Chen Wending's Painting of Tang Dynasty Poetry

Author: Chen Siyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: It was a completely accidental experience that inspired me to write "A Different Interpretation of Tang Poetry." During the day, I had just read a report saying that a unit had to obtain over one hundred and sixty stamps from different departments for the approval of some project. I am not entirely unfamiliar with our bureaucratic system and its practices, but the proliferation of government offices and the endless paperwork had reached such an extreme that it still shocked me. That year was 1987, and everyone was talking about accelerating the "Four Modernizations" construction. With such bureaucratic efficiency, how could the "Four Modernizations" possibly be accelerated? At night, as usual, it was time for reading. My reading, due to my lack of specialization, was quite (casual), without any systematic approach—just flipping through books whenever the mood struck me. That day, I happened to come across a copy of "Selected Poems of Li Bai" and, by chance, landed on the "The Hard Road to Shu," a poem I had always enjoyed: "Alas, what ails you? How high and perilous! The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the blue sky!"