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 Follow Rachel & Shirley to Read the New Words & the Poem(RM)
Follow Rachel & Shirley to Read the New Words & the Poem(MP3)
庭竹 -- Tíng Zhú
唐 -- Táng
刘禹锡 -- Líu Yǔxī
露涤铅华节-- Lù dí qiānhuá jié,
风摇青玉枝-- Fēng yáo qīngyù zhī。
依依似夫子-- Yīyī sì fūzǐ,
无地不相宜-- Wú dì bù xiāngyí。
露涤铅华节-- Lù dí qiānhuá jié,
风摇青玉枝-- Fēng yáo qīngyù zhī。
依依似夫子-- Yīyī sì fūzǐ,
无地不相宜-- Wú dì bù xiāngyí,
依依似夫子-- Yīyī sì fūzǐ,
无地不相宜-- wú dì bù xiāngyí。
|#|The Bamboo in the Courtyard
Tang Dynasty (618- 907)
By Liu Yuxi (772 -842)
The dew has cleaned the bamboo nodes;
The wind sways the green branches.
Naturally graceful you are like a gentleman;
Everywhere you are welcome.
The dew has cleaned the bamboo nodes;
The wind sways the green branches.
Naturally graceful you are like a gentleman;
Everywhere you are welcome.
Naturally graceful you are like a gentleman;
Everywhere you are welcome
|#|Liu Yuxi (772 -842) was a writer, poet, politician and philosopher in the metaphase of Tang Dynasty (618 - 907).
Liu's ancestral home was in Luoyang, today’s capital of Henan Province. His family moved to the South of the Yangtze River during the Rebellion of An and Shi (755 - 763). He was born in Jiaxing, today's Zhejiang Province.
Liu Yuxi was from a scholarly family and his father and grandfather were all officials and the descendants of a king, so he got a good education when he was young. At 19 years old, he went to the capital, Changan, today’s Xian and gained the title of Jinshi, a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination, at the age of 21. He then passed another two imperial examinations and was given an official position -- Tai Zi Jiao Shu, to check and order the books in the Chong Wen Guan, which served the crown prince.
In all his life, he was given at least twelve positions. He had been a Jian Cha Yu Shi -- the official imperial supervisor of inspection and he was also demoted from the capital several times and was appointed to the position of provincial or prefectural governor at least 7 times.
Liu Yuxi made four major contributions to Chinese culture:
As a philosopher, his representative work Tian Lun pointed out the corporality of heaven, the relationship between heaven and human beings, nature and human beings and so on. It is one of the most important works in the Chinese classical philosophical system.
As a politician, Liu Yuxi was one of the main supporters of the Yongzhen Reform that mainly opposed the eunuchs grabbing political power and military governors’ separatist regimes. The reform failed and as a result he was demoted again and again...
However, the many demotions and changes of official position gave him many opportunities to study society and learn about the common people.
As a writer, he thought that literature should reflect social reality and the litterateurs should learn from the tradition of "Yue Fu -- folk song/ folk poetry" that was from the Qin dynasty (221 B. C. - 206B.C.) and was popular in the Han Dynasty(206 B.C. - 220 A.D.), to learn from the first great poet in China -- Qu Yuan (about 340 B.C. - 278 B.C) and to get spiritual nourishment from folk literature, art and music.
His representative essay -- Lou Shi Ming, has become one of the most famous ancient articles and has been read and recited by Chinese students to the present day.
As a poet, he introduced many innovations not only in poetic style, but also by introducing some fresh ideas and topics into his poems. His poems covered a wide range of subjects, mainly reflecting people's lives and folk customs and are full of emotion of realism and folk breath.
Some of his political poems lashed out at the influential officials who ordered the suppression of Yongzhen Reform and so brought him much trouble.
His accomplishments in philosophy and literature gave him the same good reputation as Liu Zongyuan(773―819) so that both of them were called "Liu Liu". Also, because of his success in poetry, he was called "Liu Bai" together with Bai Juyi (772―846) .
|#||#|This poem is a Yǒng Wù Shī - Yǒng means chant; Wù means thing or matter; Shī means poem, poetry. Yǒng Wù Shī is a poem that expresses people’s aspirations, emotions or humanity through chanting about an object. Anything in nature can be described, chanted and written about. Usually, when a poet writes a Yǒng Wù Shī to express his attitude towards life, beautiful wishes, philosophy of life and sentiment, that means he want to express his true thoughts and feelings indirectly.
Now let us look at the title Ting Zhu: 庭竹tíng zhú. 庭 tíng means courtyard, law court or court；竹 zhú means bamboo. The literal meaning of the title is quite clear, just to chant " bamboo in the courtyard ." However, after recalling the life and career experience of Liu Yuxi, we can see something behind the words. In my opinion, it has perhaps three meanings:
-- To chant the bamboo in the courtyard;
-- To chant the gentleman is like the bamboo in the courtyard.
-- To chant the poet himself is like the bamboo.
The first line 露涤铅华节 lù dí qiānhuá jié -- the dew has cleaned the bamboo nodes. 露 lù, means dew; 涤 dí means cleanse, wash; 铅华 qiānhuá (another version is 铅粉qiān fěn) means a cosmetic or something used in makeup; 节jié means the nodes of the bamboo. Here the poet compares the bamboo to a girl. The morning's dew has made her natural quality appear. So, when I sang it, I just simply translated it into "The dew has cleaned the bamboo nodes." This line indicates the first characteristic of the bamboo -- What can the bamboo accept to clean his body? Only the dew in the early morning. Why? Because the dew is the cleanest and most natural water in the world. It makes me think of the lines by the first great Chinese poet Qu Yuan( 340 / 239 B.C. - 278 B. C.) and his long poem Li Sao:
Zhao yin mu lan zhi zhui lu xi, xi can qiu ju zhi luo yin -- what he drank in the morning was the dew that dropped from the flower of the magnolia, what he ate in the evening was the petals of the chrysanthemum in the autumn.
I am thinking, maybe here, Liu Yuxi would like to tell us what the person who is like the bamboo has learned and absorbed is the cleanest and noblest thing in the world. Just as the bamboo cleans its body with the cleanest dew, a good person’s natural personality is trained by the purest thoughts, feelings, the best knowledge and theories … in the world.
The second line: 风摇青玉枝 fēng yáo qīngyù zhī -- the wind is swaying its green jade branches. 风 fēng means wind; 摇 yáo means sway; 青玉 qīngyù means the color of the bamboo is just like green jade; 枝 zhī means branch. This line praises the good features of the bamboo, just like a beautiful girl in a long green dress, waving its beautiful branches.
The third line: 依依似夫子 yīyī sì fūzǐ― with natural and graceful features and manners, you are just like a gentleman. 依依 yīyī means the supple (twigs) and tender (leaves), the branches are swaying in the light wind, to hint how gentle and tender are the characteristics of the person who has similar qualities to the bamboos. 似 sì means like; 夫子 fūzǐ is an ancient respectful form of address to a Confucian scholar or to a master by his disciples, here it means gentleman and refers the poet himself. This line admires the good surface of the bamboo and helps people make a connection between the good features of the bamboo and the character of a gentleman.
Last line: 无地不相宜 wú dì bù xiāngyí -- Everywhere you are welcome. No place is inappropriate; everywhere is appropriate.
无 wú means no, not; 地 dì means place; 无地wú dì means nowhere, no place; 不 bù means do not, not ; 相宜 xiāngyí means suitable, appropriate. This line states the feeling frankly, to admire the bamboo for its strong vitality and ability to live in every environment: it can live in any place, just like a gentleman is welcome everywhere.
As we have learned, on the surface, a Yong Wu Shi chants about a thing, but, its purpose is to express the emotions, ideas, or thoughts of the author. In this poem, when it praises the bamboo as being just like a gentleman, welcome everywhere, in fact it wants to say:
Just like the bamboo, a gentleman who has absorbed the prime and best knowledge and thoughts of the world would have a natural and clean personality; he is beautiful inside, the same as the bamboo; he also has graceful features outside and especially has a strong vitality and can flourish anywhere.
Let us think, Liu Yuxi had been demoted many times for his political ideas, but he was used by the court again and again as an official in many important positions in many places. Why? Because he had the ability to adapt himself to different circumstances and was welcome everywhere while it hinted at his determination: would never give up, no matter how bad the situation.
Now, maybe, you will understand why Chinese people love bamboo so much and why bamboo plays an important part of Chinese culture.
|#|Like most Chinese people, I love bamboos, not only for it being a symbol of straightness, honesty and modesty like a gentleman, but I also, I enjoy its features as a beautiful girl. After reading this poem, I feel:
1. To be truly beautiful, things should be beautiful inside and outside, we should not just emphasize one and ignore the other. No matter whether a man or a woman, we should improve ourselves inside by studying something classical and exalted each day, to maintain a beautiful heart and soul. Meanwhile, we should also pay attention to our own appearance, to keep a beautiful or handsome surface.
2. The more knowledgeable and cultured people are, the more gentle they are, kind, friendly and modest. Just like the bamboo, it is empty inside and always wants to learn from others. Therefore, they are welcome everywhere.
3. A person who is soft and tender on the outside is not necessarily soft inside. Usually, someone with an iron hand in a velvet glove, is the strongest one.
So, even though I have read this poem many times, every time, when I re-read it, there is some new feeling in my heart.
With much appreciation, I translated this poem into English, wrote an article to introduce it, created a piece of music and sang it in Chinese for first time in June 2006; I created 3 paintings to go with the music and sang it in Chinese and in English in 2010 and 2012. Then I re-painted the 4th painting for it at the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing. Then on my travels in the USA Sep, 2013 – March, 2014, I painted the 5th painting for it, re-translated it and re-sang it in English and in Chinese, updated the articles and the vocabulary part. In 2016, during I was in China, Professor Meng Weiye checked my music and directed me to make the record in a professional sounding record studio. My British English tutor Mr. Mike Joyce, Chinese English tutor Mrs. Zhang Xiaogang corrected my writing. My work partner Mr. Quanzhang fixed the vocabulary.
I really hope our effort will be of some help to you to learn Chinese culture, art and language.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn ; you can also publish your opinions on the Message Board on www.ebridge.cn.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
November 30, 2017 in China
November 5, 2016 in the USA
March, 2015 in China
Feb, 2014 in the USA
June 10, 2006 in China
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