1128Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Wang Chien 王建 [fl. ca. 751 - 835].
1129Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Ts’ao T’ang 曹唐 [fl. ca. AD 867].
1130Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Ssu-k’ung T’u 司空圖 [837 - 908]. i.e. allow the lovers to stay together!
1131Hung Sheng gives the note that this line derives from a poem by Li Shang-yin李商隱 [813 - 858]. Presumably it’s an emphatic assertion of the primacy of destiny, and a pious nod to the Buddhist notion of the vanity of corporal love.
1132Yȕan-hsien Huang-hou 元獻皇后.
1133Wu Shu-fei 武淑妃.
1134That having thought he saw a beautiful lady, he disabused himself of the judgment, and looked here there and everywhere in vain.
1135In despair, or boredom at the lack of truly attractive beauties perhaps.
1136Shou-ti 壽邸, Longevity’s Residence, a reference to the residence of Emperor Dark-progenitor’s son Prince Longevity Li Mao (Shou-wang Li Mao 壽王李瑁). Yang Jade-bangle (Yang Yü-huan 楊玉環) was his wife (fei 妃子), but the emperor, taken with her, had her quit lay life and become a female Taoist adept, when she took the Taoistic name Grand-truth (T’ai-chen 太真). Later, she was brought into the imperial palace, and became Most-prized empress (Kui-fei 貴妃).
1137Kui-fei 貴妃, Most-prized Empress/Queen.
1138Huang-hou 皇后, august-empress, the formally main empress.
1139Ni-chin 泥金:
(i) a term or a colouring made of gold filings, used in calligraphy and paintings, and often for lacquering carvings on utensils. There are two kinds of it, one dark green (ch’ing 青) and one crimson. Mr. Lu’s miscellaneous records (Lu-shih tsa-chi ) says: “In the T’ang dynasty, when a man succeeded in the exams to become a Presented Scholar (chin-shih 進士), a note written in Plaster Gold was attached to the joyful news to the candidate’s family reporting his success, but under Emperor Civility-progenitor (Wen-tsung 文宗 [ reigned 827 - 840] the formal convention was ceased.”
(ii) Ts’ui T’u 崔塗 (fl. ca. AD 901), in his poem Passing Embroidered-range Imperial-palace (Kuo Hsiu-ling-kung 過繡嶺宮), has the line: “Sublime August-emperor [the one formerly called Shining August-emperor] once here halted to Plaster Gold.” Here the term refers to holding summer or winter sacrificial services.
1140Tai Sheng 戴聖 (Han dynasty), Li-chi 禮記,” Hun-yi”, says: “In ancient times, thee Son-of Heaven’s empress set up the Six Palaces (Liu-kung 六宮), Three Queens (fu-jen 夫人), Nine Royal-wives (p’in 嬪), Twenty-seven Hereditary Serving-wives (shih-fu 世婦), and Eighty-one Charioteering Wives (yü-ch’i 御妻), along with the Talented Ladies mandarins (ts’ai-jen 才人).” The Charioteering Wives were female mandarins of the Heavens Ministry (t’ien-kuan 天官). (late Chou-early Han), Chou rites (Chou-li 周禮) as nü-yü 女御, Female Charioteers. To Hereditary Wives in Rites record, note says: “The fu means fu 服, [“to serve”], meaning that they stepped forward to serve their ruler, the “hereditary” being added because of their eminence.”
