Dreaming of Falling Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po

A new bilingual collection of this Sung Dynasty master.

About the author

Yun Wang is the author of two poetry books The Book of Totality, and The Book of Jade, Winner, two poetry chapbooks, Horse by the Mountain Stream, and The Carp. Her translations of classical Chinese poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review Online, Salamander Magazine, Poetry Canada Review, Willow Springs, Kyoto Journal, Connotation Press, and elsewhere. Wang is a cosmologist at California Institute of Technology.

Summary

A new bilingual collection of this Sung Dynasty master.

Foreword

Introduction

The Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) was founded by Tai Zu (the Founding Emperor) Zhao Kuang-Yin (927-976 A.D.). He led generals in a successful coup when the emperor of the Latter Zhou Dynasty died and was succeeded by his seven-year old son. To prevent the warlords from dividing up the country, and the corrupt associates of the imperial household from abusing their power, Tai Zu placed scholars above generals in the social order, concentrated power in the central government, and weakened the power of the generals. This created a prosperous and unprecedented open society, but also had the unintended consequence of making the empire vulnerable to invaders and eventually led to its demise. Song Dynasty was a golden age in Chinese history in economy, commerce, culture, education, science, and creativity.

Su Dong-Po was born on January 8, 1037, during the peak of this golden age, in
Meishan of Meizhou (now Meizhou City in Sichuan Province). He died on August 24, 1101. His
was also known as Su Shi and Su Zi-Zhan. In ancient China, an educated man
would have three different names. The private name was given to him at birth. When he
grew older, the public name was given to him as the name by which he should be known in
public. When he became an adult, he would acquire one or more honorary names. Su’s
private name was Shi. His public name was Zi-Zhan. His favorite and most frequently used
honorary name was Dong-Po Ju Shi (Hermit of East Hill), which he gave himself later in life. He
is generally known as Su Dong-Po in China today.

Su Dong-Po came from an illustrious literary family, descended from the early Tang Dynasty prime minister and poet Su Wei-Dao (648-705 A.D.). Su Dong-Po, his brother Su Zhe
(referred to by his public name Zi-You in Dong-Po’s writings), and their father Su Xun are the famous Three Su’s from the Song Dynasty in Chinese history. Dong Po’s mother was from the prominent Chen family in Meishan. She had a profound influence on Dong-Po. When Dong-Po was ten years old, his father began traveling extensively as a scholar while his mother schooled him.

The system of selecting prospective government officials through exams was established during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). The Song emperors not only appointed scholars who placed the highest in the final official exam to prominent positions in the central government, but also sent them out to the provinces to rule as governors on three-year terms, to ensure control of the provinces and prevent abuses of power by the governors.

In 1056, Su Xun and his two sons, the twenty-one year old Dong-Po and the nineteen-year old Zi-You, left their home in the remote and rural Meishan, and sailed east down the Yangtze River, to take the official exams in the capitol. The main examiner was the leader of the literary world at the time, Ou-Yang Xiu, who was amazed by Dong-Po’s literary gift and refreshingly creative style. With Eu-Yang Xiu’s praise, Dong-Po became famous in the capitol city overnight. Each poem he composed became an instant hit and was widely circulated. However, before the three Su’s were able to show their worth in the final official exam, they received news that Dong-Po’s mother passed away. The three of them immediately set off toward home. They returned to the capital in 1061 after observing the customary three years of mourning for her. Dong-Po placed first in the final official exam that year, which began his career as a government official. He was first appointed to the position of inspector general in Dali for four years, then returned to the capitol to preside over the Appeals Court.

