334 t He y uan, m i ng, anD q i ng Dy na s t i e s
ably its best writer, Ma Zhiyuan. Ma Zhiyuan is one of the four great Yuan drama-
tists, but he is better known for his sanqu works. His mastery of the art is exempli-
fied by “Autumn Thoughts,” in which a series of carefully chosen images establish
the mood. His meditative song poems on the quiet life of seclusion reveal the
influence of Daoism, and they are considered by many to be too pessimistic. His
works in this genre generally are representative of the more refined literati style,
and yet there is no lack of the freshness and verve seen in works of the popular
style.C 1 6. 3
To the Tune “Sky-Clear Sand” [yuediao key]: Autumn ThoughtsWithered vines, old trees, crows at dusk,
2 A small bridge, flowing water, people’s homes,
An ancient road, the west wind, a lean horse.
4 The evening sun goes down in the west.
One heartbroken man at the end of the earth.
[QYSQ 1:242]【越調】天淨沙^ 秋思^ ([yuè diào] tiānjìng shā qiū sì)
withered vine old tree dusk crow 枯藤老樹昏鴉 △ (kū téng lăo shù hūn yā)
small bridge flowing water people home 小橋流水人家 △ (xiăo qiáo liú shuĭ rén jiā)
ancient road west wind lean horse 古道西風瘦馬 ▲ (gŭ dào xī fēng shòu mă)
evening sun west down 夕陽西下 (xī yáng xī xià)
broken intestines man at heaven end 斷腸人在天涯 △ (duàn cháng rén zài tiān yá)
The imagistic nature of this song is obvious. Except for the word xia (goes down)
at the end of line 4 in the original, the whole song contains no active verb but only
descriptive noun phrases. To compare it to a picture and say that “the poet unfolds
a scene like a scroll of Chinese painting”6 might, however, oversimplify the poetic
experience and miss the real spell of the piece. Indeed, the poet does not encour-
age readers to view as onlookers the picture of a traveler on an autumn evening;
rather, he invites them to identify with the traveler. Thus by the end of the song,
the traveler’s homesickness comes to readers not as a trite sentiment but as a per-
sonal experience with a heartrending freshness.
The identical verse structure of the first three lines often leads the unwatchful
eye to read them together as a parallel triplet. A close examination of the values
carried by the three clusters of images embedded in these lines, however, reveals
that, as far as the poetic narrative is concerned, lines 1 and 2 form a thematic unit,
while line 3 functions on a different level. The “withered vines, old trees,” and
flocks of black crows present a wild and repellent—if not threatening—nature,
whereas the “people’s homes” and “small bridge” (which, as a man-made object,
evokes everyday human activity), with the gurgling water under it, create a conge-