs 83 - - The Little Lady of Ch'ing-hsi 84 - - Plucking the Rushes 84 - - Ballad of the Western Island in the - North Country 84 - - Song 86 - - Song of the Men of Chin-ling 86 - - The Scholar Recruit 87 - - The Red Hills 87 - - Dreaming of a Dead Lady 88 - - The Liberator 89 - - Lo-yang 89 - - Winter Night 90 - - The Rejected Wife 90 - - People hide their Love 91 - - The Ferry 91 - - The Waters of Lung-t'ou 92 - - Flowers and Moonlight on the - Spring River 92 - - Tchirek Song 93 - - - CHAPTER V: - - Business Men 95 - - Tell me now 95 - - On Going to a Tavern 96 - - Stone Fish Lake 96 - - Civilization 97 - - A Protest in the Sixth Year of - Ch'ien Fu 97 - - On the Birth of his Son 98 - - The Pedlar of Spells 98 - - Boating in Autumn 99 - - The Herd-boy 99 - - How I sailed on the Lake till I came - to the Easter Stream 100 - - A Seventeenth-century Chinese Poem 100 - - -PART II - - PAGE - - INTRODUCTION 105 - - BY PO CHUe-I: - - An Early Levee 115 - - Being on Duty all night in the - Palace and dreaming of the - Hsien-yu Temple 116 - - Passing T'ien-men Street in Ch'ang-an - and seeing a distant View of - Chung-nan Mountain 116 - - The Letter 117 - - Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch'en - Hsiung 118 - - Golden Bells 119 - - Remembering Golden Bells 120 - - Illness 120 - - The Dragon of the Black Pool 121 - - The Grain-tribute 123 - - The People of Tao-chou 123 - - The Old Harp 125 - - The Harper of Chao 125 - - The Flower Market 126 - - The Prisoner 127 - - The Chancellor's Gravel-drive 131 - - The Man who Dreamed of Fairies 132 - - Magic 134 - - The Two Red Towers 135 - - The Charcoal-seller 137 - - The Politician 138 - - The Old Man with the Broken Arm 139 - - Kept waiting in the Boat at Chiu-k'ou - Ten Days by an adverse Wind 142 - - On Board Ship: Reading Yuean Chen's - Poems 142 - - Arriving at Hsuen-yang 143 - - Madly Singing in the Mountains 144 - - Releasing a migrant "Yen" (wild Goose) 145 - - To a Portrait Painter who desired him - to sit 146 - - Separation 147 - - Having climbed to the topmost Peak of - the Incense-burner Mountain 148 - - Eating Bamboo-shoots 149 - - The Red Cockatoo 149 - - After Lunch 150 - - Alarm at first entering the Yang-tze - Gorges 150 - - On being removed from Hsuen-yang and - sent to Chung-chou 151 - - Planting Flowers on the Eastern - Embankment 152 - - Children 153 - - Pruning Trees 154 - - Being visited by a Friend during - Illness 155 - - On the way to Hangchow: Anchored on - the River at Night 155 - - Stopping the Night at Jung-yang 156 - - The Silver Spoon 156 - - The Hat given to the Poet by Li Chien 157 - - The Big Rug 157 - - After getting Drunk, becoming Sober in - the Night 158 - - Realizing the Futility of Life 158 - - Rising Late and Playing with A-ts'ui, - aged Two 159 - - On a Box containing his own Works 160 - - On being Sixty 161 - - Climbing the Terrace of Kuan-yin and - looking at the City 162 - - Climbing the Ling Ying Terrace and - looking North 162 - - Going to the Mountains with a little - Dancing Girl, aged Fifteen 163 - - Dreaming of Yuean Chen 163 - - A Dream of Mountaineering 164 - - Ease 165 - - On hearing someone sing a Poem by - Yuean Chen 165 - - The Philosophers 166 - - Taoism and Buddhism 167 - - Last Poem 168 - - - - -PART I - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -PRINCIPAL CHINESE DYNASTIES - - Han, 206 B.C.--A.D. 220. - Wei, 220-264. - Chin, 265-419. - (Northern Wei, ruled over the North of China, 386-532.) - Liang, 502-556. - Sui, 589-618. - T'ang, 618-905. - Sung, 960-1278. - Yuean (Mongols), 1260-1341. - Ming, 1368-1640. - Ch'ing (Manchus), 1644-1912. - - -THE LIMITATIONS OF CHINESE LITERATURE - -Those who wish to assure themselves that they will lose nothing by -ignoring Chinese literature, often ask the question: "Have the Chinese a -Homer, an Aeschylus, a Shakespeare or Tolstoy?" The answer must be that -China has no epic and no dramatic literature of importance. The novel -exists and has merits, but never became the instrument of great writers. - -Her philosophic literature knows no mean between the traditionalism of -Confucius and the nihilism of Chuang-tzu. In mind, as in body, the -Chinese were for the most part torpid mainlanders. Their thoughts set -out on no strange quests and adventures, just as their ships discovered -no new continents. To most Europeans the momentary flash of Athenian -questioning will seem worth more than all the centuries of Chinese -assent. - -Yet we must recognize that for thousands of years the Chinese maintained -a level of rationality and tolerance that the West might well envy. They -had no Index, no Inquisition, no Holy Wars. Superstition has indeed -played its part among them; but it has never, as in Europe, been -perpetually dominant. It follows from the limitations of Chinese thought -that the literature of the country should excel in reflection rather -than in speculation. That this is particularly true of its poetry will -be gauged from the present volume. In the poems of Po Chue-i no close -reasoning or philosophic subtlety will be discovered; but a power of -candid reflection and self-analysis which has not been rivalled in the -West. - -Turning from thought to emotion, the most conspicuous feature of -European poetry is its pre-occupation with love. This is apparent not -only in actual "love-poems," but in all poetry where the personality of -the writer is in any way obtruded. The poet tends to exhibit himself in -a _romantic_ light; in fact, to recommend himself as a lover. - -The Chinese poet has a tendency different but analogous. He recommends -himself not as a lover, but as a friend. He poses as a person of -infinite leisure (which is what we should most like our friends to -possess) and free from worldly ambitions (which constitute the greatest -bars to friendship). He would have us think of him as a boon companion, -a great drinker of wine, who will not disgrace a social gathering by -quitting it sober. - -To the European poet the relation between man and woman is a thing of -supreme importance and mystery. To the Chinese, it is something -commonplace, obvious--a need of the body, not a satisfaction of the -_emotions_. These he reserves entirely for friendship. - -Accordingly we find that while our poets tend to lay stress on -physical courage and other qualities which normal women admire, -Po Chue-i is not ashamed to write such a poem as "Alarm at entering -the Gorges." Our poets imagine themselves very much as Art has portrayed -them--bare-headed and wild-eyed, with shirts unbuttoned at the neck as -though they feared that a seizure of emotion might at any minute -suffocate them. The Chinese poet introduces himself as a timid recluse, -"Reading the Book of Changes at the Northern Window," playing chess with -a Taoist priest, or practising caligraphy with an occasional visitor. -If "With a Portrait of the Author" had been the rule in the Chinese -book-market, it is in such occupations as these that he would be shown; -a neat and tranquil figure compared with our lurid frontispieces. - -It has been the habit of Europe to idealize love at the expense of -friendship and so to place too heavy a burden on the relation of man and -woman. The Chinese erred in the opposite direction, regarding their -wives and concubines simply as instruments of procreation. For sympathy -and intellectual companionship they looked only to their friends. But -these friends were bound by no such tie as held women to their masters; -sooner or later they drifted away to frontier campaigns, remote -governorships, or country retirement. It would not be an exaggeration to -say that half the poems in the Chinese language are poems of parting or -separation. - -Readers of these translations may imagine that the culture represented -by Po Chue-i extended over the whole vast confines of China. This would, -I think, be an error. Culture is essentially a metropolitan product. -Chue-i was as much _depayse_ at a provincial town as Charles Lamb would -have been at Botany Bay. But the system of Chinese bureaucracy tended -constantly to break up the literary coteries which formed at the -capitals, and to drive the members out of the little corner of Shensi -and Honan which to them was "home." - -It was chiefly economic necessity which forced the poets of China into -the meshes of bureaucracy--backed by the Confucian insistence on public -service. To such as were landowners there remained the alternative of -agricultural life, arduous and isolated. - -The poet, then, usually passed through three stages of existence. In the -first we find him with his friends at the capital, drinking, writing, -and discussing: burdened by his office probably about as much as Pepys -was burdened by his duties at the Admiralty. Next, having failed to -curry favour with the Court, he is exiled to some provincial post, -perhaps a thousand miles from anyone he cares to talk to. Finally, -having scraped together enough money to buy husbands for his daughters, -he retires to a small estate, collecting round him the remnants of those -with whom he had shared the "feasts and frolics of old days." - -I have spoken hitherto only of poets. But the poetess occupies a place -of considerable importance in the first four centuries of our era, -though the classical period (T'ang and Sung) produced no great woman -writer. Her theme varies little; she is almost always a "rejected wife," -cast adrift by her lord or sent back to her home. Probably her father -would be unable to buy her another husband and there was no place for -unmarried women in the Chinese social system. The moment, then, which -produced such poems was one of supreme tragedy in a woman's life. - -Love-poetry addressed by a man to a woman ceases after the Han dynasty; -but a conventional type of love-poem, in which the poet (of either sex) -speaks in the person of a deserted wife or concubine, continues to be -popular. The theme appears to be almost an obsession with the T'ang and -Sung poets. In a vague way, such poems were felt to be allegorical. Just -as in the Confucian interpretation of the love-poems in the Odes (see -below) the woman typifies the Minister, and the lover the Prince, so in -those classical poems the poet in a veiled way laments the thwarting of -his own public ambitions. Such tortuous expression of emotion did not -lead to good poetry. - -The "figures of speech," devices such as metaphor, simile, and play on -words, are used by the Chinese with much more restraint than by us. -"Metaphorical epithets" are occasionally to be met with; waves, for -example, might perhaps be called "angry." But in general the adjective -does not bear the heavy burden which our poets have laid upon it. The -Chinese would call the sky "blue," "gray," or "cloudy," according to -circumstances; but never "triumphant" or "terror-scourged." - -The long Homeric simile, introduced for its own sake or to vary the -monotony of narrative, is unknown to Chinese poetry. Shorter similes are -sometimes found, as when the half-Chinese poet Altun compares the sky -over the Mongolian steppe with the "walls of a tent"; but nothing could -be found analogous to Mr. T. S. Eliot's comparison of the sky to a -"patient etherized on a table." Except in popular poetry, puns are rare; -but there are several characters which, owing to the wideness of their -import, are used in a way almost equivalent to play on words. - -Classical allusion, always the vice of Chinese poetry, finally destroyed -it altogether. In the later periods (from the fourteenth century -onwards) the use of elegant synonyms also prevailed. I have before me a -"gradus" of the kind which the later poet used as an aid to composition. -The moon should be called the "Silver Dish," "Frozen Wheel," or "Golden -Ring." Allusions may in this connection be made to Yue Liang, who rode to -heaven on the crescent moon; to the hermit T'ang, who controlled the -genius of the New Moon, and kept him in his house as a candle--or to any -other of some thirty stories which are given. The sun may be called "The -Lantern-Dragon," the "Crow in Flight," the "White Colt," etc. - -Such were the artificialities of later Chinese poetry. - - -TECHNIQUE - -Certain elements are found, but in varying degree, in all human speech. -It is difficult to conceive of a language in which rhyme, stress-accent, -and tone-accent would not to some extent occur. In all languages some -vowel-sounds are shorter than others and, in certain cases, two -consecutive words begin with the same sound. Other such characteristics -could be enumerated, but for the purposes of poetry it is these elements -which man has principally exploited. - -English poetry has used chiefly rhyme, stress, and alliteration. It is -doubtful if tone has ever played a part; a conscious use has -sporadically been made of quantity. Poetry naturally utilizes the most -marked and definite characteristics of the language in which it is -written. Such characteristics are used consciously by the poet; but less -important elements also play their part, often only in a negative way. -Thus the Japanese actually avoid rhyme; the Greeks did not exploit it, -but seem to have tolerated it when it occurred accidentally. - -The expedients consciously used by the Chinese before the sixth century -were rhyme and length of line. A third element, inherent in the -language, was not exploited before that date, but must always have been -a factor in instinctive considerations of euphony. This element was -"tone." - -Chinese prosody distinguishes between two tones, a "flat" and a -"deflected." In the first the syllable is enunciated in a level manner: -the voice neither rises nor sinks. In the second, it (1) rises, (2) -sinks, (3) is abruptly arrested. These varieties make up the Four Tones -of Classical Chinese.[1] - -[1] Not to be confused with the Four Tones of the Mandarin dialect, in -which the old names are used to describe quite different enunciations. - -The "deflected" tones are distinctly more emphatic, and so have a faint -analogy to our stressed syllables. They are also, in an even more remote -way, analogous to the long vowels of Latin prosody. A line ending with a -"level" has consequently to some extent the effect of a "feminine -ending." Certain causes, which I need not specify here, led to an -increasing importance of "tone" in the Chinese language from the fifth -century onwards. It was natural that this change should be reflected in -Chinese prosody. A certain Shen Yo (A.D. 441-513) first propounded the -laws of tone-succession in poetry. From that time till the eighth -century the _Lue-shih_ or "strictly regulated poem" gradually evolved. -But poets continued (and continue till to-day), side by side with their -_lue-shih_, to write in the old metre which disregards tone, calling such -poems _Ku shih_, "old poems." Previous European statements about -Chinese prosody should be accepted with great caution. Writers have -attempted to define the _lue-shih_ with far too great precision. - -The Chinese themselves are apt to forget that T'ang poets seldom obeyed -the laws designed in later school-books as essential to classical -poetry; or, if they notice that a verse by Li Po does not conform, they -stigmatize it as "irregular and not to be imitated." - -The reader will infer that the distinction between "old poems" and -irregular _lue-shih_ is often arbitrary. This is certainly the case; I -have found the same poem classified differently in different native -books. But it is possible to enumerate certain characteristics which -distinguish the two kinds of verse. I will attempt to do so; but not -till I have discussed _rhyme_, the other main element in Chinese -prosody. It would be equally difficult to define accurately the -difference between the couplets of Pope and those of William Morris. But -it would not be impossible, by pointing out certain qualities of each, -to enable a reader to distinguish between the two styles. - -_Rhyme._--Most Chinese syllables ended with a vowel or nasal sound. The -Chinese rhyme was in reality a vowel assonance. Words in different -consonants rhymed so long as the vowel-sound was exactly the same. Thus -_ywet_, "moon," rhymed with _sek_, "beauty." During the classical period -these consonant endings were gradually weakening, and to-day, except in -the south, they are wholly lost. It is possible that from very early -times final consonants were lightly pronounced. - -The rhymes used in _lue-shih_ were standardized in the eighth century, -and some of them were no longer rhymes to the ear in the Mandarin -dialect. To be counted as a rhyme, two words must have exactly the same -vowel-sound. Some of the distinctions then made are no longer audible -to-day; the sub-divisions therefore seem arbitrary. Absolute homophony -is also counted as rhyme, as in French. It is as though we should make -_made_ rhyme with _maid_. - -I will now attempt to distinguish between _Ku-shih_ (old style) and -_Lue-shih_ (new style). - -_Ku-shih (Old Style)._ - -(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century -critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used. They were, indeed, assonances -of the roughest kind. - -(_b_) "Deflected" words are used for rhyming as freely as "flat" words. - -(_c_) Tone-arrangement. The tones were disregarded. (Lines can be found -in pre-T'ang poems in which five deflected tones occur in succession, an -arrangement which would have been painful to the ear of a T'ang writer -and would probably have been avoided by classical poets even when using -the old style.) - -_Lue-shih (New Style)._ - -(_a_) The rhymes used are the "106" of modern dictionaries (not those of -the Odes, as Giles states). Rhymes in the flat tone are preferred. In a -quatrain the lines which do not rhyme must end on the opposite tone to -that of the rhyme. This law is absolute in _Lue-shih_ and a tendency in -this direction is found even in _Ku-shih_. - -(_b_) There is a tendency to antithetical arrangement of tones in the -two lines of a couplet, especially in the last part of the lines. - -(_c_) A tendency for the tones to go in _pairs_, _e.g._ (A = flat, B = -deflected): AA BBA or ABB AA, rather than in _threes_. Three like tones -only come together when divided by a "cesura," _e.g._, the line BB / AAA -would be avoided, but not the line BBAA / ABB. - -(_d_) Verbal parallelism in the couplet, _e.g._: - - After long illness one first realizes that seeking medicines is - a mistake; - In one's decaying years one begins to repent that one's study of - books was deferred. - -This device, used with some discretion in T'ang, becomes an irritating -trick in the hands of the Sung poets. - - -THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF CHINESE POETRY - -_The Odes._--From the songs current in his day Confucius (551-479 B.C.) -chose about three hundred which he regarded as suitable texts for his -ethical and social teaching. Many of them are eulogies of good rulers or -criticisms of bad ones. Out of the three hundred and five still extant -only about thirty are likely to interest the modern reader. Of these -half deal with war and half with love. Many translations exist, the best -being those of Legge in English and of Couvreur in French. There is -still room for an English translation displaying more sensitivity to -word-rhythm than that of Legge. It should not, I think, include more -than fifty poems. But the Odes are essentially _lyric_ poetry, and their -beauty lies in effects which cannot be reproduced in English. For that -reason I have excluded them from this book; nor shall I discuss them -further here, for full information will be found in the works of Legge -or Couvreur. - -_Elegies of the Land of Ch'u._--We come next to Ch'ue Yuean (third century -B.C.) whose famous poem "Li Sao," or "Falling into Trouble," has also -been translated by Legge. It deals, under a love-allegory, with the -relation between the writer and his king. In this poem, sex and politics -are curiously interwoven, as we need not doubt they were in Chue Yuean's -own mind. He affords a striking example of the way in which abnormal -mentality imposes itself. We find his followers unsuccessfully -attempting to use the same imagery and rhapsodical verbiage, not -realizing that these were, as De Goncourt would say, the product of -their master's _propre nevrosite_. - -"The Battle," his one thoroughly intelligible poem, has hitherto been -only very imperfectly translated. A literal version will be found on p. -23. - -His nephew Sung Yue was no servile imitator. In addition to "elegies" in -the style of the Li Sao, he was the author of many "Fu" or descriptive -prose-poems, unrhymed but more or less metrical. - -_The Han Dynasty._--Most of the Han poems in this book were intended to -be sung. Many of them are from the official song-book of the dynasty and -are known as Yo Fu or Music Bureau poems, as distinct from _shih_, which -were recited. Ch'in Chia's poem and his wife's reply (p. 54) are both -_shih_; but all the rest might, I think, be counted as songs. - -The Han dynasty is rich in Fu (descriptions), but none of them could be -adequately translated. They are written in an elaborate and florid style -which recalls Apuleius or Lyly. - -_The Chin Dynasty._ - -(1) _Popular Songs_ (Songs of Wu). The popular songs referred to the Wu -(Soochow) district and attributed to the fourth century may many of -them have been current at a much earlier date. They are slight in -content and deal with only one topic. They may, in fact, be called -"Love-epigrams." They find a close parallel in the _coplas_ of Spain, -_cf._: - - _El candil se esta apagando, - La alcuza no tiene aceite-- - No te digo que te vayas, ... - No te digo que te quedes._ - - The brazier is going out, - The lamp has no more oil-- - I do not tell you to go, ... - I do not tell you to stay. - -A Han song, which I will translate quite literally, seems to be the -forerunner of the Wu songs. - - On two sides of river, wedding made: - Time comes; no boat. - Lusting heart loses hope - Not seeing what-it-desires. - -(2) _The Taoists._--Confucius inculcated the duty of public service. -Those to whom this duty was repulsive found support in Taoism, a system -which denied this obligation. The third and fourth centuries A.D. -witnessed a great reaction against state service. It occurred to the -intellectuals of China that they would be happier growing vegetables in -their gardens than place-hunting at Nanking. They embraced the theory -that "by bringing himself into harmony with Nature" man can escape every -evil. Thus Tao (Nature's Way) corresponds to the Nirvana of Buddhism, -and the God of Christian mysticism. - -They reduced to the simplest standard their houses, apparel, and food; -and discarded the load of book-learning which Confucianism imposed on -its adherents. - -The greatest of these recluses was T'ao Ch'ien (A.D. 365-427), twelve of -whose poems will be found on p. 71, _seq._ Something of his philosophy -may be gathered from the poem "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit" (p. 73), -his own views being voiced by the last speaker. He was not an original -thinker, but a great poet who reflects in an interesting way the outlook -of his time. - -_Liang and Minor Dynasties._--This period is known as that of the -"Northern and Southern Courts." The north of China was in the hands of -the Tungusie Tartars, who founded the Northern Wei dynasty--a name -particularly familiar, since it is the habit of European collectors to -attribute to this dynasty any sculpture which they believe to be earlier -than T'ang. Little poetry was produced in the conquered provinces; the -Tartar emperors, though they patronized Buddhist art, were incapable of -promoting literature. But at Nanking a series of emperors ruled, most of -whom distinguished themselves either in painting or poetry. The Chinese -have always (and rightly) despised the literature of this period, which -is "all flowers and moonlight." A few individual writers, such as Pao -Chao, stand out as exceptions. The Emperor Yuean-ti--who hacked his way -to the throne by murdering all other claimants, including his own -brother--is typical of the period both as a man and as a poet. A -specimen of his sentimental poetry will be found on p. 90. When at last -forced to abdicate, he heaped together 200,000 books and pictures; and, -setting fire to them, exclaimed: "The culture of the Liang dynasty -perishes with me." - -_T'ang._--I have already described the technical developments of poetry -during this dynasty. Form was at this time valued far above content. -"Poetry," says a critic, "should draw its materials from the Han and Wei -dynasties." With the exception of a few reformers, writers contented -themselves with clothing old themes in new forms. The extent to which -this is true can of course only be realized by one thoroughly familiar -with the earlier poetry. - -In the main, T'ang confines itself to a narrow range of stock subjects. -The _mise-en-scene_ is borrowed from earlier times. If a battle-poem be -written, it deals with the campaigns of the Han dynasty, not with -contemporary events. The "deserted concubines" of conventional -love-poetry are those of the Han Court. Innumerable poems record -"Reflections on Visiting a Ruin," or on "The Site of an Old City," etc. -The details are ingeniously varied, but the sentiments are in each case -identical. Another feature is the excessive use of historical allusions. -This is usually not apparent in rhymed translations, which evade such -references by the substitution of generalities. Poetry became the medium -not for the expression of a poet's emotions, but for the display of his -classical attainments. The great Li Po is no exception to this rule. -Often where his translators would make us suppose he is expressing a -fancy of his own, he is in reality skilfully utilizing some poem by T'ao -Ch'ien or Hsieh Ti'ao. It is for his versification that he is admired, -and with justice. He represents a reaction against the formal prosody of -his immediate predecessors. It was in the irregular song-metres of his -_ku-shih_ that he excelled. In such poems as the "Ssech'uan Road," with -its wild profusion of long and short lines, its cataract of exotic -verbiage, he aimed at something nearer akin to music than to poetry. Tu -Fu, his contemporary, occasionally abandoned the cult of "abstract -form." Both poets lived through the most tragic period of Chinese -history. In 755 the Emperor's Turkic favourite, An Lu-shan, revolted -against his master. A civil war followed, in which China lost thirty -million men. The dynasty was permanently enfeebled and the Empire -greatly curtailed by foreign incursions. So ended the "Golden Age" of -Ming Huang. Tu Fu, stirred by the horror of massacres and conscriptions, -wrote a series of poems in the old style, which Po Chue-i singles out for -praise. One of them, "The Press-gang," is familiar in Giles's -translation. Li Po, meanwhile, was writing complimentary poems on the -Emperor's "Tour in the West"--a journey which was in reality a -precipitate flight from his enemies. - -_Sung._--In regard to content the Sung poets show even less originality -than their predecessors. Their whole energy was devoted towards -inventing formal restrictions. The "tz'u" developed, a species of song -in lines of irregular length, written in strophes, each of which must -conform to a strict pattern of tones and rhymes. The content of the -"tz'u" is generally wholly conventional. Very few have been translated; -and it is obvious that they are unsuitable for translation, since their -whole merit lies in metrical dexterity. Examples by the poetess Li I-an -will be found in the second edition of Judith Gautier's "Livre de Jade." -The poetry of Su Tung-p'o, the foremost writer of the period, is in its -matter almost wholly a patchwork of earlier poems. It is for the musical -qualities of his verse that he is valued by his countrymen. He hardly -wrote a poem which does not contain a phrase (sometimes a whole line) -borrowed from Po Chue-i, for whom in his critical writings he expresses -boundless admiration. - -A word must be said of the Fu (descriptive prose-poems) of this time. -They resemble the _vers libres_ of modern France, using rhyme -occasionally (like Georges Duhamel) as a means of "sonner, rouler, quand -il faut faire donner les cuivres et la batterie." Of this nature is the -magnificent "Autumn Dirge" (Giles, "Chinese Lit.," p. 215) by Ou-yang -Hsiu, whose lyric poetry is of small interest. The subsequent periods -need not much concern us. In the eighteenth century the garrulous Yuean -Mei wrote his "Anecdotes of Poetry-making"--a book which, while one of -the most charming in the language, probably contains more bad poetry -(chiefly that of his friends) than any in the world. His own poems are -modelled on Po Chue-i and Su Tung-p'o. - - * * * * * - -This introduction is intended for the general reader. I have therefore -stated my views simply and categorically, and without entering into -controversies which are of interest only to a few specialists. - -As an account of the development of Chinese poetry these notes are -necessarily incomplete, but it is hoped that they answer some of those -questions which a reader would be most likely to ask. - - - - -THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION - - -It is commonly asserted that poetry, when literally translated, ceases -to be poetry. This is often true, and I have for that reason not -attempted to translate many poems which in the original have pleased me -quite as much as those I have selected. But I present the ones I have -chosen in the belief that they still retain the essential -characteristics of poetry. - -I have aimed at literal translation, not paraphrase. It may be perfectly -legitimate for a poet to borrow foreign themes or material, but this -should not be called translation. - -Above all, considering imagery to be the soul of poetry, I have avoided -either adding images of my own or suppressing those of the original. - -Any literal translation of Chinese poetry is bound to be to some extent -rhythmical, for the rhythm of the original obtrudes itself. Translating -literally, without thinking about the metre of the version, one finds -that about two lines out of three have a very definite swing similar to -that of the Chinese lines. The remaining lines are just too short or too -long, a circumstance very irritating to the reader, whose ear expects -the rhythm to continue. I have therefore tried to produce regular -rhythmic effects similar to those of the original. Each character in the -Chinese is represented by a stress in the English; but between the -stresses unstressed syllables are of course interposed. In a few -instances where the English insisted on being shorter than the Chinese, -I have preferred to vary the metre of my version, rather than pad out -the line with unnecessary verbiage. - -I have not used rhyme because it is impossible to produce in English -rhyme-effects at all similar to those of the original, where the same -rhyme sometimes runs through a whole poem. Also, because the -restrictions of rhyme necessarily injure either the vigour of one's -language or the literalness of one's version. I do not, at any rate, -know of any example to the contrary. What is generally known as "blank -verse" is the worst medium for translating Chinese poetry, because the -essence of blank verse is that it varies the position of its pauses, -whereas in Chinese the stop always comes at the end of the couplet. - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES - - -1. H. A. Giles, "Chinese Poetry in English Verse." 1896. 212 pp. -Combines rhyme and literalness with wonderful dexterity. - -2. Hervey St. Denys, "Poesies des Thang." 1862. 301 pp. The choice of -poems would have been very different if the author had selected from the -whole range of T'ang poetry, instead of contenting himself, except in -the case of Li Po and Tu Fu, with making extracts from two late -anthologies. This book, the work of a great scholar, is reliable--except -in its information about Chinese prosody. - -3. Judith Gautier, "Le Livre de Jade." 1867 and 1908. It has been -difficult to compare these renderings with the original, for proper -names are throughout distorted or interchanged. For example, part of a -poem by Po Chue-i _about_ Yang T'ai-chen is here given as a complete poem -and ascribed to "Yan-Ta-Tchen" as author. The poet Han Yue figures as -Heu-Yu; T'ao Han as Sao Nan, etc. Such mistakes are evidently due to -faulty decipherment of someone else's writing. Nevertheless, the book is -far more readable than that of St. Denys, and shows a wider acquaintance -with Chinese poetry on the part of whoever chose the poems. Most of the -credit for this selection must certainly be given to Ting Tun-ling, the -_literatus_ whom Theophile Gautier befriended. But the credit for the -beauty of these often erroneous renderings must go to Mademoiselle -Gautier herself. - -4. Anna von Bernhardi, in "Mitteil d. Seminar f. Orient. Sprachen," -1912, 1915, and 1916. Two articles on T'ao Ch'ien and one on Li Po. All -valuable, though not free from mistakes. - -5. Zottoli, "Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae." 1886. Chinese text with Latin -translation. Vol. V deals with poetry. None of the poems is earlier than -T'ang. The Latin is seldom intelligible without reference to the -Chinese. Translators have obviously used Zottoli as a text. Out of -eighteen Sung poems in Giles's book, sixteen will be found in Zottoli. - -6. A. Pfizmaier, two articles (1886 and 1887) on Po Chue-i in "Denkschr. -d. Kais. Ak. in Wien." So full of mistakes as to be of very little -value, except in so far as they served to call the attention of the -European reader to this poet. - -7. L. Woitsch, "Aus den Gedichten Po Chue-i's." 1908. 76 pp. A prose -rendering with Chinese text of about forty poems, not very well -selected. The translations, though inaccurate, are a great advance on -Pfizmaier. - -8. E. von Zachs, "Lexicographische Beitraege." Vols. ii and iv. -Re-translation of two poems previously mistranslated by Pfizmaier. - -9. S. Imbault-Huart, "La Poesie Chinoise du 14 au 19 siecle." 1886. 93 -pp. - -10. S. Imbault-Huart, "Un Poete Chinois du 18 Siecle." (Yuean Mei.) -Journ. of China Branch, Royal As. Soc., N.S., vol. xix, part 2, 42 pp. - -11. S. Imbault-Huart, "Poesies Modernes." 1892. 46 pp. - -12. A. Forke, "Bluethen Chinesischer Dichtung." 1899. Rhymed versions of -Li Po and pre-T'ang poems. - -A fuller bibliography will be found in Cordier's "Bibliotheca Sinica." - - - - -CHAPTER I - - -BATTLE - -By Ch'ue Yuean (332-295 B.C.), author of the famous poem "Li Sao," or -"Falling into Trouble." Finding that he could not influence the -conduct of his prince, he drowned himself in the river Mi-lo. The -modern Dragon Boat Festival is supposed to be in his honour. - - "We grasp our battle-spears: we don our breast-plates of hide. - The axles of our chariots touch: our short swords meet. - Standards obscure the sun: the foe roll up like clouds. - Arrows fall thick: the warriors press forward. - They menace our ranks: they break our line. - The left-hand trace-horse is dead: the one on the right is smitten. - The fallen horses block our wheels: they impede the yoke-horses!" - - They grasp their jade drum-sticks: they beat the sounding drums. - Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry. - - The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field. - They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return. - The plains are flat and wide: the way home is long. - - Their swords lie beside them: their black bows, in their hand. - Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed. - They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of - "Wu."[2] - Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted. - Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality-- - Captains among the ghosts, heroes among the dead. - -[2] _I.e._, military genius. - - -THE MAN-WIND AND THE WOMAN-WIND - -A "fu," or prose-poem, by Sung Yue (fourth century B.C.), nephew of Ch'ue -Yuean. - -Hsiang, king of Ch'u, was feasting in the Orchid-tower Palace, with Sung -Yue and Ching Ch'ai to wait upon him. A gust of wind blew in and the king -bared his breast to meet it, saying: "How pleasant a thing is this wind -which I share with the common people." Sung Yue answered: "This is the -Great King's wind. The common people cannot share it." The king said: -"Wind is a spirit of Heaven and Earth. It comes wide spread and does not -choose between noble and base or between high and low. How can you say -'This is the king's wind'?" Sung answered: "I have heard it taught that -in the crooked lemon-tree birds make their nests and to empty spaces -winds fly. But the wind-spirit that comes to different things is not the -same." The king said: "Where is the wind born?" and Sung answered: "The -wind is born in the ground. It rises in the extremities of the green -p'ing-flower. It pours into the river-valleys and rages at the mouth of -the pass. It follows the rolling flanks of Mount T'ai and dances beneath -the pine-trees and cypresses. In gusty bouts it whirls. It rushes in -fiery anger. It rumbles low with a noise like thunder, tearing down -rocks and trees, smiting forests and grasses. - -"But at last abating, it spreads abroad, seeks empty places and crosses -the threshold of rooms. And so growing gentler and clearer, it changes -and is dispersed and dies. - -"It is this cool clear Man-Wind that, freeing itself, falls and rises -till it climbs the high walls of the Castle and enters the gardens of -the Inner Palace. It bends the flowers and leaves with its breath. It -wanders among the osmanthus and pepper-trees. It lingers over the -fretted face of the pond, to steal the soul of the hibiscus. It touches -the willow leaves and scatters the fragrant herbs. Then it pauses in the -courtyard and turning to the North goes up to the Jade Hall, shakes the -hanging curtains and lightly passes into the inner room. - -"And so it becomes the Great King's wind. - -"Now such a wind is fresh and sweet to breathe and its gentle murmuring -cures the diseases of men, blows away the stupor of wine, sharpens sight -and hearing and refreshes the body. This is what is called the Great -King's wind." - -The king said: "You have well described it. Now tell me of the common -people's wind." Sung said: "The common people's wind rises from narrow -lanes and streets, carrying clouds of dust. Rushing to empty spaces it -attacks the gateway, scatters the dust-heap, sends the cinders flying, -pokes among foul and rotting things, till at last it enters the tiled -windows and reaches the rooms of the cottage. Now this wind is heavy and -turgid, oppressing man's heart. It brings fever to his body, ulcers to -his lips and dimness to his eyes. It shakes him with coughing; it kills -him before his time. - -"Such is the Woman-wind of the common people." - - -The following is a sample of Sung Yue's prose: - -MASTER TENG-T'U - -By Sung Yue (third century B.C.) - -One day when the Chamberlain, master Teng-t'u, was in attendance at the -Palace he warned the King against Sung Yue, saying: "Yue is a man of -handsome features and calm bearing and his tongue is prompt with subtle -sentences. Moreover, his character is licentious. I would submit that -your Majesty is ill-advised in allowing him to follow you into the -Queen's apartments." The King repeated Teng-t'u's words to Sung Yue. Yue -replied: "My beauty of face and calmness of bearing were given me by -Heaven. Subtlety of speech I learnt from my teachers. As for my -character, I deny that it is licentious." The King said: "Can you -substantiate your statement that you are not licentious? If you cannot, -you must leave the Court." Sung Yue said: "Of all the women in the world, -the most beautiful are the women of the land of Ch'u. And in all the -land of Ch'u there are none like the women of my own village. And in my -village there are none that can be compared with the girl next door. - -"The girl next door would be too tall if an inch were added to her -height, and too short if an inch were taken away. Another grain of -powder would make her too pale; another touch of rouge would make her -too red. Her eyebrows are like the plumage of the kingfisher, her flesh -is like snow. Her waist is like a roll of new silk, her teeth are like -little shells. A single one of her smiles would perturb the whole city -of Yang and derange the suburb of Hsia-ts'ai.