The Collected Poems of Li He

by Li He

  4. The Golden Horse Portals and the Stone Culvert Pavilion both stood in the capital during Han times. Here they denote high office.

  5. The zhi (loosely rendered “unicorn”) was used as a symbol on the caps worn by the President and Vice-President of the Tribunal of Censors when they were preferring charges. Great officers of state had to put cloves in their mouths to sweeten their breath when they addressed reports to the emperor.

  6. He, whose style was Chang-ji, came from Long-xi commandery in Gansu.

  7. In Shanxi.

  Verses on Being Presented with a Length of Summer Cloth by the Mountaineer of Luo-fu.

  7-character: 2 rhymes

  Summer-cloth was alight fabric woven from the ke plant (pueraria thun-bergiana). The Mountaineer was a Taoist Immortal living on Mount Luo-fu in Guangdong.

  1. On the Orchid Terrace of King Xiang of Chu, every breeze was delightful.

  2. Another name for Luo-fu.

  3. The demons cry out because the precious cloth they have woven has been given away.

  4. In July the heat is so great that snakes lose their venom and fish burrow into the sand of the river-bed.

  5. The cloth is brilliant as the sky.

  6. Wu was renowned for its steel.

  A Few Remarks Addressed to Huang-Fu Shih from the Jen-ho Quarter

  7-character: 5 rhymes

  This poem was written in the winter of 810, when He was setting off to Chang-an to take his Selection examination, after having failed to qualify for the doctorate. Huang-fu Shi was a patron of He’s. The Ren-he quarter of Luo-yang was a pleasant, sparsely settled district near the Chang-xia gate.

  1. A reference to Huang-fu’s debacle in an examination scandal which led him to lose his official position.

  2. Officials of the seventh grade and upwards wore white writing-brushes in their hair.

  3. He was also affected by the disgrace of his patron.

  4. A reference to his failure to qualify for the doctorate examination.

  5. Dao Jian and Ding Jun-du were renowned as judges of horses. Here He is referring to his patrons, the great poet Han Yu and Huang-fu Shi.

  6. This suggests a nervous breakdown consequent on the shock of his rejection.

  7. The Office of Heaven was a name for the Ministry of Civil Office. Clearly, He was going to sit for another examination.

  8. Candidates for the Selection examination were supposed to be in Chang-an by the twentieth day of the tenth month.

  Song of a Palace Beauty

  7-character: 4 rhymes

  The summer of 813 was marked by severe floods, alleged to be due to a predominance of the Yin (female) element. The Emperor therefore sent three hundred of his harem back to their homes. This poem depicts the plight of a girl who was not sent back.

  1. The candle-light is seen through the gauze of her bed-curtains.

  2. “Palace-wardens” was a name given to geckos, which were fed on cinnabar until they turned red. They were then pounded up in mortars, the resulting paste being used to mark the bodies of the Emperor’s concubines. It was believed that such spots would not disappear until the woman had sexual intercourse. Thus a check could be kept on the behavior of the women of the harem—hence the name “palace-wardens.” The girl lies awake listening to the noise of the mortars, reflecting bitterly that she will never have need of the palace-wardens again.

  3. Incense-braziers were often made in the form of animals, generally ducks or elephants.

  4. The seven stars of the Dipper.

  5. A net stretched across the edge of the eaves. See above, the poem Passing by the Hua-qing Palace.

  6. Lady Zhen was a discarded favourite of Emperor Wen of Wei (regnet 220–26). She was eventually forced to commit suicide.

  7. Long Island (Chang-zhou) was the old name of a county in Jiangsu, in the ancient territory of Wu. Like the Lady Zhen, the girl came from Suzhou, a place famous for its beautiful girls. The Long River (the Milky Way) seems to curve down the sky in the direction of Chang-zhou, forming a watery pathway which could lead her home.

  Hall After Hall

  Irregular: 1 rhyme

  He is once again visiting the ruins of Hua Qin palace (see above, the poem Passing by the Hua-qing Palace).

  1. When a temple in Shao-xing dedicated to the legendary emperor Yu was being repaired, during the Liang dynasty (A.D. 502–57), a beam of plum-tree wood was said to have come magically flying to the site.

  2. For these springs, see the poem Passing by the Hua-qing Palace above. The stone in question is arsenolite, a poisonous substance used for accelerating the growth of silk worms.

  3. “White phoenixes”—the emperor’s ladies.

