How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

146 t He siX Dy na s t i e s

with couplets by previous masters, such as the couplet from “Zeng Wang Can” (To

Wang Can), a poem by Cao Zhi (192–232):

Trees are blooming in spring splendor; 樹木發春華    (shù mù fā chūn huá)

The clear pool stirs long currents. 清池激長流   (qīng chí jī cháng liú)

[XQHWJNBCS 1:451]

or the couplet from Xie Lingyun’s poem “Written upon Returning over the Lake

from My Meditation Lodge at Stone Cliff ”:

C 7. 4

Evening Sun in the Rear Hall 晚日後堂    (wăn rì hòu táng)

The shade of curtains passes across the emerald stairs; 幔陰通碧砌    (màn yīn tōng bì qì)

2 The sun-shadow crosses the corner of the city wall. 日影度城隅  (rì yĭng dù chéng yú)

Willows on the bank droop long leaves; 岸柳垂長葉     (àn liŭ chuí cháng yè)

4 Peach blossoms by the window shed delicate calyxes. 窗桃落細跗  (chuāng táo luò xì fú)

A flower retains the butterfly’s powder; 花留蛺蝶粉   (huā liú jiá dié fĕn)

6 Bamboo conceals dragonfly pearls. 竹翳蜻蜓珠    (zhú yì qīng tíng zhū)

There is no understanding friend to share with— 賞心無與共    (shăng xīn wú yŭ gòng)

8 Moistening the brush, I linger alone. 染翰獨踟躕    (răn hàn dú zhí zhú)

[XQHWJNBCS 3:1955]

The “emerald stairs,” which are actually seen by the poet, and the remote corner

of the city wall, which can only be imagined by the poet because he is in the rear

hall, are linked by shifting shadows: just as the sun moves across the sky, so the

shadows move across the earth. From this point on, the boundary between what

Forests and ravines gather in the dusk colors, 林壑敛暝色    (lín huò liăn míng sè)

Clouds and vapors draw back their sunset haze. 雲霞收夕霏    (yún xiá shōu xī fēi)

[XQHWJNBCS 2:1165]

These couplets, although no less beautiful or poetic, are clearly of a different kind

from Xiao Gang’s couplets, as they are more straightforward, more linear in their

movement. In Xiao Gang’s poem, even the first couplet, which is the simplest of

the three in its movement, requires a going back in reading for us to better grasp

the picture, for we would not understand the significance of the clouds in the east-

ern sky until we are told that the sun has sunk to the river’s level in the west; only

then do we realize that darkness is all around. The poem represents a moment

when, at a time of decreasing visibility, vision is focused on even the smallest

change in nature, and as a result, nature becomes illuminated, just as the lamp-

light delineates the dark shape of the tiny autumn leaves.

Another poem, “Evening Sun in the Rear Hall,” again opens with the movement

of shadows: