How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

212 t He tang Dy na s t y

C 1 0. 1 0

Lament of the Jade Stairs

On jade stairs, the rising white dew

Through the long night pierces silken hose

Retreating inside, she lowers crystal shades

And stares at the glimmering autumn moon

[QTS 5:164.1701; QSTRJJ, 143–145]

玉階怨     (yù jiē yuàn)

jade stair bears white dew 玉階生白露 (yù jiē shēng bái lù)

night long encroach silk stocking 夜久侵羅襪 (yè jiŭ qīn luó wà)

withdraw lower water crystal blind 卻下水晶簾 (què xià shuĭ jīng lián)

glittering glittering gaze autumn moon 玲瓏望秋月 (líng lóng wàng qiū yuè)

Li Bai’s poem is in part a tribute to the Six Dynasties poet Xie Tiao (464–499),

whom he much admired. Xie Tiao had also composed a poem on the theme, “Jade

Stairs Resentment” (C7.2). Although lovely, Xie Tiao’s work is much simpler than

Li Bai’s. Li Bai borrows several elements—the lady’s sleepless night, the jeweled

blinds, the glittering light, silk clothing—and creates a masterwork through the

subtle interplay of the images.

Li Bai’s lines describe the palace lady in terms of both her languor and her ob-

session with the past. Despite her opulent surroundings and dress, she feels only

sorrow as, under the light of the moon, she stares over the palace walls to where

the emperor dwells. The poem presents the constancy of her love, by means of her

long, sleepless watch from the courtyard and the boudoir; the fickleness of the em-

peror is only suggested by contrast. The full moon is the key, not only because it is

generally a symbol for family reunion but also more specifically because in the shi

poem attributed to her, Ban Jieyu had written:

Newly cut, fine white silk

Fresh and pure as frost and snow

I sew it into a “togetherness fan”

Round, round like the bright moon.

She had given it to the emperor, who cast it aside when the warmth of their re-

lationship was replaced by the cool of autumn. Thus the “autumn moon” in Li

Bai’s poem is an ironic symbol of her abandonment. The glittering of the “crystal

shades,” which scatter the moonlight into a thousand stars, recalls the drops of

dew on “jade stairs” in line 1—or is it that both the crystal and the dewdrops sug-

gest that she stares through the window with eyes filled with tears?

q i j u e

Although a small number of Six Dynasties heptasyllabic quatrains are extant, and

Early Tang poets experimented with the form, stylistically mature qijue poetry was