hannah+egg

25(238)
Although Ho Chih-chang did not leave to posterity his compositions written in conformity with popular ballads, many of his contemporaries were experts in ballad writing. One such distinguished poet was Kao Shih (700?-765), a native of Puohai County near the North China Coast, who, when he was young, was not interested in earning his livelihood. He would not even exert himself in the writing of poetry until he had passed the prime of his life. Once he tried his hand at this dynastic art, his success was immediate. His poems were recited far and wide. Bending his nature to accommodate himself in various indifferent secretarial posts, he was finally discovered by Emperor Hsüan Tsung while the latter was in distress.
雖然賀知章沒有留給後代他當時所流行的樂府詩，但當代許多人卻都是樂府詩的專家。有一個特別的詩人，高適(700?-765)，生於中國北方靠海的渤海縣，年輕時不事營生，甚至要到過了盛年，才懂得利用寫詩的才能。當他一嘗試創作唐詩，很快就得到成功。他的詩被傳唱千里。由於他違背自己的天性，委身於各種冷漠的官方文書當中，最終在憂患之中被玄宗所發現。
Thence onward he held various high posts until his death in 765. Although his special traits as a poet cannot revealed in translation, they can be summed up briefly as his willingness to benefit from the examples of old ballads and to use the same balladlike and carefree lines in the writing of even lyrical poems, and his experiment with the use of lines of varying length to simulate the irregularity of daily speech. While he aimed at elegance in diction, he did not hesitate in employing slang expressions.
燕歌行 高適
漢家煙塵在東北，漢將辭家破殘賊。
男兒本自重橫行，天子非常賜顏色。
摐金伐鼓下榆關，旌旆逶迤碣石間。
校尉羽書飛瀚海，單于獵火照狼山。
山川蕭條極邊土，胡騎憑陵雜風雨。
戰士軍前半死生，美人帳下猶歌舞。
大漠窮秋塞草衰，孤城落日鬥兵稀。
身當恩遇常輕敵，力盡關山未解圍。
鐵衣遠戍辛勤久，玉筋應啼別離後；
少婦城南欲斷腸，征人薊北空回首。
邊庭飄颻那可度？絕域蒼茫更何有。
殺氣三時作陣雲，寒聲一夜傳刁斗。
相看白刃血紛紛，死節從來豈顧勳？
君不見沙場征戰苦？至今猶憶李將軍。

26(239)
Another poet who had attained great popularity was Ts’ên Ch’an (722?-770?). The fact that his poems, as soon as they were released, would be avidly copied by scribes was probably due to the fact that in them the readers found many new verse forms and new cadences. For example, Ts’ên introduced the new rhyming scheme of a complete change in each triplet.

27(240)
Even more outstanding was Wang Wei (699-759) on account of his many-sided accomplishments. Besides being a major poet, he was also a great pioneer in calligraphy and painting, as well as music. Despite his involvement in politics and his imprisonment by the rebel, An Lu-shan, he seemed to be able to maintain his tranquility through his years of storm and stress until his death in 759.

25(238)
Although Ho Chih-chang did not leave to posterity his compositions written in conformity with popular ballads, many of his contemporaries were experts in ballad writing. One such distinguished poet was Kao Shih (700?-765), a native of Puohai County near the North China Coast, who, when he was young, was not interested in earning his livelihood. He would not even exert himself in the writing of poetry until he had passed the prime of his life. Once he tried his hand at this dynastic art, his success was immediate. His poems were recited far and wide. Bending his nature to accommodate himself in various indifferent secretarial posts, he was finally discovered by Emperor Hsüan Tsung while the latter was in distress.
雖然賀知章沒有留給後代他當時所流行的樂府詩，但當代許多人卻都是樂府詩的專家。有一個特別的詩人，高適(700?-765)，生於中國北方靠海的渤海縣，年輕時不事營生，甚至要到過了盛年，才懂得利用寫詩的才能。當他一嘗試創作唐詩，很快就得到成功。他的詩被傳唱千里。由於他違背自己的天性，委身於各種冷漠的官方文書當中，最終在憂患之中被玄宗所發現。
Thence onward he held various high posts until his death in 765. Although his special traits as a poet cannot revealed in translation, they can be summed up briefly as his willingness to benefit from the examples of old ballads and to use the same balladlike and carefree lines in the writing of even lyrical poems, and his experiment with the use of lines of varying length to simulate the irregularity of daily speech. While he aimed at elegance in diction, he did not hesitate in employing slang expressions.
燕歌行 高適
漢家煙塵在東北，漢將辭家破殘賊。
男兒本自重橫行，天子非常賜顏色。
摐金伐鼓下榆關，旌旆逶迤碣石間。
校尉羽書飛瀚海，單于獵火照狼山。
山川蕭條極邊土，胡騎憑陵雜風雨。
戰士軍前半死生，美人帳下猶歌舞。
大漠窮秋塞草衰，孤城落日鬥兵稀。
身當恩遇常輕敵，力盡關山未解圍。
鐵衣遠戍辛勤久，玉筋應啼別離後；
少婦城南欲斷腸，征人薊北空回首。
邊庭飄颻那可度？絕域蒼茫更何有。
殺氣三時作陣雲，寒聲一夜傳刁斗。
相看白刃血紛紛，死節從來豈顧勳？
君不見沙場征戰苦？至今猶憶李將軍。

26(239)
Another poet who had attained great popularity was Ts’ên Ch’an (722?-770?). The fact that his poems, as soon as they were released, would be avidly copied by scribes was probably due to the fact that in them the readers found many new verse forms and new cadences. For example, Ts’ên introduced the new rhyming scheme of a complete change in each triplet.