In 1066, Su Xun passed away due to an illness in the capitol. Dong-Po and Zi-You accompanied his body home, along with that of Dong-Po’s first wife, Wang Fu, who had died the previous year. After observing three years of mourning for his father, and marrying Wang Fu’s first cousin Wang Run-Zhi, Dong-Po returned to the court. He found that things had changed. The new Prime Minister Wang An-Shi began reforms that shook up the count. Many of Dong-Po’s friends, including his mentor Eu-Yang Xiu, disagreed with the reforms, and were forced to leave the capitol. In 1071, Dong-Po presented a letter to the emperor expounding the problems caused by the reforms. This angered Wang An-Shi, who instructed the Imperial Judge to criticize Dong-Po in front of the emperor. This prompted Dong-Po to request that the emperor appoint him to a position away from the capitol. The emperor appointed Dong-Po the judge of Hangzhou in 1071, where he stayed until transferred to Mizhou as its governor in 1074. Before leaving Hangzhou, Dong-Po’s wife Run-Zhi brought a twelve-year old girl, Wang Chao-Yun, into the family as her maidservant. Chao-Yun would play an important role in Dong-Po’s life years later.

Dong-Po was transferred from Mizhou to Xuzhou as its governor in 1077, and then to Huzhou as its governor in 1079. Everywhere he went, he changed government policies to benefit the people, and the people loved him.

Dong-Po was about forty-two years old when he became the governor of Huzhou in 1079. Soon after his arrival, he composed a letter to the emperor thanking him for the appointment. This was part of the bureaucratic ritual, but Dong-Po wrote a personalized letter. In the letter, he stated that he was too stupid to fit in with the times, incapable of following the reformers’ footsteps, and too old to make trouble, but perhaps he could shepherd the people instead. These words delighted the reformers, who seized the opportunity to accuse him of harboring resentment and disloyalty toward the emperor, disrespecting the emperor, mocking the central government and wishing it ill. From Dong-Po’s vast number of poems, they picked lines here and there that they deemed sarcastic toward the emperor to support their accusations. Three months after becoming the governor of Huzhou, Dong-Po was arrested, and brought to the capitol to face a death sentence. Dozens of his friends faced related charges. This was the famous “Crow Terrace Poetry Case” from the Song Dynasty. The Crow Terrace referred to the Imperial Judge’s Terrace, where crows resided in cypress trees all year around.

The Crow Terrace Poetry Case was the turning point in Dong-Po’s life. The reformers were determined to have Dong-Po put to death. Many others, including senior officials with similar political views as well as reformers who admired his literary talent, tried to rescue Dong-Po. Eventually, he was saved by the retired reformer Wang An-Shi, who wrote to the emperor wondering why an enlightened dynasty would kill gifted scholars. This worked since the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, Tai Zu, made the rule that eminent scholars who held government positions were exempt from the death sentence.

After one hundred and three days in prison and nearly executed several times, Dong-Po was released, and demoted to Huangzhou in 1080, as a minor official with no actual power, under the close watch of local officials. Dong-Po was depressed and lost interest in politics when arriving in Huangzhou in the winter in early 1080. His meager pay was not enough for his family to live on, so he obtained government permission through a friend to farm an abandoned military campground on a hill east of the city. He began calling himself Dong-Po Ju Shi (Hermit of East Hill), an honorary name by which he is still generally known today.

In 1084, Dong-Po was transferred to Ruzhou. It was an arduous long journey from Huangzhou to Ruzhou. Dong-Po’s infant son became ill on the way and died. Devastated by this loss, and out of money to pay for the traveling expenses, Dong-Po wrote to the emperor requesting a delay of the appointment, and asked for permission to go live in Changzhou. This was granted. Dong-Po and his family lived for a while in beautiful Changzhou, where Dong-Po planned to grow old.

In 1085, a new emperor ascended the throne, and Empress Dowager Gao assumed power on account of the tender age of the emperor. The reformers were replaced by the old party in the government. Dong-Po was soon summoned back to the capitol, and promoted to the position of Master of the Imperial Academy, the most prominent advisor to the emperor. However, Dong-Po discovered that the new government persecuted the reformers and abolished all reforms without differentiating those that worked from those that did not. He exposed the corruption of the new government to the emperor, and earned the enmity of the new top officials in the government, who tried to persecute him. Dong-Po again did not fit in, and once again asked the emperor to appoint him to a position away from the capitol.

