Xuanji Yu - The Clouds Float North

title:The Clouds Float North : TheComplete Poems of Yu XuanjiWesleyan Poetryauthor:Yu, Hsuan-chi.; Young, David.; Lin,Jiann I.publisher: Wesleyan University Pressisbn10 | asin: 0819563439print isbn13: 9780819563439ebook isbn13: 9780585371511language: Englishsubject Y, Hsan-chi,--842-872.--Translations into English, Poetry--Selections.publication date: 1998lcc: PL2677.Y77.A28 1998ebddc: 808.81subject:Y, Hsan-chi,--842-872.--Translations into English, Poetry--Selections.Page iThe Clouds Float NorthThis book was supported by a grant from theEric Mathieu King Fund of The Academy of American Poets. Page iiWESLEYAN POETRY Page iiiThe Clouds Float NorthThe Complete Poems of Yu XuanjiBilingual EditionTranslated by David Young and Jiann I. Lin Page ivWesleyan University PressPublished by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH03755Collection and translations 1998 by David Young and Jiann I.LinAll rights reservedPrinted in the United States of America5 4 3 2 1CIP data appear at the end of the bookAcknowledgmentSome of these poems appeared first in FIELD, and we aregrateful for permission to reprint them.FrontispieceYun Bing, Chinese, active 16701710, Peonies and Garden Rock.Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio. MaryMcClure Bequest, 1945. Allen Memorial Art Museum. Page vContentsYu Xuanji: An Introduction ixPoem for the Willows by the River 1Sent to a Neighbor Woman Friend 2The Fragrance of Orchids 3Tribute to a Master Alchemist 4Sent to Secretary Liu 5Washing Yarn Temple 7Selling the Last Peonies 8To Thank the Scholar Li for the Gift of a Bamboo Mat 9Love Letter to Li Zian 10Boudoir Bitterness 11Spring Thoughts Sent Affectionately to Zian 13Watching Them Play Polo 15Sent to a Friend in a Late Spring Mood 16Sent to Wen Feiqing on a Winter Night 17A Poem Sent to Li Ying to Match His "Fishing in Summer" 18 Page viMatching Poem for My New Neighbor to the West, InvitingHim over for Wine19A Matching Poem, Reply to a Friend 20Two Poems 21Visiting the South Pavilion at Chongzhen Temple Wherethe Civil Service Exam Results Are Posted23Melancholy Thoughts 24Autumn Lament 25River Journey 26Hearing Squire Li Had Gone Fishing, I Sent Him ThisPoem27The Zifu Temple, Founded by the Hermit Ren 28The Yinwu Pavilion 29The Double Ninth Festival Delayed by Rain 30Early Autumn 31Remembering Strong Emotions 32For a Friend Who Didn't Arrive Because of Heavy Rain 34Visiting Master Zhao and Not Finding Him 35Curing Yourself When Lovesick 36Sent to Feiqing 38Visiting Ezhou 39Living in the Mountains in Summer 40Late Spring Improvisation 41 Page viiJoining Somebody's Mourning 42Letter to a Friend 43Sent to Zian, Long Distance, from the Hanjiang River 44An Allegory 45Letter to Zian, Sad from Gazing into the Distance, fromJiangling46Sent to Zian 47Saying Goodbye 48A Warm Note to Squire Li Jinren 49Saying Goodbye, II 50Letter to an Exam Candidate, from Shanxi to the Capital 51Reply to a Poem, Matching the Form 53Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young 54Snapping Willows 57Fragments 58Notes 61 Page ixYu XuanjiAn IntroductionOutside her remarkable poems, we know very little about YuXuanji. Her surname, Yu, which means "fish," is unusual. Hergiven name, Xuanji (Hsanchi in WadeGiles romanization),means something like "dark secret" or "mysterious luck.'' She wasborn around 844 and died around 871, at the age of twenty-eight.One source describes her life and work this way:A woman of the Tang Dynasty (618907), from Chang'an; byname'Youwei;' second byname 'Huilan.' She was fond of study and had sometalent. She became a lesser wife of the official Li Yi [Li Zian]. Thelove between them decayed, and Xuanji became a Daoist [Taoist] nunin the Xian Yi Temple. Because a novice died from a beatingadministered by Xuanji for disciplinary reasons, Xuanji herself wascondemned and executed. She left one book of poems. (GwoyeuTsyrdean [A Dictionary of the National Language])Her bynames, or "courtesy names" (which are like nicknames, butmore formal), mean, in the first case, "young and tiny" or "youngand profound," and, in the second case, "orchid." The name ofthe temple she went to suggests something like "All Suitable" or"Just As It Should Be."Western role names like "nun" and "concubine" (lesser wife) and"courtesan" (since a number of the poems suggest that she led thislife as well) are clumsy ways at best of denoting social roles andrelationships that were very different from the ones we know.They fail to characterize a life that we are more likely to glimpse,if we manage it at all, by turning to the remarkable poems she left,forty-nine in number. These poems reflect her relations withmenrelations that are certainly more complex and interesting thanany reduction of them to sex and commercial transaction wouldsuggestand they also show her exploring the Daoist ideals ofmeditation, solitude, and con- Page xtemplation of nature. Behind them stands a person who escapesstereotypes, a gifted writer who explores the limited optionsavailable to her, material and spiritual, with vigor andimagination.We owe the survival of these poems to the ancient Chineseanthologists' urge to be complete *. To their comprehensiveperiod anthologies of what they thought counted mostthe poemsof men who were also government officials of varying degrees ofimportancethey couldn't resist adding curiosities: poems byghosts, poems by monks, priests, and foreigners, even poems bywomen "and others whose efforts," as The Indiana Companionto Traditional Chinese Literature notes, "might provideamusement."So it was that Yu Xuanji's forty-nine poems survived. The storyof her "murder" and "execution" was recounted some twelveyears after her death, and it is told, the same source notes, "insuch dramatic detail that its historical accuracy becomes suspect."The Little Tablet from Three Rivers, source of the tale, sounds alittle like the contemporary equivalent of a tabloid. What the truthof this story is, we can never know. Anyone who has seen therecent Chinese film Raise the Red Lantern will have some idea ofhow the intrigues, betrayals, oppressions, and frustrations towhich women were subjected in that culture could lead quiteplausibly either to a false accusation or to an act of revenge. It isvery difficult to reconcile the person behind these poems with abeating that resulted in a death, but it is not impossible, givenhuman nature. What seems equally likely is that the story isapocryphal, or that Yu Xuanji was falsely accused.We think of women as having been consistently oppressed inancient China, subjected to rules of modesty and behavior thatkept them uneducated, restricted to the household, and unable tothink of themselves as gifted individualsartists, philosophers,composers, or the like. That is far too monolithic a conception ofthe social and psychological reality. Rhythms of conservatism andliberality have characterized Chinese life as much as they haveany other culture. The notorious practice of foot binding, forexample, did not become widespread until considerably later, inthe Song Dynasty (9601279). In that same era, however, therewere many regions in which it was common for daughters toinherit property, making generalizations about the restrictions andfreedoms women suffered and enjoyed quite difficult.Whether women were educated depended partly on their familyand class. In a family of means, all it took was a tolerant andencouraging male or two for this to happen. Whether womenwere sequestered at home was mostly a class Page xiissue, too. Peasant women, for example, were not subject to thesame rules and restraints, and women who lived in marginalcommunitieswhich would define both the Daoist "nuns" amongwhom Yu Xuanji lived and the courtesans, who usually had theirown districts and domiciles, along with a degree of socialfreedom that came at the cost of respectabilitycould take moreinitiative concerning their own lives and behavior.In fact, the Tang Dynasty happens to have been a time whenwomen had greater freedom of choice and social mobility thanwas the case both earlier and later. This had partly to do with thecharacter and lineage of the ruling Li family, and partly to do withthe widespread interest in Daoism, which had become the officialstate religion. Daoist philosophy has always emphasized equalityof beingthat is why it merged well with Buddhismand thus actedas a counterweight to Confucianism, whose rules of behavior anddecorum were used to keep women tightly restricted to theirhouseholds, minimally educated, and in contact mostly with justtheir own immediate families.What is striking about Yu Xuanji, then, is that in her short andsad life she tried at least three of the available roles by whichwomen could hope to experiment with accomplishments normallyassociated with male pursuits. She was a concubine in a familywhere her literary talents were admired and encouraged; she wasa Daoist "nun" in a community where concentration on spiritualand intellectual issues was part of the way of life; and she was,apparently, a