Coming Home to Shaoxing, Zhizhang Province Having been away 50 years, He Zhizhang is coming home. This is the second of two poems written by He Zhizhang after retiring from the Imperial Court in Chang’an and returning to his birthplace near Daxianglin National Park (大香林) in Shaoxing, Zhizhang Province. Coming Home, Accidental Poem II I…
Category: Taoism
七步诗 Qībùshī, Seven Step Poem
Brotherly love — a third century poem by Cáozhí about sibling rivalry during the Three Kingdoms Period in China. Seven Step PoemCook the beans burn the beanstalk,While the beans weep in the panTwo born of the same rootCooked together, what’s the hurry 七步诗 煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。本自同根生，相煎何太急 QībùshīZhǔ dòu rán dòu qí, dòu zài fǔ zhōng qì.Běn zì…
Lotus Flower Peak, Huashan Mountain
In January of 756, General An Lushan and his barbarian forces captured Luoyang, the eastern Tang capital. An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor. The capital of Chang’an was threatened. China was in an uproar. Nearby, Li Bai, from his lofty platform on Lotus Mountain, watched the advancing death and destruction. On Lotus Mountain’s western peakFar and…
Ascending Youzhou Tower
登幽州臺歌 陳子昂 前不見古人後不見來者念天地之悠悠獨愴然而涕下 Ascending Youzhou Tower (Song)Chen Zi’ang, 696 The Ancients do not see forward andThose to come do not see the past.I think of heaven and earth and the vastness of time,Sad and alone, tearfully crying Alternate translation: Where are the wise ones, those of the pastWhere are those yet to comeThe sky and the…
A Night Lodging in a Mountain Temple
Atop a teetering tower, picking a star, but careful not to panic the gods. A five-character quatrain, 20 characters in total. 夜宿山寺李白 危樓高百尺手可摘星辰不敢高聲語恐驚天上人 Night Lodging in a Mountain Temple*Li Bai (701–762) A teetering tower a hundred feet highI can pick my very own starBut I dare not speak loudlyFor fear of startling the gods Yè…
Wangchuan
whistling rain, gurgling water on a rocky shore, egrets rising and falling in crashing waves
Jade Lake, 瑤 池, Li Shangyin
Myths are sacred tales that explain the world and our experience within it. They contain our hopes, our dreams. Immortality is one dream, and giving up immortality the unanswered question in Li Shangyin’s poem, Jade Lake. As our Mother of Jade Lake opens her beautiful window,The Yellow Bamboo sounds its pitiful song.If eight steeds can…
Searching Nanxi for the Reclusive Changshan Taoist, 尋南溪常山道人隱居
Searching Southern Creek (Nanxi) for the Taoist priest Along the way, I find a footprint in the moss A while cloud lies low upon the lake Spring grass grows freely at the door A heavy rain has the color of the pine trees A mountain brook gushes from its source And, mingling with its flowers…
Seeing Meng Haoran off to Guangling – Li Bai 李 白
“You left me, old friend of the West, at the Yellow Crane Tower, In Spring, going to Yangzhou, in a cloud of flowers; Your lonely sail, a speck against blue sky, disappearing Until now I only see the Yangtze and the sky.” In the third lunar month of the New Year (middle March by modern…
Reading Laozi 读老子 – Bai Juyi
On Reading Laozi He who speaks does not know,I heard these words from Laozi.Why then, if the old man knew,Did it take five thousand words? 中写到 言者不如知者默此语吾闻于老君若道老君是知者缘何自著五千文 Dú lǎozi Yán zhě bùrú zhì zhě mò cǐ yǔ wú wén yú lǎo jūn ruò dào lǎo jūn shì zhì zhě yuánhé zì zhe wǔqiān wén Laozi…
100 Tang Poems 