Upon returning from a three year exile, Su Shi decided before even seeking an audience with the emperor, it would be more prudent to pay a visit to Wang An Shih, his superior who was the cause of his banishment. Su was led to the library to enjoy a cup of tea first as the prime minister was napping.
All bookcases were locked and on the writing table was a magnificent ink slab that was barely dried. Out of curiosity, he touched it. He noticed that there was a piece of paper under the slab. He took it out to read it. It was an incomplete poem of two lines.
西風昨夜過园林, West wind from last night passing through the garden forest,
吹落黄花滿地金. Blown down are yellow flowers upon the ground in gold.
Su Shi was like a superstar of his time. He passed the highest imperial examination honors at the age of 19 and is considered the greatest literary figure in the entire Chinese culture as he excelled not only in poetry but also a master calligrapher, essayist, gastronome, pharmacologist, politician and travel writer. As such, he has a sort of haughtiness in him and tends to be too blunt and cocksure of himself. Upon reading the lines, he began to smirk to himself.
He opined that spring wind is 和風 (harmonious wind), summer wind is 薰風 (fragrant wind), autumn wind is 金風 (golden wind) and winter wind is 朔風 (north wind). Since the first line mentions west wind, its direction is represented by the element 金, therefore it must denote autumn wind. On the second line, yellow flowers has be chrysanthemums since it is the autumn flower. These lines described the wind scattering the chrysanthemums all over the ground. This is pure nonsense, he thought, because unlike other flowers, chrysanthemums remain on the stems even when they are withering. He began to besmirch that Wang is getting senile and unable to complete the poem when in his younger days, he wrote so prolifically, including a ten-thousand character letter to the throne but now only half completed poem.
Su could not contain himself and added two more lines to complete the poem.
秋花不比春花落, Autumn flowers are not summer flowers that will fall,
說與詩人仔細吟. I say this to the poet to be more aware of what he chants.
On completion, Su regretted his rash action and thought that he would take the poem with him but that will cause trouble for the housekeeper. Leaving it behind would cause embarrassment for both when Wang received him. In the end, he left the poem in its original place and told the housekeeper that he could no longer wait as he has to prepare himself for tomorrow’s audience with the emperor.
On discovering what was written on the poem,Wang did not say anything after recognizing Su’s handwriting and confirmed that he had indeed been at the scene of the crime. “Never his manners changed. Still as brash and blunt as ever”, Wang thought to himself. Instead of acknowledging his lack of knowledge, he comes jeering at me. Tomorrow I shall petitioned to the throne to strip him of his officialdom and a commoner he shall be!”
Then on a second thought, “This lout of shallow learning doesn’t even know about the line in Qu Yuan’s On Encountering Sorrow (離騷)!",
夕餐秋菊之落英 At dusk eating falling chrysanthemums to stave off hunger.
How would he know anything about chrysanthemums from Huangzhou (黄州)”.
On finding out there’s a vacancy in the post of a deputy for local militia against peasant uprising, Wang petitioned to the emperor the next day for Su’s yet another exile. Su could not do anything. After all, it was because of his recklessness. About a year later, Su was stunned at the sight of scattered blossoms all over the ground seeing chrysanthemums heaped on the ground at a friend’s chrysanthemum viewing party for the Double Ninth Festival. He realized that Wang was not exacting revenge but a lesson taught in humility.
When Wang recalled Su back to the capital, he visited Wang again to apologize for his lack of knowledge. Years later, when Su was on his way to a new post, he visited Wang who by now was “retired” from court. To be fair, Su never opposed Wang’s New Policies but its implementation. Wang was grateful to Su for still remembering when all his friends had forsaken him now that he’s no longer in power, lamenting that in the next life, they could be friends.
Of course, being a mere dot of a firefly that I am beside these two celestial luminaries, this shouldn’t mean that I cannot try hand. Therefore, this is my paltry take based on Wang’s first two lines with changes made to suit the theme.
1 西風昨夜過上林 The west wind of last night passed by the imperial gardens,
2 摧盡黄花滿地金 Ravaging yellow flowers till the ground is heaped in gold.
3 恨棄寒窗榮華求 Regretting that poverty abandoned for splendor,
4 妝台秋思掃古琴 Playing Thoughts By The Dresser on an ancient zither.
1 園 is replaced by 上, superior.
2 吹落 is replaced by 摧盡, completely ravaged
3 寒窗, cold window depicting abject poverty. So poor that the scholar could not afford candles to study at night but by the moonlight.
4 Thoughts By The Dresser is an old melody describing the mood of Wang Chao Chun by her dresser.
古琴 version
古箏 version
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
On finding out there’s a vacancy in the post of a deputy for local militia against peasant uprising, Wang petitioned to the emperor the next day for Su’s yet another exile. Su could not do anything. After all, it was because of his recklessness. About a year later, Su was stunned at the sight of scattered blossoms all over the ground seeing chrysanthemums heaped on the ground at a friend’s chrysanthemum viewing party for the Double Ninth Festival. He realized that Wang was not exacting revenge but a lesson taught in humility.
When Wang recalled Su back to the capital, he visited Wang again to apologize for his lack of knowledge. Years later, when Su was on his way to a new post, he visited Wang who by now was “retired” from court. To be fair, Su never opposed Wang’s New Policies but its implementation. Wang was grateful to Su for still remembering when all his friends had forsaken him now that he’s no longer in power, lamenting that in the next life, they could be friends.
Of course, being a mere dot of a firefly that I am beside these two celestial luminaries, this shouldn’t mean that I cannot try hand. Therefore, this is my paltry take based on Wang’s first two lines with changes made to suit the theme.
1 西風昨夜過上林 The west wind of last night passed by the imperial gardens,
2 摧盡黄花滿地金 Ravaging yellow flowers till the ground is heaped in gold.
3 恨棄寒窗榮華求 Regretting that poverty abandoned for splendor,
4 妝台秋思掃古琴 Playing Thoughts By The Dresser on an ancient zither.
1 園 is replaced by 上, superior.
2 吹落 is replaced by 摧盡, completely ravaged
3 寒窗, cold window depicting abject poverty. So poor that the scholar could not afford candles to study at night but by the moonlight.
4 Thoughts By The Dresser is an old melody describing the mood of Wang Chao Chun by her dresser.
古琴 version
古箏 version
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
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