courtesan, which meant she could associate withwell-to-do men, many of them highly educated and powerful,who might well appreciate her spirit and literary accomplishmentsas much as her personal attractiveness. We are not sure of theorder and duration of these roles, but we can see from her poemsthat each role gave her a valuable perspective on life, and that noone of them could suffice by itself to make her the poet shebecame. If the sequence was from a wife to a nun/courtesan, asseems likely, even that was fortuitous: first grounding her in theliterary tradition she would practice, and then freeing her to movearound in her world, meeting male writers and cultivating hermind and her social talents.To these changes of fortune and situation, then, we owe our senseof the range of her poetry, emotionally and experientially. Missingher husband, flirting with other writers and with lovers, andpondering spiritual truths and accomplishmentsthese are herpoetic stock-in-trade, and their variety gives her poetry a scopeand interest it might have lacked had her social options been morelimited by a life lived on the terms of a single role. Page xiiThe variety did not lead, however, to literary fame or full entry tothe select circle of top literary talents, even though she knew andcorresponded with some of them. Subsequent readers andcommentators have not quite known what to make of a writerwho had such a short life, such diverse social roles, and whose"career" was crowned with the accusation of blood guilt. Thebest-known anthology of Tang Dynasty poems, the one that hasbecome a standard "Golden Treasury" of that period, includeswork by women poetsmore orthodox figures, it should benotedbut not by Yu Xuanji. To the drawback of her gender andher truncated career, we can add the problem of her shiftingidentity.All this would seem to suggest that a dominant melancholysurrounds her person and her poems. Yet poets, as cases asdiverse as those of Emily Dickinson and Dante Alighieridemonstrate, often thrive on disadvantages and setbacks. The oddthing is that reading Yu Xuanji's poems does not tend to underlinethe pathos and poignancy of her life; on the contrary, it tends tocontradict such responses. What surfaces again and again is avivid sensibility, expressing itself by full and playful participationin a rich poetic tradition. The complexity and concentration ofthese poems remind us that Yu Xuanji benefited enormouslyfrom coming of age in one of the richest literary periods anyculture has ever known. The bonds of convention and artificialdiction that had characterized earlier poetry had been thoroughlybroken by her seventh-century predecessors, and the directness,realism, and complex tonality that characterize the greatachievement of Tang Dynasty poetry were hers for the taking. Noone could refuse her this inspiring heritage on the basis of genderor social position. It belonged to any talented writer who cared totake it up.Many of the poems, to be sure, dwell on absence, longing, andloss, as do lyric poems in any culture and period. But theiroriginal handling of theme, their inspired sense of detail, theirexuberant rightness of tone and form, all counterbalance thepainful subject matter with exquisite formal and aestheticpleasure. Whether this sleight-of-hand fully compensates the poetis not the question: the reader's gift is the distillation ofexperience, still potent after eleven centuries. In that distillation,the resilience and dignity of the human spirit are held in a kind ofsuspension. The pain and pleasure mingle, not canceling eachother out but simply coexisting. Two truths are told at oncethatlife is streaked with sorrow and loss, and that existence is amiraculous gift to the responsive spirit. Page xiiiChinese poetry, despite the comparative liberations of the Tangera, is nothing if not conventional. It is far less anxious than thepoetry of our own time about achieving originality, and vast tractsof it, virtually indistinguishable, now lie unconsulted in thosehuge anthologies. Where it survives and our interest is piqued, itsspecial pleasures are those of seeing what can be done with yetanother variation on some very familiar theme: the letter ofapology or invitation, the reconciliation of turbulent feelingswithin a tranquil or majestic landscape, the visit to a special placeor person, the commemoration of a season's passing, the standardcomplaints about bad weather, solitude, and separation. It maywell be that Yu Xuanji, from her marginal situations and her moreoblique relation to what was mainly a pastime of highly educatedmales, was able to work her variations on these familiar themeswith greater flexibility and originality. This would give hersomething in common with unorthodox careers like those of LiBai (Li Po) and Li He (Li Ho), poets whose existence outside thegovernment bureaucracy marked them as nonconformists andenhanced their ability to vary norms and depart fromconventions.Indeed, while there are times when she naturally complains aboutthe hardship of combining poetic talent and womanhood, thereare also times when Yu Xuanji seems to sense what we might callthe advantage of her disadvantages. She is able to adopt a moreteasing and playful stance toward other poets, her male friends,and lovers, because of her odd relation to them as both a fellowwriter and an object of desire. Her womanhood disables her fromcertain kinds of fame, position, and company, but it also affordsher the opportunity for the lyric transformation of pain intopleasure, loss into consolation.A closer consideration of her choices of subject is informativebecause she often writes in response to a specific incident orsituation, an occasion. We can think of classical Chinese poetry asoccasionalwritten for and in response to a specific occasionin atleast four typical ways: (1) the address to a specific person,usually in the form of a letter; (2) the commemoration of a visit toa special place; (3) the marking of a particular event, such as adeath, a victory, or an anniversary; and (4) the portrait of aspecific (and also often typical) individual. Yu Xuanji's ease witheach of these categories is clear in, respectively, "Love Letter to LiZian" (p. 10), "The Zifu Temple" (p. 28), "Joining Somebody'sMourning" (p. 42), and "Tribute to a Master Alchemist'' (p. 4).These categories of occasional poem are by no means mutuallyexclusivea letter Page xivmay commemorate a visit or a death, for examplebut they help toshow us the patterns of composition that Yu Xuanji practiced.The largest number of her "occasional" poems constituteaddresses to individuals, amounting to almost half of her smallcanon. I count two letters to women friends, five to her husband,Li Yi (Li Zian), and some fourteen, the largest group, to men whoare, in various degrees, friends, fellow writers, and lovers (orpotential lovers). When she writes to her husband, it is always tosay how much she longs to be with him, and misses him. Herresponse to their separation is consistent and strong, and theauthenticity of her emotion is unmistakable, suggesting that hewas indeed the great love of her life.She thus places herself among the sorrowful, separated wiveswhose situations, sympathetically represented by male poets,make for some of the most moving poems in the classical Chinesetradition. Such women had even, from time to time, been given avoice by the male poets who contemplated themLi Bai's (Li Po's)"The River Merchant's Wife, A Letter," is the most famous suchexample. Here, though, is a woman giving her own voice to thepoem of lament and absence. She can do so in her own person,and she can do so for others. That she can write about suchwomen with exactitude and power"Boudoir Resentment," "EarlyAutumn"is scarcely surprising, given her own circumstances.At the same time, Yu Xuanji is clearly not content with the simplerole of the inconsolable wife, shut up at home and grieving forher husband's absence. The poems addressed to men testify to arich emotional life, scarcely centered on a single individual. Theytease, they commend, they revel in the remembered andanticipated pleasures of feasting, exchanging poems, meeting andparting, and making love. Addressed to a gallery of very differentindividuals, and with varying degrees of intimacy, theycharacterize and commemorate affairs and friendships, they flirt,they are tartly aware of distraction and fickleness, and they showwarm admiration and affection where such emotions seemwarranted.The formal variety should be noted too. Many of the poets of thisperiod find a favorite formeight five-character lines, forexampleand stick to it for every poem. Within this context, YuXuanji exhibits a certain restlessness. Her favorite choice is eightseven-character lines (used seventeen times), followed closely byeight five-character lines (twelve examples) and four seven-character lines (eleven examples). Then comes a scattering ofunusual Page xvchoices, used just once or twicetwelve five-character lines, twelveseven-character lines, eight six-character lines (all used twice),and poems of sixteen five-character lines and twenty-four seven-character lines (one each). The match of form to subject does notfeel predictable. The four-line poems feel terse, of course, and thelonger poems expansive, but both are used for the full range ofher interest and attention.We do not, as mentioned earlier, know the chronology to all thisvariety. Did Yu Xuanji turn from longing for her husband toconsolation with other men? Did she move from multiplerelationships into a concentration on one? Were all theseexperiences and emotions coterminous rather than sequential?And how much does literary convention dictate details andemotions that we are tempted to ascribe to biography andsubjective emotion? There are no firm answers to such questions,but the ways in which they circulate around the poems helpcharacterize the rich emotional world they convey.Less tied to specific events or people are those poems thatmeditate on landscape, existence, human nature, and the poet'sconflicting and resolving emotions. Her next largest category ofpoems, after those composed as letters, can be characterized asmeditations centered on places. They combine, as so often inclassical Chinese poetry, a prospect of scenery and history, timeand space, with introspection and an urge to arrive at some kindof philosophical overview. I count some sixteen or seventeenpoems that seem to belong to this category. They varyconsiderably in length and scope, in focus and tone, but quiteoften they conclude with a sense of the mixed quality of humanlife, its interpenetrating spheres of joy and sorrow, love and loss.The poems in this group, quite naturally, introduce us to theDaoist values the poet explored and embraced: a joyousunderstanding of the panorama of existence, in all its relativityand mystery, and a peace of mind achieved through meditationand enlarged perspectives, accepting what cannot be changed.Again, the human wisdom of these poems, as in "Living in theMountains in the Summer," and "Curing Yourself WhenLovesick," while it relies on received ideas of the time, feelsremarkably authoritative in a writer so youthful. One feels thatthere were times when Yu Xuanji was able to come successfullyto terms with her world, in all its intricacy and instability, and thatshe prized those moments for the way they could inform herpoems and her life, in equal measures.Chinese poetry works on parallelisms, which differ in significantways from our concepts of the figurative, such as symbol,metaphor, simile, and Page xvimetonymy. All these latter terms imply some kind of hierarchy,involving the literal, or "real," and the figurative, usually at oneremove from direct experience and always in danger of beingdismissed as rhetorical ornamentation. The likenesses, orrhymings, on which Chinese poetry is basedand much modernand postmodern poetry has taken its cues from thisinsightdispense with hierarchy and with the literal/figurativedistinction. Things are simply presented in a juxtaposed fashionso that our awareness may explore their similarities anddifferences. The literal and the figurative are always present, in asimultaneous fashion. Thus a mention of "willow" will invoke"parting" because of the custom of giving willow branches as atoken of sorrow in farewell. The sexual properties and analogiesconnected to flowers are never entirely absent from their mention,but they are also never the sole point. In "Selling the LastPeonies," for example, the poet is obviously talking aboutbeautiful young women, but it is just as clear that she is literallytalking about her culture's prizing of this flower:who can afford these peonies?their price is much too hightheir arrogant aromaeven intimidates butterfliesflowers so deeply redthey must have been grown in a palaceleaves so darkly greendust scarcely dares to settle there . . .This is a rendering of four lines, treating each line as a free-versecouplet stanza in English. Each line/couplet is paired with itsneighbor, and then the pairings are paired, so that the principle ofjuxtaposition spreads outward. First there is the implied link ofpeonies to desirable women, then the idea that high prices forthem correspond to a perfume too strong even for butterflies, aninsight that is next compared to the correlation/contrast of theblossoms' red color and the concentrated green of the leaves.Intensity of beauty and of being, almost to excess, is theorganizing principle throughout. Meanwhile, the way ofcharacterizing the color ("grown in a palace") glances back- Page xviiward to the idea of expensiveness and forward to the poem'steasing conclusion:if you wait till they're transplantedto the Imperial Gardensthen you, young lords, will findyou have no means to buy them.We had "young lords of longing" at one point, but decided thatthe point was already well made in the rest of the poem. Thepoem's procedure is quite typical: the reader is invited to explorea number of parallels and possibilities without feeling too heavilyconstrained by the poem's "point" or "message." It is possible tosimply admire the peonies, in their extravagance and beauty, andit is possible to feel that flowers that intimidate butterflies maytend dangerously toward the counterproductive. Creativeresponse is required of us, and to read such an open and subtlyconstructed text is to explore and interpret for ourselves. Theteasing tone, the wistful recognition that beauty of any kind isexpensive, rare, and ephemeral, the complicit sympathy coupledwith the note of mockery: all these are typical of Yu Xuanji'spoetic voice and afforded by the principles of juxtaposition andparallelism that are integral parts of the poetic tradition withinwhich she writes.Besides parallelism, which presents an ever-interesting challengeto the translator, Chinese poems from the Tang offer a particularobstacle to successful rendering: their use of allusionsto otherpoems, to famous incidents and names from history and folklore,and to geography that is charged with associations built up bypoetry, religious worship, and popular lore. The principle ofparallelism is at work here too. Why not mention some famouscharacter or incident while exploring parallels and letting the playof association establish a field of meaning for the reader tooccupy? The problem, of course, for Western readers, is anabsence of the cultural context that makes the allusionsmeaningful.The answer, in some cases, is to detour around them. In others, aform of substitution may be effective. In addition, we haveprovided notes to the poems. They identify some of the moreobscure allusions and thus clarify the places where we decided tokeep proper names or culture-specific references. If to be a goodreader of Chinese poetry requires creativity on a reader's part, Page xviiiit also requires a willingness to learn gradually about thecivilization that produced such remarkable work.I came to this project with a love for Chinese poetry and theexperience of translating it that is chiefly represented in mycollection, Five T'ang Poets. The project began as a collaborationwith Tang Tao, a former Oberlin student, but she withdrew earlyon, and my partner in the enterprise became my friend andcolleague, Jiann I. Lin, Oberlin's East Asian Librarian. Hisknowledge of the tradition and his patience in retrievingobscurities have been indispensable. He also provided the entireinput of traditional Chinese characters, using a computer programto select characters that would be faithful to the classical texts.As far as we know, no one has attempted to bring all of YuXuanji's poems together in English. Kenneth Rexroth includedfour of her poems in his Women Poets of China (1972). Otheranthologies represent her even more briefly, if at all. There is anodd kind of biography, now forgotten. In 1936, GenevieveWimsatt published a curious little volume, Selling WiltedPeonies, an attempt, necessarily conjectural and fictional, atreconstructing the poet's life. This "biography" contains versionsof many of the poems; to say that they lack distinction as poemsin English is to put the matter charitably. Nevertheless, Wimsatt'sbook, which was published by Columbia University Press,represents an early attempt to recognize this poet's importance.DAVID YOUNGOBERLIN, OHIO JULY 1997 Page 1Poem for the Willows by the RiverThe calm blue sky and its reflectionframe the barren riverbankshuge shapes of misty cloudmerge into distant mansionsupside-down, many imagesspread on the autumn watersflowers drop from time to timeonto the head of the fishermanold roots mark the denswhere many fish are hidinghanging branches offer mooringto the boats of travelersthe night tosses and sighsall filled with wind and rainand dreaming astonishing dreamsonly enlarges my gloom. Page 2Sent to a Neighbor Woman FriendThe sun admires us warmlyso we cover our arms with gauze silk sleevesbut the sad and fitful springmakes us too lazy to put on makeupit's easier to findrare, unparalleled treasurethan it is to have and holdone reliable loverat night, against our pillows,we