How to Read Chinese Poetry A Guided Anthology

360 t He y uan, m i ng, anD q i ng Dy na s t i e s

ing to Wang Yingzhi, the modern specialist on Yuan Mei’s poetry, his vast corpus

can be said to reflect his theory of “native sensibility” in practice.12 The result is

often an affable charm and urbane humor.

C 1 7. 4

Traveling in the Mountains: Miscellaneous Poem

Rugged and steep for ten li, for half a li flat,

Just as one peak says farewell, another bids me welcome!

Green mountains wrap round me like cocoons,

I don’t believe there could be a pathway ahead.

[YMQJ 1.633]

山行雜咏 (shān xíng zá yŏng)

ten li rugged steep half li flat 十里崎嶇半里平 (shí lĭ qí qū bàn lĭ píng)
one peak just send one peak welcome 一峰才送一峰迎 (yì fēng cái sòng yì fēng yíng)
green mountain like cocoon take person wrap 青山似繭將人裹 (qīng shān sì jiăn jiāng rén guŏ)
not believe front head have road walk 不信前頭有路行 (bú xìn qián tóu yŏu lù xíng )
[Tonal pattern IIa, see p. 171]

Yuan Mei records in a realistic and personable tenor his experience of traveling

through a mountain range. To convey the ever-changing visual field on the moun-

tain trail as the peaks appear and disappear, he likens them to friends who welcome

and see him off one after the other. Being situated in the midst of a mountain

range, Yuan Mei describes the experience of being enclosed by the surrounding

peaks with the simile of a silkworm being wrapped inside a cocoon, so tightly that

he declares wittily that he does not believe there is an opening ahead. Yuan Mei’s

advocacy of individual, spontaneous, and natural expression in poetry widely en-

couraged among men and women the practice of recording everyday experience.

Whether traveling, staying at home, visiting with friends, or conducting any other

activity—the mundane and personal, as well as the sublime and precious—all can

become subjects of poetry.

P o e t r y a s D i u r n a l P r aC t i C e

The Expediency of Poetry in Times of Violence and Disorder

Chinese poetry has a long tradition of recording the sufferings and disasters

caused by war. Poems dating from as early as the sixth century b.C.e. in the Shijing

(The Book of Poetry) already describe the hardships of military expeditions; many

are set in voices of complaint, as soldiers campaigned far from home for long

periods of time and their loved ones were left behind. The yuefu ballads of the

Han also represented these voices of antiwar protest.13 Yuefu poetry, as it evolved

in the shi form during the Wei–Jin and period of disunion, continued the ten-

dency to represent the sufferings of the downtrodden classes, especially in times

of political and social disorder. Originally sung to musical accompaniment, some