  Be Sure to Take Care of Yourself Two Poems Written When I Escorted Young Li on His Way to Mount Lu.

  5-character: 1 rhyme (Poem 1)

  Irregular: 4 rhymes (Poem 2)

  He’s younger brother was going to Mount Lu, the famous Buddhist centre in Jiangxi.

  1. No ceremonial farewell meal for the traveller.

  2. One of the peaks of Mount Lu.

  3. The famous Nine Rivers of Chu.

  4. The Stone Mirror stood on the summit of Pine Gate Mountain, north of Xin-jian in Jiangxi. It was a natural rock-formation, so smooth and polished it looked like a mirror.

  5. It was customary to say farewell under a willow.

  6. Literally: “The warp of the threads in my spirit-tower is as raveled as the hanging silk of spring (silkworms).” “Spirit-tower” simply means “heart.”

  7. He is describing the dilapidation of his house.

  8. The horns blown at sunset when the gates were shut.

  Let Wine Be Brought In!

  7-character: 2 rhymes

  1. Zhu-fu Yan (d. 127 B.C.) was a scholar from Qi, who wandered around for many years seeking employment in vain. He was not given a post until he sent up a particularly brilliant memorial. This allusion would imply that Li He had not yet found employment.

  2. His family had been leaning against the willows, waiting for him to return, for so long that they had finally broken the tree down!

  3. Ma Zhou (601–48) was a retainer of Chang He’s, but this was in Chang-an, not Xin-feng (Shaanxi). In Xin-feng he had astonished an innkeeper by his capacity to drink. In Chang-an, in 631, he wrote a memorial to the emperor on Chang’s behalf which so impressed Tai-zong that he summoned Ma to court.

  Long Songs After Short Songs

  5-character: 2 rhymes

  “Long song” and “Short song” were the names of Yue-fu ballads, both of which had for their theme the shortness of man’s life. The story goes that He wrote this poem when he was only seven years old. This is, of course, quite untrue. Our poet is ill and grieving over his failure in the examination.

  1. His hair was cut short because of his illness.

  2. At this time Emperor Xian-zong had retired to Qin; hence the allusion.

  3. One commentator plausibly equates the moon with the Emperor and the high rocks which bar Li He from the moon with the powerful officials of the court.

  Song: Do Not Dance, Sir!

  7-character: 4 rhymes

  Shi-ji, VII, biography of Xiang Yu, relates the story of the struggle for empire between Xiang-yu of Chu and Liu Bang, Lord of Pei, who afterwards became the first Han emperor. Liu Bang’s forces had been the first to enter the Qin capital, Xian-yang, and take possession of the strategic Han-gu Pass. Enraged at this, Xiang Yu was about to attack Liu’s forces when he was visited by his rival in his camp at Hong-men. At the feast that followed, Fan Zeng signalled to Xiang Yu with his girdle-pendant, silently asking permission to have Liu killed. When Xiang did not reply, Fan ordered Xiang Zhuang to perform a sword-dance in the course of which he was to kill Liu where he sat. However, as Xiang Zhuang was dancing, Xiang Bo, an uncle of Yu’s, leapt up with his sword and joined in the dance, “protecting Liu with his body so that Xiang Zhuang could not smite him.” At this juncture Liu’s carriage-guard, Fan Kuai, strode into t
he hall, shouldering aside the sentries, and denounced Yu for attempting to kill his master. Thanks to the intervention of these two men, Liu was able to escape. This episode, as recounted by the historian Si-ma Qian, became so popular that it figured widely in both folk-tales and plays.

  1. The lute (Zheng), symbol of Chinese culture, could not survive in that barbarous, southern atmosphere.

  2. Xiang Yu was still not drunk enough to kill Liu Pei.

  3. Shi-ji, VI, biography of Liu Bang, says he was begotten by a red dragon.

  4. See ibid. The history recounts how the First Emperor of Qin heard that “there was an emanation characteristic of a Son of Heaven in the southwest,” and set out to destroy Liu Bang who fled and hid himself among the swamps and rocks of Mang and Tang. His wife, however, was able to track him down because wherever he went he was followed by the auspicious cloud mentioned above. Mang was in the old state of Pei, in Henan. Tang was in ancient Liang, in Jiangsu.

  5. These lines describe Liu Bang’s capture of the Qin capital.

  6. He has put these words in Fan Guai’s mouth, for the Shi-ji does not record them. Cutting off the kneecaps and disembowelling were ancient punishments.

