The calligrapher, Xianyu Shu (ca.1257–1302), was so talented that the artist Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322),* lauded his cursive writing. This scroll, a transcription of a poem by Han Yu (768–824) urging the preservation of the Ten Stone Drums, is one of Xianyu Shu’s most famous works.
Han Yu (768–824), was an essayist, Confucian scholar, poet, and government official during the Tang dynasty. He ranks among China’s finest prose writers and has been called “comparable in stature to Dante, Shakespeare or Goethe.” Politically, he stood for a strong central government and cultural orthodoxy.
Writing with such firm convictions got him into trouble. He presented an adamant protest against Buddhist influence, Memorial on Bone-relics of the Buddha,† to Emperor Xianzong (778–820). The emperor was outraged and ordered Han executed. Horrified friends in the court rushed to intervene. As a compromise, Han was demoted and exiled. Emperor Xianzong died within a year, and his successor, Emperor Muzong (795–824), brought Han Yu back to the capital.
I am excerpting Witter Bynner’s translation (1881–1968) to comment on some of the lines. You can read the full translation at: http://wengu.tartarie.com/wg/wengu.php?1=Daod&l=Tangshi&no=69___
“Chang handed me this tracing [rubbing] from the stone drums,
Beseeching me to write a poem on the stone drums.
Du Fu has gone. Li Bai is dead.
What can my poor talent do for the stone drums?”
___
[Du Fu (712–770) and Li Bai (701–762) are widely considered to be China’s greatest poets. Han Yu lived just shortly after them, so they were poets of his time.]
“Cut out of jutting cliffs, these drums made of stone-
On which poets and artisans, all of the first order,
Had indited and chiseled-were set in the deep mountains
To be washed by rain, baked by sun, burned by wildfire…
The meaning deep, the phrases cryptic, difficult to read.
And the style of the characters neither square nor tadpole.
Time has not yet vanquished the beauty of these letters –
Looking like sharp daggers that pierce live crocodiles,
Like phoenix-mates dancing, like angels hovering down,
Like trees of jade and coral with interlocking branches,
Like golden cord and iron chain tied together tight,
Like incense-tripods flung in the sea, like dragons mounting heaven.…”
[There’s no doubt of his admiration! In turn, we are urged to see these ideographs as ideal models to follow.]
___
“I who am fond of antiquity, was born too late
And, thinking of these wonderful things, cannot hold back my tears….
[The admiration for antiquity is a deep value in Chinese culture in general and Daoism in particular.]
___
“I remember, when I was awarded my highest degree,
During the first year of Yuanho,
How a friend of mine, then at the western camp,
Offered to assist me in removing these old relics.
I bathed and changed, then made my plea to the college president
And urged on him the rareness of these most precious things.
They could be wrapped in rugs, be packed and sent in boxes
And carried on only a few camels: ten stone drums…”
[If this is true, then Han Yu himself helped to preserve the stone drums. He envisions the emperor placing them in a university for students to learn from these early forms of writing. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to have happened.]
___
“…But government officials grow fixed in their ways
And never will initiate beyond old precedent;
So herd-boys strike the drums for fire, cows polish horns on them,
With no one to handle them reverentially.
Still ageing and decaying, soon they may be effaced.
Six years I have sighed for them, chanting toward the west….
The familiar script of Wang Xizhi, beautiful though it was,
Could be had, several pages, just for a few white geese,
But now, eight dynasties after the Zhou, and all the wars over,
Why should there be nobody caring for these drums?”
[Wang Xizhi (c. 303–c. 361) has been admired as China’s greatest calligrapher. He adored geese, so that explains the reference that follows. Despite Han Yu’s appeals, the emperor doesn’t help to preserve the stones.]
“But, alas, my voice has broken, in my song of the stone drums,
To a sound of supplication choked with its own tears.”
___
Han Yu advocated for the preservation of the Ten Stone Drums. Xianyu Shu in turn preserved Han Yu’s words. How important it is to bring antiquity into the present. It may seem like duty, but in reality, it benefits us in the present.
_________
Song of the Stone Drums. Xianyu Shu (Chinese, 1246–1302). Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
dated 1301. China. Handscroll; ink on paper.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40512
“I who am fond of antiquity, was born too late” — there’s a funny irony to this, for of course he was born at the right time to express his fondness in these verses
I appreciate your comment. He’s “antiquity” to us, but the stone drums were antiquity to him!