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江雪 - Jiāng Xuě
唐 - Táng
柳宗元 - LiǔZōngyuán
千山鸟飞绝 - Qiān shān niǎo fēn jué，
万径人踪灭 - Wàn jìng rénzōng miè miè。
孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng，
独钓寒江雪 - Dú diào hán jiāng xuě。
千山鸟飞绝 - Qiān shān niǎo fēng jué，
万径人踪灭 - wàn jìng rénzōng miè。
孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng，
独钓寒江雪 - dú diào hán jiāng xuě。
千山鸟飞绝 - Qiān shān niǎo fēn jué，
万径人踪灭 - wàn jìng rénzōng miè。
孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng，
独钓寒江雪 - Dú diào hán jiāng xuě。
千山鸟飞绝 - Qiāng shān niǎo fēn jué，
万径人踪灭 - Wàn jìng rénzōng miè。
孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng，
独钓寒江雪 - Dú diào hán jiāng xuě。
孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng，
独钓寒江雪 - Dú diào hán jiāng xuě。
|#|There are no birds over the thousand mountains,
No trails on the ten thousand pathways
There is an old man in a straw hat in a boat,
Fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
There are no birds over the thousand mountains,
No trails on the ten thousand pathways
There is an old man in a straw hat in a boat,
Fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
There are no birds over the thousand mountains,
No trails on the ten thousand pathways
There is an old man in a straw hat in a boat,
Fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
There are no birds over the thousand mountains,
No trails on the ten thousand pathways
There is an old man in a straw hat in a boat,
Fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
There is an old man in a straw hat in a boat,
Fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
|#|Liu Zongyuan （773 – 819) was born in Yong Zhou, in today’s Yunchen, Shanxi Province. Generations of his ancestors were officials, the highest position reached being prime minister, and his father was an imperial clerk.
His mother gave him his initial education and he was interested in learning when he was just 4 years old. When he was 9, he moved from Changan (today’s Xian) - the capital of Tang Dynasty, to Xiakou, in today’s Wuchang, Hubei Province where his father worked as an official, warding off the danger of war. At 12 , he followed his father to Jiangxi and then back to Changan.
When he was 21 years old, he passed the national examination and became a Jinshi -- a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations. According to the tradition of the times, after his father died, he stayed around his father’s grave for 3 years, then he entered the official circles and had a series of initial positions. In 803, at 30 years old, he became an officer of imperial supervisor officer of inspecting.
However, in this year, he also took part in the failed Yongzhen Innovation and was demoted for more than 10 years. He died at the age 47.
Liu Zongyuan lived in the Middle Part of Tang Dynasty (756～824 ) . That was the time that the Tang Dynasty was going into decline and a lot of social maladies had arisen. Working in different positions, Liu Zongyuan saw them and worried about the fate of the country and so he had a strong wish to reform them some day. Therefore, he took part in the “ Yongzhen Innovation ” which was led by Wang Shuwen and was supported by the Emperor Shun Zong, for enhancing the central authority by restraining the military governors, demoting the malfeasants, adjusting the tax, abolishing eunuch’s rights and a lot of measures to benefit the society and the people. Unfortunately, after Emperor Shun Zong’s health got worse Liu Zongyuan lost his imperial position, the Yongzhen Innovation failed after about 180 days.
As a penalty, Liu Zongyuan was demoted to be a Shaozhou Prefectural governor and then a smaller official with no actual power in Yongzhou, in today’s Hunan Province for 10 years. Then he was called back to Changan and then to be appointed as a Prefectural Governor of Liuzhou, until he died in Liuzhou, in today’s Guangxi .
Besides being an reformist and an official, Liu Zhongyuan was also a litterateur and poet and his greatest contribution to Chinese culture is literature. As one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasty, the main literary achievement of Liu Zongyuan is in essay writing, creating many great articles and being one of the founders of the Classical Prose Movement in the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang Dynasty’s Classical Prose Movement was a literary revolution to revive Confucianism and the original forms of essays of the Qin and Han Dynasties and characterized by simple, unadorned, free sentence and style, the expression of thoughts and life naturally and freely; while to arguing against rhythmical prose ( characterized by parallelism and ornateness ), to reach the goal of creating something new by learning ancient traditional art achievement.
Liu Zongyuan’s literary works mainly include essays, apologue, biography, travel notes about/describing landscape, verse and poems. Among of them, his essays made the highest achievement. There are about 600 of his literary works still in existence, including about 140 poems.
