The Works of Li Qingzhao, introduction and poems 1.1 to 1.5

[x_los]

This 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.

Comments

1.2 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, I

[x_los]

浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首)

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

[x_los]

"Sogdian"?

"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

[superborb]

Sogdia - an ancient Iranian civilization in present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan per wiki.

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'?