When Tang Dynasty poetry ruled the world
The Tang Dynasty (618-907) is the golden age of both China and its poetry. Three poets from that time make the perfect antidote to cabin fever.
This month, in which we are all locked indoors, happens to be National Poetry Month. Several people, getting tired of the same plot lines in pulpy fiction, have asked me, What should I be reading? My answer is always the same: Tang Dynasty poetry.
The Tang Dynasty (618-907) is the golden age of both China and its poetry. And not just that โ there is probably no time and place in world history when poetry was more important. The imperial exam, a ticket into the social elite, required test-takers to be thoroughly familiar with poetry. Social life for elites was dominated by parties where people sat around drinking and writing poetry. To move up the social ladder, you had to be able to write poetry. And so, not surprisingly, the Tang produced an abundance of poets.
Because of the sheer number and diversity of works, Tang poetry can be intimidating if you do not know where to start. The Complete Tang Poems (ๅ จๅ่ฏ quรกn tรกngshฤซ), an 1705 anthology that attempted to gather all Tang poetry into a single collection, has 49,000 poems and 2,200 poets. Even that is really just a โBest Ofโ collection. How does one begin to break into them?
Luckily, during the Tang era and subsequent ones โ the Chinese have never stopped reading Tang poetry โ cream rose to the top. Three poets from that time distinguished themselves and remain celebrated to this day. They make for a fine entry point into Tang poetry โ letโs take a look at who they are and a representative poem from each (all three poems translated by yours truly).
Dรน Fว ๆ็ซ
The first poet in the Tang Trinity is Du Fu. Textbooks and other official channels largely agree that he was the greatest of the Tangโs poets. Although it is a simplification, Du Fu represents the Confucian tradition, to the point where, during the Song Dynasty, he was sometimes called the โpoet-historian.โ
Like the two other poets youโll be introduced to shortly, Du Fu lived during the Tang Dynastyโs most tragic period, and his poetry is redolent of the sadness at the breakdown in government institutions and the violence that that breakdown inflicted on the lives of the people. The Tang state was at the height of its power when a non-Han Chinese, Central Asian general named ฤn Lรนshฤn ๅฎ็ฆๅฑฑ tried to overthrow the Tang emperor. Du Fu, along with the emperor, fled the capital and did not return until after An Lushan had sacked it.
Much of Du Fuโs best poetry focuses on the way the breakdown in the state so quickly created a Hobbsian world. His poetry is a mediation on how, within a year, people went from throwing drunken poetry parties to merely trying to survive. In one poem, he meets a prince being hunted by rebel forces. In other poems, he rhapsodizes on what it is like to flee the capital, at the time the worldโs largest city, and return to find it largely abandoned. If Du Fu is the โpoet-historian,โ his is a history of sadness, of violence, and of painful change, a history that is not narrated but reckoned with.
It is difficult to choose any representative poem by Du Fu, but hereโs one that I like, which Iโve translated:
Sitting Alone
Saddened, I turn my white head,
Leaning on my cane, my back towards the abandoned city.
The river water is restrained and many sandbars emerge,
The sky is empty, the scene is clear.
In the darkness, I resent how I wither as I age,
The times have betrayed the promises of the life of an official.
Raising my head, I admire the birds in the evening light,
Sleeping in the woods, their feathers are so light.
็ฌๅ
ๆฒๆ่ฟด็ฝ้ฆ๏ผ ๅๆ่ๅญคๅใ
ๆฑๆๆดฒๆธๅบ๏ผๅคฉ่้ฃ็ฉๆธ ใ
ๆฒงๆบๆ่กฐ่ฐข๏ผๆฑ็ป่ดๅนณ็ใ
ไปฐ็พก้ปๆ้ธ๏ผๆๆ็พฝ็ฟฎ่ฝปใ
By the time the narrator has arrived in his twilight years, the world has lost something that it used to have. The urbane capital has become a pale shadow of itself, and the world of promise that existed in his youth has passed. If Du Fu is the poet-historian, it is because his poetry is defined by this sad sense of history, the sense that the world that he knew as a young man would never return.
