136 t He siX Dy na s t i e s
in “What I Observed as I Crossed the Lake.” Rather, they are employed to set up
and answer the dilemma of retirement versus service. Line 1 of the poem alludes
to the First Yang of the hexagram Qian (Pure Yang): “A submerged dragon does not
act.”18 This statement applies to the superior man who has yet to reveal his virtue
and capabilities. Line 2 calls to mind the hexagram Jian (Gradual Progress), whose
six statements outline the gradual advancement of the wild goose, from shore to
highland to hill.19 This ascension parallels the rise of the superior man.20 The juxta-
position of retired life and successful career in lines 1 and 2 sets up a pattern of
binary oppositions within the next four lines. In lines 3 and 5, the poet addresses
the allusion to the flying goose by stating that he has failed in court life. Lines 4
and 6 hark back to the allusion of the submerged dragon as the poet admits that he
has also not succeeded in retirement. The first two allusions resonate through the
poem’s first six lines and help build a microstructure for the first three couplets:
images, significations of the images, and the application of the images to the poet’s
own situation.
The allusions in the first couplet work additionally with the poem’s last line to
give the poem a closed, circular structure. The last line alludes to the following
comments in the Yijing, which explain the passage to which line 1 refers: “‘A sub-
merged dragon does not act.’ What does this mean? The Master says: ‘This refers
to one who has a dragon’s virtue yet remains hidden. He neither changes to suit the
world nor seeks fulfillment in fame. He hides from the world but does not regret
it, and though this fails to win approval, he is not sad [wu men].’”21 The poet’s com-
parison of the hidden dragon whose virtue is out of tune with the world to his own
plight is as much a final consolation as an affirmation of his decision to withdraw,
if only temporarily. By reinforcing the first line of the poem, the last line offsets the
perfect balance between retirement and officialdom introduced in lines 1–6 and
developed throughout the poem: the observation of spring scenes while in retire-
ment in lines 11–16 and the lamentation of frustrated ambition in lines 17–20.
The presentation of the natural scene in lines 11–16 contains a number of distin-
guishing formal features of Xie’s landscape poetry. The familiar pairing of moun-
tains and waters combines with a pairing of sight and sound: the poet listens and
observes a scene containing both water and mountain, which suggests a compre-
hensive engagement with nature. His perception of the mountains in line 12 is
conveyed both visually and auditorily: the use of the characters qu and qin, which
have the same radical, shan, creates a visual continuity with variation, resembling
a mountain ridge. The alliteration of qu and qin presents variation within simi-
larity, suggesting a notable texture or unevenness, as in a mountain range. Re-
markably, the elements of opposition and variation in these lines are smoothly
integrated into a coherent visual sequence: attention proceeds from the distant
seas, the nearer mountains, to the pond and trees next to the tower.
The most interesting couplet in this poem (and the most often quoted of Xie’s
oeuvre) is: “The pond’s banks grow spring grasses, / And garden willows have
transformed the singing birds.” These lines brilliantly convey the look and feel of
spring: the pond’s banks give birth to spring grasses, while the willows in their