![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
larryhammerSun Zhu’s initial 1763 edition of Three Hundred Tang Poems had 310 poems.* Over the centuries, later editors added a few more to 300TP, with the result that most modern editions have 320.** Specifically, while Sun Zhu included some sequences of poems that were written as a set, sometimes he picked out one or two from a set, for whatever reason. All those later additions in modern editions were filling in missing poems of sets—see for ex #39-42, of which only #41 was in the initial edition. However, comma, editors did not fill in all broken sets, for whatever reasons.
This has gotten me curious—what were the standards for inclusion? Since I recently translated the two included poems (#36-37) of a four-poem set, I went ahead and did the omitted two as well, to see if I can figure out what’s up. Here’s the complete set, which are folk-song-style poems:
Border Songs: Four Poems, Wang Changling
1.
Cicadas cry in empty mulberry trees—
It’s Eighth Month on the road through Dreary Pass.
We leave the border, enter the border again,
And everywhere is yellow reeds and grass.
Since ever guests from You and Bing first came
They’ve all grown old ’mid sand and empty fields.
Don’t imitate that dashing son of a hero
Who boasts about his lavish chestnut charger.
2.
Water my horse—then cross the autumn water.
The water’s cold—the wind is like a knife.
Empty sands—the sun has not yet sunk.
It’s dark, so dark—I see the Lintao River.
In ancient days, they fought before the Great Wall:
Everyone says their spirits were so high—
They’ve all become the yellow dust, now old,
Their white bones scattered in among the weeds.
3.
He received his command in Ganquan Palace,
Gathered his army, troops from all under heaven—
The morning court prepared the rites of departure—
The peaceful lands and districts greeted them.
Scattered, dispersed, those many thousands of men:
Those who departed didn’t keep their lives …
Officials desire use of the palace stables—
It’s granted to those bestowed with border towns.
4.
Beside this border, oh how cruel, so cruel—
We just got done interring our “General Huo,”
Battalions and squads, all of us mourning together.
But in south Yan and northern Dai are rumors:
Our many worthy deeds will be dismissed,
The troops and horses separated soon,
With some sent off to Huanglong garrison …
We have to weep at fortresses and clouds.
塞下曲四首
之一
蝉鸣空桑林，
八月萧关道；
出塞复入塞，
处处黄芦草。
从来幽并客，
皆向沙场老；
莫学游侠儿，
矜夸紫骝好。
之二
饮马渡秋水，
水寒风似刀。
平沙日未没，
黯黯见临洮。
昔日长城战，
咸言意气高；
黄尘足今古，
白骨乱蓬蒿。
之三
奉诏甘泉宫，
总征天下兵。
朝廷备礼出，
郡国豫郊迎。
纷纷几万人，
去者无全生。
臣愿节宫厩，
分以赐边城。
之四
边头何惨惨，
已葬霍将军。
部曲皆相吊，
燕南代北闻。
功勋多被黜，
兵马亦寻分。
更遣黄龙戍，
唯当哭塞云。
1. Xiao (“dreary”) Pass was on the northwest frontier, in the middle of modern Ningxia Autonomous Region. You and Bing were ancient provinces on the northeast frontier, covering roughly Liaoning, northern Hebei, and northern Shanxi, both once known for their wandering warriors (yóuxiá).
2. The frontier river Lintao, now just Tao River in central Gansu, was not far from the western reaches of the Great Wall—a couple hundred miles almost due west of Xiao Pass.
3. Ganquan (“sweet spring”) was Han Emperor Wu’s resort palace away from Chang’an—a historical fig-leaf necessary for political satire. “All under heaven” is a poetic phrase for “all the empire.” The conclusion is just as abrupt in the original, but my reading is that the officials callously sent out all those men to die as part of maneuvering for perks of office.
4. General Huo was Han general Huo Qubing, a type for a successful and popular military leader who died young. Yan and Dai, where the speaker’s young general was stationed, were commandaries in what’s now northern Hebei and Shanxi, way east of Xiao Pass. Huanglong (“yellow dragon”) was even further east, in modern Liaoning.
In conclusion … yeah, IDK. Was the political satire of #3 too pointed for the notoriously ruthless Qing times? That’s my best guess—but it’s not like the collection doesn’t have other Confucian critiques of venal or indifferent officials. Or maybe the disconnect of the last couplet was considered too jarring. But then what’s wrong with #4? I just don’t have enough knowledge of the cultural/political nuances to judge.
Oh, well. The poems were fun to puzzle through, anyway.
* Plumping out your round-number collection with a few extras is a long tradition in China, going at least as far back as the Classic of Poetry of the mid-6th century BCE, which has 305 poems and was initially called 300 Poems (before its association with Confucius made it considered a Classic).
** Interestingly, the version Witter Bynner used in Jade Mountain, the first complete translation into English, was (or was based on) the original 310 edition.
Index of Chinese translations
---L.
Subject quote from 1979, Smashing Pumpkins.
This has gotten me curious—what were the standards for inclusion? Since I recently translated the two included poems (#36-37) of a four-poem set, I went ahead and did the omitted two as well, to see if I can figure out what’s up. Here’s the complete set, which are folk-song-style poems:
Border Songs: Four Poems, Wang Changling
1.
Cicadas cry in empty mulberry trees—
It’s Eighth Month on the road through Dreary Pass.
We leave the border, enter the border again,
And everywhere is yellow reeds and grass.
Since ever guests from You and Bing first came
They’ve all grown old ’mid sand and empty fields.
Don’t imitate that dashing son of a hero
Who boasts about his lavish chestnut charger.
2.
Water my horse—then cross the autumn water.
The water’s cold—the wind is like a knife.
Empty sands—the sun has not yet sunk.
It’s dark, so dark—I see the Lintao River.
In ancient days, they fought before the Great Wall:
Everyone says their spirits were so high—
They’ve all become the yellow dust, now old,
Their white bones scattered in among the weeds.
3.
He received his command in Ganquan Palace,
Gathered his army, troops from all under heaven—
The morning court prepared the rites of departure—
The peaceful lands and districts greeted them.
Scattered, dispersed, those many thousands of men:
Those who departed didn’t keep their lives …
Officials desire use of the palace stables—
It’s granted to those bestowed with border towns.
4.
Beside this border, oh how cruel, so cruel—
We just got done interring our “General Huo,”
Battalions and squads, all of us mourning together.
But in south Yan and northern Dai are rumors:
Our many worthy deeds will be dismissed,
The troops and horses separated soon,
With some sent off to Huanglong garrison …
We have to weep at fortresses and clouds.
塞下曲四首
之一
蝉鸣空桑林，
八月萧关道；
出塞复入塞，
处处黄芦草。
从来幽并客，
皆向沙场老；
莫学游侠儿，
矜夸紫骝好。
之二
饮马渡秋水，
水寒风似刀。
平沙日未没，
黯黯见临洮。
昔日长城战，
咸言意气高；
黄尘足今古，
白骨乱蓬蒿。
之三
奉诏甘泉宫，
总征天下兵。
朝廷备礼出，
郡国豫郊迎。
纷纷几万人，
去者无全生。
臣愿节宫厩，
分以赐边城。
之四
边头何惨惨，
已葬霍将军。
部曲皆相吊，
燕南代北闻。
功勋多被黜，
兵马亦寻分。
更遣黄龙戍，
唯当哭塞云。
1. Xiao (“dreary”) Pass was on the northwest frontier, in the middle of modern Ningxia Autonomous Region. You and Bing were ancient provinces on the northeast frontier, covering roughly Liaoning, northern Hebei, and northern Shanxi, both once known for their wandering warriors (yóuxiá).
2. The frontier river Lintao, now just Tao River in central Gansu, was not far from the western reaches of the Great Wall—a couple hundred miles almost due west of Xiao Pass.
3. Ganquan (“sweet spring”) was Han Emperor Wu’s resort palace away from Chang’an—a historical fig-leaf necessary for political satire. “All under heaven” is a poetic phrase for “all the empire.” The conclusion is just as abrupt in the original, but my reading is that the officials callously sent out all those men to die as part of maneuvering for perks of office.
4. General Huo was Han general Huo Qubing, a type for a successful and popular military leader who died young. Yan and Dai, where the speaker’s young general was stationed, were commandaries in what’s now northern Hebei and Shanxi, way east of Xiao Pass. Huanglong (“yellow dragon”) was even further east, in modern Liaoning.
In conclusion … yeah, IDK. Was the political satire of #3 too pointed for the notoriously ruthless Qing times? That’s my best guess—but it’s not like the collection doesn’t have other Confucian critiques of venal or indifferent officials. Or maybe the disconnect of the last couplet was considered too jarring. But then what’s wrong with #4? I just don’t have enough knowledge of the cultural/political nuances to judge.
Oh, well. The poems were fun to puzzle through, anyway.
* Plumping out your round-number collection with a few extras is a long tradition in China, going at least as far back as the Classic of Poetry of the mid-6th century BCE, which has 305 poems and was initially called 300 Poems (before its association with Confucius made it considered a Classic).
** Interestingly, the version Witter Bynner used in Jade Mountain, the first complete translation into English, was (or was based on) the original 310 edition.
Index of Chinese translations
---L.
Subject quote from 1979, Smashing Pumpkins.
no subject
Date: 14 March 2022 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 March 2022 04:11 pm (UTC)Nope — Sun Tzu (Wade-Giles) / Sunzi (pinyin) lived 2500-odd years earlier. Sun Zhu lived in the 18th c. CE. They do have the same surname, though.