ARTHUR WALEY

NEW YORK

ALFRED · A · KNOPF

MCMXIX


COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.

PRINTED BY THE VAIL-BALLOU CO., BINGHAMTON, N.Y. ON WARREN’S INDIA TINT OLD STYLE PAPER
BOUND BY THE PLIMPTON PRESS, NORWOOD, MASS

CONTENTS

PAGE
[Introduction][9]
[Ch‘ü Yüan]:—
[The Great Summons][13]
[Wang Wei]:—
[Prose Letter][23]
[Li Po]:—
[Drinking Alone by Moonlight][27]
[In the Mountains on a Summer Day][29]
[Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day][30]
[Self-Abandonment][31]
[To Tan Ch‘iu][32]
[Clearing at Dawn][33]
[Po Chü-i]:—
[Life of Po Chü-i][35]
[After Passing the Examination][37]
[Escorting Candidates to the Examination Hall][38]
[In Early Summer Lodging in a Temple to Enjoy the Moonlight][39]
[Sick Leave][40]
[Watching the Reapers][41]
[Going Alone to Spend a Night at the Hsien-Yu Temple][42]
[Planting Bamboos][43]
[To Li Chien][44]
[At the End of Spring][45]
[The Poem on the Wall][46]
[Chu Ch‘ēn Village][47]
[Fishing in the Wei River][50]
[Lazy Man’s Song][51]
[Illness and Idleness][52]
[Winter Night][53]
[The Chrysanthemums in the Eastern Garden][54]
[Poems in Depression, at Wei Village][55]
[To His Brother Hsing-Chien, Who was in Tung-Ch‘uan][56]
[Starting Early from the Ch‘u-Ch‘ēng Inn][57]
[Rain][58]
[The Beginning of Summer][59]
[Visiting the Hsi-Lin Temple][60]
[Prose Letter to Yüan Chēn][61]
[Hearing the Early Oriole][65]
[Dreaming that I Went with Lu and Yu to Visit Yüan Chēn][66]
[The Fifteenth Volume][67]
[Invitation to Hsiao Chü-Shih][68]
[To Li Chien][69]
[The Spring River][70]
[After Collecting the Autumn Taxes][71]
[Lodging with the Old Man of the Stream][72]
[To His Brother Hsing-Chien][73]
[The Pine-Trees in the Courtyard][74]
[Sleeping on Horseback][76]
[Parting from the Winter Stove][77]
[Good-Bye to the People of Hangchow][78]
[Written when Governor of Soochow][79]
[Getting Up Early on a Spring Morning][80]
[Losing a Slave-Girl][81]
[The Grand Houses at Lo-Yang][82]
[The Cranes][83]
[On His Baldness][84]
[Thinking of the Past][85]
[A Mad Poem Addressed to My Nephews and Nieces][87]
[Old Age][88]
[To a Talkative Guest][89]
[To Liu Yü-Hsi][90]
[My Servant Wakes Me][91]
[Since I Lay Ill][92]
[Song of Past Feelings][93]
[Illness][96]
[Resignation][97]
[Yüan Chēn]:—
[The Story of Ts‘ui Ying-Ying][101]
[The Pitcher][114]
[Po Hsing-Chien]:—
[The Story of Miss Li][117]
[Wang Chien]:—
[Hearing that His Friend was Coming Back from the War][137]
[The South][138]
[Ou-Yang Hsiu]:—
[Autumn][141]
[Appendix][144]

INTRODUCTION

This book is not intended to be representative of Chinese literature as a whole. I have chosen and arranged chronologically various pieces which interested me and which it seemed possible to translate adequately.

An account of the history and technique of Chinese poetry will be found in the introduction to my last book.[1] Learned reviewers must not suppose that I have failed to appreciate the poets whom I do not translate. Nor can they complain that the more famous of these poets are inaccessible to European readers; about a hundred of Li Po’s poems have been translated, and thirty or forty of Tu Fu’s. I have, as before, given half my space to Po Chü-i, of whose poems I had selected for translation a much larger number than I have succeeded in rendering. I will give literal versions of two rejected ones: