"Spring Lament" () is a five-word

jueju ''Jueju'' (), or Chinese quatrain, is a type of '' jintishi'' ("modern form poetry") that grew popular among Chinese poets in the Tang dynasty (618–907), although traceable to earlier origins. ''Jueju'' poems are always quatrains; or, more sp ...

() poem written by Jin Changxu () during the late

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

. This is historically the only poem attributed to him. It is a notable example of the genre as it clearly illustrates various important techniques associated with jueju. The poem is about a woman longing for her husband who is on a far away campaign in Liaoxi.

Poem

Critical analysis

The words and expressions in the poem are lively like that in folk songs and stitched tightly together, with the images one after another. The resulting four-line poem is a single cohesive unit which cannot be separated. In composing five-word jueju verse, there are two types. One type is "one line one concept" ().

Du Fu Du Fu (; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets of his time. His greatest ambition was to serve ...

was the master of this type, where each line can stand on its own. The other is "''one poem one concept''" (), where every line is critical to the central vision presented by the poem. Read as two couplets, the first couplet is about oriole songs. The second couplet turns the subject to the woman. This change in focus beginning with the third line is another "rule" for five-word jueju. From another viewpoint, the central meaning of the poem is revealed layer by layer as each line is read. Each line raises a question which is answered in the next. That line in turn raises another question, and so on. This poetic technique is known as "''sweep and renew''" (). As each line sweeps away a question, it presents a new one. The first line raises the question "why hit the orioles' perch"? After all, it is a happy sign of spring. The second line answers to stop the singing. But that raises another question, why? Most people like the orioles' singing. The third line tells of the interrupted dream, but why is it important? The last line gives the final answer; she was going to see her husband in her now lost dream. Yet that final answer raises larger questions. What kind of quest sends her man so far away to Liaoxi, beginning of the

Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...

? what of the Emperor who sets such a quest? and what is the ultimate meaning of such a quest? The reader is left to ponder such questions.

References

* Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009): Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. . * * * * {{cite book, last=Tian, first=Xiaofei, title=How to Read Chinese Poetry, editor=Zong-qi Cai, publisher=

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

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, date=2007-12-14, pages=141–157, chapter=Pentasyllabic ''Shi'' Poetry: New Topics, isbn=0-231-13941-1, ref=cai_ch7 Tang dynasty poetry Chinese poetry collections Chinese poetry forms