Du Fu

Footnote.

A poet of the Tang dynasty whose eyebrows met, whose nails were very long, and who could write very fast.

And footnote.

Never wearied to tell.

I am rather animated by the spirit of Su Dongpo, who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural.

Footnote.

Su Dongpo was the famous poet, statesman, and essayist who flourished A.D. 1036 to 1101.

And footnote.

Footnote.

A poet of the Tang dynasty whose eyebrows met, whose nails were very long, and who could write very fast.

End footnote.

never wearied to tell each interprets in his own way the music of heaven footnote you know the music of earth said chuang tzu but you have not heard the music of heaven and footnote and whether it be discord or not depends upon antecedent causes footnote that is to the operation of some influence surviving from a previous existence and footnote as for me I cannot, with my poor autumn firefly's light, match myself against the half-goblins of the age.

i'm not going to match myself against the devil cried the musician after a few moments and instantly blew out the light i am but the dust in the sunbeam a fit laughing-stock for devils footnote when liu chuan governor of wu ling determined to relieve his poverty by trade he saw a devil standing by his side laughing and rubbing its hands for glee Poverty and wealth are matters of destiny, said Liu Chuan, but to be laughed at by a devil— And accordingly he desisted from his intention.

For my talents are not those of Gan Bao, elegant explorer of the records of the gods.

i am rather animated by the spirit of su dong po who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural su dong po was the famous poet statesman and essayist who flourished a d ten thirty six to eleven o one and i get people to commit what they tell me to writing and subsequently i dress it up in the form of a story and thus in the lapse of time my friends from all quarters have supplied me with quantities of material which from my habit of collecting has grown to a vast pile and his friends had the habit of jotting down for his unfailing delight anything quaint or comic that they came across the world on charles dickens july twenty fourth eighteen seventy eight and foot human beings i would point out are not beyond the pale of fixed laws and yet there are more remarkable phenomena in their midst than in the country of those who cropped their hair it is related in a historical record that when tai po and yu chung fled to the southern savages they saw men with tattooed bodies and short hair antiquity is on the road before us and many tales are to be found therein stranger than that of the nation of flying heads footnote a fabulous community so called because the heads of men are in the habit of leaving their bodies and flying down to marshy places to feed on worms and crabs a red ring is seen the night before the flight encircling the neck of the man whose head is about to fly at daylight the head returns some say that the ears are used as wings others that the hands also leave the body and fly away irrepressible burst and luxurious ease footnote a quotation from the admired works of wang po a brilliant scholar and poet who was drowned at the early age of twenty eight eighty six seventy six and footnote such was always his enthusiastic strain for ever indulging in liberal thought footnote i have hitherto failed in all attempts to identify the particular writer here intended the phrase is used by the poet lee tai po and others thus he spoke openly without restraint were men like these to open my book i should be a laughing-stock to them indeed at the cross-road the cross-road of the five fathers is here mentioned which the commentator tells us is merely the name of the place at the cross-road men will not listen to me and yet i have some knowledge of the three states of existence spoken of beneath the cliff footnote the past present and future life of the buddhist system of madame psychosis a certain man who was staying at the temple dreamt that an old priest appeared to him beneath a jade-stone cliff and pointing to a stick of burning incense said to him that incense represents a vow to be fulfilled but i say unto you that ere its smoke shall have curled away your three states of existence will have been already accomplished the meaning is that time on earth is as nothing to the gods and footnote neither should the words i utter be set aside because of him that utters them footnote this remark occurs in the fifteenth chapter of the analects or confusion gospels and when the bow was hung at my father's door the birth of a boy was formally signalled by hanging a bow at the door that of a girl by displaying a small towel indicative of the parts that each would hereafter play in the drama of life when the bow was hung at my father's door he dreamt that the sickly-looking buddhist priest but half covered by his stole entered the chamber on one of his breasts was a round piece of plaster like a cache and my father walking from sleep found that i just born had a similar black patch on my body as a child i was thin and constantly ailing and unable to hold my own in the battle of life Our own home was chill and desolate as a monastery, and working there for my livelihood with my pen.

Footnote, literally, ploughing with my pen.

For my talents are not those of Gan Bao, elegant explorer of the records of the gods.

i am rather animated by the spirit of su dong po who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural su dong po was the famous poet statesman and essayist who flourished eighty ten thirty six to eleven o one and i get people to commit what they tell me to writing and subsequently i dress it up in the form of a story and thus in the lapse of time my friends from all quarters have supplied me with quantities of material which from my habit of collecting has grown to a vast pile and his friends had the habit of jotting down for his unfailing delight anything quaint or comic that they came across the world on charles dickens july twenty fourth eighteen seventy eight and foot human beings i would point out are not beyond the pale of fixed laws and yet there are more remarkable phenomena in their midst than in the country of those who cropped their hair it is related in a historical record that when tai po and yu chung fled to the southern savages they saw men with tattooed bodies and short hair antiquity is on the road before us and many tales are to be found therein stranger than that of the nation of flying heads footnote a fabulous community so called because the heads of men are in the habit of leaving their bodies and flying down to marshy places to feed on worms and crabs a red ring is seen the night before the flight encircling the neck of the man whose head is about to fly at daylight the head returns some say that the ears are used as wings others that the hands also leave the body and fly away irrepressible burst and luxurious ease footnote a quotation from the admired works of wang po a brilliant scholar and poet who was drowned at the early age of twenty eight eighty six seventy six and footnote such was always his enthusiastic strain for ever indulging in liberal thought I have hitherto failed in all attempts to identify the particular writer here intended.

