“Waiting for the Unicorn”
(21 JUNE 1609–23 JANUARY 1672)1
Wu Wei-yeh (Chün-kung; MEI-TS’UN), along with Ch’ien Ch’ien-yi (q.v.), is one of the foremost poets of the early Ch’ing. A native of T’ai-ts’ang, Kiangsu province, his talent for literature became evident while he was still a boy. He became a student of Chang P’u (16021641), one of the founders of the Fu-she party. Taking the chin-shih degree with high honors in 1631, Wu became a compiler in the Hanlin Academy. In 1639 he was appointed a tutor in the Imperial Academy in Nanking. When the rebel Li Tzu-ch’eng (1605?-1645) captured Peking and the last Ming emperor committed suicide in 1644, Wu attempted to take his own life but was prevented from doing so by his relatives. The following year he accepted a position on the staff of the prince of Fu, Chu Yu-sung, only to resign after a short time. For almost ten years, between 1645 and 1653, he lived in seclusion. He completed a historical account of the last years of the Ming dynasty, the Sui-k’ou chi-lüeh, in 1652. The following year he capitulated to official pressure and family urging and accepted a post under the new dynasty. He rose to the rank of rector of the Imperial Academy. Four years later his mother’s death furnished him with a reason to resign from public office. Around 1660 he was involved in a tax evasion charge which resulted in a heavy fine and the stripping of his official rank. Until his death in 1672, Wu Wei-yeh remained haunted by his imagined betrayal of the imperial house of Ming; just before his death he was supposed to have instructed his family to bury him in a simple monk’s habit. They were also forbidden to erect a shrine or to commission an epitaph in his name. His grave was to have a simple round tablet that read, “The Poet, Wu Mei-ts’un.”
The fall of the Ming dynasty and his own ensuing dilemma also resulted in a perceptible change in Wu Wei-yeh’s poetic style. If his early verse is marked by extreme elegance and surface refinement, the later works are imbued with a sense of nostalgia, desolation, and loss which makes them some of the greatest poetic works of the early Ch’ing period. He excelled in historical narrative poems, such as the “Yüan-yüan ch’ü” (see below) and the “Yung-ho kung-tz’u” (A Song of Yung-ho Palace), which his contemporaries called “poetic histories” (shih-shih). In narrative power and emotional depth (ch’ing-yün), these poems compare favorably with the best of Po Chü-yi’s historical ballads. In the slightly more overblown language of poetic encomium by Emperor K’ang-hsi (q.v.), the style of Wu Wei-yeh was said to combine the allusiveness of Li Shang-yin with the melancholiness of Tu Fu (Hsi-k’un yu-ssu Tu-ling ch’ou).
The earliest edition of Wu Wei-yeh’s poems and essays was published under the title Mei-ts’un chi (Mei-ts’un’s Collection) in 166869. In the eighteenth century, three separate annotated editions of his poetry were printed. The one cited here is the Wu-shih chi-lan (A Collection of the Poetic Works of [Mr.] Wu), annotated by Chin Jung-fan (chin-shih, 1748), and published in 1775.
(Marie Chan)
____________________
1.Lien-che Tu, ECCP, 2:882–883.
When the Emperor had departed from the world of men,1
General Wu2 destroyed the enemy and took the capital, descending through Jade Pass.3
With grievous sobbing, all six Armies dressed in mourning;
But bristling with anger, their general was enraged about a beauty.4
This beauty, stranded and alone, should not be my concern; | 5 |
The rebels, doomed by Heaven, still indulged in wild debauchery.
Swiftly General Wu wiped out the Yellow Turbans and pacified Black Mountain;5
When the mourning ended, Lord and Lady met again.
They had first met at the homes of T’ien and Tou;6
In a marquis’ mansion, with song and dance, she came forth like a flower. | 10 |
Thus the palace lute girl was promised to the general,
As soon as he could fetch her in a lacquered carriage.
She came originally from Wan-hua Village in Ku-su;7
Yüan-yüan was her nickname; she was lovely and refined. She dreamt that she would journey to the gardens of Fu-ch’ai,8 | 15 |
And that when she entered with the throngs of palace ladies, the Emperor would rise.