1141Ch’ao Ts’o 晁錯 (200 BC-154 BC), also written as Ch’ao Ts’o 鼂錯, a man of Ying-ch’uan 潁川, present-day Yü county in Henan province. He was direct and frank, and profound and to the point. He studied the Legalism of Shen Pu-hai 申不害 (fl. ca. 344 BC) and Kung-sun Yang 公孫鞅 (ca. ca. 390 BC-ca. 338 BC) under Chang Hui 章恢, and during the reign of Emperor Civility (Wen-ti 文帝, reigned 179 BC - 157 BC) became a Grand Constancy Clerk (t’ai-ch’ang chang-ku 太常掌故), receiving the imperial command to receive instruction on History classic (Shu-ching 書經, Shang-shu 尚書) from the expert Fu Sheng 伏生 (260 BC - ?BC). Promoted through various posts, he became Heir Apparent’s Household Director (t’ai-tzu chia-ling 太子家令) to the future Emperor Magnificent (Ching-ti 景帝, reigned 156 BC - 141 BC), at that time gaining the nickname Wisdom-sack (Chih-nang 智囊). During the reign of Emperor Magnificent, he was made a Cernsor-in-chief (yü-shih ta-fu 御史大夫), In 154 BC, he proposed the policy of “giving weight to the Root and suppressing the Twigs” (chung-pen yi-mo 重本抑末), advocating the whittling down of the fiefs of the various regional princes (chu-hou 諸侯), adopted by the emperor, and seven states, Wu 吳, Ch’u 楚 and others, rebelled, under the pretext of wanting to punish Ch’ao Ts’o, “Humbly requesting permission to execute Ch’ao Ts’o in order to cleanse our monarch’s sides.”, and “killing Ch’ao Ts’o in apology to the world”. On the advice of Yüan Ang 爰盎/ 袁盎 (?BC - 148 BC), the emperor had Ch’ao Ts’o executed in the East Market (Tung-shih 東市). Ch’ao Ts’o was author of several political discourses: Guarding the border and being prepared on the frontier (Shou-pien pei-sai shu 守邊備塞), Discourse on recruiting commoners to move to the frontier lands (Lun mu-min hsi sai-hsia 論募民徒塞下) and Discourse on “Exegesis on valuing grain” (Lun kui-su shu 論貴粟疏). He had a collection of his literary works, not extant.
1142In ancient times, when an important minister had committed an offence, he had to wear a special white hat with a yak-tail sewn to it as a hat-cord, as signs of his crime, and to carry on his two hands a dish of water, with a sword across it, the level surface of the water symbolizing the equity of the justice he’s facing, the sword signifying a humble request for the “gracious gift” of the punishment of death.
1143A city in present-day Szewhan province.
1144Su-tsung 肅宗 (reigned 756 - 763).
1145The name of a city located north-west of present-day Ling-wu in Ning-hsia Hui Autonomous Region.
1146T’ai-shang-huang 太上皇.
1147Li Shao-chün 李少君 is the name of a Han dynasty man who lived during the reign of Emperor Warrior (Wu-ti, reigned 140 BC - 87 BC). He was reputed to be master of the arts of seeking out immortals and invoking spirits.
1148Ti-fu 地府, Earth Palace, a name for the Underworld of afterlife.
1149P’eng-hu 蓬壺嘴, Erigeron-kettle, the name of a paradise mountain-isle. Also called Erigeron-chenopodium, P’eng-lai 蓬萊.
1150Hsin T’an-p’ing 新坦平, the name of a man who lived during the reign of Emperor Civility (Wen-ti 文帝, reigned 179 - 157 BC). He once fabricated a jade bangle bearing the carved inscription “May the monarch live prolonged long life”, falsely claiming that it was an auspicious object sent down from Heaven, and presented it to Emperor Civility. Later his cheating was unmasked, and he was put to death.
1151A pair of star-god lovers.
1152Pai Chü-yi 白居易 (772 - 846), one of China’s most famous poets of all time.
1153chiao-shu lang 校書郎, Editor Gentleman, a post, during the T’ang dynasty, for work on the Imperial Diary, awarded to men considered to be of great literary promise.
1154Wei 尉, Defender, a kind of vice-magistrate of a region.
1155Chou-chih 盩厔, the name of a present-day county in Shensi province, and situated west of Ch’ang-an county. The chih is also found written as 庢. It stands where the River Liu-yeh enters the River Wei. Li Chi-fu 李吉甫 (758 - 814), Yȕan-he commadery and county gazetteer (Yȕan-he chȕn hsien chih 元和郡縣志), says: “A mountain that curves is called chou, and a river that curves is called chih.” This place is circled by mountains and has rivers that double back, hence its name. The county was set up during the Western Han dynasty, and abolished during the Eastern Han dynasty, its former city seat of administration being located east of the present-day seat. The county was set up again during the Latter Wei dynasty, the Northern Chou dynasty transferring its seat to the present-day one. During both the Ming and Ch’ing dynasties it came under Hsi-an prefecture (His-an-fu 西安府).
1156Wang Chih-fu 王質夫 (fl. ca. AD 807), the name of a sincere friend of Pai Chü-yi and Ch’en Hung.
1157Lang-ya 瑯琊, also found written as 琅琊 and as 瑯牙;
(i) The name of mountains: one situated on the sea-coast and south-east of present-day Chu-ch’eng county in Shantu
ng province. The First Emperor of the Ch’in dynasty ascended it, creating a Lang-ya Terrace (Lang-ya-t’ai 琅琊臺), and recording his “fine deeds” carved into a rock there. He also moved thirty thousand households of commoners to the foot of this mountain. One situated south-west of present-day Ch’u county in Anhwei province. During the Eastern Tsin dynasty, the later Emperor Yȕan (Yȕan-ti 元帝, reigned 317 - 323), when he became Prince of Lang-ya (Lang-ya-wang 琅邪王), he once lived on this mountain.
(ii) The name of a commandery, Lang-ya Commandery (Lang-ya-chȕn 瑯琊郡), set up during the Ch’in dynasty and retained by the Han dynasty. It was named after the mountain. It occupied the territory of the south-eastern part of present-day Shantung province. Its administrative seat was Tung-wu 東武, present-day Chu-ch’eng county. During the Eastern Han dynasty, the commandery was changed to a state, 1st administrative capital being K’ai-yang 開陽, north of present-day Lin-yi county. It was retained by the Tsin dynasty. The Southern Dynasties Sung dynasty restored it as a commandery. The T’ang dynasty abolished it.
(iii) The name of a terrace, located on Mount Lang-ya, south-east of present-day Chu-ch’eng county in Shantung province (late Chou dynasty and Han dynasty), Mountains and seas classic (Shan-hai ching 山海經), “Hai-nei tung- ching”, says: “Lang-ya Terrace is situated amid the Po-hai sea, east of Lang- ya.” A note to that says: “Present-day Lang-ya is at the side of the sea, where there are mountains which tower up independently, shaped like a high terrace, this being Lang-ya Terrace.” That’s where the First Emperor inscribed his deeds. This seems at odds with the claim that he built the terrace.
1158Hsien-yu-ssu 仙遊寺, Immortal-wandering Monastery, the name of a T’ang dynasty Buddhist monastery in Chou-chih 盩厔.
1159Ch’ang-hen ke 長恨歌, Lasting-woe song.
1160K’ai-yȕan 開元, Opening Era/ Origin/Greatness, the name of a reign-period (nien-hao 年號, “years-title”) lasting 713 - 741.
1161Basic annals of Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung pen-chi 玄宗本紀) (T’ang dynasty).
1162Han-huang 漢皇, the “Han” emperor, i.e. the T’ang dynasty Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗, reigned 712 - 756). His surname was Li 李, and his personal name was Lung-chi 隆基, and he lived 685 - 762. He was also popularly known as Shining August-emperor (Ming-huang 明皇), his posthumous title (shih 諡) being Shining (Ming 明). He was particularly noted to posterity as a patron of music, singing, and - purportedly - acting, and as the hero of one of the greatest romances of all the ages. He was the third son of Emperor Profound-progenitor (Jui-tsung 睿宗, reigned AD 684 and 710 - 712). He was at first enfiefed as Prince of Lin-tzu (Lin-tzu-wang 臨淄王). As a youth, he was bold and warrior-like, and possessed of strategic acumen, and when the Empress Wei (Wei-hou 韋后, Wei-shih 韋氏) and her accomplices assassinated Emperor Middle-progenitor (Chung-tsung 中宗, reigned AD 684 and 705 - 710), set up Emperor Died-in-adolescence (Shang-ti 殤帝), and created chaos in the government, it was he who mobilized forces, quelled the rebellion, executed her, and ushered Emperor Profound-progenitor to the throne.
