Sh i P oe t ry : anC i e n t anD r e C e n t s t y l e s 323四時田園雜興, 夏 (sì shí tián yuán zá xìng, xià)
thousand acres lotus lotus set loose boat fun 千顷芙蕖放棹嬉 (qiān qĭng fú qú fàng zhào xī)
flowers deep lose road evening forget return 花深迷路晚忘歸^ (huā shēn mí lù wăn wàng guī)
family persons indirectly perceive boat move place 家人暗識船行處^ (jiā rén àn shí chuán xíng chù)
occasionally have startle busy small duck fly 時有驚忙小鴨飛^ (shí yŏu jīng máng xiăo yā fēi)
[Tonal pattern IIa, see p. 171]
C 1 5. 9
Autumn, No. 44The clay on the newly made threshing ground
is as flat as a mirror,
Household after household threshes rice plants
taking advantage of the clear frosty weather.
Behind the singing and laughter
faint thunder rumbles,
All night the sounds of the flails
echo until the sky turns light.
[QSS 41:27.26005]四時田園雜興, 秋 (sì shí tián yuán zá xìng, qiū)
newly made place mud mirror face level 新築場泥鏡面平 (xīn zhù chăng ní jìng miàn píng)
family family thresh rice take advantage frost clear sky 家家打稻趁霜晴 (jiā jiā dă dào chèn shuāng qíng)
laughter singing sounds within faint thunder moves 笑歌聲裏輕雷動 (xiào gē shēng lĭ qīng léi dòng)
whole night flail flail echoes reaching bright 一夜連枷響到明 (yí yè lián jiā xiăng dào míng)
[Tonal pattern IIa, see p. 171]
These three poems are from a set of sixty quatrains that Fan Chengda wrote about
rural life outside his hometown in Pingjiang (near present-day Suzhou) that are
among his most celebrated works. Fan Chengda is known for his detailed poetic
depictions of life in the countryside, which have a focus and flavor all their own.
As we see in these poems, he is capable of keeping silent about his own circum-
stances and emotions as he moves about the countryside. In a preface to the series,
he tells us that he wrote it in his later years, when he had recovered enough from
a period of illness to be able to visit his secluded dwelling in the countryside and,
once there, stroll in the fields. He made poems out of what he saw. Fan Chengda’s
farmstead verse thus departs from the tradition of the countless earlier poets—for
example, Tao Qian (365?–427)—who withdrew to the countryside to write about
themselves in their rustic seclusion (thematic table of contents 2.8).
One immediately notices the acuteness of Fan Chengda’s observation. His
poems show considerable knowledge about the actual work of the farmer, agricul-
tural techniques, and peasant lore. They also show an interest in the lives of the
peasants, who toiled endlessly in the fields. His portrait of rural life is a remark-