The 5 Most Famous Chinese Poems of All Time (Explained in English)

There are over 50,000 surviving poems from China's Tang Dynasty alone, and today we're zeroing in on the five that became legends. So, we've done a ton of episodes on Chinese poems, but we haven't really made a list of them in historical context. Now, be sure to watch this video to the very end as these poems go deeper and deeper down the Chinese cultural rabbit hole, ending up in a place you'd never imagine. But before we begin, if you enjoy what we're doing here, please like, subscribe, and become a member by clicking join below. This allows us to keep giving you the best Chinese poetry analysis you can find anywhere on the interwebs. All right, let's get into it. Poem one, Thinking on a Quiet Night, or 静夜思 by Li Bai. Light from the bright moon lands in front of my bed. It makes the ground look like frost. I raise my head to look at the bright moon. Lowering it again, I think of my hometown. So, this is the most famous poem in all of Chinese history. Every Chinese student has to memorize it. What's it about? So, you've got this guy who's on some sort of journey. He's probably thinking about stuff and probably having trouble sleeping because he's still awake and the moon's high in the sky. So, he looks up and sees the bright moon, and the moonlight is so bright that it makes the ground seem like frost. Now, the strong moonlight indicates a full moon, and the full moon and the poet thinking about frost indicate that this is right around the mid-autumn festival, which is the second most important holiday in the Chinese calendar and an important occasion to have family gatherings. Now, the character for full, or 圆, used in full moon, is the same character used to describe an intact family, and the traveler feels sad that he can't be there with his family on this festival. But, if he looks up at the moon and his family looks up at the moon at the same time, they're sharing the same view, and maybe they're not so far apart after all. We've got another banger here. Ascending in the Stork Tower or 登冠阙楼 by 王之幻 白日依山尽 The white sun drops behind the mountains. 黄河入海流 The yellow river flows into the sea. 欲穷千里目 If you want a view that stretches 1,000 miles, 更上一层楼 Ascend to a higher level of the tower. So, the Stork Tower is a real building in Shanxi Province. It got its name because of all the storks that would perch on it. Now, we start off the poem already in the tower, and we have an amazing view. We see the sun retreating behind the mountains, and we're high enough that we can also see the yellow river emptying into the sea. It's an impressive sight. But we could do better. We could have a view that would stretch 1,000 miles, but we have to climb up right to the next level. So, why is this poem so famous? Because it's a self-improvement poem. Everybody likes self-improvement, right? 王之幻 actually wrote it to help encourage himself to improve. Through this simple language, he's also inspired millions of others to do the same. Now, this next poem is about how awesome spring is. Dawn at Spring 春晓 by 孟昊然 春眠不觉晓 I sleep in the spring, unaware of the dawn. 处处闻蹄鸟 I hear birds calling everywhere. 夜来风雨声 Last night, I could hear the sound of wind and rain. 花落知多少 I wonder how many flower petals have been knocked to the ground. All right, so what's happening in this poem? Well, the poet starts off by oversleeping. The temperature is so comfortable in spring that he sleeps so soundly that he doesn't even notice the breaking of dawn. What wakes him up, though, is birdsong. And not just one or two birds. The birds are all around him. Another sign of the beauty of spring. Now, he realizes that there was wind and rain last night, but it must not have been too bad, because obviously he slept pretty well. But now he begins to worry a little bit. What about the new flower petals? Were they knocked to the ground in the storm last night? Will the beauty of spring last? This poem is a celebration of both spring and the love of nature in general. Meng Haoran had been living in seclusion when he wrote this. And you can feel his sensitivity to all of the living things around him. All right, folks. Enough with the namby-pamby poems. Let's do some real stuff. So we're going to look at Du Fu, specifically his poem, Spring Scene or Chun Wang. Now, Du Fu was famous for worrying about the state of the world, which makes him much different from more Taoist poets like Li Bai. So even though his poem also has spring in the title, it's got a much different tone from the last one we read. Guo Po, Shan He Zai. The country is wrecked, but the mountains and rivers remain. It's spring in the city and vegetation lies thick. The time moves me. Flowers bring me to tears. Separation pains me. A bird can make my heart jump. The flames of war have raged for three straight months. A letter from home is worth a fortune. My hair is now gray and my scratching has made it thinner. Soon, I won't even be able to put a hair stick in it. Now, let's set the historical scene. This poem was written in the Tang Dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion. So An Lushan was the name of the top general in the Tang Dynasty. He decided to overthrow the Tang Dynasty and establish his own dynasty. He drove the emperor out of the capital, and it took 10 years before the Tang Dynasty could re-establish control over China. Tens of millions of people died in the war. So Du Fu was in the ruined Tang capital of Chang'an, and moreover, he had been imprisoned by the rebels. So he was in a dark state of mind. Nature and the city are starkly contrasted. The once great Tang capital is in ruins, overrun by vines and other vegetation, a sign that much of it is deserted. The poet's heart is so heavy that even the sight of spring flowers makes him cry bitter tears. The war suddenly and ruthlessly tore Du Fu away from his family and friends, traumatizing him to the point that the call of a bird makes him jump in fright. In normal times, a letter from home is commonplace, nothing to think about. But in war-torn China, a letter from home is worth a fortune. Du Fu's traumas and worries have caused his hair to turn gray and fall out. He no longer can even put the stick that Chinese men traditionally wear in his hair. So spring scene is a brutal look into the horrors of war, and is Du Fu at his most poignant. It contrasts the calm and pleasant existence of nature with the brutal side of mankind, its losers slowly dying in the ruins of the once great cities. Du Fu is known as China's poet historian, and this poem shows exactly why. Now, this next poem brings us back to China's great poet, Li Bai, who captures the essence of one of mankind's most cherished pastimes. Getting stone-cold drunk by yourself. It's all about the loneliness of being a poet in a dog-eat-dog world. Everyone in Li Bai's town is making sure that they're the only house with a four-car garage, or checking their stock portfolio every 10 minutes, who has time for loser activities like poetry. So Li Bai goes to a secluded spot to get smashed, and our poem begins. Drinking alone under the moon. I'm among the flowers with a jug of wine. Drink alone with no companions to share it with. I raise my glass to invite the moon. With my shadow, there's now three of us. The moon knows not of drinking. The shadow follows me in vain. I decide to keep them with me for now. Mirament is better experienced in spring. I sang and the moon hangs around. I dance and my shadow makes wild movements. When sober, we have fun together. After I get drunk, we part. I wish to forever be united with these emotionless friends. We'll meet again in a distant galaxy. Oh, he's got no one to talk to, so he decides to make friends with the moon and his shadow. His imagination can only take him so far, and at some point he realizes that they aren't really playing with him. But then his mind turns again and he thinks, hell with it, I'm gonna dance with the moon and my shadow tonight. And so he does. And when the night is over and it's time to part, Li Bai makes a wish. One day, he's going to reunite with these two friends, but not here. In a distant galaxy, far, far away from the dull mass of narrow-minded humanity. It's the perfect depiction of the romantic and his struggles with the materialistic world. Drinking alone under the moon is a beloved poem from China's most treasured poet. Okay, so that's our list of the five most famous poems in Chinese history. What did you think of the list? Any of the poems that really spoke to you? Let me know in the comments below. And until next time, If you enjoy the deeper meaning behind Chinese culture, folklore, legends, and strange true stories, then come explore more with me on Jared Tells Tales, where mystery, meaning, and the otherworldly still live on. Click the link to watch your first tale.