weep our secret tearsby day, among the flowers,we hide our breaking heartsif we can havegreat poets for friendsshould we also longfor handsome lovers? Page 3The Fragrance of OrchidsThe body that aches with longingis drunk at dusk and again at dawnthese wild mutual yearningsreturn to us each springthere in the rain goes a messengerbearing a passionate letterunder the open windowstands one with a broken heartup in the mountains a loverrolls up a pearl screen, looking outsadness comes back and comes backas fragrant and lush as the grassand we're all walking home in the darkfrom banquets and celebrationsor watching the quiet dustthat sifts down from our roof beams. Page 4Tribute to a Master AlchemistThe gorgeous colored cloudsstitched into quilted robeswonderful perfume comingfrom a finely woven tapestrythe red hibiscus bloomingamong its thick green leavesmountains and water dressedin a rare embroidered capelike stopping short in your tracksto hear the song of a warbleror freeing a crane from a cageto watch it fly awaysleeping alone on a spring nightin an old high-ceilinged chamberor rain that arrives at duskfalling thick and fast. Page 5Sent to Secretary LiuI know you used to commandan army of veteran soldiersmarching them down new roadsas they chanted favorite balladsforded Fenchuan Riverin hard March rainsstood by Jinshui River in Juneas flowers bloomed all aroundbut the vast sky gets locked awaybehind its prison barsand weapons of war, over time,acquire a coat of dustnow the scholar and the monkcan sit up late, admiring midnightand visitors can lingerdrunk and flushed on the lawnthe writing brush and inkstonealmost compose on their ownas poetry books form a circlearound the thoughtful self Page 6and a modest talent for versebegins to come to the surfacethe way the orange carp risewhen you scatter food on their pond. Page 7Washing Yarn TempleState plots against stateintrigues come thick and fastbut here at Washing Yarn TempleXi Shi offers us harmonya pair of faces can beamjust from turning to glimpse herwhile thousands of seasoned troopsground their weapons and surrenderFan Li achieved his greatnessby turning away from the worldwhile Wu Xu had to diein order to wear down the governmentthe great river confers a nameupon a place like Zhujibut this blue mountain has long been knownas a beautiful woman's birthplace. Page 8Selling the Last PeoniesFacing the wind makes us sighwe know how many flowers fallspring has come back againand where have the fragrant longings gone?who can afford these peonies?their price is much too hightheir arrogant aromaeven intimidates butterfliesflowers so deeply redthey must have been grown in a palaceleaves so darkly greendust scarcely dares to settle thereif you wait till they're transplantedto the Imperial Gardensthen you, young lords, will findyou have no means to buy them. Page 9To Thank the Scholar Li for the Gift of a Bamboo MatThis precious mat, newly spread outin the Halcyon Pavilionmakes me think of the deep, clear waterthat marks our local riveronly a fan made of cloudscould match your priceless giftI turn toward my silver bedregretting the early autumn. Page 10Love Letter to Li ZianI suck melting ice and munch cork barkand still make no sense of my lifeJinshui River and Huguan Passkeep coming up in my dreamsQin Jing's mirror is ready to breakand I'm sad for the falling magpiesEmperor Shun's zither is tunedand I blame the messenger swanspaulownia leaves by the wellcry in the autumn rainthe silver lamp by the windowdims in the wind at dawnI write you letters across great distancesand never know if they reach youholding a bamboo pole at sunsetnext to a wide blue river. Page 11Boudoir BitternessThe grass overgrown with weedsfills her handsas she weeps in the late sunlightshe's just heardher neighbor's husbandhas come back homeonly the other daywild swans and geesewere heading norththis morning they came againhonking and callingmigrating southsprings comeautumns goheart-sorrow staysautumns gosprings comeand still no newsshe slides the boltsof her red doorsnobody's coming Page 12why botherpounding the laundryor washing the curtains? Page 13Spring Thoughts Sent Affectionately to ZianThe mountain road is sheerand the stone steps will be steepI'll feel bitter twiceonce for the journey,and once for missing youicy roads and empty ravineswill make me hear your voicecool snow on distant peakswill bring back your calm facedon't listen to popular songsdon't drink too much in springdon't hobnob with idle driftersdon't spend whole nights playing chessit's as though we shared a lovers' vowone made of pine, not stoneit's as though we were paired lovebirdswhose rendezvous is delayedwe hate going on alonetrying to make it through winterwe may come back togetherby the light of a great round moon Page 14saying good-bye to you, my lord,what keepsake can I offer?eyes brimming and shining,here's a poem just for you. Page 15Watching Them Play PoloFirm, round, clean and smooth,the ball goes by like a cometthe crescent-shaped sticks crack sharplynobody wants to stopthe riders, pulling free,chase each other, jostlingI watch from behind the railingstaying as long as I likearound and around they gothe ball skipping just ahead of themsometimes it seems as ifthey'll never score a goalbut having begun their gamethey ought to be able to finish itand whoever plays the bestought to be given a prize. Page 16Sent to a Friend in a Late Spring MoodThe chatter of oriolesbreaks up my dreamI put on a little makeupto change my tear-stained facea young moonshines through the bamboo shadethe smooth riverfumes with late night mistswallows are bringing mud in their beaksto pack their nestsbees are gathering pollenfrom open flowersI alone feel yearningwithout any limitreciting my own poemsstaring up through the pines. Page 17Sent to Wen Feiqing on a Winter NightI've racked my brains for a poemchanting here by the lampspending a sleepless nightaway from my chilly quiltblown leaves fill the courtyardthe night wind makes me gloomythrough the cotton curtain and window screenshines a deep and beautiful moonwe're distant and lack leisure timeto accomplish our mutual wisheslove rises and falls like a waveand usually leaves our hearts helplessa sparrow may live aloneunable to nest in a parasol treeI heard one chirping at sunsetcircling the woods in vain. Page 18A Poem Sent to Li Ying to Match His ''Fishing inSummer"It's odd that you and I livehere on the very same streetand not even once a yeardo we run across each otherif you want to impress an old girl friendyou need to produce a pure poemleaves of the fragrant cassiabreak out along new boughsthe nature of the Taois simpler than ice or snowthe understanding of Zenmocks the expense of gauze and silkmy spiritual footprints riseinto the empyreanbut there isn't any pathacross love's waves and mist. Page 19Matching Poem for My New Neighbor to the West,Inviting Him over for WineImagine a small poemchanted a hundred timeseach word bringing new feelingssounding goldenmy thoughts have climbed the wallbetween our housesI gaze into the distancemy heart's not made of stonethe Milky Way looks expectantout there in the vastnessHunan's rivers are waking upthe zither is fully tunedevery April the Cold Food Festivalleaves me a little homesicksilent night, mellow winedon't make me pour it alone. Page 20A Matching Poem, Reply to a FriendLooking for ways to defeat the sadnessof staying at an innopening your love letteradmiring the elegant strokesrain on Penglai Mountainmakes the thousand peaks look smallwind in the Xiegu Gorgeblows thousands of leaves into autumnin the morning I read every wordlooking down upon jasperat night, curled in my quilt and bedI read it all againI should take out my sandalwood casketand stow it safely awaybut just for this moment, holding it,I can't seem to let it go. Page 21Two Poems1. For the Successful Candidates of the Civil Service ExamYou can't stay long in wonderlandsor man-made worldsit's as if you turn aroundand find ten autumns gonebehind the curtain, under the quiltan affectionate pair of mandarin duckshere in the parrot's cagethe talking hasn't stoppeddew-streaked flowers, early morningtell you of sorrowful faceswillows bending in evening windbring back pensive eyebrowsrosy clouds leavethey never come backbut Pan Yue's in love and willing to waituntil his hair turns white.2. Grief for a DeathA laurel branch against the moonmatches the elegant miststen thousand peach trees by the riverstand in the rain, blooming red Page 22if someone sets wine before youyou don't act disappointedfrom ancient days to the presentsorrow and joy are twins. Page 23Visiting the South Pavilion at Chongzhen TempleWhere the Civil Service Exam Results Are PostedCloudy mountains fill my gazeI think they enjoy the springunder skillful fingersgreat calligraphy is bornI wish my woman's clothingdidn't obscure my poemsraising my head in vainadmiring the names on the honor rolls. Page 24Melancholy ThoughtsLeaves falling one by oneand rain at dusk is tendervermilion lute, playing alonesound of a