96 t He Han Dy na s t y
of life, typical in works that contain the carpe diem poetic theme. The persona
exhorts his audience to enjoy one another’s company as much as they can, since
prospects for the future are so uncertain. But his attitude is not hedonistic because
pleasure is not regarded as the purpose of his life. Rather, he is an escapist seeking
distraction from harsh reality, and the cult of immortality provides a channel for
him to do so. From the text, we are unable to know if the persona is a true Daoist
absorbed in self-cultivation, but the worldly concerns about his own poverty and
hunger have detached him from such an image. The protagonist claims that he
travels through famous mountains and encounters Prince Qiao, the all-time favor-
ite immortal in the tradition, who offers him a pill. Only when he accepts it does
he suddenly realize that he is cold. This at once informs the reader of the coldness
of the immortal realm and brings back to the reader’s mind a sense of reality. Al-
though the receiver of such a wonderful gift from the immortal, the persona feels
ashamed that he cannot repay him. Ling Zhe was a historical figure of the seventh
century b .C.e. who was rescued from starvation by Zhao Dun (Zhao Xuan). He
repaid Zhao Dun by saving him from an assassination attempt. When the persona
returns to the human realm, he has to face again his dire situation. Here, again,
we see an abrupt transition. Under the moonlit sky, all he sees are his poor rela-
tives and friends, for whom he cannot even provide enough food. But this man’s
solution to his poverty is drastically different from that in the previously discussed
“Song of the East Gate.” Instead of resorting to crime, he chooses first wine and
music and then an escape into a world of transcendence. This is typical of what
many literati did later in the Six Dynasties, during which wine and music were
common channels for forgetting worries. Spiritually, many literati often reverted
to Daoist philosophy when their careers suffered. The “eight lords” of the poem
were the honored guests invited by Liu An (179–122 b .C.e.), king of Huainan, to
his kingdom. Liu was a Han prince famous for his search for immortality and his
love of literature and philosophy. Legend has it that he and his guests withdrew
from the world and became immortals. In this poem, the youxian theme is con-
cerned not so much with philosophy as with literary imagination. The persona
obtains a sense of delight by imagining that he roams in the fantastic world of
flying immortals. Through his interstellar journey, he is able to break through the
limitations of time and space and acquire a sense of relief and delight. Hence the
poem ends in a playful wandering in the sky.
I have discussed several different poetic themes in the Han yuefu corpus, but no
general essay on yuefu poetry can exclude the poem “Mulberry Along the Lane,”
the most anthologized and the best-known yuefu poem among Chinese readers.28
Modern scholars have placed great emphasis on the contrast between folk songs
and literary yuefu, with stress on the former, and this poem is a superb example of
coexisting features of folk and literati techniques. In Guo Maoqian’s classification,
it is grouped among the “Da qu” (Grand Songs) in the “Lyrics for Accompanied
Songs.”