by Li He
Song: Sitting through the Night
7-character: 2 rhymes
Title of a ballad first written by the fifth-century poet, Bao Zhao. A woman waits in vain through the night for her lover to come.
1. “Leaden flowers”: face-powder.
2. Lu Yu, styled Gan-yu, was a well-known poet of the Chen dynasty (regnet 557–89).
Song for Vertical Harp
Irregular: 1 rhyme
This song is based on a ballad of depressing banality which runs as follows:
“Sir, do not ford the river!
Now you’ve gone and forded the river!
Into the water you’ve sunk and drowned—
What are we to do?”
He has improved on this considerably by using the device found in The Summons of the Soul (Zhao Hun) in the Chu Ci, where a sick man is recalled to health by reminding him of the joys of life. Even so, our poem seems singularly uninspired.
1. Qu Ping—Qu Yuan, the reputed author of the Li Sao, is said to have drowned himself in the river Mi-luo, a tributary of the Xiang, in 278 B.C.
2. Mentioned as having drowned himself by walking into the sea carrying a stone.
Mount Wu is High
Irregular: 1 rhyme
One of the eighteen Drum, Flute and Bell Songs of Han bears this title. Mount Wu, a famous twelve-peaked range, rises up on the northern banks of the Yangzi and stretches from Sichuan to Hubei. It was on this mountain that Jade Beauty, daughter of the legendary Scarlet Emperor, was buried, thus becoming its tutelary deity. King Huai of Chu (floruit 3rd century B.C.) once spent the night with her, not knowing who she was. When she left him she told him that in the morning she took the form of clouds on Mount Wu, in the evening she marshalled the rain. Huai’s son, King Xiang, had the same experience.
Under the Walls of Ping City
5-character: 4 rhymes
Ping-cheng was a northern border outpost in present Ta-tong county, Shanxi, close to the Great Wall. The Han settlement of this name lay east of the Tang fort. In 200 B.C. Emperor Gao-zu of the Former Han was besieged in Ping-cheng, which became the scene of the great battle.
1. “Farewell swords”—swords presented as parting mementoes.
2. Literally “Sea-wind”; but “Sea” here stands for the Gobi, a desert being a sea of sand.
3. The Han-gu Pass was regarded as the gateway to China.
4. The bodies of men who had died on active service were sent back home for burial, wrapped in horsehides. The final line is so subversive that many commentators have sought to amend it, as for example, Suzuki Torao, who renders it as: “We do not mind going home as bundled corpses. This is better than dying as traitors.” The line as it stands speaks of mutiny or suicide.
Pleasures South of the Yangzi
7-character: 2 rhymes
1. Sunset clouds.
2. The moon.
Joys of the Rich
7-character: 10 rhymes
Though actually directed at some contemporary of He’s, this poem is ostensibly a satire on the infamous Liang Ji (d. A.D. 159), one of the richest and most powerful men in China during the closing decades of the Later Han. Liang owed his rise largely to the fact that his sister was the Consort of Emperor Shun (regnet 125–44). After Shun’s death, Liang poisoned his successor and put the government in the hands of his sister as Regent. Not until 159 did the young Emperor Huan (regnet 146–68) become powerful enough to overthrow Liang and his party in a coup that resulted in the execution of dozens of Liang’s adherents and the dismissal from office of over three hundred high officials. Prior to this, Liang had been emperor in all but name for close on fourteen years. He and his wife, Sun Shou, lived in splendour in Luo-yang, vying with each other, so we are told, in vice and luxury. See Liang’s biography in Hou Han-shu, XXXIV, pp. 14b–25a.
1. Liang’s biography described him as “a man with an owl’s shoulders and a wolf’s eyes.” Both are symbols of cruelty and oppression.
2. “Pepper Apartments”: the palace of the Empress, his sister.
3. Highly unorthodox dress, especially when worn at court, indicating Liang’s contempt for Confucian propriety.
4. Han-dan (Heibei), the capital of the ancient state of Zhao, was famous for its singing-girls.
5. “Cinnabar Hill”: a place mentioned in the compendium of travellers’ tales, the Shan-hai jing, as the haunt of the phoenix. To eat one of these auspicious birds would be the height of barbarism and vulgar opulence. Compare the proverb: “To burn a lute to cook a crane.”
