Fishing Song by Tang dynasty poet Zhang Zihe (730-810)
Near West Fort Mountain, white cranes fly.
Peach blossoms, flowing waters, and plump mandarin perch.
Fresh woven hat, green straw coat*,
Mild wind, drizzling rain, don't miss home.
*straw coats are naturally waterproof.
Zhang Zihe used to be a very important person. He violated some law so he was dismissed from court and returned home. He often fished in the lake and befriended nature. He didn't even have a hut to stay in, he lived in a boat. Some of his friends wanted to give him a better, newer boat but he rejected it. This poor boat fits me, wherever I want to go, I go.
1907 - age 6
My family's straw house was located on a dyke. In front of the house there was a sandy beach. Over the beach was the Yangtze River, and you could see Lu Mountain. Even if the house was very primitive and simple, the scenery around was excellent. During the May 4th revolution, people learned how to write a new style of poetry. So I wrote a poem in this form about my house.
Long River flowing fast,
Hold Lu's nine tiers,
Scenery pretty as a painting.
Long River north side,
Long dyke winds along,
The sandy plains all become green fields.
Long dyke up above,
Steam rises from cooking stoves,
Several trees, made of straw, people's homes.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Saturday, November 04, 2017
1906: You do not know where it comes from or where it goes
Wind by Li Qiao (644-713) Tang dynasty
To blow the third month of autumn leaves,
Can open second-month flowers.
Across the river thousands of billows,
Into bamboo grove ten-thousand stems bend.
1906 - age 5
In the back of our straw house, there was a fairly large yard. My mother grew a vegetable garden. She planted greens, chives, peppers, and eggplant. We used this to supplement our meals. My father also planted pumpkins, winter melon, squash, and gourds. This year we got a huge winter melon, as tall as a person, it took two people to hold it, and weighed several hundred pounds. We never had a melon this big. All the neighbors came to see it and called it the King Melon. Everyone thought it was a good omen for the village.
My mother continued to take me across the river to my grandmother's. I would stay there while my mother returned home and play with the kids in the neighborhood. At that time, Jioujiang still had a city wall. On the wall, there was a place you could walk. One day, I and several neighborhood kids planned to walk around the city wall. We thought if it was a circle, we could walk around it and get back to the place we started. We didn't know it was a huge wall and would take a long time to walk around. When evening came, my grandmother didn't see us and thought we might have been kidnapped. She was so worried she got all the neighbors to look for us. We finally arrived at sunset. My grandmother said we should not do it again and sent me back home.
When my mother came to take me home, we met someone giving out gospel tracts at the boat port. My mom got one and on the tract there was a picture and some wording but I couldn't read so didn't know what it was about. Later on, I found out it was the Luke story of the prodigal son, my first encounter with the gospel of Jesus.
To blow the third month of autumn leaves,
Can open second-month flowers.
Across the river thousands of billows,
Into bamboo grove ten-thousand stems bend.
1906 - age 5
In the back of our straw house, there was a fairly large yard. My mother grew a vegetable garden. She planted greens, chives, peppers, and eggplant. We used this to supplement our meals. My father also planted pumpkins, winter melon, squash, and gourds. This year we got a huge winter melon, as tall as a person, it took two people to hold it, and weighed several hundred pounds. We never had a melon this big. All the neighbors came to see it and called it the King Melon. Everyone thought it was a good omen for the village.
My mother continued to take me across the river to my grandmother's. I would stay there while my mother returned home and play with the kids in the neighborhood. At that time, Jioujiang still had a city wall. On the wall, there was a place you could walk. One day, I and several neighborhood kids planned to walk around the city wall. We thought if it was a circle, we could walk around it and get back to the place we started. We didn't know it was a huge wall and would take a long time to walk around. When evening came, my grandmother didn't see us and thought we might have been kidnapped. She was so worried she got all the neighbors to look for us. We finally arrived at sunset. My grandmother said we should not do it again and sent me back home.
When my mother came to take me home, we met someone giving out gospel tracts at the boat port. My mom got one and on the tract there was a picture and some wording but I couldn't read so didn't know what it was about. Later on, I found out it was the Luke story of the prodigal son, my first encounter with the gospel of Jesus.
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