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dankodesThis week we're reading The Works of Li Qingzhao, freely available via De Gruyter's Library of Chinese Humanities in Mandarin and English and via several publication formats, including two open access options (the pdf appears to be better formatted than the ebook; it might be worth someone letting them know as much). We're starting with the introduction and poems 1.1 to 1.5, inclusive.
This collection uses footnotes and end notes to explicate the work (though none of this week's poems has an end note).
We might get into more English exegesis, but this week the Introduction gives us more than enough of that to be getting on with.
CLP has an episode on Li Qingzhao you might find relevant.
This collection uses footnotes and end notes to explicate the work (though none of this week's poems has an end note).
We might get into more English exegesis, but this week the Introduction gives us more than enough of that to be getting on with.
CLP has an episode on Li Qingzhao you might find relevant.
Introduction
the purge of the so-called Yuanyou 元祐 faction: what *about*
"collating multiple copies of each book their acquired" so are they PDFing these before proofing?
"a student in the National University." so what's this set-up like in this period? I only know about the exams.
"I couldn’t stand it, so I decided that we would eat no more than one meat dish per meal and dress in no more than one colored garment at a time.
I wore no pearls or feathers in my hair and kept no gilded or embroidered article in my household." what's the significance of this?
This introduction writer is a bit quick to assign sinister meanings to statements that could easily be read other ways.
"Hanlin academician" ayyy
"Li Qingzhao drifted about “on the rivers and lakes” until she died" oh as in /rivers and lakes/?
"how gen- erally unlike what we would expect from a woman’s hand they are" calling it, this intro writer is a guy. Ronald Egan rather than Anna M. Shields
One way of reading this location of her financial position is that she could have sounded MORE critical of her first husband than she actually was, in an effort to secure financial security. She could also have been Constanze in Amadeus, talking him up in an effort at same.
"who could readily pass, to the audience’s ears, as the singer herself" eugh, people are always sloppy about this
"But in that earlier appearance they had been attributed to another author or had appeared without any attribution, meaning that the earlier compiler had no idea who the author was." So are already popular anon pieces simply being attributed to her?
"There is a long-standing and seldom examined tradition of reading all of Li Qingzhao’s song lyrics as unmiti- gated expressions of her life and feelings. This habit is problematic for a couple of reasons." no shit dude, that sucks ass
"The two trends simultaneously brought more and more attention to what Li Qingzhao had accomplished as a writer and made her decision to remarry after Zhao Mingcheng’s death less and less easy to accept. Some- thing had to give, because the contradiction between her literary fame and her conduct as a widow was becoming unbearable." v interesting considered in light of the retrospective refashioning of Austen's reputation, which is similar on both counts
"memorial halls" ?
You could also view not mentioning the remarriage as--it was a 100 day non-event where she divorced him. It's like, hook ups with an abuser. How big a deal is it?
This is a convincingly argued point about the tenor of her reputation over time
Re: Introduction
More about their research/archival process in this entry on Zhao Mingcheng here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Mingcheng
'Rivers and lakes' — I bet that's 'jianghu' in the original text.
"I couldn’t stand it, so I decided that we would eat no more than one meat dish per meal and dress in no more than one colored garment at a time. I wore no pearls or feathers in my hair and kept no gilded or embroidered article in my household." — I assume they were spending all their money on books/storing and maintaining their collection? Would be super helpful if the editors had included the original Chinese text for these quotations.
"reflecting contemporary Ming notions of a “talented scholar and beauty” (caizi jiaren 才子佳人) match." — yeah, that only works if Li Qingzhao was the caizi, and Zhao Mingcheng the jiaren.
"There is a long-standing and seldom examined tradition of reading all of Li Qingzhao’s song lyrics as unmitigated expressions of her life and feelings." — there's sometimes an inverse thing happening with the interpretation of male ci writers' pieces. E.g. Xin Qiji's Green Jade Table, ostensibly about running into a hot girl at a Lantern Festival, is typically read as a commentary on the state of society (see https://londonjournalspress.com/on-the-english-translation-of-song-ci-poetry-under-the-three-level-poetry-translation-criteria-a-case-study-of-green-jade-table-lantern-festival)
Re: Introduction
And agree re: interpretation on the line about their austerity.
1.1 春殘 The End of Spring
春殘何事苦思鄉
病裏梳頭恨髮長。
梁燕語多終日在
薔薇風細一簾香
The End of Spring
At the end of spring, what causes me to miss my homeland so intensely?
In sickness I comb my hair, resenting how long it is.
Swallows in the rafters are full of chatter the whole day long,
a gentle breeze blows on the rose bushes, making the entire window fragrant.
Re: 1.1 春殘 The End of Spring
Re: 1.1 春殘 The End of Spring
I think (and Baike seems to agree) that she's on her sickbed?
1.2 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, I
第一
五十年功如電掃
華清宮柳咸陽草。
五坊供奉鬪雞兒
酒肉堆中不知老。
胡兵忽自天上來
逆胡亦是姦雄才。
勤政樓前走胡馬
珠翠踏盡香塵埃。
何為出戰輒披靡
傳置荔枝多馬死。
堯功舜德本如天
安用區區紀文字。
著碑銘德真陋哉
迺令神鬼磨山崖。
子儀光弼不自猜
天心悔禍人心開。
夏商有鑒當深戒
簡册汗青今俱在。
君不見
當時張說最多機
雖生已被姚崇賣。
The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, Matching a Poem by Zhang Wenqian (I)
I
Fifty years’ achievement was gone in a bolt of lightning.
[B]lossoms and willows of Huaqing Palace became the weeds of Xianyang.
Lads who trained fighting cocks in Five Imperial Pens
never worried about growing old amid their meat and ale.
Barbarian soldiers swooped down from the heavens,
the rebel barbarian was a hero of treachery.
Barbarian steeds galloped before Diligent Governance Tower,
crushing pearls and feathers until the dirt was fragrant.
Why were imperial armies routed so readily?
Too many horses had died transporting lychees from distant lands.
Yao’s merit and Shun’s virtue were as grand as Heaven,
what need had they to record it meticulously in writing?
To commemorate virtue in a tablet truly is debasing,
left then for spirits and ghosts to obliterate on a cliff.
Ziyi and Guangbi had no doubts or jealousies,
heaven regretted the tragedy, the people found ease.
The Xia and Shang are a mirror, we are sternly warned.
Their treated bamboo slips are still extant today.
Don’t you know—
Zhang Yue had the most wiles and ruses of his day,
yet Yao Chong managed to deceive him from the grave.
Re: 1.2 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, I
"Lads who trained fighting cocks in Five Imperial Pens / never worried about growing old amid their meat and ale" so is this just to say--the palace had many retainers, even some that seem stupidly luxuriant, and they lived well and never dreamed this kind of calamity was possible?
"crushing pearls and feathers until the dirt was fragrant." but neither has any smell?
"what need had they to record it meticulously in writing?" so contrastingly, Xuanzong recorded his own merits?
"To commemorate virtue in a tablet truly is debasing,
left then for spirits and ghosts to obliterate on a cliff." ?
"Ziyi and Guangbi had no doubts or jealousies," is this contrasting the more sturdy generals with the Emperor? How is the Emperor characterised by 'doubt'?
"the Restoration Tablet." Is this what she's implicitly referring to earlier? Presumably a grandiose writing Xuanzong comissioned?
"playthings" what a strange word choice, like he's three
What does the last couplet have to do with anything?
Re: 1.2 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, I
From Baike:
The emperor loved cockfighting and this distraction led to his downfall. Later generations will use "Five Imperial Pens children" to refer to those who do not do honest work.
The meat and ale is glossed as a luxurious life.
Yeah, she's saying Xuanzong in contrast sucksssss.
"left then for spirits and ghosts to obliterate on a cliff" -- the Baike vernacular sounds more like 'might as well ask ghosts and deities to wear down a mountain'?
1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
君不見
驚人廢興傳天寶
中興碑上今生草。
不知負國有姦雄
但說成功尊國老。
誰令妃子天上來
虢秦韓國皆天才。
花桑羯鼓玉方響
春風不敢生塵埃。
姓名誰復知安史
健兒猛將安眠死。
去天尺五抱甕峯
峯頭鑿出開元字。
時移勢去真可哀
姦人心醜深如崖。
西蜀萬里尚能反
南內一閉何時開。
可憐孝德如天大
反使將軍稱好在。
嗚呼，奴婢乃不能道輔國用事張后尊
乃能念春薺長安作斤賣。
The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, Matching a Poem by Zhang Wenqian (II)
II
Don’t you know—
Those stirring tales of Tianbao era rise and fall—
today the Restoration Tablet is covered with weeds!
It says nothing of treacherous ministers who betrayed the empire,
and speaks only of elder statesmen and their meritorious deeds.
Who was it allowed the imperial concubine to ascend into Heaven?
The ladies of Guo, Qin, and Han were surely divine!
A nomadic drum of mulberry wood, hanging chimes of jade,
the spring wind did not dare to stir up dust or dirt.
Who even knew the names of An and Shi?
Valiant warriors and fierce generals died peacefully in their sleep.
Baoweng Peak is barely five feet short of Heaven,
on its summit they planned to carve the words “Kaiyuan.”
