Lord Li's Lyrical Poems, #4

The Fisherman


1.

Thousands of rumpus waves azure

on the deck become a snow shower.

Yet down by the river a row of peach and bay

allege Spring in their tranquil way.


Wine in the jar,

line on the reel,

to trade this for anything else in the world,

would be an unsound deal.


2.

Like a leaf the boat drifts,

on a breeze the oar rests.

And the barely visible line,

through a puny hook it threads.


Flowers spread on the shore afar,

Wine joggles in the bottomless jar.

The path of freedom is hereby paved,

miles and miles on the endless waves.




In the collection of historic biographies written in the Song Dynasty (~ 1200 A.D), Lord Li’s life started as follows:

Lord Li, the sixth son of King Li Jing, was born dubbed dikoros. Handsome and talented, he was favored by his father from an early age. His extraordinary gift in literature extended itself into the fields of painting, calligraphy and music as well.

The young prince was born dubbed dikoros —— two pupils in one iris. This was the very first legend about him among many that were to follow in his short and mysterious life. Dubbed dikoros may be due to a normal variant that is extremely uncommon in human beings. One of the first Emperors in Chinese history, Shun, was said to be dubbed dikoros. Interestingly, Alexandre the Great and Anastasios the First from the Byzantine Empire were believed to be dubbed dikoros as well. Dubbed dikoros in more than one culture, because of its rareness and mystery, had long been viewed as an omen for Kingship.

What’s more, at the age of 18, Lord Li was engaged to the Prime Minister’s elder daughter, Zhou (later on referred to as Empress Zhou). Zhou’s nickname, Er Huang, happened to be the same as the name of Shun’s legendary wife.

Every omen seemed to be hinting that Lord Li, the sixth prince, was the one chosen by God for the Crown. Yet the truth was, the Royal Crown was one of the last things Lord Li had ever wanted.

For various reasons, King Li Jing appointed his younger brother, instead of his oldest son Prince Hong Ji as the crown prince. This aroused deep grudge between the two Princes.

Prince Hong Ji was a war hero and had served in the army for more than 20 years. The four younger princes after him all died of illnesses during their early childhood, and Lord Li was the very next one in line. Because of his born extraordinary look —— dubbed dikoros, and the excessive fondness he received from their Emperor father, Lord Li lived in the shadow of jealousy and suspicion from his older brother throughout his teenage life.

The young prince’s devotion to art and poetry might not have been completely voluntary. While he was, by nature, predisposed to art, Lord Li’s dream of being a hermit (as he referred himself as the ‘hermit in the palace’ in many of his works) and his deep resentment towards Politics was very likely due to the hardship he had to go through as a member of the royal family.

After all, it might have been his very disinterest in the crown that made him the only survivor during the merciless power struggles in Li’s family.

The two poems on the fisherman were written by Lord Li on a famous piece of painting, “Fisherman by the river in Spring” at the age of 20, when he was still a prince. The painting was brought to Lord Li for entitlement by the artist. Tradition had been that the person asked to entitle an artwork would usually leave a few lines in the corner. Thus came these two short poems.

In Chinese history, many a famous hermit made their living by fishing. Thus the image of a fisherman strongly suggests a hermitic lifestyle in literature works. There has not been a single word left by Lord Li that expressed his disapproval on his brother and uncle’s way of living openly. Yet the deep and eager craving for escaping from the Palace into a carefree world that leaked out from most of his early works betrayed him. A sensitive and innocent soul by nature, he was stifled almost to death in the palace, a place to which he did not belong.

Lord Li’s resentment towards Politics reached its peak at the age of 22, when his uncle, the crown prince of Nan Tang was poisoned to death by his elder brother, Prince Hong Ji. Prince Hong Ji himself died in that same year of a “sudden illness” as put by the history writers.

In 961, King Li Jing passed away. Lord Li, the 24 year old prince ascended to his enthronement. The mysterious omen of Kingship from his dubbed dikoros in early childhood eventually turned itself into reality. The responsibility of a King fell upon his shoulders —— the shoulders of the one whose only dream was to be a hermetic poet, with wine in the jar, line on the reel, idling his way in a long Spring day.


(The painting on top of the page was done by one of my favourite artists, Ni Zan, in Yuan Dynasty. I used it as an illustration for the one Lord Li signed on, as the two pieces belong to the same style and had a common theme. The original painting, 'Fisherman by the River in Spring' with Lord Li's handwriting on the top was among one of the numerous precious art pieces in his Royal Art Gallery that was burnt into ashes during the fall of the Kingdom of Nan Tang.)