6. Literally: “Macaques as big as a fist were not worth eating.” Macaques were a Sichuan delicacy.
7. “Blossom-rain”: heavy downpours that strip the blossom from the trees at the end of spring. They were too busy carousing to notice the rain.
8. Master Hong Yai was an Immortal who had once been known as Ling Lun. He was said to have cut the bamboos from which the Yellow Emperor made the twenty-four musical pitch-pipes. See note above.
9. Liang had a collection of rabbits in his park which he guarded zealously. Over ten people were put to death for having killed some of these animals, in ignorance of the prohibition.
10. Throughout this poem He has followed Liang’s biography in the Hou Han-shu. Only this last line makes it clear that this is not just a historical exercise but a satire.
Let’s Drink Wine
Irregular: 3 rhymes
1. The charioteer of the sun.
2. A three-legged crow lived in the sun. Yan-zi was a mountain where the sunset.
3. Legend said that a peach-tree with roots 3,000 li long grew on the summit of Mount Tao-du. On top of the tree was a golden cock which sang when the sun shone on it.
4. Ru Shou is the spirit of autumn. The Green Emperor is the spirit of spring.
5. “Tattoo gold”: fine gold from the south where the tattooed aborigines lived.
6. Why worry about the future?
7. One reads: “Carriages come to Chang-an in an endless stream.” Since both Liang Ji and Shi Chung lived in Luo-yang, not Chang-an, our version is clearly preferable.
8. For Liang Ji, see note 1 above.
9. Shi Chung (249–300) was a millionaire infamous for his extravagance and cruelty. His estate, Golden Valley Garden, lay just outside Luo-yang. Li He is obviously thrusting at some of his degenerate contemporaries, perhaps at officials and eunuchs notorious for their rapacity.
Delights of the Jasper Flower
Irregular: 3 rhymes
1. “Dragon-decoys”: heavenly horses, believed to be related to dragons, which their presence would attract.
2. Lie-zi, III, recounts the story of High-king Mu of Zhou, who drove his team of eight famous horses round the world. When he came to the Kun-lun mountains, the Mother who is Queen in the West feasted him by the Jasper Pool.
3. The Five Emperors who govern the Five Regions of the universe and reside in the Five Planets.
4. Literally: “The Pool of Yu,” where the sun bathed after it had set.
5. Metal was the element associated with autumn in the Han system of correspondences. Hence the “metal wind” is the west wind.
6. The sweet dew sent down by Heaven to reward a king of great virtue (de).
7. Second-class elixirs of life.
Cold up North
1-character: 2 rhymes
One commentator believes this is a satire on the Armies of the Divine Plan, which had grown so used to soft living under their eunuch commanders that they had no chance of standing up to the Tibetan invasion of 812, when the barbarian armies staged a winter campaign in Gansu. All this seems rather farfetched.
Reflections on the Ancient Terrace of Liang
7-character: 3 rhymes
During the Former Han, Prince Xiao of Liang constructed a magnificent palace and a park for his pleasure in Sui-yang, Henan. In the park, which extended for several hundred li, stood the Yao-hua palace and the Goose Pool. This poem is yet another example of He’s obsession with the theme of
the inexorability of time. The prince could not stay the course of the years for all his wealth. Now nothing is left of his palace but ruins; it has dissolved into air as suddenly as it seemed to spring out of it.
1. The Milky Way seems to pour down on to the terrace, whose ruins stand out starkly against the night sky.
2. A stock example of impious behaviour, taken from a legend about an early emperor who shot at a skin bag filled with blood and hung on high, claiming he was shooting at Heaven. There is of course no record of the Prince of Liang having behaved in this way. The bells were musical instruments.
3. His fur robes were embroidered with golden tigers.
Do Not Go out of Your Gate, Sir!
