272 t He F i v e Dy na s t i e s anD t He s ong Dy na s t y
Little Qiao just married done 小喬初嫁了
(xiăo qiáo chū jià liăo)
masculine posture flower shine 雄姿英發 ▲
(xióng zī yīng fā)
feather fan silk scarf chat laugh between 羽扇綸巾談笑間
(yŭ shàn guān jīn tán xiào jiān)
strong enemy ash fly smoke extinguished 強虜灰飛煙滅 ▲
(qiáng lŭ huī fēi yān miè)
old country spirit travel 故國神遊
(gù guó shén yóu)
much emotion should laugh 多情應笑
(duō qíng yīng xiào)
I early grow white hair 我早生華髮 ▲
(wŏ zăo shēng huá fà)
human space like dream 人間如夢
(rén jiān rú mèng)
one cup return libation river moon 一尊還酹江月 ▲
(yì zūn huán lèi jiāng yuè)The poet wrote this meditation on the past when he came to an ancient site on the
banks of the Yangtze thought by many to be Red Cliff, where a formidable fleet led
by Cao Cao (155–220) from the kingdom of Wei was wiped out in 208 by Zhou Yu
(Zhou Gongjin, 175–210), the commander of the army of the kingdom of Wu. The
decisive battle prevented Wei from annexing Wu and another kingdom, Shu, and
ushered in the Three Kingdoms period (220–280).
The song begins with a sigh: even those heroic figures could not avoid being
swept away by the eastward-flowing Yangtze! The theme of ubi sunt is expressed
through the poem’s images. Compared with the awe-inspiring “painting” (line
8) of nature in the first stanza, human existence appears ephemeral and human
efforts insignificant. The “rugged” cliffs and “angry waves” of the great river are as
real and threatening as they appear immediately before the poet’s eyes (lines 5–7),
while heroes of past ages have been reduced by time to insubstantial hearsay—
“it is said” (line 3)—nowhere to be seen. The conclusion of the first stanza has a
ring of both irony and sentimentality. Where are those heroes who “once” (line 9)
competed with each other here for the control of the mountains and the Yangtze
River?
In the second stanza, in his spiritual wandering over the “old kingdom” (line
15), the poet sees General Zhou Yu, one of those heroes. It is interesting to note
that although Zhou Yu was a warrior “beaming with valor” (line 12), who made his
enemies vanish in “ash and smoke” (line 14), he is also depicted as a scholar, with
a “feather fan” and “silk headdress” (line 13). The mention of his newlywed and
legendarily beautiful wife reveals his own youthful charm, and his graceful com-
posure in the face of an overwhelming enemy shows his mental and intellectual