“Waiting for the Unicorn” | Open Indiana

Hung Liang-chi (Chün-chih, Chih-ts’un; PEI-CHIANG, KENG-SHENG), a native of Yang-hu, Kiangsu, is chiefly remembered today for his scholarship; in his own lifetime, however, he was better known as a poet and as a calligrapher. Orphaned at an early age, he began his schooling in his mother’s family; after failing twice in the provincial examinations in the early 1770s, he found employment—along with his friend Huang Ching-jen (q.v.)—on the secretarial staff of Chu Yün (1729–1781), who initiated the concept of compiling the vast Ssu-k’u ch’üan-shu (The Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries). Toward the end of the decade, he went to Peking as a member of the ssu-k’u commission under the editorship of Chi Yün (1724–1805). Later he also served on the staff of Pi Yüan (1730–1797) and contributed to the compilation of the Hsü Tzu-chih t’ung-chien (Continuation to the Mirror of Government).

He did not earn his chin-shih degree until 1790, when he took the second-highest honor at the metropolitan examination, after four repeated failures.

Over the next twenty years, Hung served in the Hanlin Academy and held both provincial and court positions. He traveled extensively in the empire, including a brief period of banishment to Ili, Sinkiang province, and compiled important scholarly treatises on the classics, lexicography, hydrology, historical geography, as well as local gazeteers. His views on China’s population problem have been considered by modern writers to be very close to the Malthusian theory of the West.

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1. Lien-che Tu, ECCP, 1:373–375.

Written on a Boat on the Ch’ien-t’ang River

Peonies blooming on paired pillows,

Lotus embroidered on a petticoat—

Unable to tell the flowers from needlework,

Butterflies come flying into my bed.

(HPCSWC, p. 508)

(Tr. Irving Lo)

On the Road to An-hsi⁴

Flying for ten thousand ages, yet never exhausted

Are the snow and sand of T’ien-shan.

Weird winds issue from caves and grottoes,

Not a blade of grass or hemp on the battleground.

Another year is coming to a remote garrison,

Though the sun’s warmth does not enter a yurt.

But I would still question closely my attendant

Lest there lie a three-forked road ahead.

(HPCSWC, p. 1112)

(Tr. Irving Lo)

Upon Arriving at Ili, Recalling What I Saw on the Road

Before Chia-yu Pass⁵ gathers the evening fog,

Behind Bulungir River⁶ morning stars seem to float.

The horse’s mane, capped with snow, glistens for hundreds of miles;

The dragon’s breath, forming clouds, darkens the whole continent.

A valley of ice facing my bed, I find myself suddenly dumb;

With Flame Mountain⁷ before my door, I break into a sweat.

All my life, I tire of the universe being narrow;

Now outside the empire, I can stretch my head for once.

(No. 1 from a series of 6; HPCSWC, p. 1125)

(Tr. Irving Lo)

NOTES

1. The poet Huang Ching-jen (q.v.).

2. Yen-t’ai, outside of Peking, near the Yi River, was said to have been constructed by King Chao during the Warring States period as a gathering place of literary talents of the time.

3. The full title of this series of poems is: “To Dispel the Cold: The Seventh Collection—Summoning Friends to Gather at Morning Splendor Pavilion [Chao-hua ko] to Write Poems As Responses to ‘Poems on Spring’ [“Sheng-ch’un shih”] in the Ch’ang-ch’ing chi [by Po Chü-yi].”

4. An-hsi hsien in Kansu province, belonging to the administration of present-day Tun-huang.

5. Chia-yü Kuan, located near An-hsi, Kansu province, at the western terminus of the Great Wall, had been a major fortification since Ming times.

6. Also called Su-lo River, in Kansu province, flowing from the northern foot of the Ch’i-lien Mountain into An-hsi.

7. Huo-shan, or Huo-yen Shan, is located in Sinkiang province, east of Turfan.

Waiting for the Unicorn