Sui Palace, Li Shangyin (Tang Shi #301)

[lnhammer]

He rambled the South on impulse, without strong precautions—
Who would, in these nine-layer walls, admonish him?
In spring winds, all the nation cut up royal brocades:
Half made into saddle mud-guards, half into sails.

隋宫
乘兴南游不戒严，
九重谁省谏书函。
春风举国裁宫锦，
半作障泥半作帆。

The Sui Emperor Yang had a lavish palace in Yangzhou. He was, to put it mildly, extravagant and self-indulgent: when he traveled around the region, abducting women, he didn’t like an encumbering entourage, and more than once criticism by officials was met with death sentences.

—L.

Comments

[sartorias]

Interesting poem. Bit of Oxymandias in that last line.

[lnhammer]

Yup -- all nicely wrapped up in an orthodox Confucian moral. No wonder it got into the collection.