How pitiful, the way power vanished as times changed,
the traitor’s wickedness was as precipitous as a steep cliff.
The former ruler managed to return ten thousand miles from Western Shu,
but once the southern enclosure was locked, it was never reopened.
What a shame! Filial love as expansive as Heaven itself
eventually caused a general to inquire timidly, “Is everyone well?”
How disgraceful! That slave could not mention Fuguo’s scheming with Empress Zhang,
but still recalled shepherd’s-purse sold by the catty in Chang’an.
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
"the spring wind did not dare to stir up dust or dirt." what's this do?
I don't feel she necessarily implies the plan was realised?
"The traitor is Li Linfu 李林甫 (683–753), the grand councilor who had advanced the career of An Lushan but died in 752, too early to see the disastrous result of his patronage of that general" I mean... he didn't really do anything, then
"Xuanzong’s trusted eunuch Gao Lishi 高力士 (684–762) at first denounced the soldiers, but soon was reduced to a show of polite submission (asking the soldiers confronting them “Is everyone well?”) before Xuanzong was allowed to pass unharmed." so like, what did asking that do? just--general show of submissiveness?
catty?
&this mocking of the eunuch in exile is before her own displacement. Bitterly ironic. Kind of an L for her. (could be a warning on similar problems to current statesmen, tho)
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
Shepherd's purse is delicious, though I guess its use is still localized to the Jiangnan region even in modern China.
Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II
1.4 分得知字 Written Upon Being Assigned the Rhyme “Zhi”
學語三十年
緘口不求知。
誰遣好奇士
相逢說項斯。
Written Upon Being Assigned the Rhyme “Zhi”
I’ve studied poetic language for thirty years
but kept my mouth shut, not seeking to be known.
Whoever sent a gentleman fond of the marvelous and strange
to meet Xiang Si and spread word of him?
Re: 1.4 分得知字 Written Upon Being Assigned the Rhyme “Zhi”
"the competition and fun of poetic games" translator stressing his 'competition' agenda again
fl. ?
"I’ve studied poetic language for thirty years
but kept my mouth shut, not seeking to be known." doesn't seem very IC
Re: 1.4 分得知字 Written Upon Being Assigned the Rhyme “Zhi”
Re: 1.4 分得知字 Written Upon Being Assigned the Rhyme “Zhi”
1.5 感懷 Stirred by Feelings
宣和辛丑八月十日到萊，獨坐一室，平生所見，皆不在目 前。几上有《禮韻》，因信手開之，約以所開為韻作詩。 偶得「子」字，因以為韻，作《感懷》詩云:
寒窗敗几無書史
公路可憐合至此。
青州從事孔方君
終日紛紛喜生事。
作詩謝絕聊閉門
燕寢凝香有佳思。
靜中我乃得至交
烏有先生子虛子。
Stirred by Feelings
I arrived in Lai on the tenth day of the eighth month of the xinchou year of the Xuanhe period (1121) and found myself sitting alone in a single room. Nothing of what I was used to seeing my entire life was there before my eyes. A copy of Rhymes for Rituals was on the table, and I opened it randomly, having decided that I would use whatever rhyme I opened to write a poem. By chance I opened to the character “son” and used it for my rhyme, composing a poem titled “Stirred by Feelings.”
A cold window, a broken desk, and no books in sight,
now I know the pitiful condition that Gonglu endured!
Qingzhou wine attendants and Lord Square Hole
enjoy causing no end of trouble all day long.
I shut my door, declining all inquiries, to compose poetic lines;
as incense suffuses the prefectural room, I find relief in elevated thought.
In quiet and solitude I obtain perfect companions:
Lord No-such and Sir Vacuity.
Re: 1.5 感懷 Stirred by Feelings
"Rhymes for Rituals" ?
"honey sauce to go with his ground wheat" so he wants honey in his cream of wheat, and dies about it
'the prefectural room' ? so is this the husband's governor's palace?
It is kind of weird that people cast this woman as 'no thoughts head empty only Hubby', bc--and I know I'm primed--even from this she seems practical, somewhat exasperated and at times critical.
Re: 1.5 感懷 Stirred by Feelings
Re: 1.5 感懷 Stirred by Feelings
Re: 1.5 感懷 Stirred by Feelings
A rime book issued by the Song gov't.
Baike just glosses the prefectural room as the dwelling place of an official. I don't think he's governor yet-- Baike says he's a 知州 (senior provincial gov't official), though I guess that might be a translation choice because Wiki uses 'magistrate' for what this book is calling 'governor'.
Baike really wants to make this sound like Zhao Mingcheng is all about simplicity, which seems... wrong...