[3] For three years this -lady has been climbing the garden wall and peeping at me, yet I have -never succumbed. - -[3] Fashionable quarters in the capital of Ch'u state. - -"How different is the behaviour of master Teng-t'u! His wife has a wooly -head and misshapen ears; projecting teeth irregularly set; a crook in -her back and a halt in her gait. Moreover, she has running sores in -front and behind. - -"Yet Teng-t'u fell in love with her and caused her to bear him five -children. - -"I would have your Majesty consider which of us is the debauchee." - -Sung Yue was not dismissed from court. - - -THE ORPHAN - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - To be an orphan, - To be fated to be an orphan. - How bitter is this lot! - When my father and mother were alive - I used to ride in a carriage - With four fine horses. - - But when they both died, - My brother and sister-in-law - Sent me out to be a merchant. - In the south I travelled to the "Nine Rivers" - And in the east as far as Ch'i and Lu. - At the end of the year when I came home - I dared not tell them what I had suffered-- - Of the lice and vermin in my head, - Of the dust in my face and eyes. - My brother told me to get ready the dinner. - My sister-in-law told me to see after the horses. - I was always going up into the hall - And running down again to the parlour. - My tears fell like rain. - - In the morning they sent me to draw water, - I didn't get back till night-fall. - My hands were all sore - And I had no shoes. - I walked the cold earth - Treading on thorns and brambles. - As I stopped to pull out the thorns, - How bitter my heart was! - My tears fell and fell - And I went on sobbing and sobbing. - In winter I have no great-coat; - Nor in summer, thin clothes. - It is no pleasure to be alive. - I had rather quickly leave the earth - And go beneath the Yellow Springs.[4] - The April winds blow - And the grass is growing green. - In the third month--silkworms and mulberries, - In the sixth month--the melon-harvest. - I went out with the melon-cart - And just as I was coming home - The melon-cart turned over. - The people who came to help me were few, - But the people who ate the melons were many, - All they left me was the stalks-- - To take home as fast as I could. - My brother and sister-in-law were harsh, - They asked me all sorts of awful questions. - Why does everyone in the village hate me? - I want to write a letter and send it - To my mother and father under the earth, - And tell them I can't go on any longer - Living with my brother and sister-in-law. - -[4] Hades. - - -THE SICK WIFE - - She had been ill for years and years; - She sent for me to say something. - She couldn't say what she wanted - Because of the tears that kept coming of themselves. - "I have burdened you with orphan children, - With orphan children two or three. - Don't let our children go hungry or cold; - If they do wrong, don't slap or beat them. - When you take out the baby, rock it in your arms. - Don't forget to do that." - Last she said, - "When I carried them in my arms they had no clothes - And now their jackets have no linings." [_She dies._ - - I shut the doors and barred the windows - And left the motherless children. - When I got to the market and met my friends, I wept. - I sat down and could not go with them. - I asked them to buy some cakes for my children. - In the presence of my friends I sobbed and cried. - I tried not to grieve, but sorrow would not cease. - I felt in my pocket and gave my friends some money. - When I got home I found my children - Calling to be taken into their mother's arms. - I walked up and down in the empty room - This way and that a long while. - Then I went away from it and said to myself - "I will forget and never speak of her again." - - -COCK-CROW SONG - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - In the eastern quarter dawn breaks, the stars flicker pale. - The morning cock at Ju-nan mounts the wall and crows. - The songs are over, the clock[5] run down, but still the feast - is set. - The moon grows dim and the stars are few; morning has come to - the world. - At a thousand gates and ten thousand doors the fish-shaped keys - turn; - Round the Palace and up by the Castle, the crows and magpies are - flying. - -[5] A water-clock. - - -THE GOLDEN PALACE - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - We go to the Golden Palace: - We set out the jade cups. - We summon the honoured guests - To enter at the Golden Gate. - They enter at the Golden Gate - And go to the Golden Hall. - In the Eastern Kitchen the meat is sliced and ready-- - Roast beef and boiled pork and mutton. - The Master of the Feast hands round the wine. - The harp-players sound their clear chords. - - The cups are pushed aside and we face each other at chess: - The rival pawns are marshalled rank against rank. - The fire glows and the smoke puffs and curls; - From the incense-burner rises a delicate fragrance. - The clear wine has made our cheeks red; - Round the table joy and peace prevail. - May those who shared in this day's delight - Through countless autumns enjoy like felicity. - - -"OLD POEM" - - At fifteen I went with the army, - At fourscore I came home. - On the way I met a man from the village, - I asked him who there was at home. - "That over there is your house, - All covered over with trees and bushes." - Rabbits had run in at the dog-hole, - Pheasants flew down from the beams of the roof. - In the courtyard was growing some wild grain; - And by the well, some wild mallows. - I'll boil the grain and make porridge, - I'll pluck the mallows and make soup. - Soup and porridge are both cooked, - But there is no one to eat them with. - I went out and looked towards the east, - While tears fell and wetted my clothes. - - -MEETING IN THE ROAD - - In a narrow road where there was not room to pass - My carriage met the carriage of a young man. - And while his axle was touching my axle - In the narrow road I asked him where he lived. - "The place where I live is easy enough to find, - Easy to find and difficult to forget. - The gates of my house are built of yellow gold, - The hall of my house is paved with white jade, - On the hall table flagons of wine are set, - I have summoned to serve me dancers of Han-tan.[6] - In the midst of the courtyard grows a cassia-tree,-- - And candles on its branches flaring away in the night." - -[6] Capital of the kingdom of Chao, where the people were famous for -their beauty. - - -FIGHTING SOUTH OF THE CASTLE - -Anon. (_circa_ 124 B.C.) - - They fought south of the Castle, - They died north of the wall. - They died in the moors and were not buried. - Their flesh was the food of crows. - "Tell the crows we are not afraid; - We have died in the moors and cannot be buried. - Crows, how can our bodies escape you?" - The waters flowed deep - And the rushes in the pool were dark. - The riders fought and were slain: - Their horses wander neighing. - By the bridge there was a house.[7] - Was it south, was it north? - The harvest was never gathered. - How can we give you your offerings? - You served your Prince faithfully, - Though all in vain. - I think of you, faithful soldiers; - Your service shall not be forgotten. - For in the morning you went out to battle - And at night you did not return. - -[7] There is no trace of it left. This passage describes the havoc of -war. The harvest has not been gathered: therefore corn-offerings cannot -be made to the spirits of the dead. - - -THE EASTERN GATE - -Anon. (first century B.C.). - -A poor man determines to go out into the world and make his fortune. -His wife tries to detain him. - - I went out at the eastern gate: - I never thought to return. - But I came back to the gate with my heart full of sorrow. - - * * * * * - - There was not a peck of rice in the bin: - There was not a coat hanging on the pegs. - So I took my sword and went towards the gate. - My wife and child clutched at my coat and wept: - "Some people want to be rich and grand: - I only want to share my porridge with you. - Above, we have the blue waves of the sky: - Below, the yellow face of this little child." - "Dear wife, I cannot stay. - Soon it will be too late. - When one is growing old - One cannot put things off." - - -OLD AND NEW - -Anon. (first century B.C.) - - She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs; - She came down the mountain and met her former husband. - She knelt down and asked her former husband - "What do you find your new wife like?" - "My new wife, although her talk is clever, - Cannot charm me as my old wife could. - In beauty of face there is not much to choose. - But in usefulness they are not at all alike. - My new wife comes in from the road to meet me; - My old wife always came down from her tower. - My new wife is clever at embroidering silk; - My old wife was good at plain sewing. - Of silk embroidery one can do an inch a day; - Of plain sewing, more than five feet. - Putting her silks by the side of your sewing, - I see that the new will not compare with the old." - - -SOUTH OF THE GREAT SEA - - My love is living - To the south of the Great Sea. - What shall I send to greet him? - Two pearls and a comb of tortoise-shell: - I'll send them to him packed in a box of jade. - They tell me he is not true: - They tell me he dashed my box to the ground, - Dashed it to the ground and burnt it - And scattered its ashes to the wind. - From this day to the ends of time - I must never think of him, - Never again think of him. - The cocks are crowing, - And the dogs are barking-- - My brother and his wife will soon know.[8] - The autumn wind is blowing; - The morning wind is sighing. - In a moment the sun will rise in the east - And then _it_ too will know. - -[8] _I.e._, about her engagement being broken off. - - -THE OTHER SIDE OF THE VALLEY - - I am a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, - Enduring the shame of captivity. - My bones stick out and my strength is gone - Through not getting enough to eat. - My brother is a Mandarin - And his horses are fed on maize. - Why can't he spare a little money - To send and ransom me? - - -OATHS OF FRIENDSHIP - -In the country of Yueeh when a man made friends with another they set up -an altar of earth and sacrificed upon it a dog and a cock, reciting this -oath as they did so: - -(1) - - If you were riding in a coach - And I were wearing a "li,"[9] - And one day we met in the road, - You would get down and bow. - If you were carrying a "teng"[10] - And I were riding on a horse, - And one day we met in the road - I would get down for you. - -[9] A peasant's coat made of straw. - -[10] An umbrella under which a cheap-jack sells his wares. - -(2) - - Shang Ya! - I want to be your friend - For ever and ever without break or decay. - When the hills are all flat - And the rivers are all dry, - When it lightens and thunders in winter, - When it rains and snows in summer, - When Heaven and Earth mingle-- - Not till then will I part from you. - - -BURIAL SONGS - -(1) - -"The dew on the garlic-leaf," sung at the burial of kings and -princes. - - How swiftly it dries, - The dew on the garlic-leaf, - The dew that dries so fast - To-morrow will fall again. - But he whom we carry to the grave - Will never more return. - -(2) - -"The Graveyard," sung at the burial of common men. - - What man's land is the graveyard? - It is the crowded home of ghosts,-- - Wise and foolish shoulder to shoulder. - The King of the Dead claims them all; - Man's fate knows no tarrying. - - -SEVENTEEN OLD POEMS - -The following seventeen poems are from a series known as the Nineteen -Pieces of Old Poetry. Some have been attributed to Mei Sheng (first -century B.C.), and one to Fu I (first century A.D.). They are manifestly -not all by the same hand nor of the same date. Internal evidence shows -that No. 3 at least was written after the date of Mei Sheng's death. -These poems had an enormous influence on all subsequent poetry, and many -of the habitual _cliches_ of Chinese verse are taken from them. I have -omitted two because of their marked inferiority. - -(1) - - On and on, always on and on - Away from you, parted by a life-parting.[11] - Going from one another ten thousand "li," - Each in a different corner of the World. - The way between is difficult and long, - Face to face how shall we meet again? - The Tartar horse prefers the North wind, - The bird from Yueeh nests on the Southern branch. - Since we parted the time is already long, - Daily my clothes hang looser round my waist. - Floating clouds obscure the white sun, - The wandering one has quite forgotten home. - Thinking of you has made me suddenly old, - The months and years swiftly draw to their close. - I'll put you out of my mind and forget for ever - And try with all my might to eat and thrive.[12] - -[11] The opposite of a parting by death. - -[12] The popular, but erroneous, interpretation of these two lines is: - -"That I'm cast away and rejected I will not repine, But only hope with -all my heart you're well." - -(2) - - Green, green, - The grass by the river-bank. - Thick, thick, - The willow trees in the garden. - Sad, sad, - The lady in the tower. - White, white, - Sitting at the casement window. - Fair, fair, - Her red-powdered face. - Small, small, - She puts out her pale hand. - Once she was a dancing-house girl. - Now she is a wandering man's wife. - The wandering man went, but did not return. - It is hard alone to keep an empty bed. - -(3) - - Green, green, - The cypress on the mound. - Firm, firm, - The boulder in the stream. - Man's life lived within this world, - Is like the sojourning of a hurried traveller. - A cup of wine together will make us glad, - And a little friendship is no little matter. - - Yoking my chariot I urge my stubborn horses. - I wander about in the streets of Wan and Lo. - In Lo Town how fine everything is! - The "Caps and Belts"[13] go seeking each other out. - The great boulevards are intersected by lanes, - Wherein are the town-houses of Royal Dukes. - The two palaces stare at each other from afar, - The twin gates rise a hundred feet. - By prolonging the feast let us keep our hearts gay, - And leave no room for sadness to creep in. - -[13] High officers. - -(4) - - Of this day's glorious feast and revel - The pleasure and delight are difficult to describe. - Plucking the lute they sent forth lingering sounds, - The new melodies in beauty reached the divine. - Skilful singers intoned the high words, - Those who knew the tune heard the trueness of their singing. - We sat there each with the same desire - And like thoughts by each unexpressed: - "Man in the world lodging for a single life-time - Passes suddenly like dust borne on the wind. - Then let us hurry out with high steps - And be the first to reach the highways and fords: - Rather than stay at home wretched and poor - For long years plunged in sordid grief." - -(5) - - In the north-west there is a high house, - Its top level with the floating clouds. - Embroidered curtains thinly screen its windows, - Its storied tower is built on three steps. - From above there comes a noise of playing and singing, - The tune sounding, oh! how sad! - Who can it be, playing so sad a tune? - Surely it must be Ch'i Liang's[14] wife. - The tranquil "D" follows the wind's rising, - The middle lay lingers indecisive. - To each note, two or three sobs, - Her high will conquered by overwhelming grief. - She does not regret that she is left so sad, - But minds that so few can understand her song. - She wants to become those two wild geese - That with beating wings rise high aloft. - -[14] Who had no father, no husband, and no children. - -(6) - - Crossing the river I pluck hibiscus-flowers: - In the orchid-swamps are many fragrant herbs. - I gather them, but who shall I send them to? - My love is living in lands far away. - I turn and look towards my own country: - The long road stretches on for ever. - The same heart, yet a different dwelling: - Always fretting, till we are grown old! - -(7) - - A bright moon illumines the night-prospect: - The house-cricket chirrups on the eastern wall. - The Handle of the Pole-star points to the Beginning of Winter. - The host of stars is scattered over the sky. - - The white dew wets the moor-grasses,-- - With sudden swiftness the times and seasons change. - The autumn cicada sings among the trees, - The swallows, alas, whither are they gone? - - Once I had a same-house friend, - He took flight and rose high away. - He did not remember how once we went hand in hand, - But left me like footsteps behind one in the dust. - - In the South is the Winnowing-fan and the Pole-star in the North, - And a Herd-boy[15] whose ox has never borne the yoke. - A friend who is not firm as a great rock - Is of no profit and idly bears the name. - -[15] Name of a star. The Herd-boy, who is only figuratively speaking a -herd-boy, is like the friend who is no real friend. - -(8) - - In the courtyard there grows a strange tree, - Its green leaves ooze with a fragrant moisture. - Holding the branch I cut a flower from the tree, - Meaning to send it away to the person I love. - Its sweet smell fills my sleeves and lap. - The road is long, how shall I get it there? - Such a thing is not fine enough to send: - But it may remind him of the time that has past since he left.[16] - -[16] _I.e._ (supposing he went away in the autumn), remind him that -spring has come. - -(9) - - Far away twinkles the Herd-boy star; - Brightly shines the Lady of the Han River. - Slender, slender she plies her white fingers. - Click, click go the wheels of her spinning-loom. - At the end of the day she has not finished her task; - Her bitter tears fall like streaming rain. - The Han River runs shallow and clear; - Set between them, how short a space! - But the river water will not let them pass, - Gazing at each other but never able to speak. - -(10) - - Turning my chariot I yoke my horses and go. - On and on down the long roads - The autumn winds shake the hundred grasses. - On every side, how desolate and bare! - The things I meet are all new things, - Their strangeness hastens the coming of old age. - Prosperity and decay each have their season. - Success is bitter when it is slow in coming. - Man's life is not metal or stone, - He cannot far prolong the days of his fate. - Suddenly he follows in the way of things that change. - Fame is the only treasure that endures. - -(11) - - The Eastern Castle stands tall and high; - Far and wide stretch the towers that guard it. - The whirling wind uprises and shakes the earth; - The autumn grasses grow thick and green. - - The four seasons alternate without pause, - The year's end hurries swiftly on. - The Bird of the Morning Wind is stricken with sorrow; - The frail cicada suffers and is hard pressed. - Free and clear, let us loosen the bonds of our hearts. - Why should we go on always restraining and binding? - In Yen and Chao are many fair ladies, - Beautiful people with faces like jade. - Their clothes are made all of silk gauze. - They stand at the door practising tranquil lays. - The echo of their singing, how sad it sounds! - By the pitch of the song one knows the stops have been tightened. - To ease their minds they arrange their shawls and belts; - Lowering their song, a little while they pause. - "I should like to be those two flying swallows - Who are carrying clay to nest in the eaves of your house." - -(12) - - I drive my chariot up to the Eastern Gate; - From afar I see the graveyard north of the Wall. - The white aspens how they murmur, murmur; - Pines and cypresses flank the broad paths. - Beneath lie men who died long ago; - Black, black is the long night that holds them. - Deep down beneath the Yellow Springs, - Thousands of years they lie without waking. - - In infinite succession light and darkness shift, - And years vanish like the morning dew. - Man's life is like a sojourning, - His longevity lacks the firmness of stone and metal. - For ever it has been that mourners in their turn were mourned, - Saint and Sage,--all alike are trapped. - Seeking by food to obtain Immortality - Many have been the dupe of strange drugs. - Better far to drink good wine - And clothe our bodies in robes of satin and silk. - -(13) CONTINUATION OF (12) - - The dead are gone and with them we cannot converse. - The living are here and ought to have our love. - Leaving the city-gate I look ahead - And see before me only mounds and tombs. - The old graves are ploughed up into fields, - The pines and cypresses are hewn for timber. - In the white aspens sad winds sing; - Their long murmuring kills my heart with grief. - I want to go home, to ride to my village gate. - I want to go back, but there's no road back. - -(14) - - The years of a lifetime do not reach a hundred. - Yet they contain a thousand years' sorrow. - When days are short and the dull nights long, - Why not take a lamp and wander forth? - If you want to be happy you must do it now, - There is no waiting till an after-time. - The fool who's loath to spend the wealth he's got - Becomes the laughing-stock of after ages. - It is true that Master Wang became immortal, - But how can _we_ hope to share his lot? - -(15) - - Cold, cold the year draws to its end, - The crickets and grasshoppers make a doleful chirping. - The chill wind increases its violence. - My wandering love has no coat to cover him. - He gave his embroidered furs to the Lady of Lo, - But from me his bedfellow he is quite estranged. - Sleeping alone in the depth of the long night - In a dream I thought I saw the light of his face. - My dear one thought of our old joys together, - He came in his chariot and gave me the front reins. - I wanted so to prolong our play and laughter, - To hold his hand and go back with him in his coach. - But, when he had come he would not stay long - Nor stop to go with me to the Inner Chamber. - Truly without the falcon's wings to carry me - How can I rival the flying wind's swiftness? - I go and lean at the gate and think of my grief, - My falling tears wet the double gates. - -(16) - - At the beginning of winter a cold spirit comes, - The North Wind blows--chill, chill. - My sorrows being many, I know the length of the nights, - Raising my head I look at the stars in their places. - On the fifteenth day the bright moon is full, - On the twentieth day the "toad and hare" wane.[17] - A stranger came to me from a distant land - And brought me a single scroll with writing on it; - At the top of the scroll was written "Do not forget," - At the bottom was written "Goodbye for Ever." - I put the letter away in the folds of my dress, - For three years the writing did not fade. - How with an undivided heart I loved you - I fear that you will never know or guess. - -[17] The "toad and hare" correspond to our "man in the moon." The waning -of the moon symbolizes the waning of the lover's affection. - -(17) - - The bright moon, oh, how white it shines, - Shines down on the gauze curtains of my bed. - Racked by sorrow I toss and cannot sleep. - Picking up my clothes, I wander up and down. - My absent love says that he is happy, - But I would rather he said he was coming back. - Out in the courtyard I stand hesitating, alone. - To whom can I tell the sad thoughts I think? - Staring before me I enter my room again; - Falling tears wet my mantle and robe. - - -THE AUTUMN WIND - -By Wu-ti (157-87 B.C.), sixth emperor of the Han dynasty. He came to the -throne when he was only sixteen. In this poem he regrets that he is -obliged to go on an official journey, leaving his mistress behind in the -capital. He is seated in his state barge surrounded by his ministers. - - Autumn wind rises: white clouds fly. - Grass and trees wither: geese go south. - Orchids all in bloom: chrysanthemums smell sweet. - I think of my lovely lady: I never can forget. - Floating-pagoda boat crosses Fen River. - Across the mid-stream white waves rise - Flute and drum keep time to sound of the rowers' song; - Amidst revel and feasting, sad thoughts come; - Youth's years how few! Age how sure! - - -LI FU-JEN - - The sound of her silk skirt has stopped. - On the marble pavement dust grows. - Her empty room is cold and still. - Fallen leaves are piled against the doors. - Longing for that lovely lady - How can I bring my aching heart to rest? - -The above poem was written by Wu-ti when his mistress, Li Fu-jen, died. -Unable to bear his grief, he sent for wizards from all parts of China, -hoping that they would be able to put him into communication with her -spirit. At last one of them managed to project her shape on to a -curtain. The emperor cried: - - Is it or isn't it? - I stand and look. - The swish, swish of a silk skirt. - How slow she comes! - - -SONG OF SNOW-WHITE HEADS - -Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju was a young poet who had lost his position at court -owing to ill-health. One day Cho Wen-chuen, a rich man's daughter, heard -him singing at a feast given by her father. She eloped with him that -night, and they set up a wine-shop together. After a time Hsiang-ju -became famous as a poet, but his character was marred by love of money. -He sold love-poems, which the ladies of the palace sent to the emperor -in order to win his favour. Finally, he gave presents to the "ladies of -Mo-ling," hoping to secure a concubine. It was this step that induced -his mistress, Cho Wen-chuen, to write the following poem. - - Our love was pure - As the snow on the mountains: - White as a moon - Between the clouds-- - They're telling me - Your thoughts are double - That's why I've come - To break it off. - To-day we'll drink - A cup of wine. - To-morrow we'll part - Beside the Canal: - Walking about - Beside the Canal, - Where its branches divide - East and west. - Alas and alas, - And again alas. - So must a girl - Cry when she's married, - If she find not a man - Of single heart, - Who will not leave her - Till her hair is white. - - -TO HIS WIFE - -By General Su Wu (_circa_ 100 B.C.) - - Since our hair was plaited and we became man and wife - The love between us was never broken by doubt. - So let us be merry this night together, - Feasting and playing while the good time lasts. - - * * * * * - - I suddenly remember the distance that I must travel; - I spring from bed and look out to see the time. - The stars and planets are all grown dim in the sky; - Long, long is the road; I cannot stay. - I am going on service, away to the battle-ground, - And I do not know when I shall come back. - I hold your hand with only a deep sigh; - Afterwards, tears--in the days when we are parted. - With all your might enjoy the spring flowers, - But do not forget the time of our love and pride. - Know that if I live, I will come back again, - And if I die, we will go on thinking of each other. - - -LI LING - -(Parting from Su Wu) - - The good time will never come back again: - In a moment,--our parting will be over. - Anxiously--we halt at the road-side, - Hesitating--we embrace where the fields begin. - The clouds above are floating across the sky: - Swiftly, swiftly passing: or blending together. - The waves in the wind lose their fixed place - And are rolled away each to a corner of Heaven. - From now onwards--long must be our parting. - So let us stop again for a little while. - I wish I could ride on the wings of the morning wind - And go with you right to your journey's end. - -Li Ling and Su Wu were both prisoners in the land of the Huns. After -nineteen years Su Wu was released. Li Ling would not go back with him. -When invited to do so, he got up and danced, singing: - - I came ten thousand leagues - Across sandy deserts - In the service of my Prince, - To break the Hun tribes. - My way was blocked and barred, - My arrows and sword broken. - My armies had faded away, - My reputation had gone. - - * * * * * - - My old mother is long dead. - Although I want to requite my Prince - How can I return? - - -LAMENT OF HSI-CHUeN - -About the year 110 B.C. a Chinese Princess named Hsi-chuen was sent, for -political reasons, to be the wife of a central Asian nomad king, K'un -Mo, king of the Wu-sun. When she got there, she found her husband old -and decrepit. He only saw her once or twice a year, when they drank a -cup of wine together. They could not converse, as they had no language -in common. - - My people have married me - In a far corner of Earth: - Sent me away to a strange land, - To the king of the Wu-sun. - A tent is my house, - Of felt are my walls; - Raw flesh my food - With mare's milk to drink. - Always thinking of my own country, - My heart sad within. - Would I were a yellow stork - And could fly to my old home! - - -CH'IN CHIA - -Ch'in Chia (first century A.D.) was summoned to take up an appointment -at the capital at a time when his wife was ill and staying with her -parents. He was therefore unable to say goodbye to her, and sent her -three poems instead. This is the last of the three. - - Solemn, solemn the coachman gets ready to go: - "Chiang, chiang" the harness bells ring. - At break of dawn I must start on my long journey: - At cock-crow I must gird on my belt. - I turn back and look at the empty room: - For a moment I almost think I see you there. - One parting, but ten thousand regrets: - As I take my seat, my heart is unquiet. - What shall I do to tell you all my thoughts? - How can I let you know of all my love? - Precious hairpins make the head to shine - And bright mirrors can reflect beauty. - Fragrant herbs banish evil smells - And the scholar's harp has a clear note. - The man in the Book of Odes[18] who was given a quince - Wanted to pay it back with diamonds and rubies. - When I think of all the things you have done for me, - How ashamed I am to have done so little for you! - Although I know that it is a poor return, - All I can give you is this description of my feelings. - -[18] Odes, v, 10. - - -CH'IN CHIA'S WIFE'S REPLY - - My poor body is alas unworthy: - I was ill when first you brought me home. - Limp and weary in the house-- - Time passed and I got no better. - We could hardly ever see each other: - I could not serve you as I ought. - Then you received the Imperial Mandate: - You were ordered to go far away to the City. - Long, long must be our parting: - I was not destined to tell you my thoughts. - I stood on tiptoe gazing into the distance, - Interminably gazing at the road that had taken you. - With thoughts of you my mind is obsessed: - In my dreams I see the light of your face. - Now you are started on your long journey - Each day brings you further from me. - Oh that I had a bird's wings - And high flying could follow you. - Long I sob and long I cry: - The tears fall down and wet my skirt. - - -SONG - -By Sung Tzu-hou (second century A.D.) - - On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yang - At the edge of the road peach-trees and plum-trees grow; - On the two sides,--flower matched by flower; - Across the road,--leaf touching leaf. - - A spring wind rises from the north-east; - Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway. - Up the road somebody's daughter comes - Carrying a basket, to gather silkworms' food. - - (_She sees the fruit trees in blossom and, forgetting about her - silkworms, begins to pluck the branches._) - - With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree; - The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind. - -_The tree says:_ - - "Lovely lady, I never did you harm; - Why should you hate me and do me injury?" - -_The lady answers:_ - - "At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moons - When the white dew changes to hoar-frost, - At the year's end the wind would have lashed your boughs, - Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long. - Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground, - When spring comes, your gay bloom returns. - But in men's lives when their bright youth is spent - Joy and love never come back again." - - - - -CHAPTER II - - -SATIRE ON PAYING CALLS IN AUGUST - -By Ch'eng Hsiao (_circa_ A.D. 250) - - - When I was young, throughout the hot season - There were no carriages driving about the roads. - People shut their doors and lay down in the cool: - Or if they went out, it was not to pay calls. - Nowadays--ill-bred, ignorant fellows, - When they feel the heat, make for a friend's house. - The unfortunate host, when he hears someone coming - Scowls and frowns, but can think of no escape. - "There's nothing for it but to rise and go to the door," - And in his comfortable seat he groans and sighs. - - * * * * * - - The conversation does not end quickly: - Prattling and babbling, what a lot he says! - Only when one is almost dead with fatigue - He asks at last if one isn't finding him tiring. - (One's arm is almost in half with continual fanning: - The sweat is pouring down one's neck in streams.) - Do not say that this is a small matter: - I consider the practice a blot on our social life. - I therefore caution all wise men - That August visitors should not be admitted. - - -ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER - -By Wei Wen-ti, son of Ts'ao Ts'ao, who founded the dynasty of Wei, and -died in A.D. 220. (The poem has been wrongly attributed to Han Wen-ti, -died 157 B.C.) - - I look up and see / his curtains and bed: - I look down and examine / his table and mat. - The things are there / just as before. - But the man they belonged to / is not there. - His spirit suddenly / has taken flight - And left me behind / far away. - To whom shall I look / on whom rely? - My tears flow / in an endless stream. - "Yu, yu" / cry the wandering deer - As they carry fodder / to their young in the wood. - Flap, flap / fly the birds - As they carry their little ones / back to the nest. - I alone / am desolate - Dreading the days / of our long parting: - My grieving heart's / settled pain - No one else / can understand. - There is a saying / among people - "Sorrow makes us / grow old." - Alas, alas / for my white hairs! - All too early / they have come! - Long wailing, / long sighing - My thoughts are fixed on my sage parent. - They say the good / live long: - Then why was he / not spared? - - -THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WU - -TWO POEMS - -By Wei Wen-ti (A.D. 188-227) - -(1) - - My charioteer hastens to yoke my carriage, - For I must go on a journey far away. - "Where are you going on your journey far away?" - To the land of Wu where my enemies are. - But I must ride many thousand miles, - Beyond the Eastern Road that leads to Wu. - Between the rivers bitter winds blow, - Swiftly flow the waters of Huai and Ssu. - I want to take a skiff and cross these rivers, - But alas for me, where shall I find a boat? - To sit idle is not my desire: - Gladly enough would I go to my country's aid. - -(2) - -(_He abandons the campaign_) - - In the North-west there is a floating cloud - Stretched on high, like a chariot's canvas-awning. - Alas that I was born in these times, - To be blown along like a cloud puffed by the wind! - It has blown me away far to the South-east, - On and on till I came to Wu-hui. - Wu-hui is not my country: - Why should I go on staying and staying here? - I will give it up and never speak of it again,-- - This being abroad and always living in dread. - - -THE RUINS OF LO-YANG - -By Ts'ao Chih (A.D. 192-233), third son of Ts'ao Ts'ao. He was a great -favourite with his father till he made a mistake in a campaign. In this -poem he returns to look at the ruins of Lo-yang, where he used to live. -It had been sacked by Tung Cho. - - I climb to the ridge of Pei Mang Mountain - And look down on the city of Lo-yang. - In Lo-yang how still it is! - Palaces and houses all burnt to ashes. - Walls and fences all broken and gaping, - Thorns and brambles shooting up to the sky. - I do not see the old old-men: - I only see the new young men. - I turn aside, for the straight road is lost: - The fields are overgrown and will never be ploughed again. - I have been away such a long time - That I do not know which street is which. - How sad and ugly the empty moors are! - A thousand miles without the smoke of a chimney. - I think of the house I lived in all those years: - I am heart-tied and cannot speak. - -The above poem vaguely recalls a famous Anglo-Saxon fragment which I -will make intelligible by semi-translation: - - "Wondrous was the wall-stone, - Weirdly[19] broken; - Burgh-steads bursten, - Giants' work tumbleth, - Roofs are wrenched, - Towers totter, - Bereft of rune-gates. - Smoke is on the plaster, - Scarred the shower-burghs, - Shorn and shattered, - By eld under-eaten. - Earth's grip haveth - Wealders[20] and workmen." - -[19] By Fate. - -[20] Rulers. - - -THE COCK-FIGHT - -By Ts'ao Chih - - Our wandering eyes are sated with the dancer's skill. - Our ears are weary with the sound of "kung" and "shang."[21] - Our host is silent and sits doing nothing: - All the guests go on to places of amusement. - - * * * * * - - On long benches the sportsmen sit ranged - Round a cleared room, watching the fighting-cocks. - The gallant birds are all in battle-trim: - They raise their tails and flap defiantly. - Their beating wings stir the calm air: - Their angry eyes gleam with a red light. - Where their beaks have struck, the fine feathers are scattered: - With their strong talons they wound again and again. - Their long cries enter the blue clouds; - Their flapping wings tirelessly beat and throb. - "Pray God the lamp-oil lasts a little longer, - Then I shall not leave without winning the match!" - -[21] Notes of the scale. - - -A VISION - -By Ts'ao Chih - - In the Nine Provinces there is not room enough: - I want to soar high among the clouds, - And, far beyond the Eight Limits of the compass, - Cast my gaze across the unmeasured void. - I will wear as my gown the red mists of sunrise, - And as my skirt the white fringes of the clouds: - My canopy--the dim lustre of Space: - My chariot--six dragons mounting heavenward: - And before the light of Time has shifted a pace - Suddenly stand upon the World's blue rim. - The doors of Heaven swing open, - The double gates shine with a red light. - I roam and linger in the palace of Wen-ch'ang,[22] - I climb up to the hall of T'ai-wei.[22] - The Lord God lies at his western lattice: - And the lesser Spirits are together in the eastern gallery. - They wash me in a bath of rainbow-spray - And gird me with a belt of jasper and rubies. - I wander at my ease gathering divine herbs: - I bend down and touch the scented flowers. - Wang-tzu[23] gives me drugs of long-life - And Hsien-men[23] hands me strange potions. - By the partaking of food I evade the rites of Death: - My span is extended to the enjoyment of life everlasting. - -[22] Stars. - -[23] Immortals. - - -THE CURTAIN OF THE WEDDING BED - -By Liu Hsuen's wife (third century A.D.). - -After she had been married to him for a long while, General Liu Hsuen -sent his wife back to her home, because he had fallen in love with a -girl of the Ssu-ma family. - - Flap, flap, you curtain in front of our bed! - I hung you there to screen us from the light of day. - I brought you with me when I left my father's house; - Now I am taking you back with me again. - I will fold you up and lay you flat in your box. - Curtain--shall I ever take you out again? - - -REGRET - -By Yuean Chi (A.D. 210-263) - - When I was young I learnt fencing - And was better at it than Crooked Castle.