How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

204 t He tang Dy na s t y

less stridently expressive and more subtly reflective. Strong emotion remains, but

it is generally presented through indirection and understatement.

A premier example of the colloquial-style wujue is “Spring Lament,” by Jin

Changxu (fl. 713–742). No other poem by Jin Changxu is extant, and he is a virtual

unknown. Yet this poem struck a chord with readers and was held up by some as

the model for jueju composition.

C 1 0. 3

Spring Lament

Hit the yellow oriole

Don’t let it sing on the branches

When it sings, it breaks into my dreams

And keeps me from Liaoxi!

[QTS 22:768.8724; QSTRJJ, 219–221]

春怨   (chūn yuàn)

hit up yellow oriole [suffix] 打起黃鶯兒 (dă qĭ huáng yīng ér)

do not let branch top call 莫教枝上啼 (mò jiào zhī shàng tí)

call time startle my dream 啼時驚妾夢 (tí shí jīng qiè mèng)

not get arrive Liao -xi 不得到遼西 (bù dé dào liáo xī)

[Tonal pattern Ia (imperfect), see p. 171]

The Qing dynasty critic Shen Deqian said of this poem, “It proceeds continuously

in a single breath.”10 Strong, forward-moving syntax is evident in every line, and

each couplet is a complete sentence. The point where one couplet ends and the

next begins potentially could mark a break in continuity and thus retard the flow

of a poem; this poem adopts the common solution of repeating the character in

the last position of one couplet in the first position of the next. Further, the eight

verbs (out of twenty characters!) give the language dynamism and power. The first-

person pronoun qiè (a humble form used by women) and the modal constructions

in line 1 (dăqĭ [hit], an imperative), line 2 (mò jiào [don’t let], a negative imperative),

and line 4 (bù dé [cannot get], a judgment concerning ability) emphasize the voice

of the speaker/singer and tie the poem to the earlier tradition of performed yuefu

poetry. The impression is of a voice from the heart.

Thematically, the poem is firmly in the yuefu tradition. An archetypal lonely

woman despairs over the fate of her absent husband or lover, who is gone to be a

soldier on the border. Liaoxi refers to the region to the west of the Liao River, in

present-day Inner Mongolia. Only in dreams are they together—until she is rudely

awakened by the oriole. The poem seems just that simple, but the image of the

oriole in fact carries subtle associations. On one level, the springtime bird is cer-

tainly calling its mate to the nest; this symbol of togetherness is in ironic contrast

to the woman’s lonely state. Yet on another, more disturbing level, the image may