He shortly succeeded him as his heir, and became emperor himself, having Yao Ch’ung 姚崇 (651 - 721) and Sung Ching 宋璟 (663 - 737) in succession as his prime ministers, and everywhere was at peace, it being called “the good government of the Opening Origin reign-period [K’ai-yȕan 開元, 713 - 741]”. Later on, when he took Yang Jade-bangle (Yang Yü-huan 楊玉環, Most-prized-empress Yang (Yang Kui-fei 楊貴妃, before AD 756) as his favourite empress, and appointed such as Yang Kuo-chung 楊國忠 (before AD 756) and Li Lin-fu 李林甫 (before AD 752) his chief ministers, the government of China went daily from bad to worse.
The part-Turkic general An Lu-shan 安祿山 (until AD 757) rebelled in AD 756, and the emperor fled to Shu 蜀, the region of present-day Szechwan. Once the rebellion was quelled, Dark progenitor was replaced by Emperor Solemn-progenitor (Su-tsung 肅宗, reigned 756 - 763), and he himself was given the honorific title of Sublime August-emperor (Shang-huang 上皇).
Dark-progenitor’s forty-four-year reign was one of great contrasts, the early pro-active bold rule, the middle period constituted one of the highest peaks of Chinese civilization, and the final period one of sudden decline, that cracked T’ang dynasty China, and robbed it forever of its solid cohesion and self-confidence. It has been widely and rationally held that his personal relationship with Yang Jade-bangle was at the root of the empire’s collapse. For his romance with her, however, and for his presiding over China’s supreme age of poetry, however, he is one of China’s most celebrated emperors, surely the most famous of them all.
Since, for one obvious reason, Pai Chü-yi was living under a T’ang emperor, it wouldn’t have been politic or permissible for him to say “T’ang emperor” here, and, for another reason - if only an incidental one of the prime restriction, the distance in putative time no doubt allowed him greater creative relaxation. Everyone who heard or read the poem in his days, however, would have immediately known whom he was talking about.
1163ch’ing-kuo 傾國, “state-over-throwing one”, “nation-toppler”, a girl/woman of “state-overthrowing” beauty/charms, a femme fatale for the state. Pan Ku 班固 (32-92), Han history (Han-shu 漢書, “Wai-ch’i chuan”), says: “In the Northern Region there’s a beautiful woman, who stands alone, supreme in the world, and when she turns her head and looks once, she overthrows one’s citadel walls, and when she turns and looks a second time, she overthrows one’s state, and one prefers to ignore both the overthrowing of one’s citadel walls and the overthrowing of one’s state, for it is scarcely possible to find another such beautiful woman.”
1164This daughter is most often referred to by her later title of Most-prized-empress Yang (Yang Kui-fei 楊貴妃), also referred to as Empress/Queen Yang (Yang-fei 楊妃), and as Yang Grand-truth (Yang T’ai-chen 楊太真). Her personal name (hsiao-tzu 小字, or ming 名) was Yü-huan 玉環, Jade-bangle. Of exceptional beauty and alert intelligence, and a musical expert and excelling at dancing, she first became the fei 妃, “principal queen/ wife” of the Longevity Prince Mao (Shou-wang Mao 壽王瑁), the eighteenth son of Emperor Dark-progenitor (Hsȕan-tsung 玄宗, reigned 712 - 756). Emperor Dark-progenitor later summoned her into his palace as a “lady mandarin” (nü-kuan 女官), giving her the title or cognomen Grand-truth (T’ai-chen 太真). Then he took her as his own wife, showing her great favours, and advancing her officially to be his Kui-fei 貴妃, “Most-prized-empress”.
