Qu P oe t ry : s ong P oe m s o F tHe y uan Dy na s t y 337impregnability of his country’s natural defense. The allusion gives the images the
weight of its 2,000-year-old history. It is they, “the mountains and the river,” that
bear witness to the rise and fall of dynasties.
Meditation on the past (huaigu) is an old poetic tradition. Numerous poems on
the subject were written before—and after—Zhang Yanghao, yet this modest piece
stands out as one of the most frequently anthologized huaigu poems. A possible
explanation can be found in the poet’s skill in turning the formal restrictions of
the poetic form of the song poem to advantage. The eight short lines—two of them
have only one syllable each—are combined with the three long lines to form a
rhythmic and easy-to-memorize sound flow. The most forceful and unforgettable
are the four concluding lines. Each of the two monosyllabic lines—“[Dynasties]
rise” and “[Dynasties] fall”—is followed by the same refrain: “The common folk
suffer.” The idea that, whatever the case, the people suffer could never have been
expressed with such clarity and emphasis had the poet not had this terse contras-
tive formal structure at his disposal.
The fact that the thematic content of “Meditation on the Past at Tong Pass” is
necessarily sustained by its formal properties can be seen even more clearly if we
examine the eight other songs by Zhang Yanghao written to the same tune on the
same subject. Each of the eight songs uses a historical site as the vantage point
from which the poet contemplates the past, and each exploits the tight antithetic
structure at the end required by the metrical pattern to drive home its message.
The following examples show how some of these huaigu songs end the same way
as “Meditation on the Past.” The tone of sententious certainty, tinged with resigna-
tion, is hard to miss:
[Kingdoms] win, / They turn to dust; / [Kingdoms] lose, / They turn to dust.
贏 都變做了土 輸 都變做了土
yíng / dōu biàn zuò liăo tŭ / shū / dōu biàn zuò liăo tŭ
[QYSQ 1:436]
[Dynasties fall] sooner, / Heaven makes it so; / [Dynasties fall] later, / Heaven
makes it so.
疾 也是天氣差 遲 也是天氣差
jí / yĕ shì tiān qì chāi / chí / yĕ shì tiān qì chāi
[QYSQ 1:438]The King? / Sacrificed in vain; / The subjects? / Sacrificed in vain.
君 乾送了 民 乾送了
jūn / gān sòng liăo / mín / gān sòng liăo
[QYSQ 1:436]
Glory, / It does not last; / Fame, / It does not last.
功 也是不長久 名 也是不長久
gōng / yĕ shì bù cháng jiŭ / míng / yĕ shì bù cháng jiŭ
[QYSQ 1:437]