How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

r e C e n t-s t y l e Sh i P oe t ry : quat ra i n s 211

By far, Li Bai’s favorite topic was Li Bai. More than any other Tang poet, he cre-
ated a recognizable poetic persona, a free-spirited, spontaneous, larger-than-life
bohemian. This persona is reflected in “Amusing Myself ”:

C 1 0. 9

Amusing Myself

Facing wine—I don’t notice the dusk

Falling flowers cover my robe

Drunkenly I rise, and walk with the moon in the stream

Birds have gone back, and people are few

[QTS 6:182.1858; QSTRJJ, 155–156]

自遣^ (zì qiăn)

face wine not realize dark 對酒不覺暝 (duì jiŭ bù jué míng)
fall flower fill my robe 落花盈我衣 (luò huā yíng wŏ yī)
drunk arise pace stream moon 醉起步溪月 (zuì qĭ bù xī yuè)
bird return person also few 鳥還人亦稀 (niăo huán rén yì xī)

Li Bai presents himself as a figure of fun—the drunken poet covered in flowers
and following the moon’s reflection in the stream. The vignette is utterly charm-
ing. Yet poems like this should make us ask ourselves: Is the Li Bai who appears in
his poems the real Li Bai or a fictional construct? This is an important issue in the
Chinese context, as the root of the poetic impulse is said to be shi yan zhi (poetry
expresses intent), which would suggest that poems are always spontaneous, true
reflections of the writer’s inner being.
Let us read one more wujue poem by Li Bai. The lonely woman figure in yuefu
was not limited to the common folk. The abandoned palace lady offered a host of
new possibilities, particularly for rich description. The prototypical lady of this
type was Ban Jieyu, once the favored consort of Emperor Cheng (r. 32–6 b.C.e.) of
the Western Han dynasty. She was displaced when the emperor became infatuated
with the lovely Zhao Feiyan and her sister. Fearing jealous recriminations, she
retired to serve the dowager empress in Changxin Hall, a separate building within
the Changle Palace complex. A poem attributed to Ban Jieyu describes her love as
like a round silk fan, pure and white as snow, which is put away in a box when the
chill of autumn comes.22 The story and poem became the basis for a host of yuefu
compositions by later writers, under titles such as “Jieyu’s Lament” and “Changxin
Lament.” I discuss a series of poems about Ban Jieyu in the following qijue section
of this chapter. Li Bai’s “Lament of the Jade Stairs” is a contribution to the tradi-
tion. Although the theme of this poem derives from the ancient yuefu tradition, the
language places it squarely in the descriptive style of wujue: