by Li He
A curly-haired nomad boy With eyes of green,
By a tall mansion, in the still of the night
Is playing his flute.
Every note seems to have come
Down from heaven.
Under the moon a lovely girl weeping,
Sick for home.
Deftly he fingers the seven holes,
Hiding their stars,
Gong and zhi secretly harmonize
With the pure breeze. 1
Deep autumn on the roads of Shu,
A cloud-filled forest.
From the Xiang river at midnight
Startled dragons rise.2
A lovely girl in her jade room
Broods on the frontier.
Bright moonshine on her sapphire window—
Sadly she hears the flute.
A hundred feet of glossed silk beaten
On the cold fulling-block3
Tears congeal as pearls in her powder,
Soak her red gown.
Play no more the Long-tou tune,
Nomad boy!
No one knows a girl’s heart is breaking
Beyond that casement.
The Kun-lun Envoy
Of the Kun-lun envoy No news at all,
The mist-hung trees of Mao-ling tomb
Wear mournful hues.1
Drop after drop of jade dew trickled
Into the golden bowl,
But Primal Humours proved too vast
For men to gather.2
Backs of stone unicorns by his grave
Crack into patterns,
Red limbs of little dragons break
Beneath their scales.3
Where is the aching heart that yearned
For ten thousand kingdoms?
High in the heavens, a brilliant moon
Lights the long night.
Tang-ji of Han Sings as the Wine Is Drunk
The emperor’s clothes were drenched with frosty dew,
The palace roads all overgrown with thorns.
When gold is sullied over with autumn dust,
No one will wear it as an ornate belt.
All songs were stilled within those halls of jade,
Mist cloaked the fragrant forest trees.
A song came from the tower of Yun-yang.
Wail of a ghost, and all to no avail.1
Swords of iron, gleaming and glittering,
Threatened the emperor with their vile intent.2
Savage owls gnawing their mother’s skulls!
Evil demons slavering for souls of the dead!
Emperor and lady wept as they gazed at each other,
Their tears falling in an endless stream.
Why do you have to drink this crystal wine
Must plunge you deep within the Yellow Spring?
No question of a toppling hill of jade,3
But swallow this, death’s pallor stamps your face.
Only the Lord of Heaven will hear your plaint,
At least in Heaven you will be safe from harm.
No ornate curtain will be hung for you,
And neither pine nor cypress mark your grave.4
I shall drag out my life through weary days,
Your spirit must roam lonely in its night,
No longer will I tend my moth-like eyebrows,
Who’ll gaze with love on my white-powdered neck?
Proudly I’ll treasure memories of Zhao-yang,5
Nor turn my eyes towards the southern road.6
Song: Listening to Master Ying Playing the Lute
Clouds of the Shores of Parting home
From the isle of cassia flowers,1
Through strings of a lute from Shu
Two phoenixes talk.2
Lotus leaves falling in autumn
As simurghs part,
A king of Yue wandering at night
On Mount Tian-mu.3
Hidden girdle-gems of an honest minister,
Tinkling crystals,4
Fairy maidens crossing the sea,
Leading white deer.
What vision is going to Long Bridge,
Sword in hand?5
What vision is writing on spring bamboo
With ink-soaked hair?6
An Indian monk is standing here,
Right at my gate,
An arhat with venerable eyebrows
In a Buddhist temple.7
His antique lute, full eight feet long,
Has massive stops,8
An ancient tree-trunk from Yi-yang.
Not a puny branch.9
Sound of strings through the cold room
Rouses me from my sick-bed,
Leaving my potions for a while
I sit on the dragon’s beard.10
If you want a song, you ought to ask
A cabinet-maker,
Maestro, do not demean yourself
With a mere clerk.
Ballad of the World
A little butterfly in Shang-lin park
Trying to accompany the Emperor of Han.1
It flew away towards South Wall,
Alighting, by mistake, on a pomegranate skirt.2
Purposeful blossom masses on the trees,
Darting swallows wheel around the clouds.
