How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

216 t He tang Dy na s t y

C 1 0. 1 3

Sending Off Meng Haoran to Guangling at Yellow Crane Tower

An old friend leaves the west at Yellow Crane Tower

And in flower mists of the third month descends to Yangzhou

The far shadow of a lone sail is lost in the azure sky

I see only the Yangtze River, flowing to the edge of heaven

[QTS 5:174.1785; QSTRJJ, 163–164]

黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵
(huáng hè lóu sòng mèng hào rán zhī guăng líng)

old friend west depart yellow crane tower 故人西辭黃鶴樓 (gù rén xī cí huáng hè lóu)
mist flower three month descend Yang -zhou 煙花三月下揚州 (yān huā sān yuè xià yáng zhōu)
lone sail far reflection blue sky disappear 孤帆遠影碧空盡 (gū fān yuăn yĭng bì kōng jìn)
only see long river heaven horizon flow 唯見長江天際流 (wéi jiàn cháng jiāng tiān jì liú)
[Tonal pattern IIa (imperfect), see p. 171]

In just a few words, Li Bai evokes the vastness of the Yangtze River. His focus on

the river landscape belies his true purpose—expressing his grief at parting from a

friend. In line 3, Meng Haoran’s boat slowly sails over the horizon, and in line 4,

there is only the great river. By subtle implication, Li Bai reveals that he has been

standing atop Yellow Crane Tower all the while, watching the scene and thinking

of his friend.

The great poet Du Fu (712–770) is not well known for his jueju quatrains; as the

critic Gao Buying put it, “Du Fu’s talent encapsulated heaven and sustained the

earth; he could not fully bring his strengths to bear in a little quatrain.”23 Yet, in his

last years, Du Fu did turn his hand to quatrains, especially qijue, and Gao Buying

pointed out that the forceful and direct works he produced constituted a new style.

By challenging the countervailing aesthetic, it appears that Du Fu was deliberately

trying to widen the scope of the jueju genre. The following is an example:

C 1 0. 1 4

Three Quatrains, No. 3

Palace guards should be heroic and brave—

Not wild and cruel, like Tangut and Tuyuhun!

I hear they’re killing men up on the Han River;

Many girls and women are in the army camps

[QTS 7:229.2490; QSTRJJ, 252–253]

三絕句 (sān jué jù)

palace front soldier horse although valiant heroic 殿前兵馬雖驍雄 (diàn qián bīng mă suī xiāo xióng)
unrestrained cruel approximately with Qiang Hun same 縱暴略與羌渾同 (zòng bào lüè yŭ qiāng hùn tóng)