Poets' Jade Splinters...
Jan. 21st, 2009 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zalenaThis website/review via RB's horoscope totally made my day yesterday. It is a collection of aphorisms from and relating to Chinese poets.
A quick taste to tempt you to click:
Don't Beat the Ducks! Lu Shilong, the governor of Xuan State, used to enjoy caning the women registered as courtesans, the "Government Prostitutes" who served the officials. These singing girls all tried to escape, but they couldn't get away from him. Then, a Hangzhou courtesan arrived in Xuan State. Because of her beauty and talent Shilong grew very fond of her, and wouldn't allow her to depart. One day a local courtesan committed a minor offense, and when Shilong was about to cane her again, she pleaded in tears, "I don't want to deny my guilt. I'm just afraid that this beating will make the lady from Hangzhou scared." So Shilong pardoned her and let her depart. Because of this incident, Mei Yaochen wrote the following poem:
Don 't beat the ducks!
You will scare the swan.
The swan that lands on the pond's north shore
is not an old bald bird on a lonely islet.
Even the bald bird wants to fly off,
so wouldn't a swan with her long wings?
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Ways to Kill a Landscape: Yi Shan (another name for the Tang poet Li Shangyin) wrote many miscellaneous pieces, then divided them into more than ten different categories, just to be funny. One of the categories was called "Ways To Kill a Landscape." Here are some examples: 1.Wash your feet in a clear spring. 2.Dry your loincloth upon the flowers. 3.Build your house against a mountain. 4.Burn your zither to cook a crane. 5.Drink tea in front of the flowers. 6.Scream underneath a pine tree.
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The Disease of Unintentional Similarity: When Cheng Shimeng was the governor of Hongzhou he built a meditation room at his residence. He loved this room so much that he went there every day, and he inscribed these two lines on a stone:
No matter how busy, I come here once a day.
I often come at midnight carrying a lantern.
Li Yuangui saw this inscription and laughed, saying "This is a poem about going to the toilet!"
--------------------------------
Begging for a Cat:
In autumn, mice go wild because my cat has died.
They peep into the jars and turn basins over to wake me up.
I've heard your cat is expecting a litter of kittens.
I've brought some fish strung on a willow branch. May I invite one over?
This poem is funny and pleasant, and after one thousand years the reader still reads the situation as if it's happening right now.
A quick taste to tempt you to click:
Don't Beat the Ducks! Lu Shilong, the governor of Xuan State, used to enjoy caning the women registered as courtesans, the "Government Prostitutes" who served the officials. These singing girls all tried to escape, but they couldn't get away from him. Then, a Hangzhou courtesan arrived in Xuan State. Because of her beauty and talent Shilong grew very fond of her, and wouldn't allow her to depart. One day a local courtesan committed a minor offense, and when Shilong was about to cane her again, she pleaded in tears, "I don't want to deny my guilt. I'm just afraid that this beating will make the lady from Hangzhou scared." So Shilong pardoned her and let her depart. Because of this incident, Mei Yaochen wrote the following poem:
Don 't beat the ducks!
You will scare the swan.
The swan that lands on the pond's north shore
is not an old bald bird on a lonely islet.
Even the bald bird wants to fly off,
so wouldn't a swan with her long wings?
-------------------------------
Ways to Kill a Landscape: Yi Shan (another name for the Tang poet Li Shangyin) wrote many miscellaneous pieces, then divided them into more than ten different categories, just to be funny. One of the categories was called "Ways To Kill a Landscape." Here are some examples: 1.Wash your feet in a clear spring. 2.Dry your loincloth upon the flowers. 3.Build your house against a mountain. 4.Burn your zither to cook a crane. 5.Drink tea in front of the flowers. 6.Scream underneath a pine tree.
-------------------------------
The Disease of Unintentional Similarity: When Cheng Shimeng was the governor of Hongzhou he built a meditation room at his residence. He loved this room so much that he went there every day, and he inscribed these two lines on a stone:
No matter how busy, I come here once a day.
I often come at midnight carrying a lantern.
Li Yuangui saw this inscription and laughed, saying "This is a poem about going to the toilet!"
--------------------------------
Begging for a Cat:
In autumn, mice go wild because my cat has died.
They peep into the jars and turn basins over to wake me up.
I've heard your cat is expecting a litter of kittens.
I've brought some fish strung on a willow branch. May I invite one over?
This poem is funny and pleasant, and after one thousand years the reader still reads the situation as if it's happening right now.