  Four Poems about New Bamboo-Shoots in My North Garden at Chang-gu.

  7-character: 1 rhyme

  1. Bamboo-shoots are called long-sun—“dragon’s grandchildren.”

  2. A highly ambiguous line. It could mean: (a) “On this unfeeling bamboo, I, who am full of bitterness at my lot, write my verse”; (b) “I have no one to love me, so full of bitterness I write my verse”; or (c) “I write verses, some of them beyond passion, some of them full of resentment.” The bamboo as it grows will carry his verse into the air, far out of the reach of men.

  3. The poet hacks away at the green skin of the bamboo until the white under-surface is exposed. On this he writes his verses. The commentators take the “Songs of Chu” to refer to He’s own poems, which he frequently compares to the Chu Ci.

  4. “Purple path”—either a path in the garden or else the road itself.

  5. To make fishing-rods.

  6. The poet Si-ma Xiang-ru retired to Mao-ling, Shaanxi, when he fell ill.

  7. Shi-ji, CXXIX, biography of Huo Zhi, says: “A man with a thousand arpents (mou) of bamboos is on a level with the marquis with a fief of ten thousand households.” (6.6 mou is approximately one acre.)

  8. Or: “When the wind blows among my thousand arpents of bamboos, I greet the rain with a whistle.”

  She Steals My Heart

  5-character: 1 rhyme

  Presumably a poem celebrating the beauty of some singing-girl or other, with whom He had become involved. My translation of this highly allusive and obscure piece of verse is in several places at best tentative.

  1. Sung Yu, a poet who seems to have lived at the court of King Qing-Xiang of Chu (regnet 298–265 B.C.), is the supposed author of the Jiu Bien (The Nine Arguments) of the Chu Ci. Tradition has it that he was a romantic and dissolute fellow, much given to philandering.

  2. Incense was burnt in a censer.

  3. The magpie was a common motif on mirrors. This alludes to an old story about a husband and wife who broke a mirror in two on parting, each keeping one half. When the wife proved unfaithful, her half of the mirror changed into a magpie and flew off to tell the husband.

  4. Probably ornaments made from the iridescent elytra of the gold-and-turquoise chrysochroa beetle.

  5. The cardamom flower symbolized love. For cardamoms, see Schafer, Golden Peaches, pp. 184–85. “Lotus” (liān) and “love” (liēn) were pronounced rather alike in Ancient Chinese, both in the level tone. Here the lotus symbolizes affection.

  6. The Pearl Game, in which a plateful of pearls was skillfully juggled, as a professional entertainer’s act, just the sort of diversion a singing-girl would put on for her clients.

  7. The red nets were to catch birds, the green to catch fish.

  8. A satirical touch! The mother of the Han Emperor, Ling-di (regnet 168–89), the Empress Dowager Yong-luo, was so greedy for food and money that she became the butt of a popular ballad, from which He is quoting.

  9. She instructs her maids to keep the household accounts and asks her servant-lad about what medicines she should buy. Then she undresses, retires to bed, and dreams of bearing a son.

  10. “Geese” jewellery worn on the temples. To dream of bears was an omen of a baby boy, as snakes were omens of a baby girl.

  11. She is hopelessly in love with someone who has left her to pine away like a fading rainbow. Her efforts to forget her love are as vain as those of the qing-wei bird that tried to fill in the Eastern Sea or Master Simple of North Mountain who set out to remove Mount Tai-lang and Mount Wangwu. Alternatively, the lines might well refer to He’s efforts to gain her love, which though seemingly hopeless were finally crowned with success.

  12. Lovesickness has wasted her away, so that her bones stick out like the “dragon-bones” found in an apothecary’s shop.

  13. Maple-leaves fall on the spot where she has been drinking.

  14. The day-lily was also known as yi-nan, “should-have-a-son.” The lanes of Chu were the streets in the Golden Wall quarter in the northwest of Luo-yang, where the singing-girls lived.

  15. The screen was set with jade patterned like tortoise-shell.

  16. Wei Huan (220–91) was a celebrated calligrapher of the Jin dynasty, renowned for the elegance of his draft script. The girl is writing a letter in a hand as vigorous as that in which Wei Huan transcribed the Yellow Courtyard Classic (Huang-ting jing), a well-known Taoist work.

