Reflections (III)
9 April, 2012 at 18:45 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
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I received this beautiful Tang poem as a gift by Lan Hua, translator of poems for Epoch Times. I’m very grateful 
Thanks a lot!
“This is my translation of a poem by the Tang poet Zhang JiuLing, also known by the courtesy name of Zishou. I don’t know too much about his work. He served as a senior minister to the Emperor Xuanzong in the early 700′s. The spiritual flavor of this poem reminds of sonnets by John Donne.” – Lan Hua
Reflections (III)
Into seclusion returning
A man resumes his lonely perch
Deliberate in manner
Bathed in purity and truth
Like a soaring goose
Feeling full of thanks
Because of the great distance
Spread out underneath
Over which the soul shall pass
Day and night
Mindful of
Emptiness
But can anyone
Attain its essence
Soaring or sinking
From self fully
Detached
Where
Am I to find
Such comfort
Please tell me truly
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Du Fu: Poetry Wrought from Hardship
1 February, 2012 at 08:05 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
Editor’s note: This is a series of translations of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty being published on The Epoch Times website. Each piece will be accompanied by its Chinese original, an interpretive English translation, and a small essay of introduction, contextualization, and appraisal.
Now I’d like to share with you my translations of some poems by Du Fu. Considered by many Chinese to be their greatest poet, Du Fu himself felt overshadowed by Li Bai, his slightly elder colleague, and he failed to receive anywhere near the same recognition for his poetry during his lifetime as did many of his contemporaries.
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And here is a second poem written a number of years later, during the An Lu Shan rebellion, as Du Fu sadly reflects on his distant wife and children.
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Read more: Du Fu: Poetry Wrought from Hardship | Culture | China | Epoch Times
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A Song of Lu Mountain – One of Li Bai’s Spiritual Poems
25 December, 2011 at 07:40 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
I got this beautiful gift from Lan Hua, who posted it as a comment on my “About me” page. I really appreciate this gesture since Li Bai‘s spiritual poems are my favourite ones among ancient chinese poetry.
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Lan Hua wrote: Here is a translation of one of Li Bai’s spirit poems. The Madman of Chu appears briefly in the Analects and chides Confucius for thinking he can or should meddle in affairs of state.
A Song of Lu Mountain
I am the madman of Chu
Who sang for Confucius
And laughed at him too
All the while
In both my hands
A precious jade staff
Tightly I clasped
To Yellow Crane Tower
At dawn I departed
Onto the Five Sacred Peaks
Searching for Immortals
Far and wide
For an entire lifetime
Across Ming Shan
I have wandered there
Then across Lu Shan
Where I approached the Big Dipper
Through the nine screens
Traversing through clouds
Like wind through
A brocade clothe
Out of the shadows
And into brightness
I found a crystal clear lake
Its surface shimmering with
Dazzling colorful rays
And the gates of golden watchtower
Opened silently before me
Revealing in the distance
Two more enormous peaks
Down a winding path I strolled
Where there flowed a silvery stream
Under three stone bridges
It passed and then tumbled
Down a sheer precipice
In a misty waterfall
Obscure with a thick
Blue green haze
While on the skyline
Clouds glowed persimmon
Herald of the morning sun
And birds beat their wings
In endless flight on their way
To the state of Wu
Ascending these heights
What great vistas have I seen
Of Heaven and Earth
As well as places in between
A river that flows apart from
Space and time
Measureless and vast
Filled with whitecaps
Flowing fast
Yellow clouds
Propelled ten thousand miles
By the relentless wind
Towards nine distant
Snow capped peaks
This is the song
Of Lu Shan
The spirit that
The mountain speaks
At leisure I gaze
At her rocky crags
As into a mirror
More clearly
It’s my own heart
I glimpse
Down pathways
Long overgrown
Moss everywhere
A thick dark green
Taking an extra dose
Of cinnabar tablets
Beyond this world
The heart stirs
Like a zither
Strummed three times
It trills from
First to last
And far in the distance
See the Immortals assembling
Filled with roseate inner light
In their hands they hold
Hibiscus blossoms
To present the Jade Emperor
In the Imperial Court
Before crossing the void
Nine levels ascending
At last arriving
At the truth of Lu
Approaching utter clarity
Though the work continues
Onward still
Best regards — Lan Hua
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Li Bai’s ‘Looking Toward Heaven’s Gate’
2 November, 2011 at 07:39 | Posted in China, Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, China, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
Editor’s note: This is a series of translations of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty being published on The Epoch Times website. Each piece will be accompanied by its Chinese original, an interpretive English translation, and a small essay of introduction, contextualization, and appraisal.