In 1089, Dong-Po became the governor of Hangzhou. Due to years of neglect, the West Lake in Hangzhou was filled with mud and overgrown with weeds. This was detrimental to local agriculture, which depended on water from the West Lake for irrigation. The year after he took office, Dong-Po led the renovation of the West Lake to remove the mud and restore the water level, mobilizing over twenty thousand workers. He had three towers built to mark where the lake was deepest, and used the mud removed from the lake to build a long dam across the West Lake. The Su Dam was connected by six bridges to allow both pedestrian and boat traffic, and lined by willows and flowering trees. “Three Towers in Moonlight” and “Spring Dawn on the Su Dam” have since become two of the top ten scenic attractions in Hangzhou. He built two more dams later on west lakes elsewhere with similar benefits to the people, one in Yingzhou, and finally in Huizhou where he donated his own funds to help build the dam.

Dong-Po was very happy in scenic and prosperous Hangzhou, but he was summoned back to court in 1091. Soon, because of political conflicts, he was sent out again as the governor, first of Yingzhou in 1091, then to Yangzhou in 1092, then to Dingzhou in 1093.

In 1093, the Empress Dowager Gao passed away, and the emperor Zhe Zong assumed power. Dong-Po’s second wife Run-Zhi died that same year. The reformers were back in power, and Dong-Po was demoted to Huizhou in 1094, as the deputy to the general of the border army. He was accompanied by Chao-Yun. Finally, in 1097, the sixty year old Dong-Po, who just lost Chao-Yun the previous year, was banished to the remote and desolate Danzhou on Hainan Island. It was said that during the Song Dynasty, banishment to Hainan was the fate for a government official that was only better than having your entire clan executed for your offenses. Dong-Po settled whole-heartedly in Danzhou, and considered it his second hometown. He built schools and nurtured scholarly discourse. Dong-Po was the cultural founder of Danzhou. There are villages, wells, fields, roads, bridges, even hats, and a dialect in Danzhou that are named after Dong-Po.

In 1100, the emperor Zhe Zong died without a son, and his brother became the new emperor Hui Zong, who cleared Dong-Po’s name, and restored him to his former position at the court. During his journey back north to the capitol in 1101, Dong-Po passed away in Changzhou at the age of sixty-four.

* * *

Su Dong-Po represents the pinnacle of literary accomplishment from the Song Dynasty. He is credited with transforming ci (tune poem) from a minor form of poetry, written to match fixed tunes and often used to express amorous feelings, to a major form of poetry capable of expressing the full range of emotions and the human condition. It became the primary vessel for lyric poetry in classical Chinese poetry. While Dong-Po is famous for his regular poems and
essays, he is most celebrated for his tune poems; they have placed him in Chinese history as one of the greatest poets. School children in China learn that the indispensable classics in poetry are Tang shi Song ci, Tang poems and Song tune poems). Li Bai and Du Fu are the grand masters of Tang shi; Su Dong-Po is the grand master of Song ci.

Tune poems were once written as lyrics to tunes, usually with contrived words that fit the tunes but made poor poetry. Dong-Po elevated tune poems to the same stature as regular poems by noting that they shared the same origin, and that tune poems were descended from regular poems. He held tune poems to the same artistic standards as regular poems, and demonstrated with his own work that tune poems can have distinct styles that reflect each poet’s individual creativity. Dong-Po expanded the reach of tune poems by composing masterpieces about warriors, villagers, hunting, courtesans, monks, ancient ruins, contemplation of the meaning of life, etc., all beyond that of traditional tune poems. This was stunning and liberating to his contemporaries. Because tune poems were sung with music, they became more effective than traditional poems in their artistic power.

The main technique that Dong-Po used in revolutionizing the tune poem was to use it to express himself the same way he would a regular poem. He started the practice of using titles and epigraphs, as well as literary and historical allusions. The title and epigraph provided the background, and sometimes a backstory, for the tune poem, enriching its content. The allusions added depth to the tune poems by enabling the expression of complex thoughts and emotions in a condensed form.

