Children’s Rhyme of 682

In Seventh Month of 682, there was heavy rainfall in Luoyang and many people starved to death. At this time, a children’s rhyme went:

Fresh rice does not go into storage,
Fresh wheat does not go on the floor—
And in the Eighth Month, in the Ninth Month,
The dogs bark in the empty yard.

永淳中童谣
〈永淳元年七月，东都大雨，人多殍殕，先是童谣曰。〉
新禾不入箱，
新麦不入场。
迨及八九月，
狗吠空垣墙。

Another random selection from Complete Tang Poems chapter 878. Lost in translation: the “floor” is specifically the threshing floor. As nicely gruesome as anything from Mother Goose, that.

---L.