In a former life she must have been a lotus picker,9
Before whose gate the waters of Heng Pond stretched out.10
Across Heng Pond a pair of oars came flying;
A certain mighty lord abducted her by force. | 20 |
At that instant could she know that she was not ill-fated?
At that moment she could only soak her robe with tears.
This lord’s vaunted power reached into the palace chambers,
But Yüan-yüan’s sparkling eyes and pearly teeth went unnoticed by the Emperor:
Back they dragged her to Eternal Lane, then shut her up within the mansion,11 | 25 |
And taught her some new songs to entrance her guests.
The guests drank on and on; the red sun set;
Her mournful song—for whom intended?
The fair-complected one, of T’ung-hou rank, was youngest of the guests;12
In choosing from among the flowers, repeatedly he looked her way. | 30 |
Soon from its cage he freed this lovely bird,
But when could they cross the Milky Way to join each other?13
How sad that military orders rushed him away,
How bitter that the meeting they had pledged was thwarted!
They had pledged each other deep devotion, but for them to meet was hard: | 35 |
One morning hordes of rebels swarmed like ants, engulfed Ch’ang-an.14
How sad that to the wistful wife the willows near her tower
Seemed like catkins at horizon’s edge.
Then, searching the environs for Green Pearl, the general besieged the inner mansion,15
And loudly called for Scarlet Tree to come forth from the ornamented portals. | 40 |
Had he not been a hero, all-victorious,
Could he have won his mounted moth-browed beauty back?
Calling out, they led the moth-browed beauty in on horseback;
Her cloudy locks were disarrayed; her startled soul had barely settled.
The torches blazing on the battlefield to greet her | 45 |
Revealed her makeup, marred by crimson streaks.
Then with pipes and drums they marched off for Ch’in River;16
Upon Gold Oxen Road a thousand chariots advanced.
Where the clouds within Hsieh Valley deepened, painted towers rose;
As the moon went down behind San Pass, she opened up her mirrors. | 50 |
By the time that Yüan-yüan’s fame had spread throughout the river district,
Ten times the tallow’s scarlet flowers had seen the frost.
Yüan-yüan was pleased her singing teacher still lived there;
She recalled when she had been among the girls who laundered silk.
To the old nest all these swallows had borne mud together, | 55 |
But one alighted on a branch and was transformed into a phoenix.
While her friends gazed at their goblets and lamented growing old,
Yüan-yüan’s husband was aspiring to be king.
At that time she was entangled only by her fame;
The noble and the powerful vied with each other to invite her. | 60 |
One peck of bright pearls: ten thousand pecks of sorrow;
Adrift amidst mountains and passes, her waist grew thin.
She unjustly blamed the violent wind for buffeting the falling blossoms;
But then spring’s boundless beauty came again to earth and heaven.
We have often heard of beauties who could bring down towns and kingdoms,17 | 65 |
But, more than this, she even made her Chou Lang famous.18
How can a woman heed great plans of state,
Or a hero help but be a man of passion?
Now, as the bleached bones of his whole family turn to dust,
She illumines history’s record as the beauty of the age. | 70 |
For don’t you see:
The Kuan-wa Palace beauty rose from a love-bird’s nest;19
The girl of Yüeh was like a flower; never could he tire of looking.
Now dust accumulates on Fragrant Path and birds call out alone;
From Echo Corridor all have vanished and moss grows undisturbed.
From “do” to “la,” ten thousand miles of sorrow; | 75 |
Songs like pearls, kingfisher dances as in old Liang Province.20
Now I have sung for you a different song about Wu Palace,
The waters of the Han flow southeast night and day.21
(WSCL, 7A:5a-9a)
(Tr. John D. Coleman and Gloria Shen)
A lonely moon beside the village,
The chilly tide comes and goes.
Voices emerge from the low awnings,
Ropes sink by the creek’s bridge and trees.
Braving the frost, I leave in my light skiff, | 5 |
Donning my clothes, I hear the cock at dawn.
Bamboo weirs sound like roaring rapids,
Rushes on islets seem like precipitous rain.
Fishermen call as they enter the estuary,
Farmers in fear shout from their gates. | 10 |
Unexpected is the sight of torch fires,
Market sounds: voices of sires and dames.