clear voice singingtry to ignore your regretat having no intimate friends or loverstry to build up your characterand cast your bitterness into the seasound of a carriage outside the doorcome for some venerable elderheaps of Taoist booksscattered in front of the pillowraggedly dressed peopleeventually go to heavengreen water and blue hillsalready here and gone. Page 25Autumn LamentYou sigh, you're full of tenderness,it's more than you can beartoo many love affairs, too much wind and moonand the courtyard is loaded with autumnthe sound of the water-clock's close byjust outside your bridal chamberand night by night, next to the lamp,your hair is turning white. Page 26River JourneyWe cross the Yangtze diagonallyheading for Wuchang citypassing Parrot Islandwhere thousands of families livein the early hours the painted bargehas a cargo of lovers and sleepersand I dream I've become a butterflyseeking the flowers tooDim mist and we're already sailinginto Cormorant HarborI thought we were still in the middlesomewhere near Parrot IslandI went to bed drunk, lay awakesinging all kinds of nonsensegot up on the Hanjiang River sidestunned to be back on dry land. Page 27Hearing Squire Li Had Gone Fishing, I Sent Him ThisPoemNo limit to the lotuses' fragrancethey match the color of your summer clothesmy darling, don't pole your boatinto places you can't get back fromI wish we could match the affectionof all those mandarin ducksswimming around in pairsclose by your fishing rock. Page 28The Zifu Temple, Founded by the Hermit RenSomeone who liked seclusionbuilt this marvelous placenow sightseers and touristscan stop and rest awhilethey write their words in vainupon the white-washed wallsin the palace of the lotustheir names cannot be foundthe pond is dug in such a waythat the spring flows naturallythe path is made so wellthat grass grows lush beside itthe Golden Wheel Pavilionis hundreds of feet highand it faces the riverclear, eye-catching, bright. Page 29The Yinwu PavilionBlossoms of spring, the autumn moonyou have to turn them into poemsthe bright days, the clear nightsyou feel surrounded by floating godsI rolled up the curtain idlyand never rolled it backI moved my couch to face the mountainsand slept here from then on. Page 30The Double Ninth Festival Delayed by RainThe courtyard is full of yellow chrysanthemumsall broken and drooping along the hedgetwo flowers, hibiscus and image,gape at each other's reflectionsI put my hat back on the tableno going out in this wind and rainand I'm too tipsy to recallwhere I put down my golden cup. Page 31Early AutumnPastel chrysanthemum budsshine like newly dyed silkdistant mountainslounge in the sunset mista cool wind stirsthe great green treesa clear song throbsin the vermilion lutepining for her husbandshe spins to make brocadehe's stationed beyond the Great Wall,under the open skywild geese, fly there fastfish, go through the watersthey need your comings and goingsto carry precious letters. Page 32Remembering Strong EmotionsI find myself full of hatefor this vermilion lutewhen I know perfectly wellhow much I ought to love itremembering clouds and rainour passionate affairI shouldn't be stirring upthose lost perfumesgifted disciplesbrilliant plums and peachesnothing should hurt the careerof such an eminent scholardark green pinesvast and hazy laurelsadmiration coming infrom people all over the worldthe moonlight colors the mosson the clear steps of the terracesound of a voice that's singingdeep in a bamboo courtyard Page 33red leaves all over the groundand heaped against the doornot to be cleared awayuntil he comes to visit. Page 34For a Friend Who Didn't Arrive Because of HeavyRainThe wild geese and fish, those messengers,have carried mail in vainthe rooster and the broom cornare sad that we didn't meetI close the door and sighcaught in a cage of moonlightI lift the curtain and find its silkalready coming to piecesclose by, spring water whistlescrowding its stone channelfarther away, muddy waveslap at the river's bankshomesickness strikes travelersout on the road in autumnme, I recite an old poemfive characters to the line. Page 35Visiting Master Zhao and Not Finding HimI wanted to be with someoneof spiritual refinementI find his house is empty,only the maid is homehis crucible's still warmfrom cooking up herb medicinesoutside in the courtyardtea leaves are still simmeringa few dim lampsnext to the painted wallsa long shadow by the signal polethat faces the setting sunas I leave I keep turning aroundhoping to find he's come backjust a few blooming branchesbrushing the outside walls. Page 36Curing Yourself When LovesickYou're free and at leisure nowno company to distract youyou can travel by yourselfto see great sights and viewsclouds partthere's the riverand the bright moon overheadloosen the mooring ropeand let your boat go driftingplay your lutein old Liang dynasty templesrecite your poemsin Yu Liang's garden pavilionstake bamboo grovesfor boon companionsmake friends with rocksin steep outcroppingsand let your whole wealth beordinary swallows and sparrowsforget about gold and silverforget about ambitionspring will fill your cupwith good green wine Page 37moon will come silently by nightto visit at your windowwalk around the pondwatch it clear and settletake out your hairpinby your reflection in the streamand lie there in your bedwith books spread all around youa little too happy to botherrising to fix your hair. Page 38Sent to FeiqingCrickets chirp on the stair-stepsthey sound confused to mein the misty courtyard, along the branches,clear dewdrops hanga moonlit nightI hear faint musiccoming from my neighbor'sif I went upstairs I could see the mountainsdistinct even in the distancea cool breeze comes to stroke meas I sit on my bamboo matand I wish I had a magic luteto help me get through this lifeI feel like that philosopherwho wrote such lazy letterswanting some way to expressthe moods and thoughts of autumn. Page 39Visiting EzhouWillows get in the way, orchids are grotesque,blossoms smother their branchesbelow Stone City's walls the boatssail slowly through the duskwhat's on top of Zhepai mountain?the ancient poet Qu Yuan's gravewhat's on Yuanhuo peak?the flags of the magistrate's carriagewhite snow makes a high, thin musicwriting its poems on old templessunlit spring is a new poemset to a brilliant melodydon't be sad that a soulfords the clear river and is gonethat's what makes travelers composeten thousand poems in vain. Page 40Living in the Mountains in SummerI've moved and now I live up herewhere gods could make their homesthe shrubs and thickets mix and bloomnobody had to plant themthe little tree in the courtyardis where I hang my laundryall the wine I can drinkfrom this mountain spring I sit bymy windows and my hallwaysgo deep through the bamboo trailI use my silky clothesto wrap up heaps of scattered booksrowing out idly in my decorated boatchanting poems to the radiant moonand the light breeze blows and blowsI can trust it to bring me back. Page 41Late Spring ImprovisationVery few visitors or loverscome through this alley to this hidden doorand as for someone I can really cherishI meet him only in dreamsperfumed gauze and damaskwhose empty seat at the banquet?songs carried on the windcoming from what pavilion?around here it's mostly army drumsdisrupting morning sleepnothing but magpies in the courtyardchattering through spring sorrowhow could I hope to have any partin the world of grand eventsmy own life at such a distanceand no place to tie up my boat? Page 42Joining Somebody's MourningYou've seen her, bloom of the peach,posture graceful as jadebreeze through willows and poplarsdelicate arch of the eyebrowspearl hoard in a dragon's cavethat shock of recognitionglimpsed in the mirror at state functionshappy among the chitchatnow changed to a somber dreamlost in mist on a rainy nighthating to hear the storyof bitter times and solitudehills to the west, sunsethills to the east, moonriseand thoughts of lossthat are never going to end. Page 43Letter to a FriendBoth busy streets and country roadsare empty without good friendsevenings go, mornings come,and I pawn my embroidered dressthe dusky mirror, frail in its special box,shows me my delicate hair, tangled across my facemy incense burner, curiously carved,creates a haze of musky smokelovesick with spring, wealthy young menleave me urgent messagessometimes I think of famous beautiestheir portraits in the doorwayslovers' chariots don't spareto line up at my doorwillows bend thoughtfully and plum blossoms burstrich with fragrance, just in time. Page 44Sent to Zian, Long Distance, from the Hanjiang RiverGazing across at each other, helpless,from the north and south banks of this riverfrustrated, speaking each other's poems,recalling our times togetherthat pair of mandarin ducks looks happyswimming warmly next to the sandbarand those two teals are without a careas they fly through the tangerine groveI hear a faint sound of singing nowrising up with the chimney smokeI watch the deep and brilliant moonlightnext to the empty ferry