Is That All There Is? - 就此乎?

01廣寒寂寞永東升 Lonely is the Palace of Everlasting Cold rises in the east,
02梅庭滄桑曾似盈 The decrepit Court of the Plum Blossoms was once upon in fullness.
03仙界一切雲烟夢 All fairyness are as ephemeral as the clouds and mists of dreams,
04凡塵萬象雨露情 And all mortal relationships just as fugacious as the rain and dew.

1 Referring to Yang Guifei, the favorite imperial concubine of the Tang Emperor, Hsuan Tsung. She was actually his daughter-in-law. In order to possess her, she was decreed to become a Taoist nun to serve the decease mother of her husband. Symbolically, a divorce from all earthly familial ties. After a few years, she would return to laity and thus “reborned” anew with an empty slate. In this way, the Emperor would not be considered as incestuous. This Tang Dynasty tradition/ruse is also used to prevent imperial princesses from married off to faraway barbarian chieftains. The most famous example being Empress Wu’s daughter, Princess Taiping. When the An Lushan rebellion ensued, Emperor Hsuan Tsung was forced to flee the capital. On route to Szechuan, the imperial escort refused to go further unless Yang Guifei is dead. She was blamed for the cause of the downfall of the dynasty. Later when peace was restored, the enamored emperor asked a Taoist priest to search for her soul. It was in the Lunar Palace of Eternal Cold that he found her.

2. Before Yang Guifei, the Plum Blossom concubine was the emperor’s favorite. So called because of her love for plum blossoms. In order to please her and to curry favor from the emperor, officials throughout the empire would send exotic plum blossom trees to her palace. To Yang Guifei, she is the skinny Plum Blossom Witch. The fuller rival was nicknamed as “the fat poplar lascivious bitch” (Yang means “poplar tree”. Poplar blossoms are airy and floats with the flow of the wind. 水性楊花 – watery nature of poplar blossoms”. It is short for 水性隨勢而流，楊花隨風飄蕩. The nature of water flows according to the terrain, just as poplar blossoms float with the wind). When the emperor was fleeing to Szechuan with Yang Guifei, Plum Blossom concubine was forgotten and was left behind. Various legends claimed that she either escaped and live out her life in obscurity or that she was killed by the rebels.

3-4 These lines form a couplet. This literal translation is

Immortal realm, everything is cloud mist dream

Mortal world[dust], ten-thousand phenomena rain and dew relationships

Thursday, May 28, 2020