“Outside the gates, I did not know the way,
Yet felt ashamed to ask the passers-by.”
NOTES TO POEMS
Song: Li Ping at the Vertical Harp
7-character: 5 rhymes
Li Ping was one of the emperor’s musicians, from the famous Pear-garden School.
1. Shu (Sichuan) was famous for its tong trees (paulownia), from which these harps were made. Similarly, the best silk came from Wu, in southeast China.
2. The Ladies of the River Xiang are the two daughters of the legendary Emperor Yao, consorts of the Emperor Shun. Their teardrops, falling on the bamboos growing by the latter’s grave, left speckled marks on them. The White Girl played a zither with fifty strings (se) for the Yellow Emperor. The tune she played was so sad that he was forced to break her se, leaving her with only a twenty-five stringed instrument.
3. Mount Kun-lun was a mythical mountain in the west, said to produce the finest jade. Here the Peaches of Immortality were to be found.
4. Both Chang-an and Luo-yang had twelve gates. The light melts because music had power over the elements.
5. One of the three foremost rulers of Heaven.
6. Nü Gua (or Wa) was a goddess with a snake’s body, consort of Fu Xi. When the demon Gong Gong butted his head against the northwest pillar of heaven, tilting the earth downwards to the southeast and making a hole in the sky, Nü Gua repaired the hole by fusing minerals of five colours.
7. The Weird Crone was said to have been an expert performer on the vertical harp.
8. Lie-zi mentions a certain Hu Ba, who was such a performer on the classical zither (qin) that fishes danced and dragons leapt whenever he played.
9. All texts read “Wu Zhi,” a reference to a man of the Wei dynasty said to have been a fine performer on the vertical harp, but the line appears to allude to Wu Gang, banished to the moon for being too assiduous in his pursuit of immortality, where he must forever un-availingly try to cut down the cassia tree growing there. The music makes him pause from his endless toil.
10. The moon was believed to contain a hare, a toad, and a cassia tree; “shivering hare” is a kenning for “cold moon.”
Song: Gossamer
7-character: 3 rhymes
This poem is probably the lament of an aging courtesan. Like the spring, her gossamer youth has vanished, squandered in the pursuit of pleasure and money.
1. Elm seeds look like strings of copper cash. During the Jin dynasty Shen Chung coined his own cash, which became known as “Shen’s money.” The fallen seeds suggest the reckless squandering of wealth in pursuit of ephemeral pleasures.
Song: Returning from Guei-ji
5-character: 1 rhyme
This poem is an imi
tation of the style of Yu Jian-wu (487–551). After a rebellion Yu returned to find the capital in ruins, while he himself was too old for high office.
1. The apartments of the Empress were traditionally said to have walls painted with a substance containing pepper and fagara to give them fragrance and warmth.
2. Fireflies were supposed to be born spontaneously from damp.
3. He is referring to the Crown Prince, Xiao Tong (501–31), compiler of the famous anthology, Wen-xuan. The Tai-cheng palace stood in Nanjing.
4. Wu (Jiangsu) was the site of the capital.
5. “Golden Fish”—a type of purse worn at the belt by officials of the third degree and upwards during Tang. Our line is an anachronism, since during the Liang dynasty Golden Tortoises, not Fish, were worn.
Sent to Quan Qu and Yang Jing-zhi When I Left the City
7-character: 1 rhyme
This poem was perhaps written in 814 when He left Chang-an after resigning from his post in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
1. Old swords were supposed to have magical properties, among them the power to rise in the air. He is saying that if he had really been an exceptional person he would not be leaving the capital in this way.
To Be Shown to My Younger Brother
5-character: 1 rhyme
1. A famous wine made from the water of Lake Ling, in Heng-yang, Henan.
2. “Ox” and “horse” were the names of two of the symbolical animals in the Chinese system of “branches.” These branches were used in divination. Note that “ox” and “horse” were also terms used in the Shu-pu game described below. The couplet is rich in meanings. Success and failure in life depend mainly on chance. (a) Why then be concerned about one’s fate? (b) Why bother consulting fortunetellers? Why care about who holds what official rank?