Lว Bรกi ๆ็ฝ
It happens every time I talk to Chinese friends about Tang poetry: they will concede that, among Chinese poets, Du Fu is the greatest, but then say in a whisper, โBut I love Li Bai more.โ
Li Bai is the Tangโs main representative of the mystical, Daoist tradition of Chinese poetry. He loved writing about natural scenes and getting drunk while doing so. He seems unattached to this world, and his poetry reflects the influence of the earlier Daoists, Zhuฤngzi ๅบๅญ and Tรกo Yuฤnmรญng ้ถๆธๆ. Surprisingly, for Chinaโs greatest poet, some legends suggest he may have been born in modern-day Kyrgyzstan, but he is most closely associated with Sichuan. Another legend has it that he died drunk, trying to toast the reflection of the moon which he saw reflected in the river. Whether or not the legends are true, he has become Chinaโs patron saint of drunken poetry. No one in Chinese poetry has written more about the joy of getting drunk, and, in this way, his poems embody the liquor-scented flavor of Tang poetry parties.
Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon
Among the flowers, a bottle of booze.
I drink alone, no friend is near.
Raising a cup, I invite the moon,
and, combined with my shadow, I become three.
Unfortunately, the moon does not drink,
But my shadow follows me.
For now, I have the moon and my shadow as companions,
and we need to party before spring comes to an end.
I sing and the moon paces back and forth,
I dance and see my shadow move like a hot mess.
While sober, we had fun together.
After getting drunk, each of us splits up.
Forever united, we roam without feeling,
only to see each other when we make it to the Milky Way.
ๆไธ็ฌ้
่ฑ้ดไธๅฃถ้ ๏ผ็ฌ้ ๆ ็ธไบฒใ
ไธพๆฏ้ๆๆ๏ผๅฏนๅฝฑๆไธไบบใ
ๆๆขไธ่งฃ้ฅฎ๏ผๅฝฑๅพ้ๆ่บซใ
ๆไผดๆๅฐๅฝฑ๏ผ่กไน้กปๅๆฅใ
ๆๆญๆๅพๅพ๏ผๆ่ๅฝฑ้ถไนฑใ
้ๆถๅไบคๆฌข๏ผ้ๅๅๅๆฃใ
ๆฐธ็ปๆ ๆ ๆธธ๏ผ็ธๆ้ไบๆฑใ
The way the narrator represents the moon and his own shadow as if they were revelers, partying beside him, suggests not only what it feels like when one is drunk, but also a Daoist-inspired sense that the boundaries between the poet and the rest of the world are flexible.
Of course, maybe this is all drunk talk. Rumors persisted centuries after his death that Li Bai died boozing on a boat in the Yangtze. Whether or not these rumors are true, Li Bai managed to always be the life of the party and to transform his bacchanalic poems into philosophical meditations.
Wรกng Wรฉi ็็ปด
Wang Wei gets the bronze medal in Tang poetry. He is always in third place, and, frankly, he often does not get the respect that he deserves. Wang Wei is well known for being the member of the Tang Trinity most influenced by Buddhism. He studied under a Chan Buddhism master for 10 years, and even converted part of his country estate into a monastery. His poems often involve clear Buddhist metaphors, and the sharp visuals of his imagistic poetry often becomes so realistic that the language calls into question the reality of the tableau, hinting at the evanescence of this world.
Sending off Yuan to Anxiย
By the walls of Wei, the dawn rain dampens the light dust,
The travelerโs lodge is so green, the color of the willows has revived.
I urge you to again finish a glass of booze,
When you go west out past the Yang Pass, there will be no old friends.
้ๅ ไบไฝฟๅฎ่ฅฟย ย
ๆธญๅๆ้จๆตฅ่ผๅกต๏ผ
ๅฎข่้้ๆณ่ฒๆฐใ
ๅธๅๆด็กไธๆฏ้ ๏ผ
่ฅฟๅบ้ฝ้็กๆ ไบบใ
Wang Wei was not only a great poet, but also an excellent painter, and many of his poems, like the one above, have a particularly strong landscape feel. A few hundred years later, the greatest writer from the Song Dynasty, Sลซ Dลngpล ่ไธๅก (1037-1101), said about Wang Wei, โIn every one of his poems is a painting, and in each of his paintings is a poemโ (่ฏไธญๆ็ป๏ผ็ปไธญๆ่ฏ shฤซ zhลng yวu huร , huร zhลng yวu shฤซ). If Du Fu was focused on the historicity of a moment and Li Bai on its spirit, then Wang Wei was focused on the visuals. Most of his paintings are tableaus, laid out like framed scenes. That is certainly true of the above poem, in which he sets a scene where the landscape contrasts so clearly with the parting that is about to occur.
As many of us sit through National Poetry Month in our homes, these three Tang greats can provide the perfect antidote to cabin fever. So, in the spirit of Li Bai, crack open some baijiu, start a Zoom meeting and share some Tang poetry with your closest friends.