& Tornado Alley
of the Southern T'ang Dynasty in China
Li Ching and Li Yü were rulers of the Southern T'ang Empire in China. Li Ching (916-961 A.D.) was the father of Li Yü (937-978 A.D.). Both wrote poetry. Li Yü perhaps wrote too much poetry. He devoted so much of his time to poetry that he let his empire be conquered and himself captured. It was by the Sung Emperor T'ai Tsu in 975. He was kept captive in K'ai-feng where he continued to write poetry. But again poetry was his undoing. The brother of T'ai Tsu, T'ai Tsung, when he came to the throne ordered Li Yü's execution because he feared Li Yü's poems were conveying secret information for inciting rebellions.
Two nice poems of Li Yü written before his capture are:
Glimmer of flowers, a shrouded moon and shallow mist for cover
A perfect moment, this, to steal away and join her lover.
Down scented paths in stockinged feet she goes,
clasped in her hands her gold-embroidered shoes,
The south side of the painted hall their tryst;
She leans one instant quivering on his breast;
"So seldom can I come to you, my love,
That all the love you ask of me, I give!"
Her morning toilet done, she stood
And into the incense burner
Then, with a flash of pearly teeth
She turns her head towards him,
Singing sweet and clear
From lips of scarlet red.
On her silken sleeve,
Stains of rich color spread
From cups filled and refilled
With dark, fragrant wine.
Playfully, with careless grace
She leans across the embroidered bed,
Chews a scrap of red wool,
Smiles, and spits it in her lover's face.
Li Yü wrote poems of his sorrow at losing his empire and becoming a captive:
During the forty years at home in my country,
Its three thousand miles of mountain-sides and river,
Where Phoenix Hall and Dragon Tower touch the Milky Way
And jade trees with coral branches spread their misty cover,
When did I think of spear and buckler?
Then one day I found myself a captive, a slave;
A back like Shen's and hair like P'an's my hardships tell.
The time I suffered most was setting out to leave the Temple;
The royal band still played a lamentation in farewell;
Facing the palace women, my tears fell.
The poem that proved to be Li Yü's undoing was:
Spring blossom, autumn moon,
When will they cease
To come and go?
Of all the past has meant, how much I know!
Into the tower last night a wind
swept out of the east again--
The old country!
In the bright moonlight
To taste that wind again
Is too much pain.
It must be shining still,
The carved railing with jade inlay;
We alone change and wast away.
I ask you, how can I endure
To feel such sadness grow?
My heart's a river
Flushed with spring
Forever eastward flow.
The brother of the emperor thought this poem was a coded message and had the ex-emperor poet executed.
Source: A Collection of Chinese Lyrics, translated by Duncan Mackintosh and rendered into verse by Alan Ayling, Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1965.
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