132 t He siX Dy na s t i e s
(r. 422–423) represents “‘Decay’ at the top,” while the exiled poet is the secluded
man who assumes a position of secondary importance.
A comprehensive account of the poem’s structure divides it into five quatrains,
each with a different focus. Lines 1–4 recount the entire process of ascent: prepa-
ration, the climb, and arrival at the peak. Lines 5–8 describe the winter scene
that the poet witnesses from the summit. Lines 9–12 are characterized by con-
fusion and obscurity, which apparently result from the poet’s deep venture into
the mountains. Lines 13–16, containing two Yijing allusions, form a self-contained
set. A chiasmus yields a tight, circular quatrain. Line 16 expands on the allusion
in line 13, while line 15 elucidates the prognostication in line 14. Lines 17–20 re-
veal the poet’s new course of action, whose features, “all-embracing Unity” (bao
yi) and the mending of one’s nature (shan xing), are markedly Daoist. The poet
attempts to reconcile himself to his exile from court and plans to seek spiritual
enlightenment.
It is by no means coincidental that the allusions to the Yijing are sandwiched be-
tween three quatrains that depict a natural landscape and the poet’s engagement
within it and a quatrain that evidences a spiritual transformation. It is moreover
significant that the two allusions appear between a state of obscurity (the third
quatrain) and a state of clarity (the fifth quatrain). In this poem, the allusions to
the Yijing signal not only change but also, more specifically, a transition from ex-
terior to interior landscape, which implies the poet’s intention to establish a signi-
fying relation between the particulars of the natural world and his own situation,
and thus affirms the link between the realm of heaven-and earth and the realm of
human affairs.
Xie’s landscape poems have long been appreciated for embodying philosophical
principle (li) as well as exemplifying the art of xingsi (verisimilitude). His descrip-
tive details in lines 5–8 capture the entire appearance of the landscape: from the
gently rippling water to the glossy bamboo grove, and from the meandering stream
to the extensive forest and dense mountain. The pairing of mountain and water in
a single couplet is a staple feature of the landscape poetry of Xie and his followers.
This alternation between mountain and water not only identifies the poetic sub-
jects but also, more important, mimics the dense, layered arrangement of crags/
peaks and rivers/streams in nature. Poetic form again imitates natural form in the
poet’s use of rhyming binomes, where the same final signals a continuity within
variation, hence creating texture. The rhyming binomes dan lian (line 5) and tuan
luan (line 6) auditorily convey a certain texture in the appearance of the rippling
water and glossy bamboo. Difficult phrasing in this descriptive passage moreover
underscores the nature of the mountainous terrain.
Xie’s landscape poems are typically rich in descriptive details of the natural
scene. In some cases, an exposition of natural images is made even more inter-
esting by a transformation in the poet’s perception of the landscape. An especially
good example is “What I Observed as I Crossed the Lake on My Way from South-
ern Mountain to Northern Mountain”: