The Works of Li Qingzhao, poems 1.6 to 1.12

[x_los]

Welcome back to 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). This week we're reading poems 1.6 to 1.12, inclusive.

This collection uses footnotes and end notes to explicate the work. A few of this week's poems have footnotes, so look out for that.

CLP has an episode on Li Qingzhao you might find relevant.

Comments

1.7 咏史 On History

[x_los]

咏史

兩漢本繼紹
新室如贅疣。
所以嵇中散
至死薄殷周。


On History

The two Hans were the true dynastic lineage,
the New Reign was like a blister.
That is why Courtier Ji
to his dying day disparaged the Yin and Zhou.

[see footnote]

Re: 1.7 咏史 On History

[x_los]

Wang Mang was kinda cool tho, kinda progressive

Okay, so we’re insulting Liu Yu for being a turncoat and getting rewarded for it (with a kind of empty reward, fake king of a puppet state).

Or is it ultimately, in re the footnote, about the ephemerality of all such claims to authority and the vacuity of taking any of them all that seriously?

Re: 1.7 咏史 On History

[superborb]

I think a reading that isn't 'borrowing from the past to disparage the present' would be non-standard?