[24] - My spirit was high as the rolling clouds - And my fame resounded beyond the World. - I took my sword to the desert sands, - I drank my horse at the Nine Moors. - My flags and banners flapped in the wind, - And nothing was heard but the song of my drums. - - * * * * * - - War and its travels have made me sad, - And a fierce anger burns within me: - It's thinking of how I've wasted my time - That makes this fury tear my heart. - -[24] A famous general. - - -TAOIST SONG - -By Chi K'ang (A.D. 223-262) - - I will cast out Wisdom and reject Learning. - My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void (_bis_). - Always repenting of wrongs done - Will never bring my heart to rest. - I cast my hook in a single stream; - But my joy is as though I possessed a Kingdom. - I loose my hair and go singing; - To the four frontiers men join in my refrain. - This is the purport of my song: - "My thoughts shall wander in the Great Void." - - -A GENTLE WIND - -By Fu Hsuean (died A.D. 278) - - A gentle wind fans the calm night: - A bright moon shines on the high tower. - A voice whispers, but no one answers when I call: - A shadow stirs, but no one comes when I beckon. - The kitchen-man brings in a dish of lentils: - Wine is there, but I do not fill my cup. - Contentment with poverty is Fortune's best gift: - Riches and Honour are the handmaids of Disaster. - Though gold and gems by the world are sought and prized, - To me they seem no more than weeds or chaff. - - -WOMAN - -By Fu Hsuean - - How sad it is to be a woman! - Nothing on earth is held so cheap. - Boys stand leaning at the door - Like Gods fallen out of Heaven. - Their hearts brave the Four Oceans, - The wind and dust of a thousand miles. - No one is glad when a girl is born: - By _her_ the family sets no store. - When she grows up, she hides in her room - Afraid to look a man in the face. - No one cries when she leaves her home-- - Sudden as clouds when the rain stops. - She bows her head and composes her face, - Her teeth are pressed on her red lips: - She bows and kneels countless times. - She must humble herself even to the servants. - _His_ love is distant as the stars in Heaven, - Yet the sunflower bends toward the sun. - Their hearts more sundered than water and fire-- - A hundred evils are heaped upon her. - Her face will follow the years' changes: - Her lord will find new pleasures. - They that were once like substance and shadow - Are now as far as Hu from Ch'in.[25] - Yet Hu and Ch'in shall sooner meet - Than they whose parting is like Ts'an and Ch'en.[26] - -[25] Two lands. - -[26] Two stars. - - -DAY DREAMS - -By Tso Ssu (third century A.D.) - - When I was young I played with a soft brush - And was passionately devoted to reading all sorts of books. - In prose I made Chia I my standard: - In verse I imitated Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju. - But then the arrows began singing at the frontier. - And a winged summons came flying to the City. - Although arms were not my profession, - I had once read Jang-Chu's war-book. - I shouted aloud and my cries rent the air: - I felt as though Tung Wu were already annihilated. - The scholar's knife cuts best at its first use - And my dreams hurried on to the completion of my plan. - I wanted at a stroke to clear the Yang-tze and Hsiang, - And at a glance to quell the Tibetans and Hu. - When my task was done, I should not accept a barony, - But refusing with a bow, retire to a cottage in the country. - - -THE SCHOLAR IN THE NARROW STREET - -By Tso Ssu - - Flap, flap, the captive bird in the cage - Beating its wings against the four corners. - Depressed, depressed the scholar in the narrow street: - Clasping a shadow, he dwells in an empty house. - When he goes out, there is nowhere for him to go: - Bunches and brambles block up his path. - He composes a memorial, but it is rejected and unread, - He is left stranded, like a fish in a dry pond. - Without--he has not a single farthing of salary: - Within--there is not a peck of grain in his larder. - His relations upbraid him for his lack of success: - His friends and callers daily decrease in number. - Su Ch'in used to go preaching in the North - And Li Ssu sent a memorandum to the West. - I once hoped to pluck the fruits of life: - But now alas, they are all withered and dry. - Though one drinks at a river, one cannot drink more than a bellyful; - Enough is good, but there is no use in satiety. - The bird in a forest can perch but on one bough, - And this should be the wise man's pattern. - - -THE DESECRATION OF THE HAN TOMBS - -By Chang Tsai (third century A.D.) - - At Pei-mang how they rise to Heaven, - Those high mounds, four or five in the fields! - What men lie buried under these tombs? - All of them were Lords of the Han world. - "Kung" and "Wen"[27] gaze across at each other: - The Yuean mound is all grown over with weeds. - When the dynasty was falling, tumult and disorder arose, - Thieves and robbers roamed like wild beasts. - Of earth[28] they have carried away more than one handful, - They have gone into vaults and opened the secret doors. - Jewelled scabbards lie twisted and defaced: - The stones that were set in them, thieves have carried away, - The ancestral temples are hummocks in the ground: - The walls that went round them are all levelled flat. - Over everything the tangled thorns are growing: - A herd-boy pushes through them up the path. - Down in the thorns rabbits have made their burrows: - The weeds and thistles will never be cleared away. - Over the tombs the ploughshare will be driven - And peasants will have their fields and orchards there. - They that were once lords of a thousand hosts - Are now become the dust of the hills and ridges. - I think of what Yuen-men[29] said - And am sorely grieved at the thought of "then" and "now." - -[27] Names of two tombs. - -[28] In the early days of the dynasty a man stole a handful of earth -from the imperial tombs, and was executed by the police. The emperor was -furious at the lightness of the punishment. - -[29] Yuen-men said to Meng Ch'ang-chuen (died 279 B.C.), "Does it not -grieve you to think that after a hundred years this terrace will be cast -down and this pond cleared away?" Meng Ch'ang-chuen wept. - - -BEARER'S SONG - -By Miu Hsi (died A.D. 245). _Cf._ the "Han Burial Songs," p. 38. - - When I was alive, I wandered in the streets of the Capital: - Now that I am dead, I am left to lie in the fields. - In the morning I drove out from the High Hall: - In the evening I lodged beneath the Yellow Springs.[30] - When the white sun had sunk in the Western Chasm - I hung up my chariot and rested my four horses. - Now, even the mighty Maker of All - Could not bring the life back to my limbs. - Shape and substance day by day will vanish: - Hair and teeth will gradually fall away. - Forever from of old men have been so: - And none born can escape this thing. - -[30] Hades. - - -THE VALLEY WIND - -By Lu Yuen (fourth century A.D.) - - Living in retirement beyond the World, - Silently enjoying isolation, - I pull the rope of my door tighter - And stuff my window with roots and ferns. - My spirit is tuned to the Spring-season: - At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart. - Thus imitating cosmic changes - My cottage becomes a Universe. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -POEMS BY T'AO CH'IEN - - -(1) - - Shady, shady the wood in front of the Hall: - At midsummer full of calm shadows. - The south wind follows summer's train: - With its eddying-puffs it blows open my coat. - I am free from ties and can live a life of retirement. - When I rise from sleep, I play with books and harp. - The lettuce in the garden still grows moist: - Of last year's grain there is always plenty left. - Self-support should maintain strict limits: - More than enough is not what I want. - I grind millet and make good wine: - When the wine is heated, I pour it out for myself. - My little children are playing at my side, - Learning to talk, they babble unformed sounds. - These things have made me happy again - And I forget my lost cap of office. - Distant, distant I gaze at the white clouds: - With a deep yearning I think of the Sages of Antiquity. - - -(2) - - In the quiet of the morning I heard a knock at my door: - I threw on my clothes and opened it myself. - I asked who it was who had come so early to see me: - He said he was a peasant, coming with good intent. - He brought a present of wine and rice-soup, - Believing that I had fallen on evil days. - "You live in rags under a thatched roof - And seem to have no desire for a better lot. - The rest of mankind have all the same ambitions: - You, too, must learn to wallow in their mire." - "Old man, I am impressed by what you say, - But my soul is not fashioned like other men's. - To drive in their rut I might perhaps learn: - To be untrue to myself could only lead to muddle. - Let us drink and enjoy together the wine you have brought: - For my course is set and cannot now be altered." - - -(3) - - A long time ago - I went on a journey, - Right to the corner - Of the Eastern Ocean. - The road there - Was long and winding, - And stormy waves - Barred my path. - What made me - Go this way? - Hunger drove me - Into the World. - I tried hard - To fill my belly: - And even a little - Seemed a lot. - But this was clearly - A bad bargain, - So I went home - And lived in idleness. - - -(4) - -SUBSTANCE, SHADOW, AND SPIRIT - - High and low, wise and simple, all busily hoard up the - moments of life. How greatly they err! - - Therefore I have to the uttermost exposed the bitterness - both of Substance and Shadow, and have made - Spirit show how, by following Nature, we may dissolve - this bitterness. - -_Substance speaks to Shadow_: - - Heaven and Earth exist for ever: - Mountains and rivers never change. - But herbs and trees in perpetual rotation - Are renovated and withered by the dews and frosts: - And Man the wise, Man the divine-- - Shall he alone escape this law? - Fortuitously appearing for a moment in the World - He suddenly departs, never to return. - How can he know that the friends he has left - Are missing him and thinking of him? - Only the things that he used remain; - They look upon them and their tears flow. - Me no magical arts can save, - Though you may hope for a wizard's aid. - I beg you listen to this advice-- - When you can get wine, be sure to drink it. - -_Shadow replies_: - - There is no way to preserve life. - Drugs of Immortality are instruments of folly. - I would gladly wander in Paradise, - But it is far away and there is no road. - Since the day that I was joined to you - We have shared all our joys and pains. - While you rested in the shade, I left you a while: - But till the end we shall be together. - Our joint existence is impermanent: - Sadly together we shall slip away. - That when the body decays Fame should also go - Is a thought unendurable, burning the heart. - Let us strive and labour while yet we may - To do some deed that men will praise. - Wine may in truth dispel our sorrow, - But how compare it with lasting Fame? - -_Spirit expounds_: - - God can only set in motion: - He cannot control the things he has made. - Man, the second of the Three Orders, - Owes his precedence to Me. - Though I am different from you, - We were born involved in one another: - Nor by any means can we escape - The intimate sharing of good and ill. - The Three Emperors were saintly men, - Yet to-day--where are they? - P'eng[31] lived to a great age, - Yet he went at last, when he longed to stay. - And late or soon, all go: - Wise and simple have no reprieve. - Wine may bring forgetfulness, - But does it not hasten old-age? - If you set your heart on noble deeds, - How do you know that any will praise you? - By all this thinking you do Me injury: - You had better go where Fate leads-- - Drift on the Stream of Infinite Flux, - Without joy, without fear: - When you must go--then go, - And make as little fuss as you can. - -[31] The Chinese Methuselah. - - -(5) - - Chill and harsh the year draws to its close: - In my cotton dress I seek sunlight on the porch. - In the southern orchard all the leaves are gone: - In the north garden rotting boughs lie heaped. - I empty my cup and drink it down to the dregs: - I look towards the kitchen, but no smoke rises. - Poems and books lie piled beside my chair: - But the light is going and I shall not have time to read them. - My life here is not like the Agony in Ch'en,[32] - But often I have to bear bitter reproaches. - Let me then remember, to calm my heart's distress, - That the Sages of old were often in like case. - -[32] Confucius was maltreated in Ch'en. - - -(6) - -BLAMING SONS - -(AN APOLOGY FOR HIS OWN DRUNKENNESS) - - White hair covers my temples, - I am wrinkled and seared beyond repair, - And though I have got five sons, - They all hate paper and brush. - A-shu is eighteen: - For laziness there is none like him. - A-hsuean does his best, - But really loathes the Fine Arts. - Yung-tuan is thirteen. - But does not know "six" from "seven."[33] - T'ung-tzu in his ninth year - Is only concerned with things to eat. - If Heaven treats me like this, - What can I do but fill my cup? - -[33] Written in Chinese with two characters very easy to distinguish. - - -(7) - - I built my hut in a zone of human habitation, - Yet near me there sounds no noise of horse or coach. - Would you know how that is possible? - A heart that is distant creates a wilderness round it. - I pluck chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge, - Then gaze long at the distant summer hills. - The mountain air is fresh at the dusk of day: - The flying birds two by two return. - In these things there lies a deep meaning; - Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail us. - - -(8) - -MOVING HOUSE - - My old desire to live in the Southern Village - Was not because I had taken a fancy to the house. - But I heard it was a place of simple-minded men - With whom it were a joy to spend the mornings and evenings. - Many years I had longed to settle here: - Now at last I have managed to move house. - I do not mind if my cottage is rather small - So long as there's room enough for bed and mat. - Often and often the neighbours come to see me - And with brave words discuss the things of old. - Rare writings we read together and praise: - Doubtful meanings we examine together and settle. - - -(9) - -RETURNING TO THE FIELDS - - When I was young, I was out of tune with the herd: - My only love was for the hills and mountains. - Unwitting I fell into the Web of the World's dust - And was not free until my thirtieth year. - The migrant bird longs for the old wood: - The fish in the tank thinks of its native pool. - I had rescued from wildness a patch of the Southern Moor - And, still rustic, I returned to field and garden. - My ground covers no more than ten acres: - My thatched cottage has eight or nine rooms. - Elms and willows cluster by the eaves: - Peach trees and plum trees grow before the Hall. - Hazy, hazy the distant hamlets of men. - Steady the smoke of the half-deserted village, - A dog barks somewhere in the deep lanes, - A cock crows at the top of the mulberry tree. - At gate and courtyard--no murmur of the World's dust: - In the empty rooms--leisure and deep stillness. - Long I lived checked by the bars of a cage: - Now I have turned again to Nature and Freedom. - - -(10) - -READING THE BOOK OF HILLS AND SEAS - - In the month of June the grass grows high - And round my cottage thick-leaved branches sway. - There is not a bird but delights in the place where it rests: - And I too--love my thatched cottage. - I have done my ploughing: - I have sown my seed. - Again I have time to sit and read my books. - In the narrow lane there are no deep ruts: - Often my friends' carriages turn back. - In high spirits I pour out my spring wine - And pluck the lettuce growing in my garden. - A gentle rain comes stealing up from the east - And a sweet wind bears it company. - My thoughts float idly over the story of King Chou - My eyes wander over the pictures of Hills and Seas. - At a single glance I survey the whole Universe. - He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please! - - -(11) - -FLOOD - - The lingering clouds, rolling, rolling, - And the settled rain, dripping, dripping, - In the Eight Directions--the same dusk. - The level lands--one great river. - Wine I have, wine I have: - Idly I drink at the eastern window. - Longingly--I think of my friends, - But neither boat nor carriage comes. - - -(12) - -NEW CORN - - Swiftly the years, beyond recall. - Solemn the stillness of this fair morning. - I will clothe myself in spring-clothing - And visit the slopes of the Eastern Hill. - By the mountain-stream a mist hovers, - Hovers a moment, then scatters. - There comes a wind blowing from the south - That brushes the fields of new corn. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - -INVITING GUESTS - -By Ch'eng-kung Sui (died A.D. 273) - - I sent out invitations - To summon guests. - I collected together - All my friends. - Loud talk - And simple feasting: - Discussion of philosophy, - Investigation of subtleties. - Tongues loosened - And minds at one. - Hearts refreshed - By discharge of emotion! - - -CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN - -By Tao-yuen (_circa_ A.D. 400), wife of General Wang Ning-chih. The -general was so stupid that she finally deserted him. - - High rises the Eastern Peak - Soaring up to the blue sky. - Among the rocks--an empty hollow, - Secret, still, mysterious! - Uncarved and unhewn, - Screened by nature with a roof of clouds. - Times and Seasons, what things are you - Bringing to my life ceaseless change? - I will lodge for ever in this hollow - Where Springs and Autumns unheeded pass. - - -SAILING HOMEWARD - -By Chan Fang-sheng (fourth century A.D.) - - Cliffs that rise a thousand feet - Without a break, - Lake that stretches a hundred miles - Without a wave, - Sands that are white through all the year, - Without a stain, - Pine-tree woods, winter and summer - Ever-green, - Streams that for ever flow and flow - Without a pause, - Trees that for twenty thousand years - Your vows have kept, - You have suddenly healed the pain of a traveller's heart, - And moved his brush to write a new song. - - -FIVE "TZU-YEH" SONGS - - At the time when blossoms - Fall from the cherry-tree: - On a day when yellow birds - Hovered in the branches-- - You said you must stop, - Because your horse was tired: - I said I must go, - Because my silkworms were hungry. - - All night I could not sleep - Because of the moonlight on my bed. - I kept on hearing a voice calling: - Out of Nowhere, Nothing answered "yes." - - I will carry my coat and not put on my belt; - With unpainted eyebrows I will stand at the front window. - My tiresome petticoat keeps on flapping about; - If it opens a little, I shall blame the spring wind. - - I heard my love was going to Yang-chou - And went with him as far as Ch'u-shan. - For a moment when you held me fast in your outstretched arms - I thought the river stood still and did not flow. - - I have brought my pillow and am lying at the northern window, - So come to me and play with me awhile. - With so much quarrelling and so few kisses - How long do you think our love can last? - - -THE LITTLE LADY OF CH'ING-HSI - -(A CHILDREN'S SONG) - - Her door opened on the white water - Close by the side of the timber bridge: - That's where the little lady lived - All alone without a lover. - - -PLUCKING THE RUSHES - -(A BOY AND GIRL ARE SENT TO GATHER RUSHES FOR THATCHING) - -Anon. (fourth century) - - Green rushes with red shoots, - Long leaves bending to the wind-- - You and I in the same boat - Plucking rushes at the Five Lakes. - We started at dawn from the orchid-island: - We rested under the elms till noon. - You and I plucking rushes - Had not plucked a handful when night came! - - -BALLAD OF THE WESTERN ISLAND IN THE NORTH COUNTRY - - "Seeing the plum-tree I thought of the Western Island - And I plucked a branch to send to the North Country. - I put on my dress of apricot-yellow silk - And bound up my hair black as the crow's wing. - But which is the road that leads to the Western Island? - I'll ask the man at the ferry by the Bridge of Boats. - But the sun is sinking and the orioles flying home: - And the wind is blowing and sighing in the walnut-tree. - I'll stand under the tree just beside the gate: - I'll stand by the door and show off my enamelled hair-pins." - She's opened the gate, but her lover has not come: - She's gone out at the gate to pluck red lotus. - As she plucks the lotus on the southern dyke in autumn, - The lotus flowers stand higher than a man's head. - She bends down--and plays with the lotus seeds, - The lotus seeds are green like the lake-water. - She gathers the flowers and puts them into her gown-- - The lotus-bud that is red all through. - She thinks of her lover, her lover that does not come: - She looks up and sees the wild geese flying-- - The Western Island is full of wild geese. - To look for her lover she climbs the Blue Tower. - The tower is high: she looks, but cannot see: - All day she leans on the balcony rails. - The rail is twisted into a twelve-fold pattern. - 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 Yuean (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 Wen-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 Yuean-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 Wen-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 Hsue 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'en Tzu-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 Yuean Chieh (flourished _circa_ A.D. 740-770). - - Yuean 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 Yuean Chieh - - To the south-east--three thousand leagues-- - The Yuean 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'en Tzu-lung was born in 1607. He became a soldier, and in 1637 -defeated the rebel, Hsue 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 CHUe-I - -(A.D. 772-846) - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Po Chue-i was born at T'ai-yuean 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 Yuean Chen, 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 Yuean 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, Yuean; - 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 Yuean'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'ue and Teng -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 Yu-hsi (called -Meng-te), and the two officials Li Chien and Ts'ui Hsuan-liang. In 805 -Yuean Chen was banished for provocative behaviour towards a high -official. The T'ang History relates the episode as follows: "Yuean 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-yuean also arrived. -Yuean Chen should have offered to withdraw from the Hall. He did not do -so and a scuffle ensued. Yuean, 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] Yuean 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 Chue-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; - Yuean Chen is banished to Ching-men. - 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-chen 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 Yuean-heng, was assassinated in broad daylight by an agent -of the revolutionary leader Wu Yuean-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. Chue-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 Hsuen-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 Yuean Chen 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 Yuean Chen 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. Chue-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. -Yuean 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-tzu, 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'en 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 Yuean Chen 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-men,[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 Yue-hsi, the last survivor of the four friends, and a constant -visitor at the monastery, "went to wander with Yuean Chen 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 Chue-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 Yuean Chen. 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'en Tzu-ang, which includes "Business Men." In Li -Po and Tu Fu he finds a deficiency of "feng" and "ya." The two terms are -borrowed from the Preface to the Odes. "Feng" 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 _lue-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 _Lue-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 Hsuen-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-yue 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 -_Lue-shih_. "The world," writes Po to Yuean Chen, "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. Yuean 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 No Play and has even -become a kind of Shinto 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'EN, 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'en Chue-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-MEN 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 Yuean Chen, 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'eng. - 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. - They have taken hold of this morning's thoughts - And carried them to yours, the night you wrote your letter. - The whole poem I read three times; - Each verse ten times I recite. - So precious to me are the fourscore words - That each letter changes into a bar of gold! - - -REJOICING AT THE ARRIVAL OF CH'EN HSIUNG - -(_Circa_ A.D. 812) - - When the yellow bird's note was almost stopped; - And half formed the green plum's fruit; - Sitting and grieving that spring things were over, - I rose and entered the Eastern Garden's gate. - I carried my cup and was dully drinking alone: - Suddenly I heard a knocking sound at the door. - Dwelling secluded, I was glad that someone had come; - How much the more, when I saw it was Ch'en Hsiung! - At ease and leisure,--all day we talked; - Crowding and jostling,--the feelings of many years. - How great a thing is a single cup of wine! - For it makes us tell the story of our whole lives. - - -GOLDEN BELLS - - When I was almost forty - I had a daughter whose name was Golden Bells. - Now it is just a year since she was born; - She is learning to sit and cannot yet talk. - Ashamed,--to find that I have not a sage's heart: - I cannot resist vulgar thoughts and feelings. - Henceforward I am tied to things outside myself: - My only reward,--the pleasure I am getting now. - If I am spared the grief of her dying young, - Then I shall have the trouble of getting her married. - My plan for retiring and going back to the hills - Must now be postponed for fifteen years! - - -REMEMBERING GOLDEN BELLS - - Ruined and ill,--a man of two score; - Pretty and guileless,--a girl of three. - Not a boy,--but, still better than nothing: - To soothe one's feeling,--from time to time a kiss! - There came a day,--they suddenly took her from me; - Her soul's shadow wandered I know not where. - And when I remember how just at the time she died - She lisped strange sounds, beginning to learn to talk, - _Then_ I know that the ties of flesh and blood - Only bind us to a load of grief and sorrow. - At last, by thinking of the time before she was born, - By thought and reason I drove the pain away. - Since my heart forgot her, many days have passed - And three times winter has changed to spring. - This morning, for a little, the old grief came back, - Because, in the road, I met her foster-nurse. - - -ILLNESS - - Sad, sad--lean with long illness; - Monotonous, monotonous--days and nights pass. - The summer trees have clad themselves in shade; - The autumn "lan"[51] already houses the dew. - The eggs that lay in the nest when I took to bed - Have changed into little birds and flown away. - The worm that then lay hidden in its hole - Has hatched into a cricket sitting on the tree. - The Four Seasons go on for ever and ever: - In all Nature nothing stops to rest - Even for a moment. Only the sick man's heart - Deep down still aches as of old! - -[51] The epidendrum. - - -THE DRAGON OF THE BLACK POOL - -A SATIRE - - Deep the waters of the Black Pool, coloured like ink; - They say a Holy Dragon lives there, whom men have never seen. - Beside the Pool they have built a shrine; the authorities have - established a ritual; - A dragon by itself remains a dragon, but men can make it a god. - Prosperity and disaster, rain and drought, plagues and pestilences-- - By the village people were all regarded as the Sacred Dragon's - doing. - They all made offerings of sucking-pig and poured libations of wine; - The morning prayers and evening gifts depended on a "medium's" - advice - - When the dragon comes, ah! - The wind stirs and sighs - Paper money thrown, ah! - Silk umbrellas waved. - When the dragon goes, ah! - The wind also--still. - Incense-fire dies, ah! - The cups and vessels are cold.[52] - -[52] Parody of a famous Han dynasty hymn. - - Meats lie stacked on the rocks of the Pool's shore; - Wine flows on the grass in front of the shrine. - I do not know, of all those offerings, how much the Dragon eats; - But the mice of the woods and the foxes of the hills are - continually drunk and sated. - Why are the foxes so lucky? - What have the sucking-pigs done, - That year by year _they_ should be killed, merely to glut the foxes? - That the foxes are robbing the Sacred Dragon and eating His - sucking-pig, - Beneath the nine-fold depths of His pool, does He know or not? - - -THE GRAIN TRIBUTE - -Written _circa_ 812, showing one of the poet's periods of retirement. -When the officials come to receive his grain-tribute, he remembers that -he is only giving back what he had taken during his years of office. -Salaries were paid partly in kind. - - There came an officer knocking by night at my door-- - In a loud voice demanding grain-tribute. - My house-servants dared not wait till the morning, - But brought candles and set them on the barn-floor. - Passed through the sieve, clean-washed as pearls, - A whole cart-load, thirty bushels of grain. - But still they cry that it is not paid in full: - With whips and curses they goad my servants and boys. - Once, in error, I entered public life; - I am inwardly ashamed that my talents were not sufficient. - In succession I occupied four official posts; - For doing nothing,--ten years' salary! - Often have I heard that saying of ancient men - That "good and ill follow in an endless chain." - And to-day it ought to set my heart at rest - To return to others the corn in my great barn. - - -THE PEOPLE OF TAO-CHOU - - In the land of Tao-chou - Many of the people are dwarfs; - The tallest of them never grow to more than three feet. - They were sold in the market as dwarf slaves and yearly sent to - Court; - Described as "an offering of natural products from the land of - Tao-chou." - A strange "offering of natural products"; I never heard of one yet - That parted men from those they loved, never to meet again! - Old men--weeping for their grandsons; mothers for their children! - One day--Yang Ch'eng came to govern the land; - He refused to send up dwarf slaves in spite of incessant mandates. - He replied to the Emperor "Your servant finds in the Six Canonical - Books - 'In offering products, one must offer what is there, and not what - isn't there' - On the waters and lands of Tao-chou, among all the things that live - I only find dwarfish _people_; no dwarfish _slaves_." - The Emperor's heart was deeply moved and he sealed and sent a scroll - "The yearly tribute of dwarfish slaves is henceforth annulled." - The people of Tao-chou, - Old ones and young ones, how great their joy! - Father with son and brother with brother henceforward kept together; - From that day for ever more they lived as free men. - The people of Tao-chou - Still enjoy this gift. - And even now when they speak of the Governor - Tears start to their eyes. - And lest their children and their children's children should forget - the Governor's name, - When boys are born the syllable "Yang" is often used in their - forename. - - -THE OLD HARP - - Of cord and cassia-wood is the harp compounded: - Within it lie ancient melodies. - Ancient melodies--weak and savourless, - Not appealing to present men's taste. - Light and colour are faded from the jade stops: - Dust has covered the rose-red strings. - Decay and ruin came to it long ago, - But the sound that is left is still cold and clear. - I do not refuse to play it, if you want me to: - But even if I play, people will not listen. - - * * * * * - - How did it come to be neglected so? - Because of the Ch'iang flute and the Ch'in flageolet.[53] - -[53] Barbarous modern instruments. - - -THE HARPER OF CHAO - - The singers have hushed their notes of clear song: - The red sleeves of the dancers are motionless. - Hugging his lute, the old harper of Chao - Rocks and sways as he touches the five chords. - The loud notes swell and scatter abroad: - "Sa, sa," like wind blowing the rain. - The soft notes dying almost to nothing: - "Ch'ieh, ch'ieh," like the voice of ghosts talking. - Now as glad as the magpie's lucky song: - Again bitter as the gibbon's ominous cry. - His ten fingers have no fixed note: - Up and down--"kung," chih, and yue.[54] - And those who sit and listen to the tune he plays - Of soul and body lose the mastery. - And those who pass that way as he plays the tune, - Suddenly stop and cannot raise their feet. - - Alas, alas that the ears of common men - Should love the modern and not love the old. - Thus it is that the harp in the green window - Day by day is covered deeper with dust. - -[54] Tonic, dominant and superdominant of the ancient five-note scale. - - -THE FLOWER MARKET - - In the Royal City spring is almost over: - Tinkle, tinkle--the coaches and horsemen pass. - We tell each other "This is the peony season": - And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market. - "Cheap and dear--no uniform price: - The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms. - For the fine flower,--a hundred pieces of damask: - For the cheap flower,--five bits of silk. - Above is spread an awning to protect them: - Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them. - If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud, - When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty." - Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom, - Man by man, no one realizing. - There happened to be an old farm labourer - Who came by chance that way. - He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh: - But this sigh nobody understood. - He was thinking, "A cluster of deep-red flowers - Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses." - - -THE PRISONER - -Written in A.D. 809 - - Tartars led in chains, - Tartars led in chains! - Their ears pierced, their faces bruised--they are driven into the - land of Ch'in. - The Son of Heaven took pity on them and would not have them slain. - He sent them away to the south-east, to the lands of Wu and Yueeh. - A petty officer in a yellow coat took down their names and surnames: - They were led from the city of Ch'ang-an under escort of an armed - guard. - Their bodies were covered with the wounds of arrows, their bones - stood out from their cheeks. - They had grown so weak they could only march a single stage a day. - In the morning they must satisfy hunger and thirst with neither - plate nor cup: - At night they must lie in their dirt and rags on beds that stank - with filth. - Suddenly they came to the Yangtze River and remembered the waters - of Chiao.[55] - With lowered hands and levelled voices they sobbed a muffled song. - Then one Tartar lifted up his voice and spoke to the other Tartars, - "_Your_ sorrows are none at all compared with _my_ sorrows." - Those that were with him in the same band asked to hear his tale: - As he tried to speak the words were choked by anger. - He told them "I was born and bred in the town of Liang-yuean.[56] - In the frontier wars of Ta-li[57] I fell into the Tartars' hands. - Since the days the Tartars took me alive forty years have passed: - They put me into a coat of skins tied with a belt of rope. - Only on the first of the first month might I wear my Chinese dress. - As I put on my coat and arranged my cap, how fast the tears flowed! - I made in my heart a secret vow I would find a way home: - I hid my plan from my Tartar wife and the children she had borne me - in the land. - I thought to myself, 'It is well for me that my limbs are still - strong,' - And yet, being old, in my heart I feared I should never live to - return. - The Tartar chieftains shoot so well that the birds are afraid to - fly: - From the risk of their arrows I escaped alive and fled swiftly home. - Hiding all day and walking all night, I crossed the Great Desert:[58] - Where clouds are dark and the moon black and the sands eddy in the - wind. - Frightened, I sheltered at the Green Grave,[59] where the frozen - grasses are few: - Stealthily I crossed the Yellow River, at night, on the thin ice, - Suddenly I heard Han[60] drums and the sound of soldiers coming: - I went to meet them at the road-side, bowing to them as they came. - But the moving horsemen did not hear that I spoke the Han tongue: - Their Captain took me for a Tartar born and had me bound in chains. - They are sending me away to the south-east, to a low and swampy - land: - No one now will take pity on me: resistance is all in vain. - Thinking of this, my voice chokes and I ask of Heaven above, - Was I spared from death only to spend the rest of my years in - sorrow? - My native village of Liang-yuean I shall not see again: - My wife and children in the Tartars' land I have fruitlessly - deserted. - When I fell among Tartars and was taken prisoner, I pined for the - land of Han: - Now that I am back in the land of Han, they have turned me into - a Tartar. - Had I but known what my fate would be, I would not have started - home! - For the two lands, so wide apart, are alike in the sorrow they - bring. - Tartar prisoners in chains! - Of all the sorrows of all the prisoners mine is the hardest to bear! - Never in the world has so great a wrong befallen the lot of man,-- - A Han heart and a Han tongue set in the body of a Turk." - -[55] In Turkestan. - -[56] North of Ch'ang-an. - -[57] The period Ta-li, A.D. 766-780. - -[58] The Gobi Desert. - -[59] The grave of Chao-chuen, a Chinese girl who in 33 B.C. was "bestowed -upon the Khan of the Hsiung-nu as a mark of Imperial regard" (Giles). -Hers was the only grave in this desolate district on which grass would -grow. - -[60] _I.e._, Chinese. - - -THE CHANCELLOR'S GRAVEL-DRIVE - -(A SATIRE ON THE MALTREATMENT OF SUBORDINATES) - - A Government-bull yoked to a Government-cart! - Moored by the bank of Ch'an River, a barge loaded with gravel. - A single load of gravel, - How many pounds it weighs! - Carrying at dawn, carrying at dusk, what is it all for? - They are carrying it towards the Five Gates, - To the West of the Main Road. - Under the shadow of green laurels they are making a gravel-drive. - For yesterday arrove, newly appointed, - The Assistant Chancellor of the Realm, - And was terribly afraid that the wet and mud - Would dirty his horse's hoofs. - The Chancellor's horse's hoofs - Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean; - But the bull employed in dragging the cart - Was almost sweating blood. - The Assistant Chancellor's business - Is to "save men, govern the country - And harmonize Yin and Yang."