Introduction:
We launched the Poetry Pavilion in 2022 with two poems by Li Bo: Thoughts on a quiet night and Reply to ordinary people from among the mountains. This year we have one more famous poem from Li Bo (701-762) and one by his close contemporary, Cui Hao (?704-754). Both poets were officials who served the Tang court. The two poems are written in seven-character regulated verse and they share many cultural, linguistic, and stylistic features.
Background:
Li Bo grew up in Chengdu and traveled to Jinling, one of the old names for the city that is now Nanjing, in around 725. He probably wrote this poem after a visit to a scenic spot called Phoenix Terrace. The poem is rich in allusions to Jinling’s history and natural features.
Li Bo uses the image of Phoenix Terrace as a metaphor for the powers of the states that once had their capitals at Jinling. Once a place where the phoenix, an auspicious mythical bird, often associated with imperial power, could freely roam, the terrace was now abandoned, with only deserted pathways and burial mounds to recall its former glory. With the signs of imperial rule vanished, Li Bo directs our attention to the features of the natural world. Three peaks are half-hidden in the blue sky. The waters of the river, probably the Qinhuai river, the tributary of the Yangzi that flows through Nanjing, divide around White Egret Island and Li Bo invites the reader to look up at the drifting white clouds that can cover the sun. At this point, he plunges us back into the reality of the historical and political moment.
Jinling was the capital of the Eastern Wu state between about 220 and 280 CE in the Three Kingdoms period. After the fall of the state of Wu, it became the capital of Eastern Jin from 317-420. Li Bo is alluding to these two fallen dynasties when he writes that the pathways surrounding the Wu Palace are now dark, buried under flowers and grasses, while the gowns and caps of the scholar-officials who served the Jin dynasty lie piled up in grave-mounds. The fragile ephemerality of the historic courts and the scholar-officials who had served them recall Li Bo’s own situation. Emperor Xuanzong had summoned him to serve the court at Chang’an at a time when the dynasty was under threat from the political instability that ended in the An Lushan rebellion in 755.
Li Bo ends his poem by suggesting a comparison between the drifting clouds that can cover the sun and the turmoil that is threatening the capital and may bring the dynasty down. When Li Bo and his fellow scholar-officials cannot see Chang’an, grief and melancholy ensue.
Ascending Phoenix Terrace by Li Bo
登金陵鳳凰台 李白 | Dēng Jīnlíng fènghuáng tái Lǐ Bo | Ascending phoenix Terrace in Jinling Li Bo |
鳳凰台上鳳凰遊 | Fènghuáng tái shàng fènghuáng yóu, | On Phoenix Terrace, the phoenix roamed, |
鳳去台空江自流。 | Fèng qù tái kōng jiāng zì liú. | The phoenix departed, the terrace is empty, the river flows on. |
吳宮花草埋幽經， | Wúgōng huā cǎo mái yōu jìng, | At Wu Palace flowers and grasses bury darkened pathways. |
晉代衣冠成 故丘。 | Jìndài yīguān chéng gù qiū. | Jin dynasty robes and caps have become ancient burial mounds. |
三 山半落青天外 | Sān shān bàn luò qīng tiān wài. | The three peaks half fallen beyond the blue sky. |
一水中分白 鷺 洲 | Yī shuǐ zhōng fēn bái lù zhōu, | White Egret Island divides the river’s waters. |
總為浮 雲能 蔽 日， | Zǒng wèi fú yún néng bì rì. | It’s always drifting clouds that can cover the sun. |
長安不見使人愁。 | Cháng’ān bú jiàn shǐ rén chóu. | When Chang’an cannot be seen, people grieve. |
Autumn Moon Over Phoenix Terrace, WU Hong, Qing Dynasty, Yale Art Gallery
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