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lnhammerAt a sword pavilion towering through clouds
Our royal carriage returns from our tour:
An emerald screen of a thousand fathoms—
A cinnabar range split by five heroes—
The undergrowth, coiled banners shifting—
Immortal clouds, shook off by our horses.
To govern these times requires virtue—
Alas, the worth of this inscription ...
幸蜀西至剑门
剑阁横云峻，銮舆出狩回。
翠屏千仞合，丹嶂五丁开。
灌木萦旗转，仙云拂马来。
乘时方在德，嗟尔勒铭才。
This was written is during his 757 return to Chang’an after it had been liberated by his son, reigning Emperor Suzong, from the forces of the An Lushan Rebellion—in other words, the same return covered in ll.51-57 of Song of Lasting Regret, though this stop is before reaching Mawei. I am amused at the fig-leaf for imperial dignity that calls his escape to Sichuan a tour of inspection. Jianmen Pass is one of the few ways through the rugged mountains between Sichuan and Saanxi, where the peaks are notably sharp, as if they were swords. “Fathom” translates ren, a length equal to about 2.6m. According to legend, the pass through the steep range was opened up by five heroes. There was an inscription near the top of the pass carved 5 centuries before about how the true worth of mountains is not their strategic significance but their virtue (which is an allusion to an episode in Records of the Grand Historian from 6 centuries before that). The last lines are usually read as the ex-emperor’s admission that he maybe possibly might have screwed up at tiny bit. (Source)
---L.
Our royal carriage returns from our tour:
An emerald screen of a thousand fathoms—
A cinnabar range split by five heroes—
The undergrowth, coiled banners shifting—
Immortal clouds, shook off by our horses.
To govern these times requires virtue—
Alas, the worth of this inscription ...
幸蜀西至剑门
剑阁横云峻，銮舆出狩回。
翠屏千仞合，丹嶂五丁开。
灌木萦旗转，仙云拂马来。
乘时方在德，嗟尔勒铭才。
This was written is during his 757 return to Chang’an after it had been liberated by his son, reigning Emperor Suzong, from the forces of the An Lushan Rebellion—in other words, the same return covered in ll.51-57 of Song of Lasting Regret, though this stop is before reaching Mawei. I am amused at the fig-leaf for imperial dignity that calls his escape to Sichuan a tour of inspection. Jianmen Pass is one of the few ways through the rugged mountains between Sichuan and Saanxi, where the peaks are notably sharp, as if they were swords. “Fathom” translates ren, a length equal to about 2.6m. According to legend, the pass through the steep range was opened up by five heroes. There was an inscription near the top of the pass carved 5 centuries before about how the true worth of mountains is not their strategic significance but their virtue (which is an allusion to an episode in Records of the Grand Historian from 6 centuries before that). The last lines are usually read as the ex-emperor’s admission that he maybe possibly might have screwed up at tiny bit. (Source)
---L.
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Date: 12 June 2020 00:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 June 2020 15:40 (UTC)(I need to find more poems about the Rebellion, to layer onto Lasting Regret.)
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Date: 12 June 2020 16:40 (UTC)And yes. Lu Shan's Rebellion is interesting in itself, not fitting the pattern of others, except in a way, maybe Cao Cao?
no subject
Date: 12 June 2020 17:39 (UTC)