[61] - Whether the bull's neck is sore - Need not trouble him at all. - -[61] The negative and positive principles in nature. - - -THE MAN WHO DREAMED OF FAIRIES - -This poem is an attack on the Emperor Hsien-tsung, A.D. 806-820, who -"was devoted to magic." A Taoist wizard told him that herbs of longevity -grew near the city of T'ai-chou. The Emperor at once appointed him -prefect of the place, "pour lui permettre d'herboriser plus a son aise" -(Wieger, Textes III, 1723). When the censors protested, the Emperor -replied: "The ruin of a single district would be a small price to pay, -if it could procure longevity for the Lord of Men." - - There was once a man who dreamt he went to Heaven: - His dream-body soared aloft through space. - He rode on the back of a white-plumed crane, - And was led on his flight by two crimson banners. - Whirring of wings and flapping of coat tails! - Jade bells suddenly all a-tinkle! - Half way to Heaven, he looked down beneath him, - Down on the dark turmoil of the World. - Gradually he lost the place of his native town; - Mountains and water--nothing else distinct. - The Eastern Ocean--a single strip of white: - The Hills of China,--five specks of green. - Gliding past him a host of fairies swept - In long procession to the Palace of the Jade City. - How should he guess that the children of Tzu-men[62] - Bow to the throne like courtiers of earthly kings? - They take him to the presence of the Mighty Jade Emperor: - He bows his head and proffers loyal homage. - The Emperor says: "We see you have fairy talents: - Be of good heart and do not slight yourself. - We shall send to fetch you in fifteen years - And give you a place in the Courtyard of Immortality." - Twice bowing, he acknowledged the gracious words: - Then woke from sleep, full of wonder and joy. - He hid his secret and dared not tell it abroad: - But vowed a vow he would live in a cave of rock. - From love and affection he severed kith and kin: - From his eating and drinking he omitted savoury and spice. - His morning meal was a dish of coral-dust: - At night he sipped an essence of dewy mists. - In the empty mountains he lived for thirty years - Daily watching for the Heavenly Coach to come. - The time of appointment was already long past, - But of wings and coach-bells--still no sound. - His teeth and hair daily withered and decayed: - His ears and eyes gradually lost their keenness. - One morning he suffered the Common Change - And his body was one with the dust and dirt of the hill. - Gods and fairies! If indeed such things there be, - Their ways are beyond the striving of mortal men. - If you have not on your skull the Golden Bump's protrusion, - If your name is absent from the rolls of the Red Terrace, - In vain you learn the "Method of Avoiding Food": - For naught you study the "Book of Alchemic Lore." - Though you sweat and toil, what shall your trouble bring? - You will only shorten the five-score years of your span. - Sad, alas, the man who dreamt of Fairies! - For a single dream spoiled his whole life. - -[62] _I.e._, the Immortals. - - -MAGIC - - Boundless, the great sea. - Straight down,--no bottom: sideways,--no border. - Of cloudy waves and misty billows down in the uttermost depths - Men have fabled, in the midst there stand three sacred hills. - On the hills, thick growing,--herbs that banish Death. - Wings grow on those who eat them and they turn into heavenly "hsien." - The Lord of Ch'in[63] and Wu of Han[64] believed in these stories: - And magic-workers year by year were sent to gather the herbs. - The Blessed Islands, now and of old, what but an empty tale? - The misty waters spread before them and they knew not where to seek. - Boundless, the great sea. - Dauntless, the mighty wind. - Their eyes search but cannot see the shores of the Blessed Islands. - They cannot find the Blessed Isles and yet they dare not return: - Youths and maidens that began the quest grew grey on board the boat. - They found that the writings of Hsue[65] were all boasts and lies: - To the Lofty Principle and Great Unity in vain they raised their - prayers. - Do you not see - The graves on the top of Black Horse Hill[66] and the tombs at - Mo-ling?[67] - What is left but the sighing wind blowing in the tangled grasses? - Yes, and what is more, - The Dark and Primal Master of Sages in his five thousand words[68] - Never spoke of herbs, - Never spoke of "hsien," - Nor spoke of soaring in broad daylight up to the blue heaven. - -[63] The "First Emperor," 259-210 B.C. - -[64] Wu Ti, 156-87 B.C. - -[65] = Hsue Shih. Giles, 1276. - -[66] The burial-places of these two Emperors. - -[67] _Ibid._ - -[68] Lao-tzu, in the Tao Te Ching. - - -THE TWO RED TOWERS - -(A SATIRE AGAINST CLERICALISM) - - The Two Red Towers - North and south rise facing each other. - I beg to ask, to whom do they belong? - To the two Princes of the period Cheng Yuean.[69] - The two Princes blew on their flutes and drew down fairies from the - sky, - Who carried them off through the Five Clouds, soaring away to Heaven. - Their halls and houses, that they could not take with them, - Were turned into Temples planted in the Dust of the World. - In the tiring-rooms and dancers' towers all is silent and still; - Only the willows like dancers' arms, and the pond like a mirror. - When the flowers are falling at yellow twilight, when things are sad - and hushed, - One does not hear songs and flutes, but only chimes and bells. - The Imperial Patent on the Temple doors is written in letters of - gold; - For nuns' quarters and monks' cells ample space is allowed. - For green moss and bright moonlight--plenty of room provided; - In a hovel opposite is a sick man who has hardly room to lie down. - I remember once when at P'ing-yang they were building a great man's - house - How it swallowed up the housing space of thousands of ordinary men. - The Immortals[70] are leaving us, two by two, and their houses are - turned into Temples; - I begin to fear that the whole world will become a vast convent. - -[69] 785-805. - -[70] Hsien Tsung's brothers? - - -THE CHARCOAL-SELLER - -(A SATIRE AGAINST "KOMMANDATUR") - - An old charcoal-seller - Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forests of the Southern - Mountain. - His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the colour of - smoke. - The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are - black. - The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go? - It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth. - Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining. - He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of - coal! - Last night, outside the city,--a whole foot of snow; - At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts. - Oxen,--weary; man,--hungry: the sun, already high; - Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in - the mud. - Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can it be coming? - A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt. - In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues--the - words of an order; - They turn back the wagon and curse the oxen, leading them off to the - north. - A whole wagon of charcoal, - More than a thousand pieces! - If officials choose to take it away, the woodman may not complain. - Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask, - The Courtiers have tied to the oxen's collar, as the price - of a wagon of coal! - - -THE POLITICIAN - - I was going to the City to sell the herbs I had plucked; - On the way I rested by some trees at the Blue Gate. - Along the road there came a horseman riding; - Whose face was pale with a strange look of dread. - Friends and relations, waiting to say good-bye, - Pressed at his side, but he did not dare to pause. - I, in wonder, asked the people about me - Who he was and what had happened to him. - They told me this was a Privy Councillor - Whose grave duties were like the pivot of State. - His food allowance was ten thousand cash; - Three times a day the Emperor came to his house. - Yesterday he was called to a meeting of Heroes: - To-day he is banished to the country of Yai-chou. - So always, the Counsellors of Kings; - Favour and ruin changed between dawn and dusk! - Green, green,--the grass of the Eastern Suburb; - And amid the grass, a road that leads to the hills. - Resting in peace among the white clouds, - At last he has made a "coup" that cannot fail! - - -THE OLD MAN WITH THE BROKEN ARM - -(A SATIRE ON MILITARISM) - - At Hsin-feng an old man--four-score and eight; - The hair on his head and the hair of his eyebrows--white as the - new snow. - Leaning on the shoulders of his great-grandchildren, he walks in - front of the Inn; - With his left arm he leans on their shoulders; his right arm is - broken. - I asked the old man how many years had passed since he broke his arm; - I also asked the cause of the injury, how and why it happened? - The old man said he was born and reared in the District of Hsin-feng; - At the time of his birth--a wise reign; no wars or discords. - "Often I listened in the Pear-Tree Garden to the sound of flute and - song; - Naught I knew of banner and lance; nothing of arrow or bow. - Then came the wars of T'ien-pao[71] and the great levy of men; - Of three men in each house,--one man was taken. - And those to whom the lot fell, where were they taken to? - Five months' journey, a thousand miles--away to Yuen-nan. - We heard it said that in Yuen-nan there flows the Lu River; - As the flowers fall from the pepper-trees, poisonous vapours rise. - When the great army waded across, the water seethed like a cauldron; - When barely ten had entered the water, two or three were dead. - To the north of my village, to the south of my village the sound of - weeping and wailing. - Children parting from fathers and mothers; husbands parting from - wives. - Everyone says that in expeditions against the Min tribes - Of a million men who are sent out, not one returns. - I, that am old, was then twenty-four; - My name and fore-name were written down in the rolls of the Board of - War. - In the depth of the night not daring to let any one know - I secretly took a huge stone and dashed it against my arm. - For drawing the bow and waving the banner now wholly unfit; - I knew henceforward I should not be sent to fight in Yuen-nan. - Bones broken and sinews wounded could not fail to hurt; - I was ready enough to bear pain, if only I got back home. - My arm--broken ever since; it was sixty years ago. - One limb, although destroyed,--whole body safe! - But even now on winter nights when the wind and rain blow - From evening on till day's dawn I cannot sleep for pain. - Not sleeping for pain - Is a small thing to bear, - Compared with the joy of being alive when all the rest are dead. - For otherwise, years ago, at the ford of Lu River - My body would have died and my soul hovered by the bones that no one - gathered. - A ghost, I'd have wandered in Yuen-nan, always looking for home. - Over the graves of ten thousand soldiers, mournfully hovering." - So the old man spoke. - And I bid you listen to his words - Have you not heard - That the Prime Minister of K'ai-yuean,[72] Sung K'ai-fu, - Did not reward frontier exploits, lest a spirit of aggression should - prevail? - And have you not heard - That the Prime Minister of T'ien-Pao, Yang Kuo-chung[73] - Desiring to win imperial favour, started a frontier war? - But long before he could win the war, people had lost their temper; - Ask the man with the broken arm in the village of Hsin-feng? - -[71] A.D. 742-755. - -[72] 713-742. - -[73] Cousin of the notorious mistress of Ming-huang, Yang Kuei-fei. - - -KEPT WAITING IN THE BOAT AT CHIU-K'OU TEN DAYS BY AN ADVERSE WIND - - White billows and huge waves block the river crossing; - Wherever I go, danger and difficulty; whatever I do, failure. - Just as in my worldly career I wander and lose the road, - So when I come to the river crossing, I am stopped by contrary winds. - Of fishes and prawns sodden in the rain the smell fills my nostrils; - With the stings of insects that come with the fog, my whole body is - sore. - I am growing old, time flies, and my short span runs out. - While I sit in a boat at Chiu-k'ou, wasting ten days! - - -ON BOARD SHIP: READING YUeAN CHEN'S POEMS - - I take your poems in my hand and read them beside the candle; - The poems are finished: the candle is low: dawn not yet come. - With sore eyes by the guttering candle still I sit in the dark, - Listening to waves that, driven by the wind, strike the prow of - the ship. - - -ARRIVING AT HSUeN-YANG - -(TWO POEMS) - -(1) - - A bend of the river brings into view two triumphal arches; - That is the gate in the western wall of the suburbs of Hsuen-yang. - I have still to travel in my solitary boat three or four leagues-- - By misty waters and rainy sands, while the yellow dusk thickens. - -(2) - - We are almost come to Hsuen-yang: how my thoughts are stirred - As we pass to the south of Yue Liang's[74] tower and the east of - P'en Port. - The forest trees are leafless and withered,--after the mountain - rain; - The roofs of the houses are hidden low among the river mists. - The horses, fed on water grass, are too weak to carry their load; - The cottage walls of wattle and thatch let the wind blow on one's - bed. - In the distance I see red-wheeled coaches driving from the town-gate; - They have taken the trouble, these civil people, to meet their new - Prefect! - -[74] Died A.D. 340. Giles, 2526. - - -MADLY SINGING IN THE MOUNTAINS - - There is no one among men that has not a special failing: - And my failing consists in writing verses. - I have broken away from the thousand ties of life: - But this infirmity still remains behind. - Each time that I look at a fine landscape: - Each time that I meet a loved friend, - I raise my voice and recite a stanza of poetry - And am glad as though a God had crossed my path. - Ever since the day I was banished to Hsuen-yang - Half my time I have lived among the hills. - And often, when I have finished a new poem, - Alone I climb the road to the Eastern Rock. - I lean my body on the banks of white stone: - I pull down with my hands a green cassia branch. - My mad singing startles the valleys and hills: - The apes and birds all come to peep. - Fearing to become a laughing-stock to the world, - I choose a place that is unfrequented by men. - - -RELEASING A MIGRANT "YEN" (WILD GOOSE) - - At Nine Rivers,[75] in the tenth year,[76] in winter,--heavy snow; - The river-water covered with ice and the forests broken with their - load.[77] - The birds of the air, hungry and cold, went flying east and west; - And with them flew a migrant "yen," loudly clamouring for food. - Among the snow it pecked for grass; and rested on the surface of the - ice: - It tried with its wings to scale the sky; but its tired flight was - slow. - The boys of the river spread a net and caught the bird as it flew; - They took it in their hands to the city-market and sold it there - alive. - I that was once a man of the North am now an exile here: - Bird and man, in their different kind, are each strangers in the - south. - And because the sight of an exiled bird wounded an exile's heart, - I paid your ransom and set you free, and you flew away to the clouds. - Yen, Yen, flying to the clouds, tell me, whither shall you go? - Of all things I bid you, do not fly to the land of the north-west - In Huai-hsi there are rebel bands[78] that have not been subdued; - And a thousand thousand armoured men have long been camped in war. - The official army and the rebel army have grown old in their opposite - trenches; - The soldier's rations have grown so small, they'll be glad of even - you. - The brave boys, in their hungry plight, will shoot you and eat your - flesh; - They will pluck from your body those long feathers and make them into - arrow-wings! - -[75] Kiukiang, the poet's place of exile. - -[76] A.D. 815. His first winter at Kiukiang. - -[77] By the weight of snow. - -[78] The revolt of Wu Yuean-chi. - - -TO A PORTRAIT PAINTER WHO DESIRED HIM TO SIT - - _You_, so bravely splashing reds and blues! - Just when _I_ am getting wrinkled and old. - Why should you waste the moments of inspiration - Tracing the withered limbs of a sick man? - Tall, tall is the Palace of Ch'i-lin;[79] - But my deeds have not been frescoed on its walls. - Minutely limned on a foot of painting silk-- - What can I do with a portrait such as _that_? - -[79] One of the "Record Offices" of the T'ang dynasty, where meritorious -deeds were illustrated on the walls. - - -SEPARATION - - Yesterday I heard that such-a-one was gone; - This morning they tell me that so-and-so is dead. - Of friends and acquaintances more than two-thirds - Have suffered change and passed to the Land of Ghosts. - Those that are gone I shall not see again; - They, alas, are for ever finished and done. - Those that are left,--where are they now? - They are all scattered,--a thousand miles away. - Those I have known and loved through all my life, - On the fingers of my hand--how many do I count? - Only the prefects of T'ung, Kuo and Li - And Feng Province--just those four.[80] - Longing for each other we are all grown gray; - Through the Fleeting World rolled like a wave in the stream. - Alas that the feasts and frolics of old days - Have withered and vanished, bringing us to this! - When shall we meet and drink a cup of wine - And laughing gaze into each other's eyes? - -[80] Yuean Chen (d. 831), Ts'ui Hsuean-liang (d. 833), Liu Yue-hsi -(d. 842), and Li Chien (d. 821). - - -HAVING CLIMBED TO THE TOPMOST PEAK OF THE INCENSE-BURNER MOUNTAIN - - Up and up, the Incense-burner Peak! - In my heart is stored what my eyes and ears perceived. - All the year--detained by official business; - To-day at last I got a chance to go. - Grasping the creepers, I clung to dangerous rocks; - My hands and feet--weary with groping for hold. - There came with me three or four friends, - But two friends dared not go further. - At last we reached the topmost crest of the Peak; - My eyes were blinded, my soul rocked and reeled. - The chasm beneath me--ten thousand feet; - The ground I stood on, only a foot wide. - If you have not exhausted the scope of seeing and hearing, - How can you realize the wideness of the world? - The waters of the River looked narrow as a ribbon, - P'en Castle smaller than a man's fist. - How it clings, the dust of the world's halter! - It chokes my limbs: I cannot shake it away. - Thinking of retirement,[81] I heaved an envious sigh, - Then, with lowered head, came back to the Ants' Nest. - -[81] _I.e._, retirement from office. - - -EATING BAMBOO-SHOOTS - - My new Province is a land of bamboo-groves: - Their shoots in spring fill the valleys and hills. - The mountain woodman cuts an armful of them - And brings them down to sell at the early market. - Things are cheap in proportion as they are common; - For two farthings, I buy a whole bundle. - I put the shoots in a great earthen pot - And heat them up along with boiling rice. - The purple nodules broken,--like an old brocade; - The white skin opened,--like new pearls. - Now every day I eat them recklessly; - For a long time I have not touched meat. - All the time I was living at Lo-yang - They could not give me enough to suit my taste, - Now I can have as many shoots as I please; - For each breath of the south-wind makes a new bamboo! - - -THE RED COCKATOO - - Sent as a present from Annam-- - A red cockatoo. - Coloured like the peach-tree blossom, - Speaking with the speech of men. - And they did to it what is always done - To the learned and eloquent. - They took a cage with stout bars - And shut it up inside. - - -AFTER LUNCH - - After lunch--one short nap: - On waking up--two cups of tea. - Raising my head, I see the sun's light - Once again slanting to the south-west. - Those who are happy regret the shortness of the day; - Those who are sad tire of the year's sloth. - But those whose hearts are devoid of joy or sadness - Just go on living, regardless of "short" or "long." - - -ALARM AT FIRST ENTERING THE YANG-TZE GORGES - -Written in 818, when he was being towed up the rapids to Chung-chou. - - Above, a mountain ten thousand feet high: - Below, a river a thousand fathoms deep. - A strip of green, walled by cliffs of stone: - Wide enough for the passage of a single reed.