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Poem Revealed After His Death, Li Yu
One day while Jia Duke of Wei was governor of the capital district, a person suddenly came to him, holding out a calling card that read, “Former ruler of lands south of the river, Li Yu.” They greeted each other, but this one was a distinctly emaciated Daoist priest who said he was now king of Ceylon, and had coincidentally thought of Mt. Zhong and came. He conferred a poem that captured what was in his bosom to Jia, who read it, and then carried out his request to scatter the ashes of his body (there).
My strange country’s not recorded.
I’ll trouble your leisure with my death—
Through stormy waves, ten-million li,
Yet might it be I’ll see Mt. Zhong?
亡后见形诗
作者：李煜
〈贾魏公尹京日，忽有人来，展刺谒曰：“前江南国主李煜。”相见，则一清瘦道士尔，自言今为师子国王，偶思钟山而来。怀中取一诗授贾，读之，随身灰灭。〉
异国非所志，
烦劳殊清闲。
惊涛千万里，
无乃见钟山。
Jia Dan, the Duke of Wei, spent part of his official career as military governor of the eastern capital Luoyang in 784-786. He received his dukedom in 801 for his encyclopedic work (completed while serving as chancellor) on geography and cartography, which is significant to the story. The years of his governorship would normally be a precise enough date to qualify for the other chapter, but there’s enough weirdness here that we’re left the realm of ‘realistic’ ghost stories and entered outright fantasy:
- The famous Li Yu who ruled lands south of the Yangzi was the last emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who died in 978, two years after being captured by Song forces … which means we’ve got a time-traveling ghost. (Or a careless writer.)
- There’s a bunch of Mt. Zhongs, including ones in Guangxi and Guizhou in the lands south of the Yangzi (not to mention a mythological one in the Kunlun Mountains), but none that I can find in the Yellow River valley that a governor of Luoyang had ready access to … which means Jia’s prowess as a geographer has reached legendary status.
(:pause to let the etymology geeks groan:)
Yes, calling cards were a thing in premodern China, and their use was similar to those in 18th-19th century Britain.
---L.
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