Here, have some poetry. Explanatory details at the end.
These poems, written by Chung Ssu-Ch'eng, are excerpted from The Wine of Endless Life: Taoist Drinking Songs from the Yuan Dynasty, edited / translated by Jerome P. Seaton. Very worthwhile read, I highly recommend it. You can pick up a copy through BookFinder.com for less than $10.
Ch'ü Yüan was "a loyal minister of the Ch'u state in the Warring States Period" and "China's first non-anonymous poet." T'ao Ch'ien, the "most famous of all the recluse-poets of traditional China," is known for his preference of "drinking and playing with children to official position. According to tradition he resigned office on one occasion because it was simply too much bother to put on his official girdle in order to have an audience with a superior."
Wood-cutter Chung Tzu-ch'i "is supposed to have been able to interpret the meaning of the music of Po Ya perfectly, hearing mountains and running water in the lute notes when Po played of mountains and streams. When Chung died Po Ya broke his lute and never played again."
plucking ferns to eat in exile at Shou-yang
in vain enduring hunger
wasn't that just silly quibbling?
was Ch'ü Yüan's sobriety
so much more grand than
T'ao Ch'ien's getting drunk?
go find yourself a shady spot
sit idle on the ground.
----------
Po Ya searched out his Chung Tzu-ch'i
to talk about the meaning in his music
lute spoke to him of flowing streams and lofty hills
who knows my music so?
go find yourself a shady spot
sit idle on the ground.
----------
Then and now, gone and come, idle right and wrong
over and again fulfilling and falling
don't brag to me of Han Hsin's glory
don't bother me with Ch'en P'ing wisdom
go find yourself a shady spot
sit idle on the ground
----------
for eagle and sparrow the same sky to fly in
jade and pebbles are both stone
how to divide in highs and lows
who cares what's true, what's false
go find yourself a shady spot
sit idle on the ground
----------
his tasteless heart like ashes
even the flavor of wine gone
he's broken with his love the cup
he's left her bed
and gone
to find himself a shady place
sit idle on the ground.
These poems, written by Chung Ssu-Ch'eng, are excerpted from The Wine of Endless Life: Taoist Drinking Songs from the Yuan Dynasty, edited / translated by Jerome P. Seaton. Very worthwhile read, I highly recommend it. You can pick up a copy through BookFinder.com for less than $10.
Ch'ü Yüan was "a loyal minister of the Ch'u state in the Warring States Period" and "China's first non-anonymous poet." T'ao Ch'ien, the "most famous of all the recluse-poets of traditional China," is known for his preference of "drinking and playing with children to official position. According to tradition he resigned office on one occasion because it was simply too much bother to put on his official girdle in order to have an audience with a superior."
Wood-cutter Chung Tzu-ch'i "is supposed to have been able to interpret the meaning of the music of Po Ya perfectly, hearing mountains and running water in the lute notes when Po played of mountains and streams. When Chung died Po Ya broke his lute and never played again."
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