The tide turns, village shops move,
A single sail have I seen so far.
Livelihood is asking about sedges and rushes, | 15 |
Worldly affairs are cut off by the marshland.
’Tis fitting at last to part from friend and kin,
To pole my boat and live here evermore.
(WSCL, 1A:3a-b)
(Tr. Marie Chan)
The mountain pass is magnificent, yet the road is arduous.
The team of horses harnessed and just as soon unharnessed.
Yellow dust fills a hundred feet, snow a thousand,
And you know that this is not south of the river.
(WSCL, 17B:10b-11a)
(Tr. Marie Chan)
My love is like the silk on the loom,
To be woven into a Tree of Longing.
I’m like blossoms on your cloth coat
Which no spring wind can deflower.
(WSCL, 17A:6a-6b)
(Tr. Irving Lo)
Written in Jest: On “The Old Man Who Rolled
with the Punch”23
He nods his head, leads a floating life24—
half the weight of a sheet of paper;
Sealed/enfeoffed in a ball of clay,25
he lets himself be kicked every which way.
No harm at all if he should lose his footing—
it’s all a game he craves.
Can’t stand sleeping quietly in bed—
just a bit rash, immature.
Long used to being pushed and shoved,
he is at times most obdurate.
Would he trouble to ask for a hand or a staff?
no, he’s proud of standing by himself.
Pity that he should meet the sere stem of a peach tree26
sneering at him as no more than “pretty skin”:27
“In my tummy’s empty hollow,” he replies,
“there’s lots of room, renowned all over the world.”28
(WSCL, 14A:12b-13a)
(Tr. Irving Lo)
NOTES
1. The text reads Ting-hu (Tripod Lake), reported to be the place where the mythical Yellow Emperor ascended to Heaven, but here alluding to the suicide of Emperor Ch’ung-chen (162844), who hanged himself from a tree on Coal Hill behind the palace when the Ming dynasty collapsed.
2. General Wu San-kuei (161278). Cf. the notes below.
3. Like other geographical and proper names used in this poem, “Jade Pass” does not refer to the actual, strategic Yü-kuan in Kansu province, but refers to Shan-hai-kuan, just outside Peking, where a fierce battle took place on 27 May 1644, leading to the defeat of the rebel leader Li Tzu-ch’eng by the combined forces of the Manchu troops and the army of Wu San-kuei.
4. According to a contemporary account by Lu Tz’u-yün (fl. 1662), Yüan-yüan, or Ch’en Yüan, was a courtesan of peerless beauty and the concubine of a man named T’ien Wan, the father of one of Emperor Ch’ung-chen’s consorts. As a result of internal weaknesses, the last reign of the Ming dynasty was troubled by a series of peasant rebellions, and the greatest rebel leader was the self-proclaimed “Dashing King” Li Tzu-ch’eng, whose forces were so powerful that they briefly occupied Peking in the summer of 1644 and founded the short-lived Shun dynasty. At this time, the Chinese general Wu San-kuei, who was supposed to guard the commandery of Liao-tung against the Manchus, was about to surrender to Li Tzu-ch’eng. In desperation, the court of Emperor Ch’ung-chen turned to T’ien Wan and asked him to give this “beauty,” Yüan-yüan, to the general to win his support. General Wu immediately succumbed to this lure, but was slow to deploy his troops in defense of Peking. Li Tzu-ch’eng soon took General Wu’s father as hostage, but the general, on hearing the news, expressed confidence that his father would win release once the rebels were correctly informed of the size and worth of his fighting men. Then, when the news reached him that his favorite concubine Yüan-yüan had been taken hostage by Li, General Wu immediately decided to join forces with the Manchus to bring about the defeat of Li. (Wu San-kuei was later enfeoffed as a prince and as “The Generalissimo Who Pacifies the West” by the Manchu court; but later, along with two other Chinese generals in their employ, Wu rebelled against the Ch’ing government. Only in 1681 was the so-called War of the Three Feudatories concluded when Wu’s grandson was defeated.) The concubine Yüan-yüan was said to have accompanied General Wu to Yunnan, where in later years she became a nun.
5. The Yellow Turbans were a group of Taoist-inspired rebels during the Eastern Han dynasty (25220). Another group of rebels during the Han dynasty was known as the Black Mountain rebels. Here both allusions refer to Li Tzu-ch’eng.
6. The original Chinese of this line reads, “They first met through the T’ien and Tou families.” Both of these families were related by marriage to the imperial family during the Han dynasty.
7. Wan-hua village is located in Ch’eng-tu prefecture, Szechwan province. This place is associated with a famous T’ang dynasty woman poet, Hsüeh T’ao (768831), which is why it is mentioned here. Ku-su is the modern-day Wu prefecture in Kiangsu province.
8. Fu-ch’ai (?-473 B.C.), king of the ancient kingdom of Wu, defeated the neighboring kingdom of Yüeh. Desiring peace, the king of Yüeh offered Fuch’ai the beautiful Hsi-shih, who had been a silk-washing girl before she was abducted because of her great beauty.
9. Hsi-shih was also known as a lotus picker.
10. Heng Pond, also translated as Heng Dike, is the scenic spot Hengt’ang in Wu prefecture, Kiangsu province, celebrated in many love poems.
11. Eternal Lane (Yung-hsiang) was that part of the royal palace during Han times where those concubines were kept who had committed some offense or had, for some other reason, lost the Emperor’s favor.
12. The T’ung-hou rank was one of the highest ranks during the Ch’in (221206 B.C.) and Han dynasties.
13. Crossing the Milky Way (Yin-ho) alludes to the myth of the two stars Weaver Girl and Herd Boy, a pair of celestial lovers who can meet only once a year on the seventh evening of the seventh month. Myriads of magpies fly together to make a bridge for the lovers to cross the Milky Way.
14. Ch’ang-an was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, most notably of the T’ang. Here and elsewhere, it stands for Peking.
15. Green Pearl (Lü-chu), in this line, and Scarlet Tree (Chiang-shu), in the next, were paragons of female beauty, talent, and virtue.
16. The names in this stanza are all places associated with the journey to Szechwan.
17. A Han dynasty song which celebrated a beauty so stunning that with one glance she could bring down a city and, with two glances, a whole kingdom.
18. Chou Lang, or “Young Chou,” refers to Chou Yü, a young general who defeated the superior forces of Ts’ao Ts’ao in 208 A.D. at the famous battle of the Red Cliff.
19. Kuan-wa was the name of a palace in the ancient kingdom of Wu, and by extension, became a term used to refer to palace beauties. The other place names in this stanza refer to parts of the palace of the king of Wu.
20. Liang Province was one of the nine provinces into which ancient China was divided. It included Yunnan province, where Yüan-yüan spent the last few years of her life.
21. The Han River is a tributary of the Yangtze.
22. T’u-sung is a city north of T’ai-ch’ang in Kiangsu province.
23. I.e., pu-tao-weng, a popular Chinese toy in the shape of a human figure, corresponding to what is known in the West as the “tumbler” or “roly-poly,” which always manages to stand erect, no matter how it is knocked around, because of the weight contained in its base. In political jargon, used even today, someone able to withstand fortune’s buffeting and come out always on top is frequently referred to as a pu-tao-weng.
24. Also alluding to a passage from the Chuang-tzu: a sparrow just nods its head and remarks, “I know nothing about a floating life.’
25. Feng in this line means both “to seal” and “to enfeoff.” The quotation alludes to a story in the Hou-Han shu, about the official Wang Yüan, who jokingly asked for a ball of clay “to seal off/to be enfeoffed at the Han-ku Pass.”
26. Alluding to a debate in the Chan-kuo ts’e, arising from an encounter between a clay figurine and a sere peach-tree stem, with the latter boasting to the former, “You are made of clay from the western bank; when the Tzu River floods, you will be deformed.”
27. Alluding to an ancient saying, “Pretty skin is not used to wrap silly bones.”
28. Alluding to the witticism exchanged between Wang Tao (276339), statesman of the Eastern Chin dynasty, and Chou Yi (269322), an aristocrat and bon vivant, as recorded in the Shih-shuo hsin-yü. Wang pointed to Chou’s stomach and asked, “What do you have in there?” And Chou retorted, “Just an empty hollow, but big enough to hold several hundreds of people like you.”
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