Last time I wrote about Li Bai and Du Fu, how together they are the twin giants of Tang poetry. Not only are they both great poets, but they are each archetypes who represent a distinct poetic response to the world, somewhat the way the Beatles and Rolling Stones are archetypes for all subsequent rock and roll bands.
To give you a better idea of the archetypes they have come to be, this week I am going to concentrate on Li Bai, starting with a small part of what has been passed down as official biography; then I’ll give you translations of a few more poems. After that, I’ll do the same with Du Fu and then we’ll return to the subject of their relationship, as reflected in some of the poems they wrote to each other. Part of what makes their relationship so interesting is how it is documented by their own work.
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Here is a portion of Li Bai’s biography taken from the New History of the Tang Dynasty, which was written in the 11th century. I am borrowing here from a translation by the great sinologist Arthur Waley which appears in his monograph The poet Li Bai. I think this is worth quoting at length if for no other reason than to show the richness of the Chinese poetic tradition – from a distance of more than 1300 years, a distinct picture of Li Bai emerges, much more detailed than we have in fact for either Shakespeare or Chaucer.
Li Bai, styled T’ai-Po, was descended in the ninth generation from the Emperor Hsing-sheng. One of his ancestors was charged with a crime at the end of the Sui dynasty, and the family took refuge in Turkestan. At the beginning of the period Shen-lung, the family returned and settled in Szechwan. At his birth Li Bai’s mother dreamt of the planet Venus and that was how he came by his name.
At ten he had mastered the Book of Odes and Book of History. When he grew up he retired to the Min Mountains, and even when summoned to the provincial examinations he made no response. When Su T’ing became governor of I-chou, he was introduced to Li Bai, and was astonished by him, remarking on his conspicuous natural talents… However, he was interested in politics and fond of fencing, becoming one of those knight-errants who care nothing for wealth and much for almsgiving.
Once he stayed in Shantung with K’ung Ch’ao-fu, Han Chun, P’ei Cheng, Chang Shu-ming and T’ao Mien. They lived on Mount Ch’u Lai and were dead drunk every day. People called them the Six Hermits of the Bamboo Stream.
At the beginning of the T’ien-pao period he went south to Kuei-chi, and became intimate with Wu Yun. Wu Yun was summoned by the Emperor, and Li Bai went with him to Chang-an. Here he visited Ho Chih-chang. When Chih-chang read some of his work, he sighed and said: “You are an exiled fairy.” He told the Emperor, who sent for Li Bai and gave him an audience in the Golden Bells Hall. The poet submitted an essay dealing with current events. The Emperor bestowed food upon him and stirred the soup with his own hand. He ordered that he should be unofficially attached to the Han Lin Academy, but Li Bai went on drinking in the market-place with his boon companions.
Once when the Emperor was sitting in the Pavilion of Aloes Wood, he had a sudden stirring of heart, and wanted Li Bai to write a song expressive of his mood. When Li Bai entered in obedience to the summons, he was so drunk that the couriers were obliged to dab his face with water. When he had recovered a little, he seized a brush and without any effort wrote a composition of flawless grace.
The Emperor was so pleased with Li Bai’s talent that whenever he was feasting or drinking he always had this poet to wait upon him. Once when Li Bai was drunk the Emperor ordered the eunuch Kao Li-shih to take off Li Bai’s shoes. Li-shih, who thought such a task beneath him, took revenge by affecting to discover in one of Li Bai’s poems a veiled attack on the Emperor’s mistress, Yang Kuei-fei.
Whenever the Emperor thought of giving the poet some official rank, Kuei-fei intervened and dissuaded him. Li Bai himself, soon realizing that he was unsuited to Court life, allowed his conduct to become more and more reckless and unrestrained.
Together with his friends Ho Chih-chang, Li Shih-chih, Chin, Prince of Ju-yang, Ts’ui Tsung-chih, Su Chin, Chang Hsu and Chiao Sui, he formed the association known as the Eight Immortals of the Winecup.
He begged persistently to be allowed to retire from Court. At last the Emperor gave him gold and sent him away. Li Bai roamed the country in every direction. Once he went by boat with Ts’ui tsung-chih from Pien-shih to Nanking. He wore his embroidered Court cloak and sat as proudly in the boat as though he were king of the universe.
Read more: Tang Poetry in Translation: Li Bai and Du Fu Part II | China News | Epoch Times
The Plum Blossom: A Symbol of Strength
23 June, 2011 at 07:39 | Posted in Chinese culture, Shen Yun, Spirituality | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, Shen Yun, Spirituality
In the midst of winter, before snow melts and the swallow returns, plum trees blossom onto the barren landscape, bracing the harshness of winter and reminding people spring will come. Celebrated here is the vitality of life, endurance through hardship, and hope that life will regenerate.
The plum blossom has been an important symbol in Chinese culture. As a “friend of winter,” the plum blossom most vividly represents the value of endurance, as life ultimately overcomes through the vicissitude of time. The fragrance of plum blossoms “comes from the bitterness and coldness,” as the Chinese saying goes. Souls are tempered in the depth of experience, growing in inner strength and unyielding courage.
Unity of culture and nature has been an important part of the Chinese tradition, and elements of nature embody important cultural values. The plum, together with the orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, have been named the “four nobles” of plants by the ancient Chinese, each because of its noble characteristics, such as purity (orchid), uprightness (bamboo), and humility (chrysanthemum).
Zhu Xi, a noted Song Dynasty Confucian scholar, gave the plum four virtues: the great potential in the bud, prosperity in the flower, harmony in the fruit, and rightness in its maturity—all of which embody the characteristics of heaven (qian), according to the Book of Change. Chinese also see the five-petaled flower as symbolizing five blessings: longevity, prosperity, health, virtue, and good living.
Plum, or Prunus mume, is an arbor that originated in southwest China. For over 3,000 years, plum trees have been planted in China, including North China, where the winter is colder. From China, the plum spread to Korea, Japan (where the plum is called “ume”), and later to other countries as an ornamental plant. The plum tree flowers before its leaves come out in the spring.
Plum blossoms typically have five petals, single- or multi-layered, with the colors pink/red, white, and yellow as common. The pink/red variety is used often for the Chinese New Year in late January and early February.
China has a long history of using and enjoying the plum tree and its flower. Plum fruit has been used for food for more than 3,000 years, and plum blossoms have been appreciated in gardens and around homes for over 2,000 years. In the 5th century, princesses and court women started to use plum blossoms for decoration, and this helped make the flower popular.
The plum blossom has been an important object for poems and paintings since the Tang Dynasty, reaching a peak during the Song Dynasty. Under the brush pen of literati and artisans, the plum blossom’s spirit was celebrated.
For poet Lin Bu of the Song Dynasty, the flower was more than a symbol, but a friend and soul mate. His famous verses about the plum blossom have passed down through the generations:
All flowers have withered, you alone blossom,
occupying the focal scenery of the small garden.
Delicate branches cast shadows aslant over clear shallow water;
secret fragrance floats lightly in the moonlit dusk.
Lu You, another Song Dynasty poet, is also known for poems about the plum blossom. In “Ode to Plum Blossom,” he described:
I used to ride a horse to visit Western Chengdu,
Intoxicated with the sweet smell of plum blossom.
Fragrance continued for twenty li,
from Qingyang palace to Huanhua brook.
The poet expressed the wish of being one with the plum blossom:
How can I transform my body into millions,
each enjoying the blossom by a plum tree.
Su Dongpo, also a celebrated Song Dynasty poet, is probably responsible for the style of art that focuses on portraying the inner spirit of nature, rather than its outer forms. He said, “The beauty of the plum goes beyond the sour taste of its fruit.” His idea of transcending the physical deeply influenced the painting of plum blossoms, especially in the style of “ink plum,” using only the black ink to paint the plum tree and blossoms.
Shi Zhongren, the creator of the “ink plum” style on silk, was a monk during the Song Dynasty. The noble nature of the plum blossom requires, as the Chinese believe, that painters of the flower be noble people. Shi cultivated an inner awareness that is important for his art, and his paintings were considered “wordless poetry.”
Read more: The Plum Blossom: A Symbol of Strength | China | Epoch Times
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Spring Dawn – Poems From the Tang Dynasty
9 February, 2011 at 10:48 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
Poetry was the highest and greatest art of China during the Tang Dynasty, which ran from the 7th Century AD through the 9th Century. Just as theater gripped the audiences of Elizabethan England and TV sitcoms enthralled 20th Century Americans, so poetry spoke to the people of Tang China.
The outpouring of poetry during this period is truly astounding. The most definitive collection of Tang poems (compiled during the early 18th century in China) contains more than 50,000 poems from more than 2,200 different authors. Emperors and ministers, minstrels and priests all wrote poems. There were women poets, drunken poets and child poets, poetry practiced in schools and among circles of friends. Poetry permeated the entire culture and was an integral part of every educated person’s life.
By Meng Haoran
Read more: Spring Dawn | China | Epoch Times
More poems: Grass
Editor’s note: This is the second piece in a series of translations of Chinese poetry from the Tang Dynasty being published on The Epoch Times website. Each piece will be accompanied by its Chinese original, an interpretive English translation, and a small essay of introduction, contextualization, and appraisal.
This week’s translation is of a poem written by Bai Juyi in the year 788. Recognized as a prodigy when he wrote this poem at the age of 16, Bai went on to become one of the most prolific and popular poets of the middle Tang period.
On Parting With Spring
18 June, 2010 at 20:03 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
Hidden on this mountain, many Buddhist monks
Chant sutras, meditate together;
Men on distant city walls gazing towards the peaks
See only white, enshrouding clouds.
Wang Wei
(699-759 AD)
On the Mountain
15 May, 2010 at 20:42 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | Leave a commentTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,
I have a world apart that is not among men.
Li Bai
(701-762 AD)
The Nap
25 April, 2010 at 09:45 | Posted in Chinese culture | 2 CommentsTags: ancient chinese poetry, Chinese culture
A stone for a pillow and all is quiet.
From my fingers the book falls down.
Then a fisherman‘s flute’s drill is heard from the river.
I notice that when I wake up I smile.
Ts’ai Ch’o
About 1087 AD
Tang Dynasty Poems: Visions of Paradise
24 March, 2010 at 09:49 | Posted in Chinese culture, Tang Dynasty | 6 CommentsTags: ancient chinese poetry, chinese art, Chinese culture, poem of Tang Dynasty
Endless Yearning (I)
I am endlessly yearning
To be in Changan,
Insects hum of autumn by the gold brim of the well
A thin frost glistens like little mirrors on my cold mat,
The high lantern flickers, and deeper grows my longing
I lift the shade and, with many a sigh, gaze upon the moon,
Single as a flower, centred from the clouds
Above, I see the blueness and deepness of the sky
Below, I see the greenness and the restlessness of water…
Heaven is high, Earth wide, bitter between them flies my sorrows
Can I dream through the gateway, over the mountain?
Endless longing
Breaks my heart.
–Li Bai
A Visit to Sky-Mother Mountain in a Dream
So, longing in my dreams for Wu and Yue
One night I flew over Mirror Lake under the moon,
The moon cast my shadow on the water
And travelled with me all the way to Shanxi,
The lodge of Lord Xie still remained
Where green waters swirled and the cry of apes was shrill,
Donning the shoes of Xie
I climbed the dark ladder of clouds,
Midway, I saw the sun rise from the sea
Heard the Cock of Heaven crow,
And my path twisted through a thousand crags
Enchanted by flowers I leaned against a rock
And suddenly all was dark,
Growls of bears and snarls of dragons echoed
Among the rocks and streams,
The deep forest appalled me, I shrank from the lowering cliffs,
Dark were the clouds, heavy with rain
Waters boiled into misty spray,
Lightening flashed, thunder roared
Peaks tottered, boulders crashed,
And the stone gate of a great cavern
Yawned open,
Below me, a bottomless void of blue
Sun and moon gleaming on terraces of silver and gold,
With rainbows for garments, and winds for horses
The lords of the clouds descended, a mighty host,
Phoenixes circled the chariots, tigers played zithers
As the immortals went by, rank upon rank.
–Li Bai
A Ballad of Heaven
The River of Heaven wheels round at night
Drifting the circling stars,
At Silver Bank, the floating clouds
Mimic the murmur of water.
By the Palace of Jade the cassia blossoms
Have not yet fallen,
Fairy maidens gather their fragrance
For their dangling girdle-sachets.
The Princess from Ch’in rolls up her blinds,
Dawn at the north casement.
In front of the window, a planted kola nut
Dwarfs the blue phoenix.
The King’s son plays his pipes
Long as goose quills,
Summoning dragons to plough the mist
And plant Jade Grass.
Sashes of pink as clouds at dawn
Skirts of lotus-root silk,
They walk on Blue Island, gathering
Fresh orchids in spring.
She points to Hsi Ho in the east
Deftly urging his steeds,
While land begins to rise from the sea
And stone hills wear away.
–Li He
On the Way Back to the Old Residence
Travelling to Heaven in dreams
There is another space and dimension in the kettle
Overlook the human Earth,
That is easily withered and rotten.
–Li Bai
Ling Xu Mountain
Leaving the human world
Going toward the path to Heaven;
Upon Consummation through cultivation,
Then follow the clouds to Heaven,
Caves hidden under pine trees,
Deep and unseen among the peach blossoms;
–Li Bai
It is evident in the Tang dynasty poetry that they believe to be a human being on Earth is not the sole purpose of life. Tang people understood that reaching the happiness of heaven through cultivation and Consummation is the goal to be achieved. This is the predominant message that Tang poems have passed down to us.
Link: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200209/7191.html
All paintings by Zhang Cuiying
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