One frequent theme in Dong-Po’s tune poems is that life is a dream. This is a reflection of his philosophical outlook, as well as his Buddhist and Taoist leanings. The realization that life is a dream did not lead him to negate life, but compelled him to transcend the slings and arrows of fate, as well as the busy seeking of fame and fortune. He adapted to whatever situation he was tossed into, went with the flow, and enjoyed the journey, with plenty of poetry, friends, and wine. He was an optimist who was empathic to suffering, and worked hard to make life better for others. He was sensitive to beauty in nature and in people. He navigated the complexities of life and the world, and dreamed of sailing the Milky Way.

Dong-Po was generous and fearless, and possessed a great sense of humor. He was also a master calligrapher and painter. This enabled him to see the world through a painter’s eyes, capturing precise and vivid details. These qualities help explain the timeless appeal of his poems across the centuries.

The sixty-three tune poems by Su Dong-Po collected in this volume were translated from
early 1990s to 2015, when the book manuscript took form. Continuous revisions followed until
spring 2018. The translator grew up in China reading and reciting these poems in the original
Chinese. These poems have been chosen because they hold spiritual resonance with the
translator across the thousand year time span. Most of the poems in this volume are appearing in
English translation for the first time. Footnotes have been added to make this bilingual volume a
useful reference for students of Chinese, as well as of poetry.

Dong-Po was very close to his only brother, Zi-You, who was two years younger. The two of them had similar political careers, and similar literary styles; Zi-You was heavily influenced by his brother. Many of Dong-Po poems were written to Zi-You, or in response to poems by Zi-You. A number of poems in this collection are such examples.

Dong-Po had numerous friends, with whom he shared wine, and exchanged poems. Many poems collected here are dedicated to such friends.

Three women helped shape Dong-Po’s personal life, although they were often not explicitly named in his poems. Unlike the majority of women in Chinese history who are only known by their family names, all three women are remembered and honored today with their full names for their roles in Dong-Po’s life.

Dong-Po married his first wife, Wang Fu (1039-1065 A.D.), when she was sixteen and he was eighteen. Wang Fu was lovely, bright and learned, with a calm temperament. She liked to keep Dong-Po company when he studied. Dong-Po was delightfully surprised that she was able to help him in his studies with her broad knowledge of the classics. They were happy and deeply in love. She supported Dong-Po through his first hard years, but did not live long enough to enjoy his success. She died from an illness in the capitol when she was only twenty seven, leaving behind their six-year old son Su Mai. She was buried near Dong-Po’s parents on a hill, per instructions from Dong-Po’s father before he died, in recognition of her loving care of Dong-Po and his parents during hardship. On that hill, Dong-Po and his brother Zi-You planted thirty thousand pine trees in memoriam. Dong-Po wrote one of his best known tune poems, “Ten years one alive one dead we share no light”, when he dreamed of her, ten years after her death.

To care for his six-year old son Su Mai, Dong-Po remarried less than a year after Wang Fu died. He married Wang Fu’s first cousin Wang Run-Zhi (1048-1093 A.D.), a trustworthy country girl from a good family. She became a capable and content wife and mother, and treated her stepson Su Mai the same way as her own sons (Su Dai and Su Guo) with Dong-Po. She provided sanity and moral support, along with practical housekeeping, for the survival of the family, over the decades when Dong-Po was demoted and persecuted repeatedly. When Dong-Po was restored to glory and prominence in the capitol, Run-Zhi remained true to herself, maintained the same demeanor and personality. Dong-Po greatly admired her tenacity and was proud of her good sense, and referred to her in those contexts in many of his poems. Only one episode has become somewhat controversial historically. When Dong-Po was arrested because of the Crow Terrace Poetry Case, soldiers were sent to the Su household to search for his poems and writings to serve as incriminating evidence. Everyone in the house was terrified, and small children wailed. Run-Zhi stayed calm and burned most of Dong-Po’s writings.

Run-Zhi died from an illness in 1093 in the capitol, when she was forty-five years old. She and Dong-Po had promised each other over the years to return together eventually to their hometown Mei-Shan. Dong-Po was deeply saddened by her early passing, and swore that he would repay her by sharing the same grave with her someday. Dong-Po’s brother Zi-You wrote two elegies to mourn Run-Zhi, and made sure that she and Dong-Po were buried together in the end. A number of the tune poems collected here refer to the home-return dream that Run-Zhi and Dong-Po shared.