3. In the game known as Shu-pu wu-mu, played with five wooden black and white counters, five blacks was the best throw. The owl—an unlucky bird—was the name given to the worst throw, namely two whites and three blacks.
Bamboo
5-character: 1 rhyme
1. Beautiful women will sleep on these mats.
2. In ancient times, princes had worn caps lined with three layers of bamboo. He is offering his services to some prince or other.
Harmonizing with a Poem Written by Shen, the Imperial Son-in-Law, Entitled: “The Waters of the Royal Canal”
5-character: 1 rhyme
Shen Zi-ming (the friend who wrote the letter mentioned in Du Mu’s Preface) had married the Princess An-luo, a daughter of Emperor Xian-zong.
1. “Yellow-star beauty-spots” were all the rage at this time. The ladies are using the clear water as their mirror.
2. A reference to the stone slabs lining the sides of the canal.
3. “Duck-head” was the name of a green dye.
4. It was an old custom for guests to float wine-cups on a stream during parties.
5. Ho Yan, styled Ping-shu (190–249), was a man of exceptional good looks and talent who, like Shen, had married a princess.
On First Taking up My Post as Supervisor of Ceremonies My Thoughts Turn to My House in the Mountains of Chang-gu.
5-character: 1 rhyme
This poem was written in 811, when Li He first assumed office.
1. He has few visitors and no servants, because he is so poor.
2. Ru-yi (“as-you-like-it”) was a double-curved sceptre, often used as a back-scratcher, in the form of lotus-flower and stalk.
3. A kind of turban with peaked corners worn at home.
4. The poet Lu Ji (261–303) was supposed to have owned a dog named Yellow Ears, said to have carried a letter all the way from Luo-yang to Lu’s family in far-off Wu and then to have come back with an answer.
5. With his body as wasted as that of a sick crane, he regrets he ever came to the capital.
Seventh Night
5-character: 1 rhyme
On the seventh night of the seventh lunar month the festival of the Herd-boy and the Weaving Lady was celebrated. These two lovers, exiled to heaven as stars and parted by the river of the Milky Way, were allowed to meet on this night. They crossed the river on a bridge formed by magpies (see line 3), but had to part at dawn.
1. “Shores of Parting”—the Milky Way.
2. Probably a reference to the Weaving Lady, now left desolate again. It might, however, refer to He himself.
3. It was the custom on this night for women to leave seven needles threaded with silk in the moonlight and pray for greater skill in sewing. It was also the custom to air books and clothes in the sun during the day.
4. The crescent moon. “Half a mirror” hints at a story of parted lovers who each kept half a mirror as a love-token.
5. See Su Xiao-xiao’s Tomb, below.
Passing by the Hua-qing Palace
5-character: 1 rhyme
This deserted winter palace, famous for its hot springs, had been one of the resorts of Emperor Xuan-zong (regnet 712–56) and his ill-starred favourite, the beautiful Yan Guei-fei (d. 756).
1. The jewelled, red nets stretched across the windows to keep out insects and dust.
2. Mosses.
3. The palace contained many shrines to various deities. Since the bowls are full of dew (rain) the roof must be leaking. They should have held sacrificial wine. “Silk” refers to silk screens.
4. During the rebellion of An Lu-shan (755–63), Emperor Xuan-zong fled to Shu, in southwest China. Hence he was known derisively as the “Prince of Shu.”
5. The famous hot-springs are so deserted that no one comes there even to pluck parsley.
Song: Seeing off Shen Ya-zhi (Together with an Introduction)
7-character: 4 rhymes
1. Shen Ya-zhi was not only a fine poet but had also gained fame as a writer of tales of the supernatural.
2. Hu-zhou, in Zhejiang, was Shen’s home.
3. The bamboo was for use as a whip.
4. To Zhejiang.
5. Officials attached to the Department of Rites, who conducted the ju examinations.
6. A small boat. This section describes Shen’s coming to Chang-an for the examinations.
7. Guan Zhong (d. 654 B.C.), prime minister to Duke Huan of Chi, once confessed he had run away from battle three times, for the sake of his old mother.