Most of his existing poems were written after he was demoted. As an official and poet he was concerned with society, sympathized with people, cherished lofty ideals but with no way of developing them to make his dreams come true, Liu Zongyuan’s poems mainly expressed the poor lives of ordinary people under the extorted excessive taxes and levies of the rulers, his own political views and the wish that he did not want to associate with the corrupt and evil officials even though he was in demotion. He also wrote poems describing landscapes and nature. In art, his epic poems are natural, unadorned and lively, his allegorical poems are full of the vivid images and profound morals, his lyrics are pure, fresh and clear, all of them express some very deep feelings in a brief style.
|#||#|This is a little landscape poem which has only 20 Chinese characters and 4 lines but is included in Chinese elementary school textbooks.
Maybe you would like to know why it is famous? Let us see the poem itself:
The first line: 千山鸟飞绝 - Qiāng shān niǎo fēng jué. 千Qiāng means thousand; 山shān means mountain, hill; 鸟niǎo means bird; 绝 jué means there is nothing totally or absolutely; 鸟飞绝 niǎo fēng jué means there are no any birds flying in the sky at all. This line means : There are no birds flying over the thousand mountains.
It sounds like a huge curtain has been opened. Now we have seen a vast and very quiet scene without any birds on the thousand mountains or in the endless sky. With the word千 Qiāng -- thousand, to emphasize the mountains so many; 绝 jué -- there is absolutely nothing. Even though we have seen thousands of mountains over there then no birds over them at all. The first view focuses on the vastness and quietness of the view.
The second line: 万径人踪灭 - wàn jìng rénzōng miè. 万wàn means ten thousand; 径jìng means path, footpath or track; 人rén means people, person; 踪 zōng means track, footprint, trail; 灭 miè means disappear, there is nothing ; 人踪灭 means there are no tracks or trails of people. This line means there are no trails on the ten thousand pathways.
Based on the first line, this line opens the second huge scene and shows us an even vaster landscape and similar peaceful atmosphere by emphasizing that there is no trace of human beings in the mountains, ten times more than the mountains in the first line. With the word 万wàn - ten thousand to shows us the ten times of the number of the mountains and the much greater expanse of scenery of人踪灭 -- there are no trails or tracks of human being, to match the last line's 鸟飞绝 niǎo fēng jué meaning there are no birds in the sky. The first line describes the view over the mountains in the sky; this line describes the view in the mountains and on the land. Both of them work together to create a vast and silent world.
Since there is no any birds in the sky and there is no any trace or trails of people in the mountains, what is in the sight of the poet ?
The third line: 孤舟蓑笠翁 - Gūzhōu suōlìwēng. 孤gū means alone, lonely, isolated, solitary; 舟zhōu means boat; 孤舟gūzhōu means an lonely boat; 蓑suō means straw or palm-bark rain cape; 笠lì means a large bamboo or straw hat with a conical crown and broad brim; 翁wēng means old man. This line means there is only an old man in a grass rain cape and straw hat in a boat.
The last line: 独钓寒江雪 - dú diào hán jiāng xuě. 独dú means alone, by oneself; 钓diào means fish with a hook and line, angle, fish; 寒hán means cold; 江jiāng means large river; 雪xuě means snow. This line means ( the old man is ) fishing alone on the cold river in the snow.
Now, not only do we see the only thing alive in the vast and quiet world of mountains and sky, but we understand why there are no birds in the sky or people on the mountains, it's because all the world is covered with heavy snow. The landscape of the first two lines has been bathed in the freezing cold breath of winter.. Just like an artist has colored over a previous draught in white.
In the last two lines, both of the words孤舟gūzhōu – a lonely boat and the words 独钓dú diào -- fish alone match both of the words 千山qiāng shān - thousand mountains and the words 万径wàn jìng -- ten thousand paths perfectly. The vast, silent, freezing and clean background / world in the first two lines has served well as a foil to the loneliness and the calm situation of the hero in the poem.
Until now, we have seen a great landscape with many layers or a series paintings with mountains, sky, river, snow and an old fisherman. A peaceful mountain and water picture has been “ painted ” ok.
However, if we recall the background in which this poem was written, we see that it was written after the Yongzhen Innovation failed. He was a talented and young official who was just 30 years old, with his ambitions and full of zeal to take part in the Innovation for reforming the corrupt political systems and to save the country and the people in deep distress. However, the Yongzhen Innovation lasted for just 180 days and he was successively demoted from the capital to a poor and remote place so that all of his dreams and effort came to nothing in just in one night. Then in Yongzhou, he had no rights, no position, even no one understood him in the afar and hard political environment lonely. Wasn’t the terrible situation of Liu Zongyuan after the Yongzhen Innovation similar with the old fisherman on the cold river surrounded by mountains where there were no birds or any trace of human beings but only the freezing ice and the heavy snow?