When An Lu-shan 安祿山 rebelled in AD 754, Emperor Dark-progenitor moved to the safety of the Szechwan region. But after only a little of the journey thither, when they reached Ma Wei’s Posting-station (Ma-wei-yi 馬嵬驛), his army mutinied, refusing to go any further, and declaring that Most-prized-empress Yang’s cousin Yang Kuo-chung 楊國忠, who’d taken advantage of his relationship with her to achieve the main governmental power, was primarily to blame for the rebellion. So the Emperor was forced to grant them the execution of Yang Kuo-chung, and to “bestow death upon” Most-prized-empress Yang - to allow her to commit suicide. Among many other things, Most-prized-empress Yang was famed for her dancing of the Rainbow skirt and feather jacket (Ni-ch’ang yü-yi 霓裳羽衣) dance.
1165Liu-kung 六 宮, “the Six Palaces”, see note above.
1166Hua-ch’ing-ch’ih 華 清 池, the Florescence-purity Pool, name of a hot spring bathing pool on Mount Li, south of present-day Lin-t’ung county in Shensi province. A Hot-Spring Palace was built there in AD 723, which was changed to Flower Purity Palace in AD 748.
1167Pu-yao 步摇, “step-shake”, a term for a royal headdress or coronet with dangling pearls that shook as the wearer walked. Pan Ku’s 班固 (32 - 92) Han history (Han-shu 漢書, “Yü-fu chih”), says: “The step-shake is a mountain-shaped head-dress made of yellow gold, on which white pearls are threaded in strings, bound to cassia-twigs, it having one sparrow hair-clasp and numerous splendid decorations.” Wang Hsien-ch’ien (1842-1917) explains
it as follows: “The step-shake had pearls hanging from the top of it, and as the wearer took steps it shook.” Ch’en Hsiang-tao陳祥道 (1053-1093) says: “The Han dynasty step-shake had a phoenix made of gold, with a hat-base under it, at the front of which were hat-pin clasps, and which had threaded onto it precious stones of many colours that hung down, and it shook as the wearer took steps.” This seems slightly at odds with the Han history explanation, but possibly Chen Hsiang-tao had some archaeological or other extra information.
1168fu-jung-chang 芙蓉帳, “lotus-bloom bed-curtains”, i.e. curtains/screens for hanging round the bed and sumptuously adorned with designs of lotus-flowers on them. A work entitled Account of Ch’eng-tu (Ch’eng-tu chi 城都記) says: “The Latter Ruler of Shu, Meng Chih-hsiang 孟知祥 (874-934, reigned 924 - 934) planted lotuses everywhere on the city-walls of Ch’eng-tu, and every autumn it would be like brocade and embroidery for forty li-miles around, lotuses blooming resplendent above and below, and the flowers were used for the dyeing of silk fabric to make bed-curtains, which were called ‘lotus-flower bed-curtains’.” This is later than Pai Chü-yi, and more probably Pai Chü-yi’s referring to bed-curtains splendidly decorated with lotus-flowers. As a love-motif.
1169ch’eng-huan 承歡, “to receive joy/delight”, a term found in Wang Yi 王逸 (fl. ca. 114 - 142) (ed.), (who says that it was compiled by Liu Hsiang 劉, 77 BC - 6 BC) Ch’u elegies (Ch’u-tz’u 楚辭). Here it means to win/gain the emperor’s pleasure and favour, i.e. to receive the emperor’s love.
1170hsien-hsia 閒暇, a term found in Owl rhapsody (Fu-niao fu 鵩鳥賦) by Chia Yi 賈誼 (201 BC - 69 BC), but with the meaning of “to not be alarmed/intimidated/afraid”, “to be calm and fearless”. Here it means “leisure”, “pause and respite”.
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