27(240)
Even more outstanding was Wang Wei (699-759) on account of his many-sided accomplishments. Besides being a major poet, he was also a great pioneer in calligraphy and painting, as well as music. Despite his involvement in politics and his imprisonment by the rebel, An Lu-shan, he seemed to be able to maintain his tranquility through his years of storm and stress until his death in 759.

22(236)
The reflection of the spirit of the age on the current philosophy of life was one dedicated to the breaking of all shackles in search of freedom and naturalism. We might use famous poem written by Tu Fu on the “Eight Immortals of Drinking” as a mirror in this regard:
飲中八仙歌 杜甫
知章騎馬似乘船，眼花落井水底眠；
汝陽三斗始朝天，道逢麴車口流涎，
恨不移封向酒泉。左相日興貴費錢，
飲如長鯨吸百川，銜杯樂聖稱世賢。
宗之瀟灑美少年，舉觴白眼望青天，
皎如玉樹臨風前。蘇晉長齋繡佛前，
醉中往往愛逃禪。李白一斗詩百篇，
長安市上酒家眠。天子呼來不上船，
自稱臣是酒中仙。張旭三杯草聖傳，
脫帽露頂王公前，揮毫落紙如雲煙。
焦遂五斗方卓然，高談雄辯驚四筵。

23(237)
This distinguished company, as we can readily see, was representative of high society; a prince royal, a prime minister, a Buddhist, a Taoist, poets and artists. On appearance, the conduct of this group seemed decadent, but decadence, in their case, was actually a protest against accepted rules and customs and a manifestation of a new kind of naturalism as expressed in a life philosophy.

24(237)
The first of these eight immortals, Ho Chih-chang (659-744), was a leading figure in T’ang literature whose biography is worthy of our notice. A native of scenic Kueichi, close to Hangchow, he had enjoyed an immense reputation since young manhood. As he climbed up the hierarchical scale he succeeded in retaining his unconventionality. According to the Old T’ang Dynastic History (Chiu T’ang Shu), besides being romantic in nature and gifted in humorous discussion, he became even more untrammeled toward the end of his life, visiting out-of-the-way lanes and cities and scribbling rolls of poetry after intoxication.
賀知章(659-744)是飲中八仙第一人，是唐代文學的領頭人之一，他的生平也值得我們注意。賀知章生於風景秀麗的會稽，在杭州附近，年輕時候就已享有極大的名聲。由於他爬上了達官階級，得以成功地保持獨特的一面。依照舊唐書的記載，除了天性浪漫、談吐幽默之外，他一直到晚年幾乎都能無拘無束地拜訪街坊小巷、小城市，而且在喝醉酒時完成了許多創作。
Although he seldom revised his writings, his first drafts, were all readable. In 744, as he was suffering fits of dizziness, he memorialized the throne for permission to become a Taoist and to return to his native district where he would donate his own mansion as a Taoist temple. The emperor responded not only with permission but also with poems to bid him farewell. As he departed from the capital all dignitaries from the crown prince down saw him off. He died not long after his return home, in his eighty-sixth year. His life was a reflection of the age in that such an unconventional figure had commanded the profound respect of society at large, indicating that he had lived in a society of extreme liberalism made possible by the termination of authoritarian Buddhism and yet unhampered by anything like the new Confucianist Puritanism that was to rise in the eleventh century. It is, therefore; no coincidence that the remnants of Ho’s poetry, which was not carefully preserved, were indications of the liberal movement in poetry and its tendency to approximate the natural speech of everyday language.
回鄉偶書
少小離家老大回，鄉音無改鬢毛衰。
兒童相見不相識，笑問客從何處來？

19(235)
It was this kind of uninhibited creative activity that made this reign the golden period of poetry. Poets enthusiastically wrote lyrics for songs. Although they might use old titles they did not feel compelled to adhere to the letters of those titles or to follow the musical pattern of the original composition. Freedom of creation was further extended by the use of themes and cadences of old ballads as well as of current popular songs. It was this forthright experimentation in meter and theme, which had permeated the whole field of poetry writing, that gave the literature of the age of K’ai Yüan and T’ien Pao (713-755) an unusual brilliance.