If this poem just stopped at this level, it would not be any different from many other poems that express sadness or frustration by writing about landscape only. This poem has been loved by Chinese for about 1200 years, because, it does not just tell people: What a lonely person he was! What a sad heart he has! However, it expresses a quite independent attitude to life, even though he was in a lonely and miserable situation in a remote place and a freezing world. Rather than joining in with those corrupt and evil officials, he chose to fish alone in a little boat in the cold and snowy world!
To be honest, from what we read here, the poet really commands respect. Right?
The fact was the same, in the 10 years Liu Zongyuan stayed in Yonhzhou, instead of living in frustration, just like the old man fishing in the hard natural environment, he struggled for 10 years and wrote a lot of famous works on philosophy, polity, history, literature and so on. Therefore, on the surface, this poem writes about an old man but behind the figure of the fisherman is the poet himself.
In other words, this poem is adored not only because it has created a vast and freezing but pure and noble world, but also because it has endowed the hero, the old fisherman, with the poet’s soul and spirit. The old fisherman’s brave action in the severe icy and snowy world has become the portrayal of the self-imagined struggle of the poet against the terrible political and hard natural environment. In this way, this poem does not only write about a snow-covered landscape, but also implies the noble character of Liu Zongyuan’s in his unfavorable situation after the Youzhen Innovation failed, it gives readers a lot of profound implications with the simple words a beautiful picture of simplicity.
The creation of a fantastical landscape and the inclusion of an element of human quality to enhance the general scenery and so produce a whole new artistic conception is the reason this poem has been adored by Chinese people for the past 1200 years. It is also the first and most important artistic character of this poem.
Writing about a vast and cold landscape to serve as a foil for the lonely old fisherman and reflecting the lofty sentiment of the poet in the political environment is the second reason why the poem successful.
To write from the distant view to a medium range shot and then close up shot on a point, just like painting a series landscape or like opening a series landscape paintings, one by one, reader’s eye sight is led from afar to near and then to focus on one point. Even though the poem has finished, something still touches the reader’s heart for a long time. This is just the third charming style of the little poem.
|#|Pioneers are always alone, no matter whether historical or contemporary. If we have a dream to create something new and of benefit to others and to the world, we must prepare to endure being alone or isolation for a long time.
As a pioneer, what he wants to do is not clear immediately and it is not something ready- made but something creative, it requires the pioneer to study, research and explore, to make sure what he wants to do is clear, how the creation can benefit others, how to create it and how to serves the society and people… all of these processes will take quite a long time. Usually it can not be calculated in days, but in years or even a lifetime.
Since it is a process of creation and not of working on something ready-made, before people have really seen and easily and conveniently gotten some benefit from what the pioneers have created, , a pioneer usually gets little help, support or even understanding.
So, if anyone wants to be a pioneer in a field, he or she must realize: no matter what kind of helpful or meaningful thing or cause you are working, you must make sure of this before you start it: Are you prepared to work alone for a long time even for the whole of your life in a situation in which there is no benefit, there is seldom help, there is little understanding, just like the old man fishing in the old river alone, around him is open but cold, freezing, silent and snowy environment, for a day, a moth, a year, or a lifetime?
If you are truly ready, then start your dream seeking; otherwise, prepare something using your knowledge, skills, health, financial ability, and especially, develop a strong psychological endurance for living and working alone.
After working on my little cross-cultural and comprehensive art project for about 14 years, one day, when I worked on a painting relating to a fisherman by learning from Mr. Ren Bonian as my exercise at Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing during the New Year holiday of 2015, suddenly this little poem of Liu Zongyuan struck a responsive chord in my heart so much, so that I could not help adding some of my own mountains and more water into my painting and translating this little poem into English and combining the picture and poem together. One month three later, I wrote this article and created a piece of music to match the poems and the painting in the winter vacation. Then my music coach Professor Meng Weiye corrected my music and then directed me to make the record in 2016; Mr. Mike Joyce and Mrs. Zhang Xiaogang checked and corrected my writing, Mr. Charlie Quan Zhang fixed the vocabulary.
I do hope what we have done will be of some help with you to learn more about Chinese culture and language.
If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn . You are welcome to publish your opinions in Message Board as well.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Nov 12, 2017 in China
Nov 7, 2016 in the USA
March 4, 2015 in China
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