slipeven if we were a few feet apartmy feelings would have to cross mileslistening sadly as they pound laundryin distant family compounds. Page 45An AllegoryPeach blossoms everywhere, pinkcolor of springsilver willows by every housemoon-brightsomeone upstairs, trying on new clotheswaiting for nightfallsomebody else, alone in her bedroomdrowning in tendernessthe carp play around with the lotusesunder the moonthe sparrows call out to the rainbowat the horizonjoys and sorrows, these are the dreamswe have in this worldwhy do they always come to usin pairs? Page 46Letter to Zian, Sad from Gazing into the Distance,from JianglingThe maple leaves on their treesbranch after branchat sunset the river bridgeframes the returning boatsoh my lord this longing for youis like the water in West Riverflowing east all day, all nightnever a moment of rest. Page 47Sent to ZianSomeone is drunk, but a thousand wine-potscan't wash off the melancholysomebody wants a way to untiea hundred sad knots of separationthe orchids go off for a little restin spring they return to the gardensand willows growing to the east and westentangle the boats of travelerssadness of being together, sadness of parting,the clouds keep changing their shapeslove and affection should be like the riverwhose current never stopsin the season of blossoms it's hardto find an intimate loverwho wants to get drunk all alonesitting up here in Jade Tower? Page 48Saying GoodbyeSeveral nights in this gorgeous pavilionand I began to have expectationsuntil my darling surprised mehe had to be off on a journeyso I sleep alone and don't discussthe whereabouts of cloudsaround the lamp, now almost spent,one lost moth is circling. Page 49A Warm Note to Squire Li JinrenToday I'm happy, hearingthe chatter of the magpieslast night in the lamplightboth of us burned the candlelighting some incense I step outsideto greet my handsome guestI don't even envy that happy couplethe Weaver Girl and the Cowherd. Page 50Saying Goodbye, IISoftly the water chases itself,knowing it's hard to be settled and certainclouds arrive without any planand we wish we could call them backa desolate spring breeze,the Yangtze stretched out in the twilightand a mandarin duck, swimming aloneits flock already gone. Page 51Letter to an Exam Candidate, from Shanxi to theCapitalI've stayed at home here, idle,mostly composing poemsfor several sorrowful yearsgazing out towardthe Wangwu Mountainssite of our old excursionsreciting my verses, facingeast, facing west, mixed upa mountain range with a thousand peaksor a horse that wanders southand then heads northwhichever way the brook flowsremembering rainy nightswe two spent togetherfeastingand then, after saying goodbyein the blossom season,climbing the stairs aloneand the sudden knock on the dooroh happy little doorannouncing your arrivaland the quiet lanewhere our secluded housewas set apart for love . . . Page 52Xiangru's lute has stoppedits red stringssnappeda pair of nesting swallowsseparatein the white dew of autumndon't forget aboutyour rural friendvisit once in a while!every spring there's busy traffichere in the Yangtze Deltayou can catch a ride! Page 53Reply to a Poem, Matching the FormThe blood-red bustle, the purple muddleof this human world . . .alone and quiet, chanting,in the midst of sunlit scenerygiving up wanting a loveror hoping for literary fameconceiving a wonderful poemin the midst of a fortified villageplain flowers, so simple and rightI'm ashamed to express my gratituderesiding secluded, in a back lane,becoming a sage like Yan Yuanso full of affection there's no needto long for company all the timejust as pines and other such plants are contentsimply to live among mountains. Page 54Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned YoungWe used to hear about the south,its splendid fresh appearancenow it's these eastern neighborsthese sisters threeup in the loft, inspecting their trousseausreciting a verse about parrotssitting by blue-green windowsembroidering phoenix garmentstheir courtyard filled with colorful petalslike red smoke, billowing unevenlytheir cups full of good green winetasted one by oneIt's dreadful, staring into the mystic pond,knowing you'll always be femalebanished from heaven, stuck in this life,unable to do what men doa poet who happens to have some beauty,ends up being comparedto a gorgeous woman who's silentthat makes me feel ashamedme, singing solo love songsupon this vanishing zither Page 55plucking the four strings softlymurmuring the wordsfacing my mirror and dressing tableto admire my black silk hairas if I could rival the moonby flaunting a white jade hairpinA little cave among the pineswhere dew drips downthe sky above the willowsa great net filled with mistwhen you can be like the rainyour heart will have strength to go onand you won't be afraid to blow the flutebefore you've fully mastered itmy mother would get upsetbecause I talked to flowersand my lover was from the pasta poet who came to me in dreamsThe spirit makes fine, fresh versesand then is brokenit's like watching a lovely young womangive up her will to live Page 56these gorgeous young creatureswho knows what they'll come to?the clouds float norththe clouds float south. Page 57Snapping WillowsSaying goodbye, morning after morning,weeping, wearing flower jewelrypicking misty willow wandsin strong spring breezeI wish West Hillwere bare of treesI keep thinking that would helpto stop these falling tears. Page 58Fragments1Burning incenseclimbs the jade altarI hold an invitationto a golden palace ceremony.2Brilliant moonlightshining in a hidden clearingcrisp wind blows openthe front of a short gown.3Gorgeous fields along the roada deep springtime vistabeautiful emblem of the seasonsource of my playful mood.4Pleading,unable to speakred tears, first one, thena pair, traveling down. Page 595The high cloud loves itselfso why these gloomy common dreams?the heavenly look lasts . . .again that fragrance, better than flowers. Page 61NotesWe have used the order of Yu Xuanji's poems as anthologized inQuan Tang Shi, which includes 2,200 poets of the Tang Dynasty(618907). The edition we used is the 1967 Taipei reprint based onthe 1662 (Kangxi era) woodblock print edition. All Chinesenames and titles are romanized in ''Chinese pinyin."There is no way to know whether the order of her poems in theanthology is chronological, early to late, but that seems the bestguess, since the poems are not grouped by subject or form. Foreach poem, we give a note on the form, along with romanizationsin Chinese pinyin of the title and first line."Poem for the Willows by the River" (p. 1)Eight five-character lines in the original.Title: Fu de jiang bian liuFirst line: Cui se lian huang anWillows were a correlative for sorrow at parting (see note to"Snapping Willows," p. 57). A conventional subject like thiswas a test of the poet's gift at improvised response on a familiartheme."Sent to a Neighbor Woman Friend" (p. 2)Eight five-character lines.Title: Zeng lin nFirst line: Xiu ri zhe luo xiuYu Xuanji is in fact specific about the "great poets" and"handsome lovers" of the closing lines. She mentions Song Yu,a third century B.C. poet, and Wang Chang, a Tang Dynastygovernment official known for his good looks. Page 62"The Fragrance of Orchids" (p. 3)Eight five-character lines.Title: Ji guo xiangFirst line: Dan xi zui yin shenA poem that shows this poet's imaginative range andphilosophical tendency. The final two images are particularlyoriginal. The title does not actually mention orchids. It uses thephrase guo xiang, which translates as "top fragrance in thenation." That is, as everyone would have understood, theorchid. Similar epithets, such as "top color" (peony), have beenaround a long time and are still in use."Tribute to a Master Alchemist" (p. 4)Eight five-character lines.Title: Ji ti lian shiFirst line: Xia cai jian wei yiA character is missing from the third line (fifth character) andanother (fourth character) from the fourth. Interest in alchemywas a significant feature of Daoism in Yu Xuanji's time."Sent to Secretary Liu" (p. 5)Twelve five-character lines.Title: Ji Liu shang shuFirst line: Ba zuo zhen xiong junThe official in question had a title, shang shu, which could betranslated as "Minister." The poem opens by invoking thesedan chair, carried by a crew of eight, that symbolized hisimportance. The poem may remark on his different life inpeacetime, or commemorate his retirement from official duties.The scholar and monk referred to in the seventh couplet areConfucian and Buddhist, respectively. This portraitcomplements that of the alchemist, in no. 4, but is lessidealized. Page 63"Washing Yarn Temple" (p. 7)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Huan sha miaoFirst line: Wu Yue xiang mou ji ce duo.This was a temple dedicated to the famous beauty, Xi Shi, ofthe fifth century B.C. The poem is full of specific allusions: tothe warring states of Wu and Yue, in the first line; to Fan Li, XiShi's husband, in the fifth and eighth lines; to Wu Xu (or WuZixu), of the same era (d. 484 B.C.), in the sixth line; to ZhujiCounty of Zhejiang Province, near the Yangtze (Changjiang)Delta, in the seventh line; and to the mountain known asZhuluo, Xi Shi's birthplace, in the eighth line. In general thepoem seems to celebrate her greatness, along with her husband,as existing outside the circles of power struggle and courtintrigue and being therefore the more notable over time."Selling the Last Peonies" (p. 8)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Mai can mu danFirst line: Lin feng xing tan luo hua pinDiscussed briefly in the Introduction. This, along with "Letterto Zian . . . from Jiangling," p. 46, is one of Yu Xuanji's best-known poems. Peonies had familiar associations with Chineseemperors. Beautiful young women sometimes disappeared intothe Imperial Compound, out of the reach of their youngadmirers."To Thank the Scholar Li for the Gift of a Bamboo Mat" (p. 9)Four seven-character lines.Title: Chou Li xue shi ji dianFirst line: Zhen dian xin pu fei cui louLi was a very common name in this period, and it is difficult toknow whether the "Li" of this poem is identical to therecipients named Li of other poems in Yu Xuanji's canon. Liwas also the family name of the ruling dynasty, and because itcould be connected to the founder of Daoism, Laozi (Lao-tzu),the supposed link helped make Daoism the religion mostfavored by the state in this period. Page 64"Love Letter to Li Zian" (p. 10)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Qing shu ji Li Zi anFirst line: Yin bing shi bo zhi wu gongThe first (in order of arrangement in the anthology) of severalletter poems addressing her husband after their separation.Again, specific allusions to particular places and to historicalpersonages are plentiful. The mirror of polished bronze wassomething the magistrate had on the wall behind his officialseat of judgment, to symbolize his integrity and clarity ofjudgment. The tuned zither of the long-ago emperor suggesteda rare harmony of social forces and personal issues. Theseallusions take their place in the poet's inventory of melancholyresponses to her world."Boudoir Bitterness" (p. 11)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Gui yuanFirst line: Mi wu ying shou qi xie huiThe two characters that make up the title were often used tocharacterize the unhappiness of women who had to stay homewhile their husbands traveled on official business or enjoyedthe relative freedom of males in a patriarchal society. Theyweren't literally alone, in most cases, but their misery is usuallymade more poignant by depicting them in solitude. Many of theimagesthe overgrown grass, the migrating geese, the boltedgates or doors, the home that is getting neglected andunkemptare typical of this subgenre."Spring Thoughts Sent Affectionately to Zian" (p. 13)Twelve seven-character lines.Title: Chun qing ji Zi anFirst line: Shan lu qi xie shi deng weiHere the perspective is that of the wife left behind. Theaffirmation of love, despite separation, is the main point ineither case. Page 65"Watching Them Play Polo" (p. 15)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Da qiu zuoFirst line: Jian yuan jing hua yi xing liuThis poem reflects the fashion of its time for a game very muchlike polo. Whether Yu Xuanji intends any analogies to othermale activities (i.e., literature), where she is also sidelined as aspectator, is conjectural."Sent to a Friend in a Late Spring Mood" (p. 16)Eight five-character lines.Title: Mu chun you gan ji you renFirst line: Ying yu jing can mengA kind of objective self-portrait."Sent to Wen Feiqing on a Winter Night" (p. 17)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Dong ye ji Wen Fei qingFirst line: Ku si sou shi deng xia yinThis is addressed to one of the best and most famous poets ofthe period, whose real name is Wen Tingyun, ca. 812 to ca.870. While it somewhat resembles a love poem, it seems moreto be a communication from one poet to another."A Poem Sent to Li Ying to Match His 'Fishing in Summer'" (p.18)Eight five-character lines.Title: Chou Li Ying xia ri diao yu hui jian shiFirst line: Zhu chu sui tong xiangThis and the following two poems achieve an exceptional tonalcomplexity as they combine literary exchange (and rivalry)with flirtation, friendship, and some rueful self-mockery. Page 66"Matching Poem for My New Neighbor to the West, Inviting Himover for Wine" (p. 19)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Ci yun xi lin xin ju jian qi jiuFirst line: Yi shou shi lai bai du yinThe Hunan rivers are two, Xiao and Xiang. The Cold FoodFestival is in early April."A Matching Poem, Reply to a Friend" (p. 20)Eight seven-character lines.Title: He you ren ci yunFirst line: He shi neng xiao l guan chouWe have retained the specific place names. Penglai Mountainwas a mythical place in the Eastern Sea; Xiegu Gorge was inthe Kunlun Mountains, far to the west. The sense is of anexpanse, with the imagination seeing as far as it can in bothdirections."Two Poems" (p. 21)The first of these is eight seven-character lines, the second fourseven-character lines.Titles: He xin ji di Dao wang shi er shouFirst lines: Xian ji ren jian bu jiu liuYi zhi yue gui he yan xiuThe civil service exams (also called Imperial exams) allowcandidates to qualify for various bureaucratic positions, fromthe lowest to the highest. The ability to compose poems onassigned topics was the significant mark of success. Sincesuccessful exam candidates had to be men, Yu Xuanji felt herexclusion keenly.While their juxtaposition seems odd, these poems have incommon a philosophical perspective and an urge to giveadvice. In the first, success is seen as temporary and to someextent illusory. The men are perhaps warned not to forget loveand relationships with women as they climb the ladder ofsuccess. In the second, the simultaneous presence of loss andbeauty in the world is emphasized.Pan Yue was a handsome poet of the Western Jin Dynasty(265-316). Page 67"Visiting the South Pavilion at Chongzhen Temple Where theCivil Service Exam Results Are Posted" (p. 23)Four seven-character lines.Title: You Chong zhen guan nan lou du xin ji di ti ming chuFirst line: Yun feng man mu fang chun qingThis is the poem in which Yu Xuanji is most explicit about hersense of disadvantage in combining literary talent with femalegender."Melancholy Thoughts" (p. 24)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Chou siFirst line: Luo ye fen fen mu yu heIn some ways, this seems a continuation of the previous poem,as though the poet were giving herself advice on how to copewith her problematic situation."Autumn Lament" (p. 25)Four seven-character lines.Title: Qiu yuanFirst line: Zi tan duo qing shi zu chouHere the note of melancholy is countered with rueful humorand a kind of teasing of the human tendency to self-pity."River Journey" (p. 26)Eight seven-character lines (in two parts, but not marked as twoseparate poems.Title: Jiang xingFirst line: Da jiang heng bao Wu chang xieThis poem about crossing the Yangtze (Changjiang) River toWuchang, part of Wuhan city in Hubei Province, turnsphilosophical as it invokes the dream of the butterfly, recallingthe philosopher Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu), who developed asense of relativity and the instability of reality (was he aphilosopher who dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterflydreaming he was a philosopher?) from such a dream. There isalso a popular folk tale about two lovers separated by Page 68death who reunite by turning into butterflies. The boat's motionjoins the intoxication as metaphoric representation of the poet'sstate of inspiration."Hearing Squire Li Had Gone Fishing, I Sent Him This Poem" (p.27)Four seven-character lines.Title: Wen Li Duan gong chui diao hui ji zengFirst line: Wu xian he xiang ran shu yiAnother poem of affectionate rivalry and flirtation. We haveused "Squire" to match the sense of a country gentleman, aman of moderate importance."The Zifu Temple, Founded by the Hermit Ren" (p. 28)Eight five-character lines.Title: Ti Ren chu shi chuang Zi fu siFirst line: You ren chuang qi jingThe characters of the temple's name, Zi and fu, mean "GoodFortune.""The Yinwu Pavilion" (p. 29)Four seven-character lines.Title: Ti Yin wu tingFirst line: Chun hua qiu yue ru shi pianThe characters of the pavilion's name mean "Hidden Fog" or"Shaded Mist." This poem can be compared to "Living in theMountains in Summer," p. 40, celebrating rural peace andretreat from the busy world."The Double Ninth Festival Delayed by Rain" (p. 30)Four seven-character lines.Title: Chong yang zu yuFirst line: Man ting huang ju li bian chaiThe festival referred to is called Chongyang, on the ninth dayof the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The season isroughly equivalent to mid-October. Page 69"Early Autumn" (p. 31)Eight five-character lines.Title: Zao qiuFirst line: Nen ju han xin caiAnother poem of a separated couple. The husband, in thearmy, is involved in fighting beyond the borders of the empire.Wild geese and fish were supposed to help carry messages."Remembering Strong Emotions" (p. 32)Twelve five-character lines.Title: Gan huai ji renFirst line: Hen ji zhu xian shangIt seems likely that this is a poem about Li Zian, the husbandfrom whom Yu Xuanji was separated. The middle section,which speaks with admiration about his fame and achievement,also has a slightly sardonic feel."For a Friend Who Didn't Arrive Because of Heavy Rain" (p. 34)Eight five-character lines.Title: Qi you ren zu yu bu zhiFirst line: Yan yu kong you xinFor the geese and fish, see note on "Early Autumn," p. 31. Notethe progression outward and then suddenly back to the poemitself."Visiting Master Zhao and Not Finding Him" (p. 35)Eight five-character lines.Title: Fang Zhao lian shi bu yuFirst line: He chu tong xian lPoems about visiting hermits and not finding them home werea kind of subgenre in this period. This compares with the bestof them. Zhao is an alchemist, like the one admired in "Tributeto a Master Alchemist," p. 4. The boy servant is not literallymentioned; it is "someone dressed in dark blue." We knowfrom the clothing that it is a member of the working poor. Page 70"Curing Yourself When Lovesick" (p. 36)Sixteen five-character lines.Title: Qian huaiFirst line: Xian san shen wu shiThere are several specific allusions in this poem. The LiangDynasty (502557) was ruled by the House of Xiao, so the poemspeaks of "Xiao Liang" temples. The next line puns on thisreference by invoking Yu Liang (289340), a prime minister ofthe Jin Dynasty (317420). The general idea seems to be that oflearning to enjoy the fruits of the past, becoming a sort ofantiquarian aesthete. This joins with an idealization of retreatfrom the world and closeness to nature."Sent to Feiqing" (p. 38)Eight five-character lines.Title: Ji Fei qingFirst line: Jie qi luan qiong mingThe second poem addressed to this well-known poet, whosereal name was Wen Tingyun. The philosopher mentioned inthe next to last couplet is Ji Kang (224263), of the ThreeKingdoms era (220280)."Visiting Ezhou" (p. 39)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Guo E zhouFirst line: Liu fu lan nao hua man zhiThis poem is laced with culture-specific allusions. Ezhou ispart of Wuhan city. "Stone City" probably refers to Nanjing,nicknamed "the city of stone walls." Qu Yuan (343-289 B.C.) ishere actually referred to by his "style name," Sanl. Themagistrate's carriage is a five-horse affair, indicating thegovernor of a prefecture."Living in the Mountains in Summer" (p. 40)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Xia ri shan juFirst line: Yi de xian ju ci di laiA celebration of solitude, peace and rural enchantment. Page 71''Late Spring Improvisation" (p. 41)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Mu chun ji shiFirst line: Shen xiang qiong men shao l chouA plaintive counterpart to the previous poem. Here theemphasis is on being left out of the world of men and fame."Joining Somebody's Mourning" (p. 42)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Dai ren dao wangFirst line: Ceng du yao tao xiang yu ziThe title seems to suggest that the poet is commemorating thelife and mourning the death of someone she knew only slightlyand was not related to, a beautiful woman who has died young."Letter to a Friend" (p. 43)Eight seven-character lines.Title: He renFirst line: Mang mang jiu mo wu zhi jiSomething of a self-portrait. The incense burner is specified as"Boshan style," famous for its intricate carving. The famousbeauties are represented by Zhuo Wenjun."Sent to Zian, Long Distance, from the Hanjiang River" (p. 44)Eight six-character lines, an unusual variation.Title: Ge Han jiang ji Zi anFirst line: Jiang nan jiang bei chou wangThe poem suggests that a psychological or spiritual distancehas grown up that is more significant than the physicaldistance. Page 72"An Allegory" (p. 45)Eight six-character lines, another unusual six-character variation.Title: Yu yanFirst line: Hong tao chu chu chun seThe last lines feel personal, a summary of the poet's ownexistence."Letter to Zian, Sad from Gazing into the Distance, fromJiangling" (p. 46)Four seven-character lines.Title: Jiang ling chou wang ji Zi anFirst line: Feng ye qian zhi fu wan zhiAgain, conventional images of loss and change, powerfullydeployed."Sent to Zian" (p. 47)Eight seven-character lines.Title: Ji Zi anFirst line: Zui bie qian zhi bu huan chouThe wine-flowers-willow-clouds pattern of imagery here is acharacteristic cluster of associations in Chinese poetry."Saying Goodbye" (p. 48)Four seven-character lines.Title: Song bieFirst line: Qin lou ji ye qie xin qiLike the poem on p. 46, "Letter to Zian, Sad . . . , " thisdemonstrates the poet's gift for exact succinctness."A Warm Note to Squire Li Jinren" (p. 49)Four seven-character lines.Title: Ying Li Jin ren yuan waiFirst line: Jin ri xi shi wen xi que Page 73The third line compares her guest to the handsome poet PanYue, of the Western Jin Dynasty (A.D. 265316). The Weaver Girland the Cowherd were the names for two stars, Vega and Altairrespectively, representing two faithful, separated lovers. Theymet once a year by crossing the Milky Way (in China, yin he,the Silver River), so of course they were only a happy couple asmall percentage of the time."Saying Goodbye, II" (p. 50)Four seven-character lines.Title: Song bieFirst line: Shui rou zhu qi zhi nan dingWe've used "Yangtze" for the great river now known moreproperly as Changjiang River because this name is so familiarto Western readers. Actually, because of the river's great length(Changjiang means "long river"), it tended to be referred to interms of its specific sections. In this poem Yu Xuanji refers tothe Chujiang River section. Because the title is exactly the samein Chinese as the title of the poem on p. 48, we have added thenumber."Letter to an Exam Candidate, from Shanxi to the Capital" (p. 51)Twelve seven-character lines.Title: Zuo ming chang zi Ze zhou zhi jing shi ren chuan yuFirst line: Xian ju zuo fu ji nian chouZezhou is in Shanxi Province. The Wangwu Mountains aresome fifty miles north of the ancient capital, Luoyang. SimaXiangru (179117 B.C.) was a Western Han Dynasty poet. The"White Dew," marking the advent of autumn, was said to comeabout 15 days before the autumnal equinox. The Yangtze Deltais the Qujiang River section."Reply to a Poem, Matching the Form" (p. 53)Eight seven-character lines.Title: He ren ci yunFirst line: Xuan xuan zhu zi za ren huanA kind of summing up. Yan Yuan (521490 B.C.) was a discipleof Confucius, praised for his humility and contentment. Page 74"Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young" (p. 54)Twenty four seven-character lines.Title: Guang Wei Pou jie mei san ren, shao gu er shi yan, naiyou shi zuo, jing cui nan chou, sui Xie jia lian [ ], he yi jia zhi,you ke zi jing shi lai zhe shi yu, yin ci qi yunFirst line: Xi wen nan guo rong hua shaoThe unusual title of this poem translates in full as: "ThreeSisters, Guang, Wei, and Pou, Young as Orphans and NowContending in Beauty, So to Have This Poem, Succinct andTerse, Hard to Compare, Even If the Xie Family [one charactermissing], What Way to Enhance, Some Visitor Coming fromthe Capital, Showing It to Me, Allowing Me to Compose aPoem in Reply."The poet seems to have been shown a poem celebrating thesethree beautiful sisters and to have composed her own response,meditating on the way women tended to be reduced toquestions of beauty and marriageability in her society.The section breaks have been introduced here to clarify themovement of the poem. In the second section, the poetmentioned is Cai Wenji (active around 190), an Eastern HanDynasty woman poet, and the famous beauty is Xi Shi, fromthe fifth century B.C. (see "Washing Yarn Temple," p. 7). Xi Shiwas admirable, but it is ironic, the poet suggests, that a womanpoet gets compared to other women and praised for beautyrather than to other (male) poets.The young poet's dream-lover in the third section is Pan Yue,who seems to have been her prototype for the dashing,handsome poet-lover.In its bitterness and inclusiveness, this poem stands out fromthe rest of Yu Xuanji's work."Snapping Willows" (p. 57)Four seven-character lines.Title: Zhe yang liuFirst line: Zhao zhao song bie qi hua dianThe association of willows with parting probably came aboutbecause it was typical to see someone off on a journey byaccompanying them to the town or city gates. There would be astream or river there, with willows growing beside it. Breakingoff a branch or wand would commemorate the occasion. Thedrooping look of the tree also gives it associations ofmelancholy, of course, and in Western traditions it has becomeclosely associated with disappointed lovers. Page 75"Fragments." (p. 58)The first four are each two five-character lines, and the fifth istwo seven-character lines.Title: JuFirst line: Fen xiang deng yu tanThese seem to be pairs of lines that were actual or potentialparts of complete poems. They were presumably admiredenough in this incomplete form to be considered worthincluding in the collection of Yu Xuanji's surviving works.