  17. There are several versions of the Han Peng legend, the most usual of which relates that Han Peng, a minister of the state of Song, had a beautiful wife. His lord, King Kang, threw him into prison where he died, and then seized the girl, who thwarted his designs by killing herself. Furious at being thus frustrated, the king had the two bodies buried in separate graves: but from each of these there sprouted a tree, in the branches of which, interlaced over the tombs, two birds came to sing. Thus, the Han Peng birds are symbols of undying love. For another version of the legend, see A. Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang (London, 1960), pp. 56–64.

  18. The fragrant candles have burnt out.

  19. Xin-feng was the suburb of Chang-an where wine was made.

  20. Her jade-pendant bore a pattern of millet.

  21. Euphemisms for love-making.

  22. Wen Qiao (288–329), a minister of the Jin dynasty, sent his beautiful cousin a betrothal present of a vanity mirror.

  23. Jia Chung (217–82), a prime minister of the Jin dynasty, had a daughter who was having an affair with a handsome retainer of his called Han Shou. Chung noticed that Shou’s clothes bore the scent of a rare perfume his daughter used, and so discovered who her lover was.

  24. During the Six Dynasties, certain words acquired special connotations in love poetry. “Lotus-root” is a symbol for girl, while “fish” stands for pleasure. In the second line, “stone-lotus” stands for lover, and “man” stands for woman. The secret meaning of the lines is thus: “Pleasure was born beneath the girl’s body. The woman was tightly held by the man’s hands.”

  25. It was the custom for a singing-girl to spray the mane of her lover’s horse with water when he left. This was probably a magical practice designed to ensure the lover’s return. An alternative translation, based on the older commentaries, runs:

  “She knits her blue eyebrow, eyes full of tears,

  On the tower she sprays her hair, a horse’s mane.”

  26. Shi-jun was a Han dynasty title meaning “Governor.” The line is probably a reference to the Han Ballad The Mulberries by the Path. See J. D. Frodsham, An Anthology of Chinese Verse (Oxford, 1967), pp. 4–6.

  27. The poet Si-ma Xiang-ru was said to have held the office of Custodian of the Royal Tomb. Presumably these two lines are spoken by the girl, who is comparing herself to the modest Luo-fu of The Mulberries by the Path and her lover (Li He?) to th
is romantic poet. The Governor would then be a rejected admirer.

  28. The Wang family of Lang-ye, Shandong, was one of the most powerful of the Six Dynasties period. He is referring either to Wang Xian-zhi (344–88), a scion of this clan, who is said to have had a concubine called Peach Leaves to whom he wrote poems or to Wang Zi Qiao, the Immortal.

  29. The beautiful and talented concubine of the great minister Xie An (320–85).

  30. “The Three Stars”: Orion. Carriages of influential people gather in the street of the Bronze Camel in Luo-yang. Another reference to The Mulberries by the Path: “Lord Governor came from the South country. His team of five stood waiting there.” This may well mean that the girl had rejected the advances of an influential admirer in favour of Li He.

  31. Rhinoceros horn was taken in powdered form during Tang, especially as an antidote to poison. It was not used as an aphrodisiac at that time. Mercury was among the most important Chinese materia medica. The girl was probably taking “silver tallow,” an amalgam of silver, tin and mercury commonly used as a sedative.

  32. “Royal hour” means “auspicious time.” On the seventh night of the seventh month, stars known as the Herd-boy and the Weaving Lady met.

  33. Heaven was said to have three palaces. Hence this line must refer to He’s post in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. The fortune-teller is predicting that on the seventh night of the seventh month Li He and the girl will meet, like the Herd-boy and the Weaving Lady.

  34. Mica was one of the “superior drugs” of the Chinese pharmacopoeia. It was said to lighten the body and lengthen life.

  35. Li He is wending his way home just before dawn after spending the night with this girl.

  Five Exhortations

  5-character: 3 rhymes (Poem 1)

  5-character: 1 rhyme (Poems 2–5)

  A satire on rapacious officials. Since the middle of the eighth century, China had agreed to take as many horses from the Uighurs as the latter cared to send them. Since each horse cost fifty pieces of silk this placed a tremendous burden upon the silk-industry. In 809 Bo Ju-yi wrote a memorial estimating that some 500,000 pieces of silk had been used to buy such horses. Bo Ju-yi and other poets all wrote poems sympathizing with the peasant women who had to work themselves to exhaustion to supply the tax-collectors with silk.