[82] - At Chue-t'ang a straight cleft yawns: - At Yen-yue islands block the stream. - Long before night the walls are black with dusk; - Without wind white waves rise. - The big rocks are like a flat sword: - The little rocks resemble ivory tusks. - -[82] See Odes, v, 7. - - * * * * * - - We are stuck fast and cannot move a step. - How much the less, three hundred miles?[83] - Frail and slender, the twisted-bamboo rope: - Weak, the dangerous hold of the towers' feet. - A single slip--the whole convoy lost: - And _my_ life hangs on _this_ thread! - I have heard a saying "He that has an upright heart - Shall walk scathless through the lands of Man and Mo."[84] - How can I believe that since the world began - In every shipwreck none have drowned but rogues? - And how can I, born in evil days[85] - And fresh from failure,[86] ask a kindness of Fate? - Often I fear that these un-talented limbs - Will be laid at last in an un-named grave! - -[83] The distance to Chung-chou. - -[84] Dangerous savages. - -[85] Of civil war. - -[86] Alluding to his renewed banishment. - - -ON BEING REMOVED FROM HSUeN-YANG AND SENT TO CHUNG-CHOU - -A remote place in the mountains of Pa (Ssech'uan) - - Before this, when I was stationed at Hsuen-yang, - Already I regretted the fewness of friends and guests. - Suddenly, suddenly,--bearing a stricken heart - I left the gates, with nothing to comfort me. - Henceforward,--relegated to deep seclusion - In a bottomless gorge, flanked by precipitous mountains, - Five months on end the passage of boats is stopped - By the piled billows that toss and leap like colts. - The inhabitants of Pa resemble wild apes; - Fierce and lusty, they fill the mountains and prairies. - Among such as these I cannot hope for friends - And am pleased with anyone who is even remotely human! - - -PLANTING FLOWERS ON THE EASTERN EMBANKMENT - -Written when Governor of Chung-Chou - - I took money and bought flowering trees - And planted them out on the bank to the east of the Keep. - I simply bought whatever had most blooms, - Not caring whether peach, apricot, or plum. - A hundred fruits, all mixed up together; - A thousand branches, flowering in due rotation. - Each has its season coming early or late; - But to all alike the fertile soil is kind. - The red flowers hang like a heavy mist; - The white flowers gleam like a fall of snow. - The wandering bees cannot bear to leave them; - The sweet birds also come there to roost. - In front there flows an ever-running stream; - Beneath there is built a little flat terrace. - Sometimes I sweep the flagstones of the terrace; - Sometimes, in the wind, I raise my cup and drink. - The flower-branches screen my head from the sun; - The flower-buds fall down into my lap. - Alone drinking, alone singing my songs - I do not notice that the moon is level with the steps. - The people of Pa do not care for flowers; - All the spring no one has come to look. - But their Governor General, alone with his cup of wine - Sits till evening and will not move from the place! - - -CHILDREN - -Written _circa_ 820 - - My niece, who is six years old, is called "Miss Tortoise"; - My daughter of three,--little "Summer Dress." - One is beginning to learn to joke and talk; - The other can already recite poems and songs. - At morning they play clinging about my feet; - At night they sleep pillowed against my dress. - Why, children, did you reach the world so late, - Coming to me just when my years are spent? - Young things draw our feelings to them; - Old people easily give their hearts. - The sweetest vintage at last turns sour; - The full moon in the end begins to wane. - And so with men the bonds of love and affection - Soon may change to a load of sorrow and care. - But all the world is bound by love's ties; - Why did I think that I alone should escape? - - -PRUNING TREES - - Trees growing--right in front of my window; - The trees are high and the leaves grow thick. - Sad alas! the distant mountain view - Obscured by this, dimly shows between. - One morning I took knife and axe; - With my own hand I lopped the branches off. - Ten thousand leaves fall about my head; - A thousand hills came before my eyes. - Suddenly, as when clouds or mists break - And straight through, the blue sky appears; - Again, like the face of a friend one has loved - Seen at last after an age of parting. - First there came a gentle wind blowing; - One by one the birds flew back to the tree. - To ease my mind I gazed to the South East; - As my eyes wandered, my thoughts went far away. - Of men there is none that has not some preference; - Of things there is none but mixes good with ill. - It was not that I did not love the tender branches; - But better still,--to see the green hills! - - -BEING VISITED BY A FRIEND DURING ILLNESS - - I have been ill so long that I do not count the days; - At the southern window, evening--and again evening. - Sadly chirping in the grasses under my eaves - The winter sparrows morning and evening sing. - By an effort I rise and lean heavily on my bed; - Tottering I step towards the door of the courtyard. - By chance I meet a friend who is coming to see me; - Just as if I had gone specially to meet him. - They took my couch and placed it in the setting sun; - They spread my rug and I leaned on the balcony-pillar. - Tranquil talk was better than any medicine; - Gradually the feelings came back to my numbed heart. - - -ON THE WAY TO HANGCHOW: ANCHORED ON THE RIVER AT NIGHT - - Little sleeping and much grieving,--the traveller - Rises at midnight and looks back towards home. - The sands are bright with moonlight that joins the shores; - The sail is white with dew that has covered the boat. - Nearing the sea, the river grows broader and broader: - Approaching autumn,--the nights longer and longer. - Thirty times we have slept amid mists and waves, - And still we have not reached Hang-chow! - - -STOPPING THE NIGHT AT JUNG-YANG - - I grew up at Jung-yang; - I was still young when I left. - On and on,--forty years passed - Till again I stayed for the night at Jung-yang. - When I went away, I was only eleven or twelve; - This year I am turned fifty-six. - Yet thinking back to the times of my childish games, - Whole and undimmed, still they rise before me. - The old houses have all disappeared; - Down in the village none of my people are left. - It is not only that streets and buildings have changed; - But steep is level and level changed to steep! - Alone unchanged, the waters of Ch'iu and Yu - Passionless,--flow in their old course. - - -THE SILVER SPOON - - While on the road to his new province, Hang-chow, in 822, he sends a - silver spoon to his niece A-kuei, whom he had been obliged to leave - behind with her nurse, old Mrs. Ts'ao. - - To distant service my heart is well accustomed; - When I left home, it wasn't _that_ which was difficult - But because I had to leave Miss Kuei at home-- - For this it was that tears filled my eyes. - Little girls ought to be daintily fed: - Mrs. Ts'ao, please see to this! - That's why I've packed and sent a silver spoon; - You will think of me and eat up your food nicely! - - -THE HAT GIVEN TO THE POET BY LI CHIEN - - Long ago to a white-haired gentleman - You made the present of a black gauze hat. - The gauze hat still sits on my head; - But you already are gone to the Nether Springs. - The thing is old, but still fit to wear; - The man is gone and will never be seen again. - Out on the hill the moon is shining to-night - And the trees on your tomb are swayed by the autumn wind. - - -THE BIG RUG - - That so many of the poor should suffer from cold what can we do to - prevent? - To bring warmth to a single body is not much use. - I wish I had a big rug ten thousand feet long, - Which at one time could cover up every inch of the City. - - -AFTER GETTING DRUNK, BECOMING SOBER IN THE NIGHT - - Our party scattered at yellow dusk and I came home to bed; - I woke at midnight and went for a walk, leaning heavily on a friend. - As I lay on my pillow my vinous complexion, soothed by sleep, grew - sober; - In front of the tower the ocean moon, accompanying the tide, had - risen. - The swallows, about to return to the beams, went back to roost - again; - The candle at my window, just going out, suddenly revived its light. - All the time till dawn came, still my thoughts were muddled; - And in my ears something sounded like the music of flutes and - strings. - - -REALIZING THE FUTILITY OF LIFE - -Written on the wall of a priest's cell, _circa_ 828 - - Ever since the time when I was a lusty boy - Down till now when I am ill and old, - The things I have cared for have been different at different times, - But my being _busy_, _that_ has never changed. - _Then_ on the shore,--building sand-pagodas; - _Now_, at Court, covered with tinkling jade. - This and that,--equally childish games, - Things whose substance passes in a moment of time! - While the hands are busy, the heart cannot understand; - When there are no Scriptures, then Doctrine is sound.[87] - Even should one zealously strive to learn the Way, - That very striving will make one's error more. - -[87] This is the teaching of the Dhyana Sect. - - -RISING LATE AND PLAYING WITH A-TS'UI, AGED TWO - -Written in 831 - - All the morning I have lain perversely in bed; - Now at dusk I rise with many yawns. - My warm stove is quick to get ablaze; - At the cold mirror I am slow in doing my hair. - With melted snow I boil fragrant tea; - Seasoned with curds I cook a milk-pudding. - At my sloth and greed there is no one but me to laugh; - My cheerful vigour none but myself knows. - The taste of my wine is mild and works no poison; - The notes of my harp are soft and bring no sadness. - To the Three Joys in the book of Mencius[88] - I have added the fourth of playing with my baby-boy. - -[88] "Mencius," bk. vii, pt. i, 20. - - -ON A BOX CONTAINING HIS OWN WORKS - - I break up cypress and make a book-box; - The box well-made,--and the cypress-wood tough. - In it shall be kept what author's works? - The inscription says PO LO-T'IEN. - All my life has been spent in writing books, - From when I was young till now that I am old. - First and last,--seventy whole volumes; - Big and little,--three thousand themes.[89] - Well I know in the end they'll be scattered and lost; - But I cannot bear to see them thrown away - With my own hand I open and shut the locks, - And put it carefully in front of the book-curtain. - I am like Teng Pai-tao;[90] - But to-day there is not any Wang Ts'an.[91] - All I can do is to divide them among my daughters - To be left by them to give to my grandchildren. - -[89] _I.e._, separate poems, essays, etc. - -[90] Who was obliged to abandon his only child on the roadside. - -[91] Who rescued a foundling. - - -ON BEING SIXTY - -Addressed to Liu Meng-te, who had asked for a poem. He was the same -age as Po Chue-i. - - Between thirty and forty, one is distracted by the Five Lusts; - Between seventy and eighty, one is a prey to a hundred diseases. - But from fifty to sixty one is free from all ills; - Calm and still--the heart enjoys rest. - I have put behind me Love and Greed; I have done with Profit and - Fame; - I am still short of illness and decay and far from decrepit age. - Strength of limb I still possess to seek the rivers and hills; - Still my heart has spirit enough to listen to flutes and strings. - At leisure I open new wine and taste several cups; - Drunken I recall old poems and sing a whole volume. - Meng-te has asked for a poem and herewith I exhort him - Not to complain of three-score, "the time of obedient ears."[92] - -[92] Confucius said that it was not till _sixty_ that "his ears obeyed -him." This age was therefore called "the time of obedient ears." - - -CLIMBING THE TERRACE OF KUAN-YIN AND LOOKING AT THE CITY - - Hundreds of houses, thousands of houses,--like a chess-board. - The twelve streets like a field planted with rows of cabbage. - In the distance perceptible, dim, dim--the fire of approaching dawn; - And a single row of stars lying to the west of the Five Gates. - - -CLIMBING THE LING YING TERRACE AND LOOKING NORTH - - Mounting on high I begin to realize the smallness of Man's Domain; - Gazing into distance I begin to know the vanity of the Carnal World. - I turn my head and hurry home--back to the Court and Market, - A single grain of rice falling--into the Great Barn. - - -GOING TO THE MOUNTAINS WITH A LITTLE DANCING GIRL, AGED FIFTEEN - -Written when the poet was about sixty-five - - Two top-knots not yet plaited into one. - Of thirty years--just beyond half. - You who are really a lady of silks and satins - Are now become my hill and stream companion! - At the spring fountains together we splash and play: - On the lovely trees together we climb and sport. - Her cheeks grow rosy, as she quickens her sleeve-dancing: - Her brows grow sad, as she slows her song's tune. - Don't go singing the Song of the Willow Branches,[93] - When there's no one here with a heart for you to break! - -[93] A plaintive love-song, to which Po Chue-i had himself written words. - - -DREAMING OF YUeAN CHEN - -This was written eight years after Yuean Chen's death, when Po-Chue-i -was sixty-eight. - - At night you came and took my hand and we wandered together in my - dream; - When I woke in the morning there was no one to stop the tears that - fell on my handkerchief. - On the banks of the Ch'ang my aged body three times[94] has passed - through sickness; - At Hsien-yang[95] to the grasses on your grave eight times has - autumn come. - You lie buried beneath the springs and your bones are mingled with - the clay. - I--lodging in the world of men; my hair white as snow. - A-wei and Han-lang[96] both followed in their turn; - Among the shadows of the Terrace of Night did you know them or not? - -[94] Since you died. - -[95] Near Ch'ang-an, modern Si-ngan-fu. - -[96] Affectionate names of Li Chien and Ts'ui Hsuean-liang. - - -A DREAM OF MOUNTAINEERING - -Written when he was over seventy - - At night, in my dream, I stoutly climbed a mountain. - Going out alone with my staff of holly-wood. - A thousand crags, a hundred hundred valleys-- - In my dream-journey none were unexplored - And all the while my feet never grew tired - And my step was as strong as in my young days. - Can it be that when the mind travels backward - The body also returns to its old state? - And can it be, as between body and soul, - That the body may languish, while the soul is still strong? - Soul and body--both are vanities: - Dreaming and waking--both alike unreal. - In the day my feet are palsied and tottering; - In the night my steps go striding over the hills. - As day and night are divided in equal parts-- - Between the two, I _get_ as much as I _lose_. - - -EASE - - Congratulating himself on the comforts of his life after his - retirement from office. Written _circa_ 844. - - Lined coat, warm cap and easy felt slippers, - In the little tower, at the low window, sitting over the sunken - brazier. - Body at rest, heart at peace; no need to rise early. - I wonder if the courtiers at the Western Capital know of these - things, or not? - - -ON HEARING SOMEONE SING A POEM BY YUeAN CHEN - -Written long after Chen's death - - No new poems his brush will trace: - Even his fame is dead. - His old poems are deep in dust - At the bottom of boxes and cupboards. - Once lately, when someone was singing, - Suddenly I heard a verse-- - Before I had time to catch the words - A pain had stabbed my heart. - - -THE PHILOSOPHERS - -LAO-TZU - - "Those who speak know nothing; - Those who know are silent." - These words, as I am told, - Were spoken by Lao-tzu. - If we are to believe that Lao-tzu - Was himself _one who knew_, - How comes it that he wrote a book - Of five thousand words? - -CHUANG-TZU, THE MONIST - - Chuang-tzu levels all things - And reduces them to the same Monad. - But _I_ say that even in their sameness - Difference may be found. - Although in following the promptings of their nature - They display the same tendency, - Yet it seems to me that in some ways - A phoenix is superior to a reptile! - - -TAOISM AND BUDDHISM - -Written shortly before his death - - A traveller came from across the seas - Telling of strange sights. - "In a deep fold of the sea-hills - I saw a terrace and tower. - In the midst there stood a Fairy Temple - With one niche empty. - They all told me this was waiting - For Lo-t'ien to come." - - Traveller, I have studied the Empty Gate;[97] - I am no disciple of Fairies - The story you have just told - Is nothing but an idle tale. - The hills of ocean shall never be - Lo-t'ien's home. - When I leave the earth it will be to go - To the Heaven of Bliss Fulfilled.[98] - -[97] Buddhism. The poem is quite frivolous, as is shown by his claim to -Bodhisattva-hood. - -[98] The "tushita" Heaven, where Bodhisattvas wait till it is time for -them to appear on earth as Buddhas. - - -LAST POEM - - * * * * * - - They have put my bed beside the unpainted screen; - They have shifted my stove in front of the blue curtain. - I listen to my grandchildren, reading me a book; - I watch the servants, heating up my soup. - With rapid pencil I answer the poems of friends; - I feel in my pockets and pull out medicine-money. - When this superintendence of trifling affairs is done, - I lie back on my pillows and sleep with my face to the - South. - - - THE END - - - CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - * * * * * - - -Transcriber's Note - -The half-title page has been removed from the text. - -The following printed errata have been incorporated into the text: - - P. 21, heading, for BIOGRAPHICAL read BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. - P. 27, l. 7 " _single of_ " _single one of_. - P. 29, l. 9 " _eat_ " _ate_. - P. 32, l. 23 " _houses_ " _house_. - P. 65, l. 3 " _standing_ " _stand_. - P. 88, l. 15 " _pillar_ " _pillow_. - P. 109, l. 22 " _Memories_ " _Memoires_. - P. 116, last line, " _Turn_ " _Turns_. - P. 134, l. 10 " _and of Wu_ " _and Wu_. - P. 165, l. 13 " _the things_ " _these things_. - -The following additional errors have been corrected: - -p. v "Fu jen" changed to "Fu-jen" - -p. v "Chicago)" changed to "(Chicago)" - -p. 21 "Two articles of" changed to "Two articles on" - -p. 23 ""Li Sao," changed to ""Li Sao,"" - -p. 26 "next door" changed to "next door." - -p. 33 "the night." changed to "the night."" - -p. 56 "again." changed to "again."" - -p. 62 "Hsien-men" changed to "Hsien-men[23]" - -p. 106 "as he tells us" changed to "as he tells us," - -p. 118 "wrote your letter" changed to "wrote your letter." - -p. 131 "Yin and Yang."" changed to "Yin and Yang."[61]" - - -The following are used inconsistently in the text: - -forename and fore-name - -fourscore and four-score - -goodbye and good-bye - -hairpins and hair-pins - -Hangchow and Hang-chow - -Hsuean-liang and Hsuan-liang - -lifetime and life-time - -roadside and road-side - -siecle and Siecle - -Yangtze and Yang-tze - - -Some lines have been left as printed, with no end punctuation: - -p. 49 "mid-stream white waves rise" - -p. 78 "over the story of King Chou" - -p. 121 ""medium's" advice" - -p. 122 "The wind stirs and sighs" - -p. 156 "which was difficult" - -p. 160 "them thrown away" - -p. 167 "disciple of Fairies" - - -Other possible errors have been left as printed: - -p. 117 "And threw you my clothes" - -p. 143 (note) "Giles, 2526" - -p. 141 "village of Hsin-feng?" - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE POEMS *** - -***** This file should be named 42290.txt or 42290.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/2/9/42290/ - -Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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