Irregular: 2 rhymes
An enigmatic poem. The point of the title, I think, is that the official career has become so dangerous that one is safest in retirement. This poem may have something to do with Han Yu, whose strict principles were always involving him in trouble. The difficulty is that it is impossible to translate the poem correctly without knowing what it is about. My very tentative interpretation is as follows: “One of He’s friends (Han Yu?) is menaced by vicious enemies. All his troubles will end with his death, which will paradoxically enough be his real reward. (This is a very un-Chinese idea, neither Confucian nor yet Taoist, which reveals Buddhist influence on He’s thought.) Our poet himself is in a similar plight, being menaced by dangers from every side. Like Yan Hui, his hair has turned white while he is still young. Is he to meet with the same fate as Bao Jiao, a man of strictest principles who came to a miserable end? Yet we must not despair at seeing virtue so shabbily treated. What looks to us like an undeserved death is in fact Heaven’s way of sparing the good from further suffering. If you doubt the truth of my words, think of Qu Yuan, who found inspiration in his despair.”
1. The “bears and serpents” of our test is almost certainly a variant of the “nine-headed serpent” of the Chu Ci, Zhao Hun, p. 104:
“And the great Nine-headed Serpent who darts
Swiftly this way and that
And swallows men as a sweet relish.”
2. A reference to his friend’s enemies.
3. “Orchid girdle”: a symbol of the virtuous.
4. According to the Huai-nan zi, Li-yang commandery in Anhui turned into a lake in one night. Is He referring to some sudden calamity which had overtaken him?
5. The roaring of the dragons sounds like brazen rings being shaken.
6. The ya-yu (loosely rendered “griffon”) was a fabulous beast with the head of a dragon, tail of a horse, and claws of a tiger. It ate only the wicked.
7. Bao Jiao was a recluse of Chou times who set himself such exaggerated standards of conduct that he starved himself to death.
8. Yan Hui, the favourite disciple of Confucius, had white hair before he was thirty. Like He, he died young.
9. Qu Yuan, unjustly slandered and banished, was supposed to have been inspired to write The Heavenly Questions by the frescoes that he saw in the ancestral temples of the kings of Chu. In his despair he scrawled questions on the temple walls seeking to know the meaning of life before drowning himself.
Song of the Magic Strings
7-character: 2 rhymes
A female shaman exorcises evil spirits. A ballad of this title existed as early as the 3rd century A.D. It originated in the south, long the home of shamanistic culture.
1. The god arrives, riding the whirlwind.
2. The shaman dances.
3. The spirit brings the wind.
4. Both animals were greatly feared by the Chinese.
5. “Horned dragon”: painted on the wall of the shrine.
6. Owls were considered unlucky. Forest demons (mu mei) were four-legged beasts with human faces.
Magic Strings
7-character: 2 rhymes
1. This is synaesthesia, sound and scent blending into one.
2. Paper money is burnt at Chinese funerals. Here it is used as an offering to the spirit.
3. Wood of a tree mentioned in the Zhan-guo ce. Planted on the grave of a wife who had died while her husband was away on a campaign, its branches would turn towards the quarter where he happened to be.
4. A mountain range which stretches for over 800 li across Central China.
5. Or perhaps: “The Spirit lingers long between Something and Nothing.”
Farewell Song of Magic Strings
7-character: 2 rhymes
1. For the goddess of Mount Wu, see poem above. This is the shaman’s farewell song to the departing goddess.
2. This must refer to the goddess and not to the shaman.
3. The Yangzi flows at the foot of Mount Wu.
4. “Fallen orchid”: a boat.
5. Mount Zhung-nan, near Luo-yang, perhaps.
6. The cassia flowers in spring and autumn. The last line hints that this may also be a love poem. Perhaps Li He himself is the cassia-tree of the penultimate line.
Song of Green Water
5-character: 2 rhymes
A poem of Emperor Wu Liang (regnet 502–49) refers to A-hou (“poor Hou”) as the child of the singing-girl Mo-chou (“Never Sorrow”). We do not know whether A-hou was originally supposed to be a girl or a boy: but Late Tang writers thought A-hou was a girl. The last four lines of this poem have produced endless speculation among commentators.
1. Presumably no one will marry her on account of her profession as a singing-girl.
Song: Sandy Road
7-character: 3 rhymes
During Tang, on the appointment of a new Prime Minister, sand was strewn along the road from his private residence to the eastern quarter of the city. Our poem celebrates the appointment of a Prime Minister, seen riding to audience at dawn.
