r Hy tHm, s y n taX , anD v ision oF C H i ne s e P oe t ry 389Now let us see how the auxiliary 2 brings about this magical transformation.
In the first couplet, the auxiliary 2 is made up of a noun and a modal phrase. In
line 1, “Purple Spring,” a river in the Chang’an area, makes it clear that the palace
in an abandoned state (“lay locked in the twilight mist’) is the official Sui Palace
in the capital city of Chang’an. In line 2, the modal phrase “wished to make” re-
veals the reason for the abandoned state of that palace: Emperor Yang “wished
to make the Overgrown City a home of emperors.” “Overgrown City” refers to
Guangling, present-day Yangzhou on the Yangtze; “home of emperors” is a ref-
erence to the resort palace built in the Overgrown City for his excursions to the
Yangtze region. Thanks to the auxiliary 2, the poet turns the otherwise objective
depiction of the two palaces into an indictment against Emperor Yang. His ex-
travagance knew no end: the grand capital palace was not enough for him, and
he had others built for him far away from the capital. His abandonment of the
capital palace in favor of his resort palace attested to his wanton neglect of state
affairs.
In the second couplet, the auxiliary 2 features a pair of conjunctions that knit
two lines into a complex subject + predicate. The first conjunction, “if... not [for
certain reasons],” introduces a past subjunctive conditional clause: “The jade seal: if
it had not somehow become the Sun-horn’s.” In traditional Chinese physiognomy,
“sun-horn” denotes the hornlike protrusion on the forehead of someone who is
or is destined to be an emperor. Here “Sun-horn” specifically refers to Li Shimin
(Emperor Taizong of the Tang, 600–649), who overthrew the Sui and founded
the Tang dynasty. The second conjunction, “ought to be,” helps to construct a past
subjunctive result clause: “Brocade sails, then, would have reached heaven’s end.”
“Brocade sails” refers to the huge pleasure boat used by Emperor Yang in his excur-
sions to the Yangtze region. While the conditional clause tells of Emperor Yang’s
dethronement by Li Shimin, the result clause reveals its cause—his inordinate
pursuit of pleasure. This complex subject + predicate also invites a different read-
ing, with Emperor Yang as the speaker. In that case, we would imagine that in the
underworld (anticipating the last couplet) Emperor Yang was ruefully saying that
if he had not lost his empire to Li Shimin, his pleasure boat would have reached to
heaven’s end. Whether read in the voice of the poet or that of Emperor Yang, these
two lines unmistakably deliver a scathing mockery of the debauchery and extreme
folly of this dethroned emperor.
In the third couplet, the auxiliary 2 rounds out the subject + predicate by supply-
ing adverbials of time. The two adverbials are intended to link past and present. In
line 5, “to this day” links the present dearth of fireflies to a tale of the past: Emperor
Yang ordered that all fireflies be caught to light lanterns for his nighttime pleasure
trips. Conversely, “from antiquity” in line 6 traces the present sight of old willow
trees back to the time when they were planted along the Grand Canal by order
of Emperor Yang. It also reminds us of the story that Emperor Yang renamed his
favorite tree, willow, as “Yang willow” after his own surname. What now remains
of these once-glorious trees are inauspicious crows perched in them. Thanks to
the two adverbials, this couplet yields a double vision of present desolation (old