20(235)
Not only was high society universally interested in the writing of poetry, but even the common people in sparsely populated villages in frontier regions--“wherever water was drawn from wells”—were eager to convert the handiwork of poets into popular songs. The process of enrichment of T’ang poetry by folk literature might be divided roughly into three stages: the leading poets, aware of the value of folklore, wrote in imitation of popular songs; the poets wrote new compositions, often deviation from the original scores as well as from the original themes; freeing themselves from established themes and patterns, the poets created new songs of their own in conformity with the traditional spirit of folk poetry. In this subtle manner there was a greater extent of interpenetration between the creative writing of the T’ang poets and the literary heritage of the common people.

21(236)
This age of liberation of the arts was greatly strengthened by the cumulative effect philosophical naturalism from the age of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, on one hand, and by the merging of this naturalism with the spontaneity in Ch’an Buddhism, on the other, Ch’an Buddhism had been introduced from India by Budhidharma (died circa 530) and stressed the importance of contemplation in contrast to dependence on books and ritual. By the middle of the eighth century, Ch’an Buddhism had not only matured but also surprisingly Sinicized. The beginnings of the revolution in Ch’an Buddhism had been set in motion by an illiterate monk from southern china, Hui Nêng (died 713), who had hoisted the banner of rebellion to found the so-called southern sect. One of their shibboleths was “down with the obstructions of letters and rituals.” All that came between the seeker of enlightenment and enlightenment itself was obstructionist in nature and was, therefore, to be completely eliminated. To them, all discipline and procedure purporting to train the prospective convert gradually was regarded as hindrance rather than aid. Even incantations and meditations were regarded as so many shackles because all human beings, according to their belief, were capable of sudden enlightenment and immediate attainment of Buddhahood. This revolutionary movement, which had been started at the turn of the centuries, had amassed such a solid following by the middle of the eighth century that it had come into sharp conflict with the northern orthodoxy and replaced the latter in legal apostolic succession by scoring a universal victory toward the end of the century. This revolutionary movement in Chinese Buddhism was also a great revolutionary in the history of Chinese thought, with its repercussions felt in practically all fields of human activities, art and literature included.

16(234)
The emperor himself was a lover of beauty and of the arts. He not only personally supervised the building up of vast orchestras in which traditional music was successfully blended with frontier and Central Asian music in which many types of instruments were involved, but also undertook the training of singers and musicians. For centuries, he continued to be known as the founder of dramatic music and entertainment, having himself not only written the words for some forty dramatic songs but also having arranged the musical scores for them. In many of these new musical compositions there was a great intermixture of what was know as barbarian and “narrow-alley” music.

17(234)
This does not mean, however, that he was blind to the genius of superior poets or that his testes were confined to what was merely popular. Toward the end of his reign, according to one dependable record, he ascended the storied building labeled Ch’in-chêng Lou, or Attention to Political Duties, to admire the moonlight. As though obviously to forget the exhortation intended by the name of the building, he ordered his court musicians to present a few songs. One was the quatrain written by the outstanding poet, Li Ch’iao (644-713):
汾陰行（末四句）
山川滿目淚沾衣，富貴榮華能幾時？
不見只今汾上水，唯有年年秋雁飛。

18(235)
As the emperor was already advanced in years and felt touched by the message of the poem, he asked who the author might be. When he heard that it was Li Ch’iao, he could not refrain from weeping and rising before the music was ended and exclaiming, “Li Ch’iao is a real genius!” Even when the emperor was younger he had made the acquaintance of Li Po, a much younger poet than Li Ch’iao; but as Li Po was much addicted to drinking, his presence at court was irregular. Each time the emperor had completed a set of new musical scores he wanted to have the lyrics done by Li Po. Frequently when the poet was alerted by the imperial messenger, he was snoring in a wine shop.
由於玄宗年事已高且被詩境所感動，便問此詩是誰做的。當他一聽到是李峤，音樂還沒停止就忍不住哭了，並起身大叫：「李峤真是個天才！」即使玄宗未到這個年紀，也早就認識李白，李白比李峤年輕許多，因為他嗜酒，所以出現在朝廷的時間並不固定。每當玄宗新製一曲，便想找李白來填詞。但往往當李白被皇上召見的時候，他都在酒家裡打鼾。
Far from being displeased by this romantic conduct, the emperor would take special pleasure in seeing water splashed on the poet’s face and in seeing him, dash off lines of poetry rapidly after he had become clearheaded.

13(233)
To illustrate this pattern concretely, we shall examine a seven-syllable lü shih written by Shên Ch’üan-ch’I in 705 in response to Tu Shên-yen, Tu Fu’s grandfather, when they were both living in exile in the northern part of present-day Vietnam. The Romanized reading is in Cantonese, which among current Chinese dialects preserves most fully the feature of T’ang pronunciation. The even tones are indicated by small capitals, the deflected tones by small letters, and the deviation by italics.

14(234)
Since even Shên, a master of the new technique, had to resort to deviations (YUE) , it is understandable that to some poets like Li Po, the lü shih verse form presented no special attration.

15(234)
With the ascension of Emperor Hsüan Tsung in 712, T’ang prosperity was to reach its zenith. Much luxury and leisure were available to members of the upper classes in Chinese society. A natural product of the age was the birth of superior art and literature.