Mudan Ting - Exquisite Annotations, Elegant Illustrations

Author: Tang Xianzu (Ming) / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features:
"Visiting the ancient platform at the tip of the trees, I gaze upon the sea of the Jiazi River below. Where are the songs and dances of the King of Yue today? Sometimes, the cuckoos fly past. I am Han Zicai, the grandson of Han Yu of the Tang Dynasty. Because of his memorial 'On the Destruction of the Buddhist Bones,' he was exiled to Chaozhou. As soon as he stepped out, the snow blocked the Blue Pass, and the horse could not move forward. The ancestors thought to themselves, 'This is the end of it.' Just then, suddenly, an Xiangzi relative, one of the gods from the lower eight caves, appeared in tattered clothes. Han Yu was even more displeased and, with a pen that had melted the ice, wrote a poem on the grass station of the Blue Pass. The last two lines were directed solely at Xiangzi: 'You have come from afar with purpose, so take my bones and bury them by the miasma-ridden river.' Xiangzi tucked away the poem and laughed loudly, then soared into the sky. Later, Han Yu died of miasma in Chaozhou, friendless. Xiangzi, watching from the clouds, remembered the poem and descended, collecting his bones. Upon returning to the office, he looked around and saw no one except his original wife. Their eyes met, and Xiangzi's mortal heart was instantly awakened. They had a child, who remained in the water tide, carrying on the lineage. I am a direct descendant of that lineage. Due to the chaos, I came to Guangcheng. The officials, remembering me as the descendant of a sage, petitioned for an imperial decree to appoint me as a scholar of the Changli Temple, residing on the platform of King Zhao Tuo. It is said: 'Though a poor scholar, he possesses the aura of a sage.' Ah! There is a friend approaching—who is it? P16"