How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology by Cai Zong-qi

Author:Cai, Zong-qi [Cai, Zong-qi]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2007-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Dispelling Sorrow

I sunk my soul in the river lands, wandered with wine,

Broke the hearts of Chu girls dancing lightly in my hands

Ten years on, I wake from a Yangzhou dream—

All I’ve won: a callous name in the green mansions

[QTS 16:524.5998; QSTRJJ, 684-685]

“Dancing lightly in my hands” (zhangzhong qing) is a glancing allusion to the great Han beauty Zhao Feiyan, who, it was said, was so light that she could dance on the emperor’s palm. “Green mansions” is a euphemism for the dwellings of the courtesans.

Li Shangyin (813-858) deserves his reputation as one of China’s most obscure poets; some critics have explained certain poems as autobiographical works about clandestine love affairs with palace ladies and Daoist priestesses, while others see the same poems as simple expressions of personal sadness, or even as satirical political allegories.

C10.17

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