The phrase is used by the poet Li Taipo and others.

Thus, he spoke openly without restrain.

Were men like these to open my book, I should be a laughing-stock to them indeed.

Alluding to an essay by Han Fei, a philosopher of the third century, in which he laments the iniquity of the age in general, and the corruption of officials in particular, he finally committed suicide in prison, where he had been cast by the intrigues of a rival minister.

End footnote.

and as i thus commit my thoughts to writing truly i am an object worthy of commiseration alas i am but a bird that dreading the winter frost finds no shelter in the tree the autumn insect that chirps to the moon and hugs the door for warmth for where are they who know me footnote confucius analex fourteen said alas there is no one who knows me to be what i am they are in the bosky grove and at the fronter pass Wrapped in an impenetrable gloom, the great poet Tu Fu, A.D. 712-770, dreamt that his greater predecessor, Li Taipo, A.D. 705-762, appeared to him, quote, coming when the maple grove was in darkness, and returning while the frontier pass was still obscured, end quote, that is, at night, when no one could see him, the meaning being that he never came at all, and that those, quote, who know me, Pu Songling, and are equally non-existent from the above curious document the reader will gain some insight into the abstruse but at the same time marvellously beautiful style of this gifted writer the whole essay for such it is and among the most perfect of his kind is intended chiefly as a satire upon the scholarship of the age scholarship which had turned the author back to the disappointment of a private life himself conscious all the time of the inward fire that had been lent him by heaven it is the keynote of his own subsequent career spent in the retirement of home in the society of books and friends as also to the numerous uncomplimentary allusions which occur in all histories relating to official life whether or not the world at large has been a gainer by this instance of the fallibility of competitive examinations has been already decided in the affirmative by the millions of puh sonlings own countrymen who, for the past two hundred years, have more than made up to him by a posthumous and enduring reverence for the loss of those earthly and ephemeral honors which he seems to have coveted so much.

兵车行，作者：杜甫。车辚辚，马萧萧，行人弓箭各在腰。爷娘妻子走相送，尘埃不见咸阳桥。牵衣顿足拦道哭，哭声直上干云霄。道旁国者问行人，行人但云“典刑频”。“或从十五北返籴，便至四十西阴田。四十里正逾国界，归来徒白还戍边。边听流血成海水，吾皇开边意未已。”军不闻汉家山东二百州，千村万落生荆棘。纵有健夫八处离，河上龙母无东西。匡夫秦兵耐苦战，被驱不异犬猪鸡。长者虽有问，役夫敢生恨？且如今年冬，未休关西卒。先管稽索租，租税从何出？信知生男恶，反是生女好。生女有得嫁毗邻，生男埋没随百草。君不见青海头，古来白骨无人收。新鬼烦冤，旧鬼哭，天阴雨湿声啾啾。

Ballad of the Army Carts by Du Fu, translated from the Chinese by Lincoln Davidson.

Wagons rumbling, horses grumbling, soldiers on their first steps stumbling.

Mothers, fathers, sons, and wives run to say another goodbye.

He of the long nails.

Footnote, a poet of the Tang Dynasty whose eyebrows met, whose nails were very long, and who could write very fast.

End footnote.

Never wearied to tell.

And footnote, for my talents are not those of Gan Bao, elegant explorer of the records of the gods.

I am rather animated by the spirit of Su Dongpo, who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural.

Footnote, Su Dongpo was the famous poet, statesman, and essayist who flourished A.D. 1036 to 1101.

And footnote, I get people to commit what they tell me to writing, and subsequently I dress it up in the form of a story, and thus in the lapse of time my friends from all quarters have supplied me with quantities of material, which, from my habit of collecting, has grown to a vast pile.

[outro jingle] Opening quote: Words that lead the way.

露从今夜白，月是故乡明。杜甫。

"Dew turns into frost since tonight.

The moon viewed at home is more bright." Du Fu.

With its warmth and humanity, the poem captures another core meaning of this solar term: the turning of seasons stirs nostalgia, and the cool autumn breeze tugs at our hearts for home and loved ones.

Since then, white dew has become a literary symbol of homesickness.

露从今夜白，月是故乡明。杜甫。

"Dew turns into frost since tonight.

According to China Social Sciences Daily, the blogger published videos between late April and early May arguing that the Song Dynasty had ruled for 800 years and that the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, as well as the Yuan periods, were fabricated by later court historians.

The theory also maintained that poetry attributed to Tang literary giants, including Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi, had actually been written under assumed names by Song-era scholars.

Archaeological evidence such as the ruins of the Daming Palace, Tang tri-colored pottery and the Dunhuang manuscripts were dismissed as forgeries.

The account has since been banned and its original videos deleted.

After all, many could identify with the image of a frustrated advisor becoming a hermit living in the mountains.

At the end of his life, the great Tang poet Du Fu compared himself to Master Pheasant Cap when expressing his political despair and loneliness in a poem called Er Long, or Undeafness.

A second theme in the He Guan Zi is the veneration of the One.

Whether in politics, astronomy, or cosmology, the One is the concept of the axis around which everyone, everything, revolves, and the inexhaustible resource of cosmic order.

During the 300 years of Tang rule, the arts rose to new heights and the poet-statesman idea became an actualized ideal as great.

The greatest poets and painters, such as Wang Wei, Li Bai, and Du Fu, played major roles as political figures.

Torture and death penalties were nearly done away with and public schools were built at record numbers.

Massive religious tolerance.