1. The tamarisk, thought to bear a resemblance to a human figure, was called “man-willow” (ren-liu). The trees look half-asleep at this early hour.
2. Smoke from incense-burners.
3. To the court of the Son of Heaven.
4. Dragons were carved on the nine gates of the palace.
5. Since the government is a good one, the macrocosm responds to the order displayed by the microcosm. So there are no droughts or other calamities. All this is due to the virtue of the Prime Minister.
The Emperor Returns
7-character: 3 rhymes
The fourteenth of the Han Cymbal Songs bears the title “The Emperor Goes to Hui.” This originally referred to Han Wu-di’s visit to Hui-zhung. He misunderstood this, so I have translated accordingly.
1. Zhuan Xu, a legendary ruler, had a magic sword which could leap from its case to subdue his enemies.
2. Chi You—a rebel defeated by the Yellow Emperor.
3. The text is very corrupt here. I have followed the Wu edition. The usual text reads: “From high heaven auspicious clouds (thunder?) fall everywhere to earth. (Within) the (four) seas for a thousand leagues, earth displays no smoke (from warning beacons) to frighten us.”
The Grand Official Carriage Comes on a Visit.
Written at the Command of Assistant Secretary Han Yu and Censor Huang-fu Shi When They Visited Me.
Irregular: 3 rhymes
We may safely discount the story that He wrote this poem when he was seven. Han Yu was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Board of Prisons in the sixth month of 809, becoming Magistrate of Henan the following year. Huang-fu Shi became Censor in the Court of General Affairs in 808. We may therefore conclude that this poem was written in 809, probably just before the examination held to select the doctoral candidates from Henan-fu.
Lady of the Cowrie Palace
7-character: 1 rhyme
We have no idea who this goddess was. Some commentators believe her to be the Dragon Lady, others a Sea Spirit. The poem describes her image standing in her temple.
1. The mermaids are her handmaidens.
2. Though the goddess should rightfully occupy the Six Palaces or Chambers of an Empress, she must remain alone in her shrine.
3. Com
mentators quote the story of a king of Kashmir who caught a simurgh and caged it, only to find it would not sing. His wife pointed out that simurghs only sang when they saw their own kind, so he deceived the bird by putting a mirror in its cage. The bird then sang a mournful song and died. The goddess, rare and beautiful as a simurgh (and like this bird, mirrored in the silver sign above her) is unlike the simurgh in being immortal and free of all passions.
The Temple of the Goddess of Orchid Fragrance
5-character: 1 rhyme
This goddess was probably the tutelary spirit of Mount Shen. See the poem Delights of the Jasper Flower above. This poem was written in the third month of the year in which He wrote the Chang-gu poem. The first ten lines describe the environs of the temple; the next four describe either the goddess herself or a shamaness dancing; the remaining lines describe the wanderings of the goddess.
1. The Jade Lady—traditionally associated with clouds and rain—was the tutelary spirit of Mount Wu. The River Lord was the husband of the Ladies of the Xiang.
2. The Fairy, Wei Shu-qing, used to ride a white deer, while Qin Gao rode a red bream.
3. “Caves of pearl” is glossed as “dimples.”
4. The ducks were incense-burners which have grown cold in her absence.
I Escort Wei Ren-shi and His Brother to the Pass
5-character: 1 rhyme
Wei Ren-shi is mentioned as addressing a remonstrance to the throne in A.D. 824. Apart from this, nothing is known of him. When He wrote this poem, Wei and his brother were probably going to Chang-an to sit for their examinations.
1. They are all too sorrowful to get drunk.
2. Hinting at success in the coming examinations.
3. The hill south of He’s house in Chang-gu.
Outside the Walls of Luo-yang, I Take Leave of Huang-fu shi
5-character: 1 rhyme
Huang-fu Shi, a pupil of Han Yu’s, was a patron of various writers of the time, among them Li He. Though rude, arrogant, bad-tempered, and something of a drunkard, he enjoyed a great reputation for learning among his contemporaries. Since three other poems of He’s are concerned with Huang-fu Shi, the two would appear to have been close friends.