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

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

[x_los]

第二

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

[x_los]

Right, so the record of the restoration of power acts like there was no problem that caused the upset in the first place.

"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

[douqi]

Catty: old weight unit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catty)

Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II

[superborb]

Should we be translating 斤 to catty...? I see people using jin.

Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II

[superborb]

I guess Li Linfu is generally considered pretty corrupt anyway.

Re: 1.3 浯溪中興頌詩和張文潛(二首) The Wuxi Restoration Eulogy Tablet, II

[superborb]

Wiki seems much more positive on how powerful Xuanzong was after abdicating than the book.

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

[x_los]

Maybe it's one of those crops that is hard to grow on a mass agricultural scale elsewhere, or transport.