8. Each month of the year was allotted a certain note on the pitch-pipes. Since the examinations were held in autumn, Shen would return then.
Expressing My Feelings
5-character: 1 rhyme
1. Si-ma Xiang-ru (179–117 B.C.), styled Chang-qing, is mentioned several times in He’s poems, always with admiration. Xiang-ru was the finest writer of rhyme-prose of his time—probably the finest in Chinese literary history. He eloped with Wen-jun, daughter of a local millionaire. Later he took service under Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 B.C.). He retired to Mao-ling (Xing-ping county, Shanxi) and died there of diabetes after many years of illness. In this poem He is comparing the dying poet’s plight with his own.
2. This is quite untrue. Both rulers had shown Xiang-yu great favours. He is simply projecting his own situation on to the ancient poet.
3. “Liquid gold” was a mixture of gold and mercury. The document in question, which dealt with the imperial sacrifices, was handed over to the Emperor after Xiang-yu’s death.
4. His hair has turned prematurely white.
5. He cannot wear the turban, that symbol of life of ease, because he is so hard at work.
6. Bitter-cork is a mountain tree, the bitter yellow bark of which is used as a drug and a dye. In early folksongs, it is a symbol of suffering. Hence the line means not only that Li He is out of office and dressed like a commoner—for during Tang all the common people had to wear yellow clothes—but also that he had suffered a great deal.
Written after the Style of a Poem by Liu Yun
5-character: 2 rhymes
Liu Yun was governor of Wu-xing during the Liang dynasty (502–57). He wrote a famous yue-fu ballad, which b
egins:
“On an islet I gather white duckweed,
Sunset, spring south of the River.”
1. For paulownia from Shu, see the poem, Song: Li Ping at the Vertical Harp, above.
2. Where a singing-girl lived.
3. Two lovers.
Song of the Sword of the Collator in the Spring Office
7-character: 1 rhyme
His twelfth elder cousin held the post of Collator in the Spring Office (Secretariat) of the household of the Crown Prince.
1. “Elder” was a term used by second-degree graduates when addressing those who had taken their doctorates.
2. A reference to Zhou Chu (Jin dynasty), who dived into a lake to kill a dragon that was plaguing his district.
3. The finest swords had hilts of shark skin.
4. Jing Ke was the epitome of the knight-errant, a hero who tried to assassinate the detested First Emperor of Qin. He’s cousin, Qin, should never bring the sword into the Crown Prince’s office since it is the heart of a regicide.
5. Lan-tian (Indigo-field), in Shanxi, was famous for its “jade” which was actually a green-and-white marble.
6. Liu Bang, founder of the Han dynasty, once killed a huge snake which lay across his path. That night an old woman appeared to him in a dream, lamenting loudly, and told him that the snake was the son of the White King of the West.
Song: A Nobleman at the End of the Night
1. Aloeswood was the most popular aromatic of Tang.
2. A girl sits alone in her room waiting for her lord to return? Or possibly, a nobleman, not yet in bed after a night’s hard drinking, waits for the dawn which must summon him to court.
Ballad of the Grand Warden of Goose Gate
7-character: 2 rhymes
The title is that of an old yue-fu ballad. Grand Warden (tai-shou) was a rank roughly equivalent to Governor. Yan-men (“Goose Gate”) commandery was in Shanxi. Ostensibly the poem deals with the defeat of a Chinese army during the Later Han.
1. During the Warring States period King Zhao of Yan, anxious to attract to his court all the finest men of his time, offered a thousand pieces of gold to those who came to have audience with him in this tower and were subsequently accepted into his service. The ruins of this tower stood eighteen li southeast of the river Yi.