Mastering Chinese Poetry: A bumper summer harvest

Are you longing for the rural life and the joys of nature? When an idyllic setting during a summer night becomes a poised choice of subject matter, what kind of pleasant surprises will it bring? In this episode of Mastering Chinese Poetry, we look at the classic story by Song Dynasty poet Xing Qiji, A Summer Night on My Way Home from the Yellow Sand Ridge. Startled by magpies leaving the branch in moonlight, I hear cicadas shrill in the breeze at midnight. The rice field's sweet smell promises a bumper year. Listen, how frog strokes please the ear. Beyond the clouds seven or eight stars twinkle. Before the hills two or three raindrops sprinkle. There is an inn beside the village temple. Look, the winding path leads to the hut beside the brook. With the senses of sight and sound, the first two sentences capture the changing features from magpies, cicadas, breezes, and moonlight. The static and dynamic characters in the poem make the summer night scenery attract and fascinate. The senses of smell and sound are blended in the following two sentences. The gentle breeze brings a sweet smell of rice fields and loud croaks of flocks. The personification of the storyteller is represented by the flock with the vocalizations hinting at a bumper harvest and the poet's love of rurality. With the technique of parallel structure, the poet creates a scenario of hurrying on his way before a shower of rain in the beginning of the second half. He doesn't notice there is an inn beside the village temple as he is still captivated by the flock's croaks. Look reveals a sense of pleasant surprise. Breeze, moonlight, cicadas, and magpies. At first glance, the poem is all about the commonplace in plain words without any literary quotation. But the poet combines each element in an ingenious and elegant way, making the words paint an extraordinary scene. He implies a buoyant mood and deep love of rural life through his narrative structure and depiction of scenery. The Yellow Sand Ridge was located in the west of Shanrou, East China's Jiangxi province. With a wonderful landscape, the area was also fit for farmland irrigation and water conservancy. The poet who used to live in the area and traveled around left behind quite a few poetic masterpieces. The line, the rice field's sweet smell promises a bumper year from this poem is still quoted to this day. China has been an agricultural society since ancient times. The key is to do the right farm work in the right season. And summertime is often the busiest in the eyes of farmers. A bumper harvest of summer crops supports food production throughout the whole year. So you can always find a sense of endless vitality and enduring charm in hot summer. I'll leave you guys with the aerial footage of farmland across the country. Enjoy the views and see you in the next episode.