Dong-Po’s soul-mate, Wang Chao-Yun (1062-1096 A.D.), came from a destitute family in Hangzhou. Dong-Po’s wife Rui-Zhi bought her as a maidservant when she was twelve years old, when the Su family was about to depart Hangzhou for Mizhou in 1074. In popular legends, she was famed for her beauty, brilliance, singing and dancing; some even portrayed her as a famous courtesan in Hangzhou. No doubt she was exceptionally bright and beautiful, loved poetry and music, and adored Dong-Po, who came to adore her in return. She became Dong-Po’s concubine when he was demoted to Huangzhou in 1080. She accompanied him to Huizhou in 1094, and died there in 1096.

Chao-Yun gave birth to Dong-Po’s youngest son, Su Dun in 1083. Dong-Po was overjoyed, and wrote a famous poem celebrating his birth and naming. The following year, Dong-Po was transferred to Ruzhou, and forced to relocate the family over the long distance. That summer en route to Ruzhou, the infant got heat stroke and died in Chao-Yun’s arms, because of the ineffective medicine from the doctor. Dong-Po was devastated, and blamed himself for the infant’s bad luck, and for not having treated the infant himself as he had considerable medical skills (which he did not dare use since the ancients advised against treating one’s own). Chao-Yun was crushed and lost the will to live at the time. Seventeen years later, Dong-Po died on the anniversary of his infant son’s death.

Chao-Yun contracted an epidemic disease in Huizhou, and died at the age of thirty-four. She
was a devout Buddhist. Dong-Po carried out her last wish and buried her in the pine grove of the
Buddhist temple Xi Chan Si.

Two stories reflect the deep understanding between Chao-Yun and Dong-Po. When Dong-Po worked in the capitol, one day he returned home from the imperial court with this question to the household: “What do you think is in my belly?” In the Chinese language, the belly is the figurative home of emotions and thoughts, etc. One maidservant said, “It is knowledge.” Dong-Po shook his head. Another servant said, “It is filled with inner workings.” Dong-Po shook his head again. Finally, Chao-Yun said, “The master scholar’s belly is filled with unpopular ideas.” Dong-Po burst into laughter holding his belly. He remarked, “The one who truly knows me, is none other than Chao-Yun.” It has been said that after Dong-Po was demoted to Huizhou, Chao-Yun often sang his tune poem “Blossoms fade in withered red and apricots are tiny” to him at his request. Chao-Yun often burst into tears singing “Willow catkins peel off branches in the wind”, reminded of Dong-Po’s fate of exile. Dong-Po comforted her by making jokes. After she died, Dong-Po could not bear to hear that tune poem again.

Su Dong-Po’s tune poems, along with his legendary genius, charismatic personality, and storied
life, have been woven into Chinese literary lore over the last thousand years. Only Li Bai has a
similar reputation and stature in Chinese history and popular imagination; both of them have
been called xian, immortals who descended to earth to share their timeless poetry with the
mortal world.

Additional text

“The poems gathered here are tender and graceful in their attention to the natural world, poignant in their understanding of human lives, clear and yet mysterious in their allusiveness. This bilingual edition with valuable notes about each poem will be a treasure both to English speakers and to Chinese speakers.”

—Alicia Ostriker, author of the Book of Seventy

“These translations from the poetry of the great Sung Dynasty master achieve the impossible: they are fine poems in English that are also accurate in the "carrying over" of the songs, language to language, culture from culture, that is, indeed, translation. I welcome this book with enthusiasm, admiration, and boundless gratitude.”

—Sam Hamill

Product details

• Authors: Su Dong-Po, Dong-Po Su
• Assisted by: Thomas R. Smith (Introduction), Yun Wang (Translation)
• Publisher: White Pine Press (NY)
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781945680274
• ISBN: 978-1-945680-27-4
• No. of pages: 140
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 178 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 249 g
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama